bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Ethanol Impairs Activation of Retinoic Acid Receptors in Cerebellar Granule Cells in a Rodent Model of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
Authors: Kumar Ambrish , Singh Chandra K. , DiPette Donald D. , Singh Ugra S.
Published: March 2010

Background:  Ethanol is the main addictive and neurotoxic constituent of alcohol. Ethanol exposure during embryonic development causes dysfunction of the central nervous system (CNS) and leads to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. The cerebellum is one of the CNS regions that are particularly vulnerable to ethanol toxic effects. Retinoic acid (RA) is a physiologically active metabolite of vitamin A that is locally synthesized in the cerebellum. Studies have shown that RA is required for neuronal development, but it remains unknown if ethanol impairs RA signaling and thus induces neuronal malformations. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that ethanol impairs the expression and activation of RA receptors in cerebellum and in cerebellar granule cells.

Methods:  The cerebellum of ethanol unexposed and exposed pups was used to study the expression of retinoic acid receptors (RARs or RXRs) by immunohistochemistry and by Western blot analysis. We also studied the effect of ethanol on expression of RA receptors in the cerebellar granule cells. Activation of RA receptors (DNA‐binding activities) in response to high‐dose ethanol was determined by electrophoretic mobility shift and supershift assays.

Results:  Findings from these studies demonstrated that ethanol exposure reduced the expression of RARα/γ while it increased the expression of RXRα/γ in the cerebellum and in cerebellar granule neurons. Immuno‐histological studies further strengthened the expression pattern of RA receptors in response to ethanol. The DNA‐binding activity of RARs was reduced, while DNA‐binding activity of RXRs was increased in response to ethanol exposure.

Conclusion:  For the first time, our studies have demonstrated that high‐dose ethanol affects the expression and activation of RA receptors, which could impair the signaling events and induce harmful effects on the survival and differentiation of cerebellar granule cells. Taken together, these findings could provide insight into the treatment options for brain defects caused by excessive ethanol exposure, such as in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.
Effect of Intravenous Lidocaine on Manifestations of Fibromyalgia
Authors: Vlainich Roberto , Issy Adriana M. , Gerola Luis R. , Sakata Rioko K.
Published: March 2010

Background and Objectives:  The objective of our study was to evaluate the effect of intravenous lidocaine on the manifestations of fibromyalgia.

Methods:  A randomized, double‐blind, comparative study was conducted on 30 patients. All patients received 25 mg amitriptyline. Group 1 (n = 15) received 125 mL of saline; group 2 (n = 15) received 240 mg lidocaine in 125 mL of saline once a week for 4 weeks. The following parameters were evaluated: clinical manifestations before and 4 weeks after treatment; pain intensity on a numerical scale.

Results:  All patients were female, and the mean age was 44.7 ± 10.5 years in group 1 and 40.9 ± 11.6 years in group 2. No difference in pain intensity or the number of tender points was observed between groups at any time point. Both groups demonstrated a significant decrease in the two parameters after treatment. A significant reduction in sleep disorders, paresthesia, and headache was observed after treatment in the two groups, but there was no significant difference between groups. There was no significant reduction in fatigue, subjective edema or morning stiffness after treatment in either group, without a significant difference between groups.

Conclusions:  The addition of 240 mg intravenous lidocaine (once a week) to 25 mg amitriptyline for 4 weeks did not modify pain intensity or manifestations in patients with fibromyalgia compared with amitriptyline alone.
Risk Management Case Project
Authors: Hoyt Robert E. , Dumm Randy E. , McCullough Kathleen A.
Published: March 2010

Abstract

Case projects are valuable tools for teaching risk management and insurance (RMI). This article describes a flexible case study approach that can be used as a comprehensive capstone project for the RMI major or in modules for graduate and undergraduate RMI courses. The project incorporates both fundamental RMI concepts and emerging trends in the field. The use of the case project provides benefits to both students and the RMI program, especially given the increasing pressure for assessment in college curricula.
Estimating and Projecting Trends in HIV/AIDS Generalized Epidemics Using Incremental Mixture Importance Sampling
Authors: Raftery Adrian E. , Bao Le
Published: March 2010

