bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Determination of adipose tissue blood flow with local 133Xe clearance. Evaluation of a new labelling technique
Authors: Simonsen Lene , Enevoldsen Lotte H. , Bülow Jens 
Published: November 2003

SummaryAdipose tissue blood flow was measured in six healthy, non‐obese subjects with the xenon wash‐out technique after labelling of the tissue by either injection of 133Xe dissolved in isotonic sodium chloride (water depot) or injection of 133Xe in gas form (gas depot). The wash‐out rates were registered from four depots simultaneously. Two depots were placed above the umbilicus, and two depots were placed below the umbilicus in the abdominal, subcutaneous adipose tissue. A water depot and a gas depot were placed in the two positions, respectively. It was not possible to demonstrate any difference between the wash‐out rates registered from the two depot types, and it was also not possible to demonstrate any difference between the changes in wash‐out rates induced by an oral glucose load. Similarly, the tissue distribution of the water and the gas depots appeared to be similar as registered by a gamma camera. It is concluded that that the two tissue labelling modes give identical results. However, there are significant regional differences in the wash‐out rates of xenon from subcutaneous, abdominal adipose tissue, the wash‐out rates from infraumbilical depots being about 20% lower than from the supraumbilical depots.
Airway microvascular extravasation and luminal entry of plasma
Authors: Greiff Lennart , Andersson Morgan , Erjefält Jonas S. , Persson Carl G. A. , Wollmer Per 
Published: November 2003

SummaryExtravasation of plasma from postcapillary venules is a specific in vivo response to inflammatory insults. In the nasal and bronchial airways, extravasated plasma has a widespread distribution in the lamina propria, between the epithelial cells and in the airway lumen. This feature, in combination with the fact that the process involves extravasation of bulk plasma, with all peptides and proteins of plasma, indicates that plasma exudation contributes to the dramatic change of the mucosal milieu that characterizes airway inflammation. Accordingly, this process is of key importance to conditions such as allergic rhinitis and asthma. The means by which extravasated plasma participates in mucosal defence is physiological in the sense that it may operate on the surface of the epithelium without impairing its function as an absorption barrier. The flow of plasma into the airway lumen may thus wash away unwanted material from inter‐epithelial cell spaces, exuded binding proteins may bind unwanted solutes non‐specifically and extravasated immunoglobulins may neutralize allergens. In addition to the role as defence mechanism, extravasated plasma components may act as important pro‐inflammatory factors. Furthermore, experimental data as well as observations in natural disease suggest that luminal levels of plasma proteins can be employed as an accessible index reflecting to what degree the airway mucosa is affected by inflammatory processes.
The relationship between carbohydrate intake and glucose tolerance in pregnant women
Authors: Takizawa Motoi , Kaneko Takashi , Kohno Keiko , Fukada Yukihito , Hoshi Kazuhiko 
Published: November 2003

Objective.  We verified whether a misdiagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus can result in pregnant women when glucose tolerance has deteriorated after a low‐carbohydrate meal, and tried to elucidate the mechanism behind the different outcome of the test.Study design.  Twenty‐seven pregnant women were given directions for their evening meal the day before each of two 75‐g oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT). The evening meal was either a low‐carbohydrate meal (carbohydrate, 6.7%; Low), or a high‐carbohydrate meal (carbohydrate, 85.7%; High).Results.  The OGTT showed that the glucose tolerance was significantly impaired after Low than after High, with a significant increase of fasting plasma non‐esterified fatty acids (NEFA) level. Moreover, the insulinogenic index (I‐I) after High significantly decreased than that after Low.Conclusions.  The present data suggests that there is a risk of misdiagnosis of impaired glucose tolerance with only one intake of this extremely low‐carbohydrate meal on the evening before testing. The decrease of insulin secretion and the activation of glucose‐fatty acid cycle may be considered as the mechanism.
C‐reactive protein in vaginal fluid of patients with preterm premature rupture of membranes
Authors: Di Naro Edoardo , Ghezzi Fabio , Raio Luigi , Romano Francesco , Mueller Michel D. , McDougall Jane , Cicinelli Ettore 
Published: November 2003

