bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The associations between ADHD and asthma in Korean children
Authors: Kwon Ho Jang , Lee Mi Young , Ha Mina , Yoo Seung Jin , Paik Ki Chung , Lim Jong-Han , Sakong June , Lee Chul-Gab , Kang Dong-Muk , Hong Soo Jong , Cho Hwan Il , Lim Myung Ho
Published: March 2014

Background

The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the most common neuropsychiatric disorder in school children, and childhood allergic disease by evaluating their respective prevalence.

Methods

Subjects were comprised of first and second grade students in twenty two elementary schools in a city in the Republic of Korea. The mode of measurement for ADHD was based on DSM-IV from clinical interviews conducted by child psychiatrists. Along with the diagnostic interviews, we also used the epidemiological questionnaires, Computerized Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder Diagnostic System, the abbreviated Conner’s Parent Rating Scale (CPRS), and DuPaul’s ADHD Rating Scales. Allergic conditions, such as asthma, have been separately evaluated based on the questionnaire items whose validity and reliability were proved by the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Children (ISAAC). All questionnaires were completed by the subjects’ parents.

Results

The lifetime prevalence rate of asthma in ADHD patients was 36.6%, compared to a prevalence of 24.3% in control subjects. The lifetime prevalence rate of allergic rhinitis in ADHD patients was 59.0%, compared to a prevalence of 47.0% in control subjects. Statistically significant difference has been found between the two groups. In the logistic regression model of the ADHD and the control group, the relative risk of asthma was 1.60 times higher (confidence interval 1.301-1.964), the relative risk of allergic rhinitis was 1.38 times higher (confidence interval 1.124-1.681), which showed statistical significance.

Conclusions

The findings of this study suggest significant association between ADHD and childhood asthma and allergic rhinitis. Therefore, appropriate evaluation and treatment are needed for asthmatic children with attention-deficit symptoms, or allergic rhinitis with ADHD. Besides, further research is needed to determine the etiological approach towards ADHD, asthma, and allergic rhinitis.
Chronic oral or intraarticular administration of docosahexaenoic acid reduces nociception and knee edema and improves functional outcomes in a mouse model of Complete Freund’s Adjuvant–induced knee arthritis
Authors: Torres-Guzman Ana M , Morado-Urbina Carlos E , Alvarado-Vazquez Perla A , Acosta-Gonzalez Rosa I , Chávez-Piña Aracely E , Montiel-Ruiz Rosa M , Jimenez-Andrade Juan M
Published: March 2014

Introduction

Clinical and preclinical studies have shown that supplementation with ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω-3 PUFAs) reduce joint destruction and inflammation present in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, the effects of individual ω-3 PUFAs on chronic arthritic pain have not been evaluated to date. Thus, our aim in this study was to examine whether purified docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, an ω-3 PUFA) reduces spontaneous pain-related behavior and knee edema and improves functional outcomes in a mouse model of knee arthritis.

Methods

Unilateral arthritis was induced by multiple injections of Complete Freund’s Adjuvant (CFA) into the right knee joints of male ICR adult mice. Mice that received CFA injections were then chronically treated from day 15 until day 25 post–initial CFA injection with oral DHA (10, 30 and 100 mg/kg daily) or intraarticular DHA (25 and 50 μg/joint twice weekly). Spontaneous flinching of the injected extremity (considered as spontaneous pain-related behavior), vertical rearing and horizontal exploratory activity (considered as functional outcomes) and knee edema were assessed. To determine whether an endogenous opioid mechanism was involved in the therapeutic effect of DHA, naloxone (NLX, an opioid receptor antagonist, 3 mg/kg subcutaneously) was administered in arthritic mice chronically treated with DHA (30 mg/kg by mouth) at day 25 post–CFA injection.

Results

The intraarticular CFA injections resulted in increasing spontaneous flinching and knee edema of the ipsilateral extremity as well as worsening functional outcomes as time progressed. Chronic administration of DHA, given either orally or intraarticularly, significantly improved horizontal exploratory activity and reduced flinching behavior and knee edema in a dose-dependent manner. Administration of NLX did not reverse the antinociceptive effect of DHA.

Conclusions

To the best of our knowledge, this report is the first to demonstrate DHA’s antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects as individual ω-3 PUFAs following sustained systemic and intraarticular administration in a mouse model of CFA-induced knee arthritis. The results suggest that DHA treatment may offer a new therapeutic approach to alleviate inflammation as well as a beneficial effect on pain-related functional disabilities in RA patients.
Wnt-Dependent T-Cell Factor-4 Controls Human Etravillous Trophoblast Motility
Authors: Meinhardt Gudrun , Haider Sandra , Haslinger Peter , Proestling Katharina , Fiala Christian , Pollheimer Jürgen , Knöfler Martin
Published: March 2014