SummaryThe Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has decided to use Bayesian melding as the basis for its probabilistic projections of HIV prevalence in countries with generalized epidemics. This combines a mechanistic epidemiological model, prevalence data, and expert opinion. Initially, the posterior distribution was approximated by sampling‐importance‐resampling, which is simple to implement, easy to interpret, transparent to users, and gave acceptable results for most countries. For some countries, however, this is not computationally efficient because the posterior distribution tends to be concentrated around nonlinear ridges and can also be multimodal. We propose instead incremental mixture importance sampling (IMIS), which iteratively builds up a better importance sampling function. This retains the simplicity and transparency of sampling importance resampling, but is much more efficient computationally. It also leads to a simple estimator of the integrated likelihood that is the basis for Bayesian model comparison and model averaging. In simulation experiments and on real data, it outperformed both sampling importance resampling and three publicly available generic Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms for this kind of problem.
Symptom Recognition in Elders With Heart Failure
Authors: Riegel Barbara , Dickson Victoria Vaughan , Cameron Janette , Johnson Jerry C. , Bunker Stephen , Page Karen , Worrall‐Carter Linda
Published: March 2010

Purpose: Aging is associated with losses in hearing and vision. The objective of this study was to assess whether aging also is associated with less ability to detect and interpret afferent physiological information.

Design: A cross‐sectional mixed methods study was conducted with 29 persons with a confirmed diagnosis of chronic heart failure of at least 6 months duration. The sample was divided at the median to compare younger (<73 years) versus older (≥73 years) patients in the ability to detect and interpret their heart failure symptoms.

Methods: Shortness of breath was stimulated using a 6‐minute walk test (6MWT) and used to assess the ability of heart failure patients to detect shortness of breath using the Borg measure of perceived exertion compared with gold standard ratings of each person's shortness of breath by trained registered nurse research assistants (inter‐rater congruence 0.91). Accuracy of ratings by older patients was compared with those of younger patients. In‐depth interviews were used to assess symptom interpretation ability.

Findings: Integrated quantitative and qualitative data confirmed that older patients had more difficulty in detecting and interpreting shortness of breath than younger patients. Older patients were twice as likely as younger to report a different level of shortness of breath than that noted by the registered nurse research assistants immediately after the 6MWT.

Conclusions: These results support our theory of an age‐related decline in the ability to attend to internal physical symptoms. This decline may be a cause of poor early symptom detection.

Clinical Relevance: The results of this study suggest that there is a need to develop interventions that focus on the symptom experience to help patients—particularly older ones—in somatic awareness and symptom interpretation. It may be useful to explore patients’ statements about how they feel: “Compared to what? How do you feel today compared to yesterday?”
Feeding by the Newly Described Mixotrophic Dinoflagellate Paragymnodinium shiwhaense: Feeding Mechanism, Prey Species, and Effect of Prey Concentration
Authors: YOO YEONG DU , JEONG HAE JIN , KANG NAM SEON , SONG JAE YOON , KIM KWANG YOUNG , LEE GITACK , KIM JUHYOUNG
Published: March 2010

