bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Vibro-Tactile and Visual Asynchronies: Sensitivity and Consistency
Authors: van Erp Jan B F , Werkhoven Peter J 
Published: March 2004

We investigated the consistency between tactually and visually designated empty time intervals. In a forced-choice discrimination task, participants judged whether the second of two intervals was shorter or longer than the first interval. Two pulses defined the intervals. The pulse was either a vibro-tactile burst presented to the fingertip, or a foveally presented white square. The comparisons were made for uni-modal and cross-modal intervals. We used four levels of standard interval durations in the range of 100–800 ms. The results showed that tactile empty intervals must be 8.5% shorter to be perceived as long as visual intervals. This cross-modal bias is larger for small intervals and decreases with increasing standard intervals. The Weber fractions (the threshold divided by the standard interval) are 20% and are constant over the standard intervals. This indicates that the Weber law holds for the range of interval lengths tested. Furthermore, the Weber fractions are consistent over uni-modal and cross-modal comparisons, which indicates that there is no additional noise involved in the cross-modal comparisons.
False belief and sentence complement performance in children with specific language impairment
Authors: Miller Carol A. 
Published: March 2004

AbstractBackground: Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have language abilities not commensurate with other cognitive abilities. This pattern makes the SLI population of interest when investigating the relationship between language and theory of mind. One view regarding this relationship is that theory of mind develops independently of language, but certain language skills are required to meet the demands of tasks used to measure theory of mind, such as false belief. Another view is that language development facilitates theory of mind development, and specifically, that mastery of sentence complement structures is necessary for false belief.Aims: The study asked (1) if children with SLI can succeed on false belief, despite their language deficits, when the linguistic demands of the false belief task are low, and (2) if performance on sentence complement structures predicts false belief performance.Methods & Procedures: Fifteen children with SLI, 15 children matched for age and 15 children matched for language comprehension level participated in a false belief task with four conditions of differing linguistic complexity, and a test of sentence complementation understanding. Spontaneous production of sentence complements was also measured. Group differences for false belief and sentence complementation, and condition differences for false belief, were tested non‐parametrically. Partial correlation analysis, log–linear analysis, and Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney tests were used to explore relationships among the complementation and false belief measures for all children and for each group.Outcomes & Results: Children with SLI performed similarly to age‐matched peers on false belief when linguistic complexity of the task was low, and performed more poorly than age‐matched peers on understanding of sentence complements. For all children, sentence complement performance was correlated with false belief (controlling for age), and those who performed well on sentence complements had higher mean rates of false belief success. Log–linear analysis showed the sentence complement–false belief relationship to hold for a condition with relatively low linguistic demands.Conclusions: The study provides evidence that children with SLI can perform at age‐appropriate levels when false belief tasks are less demanding, and that mastery of sentence complementation is a predictor of false belief ability.
Cost‐effectiveness analysis of current practice and parent intervention for children under 3 years presenting with expressive language delay
Authors: Gibbard Deborah , Coglan Louisa , MacDonald John 
Published: March 2004

AbstractBackground: Parents and professionals can both play a role in improving children's expressive language development and a number of alternative models of delivery exist that involve different levels of input by these two groups. However, these alternative treatments have not been subject to rigorous comparative analysis in terms of both cost and clinical effectiveness.Aims: To compare, from the viewpoint of the healthcare provider, parent‐based intervention (PBI) for preschool children presenting with expressive language delay with current practice observed in an actual healthcare setting where parents of the child follow a professional's advice on a review basis.Methods & Procedures: Two groups of children were compared on a variety of expressive and receptive language assessment measures. One group (n=10) received standard individual general care. The comparison group (n=12) received PBI.Outcomes & Results: After the 6‐month study, the results indicated that children who received PBI made significantly greater language gains that children who received current practice. In addition, a cost‐effective analysis was conducted. This showed that although the language gains delivered by PBI did incur some additional costs for the healthcare provider, there was no significant increase in cost per outcome gain over general care.Conclusions: Options in the implementation of PBI are discussed that could potentially save costs for the healthcare providers and increase the value of a PBI‐based approach.
Conversational repair in speakers with autism spectrum disorder
Authors: Volden Joanne 
Published: March 2004