Formation of migratory extravillous trophoblasts (EVTs) is critical for human placentation and hence embryonic development. However, key regulatory growth factors, hormones, and nuclear proteins controlling the particular differentiation process remain poorly understood. Here, the role of the Wingless (Wnt)-dependent transcription factor T-cell factor-4 (TCF-4) in proliferation and motility was investigated using different trophoblast cell models. Immunofluorescence of first-trimester placental tissues revealed induction of TCF-4 and nuclear recruitment of its coactivator β-catenin in nonproliferating EVTs, whereas membrane-associated β-catenin decreased upon differentiation. In addition, EVTs expressed the TCF-4/β-catenin coactivator Pygopus 2 as well as repressors of the Groucho/transducin-like enhancer of split family. Western blotting revealed Pygopus 2 expression and up-regulation of integrin α1 and nuclear TCF-4 in purified first-trimester cytotrophoblasts (CTBs) differentiating on fibronectin. Concomitantly, elevated TCF-4 mRNA, quantitated by real-time PCR, and increased TCF-dependent luciferase reporter activity were noticed in EVTs of villous explant cultures and differentiated primary CTBs. Gene silencing using specific small interfering RNA decreased TCF-4 transcript and protein levels, TCF-dependent reporter activity as well as basal and Wnt3a-stimulated migration of trophoblastic SGHPL-5 cells and primary CTBs through fibronectin-coated transwells. In contrast, proliferation of SGHPL-5 cells and primary cells, measured by cumulative cell numbers and 5-bromo-2′-deoxy-uridine labeling, respectively, was not affected. Moreover, siRNA-mediated down-regulation of TCF-4 in primary CTBs diminished markers of the differentiated EVT, such as integrin α1 and α5, Snail1, and Notch2. In summary, the data suggest that Wnt/TCF-4-dependent signaling could play a role in EVT differentiation promoting motility and expression of promigratory genes.
Negative Association Between Serum Perfluorooctane Sulfate Concentration and Bone Mineral Density in US Premenopausal Women: NHANES, 2005–2008
Authors: Lin Lian-Yu , Wen Li-Li , Su Ta-Chen , Chen Pau-Chung , Lin Chien-Yu
Published: March 2014

Context:

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfate (PFOS) are used in a variety of products worldwide. However, the relationship among serum PFOA, PFOS concentration, bone mineral density (BMD), and the risk of fractures has never been addressed.

Objectives:

The study examined the association among serum PFOA, PFOS concentration, and lumbar spine and total hip BMD in the general US population.

Design and Participants:

We analyzed data on 2339 adults (aged ≧20 y) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted in 2005–2006 and 2007–2008 to determine the relationship among serum PFOA, PFOS concentration, and total lumbar spine and total hip BMD measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry and history of fractures cross-sectionally.

Results:

After weighting for sampling strategy, a 1-U increase in the natural log-transformed serum PFOS level was associated with a decrease in total lumbar spine BMD by 0.022 g/cm2 (95% confidence interval −0.038, −0.007; P = .006) in women not in menopause. There was no association among PFOA, PFOS concentration, and self-reported fracture in adults.

Conclusion:

Serum PFOS concentration is associated with decreased total lumbar spine BMD in women not in menopause. However, the potential biological significance of this effect is marginal and subclinical in the general US population. Further studies are warranted to clarify the causal relationship between perfluorinated chemical exposure and BMD.
Metformin Improves Glucose Effectiveness, Not Insulin Sensitivity: Predicting Treatment Response in Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome in an Open-Label, Interventional Study
Authors: Pau Cindy T. , Keefe Candace , Duran Jessica , Welt Corrine K.
Published: March 2014

Context:

Although metformin is widely used to improve insulin resistance in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), its mechanism of action is complex, with inconsistent effects on insulin sensitivity and variability in treatment response.

Objective:

The aim of the study was to delineate the effect of metformin on glucose and insulin parameters, determine additional treatment outcomes, and predict patients with PCOS who will respond to treatment.

Design and Setting:

We conducted an open-label, interventional study at an academic medical center.

Subjects:

Women with PCOS (n = 36) diagnosed by the National Institutes of Health criteria participated in the study.

Interventions:

Subjects underwent fasting blood sampling, an IV glucose tolerance test, dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry scan, transvaginal ultrasound, and measurement of human chorionic gonadotropin-stimulated androgen levels before and after 12 weeks of treatment with metformin extended release 1500 mg/d. Interval visits were performed to monitor anthropometric measurements and menstrual cycle parameters.

Main Outcome Measures:

Changes in glucose and insulin parameters, androgen levels, anthropometric measurements, and ovulatory menstrual cycles were evaluated.

Results:

Insulin sensitivity did not change despite weight loss. Glucose effectiveness (P = .002) and the acute insulin response to glucose (P = .002) increased, and basal glucose levels (P = .001) decreased after metformin treatment. T levels also decreased. Women with improved ovulatory function (61%) had lower baseline T levels and lower baseline and stimulated T and androstenedione levels after metformin treatment (all P < .05).

