What Others Say About This Work? Scalable Extraction of Citation Contexts from Research Papers

This work presents a new, scalable solution to the problem of extracting citation contexts: the textual fragments surrounding citation references. These citation contexts can be used to navigate digital libraries of research papers to help users in deciding what to read. We have developed a prototype system which can retrieve, on-demand, citation contexts from the full text of over 15 million research articles in the Mendeley catalog for a given reference research paper. The evaluation results show that our citation extraction system provides additional functionality over existing tools, has two orders of magnitude faster runtime performance, while providing a 9% improvement in F-measure over the current state-of-the-art

Branch facial nerve trauma after superficial temporal artery biopsy: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Giant cell arteritis is an emergency requiring prompt diagnosis and treatment. Superficial temporal artery biopsy is the gold diagnostic standard. Complications are few and infrequent; however, facial nerve injury has been reported, leaving an untoward cosmetic outcome. This case report is to the best of our knowledge only the fourth one presented in the available literature so far regarding facial nerve injury from superficial temporal artery biopsy.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 73-year-old Caucasian woman presented for neurological evaluation regarding eyebrow and facial asymmetry after a superficial temporal artery biopsy for presumptive giant cell arteritis-induced cephalalgia.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Damage to branches of the facial nerve may occur after superficial temporal artery biopsy, resulting in eyebrow droop. Although an uncommon and sparsely reported complication, all clinicians of various specialties involved in the care of these patients should be aware of this given the gravity of giant cell arteritis and the widespread use of temporal artery biopsy.</p

Mycolactone-dependent depletion of endothelial cell thrombomodulin is strongly associated with fibrin deposition in Buruli ulcer lesions

A well-known histopathological feature of diseased skin in Buruli ulcer (BU) is coagulative necrosis caused by the Mycobacterium ulcerans macrolide exotoxin mycolactone. Since the underlying mechanism is not known, we have investigated the effect of mycolactone on endothelial cells, focussing on the expression of surface anticoagulant molecules involved in the protein C anticoagulant pathway. Congenital deficiencies in this natural anticoagulant pathway are known to induce thrombotic complications such as purpura fulimans and spontaneous necrosis. Mycolactone profoundly decreased thrombomodulin (TM) expression on the surface of human dermal microvascular endothelial cells (HDMVEC) at doses as low as 2ng/ml and as early as 8hrs after exposure. TM activates protein C by altering thrombin's substrate specificity, and exposure of HDMVEC to mycolactone for 24 hours resulted in an almost complete loss of the cells' ability to produce activated protein C. Loss of TM was shown to be due to a previously described mechanism involving mycolactone-dependent blockade of Sec61 translocation that results in proteasome-dependent degradation of newly synthesised ER-transiting proteins. Indeed, depletion from cells determined by live-cell imaging of cells stably expressing a recombinant TM-GFP fusion protein occurred at the known turnover rate. In order to determine the relevance of these findings to BU disease, immunohistochemistry of punch biopsies from 40 BU lesions (31 ulcers, nine plaques) was performed. TM abundance was profoundly reduced in the subcutis of 78% of biopsies. Furthermore, it was confirmed that fibrin deposition is a common feature of BU lesions, particularly in the necrotic areas. These findings indicate that there is decreased ability to control thrombin generation in BU skin. Mycolactone's effects on normal endothelial cell function, including its ability to activate the protein C anticoagulant pathway are strongly associated with this. Fibrin-driven tisischemia could contribute to the development of the tissue necrosis seen in BU lesions

Global environmental changes: setting priorities for Latin American coastal habitats.

The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.comThe Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) reports that Global Environmental Changes (GEC) are occurring quicker than at any other time over the last 25 million years and impacting upon marine environments (Bellard et al., 2012). There is overwhelming evidence showing that GEC are affecting both the quality and quantity of the goods and services provided by a wide range of marine ecosystems. In order to discuss regional preparedness for global environmental changes, a workshop was held in Ilhabela, Brazil (22- 26 April 2012) entitled "Evaluating the Sensitivity of Central and South American Benthic Communities to Global Environmental Changes" that drew together scientists from ten Latin American and three European countries. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Wounds research for patient benefit: a 5-year programme of research