AbstractBackground: The ability to repair communicative breakdown is an important pragmatic language skill, yet very little is known about it in the population of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous investigations have shown that people with ASD, across a variety of ages and language levels, recognized communicative breakdown and responded to requests for clarification (RQCLs) with a wide variety of repair strategies. No previous work has assessed the repair abilities of speakers with ASD when faced with a persistent communicative breakdown indicated by a stacked series of RQCLs.Aims: The present paper aimed to determine whether school‐aged, high‐functioning children with ASD responded to a stacked series of RQCLs in a way similar to children matched for language age.Methods & Procedures: Nine school‐aged, high‐functioning children with ASD were recruited and matched to nine control group children based on language level. During conversation, an unfamiliar examiner engineered 10 episodes of communicative breakdown. Each consisted of a stacked series of three RQCLs (‘What?’, ‘I don't understand’, ‘Tell me another way’). Verbal and non‐verbal responses to each RQCL were coded. Reponses were analysed by a series of repeated measures analyses of variance with diagnostic group and RQCL type/position as independent variables and type of repair as the dependent variable.Outcomes & Results: Children with ASD were similar to language age‐matched control children in responding to RQCLs and employing a variety of repair strategies. In addition, their pattern of responding over the series of RQCLs was very similar to the controls in varying the repair strategy by adding increasingly more information as the breakdown persisted, i.e. as the sequence of RQCLs progressed. Children with ASD, however, were significantly more likely than language age‐matched controls to respond to an RQCL with an inappropriate response.Conclusions: The ability to repair communicative breakdown successfully raises questions about some of the currently popular theories about the source and nature of social and communicative deficits in autism. In addition, the presence of significantly more inappropriate utterances in the group with ASD poses both theoretical and clinical challenges. In theoretical terms, several possible explanations are proposed, but future work will need to test these hypotheses. Clinically, it is important to focus on utterances that disrupt the conversational flow and that generate severe social penalties for the speaker with ASD.
Conotoxins as selective inhibitors of neuronal ion channels, receptors and transporters
Authors: Lewis Richard J. 
Published: March 2004

AbstractCone snails have evolved a vast array of peptide toxins for prey capture and defence. These peptides are directed against a wide variety of pharmacological targets, making them an invaluable source of ligands for studying the properties of these targets in normal and diseased states. A number of these peptides have shown efficacy in vivo, including inhibitors of calcium channels, the norepinephrine transporter, nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, NMDA receptors and neurotensin receptors, with several having undergone pre‐clinical or clinical development for the treatment of pain.
IUBMB Life, 56: 89‐93, 2004
‘Last‐ditch’ use of recombinant factor VIIa in patients with massive haemorrhage is ineffective
Authors: Clark A. D. , Gordon W. C. , Walker I. D. , Tait R. C. 
Published: March 2004

Background and Objectives  The aim of this retrospective study was to assess the effect of activated recombinant factor VII (rFVIIa) on the natural history of massive transfusion episodes.Materials and Methods  During 2002, outcome parameters were assessed in 50 patients transfused with more than 10 units of packed red cells. The effect of the addition of rFVIIa in 10 patients, with intractable bleeding, was then observed.Results  Overall mortality was 20% at 24 h and 34% at 7 days. Severe coagulopathy was confirmed as a serious negative prognostic factor and occurred in 42% of patients overall, but in 70% of rFVIIa‐treated patients. Transient cessation or reduction of bleeding was noted in 60% of patients following rFVIIa infusion. However, 24‐h and 7‐day mortality rates were 40% and 70%, respectively, in this group.Conclusions  Last‐ditch rFVIIa therapy in patients resistant to conventional treatment did not rescue these patients or significantly alter outcomes.
Investigation of frequency of active Borna disease virus infection in Scottish blood donors
Authors: Davidson F. , Lycett C. , Petrik J. , Fazakerley J. K. 
Published: March 2004