Conclusions:

Using an IV glucose tolerance test, which distinguishes improvements in glucose effectiveness and insulin sensitivity, metformin does not improve insulin sensitivity in women with PCOS but does improve glucose effectiveness. The improvement in glucose effectiveness may be partially mediated by decreased glucose levels. T levels also decreased with metformin treatment. Ovulation during metformin treatment was associated with lower baseline T levels and greater T and androstenedione decreases during treatment, but not with insulin or LH levels. Thus, the action of metformin in PCOS primarily affects glucose levels and steroidogenesis, which may be mediated by mechanisms that affect both pathways, such as inhibition of mitochondrial complex I.
The Remediation of Higher Education and the Harm of Student Debt
Authors: Williams Jeffrey J.
Published: March 2014

This essay focuses on the remediation of higher education in the U.S. In the period after World War II, higher education was cast as a remediation of social ills, particularly inequality. The period saw the opening of colleges and universities to unprecedented numbers of people from different classes and groups, funded largely by governmental sources. The period since then — the era of neoliberal capitalism, which began in the 1980s — has seen a pronounced shift, as higher education has been privatized in several ways, notably with the cost of tuition being progressively shifted from the government to the individual. One of the most striking features of this shift has been the astronomical increase of college student loan debt. This article outlines basic information about student debt and presents excerpts from an archive of testimonies of student debtors from across the U.S. The testimonies tell distressing stories of the pernicious effects of student debt. They also correct some current misperceptions — for instance, that student debt only became an issue after the financial crisis of 2007/08, when in fact it has been a problem since the 1980s. Overall, contemporary student debt performs a perverse remediation, violating the humanistic aim of the university and reinforcing rather than relieving inequality.
Impasse in Marlovian Drama. A Badiou Perspective
Authors: Heffernan Julián Jiménez
Published: March 2014

Influential critics such as Jonathan Dollimore, Michael Hattaway, and Richard Wilson have identified a tendency in Marlowe's plays to arrest dramatic development in what appear to be surface expressions of an original impasse — of desire, despair, or failed authority. On this view, an impasse of origination would account for the claustrophobic logic of limits that Marlovian drama presumably embodies and interrogates. While this article agrees that impasse is ubiquitous in Marlowe's plays, it takes issue with the metaphysical implications of the critical idiom employed to describe it. In particular, it questions the widespread tendency to adapt the metaphysical polarity subject-object to the interpretation of plays that, while making ample use of it, encourage readers and playgoers to dismiss such polarity as existentially ineffective. Only by tentatively adhering to a post-metaphysical scenario focused on presentation rather than representation and on truth as propitious event rather than individual property can we grasp the limitations of a metaphysical paradigm that writers like Marlowe unwittingly helped consolidate. Today, this scenario is best promoted by Badiou, a reluctant heir to Heidegger. Approaching Marlovian drama from the perspective of Badiou's meta-ontology of truth-procedures sheds new light on the etiology of dramatic impasse. This perspective exacts the subtraction of a “subject of truth” from every community and from received metaphysical notions of individualism. This manifestly challenges both the heuristic intimations of pre-social — whether libidinal or creaturely — subjectivity and the emancipatory ethos attached to community-oriented agendas in much contemporary Marlowe criticism (Greenblatt, Belsey, Dollimore, Sinfield, and Lupton). Through the use of a Badiou perspective five major points are advanced: in Marlovian drama 1) there is little room for the “inconsistent multiplicity” of the ontological that is nonetheless implied in it; 2) there are no subjects and no truths, but only abject individuals and self-destructive communities, which are ultimately indistinct; 3) there is a radical absence of genuine events; 4) impasse is contingent on epistemic failure — lack of truths — itself a consequence of the absence of events and the multiple confusion of truth-procedures like art, science, politics, and love; 5) there is no position of philosophical exteriority. This reading openly opposes the view of Marlowe's plays as productively subversive, incipiently emancipatory, or committed to whatever modality — whether sexual or civic — of communal Utopia.
Salem Rewritten Again: Arthur Miller, Maryse Condé, and Appropriating the Bildungsroman
Authors: Roszak Suzanne
Published: March 2014

This article considers the figure of Tituba in Arthur Miller's The Crucible (1953) and in Maryse Condé's I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem (1984). Although Miller's dramatic retelling vindicates the falsely accused and wrongly executed figure of John Proctor, Miller declines to recuperate the perpetually vilified figure of Tituba, whose reputation continues to suffer in scholarship across disciplines even in the present day. While Miller's play positions Proctor and Tituba as opposites in ways that encourage such a perspective, Condé's rewriting uses the form of the Bildungsroman to deconstruct this oppositional relationship, imbuing Tituba with precisely the characteristics that make Proctor's character so compelling in The Crucible. The ultimate result is not just to critique Miller's representation of Tituba but also to challenge her treatment both at the hands of the Salem community and in the work of contemporary scholars.
Jiménez, Modernism/O, and the Languages of Comparative Modernist Studies
Authors: Rogers Gayle
Published: March 2014