Background Complex wounds are those that heal by secondary intention and include lower-limb ulcers, pressure ulcers and some surgical wounds. The care of people with complex wounds is costly, with care mainly being delivered by community nurses. There is a lack of current, high-quality data regarding the numbers and types of people affected, care received and outcomes achieved. Objectives To (1) assess how high-quality data about complex wounds can be captured effectively for use in both service planning and research while ensuring integration with current clinical data collection systems and minimal impact on staff time; (2) investigate whether or not a clinical register of people with complex wounds could give valid estimates of treatment effects, thus reducing dependence on large-scale randomised controlled trials (RCTs); (3) identify the most important research questions and outcomes for people with complex wounds from the perspectives of patients, carers and health-care professionals; (4) evaluate the potential contributions to decision-making of individual patient data meta-analysis and mixed treatment comparison meta-analysis; and (5) complete and update systematic reviews in topic areas of high priority. Methods To meet objectives 1 and 2 we conducted a prevalence survey and developed and piloted a longitudinal disease register. A consultative, deliberative method and in-depth interviews were undertaken to address objective 3. To address objectives 4 and 5 we conducted systematic reviews including mixed treatment comparison meta-analysis. Results From the prevalence survey we estimated the point prevalence of all complex wounds to be 1.47 per 1000 people (95% confidence interval 1.38 to 1.56 per 1000 people). Pressure ulcers and venous leg ulcers were the most common type of complex wound. A total of 195 people with a complex wound were recruited to a complex wounds register pilot. We established the feasibility of correctly identifying, extracting and transferring routine NHS data into the register; however, participant recruitment, data collection and tracking individual wounds in people with multiple wounds were challenging. Most patients and health professionals regarded healing of the wound as the primary treatment goal. Patients were greatly troubled by the social consequences of having a complex wound. Complex wounds are frequently a consequence of, and are themselves, a long-term condition but treatment is usually focused on healing the wound. Consultative, deliberative research agenda setting on pressure ulcer prevention and treatment with patients, carers and clinicians yielded 960 treatment uncertainties and a top 12 list of research priorities. Of 167 RCTs of complex wound treatments in a systematic review of study quality, 41% did not specify a primary outcome and the overall quality of the conduct and reporting of the research was poor. Mixed-treatment comparison meta-analysis in areas of high priority identified that matrix hydrocolloid dressings had the highest probability (70%) of being the most effective dressing for diabetic foot ulcers, whereas a hyaluronan fleece dressing had the highest probability (35%) of being the most effective dressing for venous ulcers; however, the quality of this evidence was low and uncertainty is high. Conclusions Complex wounds are common and costly with a poor evidence base for many frequent clinical decisions. There is little routine clinical data collection in community nursing. A prospective complex wounds register has the potential to both assist clinical decision-making and provide important research evidence but would be challenging to implement without investment in information technology in NHS community services. Future work should focus on developing insights into typical wound healing trajectories, identifying factors that are prognostic for healing and assessing the cost-effectiveness of selected wound treatments. Funding The National Institute for Health Research Programme Grants for Applied Research programme

Using technology to deliver cancer follow-up : a systematic review

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Challenges in public perception: highlights from the United Kingdom-Brazil Dementia Workshop

In July 2019, Belo Horizonte hosted an international workshop for 27 junior researchers, whose participants were from Brazil and the United Kingdom. This three-day meeting organized by the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais and the University of East Anglia addressed challenges in cognitive impairment and dementia, with particular interest in public perceptions, diagnosis and care management. The purpose of this report is to highlight the outcomes of the above-mentioned workshop regarding the topic of public perceptions (part I). Discussions focused on differences and similarities between countries, as well as on identifying main issues that required collaborative and creative solutions. After these group discussions, four core themes emerged: I) cognitive impairment; II) dementia - beyond Alzheimer's disease; III) prevention; and IV) stigma. National and international initiatives to deal with public misperceptions about cognitive impairment and dementia were discussed

A Quantum Scattering Interferometer

The collision of two ultra-cold atoms results in a quantum-mechanical superposition of two outcomes: each atom continues without scattering and each atom scatters as a spherically outgoing wave with an s-wave phase shift. The magnitude of the s-wave phase shift depends very sensitively on the interaction between the atoms. Quantum scattering and the underlying phase shifts are vitally important in many areas of contemporary atomic physics, including Bose-Einstein condensates, degenerate Fermi gases, frequency shifts in atomic clocks, and magnetically-tuned Feshbach resonances. Precise measurements of quantum scattering phase shifts have not been possible until now because, in scattering experiments, the number of scattered atoms depends on the s-wave phase shifts as well as the atomic density, which cannot be measured precisely. Here we demonstrate a fundamentally new type of scattering experiment that interferometrically detects the quantum scattering phase shifts of individual atoms. By performing an atomic clock measurement using only the scattered part of each atom, we directly and precisely measure the difference of the s-wave phase shifts for the two clock states in a density independent manner. Our method will give the most direct and precise measurements of ultracold atom-atom interactions and will place stringent limits on the time variations of fundamental constants.Comment: Corrected formatting and typo