Background and Objectives  Borna disease virus (BDV) can infect a wide range of vertebrate species causing neurological disease. In order to ensure the safety of blood supplies, it is essential to monitor blood for emerging pathogens.Materials and Methods  One‐hundred individual white cell pellets and pools representing 25 000 plasma donations from human blood were screened for BDV by reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT–PCR).Results  BDV RNA was not detected in any of the samples.Conclusions  The results indicate that BDV is not widely spread in the UK human population and does not represent a risk as a transfusion‐transmitted agent.
Quality control system for blood irradiation using a teletherapy unit
Authors: Góes E. G. , Covas D. T. , Haddad R. , Pelá C. A. , Formigoni C. E. , Borges J. C. 
Published: March 2004

Background and Objectives  Irradiation of whole blood and blood components before transfusion is currently the only accepted methodology to prevent transfusion‐associated graft‐vs.‐host disease. In the present work, we developed an automated system for blood bag storage during irradiation, using a teletherapy unit.Materials and Methods  A device with two thermal compartments was constructed in acrylic and foam, for the storage of blood bags during irradiation. An automatic acquisition system, coupled with an amplifier and a thermal‐sensitive probe, were developed to check blood temperature during irradiation. A polystyrene phantom was constructed to simulate the volume of blood routinely irradiated. The dose distribution was measured in the phantom using thermoluminescent dosimeters and represented in terms of isodose curves.Results  The thermal device kept the blood temperature below 6 °C for more than 2 h. Our system allowed the simultaneous irradiation of two different blood components while maintaining a constant temperature. The temperature monitoring system remained invariant (0·2 °C) over the whole irradiation interval. Phantom dosimetric results showed a homogeneous dose distribution when the phantom was irradiated, using rotational fields with a 2 r.p.m. frequency.Conclusions  The methodology developed in the present work provides appropriate storage conditions during irradiation of both red blood cells and platelet blood components using a teletherapy unit.
Influence of cell‐free DNA in plasma on real‐time polymerase chain reaction for determination of residual leucocytes in platelet concentrates
Authors: Dijkstra‐Tiekstra M. J. , Pietersz R. N. I. , Reesink H. W. , Van Der Schoot C. E. 
Published: March 2004

Background and Objectives  Real‐time quantitative (RQ) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) can be used to determine the number of residual leucocytes in leucocyte‐reduced platelet concentrates (LR‐PCs), which should contain < 3·3 leucocytes/µl. In this study we investigated the extent to which cell‐free DNA, known to be present in plasma, might interfere with this determination. In this study, RQ‐PCR was employed to determine the following: the influence of filtration of platelet concentrates (PCs) on the amount of cell‐free DNA; the variation in concentration of cell‐free DNA between the buffy coats (BCs) of different donors; and the amount of cell‐free DNA during storage and processing of whole blood.Materials and Methods  PCs were sampled before and after filtration (n = 5), BCs were sampled (n = 100) and whole blood units were sampled < 2 h and 16–20 h after collection, and the BCs were also sampled after processing the whole blood (n = 10). Samples were centrifuged to obtain cell‐free plasma in which the amount of cell‐free DNA was determined using an RQ‐PCR for the albumin gene.Results  The amount of cell‐free DNA was not influenced by filtration of the PCs [1·7 ± 0·8 vs. 1·5 ± 0·8 leucocyte‐equivalents (eq)/µl]. However, the amount of cell‐free DNA in plasma of the BCs varied considerably, from 0·1 to 18·2 leucocyte‐eq/µl (median = 1·5 leucocyte‐eq/µl; mean ± SD: 2·2 ± 2·4 leucocyte‐eq/µl). In 18% of the BCs the amount cell‐free DNA was > 3·3 leucocyte‐eq/µl. The amount of cell‐free DNA increased during storage, from 0·3 ± 0·3 leucocyte‐eq/µl (< 2 h after collection) to 0·9 ± 0·6 leucocyte‐eq/µl (16–20 h after collection) and, after processing the whole blood, to 2·0 ± 2·0 leucocyte‐eq/µl.Conclusions  Variable amounts of cell‐free DNA in plasma will interfere if RQ‐PCR is applied to estimate leucocyte numbers in leucocyte‐reduced PCs.
Clothing, charity, salvation and visionary experience in fifteenth‐century Siena
Authors: Warr Cordelia 
Published: March 2004