This essay engages several methodological and linguistic quandaries that have arisen in comparative modernist studies since its “transnational” or “global” turn. It does so through the work of the Spanish poet Juan Ramón Jiménez and his curious position between modernismo and English-language American (U.S.) modernism. Jiménez's Diario de un poeta reciencasado (Diary of a Newlywed Poet, 1917), written during and after his round-trip voyage between Spain and New York, is the basis for what the poet called his “rebirth” in Spanish and American poetry. In this hybrid semi-epic text, he juxtaposes translations, cross-linguistic rhymes, and citations from a host of literary histories in order to demonstrate his own shifts across modernismo, modernism, Romanticism, and symbolism. These movements cohere, he asserts, because they are all part of “modernismo.” This article uses his theoretical and critical writings from the following four decades to unpack the ways in which Jiménez's sense of modernismo is actually a forerunner — though with some important limits — of the revised, globalized, and pluralized understanding of modernism that currently prevails in Anglophone modernist scholarship. I use the term “modernism/o” to signal this shift between languages that informs his poetry and helpfully illuminates the critical and terminological problems of contemporary scholarship — some of which hinge on the limitations of translation between Spanish and English. Jiménez's wide-ranging, transhistorical genealogy of modernism/o goes back to Arabic-Andalusian poetry from medieval Spain, and he points to the Spanish-American War of 1898 as the surprising catalyst for the intersection of Spanish, Spanish American, and U.S. modernisms that he sees flourishing in his moment. From this theoretical perspective, he offers a reading of American literary history through the “great trio” of Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson, through “Midwest modernists” such as William Vaughn Moody, and through his contemporaries — Frost, Lindsay, Lowell, Millay, Eliot, and Pound — who finally cast off any notion of derivation from British models. And he makes his own work the point de repère of modernism/o's overlooked Anglo-Spanish constitution in the early twentieth century. I articulate through both his work and issues in modernist studies of the past two decades an approach to modernisms as interconnected phenomena that necessitate a more intense focus on exchange, commerce, and unsettled, constant “motion,” as demonstrated (both literally and textually) by writers who do not fit some contemporary paradigms of comparative study.
San Precario: A New Inspiration for Labor Historians
Authors: van der Linden Marcel
Published: March 2014

Precariat refers to groups of people who previously had been known as the casual poor, that is, workers who have no control over their destiny and depend on the goodwill of others. Precarious employment relations are temporary, involving jobs that last a day, a week, or a few months at most. In this short essay Marcel van der Linden discusses the definition of precarious labor, its long history, its decline and rise in the advanced capitalist countries after World II, its growth in the global South, and its problematic relationship with organized labor.
Labor, Money, and the Financial Turn in the History of Capitalism
Authors: Sklansky Jeffrey
Published: March 2014

Recent years have seen a revival of innovative historical studies of American capitalism. They differ in key respects from the social history of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, which likewise took capitalism as a central concern. The older social history focused on the organization of labor, in the double sense of how work was organized in the process of production and how workers organized themselves in trade unions, political parties, and social movements. Much of the new history of capitalism focuses instead on the organization of capital, particularly finance, pushing earlier concerns about labor and class to the margins. In this essay, Jeffrey Sklansky relates the gap between the history of finance and the history of labor to a long-standing tendency to conceive of capitalist relations in terms of an essential dichotomy of labor and money. He argues that the labor-versus-money divide has not only thrown into stark relief the profound tension between the imperatives of productivity and profit but has also tended to distort or disguise the basis of capitalist development in class struggle. To do so, he examines the assumptions underlying the older and newer approaches and critiques a handful of leading new works on the history of early American finance. Finally, some suggestions are offered for bringing the new focus on finance to bear on the still-pressing questions at the heart of the older history of labor, through the study of class struggles over the means of payment as well as the means of production.
Visually Recognizable Anion Exchange of a Three-dimensional Copper-based Interpenetrated Porous Coordination Polymer
Authors: Kotani Ryosuke , Kondo Atsushi , Maeda Kazuyuki
Published: March 2014

A new three-dimensional copper-based interpenetrated porous coordination polymer (PCP) was synthesized using 1,2-di(4-pyridyl)ethylene (bpe), which is an N-donor neutral organic linker. The PCP has a cationic framework because all counter BF4− anions present as guest species to compensate the positive charge of the framework. The PCP shows anion-exchange properties for halogen ions, which can be recognized visually.
Individual biomass and carbon equations for Mimosa scabrella Benth. (bracatinga) in southern Brazil
Authors: de Mello Anabel , Nutto Leif , Weber Karla , Sanquetta Carlos , Monteiro de Matos Jorge , Becker Gero
Published: March 2014

Mimosa scabrella Benth. is an important native species of southern Brazil widely used for energy and promising for reforestation carbon offsets. Quantification of biomass and carbon stock is valuable for both purposes. From a forest inventory conducted in southern Brazil, data of M. scabrella were analyzed. Thirty sample trees were felled, excavated and weighed in the field and brought to laboratory for biomass and carbon determination. The total aboveground biomass represented 85% of the tree biomass, while roots corresponded to 15%. Correlation matrix of diameter at 1.3 m height (D), tree height (H) versus total and compartment biomass (P) indicated strong association between tree dimensions and biomasses. Five regression models were tested and equations were fitted to data of five biomass compartments and total tree biomass. The best fitting model for total biomass was P = â0.49361 + 0.034865 x DH whereas for the partial biomass of the compartments was lnP = Î² + Î² x ln(D) + Î² lnH. Carbon concentration was statistically significantly different in foliage than in other compartments. Three approaches of calculating carbon stocks were evaluated and compared to actual data: 1) Estimated total biomass x weighted mean carbon concentration; 2) Estimated partial (compartment) biomass x compartment average carbon concentration; and 3) Carbon regression equations. No statistical difference was detected among them. It was concluded that biomass equations fitted in this study were accurate and useful for fuelwood and carbon estimations.2012
Factors affecting wind and snow damage of individual trees in a small management unit in Finland: assessment based on inventoried damage and mechanistic modelling
Authors: Zubizarreta-Gerendiain Ane , Pellikka Petri , Garcia-Gonzalo Jordi , Ikonen Veli-Pekka , Peltola Heli
Published: March 2014