Objective.  To assess whether C‐reactive protein (CRP) concentrations in cervical amniotic fluid reflect the condition of the intrauterine environment in patients with preterm premature rupture of membranes (PROM) before 35 weeks of gestation.Methods.  Amniotic fluid was obtained in 29 consecutive patients admitted with the diagnosis of preterm PROM earlier than 35 weeks of gestation either by amniocentesis or by collecting cervical fluid. CRP was measured in maternal blood, amniotic fluid, vaginal fluid and in cord blood obtained at delivery. Intraamniotic infection was defined as a positive amniotic fluid for aerobic or anaerobic bacteria, or Mycoplasma. The placentas and umbilical cords were examined for the presence of chorioamnionitis and funisitis.Results.  A significant correlation was found between vaginal fluid CRP concentrations and both amniotic fluid (r = 0.95, p < 0.001) and umbilical cord levels (r = 0.47, p < 0.05). No correlation was found between maternal blood and vaginal fluid CRP concentrations. The proportion of patients with intraamniotic infection was 37.9% (11/29). The median (range) vaginal fluid CRP concentration was higher in patients with intraamniotic infection than in those with sterile amniotic fluid [901 (0–1354) vs. 507 (0–798) ng/mL, p < 0.001]. The median (range) vaginal fluid CRP concentration was higher in fetuses with (n = 12) than in those without funisitis (n = 17) [901 (598–1354) vs. 487 (0–1115) ng/mL, p < 0.01]. After adjustment for gestational age, vaginal fluid CRP concentration > 800 ng/mL remained a predictor of intraamniotic infection and funisitis.Conclusions.  Increased vaginal fluid CRP concentration is associated with intraamniotic infection and funisitis. As CRP is produced by hepatocytes and does not cross the placenta, its measurement in vaginal fluid might be an additional parameter for the assessment of fetal well‐being in patients with premature PROM.
Effects of low‐dose 17‐β‐estradiol plus norethisterone acetate and tibolone on fasting plasma homocysteine levels in postmenopausal women
Authors: Kaleli Babur , Yildirim Basak , Demir Suleyman , Alatas Erkan 
Published: November 2003

Background.  Many postmenopausal women currently receive hormone replacement therapy. The use of low‐dose 17β‐estradiol plus norethisterone acetate and tibolone for hormone replacement therapy is not uncommon in postmenopausal women. Homocysteine, which is known to be an independent risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease, is found in increased levels postmenopause. This study compared the effects of low‐dose 17β‐estradiol plus norethisterone acetate and tibolone on the fasting plasma homocysteine level in healthy postmenopausal women.Methods.  Healthy postmenopausal women (n = 44) were enrolled in the study. Women randomly assigned received 1 mg of 17β‐estradiol plus 0.5 mg of norethisterone acetate or 2.5 mg tibolone during a period of 12 weeks. Fasting plasma homocysteine levels were measured at baseline, the 4th week, and the 12th week of therapy.Results.  In the 4th week there were no significant changes in plasma homocysteine levels in both groups (p > 0.05). However at the end of the 12th week the plasma homocysteine levels were reduced significantly in both groups (p < 0.05).Conclusion.  Low‐dose 17β‐estradiol plus norethisterone acetate and tibolone lower the fasting plasma homocysteine levels in healthy postmenopausal women.
Factors associated with back pain symptoms in pregnancy and the persistence of pain 2 years after pregnancy
Authors: To W. W. K. , Wong M. W. N. 
Published: November 2003