This article investigates the use of clothing as a liminal object, capable of moving across the boundary between the mortal and immortal worlds. The significance of clothing within the changing consumer culture of Renaissance Italian society, and the legislation surrounding it, has been discussed by a number of recent authors. I consider a different, but connected, aspect of clothing: depictions and descriptions of supernatural apparitions relating to clothes. Despite notable changes in the perception and uses of clothing, 1215–1545 (from the Fourth Lateran Council to the opening of the Council of Trent) can be seen as a unified period of religious devotion dominated by belief in the resurrection of the body, purgatory and the cult of saints. These beliefs contribute to considerable evidence suggesting that for those living in Latin Europe dress existed on two planes – the material and the spiritual. Focusing on the fifteenth‐century decoration of the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena – by artists including Domenico di Bartolo, Vecchietta and Giovanni di Paolo – this article explores the tensions inherent in the changing relationship of clothing and adornment to the mortal and immortal body. Cordelia Warr is Lecturer in the History of Art at the University of Manchester. She has worked on female patronage during the fourteenth century and is currently completing a monograph tentatively entitled Crossing Boundaries: Physical and Spiritual Clothing in Italian Art 1215–1545.
Modulation of Na+,K+‐ATPase activity is of importance for RVD
Authors: Andersson R. M. , Aizman O. , Aperia A. , Brismar H. 
Published: March 2004

AbstractAim:  This study was performed to examine the role of Na+,K+‐ATPase activity for the adaptive response to cell swelling induced by hypoosmoticity, i.e. the regulatory volume decrease (RVD).Methods:  The studies were performed on COS‐7 cells transfected with rat Na+,K+‐ATPase. To study changes in cell volume, cells were loaded with the fluorescent dye calcein and the intensity of the dye, following exposure to a hypoosmotic medium, was recorded with confocal microscopy.Results:  Ouabain‐mediated inhibition of Na+,K+‐ATPase resulted in a dose dependent decrease in the rate of RVD. Total 86Rb+ uptake as well as ouabain dependent 86Rb+ uptake, used as an index of Na+,K+‐ATPase dependent K+ uptake, was significantly increased during the first 2 min following exposure to hypoosmoticity. Since protein kinase C (PKC) plays an important role in the modulation of RVD, a study was carried out on COS‐7 cells expressing rat Na+,K+‐ATPase, where Ser23 in the catalytic α1 subunit of rat Na+,K+‐ATPase had been mutated to Ala (S23A), abolishing a known PKC phosphorylation site. Cells expressing S23A rat Na+,K+‐ATPase exhibited a significantly lower rate of RVD and showed no increase in 86Rb+ uptake during RVD.Conclusion:  Taken together, these results suggest that a PKC‐mediated transient increase in Na+,K+‐ATPase activity plays an important role in RVD.
Decreased availability of intestinal dopamine in transmural colitis may relate to inhibitory effects of interferon‐γ upon L‐DOPA uptake
Authors: Magro F. , Fraga S. , Ribeiro T. , Soares‐da‐Silva P. 
Published: March 2004

AbstractAims:
The present study aimed to evaluate the relationship between intestinal inflammation, interferon‐γ (IFN‐γ) levels and intestinal levels of dopamine, its precursor l‐3,4‐dihydroxyphenylalanine (l‐DOPA), and the activity of aromatic l‐amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) activity along the digestive tract in a rat experimental model of colitis.Methods:  Colitis was induced by rectal administration of 2,4,6‐trinitrobenzene sulphonic acid (TNBS). Catechol derivatives were assayed by means of HPLC‐EC.Results:  It is shown that dopamine and noradrenaline levels in the distal colon (inflamed mucosa), but not in the ileum (non‐inflamed mucosa), of TNBS‐treated rats were markedly lower than in control animals. A slight decrease in l‐DOPA tissue levels, no changes in AADC activity and an increase in plasma IFN‐γ levels accompanied this decrease in dopamine levels. Exposure of Caco‐2 cells, a human intestinal epithelial cell line, to human IFN‐γ resulted in a concentration‐dependent and long‐lasting inhibition of l‐DOPA uptake, which most likely explains the decrease in dopamine levels in the inflamed mucosa.Conclusion:  Changes in tissue levels of noradrenaline and dopamine in experimental colitis in the rat follow a similar pattern to that observed in patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. In this model of experimental colitis, the decrease in dopamine levels is most likely explained by the inhibitory effect of IFN‐γ on l‐DOPA uptake by intestinal epithelial cells.
Mental stress inhibits pain perception and heart rate variability but not a nociceptive withdrawal reflex
Authors: Terkelsen A. J. , Andersen O. K. , Mølgaard H. , Hansen J. , Jensen T. S. 
Published: March 2004