In this work, we assessed the factors affecting wind and snow damage of individual trees in a small management unit in western Finland. This was done based on inventoried damage and observed wind speeds and snow loading in storms Pyry and Janika in 2001 and Mielikki in 2002 together with mechanistic model. First, we studied which factors explain the observed damage in individual trees. Secondly, we studied how well the mechanistic model (HWIND) could predict the wind speed needed to uproot individual trees at the margins of permanent upwind edges. We found that Pyry storm caused 70% and Janika and Mielikki 18 and 12% of observed damage. In Janika storm, all trees uprooted. In other storms, both uprooting and stem breakage occurred. Scots pine suffered the most damage. Recently thinned stands on the upwind edges of open areas suffered the most damage. But, damage occurred also on soils with relatively shallow anchorage. HWIND predicted correctly damage for 69% of all uprooted trees. No-uprooting was correctly predicted for 45 and 19% of standing trees (all Scots pines), which were measured within and at the immediate upwind edge of same stands. HWIND model needs further validation at the permanent edges and/or on soils with shallow rooting to improve its prediction accuracy in such conditions.
Damage to residual stand caused by mechanized selection harvest in uneven-aged Picea abies dominated stands
Authors: Modig Emil , Magnusson Bo , Valinger Erik , Cedergren Jonas , Lundqvist Lars
Published: March 2014

Permanent field plots were established in two uneven-aged Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst) dominated stands in west-central Sweden. The objective was to quantify level and type of damage caused by harvesting and to quantify the difference between two treatments: T20) only skid road harvest (20 m distance between ca. 4 m wide roads), and T40) skid road harvest (40 m distance between ca. 4 m wide roads) combined with thinning between the roads. In T40, the goal was to harvest approximately the same standing volume as in T20. After harvest, two circular sample plots (radius 18 m, i.e. 1018 m) were established at random locations within each treated area. All mechanical damage on the stem caused by harvest was measured and registered, including bark stripping larger than 15 cm, stem broken or split, and tearing of branches causing damage on the stem. About 70â90 per cent of the damaged trees were smaller than 15 cm dbh. Very few trees larger than 25 cm dbh were damaged. In T20, more than 50 per cent of the damaged trees were located less than 5 m from the skid road, compared to less than 25 per cent for T40, in which more than 50 per cent of the damaged trees were located 5â10 m from the skid road. Creating only half the number of skid roads caused no more damage, and was probably more profitable because mean stem volume was about 1.5 times larger than in T20.22
Productivity of Norway spruce compared to Scots pine in the interior of northern Sweden
Authors: Nilsson Urban , Elfving Björn , Karlsson Kjell
Published: March 2014

Productivity of Norway spruce (Picea abies L. Karst.) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) was studied in 12 paired plots in the interior of northern Sweden. Stands were established between 1928 and 1959; yield plots were established between 1974 and 1983 during pre-commercial thinning of the stands. Gross stem-wood production was significantly higher for Scots pine than for Norway spruce, stem-wood production by Norway spruce being 29.4% that of Scots pine. The site index for Norway spruce was lower than for Scots pine at all sites except one; the average difference in site index was 4.8 m. The simulated maximum mean annual increment (MAI) during the rotation was 19% higher than the MAI estimated with the site index for Scots pine, whereas simulated MAI and MAI estimated from the site index was about the same for Norway spruce. The simulations also indicated that MAI peaked about 50 years later for Norway spruce than for Scots pine. More small trees were included in the diameter distribution of Norway spruce than of Scots pine resulting in a lower stem-wood volume for Norway spruce when stands with the same dominant height were compared. This study shows that the difference in growth and rotation length between Scots pine and Norway spruce has implications when choosing which species to grow in the interior of northern Sweden.maxmaxmaxmax
Using cost-plus-loss analysis to define optimal forest inventory interval and forest inventory accuracy
Authors: Mäkinen Antti , Kangas Annika , Nurmi Mikko
Published: March 2014

In recent years, optimal inventory accuracy has been analyzed with a cost-plus-loss methodology, where the total costs of inventory include both the measurement costs and the losses from the decisions based on the collected information. Losses occur, when the inaccuracies in the data lead to sub-optimal decisions. In almost all cases, it has been assumed that the accuracy of the once collected data remains the same throughout the planning period, and the period has been from 10 up to 100 years. In reality, the quality of the data deteriorates in time, due to errors in the predicted growth. In this study, we carried out a cost-plus-loss analysis accounting for the errors in (stand-level) growth predictions of basal area and dominant height. In addition, we included the inventory errors of these two variables with several different levels of accuracy, and costs of inventory with several different assumptions of cost structure. Using the methodology presented in this study, we could calculate the optimal inventory interval (life-span of data) minimizing the total costs of inventory and losses through the 30-year planning period. When the inventory costs only to a small extent depended on the accuracy, the optimal inventory period was 5 years and optimal accuracy RMSE 0%. When the costs more and more heavily depended on the accuracy, the optimal interval turned out to be either 10 or 15 years, and the optimal accuracy reduced from RMSE 0% to RMSE 20%. By increasing the accuracy of the growth models, it was possible to reduce the inventory accuracy or lengthen the interval, i.e. obtain clear savings in inventory costs.
Prediction of stem attributes by combining airborne laser scanning and measurements from harvesters
Authors: Holmgren Johan , Barth Andreas , Larsson Henrik , Olsson Håkan
Published: March 2014