Background.  Factors associated with back pain symptoms in pregnancy and the persistence of pain 2 years after pregnancy.Aims.  To determine the prevalence of back pain during pregnancy and to delineate the factors associated with the development and persistence of such symptoms 2 years after delivery.Materials and methods.  Prospective observational cohort. Consecutive patients in a low‐risk obstetric population with singleton pregnancies were surveyed for back pain symptoms during pregnancy in the early postpartum period by a structured questionnaire. Data from this survey were then correlated with the details of labor and pregnancy outcome, as well as epidemiological, occupation and work data. A follow‐up questionnaire survey was administered 24 months after delivery to the group who reported back pain symptoms in the first survey. The absence/presence of persistent symptoms at 24 months was correlated with the characteristics of their pregnancy, as well as their daily life activities at the time of the survey.Results.  A total 326 patients with complete data were recruited. Two hundred and fifty (76.6%) reported one or more significant episodes of back pain during their pregnancy. Significantly more patients with presence of pain in pregnancy had history of previous back pain episodes when not pregnant (48% vs. 19.7%, p < 0.001), as well as during previous pregnancies (66% vs. 40%, p < 0.025), or in the postpartum period (40% vs. 6.6%, p < 0.001). There was no significant difference between those with or without pain in their pregnancy outcome. Complete data on 189 of the 250 study patients (75.6%) were available for analysis at 24 months after delivery. The incidence of persistent back pain symptoms was 21.1% (n = 40). Those with persistent pain were older, had significantly earlier onset of pain symptoms in the index pregnancy compared with those without pain at 24 months, and they also had their worse symptoms at an earlier gestation during the index pregnancy. Moreover, those with persistent pain had a higher weight gain at 24 months compared with their preindex pregnancy weight (6.8 kg, SD3.0) compared with those without further pain (4.0 kg, SD2.8) (p < 0.01), as well as less weight loss compared with their early postpartum weight (8.1 kg, SD4.8 vs. 1.1.5 kg, SD5.6) (p < 0.01).Conclusion.  The main factors associated with development of back pain were previous episodes of back pain while non‐pregnant or pregnant. The occurrence of back pain during pregnancy did not affect the pregnancy outcome. The main risk factors associated with persistent back pain at 24 months appeared to be the onset of severe pain at an early gestation in the index pregnancy, as well as the inability to reduce weight to their pre‐pregnant level.
Screening for congenital malformations by ultrasonography in the general population of pregnant women: factors affecting the efficacy
Authors: Tabor Ann , Zdravkovic Milica , Perslev Annette , Møller Lars Krag , Pedersen Beth Lilja 
Published: November 2003

Objectives.  To assess whether the efficacy of screening for fetal malformations is affected by patient‐, staff‐, team‐ or work environment‐related factors.Methods.  A prospective cohort study was carried out at a Danish university hospital with 4000 deliveries per year. In total, 7963 fetuses were examined by midtrimester ultrasound scan during 1997 and 1998. The infants were followed up to the age of at least 1 year. The main outcome measures were the detection rate (DR) of fetal abnormalities in relation to patient factors, staff factors, team and work environment factors.Results.  Significant malformations were detected in 100 fetuses or infants, corresponding to an incidence of 1.3%. The prenatal DR was 60%. High maternal body mass index (BMI) was associated with a lower DR, while the presence of twins, the gestational age at time of screening and the sonographer's level of experience were not. Fetuses with a prenatally undetected malformation were more often examined by more than one sonographer than fetuses without congenital malformations. Workload or monotony did not seem to affect the efficacy of screening. There was a trend towards a lower detection rate at midday and when most of the staff were at work.Conclusions.  Some team and work environment factors that may affect the detection rate of fetal abnormalities were identified and have been changed: appointments for screening have been reorganized, regular breaks for all the staff introduced and second opinions are given by a specialist in fetomaternal medicine. The new system will be followed up to ensure that the reorganization has not created new organizational mistakes.
Inflammatory cytokines in intrauterine growth retardation
Authors: Bartha Jose L. , Romero‐Carmona Raquel , Comino‐Delgado Rafael 
Published: November 2003