AbstractAim:  Do distraction from‐ or attention to sural nerve stimulation affect pain, heart rate variability, and a spinal withdrawal reflex?Material and methods:  In 26 male volunteers, electrical stimulation at the distal cutaneous receptive field of the sural nerve elicited pain and a nociceptive withdrawal reflex. Intensity of pain was rated on a numeric rating scale. Electromyographic reflex responses were measured from biceps femoris muscle. Cardiac autonomic function was estimated by heart rate variability measures and was expressed in the time domain as mean of RR‐intervals for normal heart beats (mean‐RR) and standard deviation of all normal RR‐intervals (SD‐NN) and, in the frequency domain, where pure vagal activity was assessed by high frequency power (0.15–0.4 Hz). Low frequency power (0.04–0.15 Hz) reflects both parasympathetic and sympathetic control. Effect parameters were recorded before and during random distraction and attention. Distraction from sural nerve stimulation was induced by a mental arithmetic test, paced auditory serial addition task (PASAT), while attention was induced by concentrating on painful foot stimulation.Results:  Paced auditory serial addition task decreased mean‐RR and SD‐NN, frequency domain parameters, as well as pain (P < 0.001). In contrast, PASAT did not change the spinal withdrawal reflex. Attention did not affect any effect parameter.Conclusion:  Distraction by PASAT altered autonomic activity and inhibited pain but failed to affect withdrawal reflex responses, while attention had no effect on either parameter. Psychological distraction and attention may have different effects on noxious evoked pain perception and autonomic activity. Pain relief during PASAT probably involves supraspinal mechanisms.
Effect of angiotensin II and endothelin‐1 receptor blockade on the haemodynamic and hormonal changes after acute blood loss and after retransfusion in conscious dogs
Authors: Francis R. C. E. , Höhne C. , Kaczmarczyk G. , Boemke W. 
Published: March 2004

AbstractAim:  This study investigates angiotensin II and endothelin‐1 mediated mechanisms involved in the haemodynamic, hormonal, and renal response towards acute hypotensive haemorrhage.Methods:  Conscious dogs were pre‐treated with angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) and/or endothelin‐A (ETA) receptor blockers or not. Protocol 1: After a 60‐min baseline period, 25% of the dog's blood was rapidly withdrawn. The blood was retransfused 60 min later and data recorded for another hour. Protocol 2: Likewise, but preceded by AT1 blockade with i.v. Losartan. Protocol 3: Likewise, but preceded by ETA blockade with i.v. ABT‐627. Protocol 4: Likewise, but with combined AT1plus ETAblockade.Results:  In controls, haemorrhage decreased mean arterial pressure (MAP) by approximately 25%, cardiac output by approximately 40%, and urine volume by approximately 60%, increased angiotensin II (3.1‐fold), endothelin‐1 (1.13‐fold), vasopressin (116‐fold), and adrenaline concentrations (3.2‐fold). Glomerular filtration rate and noradrenaline concentrations remained unchanged. During AT1 blockade, the MAP decrease was exaggerated (−40%) and glomerular filtration rate fell. During ETA blockade, noradrenaline increased after haemorrhage instead of adrenaline, and the MAP recovery after retransfusion was blunted. The decrease in cardiac output was similar in all protocols.Conclusions:  Angiotensin II is more important than endothelin‐1 for the short‐term regulation of MAP and glomerular filtration rate after haemorrhage, whereas endothelin‐1 seems necessary for complete MAP recovery after retransfusion. After haemorrhage, endothelin‐1 seems to facilitate adrenaline release and to blunt noradrenaline release. Haemorrhage‐induced compensatory mechanisms maintain blood flow more effectively than blood pressure, as the decrease in cardiac output – but not MAP – was similar in all protocols.