In this study, a new method was validated for the first time that predicts stem attributes for a forest area without any manual measurements of tree stems by combining harvester measurements and Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) data. A new algorithm for automatic segmentation of tree crowns from ALS data based on tree crown models was developed. The test site was located in boreal forest (64Â°06âN, 19Â°10âE) dominated by Norway spruce (Picea abies) and Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris).The trees were harvested on field plots, and each harvested tree was linked to the nearest tree crown segment derived from ALS data. In this way, a reference database was created with both stem data from the harvester and ALS derived features for linked tree crowns. To estimate stem attributes for a tree crown segment in parts of the forest where trees not yet have been harvested, tree stems are imputed from the most similar crown segment in the reference database according to features extracted from ALS data. The imputation of harvester data was validated on a sub-stand-level, i.e. 2â4 aggregated 10 m radius plots, and the obtained RMSE of stem volume, mean tree height, mean stem diameter, and stem density (stems per ha) estimates were 11%, 8%, 12%, and 19%, respectively. The imputation of stem data collected by harvesters could in the future be used for bucking simulations of not yet harvested forest stands in order to predict wood assortments.
Performance modelling in forest operations through partial least square regression
Authors: Costa Corrado , Menesatti Paolo , Spinelli Raffaele
Published: March 2014

Partial Least Square (PLS) regression is a recent soft-modelling technique that generalizes and combines features from principal component analysis (PCA) and multiple regression. It is particularly useful when predicting one or more dependent variables from a large set of independent variables, often collinear. The authors compared the potential of PLS regression and ordinary linear regression for accurate modelling of forest work, with special reference to wood chipping, wood extraction and the continuous harvesting of short rotation coppice. Compared to linear regression, PLS regression allowed producing models that better fit the original data. What is more, it allowed handling collinear variables, facilitating the extraction of sound models from large amounts of field data obtained from commercial forest operations. On the other hand, PLS regression analysis is not as easy to conduct, and produces models that are less user-friendly. By producing alternative models, PLS regression may provide additional â and not alternative â ways of reading the data. Ideally, a comprehensive data analysis could include both ordinary and PLS regression and proceed from their results in order to get a better understanding of the phenomenon under examination. Furthermore, the computational complexity of PLS regression may stimulate interdisciplinary team-building, to the greater benefit of scientific research within the field of forest operations.
Factors affecting enlargement of family forest holdings
Authors: Suuriniemi Ilona , Matero Jukka , Hänninen Harri , Uusivuori Jussi
Published: March 2014

This study contributes to the research of enlargement â a counterforce of parcelization â of forest holdings. To help planning policy measures aiming at increased average size of forest holdings, we study the characteristics of family forest owners who acquired additional forestland area during the years 2004â2008. Increases of forestland area due to purchases on the open market, purchases from parents or other relatives, inheritance or gift are studied. Survey data, containing information of 6318 forest owners, are analyzed with logistic regression analysis in order to establish a relationship between the probability of increasing the forestland area and the characteristics of landowners. The results indicate that young male owners, who appreciate economic values of the ownership and are active users of their forest estates, most often expand their forest property. This can be considered as an encouraging result from the point of view of the political objective to boost forest management activity through enlarging family forest holdings.
“Every Man His Own Publisher”: Extra-Illustration and the Dream of the Universal Library
Authors: Dean Gabrielle
Published: March 2014

In the twenty-first century, the age-old dream of a universal library seems within reach at last, due to an expanding digital environment. But in fact, the publishing and reading practices we associate with Web 2.0 have some very old precedents. One such practice is Grangerization, a bibliophile hobby that originated in the late eighteenth century. In this period, and throughout the nineteenth century, private collectors inserted various forms of ephemera into their books: prints, letters, manuscripts, receipts, clippings. The books were usually rebound to accommodate the additional pages of tipped- and pasted-in material. The Grangerized or “extra-illustrated” book turned the linear text into a unique, multi-directional network of “links” to related texts, and recast the reader as the writer’s collaborator.
From the Editor in Chief
Authors: Doğanay Ahmet
Published: March 2014

Değerli bilgi üretici ve tüketicileri,

 

Yeni bir yılda Pegem Eğitim ve Öğretim Dergisi'nin (PEGEGOG) yeni bir cildi ve sayısıyla daha birlikte olmanın sevinciyle herkese merhaba. Yeni sayımızı bazı yeniliklerle sunuyoruz. Daha önceki sayımızda belirttiğim gibi Doi ve Cross Reference uygulamalarını başlattık. Artık dergimiz basıma girmeden doi numarası verdiğimiz makaleleri sizlerle paylaşma olanağına kavuştuk. Bu arada dergimiz için elektronik ISSN numarası aldığımızı da belirtmeliyim. Hakem değerlendirme süreci tamamlanan makalelere doi numarası vererek elektronik ortamda ulaşılmasını sağlıyoruz. Bu sayı ile dergimizin formatında yaptığımız diğer bir değişiklik ise, İngilizce uzun özet. Hızla gelişen ve ülkemizde saygın bir konumda bulunan dergimizin saygın uluslararası indekslerde de yer alabilmesi için "abstract" dışında daha uzun bir İngilizce özete ihtiyacı vardı. Bu yeni kararımızı anlayışla karşılayan siz değerli yazarlarımıza teşekkür ediyorum. Bu yeniliklerle derginin sayfa düzeni de doğal olarak değişti. Yeni sayfa düzenimizi beğeneceğinizi umuyoruz. Bu arada Ulakbim dergimizle ilgili ilk değerlendirmesini yaptı ve bizden geçmiş sayılarımıza ilişkin bazı hakem raporlarını istedi. Kısa sürede Ulakbim değerlendirmesinin sonuçlanacağını umuyoruz.