Background.  To evaluate maternal serum levels of two inflammatory cytokines in women with intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR), while studying separately women with or without placental insufficiency.Methods.  The study comprised 14 women with IUGR and Doppler‐defined placental insufficiency, 14 women with IUGR without placental insufficiency, and 28 healthy pregnant women as a control group. Tumor necrosis factor‐alpha (TNF‐α) and interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) were measured using a commercially available kit. The Kruskal–Wallis test and the corrected Mann–Whitney U‐test were used.Results.  There was a statistically significant difference in TNF‐α levels among the three studied groups (p = 0.03). Women with IUGR and placental insufficiency showed statistically significant higher serum levels of TNF‐α[2.2 pg/mL (1.3–4.1)] and a higher rate of detectable TNF‐α[85.7% (12/14)] than those in the control group [0 pg/mL (0–2.7) and 32.1% (9/28)] (p = 0.01 and p = 0.001, respectively). On the contrary, there was no difference in either the TNF‐α level [1.4 pg/mL (0–4.9)] or the rate of detectable TNF‐α[57.1% (8/14)] between women with IUGR without placental insufficiency and women in the control group. The levels of IL‐6 were similar in the three studied groups.Conclusion.  TNF‐α is increased in women with IUGR and placental insufficiency but normal in those with IUGR and normal placental perfusion. We suggest that elevations of TNF‐α could be a specific phenomenon of certain subsets of IUGR, identifying cases with placental dysfunction.
Cytokine Secretion Patterns of NK Cells and Macrophages in Early Human Pregnancy Decidua and Blood: Implications for Suppressor Macrophages in Decidua
Authors: Lidström C. , Matthiesen L. , Berg G. , Sharma S. , Ernerudh J. , Ekerfelt C. 
Published: November 2003

Problem:  Local immune modulation has been shown to be of considerable importance for the maintenance of successful pregnancy. We have previously reported the secretion of interferon‐γ (IFN‐γ), interleukin‐4 (IL‐4) and IL‐10 in human decidua from early normal pregnancy. The aim of this study was to investigate the cellular source of cytokine secretion in the decidua, and compare this to secretion patterns in peripheral blood.Method of study:  Decidual tissue and peripheral blood was collected from 20 women undergoing surgical abortion during first trimester pregnancy. Monocytes/macrophages and NK cells were enriched by immunomagnetic cell separation and cytokine secretion was detected by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent spot‐forming cell assay.Results:  Decidual and peripheral monocytes/macrophages and NK cells spontaneously secrete IFN‐γ, IL‐4 and IL‐10. The number of IL‐10 secreting cells was significantly higher in decidual macrophages compared with decidual non‐monocytic cells as well as compared with blood monocytes/macrophages. These differences were not seen for IFN‐γ or IL‐4.Conclusions:  Our results indicate that decidual macrophages subserve important suppressive functions in the pregnant uterus.
Should We Re‐Examine the Status of Lymphocyte Alloimmunization Therapy for Recurrent Spontaneous Abortion?
Authors: Chaouat Gérard 
Published: November 2003

Problem:  In the human, lymphocyte alloimmunization immunotherapy (IT) has been proposed as a treatment for recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA). This treatment has been the subject of debate for a long period of time. Recently, it has been proposed to extend such a treatment for implantation failure in humans, and I was asked to express my opinion on this topic.Methods:  I reviewed the evolution and theories and current paradigms in Reproductive Immunology and rationales proposed for IT. New discoveries show the complexity of implantation as a step by step developmental event, in mice and humans, and as such led me to re‐examine paradigms currently evoked for extension of IT to implantation. Such a re‐examination obviously leads me to re‐question the basis of IT for RSA itself.Conclusions:  I conclude that the Th1/Th2 paradigm, evoked as the current basis for IT, and as useful as it has been to explain pregnancy, is no longer sufficient. It is especially insufficient to explain the process of implantation, which involves inflammatory molecules and cannot fit in such a scheme. It ensues that alloimmunization has no scientific rationale for the treatment of human implantation as a whole, and should not be applied broadly at such a stage of pregnancy. Furthermore, its use in RSA should be re‐examined.
Open Issues in Photo‐realistic Rendering
Authors: Purgathofer Werner 
Published: November 2003

Abstract For more than two decades Computer graphics researchers have tried to achieve photo‐realism in their images as reliable as possible, mainly by simulating the physical laws of light and adding one effect after the other. The recent years have brought a change of efforts towards real‐time methods, easy‐to‐use systems, integration with vision, modelling tools and the like. The quality of images is mostly accepted as sufficient for real world applications, but where are we really? There are still numerous problems to be solved, and there is notable progress in these areas. No question, the plug‐in philosophy of some commercial products has enabled several of these new techniques to be distributed quite fast. But unfortunately, many other of these developments happen in isolated systems for the pure purpose of publication, and never make it into commercial software. This presentation wants to make people more aware of such activities, and evaluate the steps we still have to go towards perfect photo‐realism. The talk will start with an attempt to give a brief overview of the rendering history, highlighting the main research directions at different times. It will explain the driving forces of the developments, which are complexity, speed, and accuracy, and maybe also expression in recent years. Solved and unsolved areas are examined, and compared to practically solved but theoretically incomplete topics such as translucency, tone mapping, light source and BTF descriptions, and error metrics for image quality evaluation. The difference lies mainly in the difference between believable, correct, and predictive images. Also, for really realistic images modelling complexity is still an issue. Finally, some recent work on polarization and fluorescence is presented.
Animation of Bubbles in Liquid
Authors: Hong Jeong‐Mo , Kim Chang‐Hun 
Published: November 2003

Abstract We present a new fluid animation technique in which liquid and gas interact with each other, using the exampleof bubbles rising in water. In contrast to previous studies which only focused on one fluid, our system considersboth the liquid and the gas simultaneously. In addition to the flowing motion, the interactions between liquid andgas cause buoyancy, surface tension, deformation and movement of the bubbles. For the natural manipulationof topological changes and the removal of the numerical diffusion, we combine the volume‐of‐fluid method andthe front‐tracking method developed in the field of computational fluid dynamics. Our minimum‐stress surfacetension method enables this complementary combination. The interfaces are constructed using the marching cubesalgorithm. Optical effects are rendered using vertex shader techniques. Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.3.7 [Computer Graphics]: Animation
Cloth Motion Capture
Authors: Pritchard D. , Heidrich W. 
Published: November 2003

Abstract Recent years have seen an increased interest in motion capture systems. Current systems, however, are limitedto only a few degrees of freedom, so that effectively only the motion of linked rigid bodies can be acquired. Wepresent a system for the capture of deformable surfaces, most notably moving cloth, including both geometry andparameterisation. We recover geometry using stereo correspondence, and use the Scale Invariant Feature Transform(SIFT) to identify an arbitrary pattern printed on the cloth, even in the presence of fast motion. We describea novel seed‐and‐grow approach to adapt the SIFT algorithm to deformable geometry. Finally, we interpolatefeature points to parameterise the complete geometry. Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.3.5 [Computer Graphics]: Physically based modelingI.4.8 [Image Processing and Computer Vision]: Scene analysis
Compression of 2D Vector Fields Under Guaranteed Topology Preservation
Authors: Theisel H. , Rössl Ch. , Seidel H.‐P. 
Published: November 2003

AbstractIn this paper we introduce a new compression technique for 2D vector fields which preserves the complete topology, i.e., the critical points and the connectivity of the separatrices. As the theoretical foundation of the algorithm, we show in a theorem that for local modifications of a vector field, it is possible to decide entirely by a local analysis whether or not the global topology is preserved. This result is applied in a compression algorithm which is based on a repeated local modification of the vector field ‐ namely a repeated edge collapse of the underlying piecewise linear domain. We apply the compression technique to a number of data sets with a complex topology and obtain significantly improved compression ratios in comparison to pre‐existing topology‐preserving techniques.
Out‐of‐core compression and decompression of large n‐dimensional scalar fields
Authors: Ibarria Lawrence , Lindstrom Peter , Rossignac Jarek , Szymczak Andrzej 
Published: November 2003

Abstract We present a simple method for compressing very large and regularly sampled scalar fields. Our method is particularlyattractive when the entire data set does not fit in memory and when the sampling rate is high relative to thefeature size of the scalar field in all dimensions. Although we report results for

and

data sets, the proposedapproach may be applied to higher dimensions. The method is based on the new Lorenzo predictor, introducedhere, which estimates the value of the scalar field at each sample from the values at processed neighbors. The predictedvalues are exact when the n‐dimensional scalar field is an implicit polynomial of degree

n− 1. Surprisingly,when the residuals (differences between the actual and predicted values) are encoded using arithmetic coding,the proposed method often outperforms wavelet compression in anL∞sense. The proposed approach may beused both for lossy and lossless compression and is well suited for out‐of‐core compression and decompression,because a trivial implementation, which sweeps through the data set reading it once, requires maintaining only asmall buffer in core memory, whose size barely exceeds a single (n−1)‐dimensional slice of the data.Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.3.5 [Computer Graphics]: Compression, scalar fields,out‐of‐core.