 

Değerli araştırmacılar, her sayıda yapmaya çalıştığım gibi, dergimize gönderilen makalelerin incelenmesi sonucunda ortaya çıkan bazı ortak sorunların giderilmesi yönündeki önerilerime bu sayıda da devam etmek istiyorum. Dergiye gelen makalelerin sorunlu bölümlerinden biri de genellikle tartışma bölümü olmaktadır. Bilim sadece bir bilgi toplama ve onları sunma yolu değil, aynı zamanda analiz sonucunda ortaya çıkan bulguları anlamlandırma ve yorumlamadır. Tartışılmayan bulgular dağınık, ilişkisiz ve havada kalmış bir görünümdedir. Bilimin birikimli bir etkinlik olması, araştırma sonucunda ortaya çıkan bulguların o konudaki mevcut bilgi birikimiyle sentezlenerek yeniden oluşturulmasını gerektirir. Bu nedenle araştırmada ulaşılan bulgular konuyla ilgili kuramsal bilgilerle ve önceki araştırma sonuçlarıyla ilişkilendirilerek tartışılmalıdır. Araştırmada önceki bulgulardan farklı bir sonuca ulaşılmışsa mutlaka bunun olası nedenleri de yorumlanmalıdır. Bulguların tartışılması sürecinde üzerinde önemle durulması gereken bir konu da, aşırı genellemelerden kaçınılmasıdır. Bazen küçük bir örneklemden elde edilen bulgu aşırı genellenerek sunulmaktadır. Bu da makalenin sadece sonuç ve tartışma kısmını okuyan bilgi tüketicilerini ve diğer araştırmacıları yanıltmaktadır. Bu bağlamda bulguların tartışılması sürecinde kesinlik bildiren ifadelerden kaçınılmalıdır.

 

Bu sayıda hakem değerlendirme süreci tamamlanarak uzun İngilizce özetlerini gönderen ve daha önce doi numarası verdiğimiz altı değerli araştırmacıya ait altı çalışmayı yayımlıyoruz. Eğitim bilimlerinin çeşitli alanlarında yapılan bu çalışmaların siz değerli bilgi üretici ve tüketicilerine yararlı olması diliyor, gelecek sayıda buluşmak dileğiyle saygılarımı sunuyorum.
Characterizations for fractional Hardy inequality
Authors: Dyda Bartłomiej , Vähäkangas Antti V.
Published: March 2014

We provide a Maz'ya-type characterization
for a fractional Hardy inequality.
As an application,
we show that a bounded open set G admits a fractional Hardy inequality if and only if
the associated fractional capacity is quasiadditive with respect to Whitney cubes of G
and the zero extension operator acting on C

c
(G) is bounded in an appropriate manner.
The Determinants of the Use of Derivatives in the Japanese Insurance Companies
Authors: Lantara I Wayan Nuka , Takao Atsushi
Published: March 2014

This paper examines the firm-specific factors determining the use of derivatives by the sample of Japanese life and non-life Japanese insurance companies during the period of 2001–2011. We find that the participation rate for the use of derivatives by insurance companies in Japan is 73.2%, much higher than those found in the US, the UK, or Australia. Using the Probit and Tobit regression models, we provide evidence that the decision to use derivatives of Japanese insurance companies is positively related to firm size, leverage, organizational form, and proportion of assets invested in stocks and bonds, but negatively associated with reinsurance dependence. We also find that the decision of Japanese insurance companies to extend their markets by operating globally increases the need for derivatives contracts.
Effectiveness of a Poverty Simulation in Second Life®: Changing Nursing Student Attitudes toward Poor People
Authors: Menzel Nancy , Willson Laura Helen , Doolen Jessica
Published: March 2014

Social justice is a fundamental value of the nursing profession, challenging educators to instill this professional value when caring for the poor. This randomized controlled trial examined whether an interactive virtual poverty simulation created in Second Life® would improve nursing students’ empathy with and attributions for people living in poverty, compared to a self-study module. We created a multi-user virtual environment populated with families and individual avatars that represented the demographics contributing to poverty and vulnerability. Participants (N = 51 baccalaureate nursing students) were randomly assigned to either Intervention or Control groups and completed the modified Attitudes toward Poverty Scale pre- and post-intervention. The 2.5-hour simulation was delivered three times over a 1-year period to students in successive community health nursing classes. The investigators conducted post-simulation debriefings following a script. While participants in the virtual poverty simulation developed significantly more favorable attitudes on five questions than the Control group, the total scores did not differ significantly. Whereas students readily learned how to navigate inside Second Life®, faculty facilitators required periodic coaching and guidance to be competent. While poverty simulations, whether virtual or face-to-face, have some ability to transform nursing student attitudes, faculty must incorporate social justice concepts throughout the curriculum to produce lasting change.
Voices of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Parents: The Case of Korean-American Parents
Authors: Koh Myung-Sook , Shin Sunwoo , Reeves Kay C.
Published: March 2014

The purpose of this study is to investigate attitudes and perspectives of Korean immigrant parents in rearing and educating their children in the United States. One hundred nineteen Korean parents from three cities in the United States were surveyed using the Korean Parent Questionnaire. The responses of the questionnaire were analyzed using Chi-square test, one-way ANOVA, and content analysis. Major findings of this study were (1) Korean parents’ limited English skills prevented them from communicating effectively with their children’s school personnel or getting actively involved in their children’s schooling, (2) the parents believe that rearing a child in America had its benefits, and (3) the parents spoke only Korean in the home and did not become immersed in the American culture.
Biological soil crusts across disturbance–recovery scenarios: effect of grazing regime on community dynamics
Authors: Concostrina-Zubiri L. , Huber-Sannwald E. , Martínez I. , Flores J. L. Flores , Reyes-Agüero J. A. , Escudero A. , Belnap J.
Published: March 2014

Grazing represents one of the most common disturbances in drylands worldwide, affecting both ecosystem structure and functioning. Despite the efforts to understand the nature and magnitude of grazing effects on ecosystem components and processes, contrasting results continue to arise. This is particularly remarkable for the biological soil crust (BSC) communities (i.e., cyanobacteria, lichens, and bryophytes), which play an important role in soil dynamics. Here we evaluated simultaneously the effect of grazing impact on BSC communities (resistance) and recovery after livestock exclusion (resilience) in a semiarid grassland of Central Mexico. In particular, we examined BSC species distribution, species richness, taxonomical group cover (i.e., cyanobacteria, lichen, bryophyte), and composition along a disturbance gradient with different grazing regimes (low, medium, high impact) and along a recovery gradient with differently aged livestock exclosures (short‐, medium‐, long‐term exclusion). Differences in grazing impact and time of recovery from grazing both resulted in slight changes in species richness; however, there were pronounced shifts in species composition and group cover. We found we could distinguish four highly diverse and dynamic BSC species groups: (1) species with high resistance and resilience to grazing, (2) species with high resistance but low resilience, (3) species with low resistance but high resilience, and (4) species with low resistance and resilience. While disturbance resulted in a novel diversity configuration, which may profoundly affect ecosystem functioning, we observed that 10 years of disturbance removal did not lead to the ecosystem structure found after 27 years of recovery. These findings are an important contribution to our understanding of BCS dynamics from a species and community perspective placed in a land use change context.
Synthesis of various fused pyrimidine rings with their pharmacological and antimicrobial evaluation
Authors: Mounir Salem , Marzouk Magda , Mahmoud Naglaa
Published: March 2014

Various fused pyrimidine such as furo[2,3-d]pyrimidine,
triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine, tetrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine were synthesized from
the reactions of thioxopyrimidine-6(1H)-ones with ethyl chloroacetate (under
different reaction conditions), thiourea, and sodium nitrite. Pyrimidine
thiones reacted with POCl3/PCl5 to give the chloro derivatives which reacted
with sodium azide, and thiourea to give the tetrazolo[1,5-c]pyrimidine,
pyrimido pyrimidine. Thioxopyrimidine-6(1H)-ones reacted with benzyl amine to
give pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidinethione. Theoretical calculation using MIDO/3,
Fukui indices and the heat of formation of some compounds were carried out.
The pharmacological and antimicrobial activities of some of the synthesized
products were also evaluated.
Preliminary Results on Clinicopathological and Immunohistochemical Features of Malignant Melanomas
Authors: Diana Ciortea Carmen , Simona Gurzu , Maria Zdrob Simona , I Jung
Published: March 2014

Objective: To perform a retrospective clinico-pathological and immunohistochemical analysis of malignant melanomas. Methods: One-hundred sixty consecutive cases diagnosed in the Department of Pathology of the County Emergency Clinical Hospital of Tîrgu Mureș, Romania, between January 2000 - December 2009, were used. Of these, 47 cases were melanoma metastases that were excluded from the study; this research was focused on the study of 113 primary melanomas (PMs). In 20 cases of PMs (11 cutaneous, 5 choroidal, and 4 melanomas of the anal canal) immunohistochemical stains were performed using the antibodies p53, Ki67, ER (estrogen receptor), CD8 and CD31. Results: Cutaneous PMs prevailed (83%) followed by choroidal (11%), digestive tract (4%) and nasal mucosa PMs (2%). Independent of their location, PMs predominantly affected females (58%) over age 50. Regarding cutaneous cases, lower limbs (49%) were more affected, followed by the head and neck (18%) and the trunk (18%). We noted negativity or low p53-nuclear positivity in cutaneous and digestive tract PMs; p53 was overexpressed in choroidal melanomas. On the other hand, although the proliferative index Ki67 was also quite low in cutaneous PMs, its percentage increased in choroidal and digestive tract PMs. CD8 was positive in cutaneous PMs and negative in choroidal and digestive tract cases. While in cutaneous PMs we noted a predominated angiogenesis by intussusception, in digestive tract melanomas there was a predominance of sprouting and pseudoglomeruloid mechanisms. Conclusions: Choroidal PMs display the highest p53 and Ki-67 expression, compared to cutaneous MMs. Tumor angiogenesis seems to present a specific pathway in cutaneous PMS compared to the gastrointestinal cases