ABSTRACT. To investigate the feeding by the newly described mixotrophic dinoflagellate Paragymnodinium shiwhaense (GenBank accession number=AM408889), we explored the feeding process and the kinds of prey species that P. shiwhaense is able to feed on using several different types of microscopes, including a transmission electron microscope and high‐resolution video‐microscopy. In addition, we measured the growth and ingestion rates of P. shiwhaense on its optimal algal prey Amphidinium carterae as a function of prey concentration. We also measured these parameters for edible prey at a single concentration at which the growth and ingestion rates of P. shiwhaense on A. carterae were saturated. Paragymnodinium shiwhaense feed on algal prey using a peduncle after anchoring the prey by a tow filament. Among the algal prey offered, P. shiwhaense ingested small algal species that had equivalent spherical diameters (ESDs) ≤11 μm (e.g. the prymnesiophyte Isochrysis galbana, the cryptophytes Teleaulax sp. and Rhodomonas salina, the raphidophyte Heterosigma akashiwo, and the dinoflagellates Heterocapsa rotundata and A. carterae). However, it did not feed on larger algal species that had ESDs ≥12 μm (e.g. the dinoflagellates Prorocentrum minimum, Heterocapsa triquetra, Scrippsiella trochoidea, Alexandrium tamarense, Prorocentrum micans, Gymnodinium catenatum, Akashiwo sanguinea, and Lingulodinium polyedrum) or the small diatom Skeletonema costatum. The specific growth rates for P. shiwhaense feeding upon A. carterae increased rapidly with increasing mean prey concentration before saturating at concentrations of ca. 350 ng C/ml (5,000 cells/ml). The maximum specific growth rate (i.e. mixotrophic growth) of P. shiwhaense on A. carterae was 1.097/d at 20 °C under a 14:10 h light–dark cycle of 20 μE/m2/s, while its growth rate (i.e. phototrophic growth) under the same light conditions without added prey was −0.224/d. The maximum ingestion and clearance rates of P. shiwhaense on A. carterae were 0.38 ng C/grazer/d (5.4 cells/grazer/d) and 0.7 μl/grazer/h, respectively. The calculated grazing coefficients for P. shiwhaense on co‐occurring Amphidinium spp. was up to 0.07/h (i.e. 6.7% of the population of Amphidinium spp. was removed by P. shiwhaense populations in 1 h). The results of the present study suggest that P. shiwhaense can have a considerable grazing impact on algal populations.
Diagnostic Accuracy of a New Instrument for Detecting Cognitive Dysfunction in an Emergent Psychiatric Population: The Brief Cognitive Screen
Authors: Cercy Steven P. , Simakhodskaya Zoya , Elliott Aaron
Published: March 2010

Objectives:  In certain clinical contexts, the sensitivity of the Mini‐Mental State Examination (MMSE) is limited. The authors developed a new cognitive screening instrument, the Brief Cognitive Screen (BCS), with the aim of improving diagnostic accuracy for cognitive dysfunction in the psychiatric emergency department (ED) in a quick and convenient format.

Methods:  The BCS, consisting of the Oral Trail Making Test (OTMT), animal fluency, the Clock Drawing Test (CDT), and the MMSE, was administered to 32 patients presenting with emergent psychiatric conditions. Comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation served as the criterion standard for determining cognitive dysfunction. Diagnostic accuracy of the MMSE was determined using the traditional clinical cutoff and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses. Diagnostic accuracy of individual BCS components and BCS Summary Scores was determined by ROC analyses.

Results:  At the traditional clinical cutoff, MMSE sensitivity (46.4%) and total diagnostic accuracy (53.1%) were inadequate. Under ROC analyses, the diagnostic accuracy of the full BCS Summary Score (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.857) was comparable to the MMSE (AUC = 0.828). However, a reduced BCS Summary Score consisting of OTMT Part B (OTMT–B), animal fluency, and the CDT yielded classification accuracy (AUC = 0.946) that was superior to the MMSE.

Conclusions:  Preliminary findings suggest the BCS is an effective, convenient alternative cognitive screening instrument for use in emergent psychiatric populations.

ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2010; 17:307–315 © 2010 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
‘My Euell Hande’: The Shapes of Women’s Letters in Early Modern England
Authors: Mazzola Elizabeth
Published: March 2010

This essay considers a recent shift in scholarship on early modern women writers, away from studying what these women wrote to investigate how and where women’s writings occurred. A critical focus on letters inscribed on whitewashed walls and funeral monuments, jewels and embroidered cloths, for instance, has supplied us with useful information about women’s schooling and teachers, their gift‐giving and household responsibilities, and scholars have demonstrated how poems and prayers also belong to this women’s circulation of material things. Indeed, early modern women were not always seeking to transform their letters into literature, and this essay also briefly suggests other ways of reading the shapes and designs of women’s letters. What Mercie Collyn describes as her ‘small raggid secretary hand’ is designed to throw off unauthorized readers, so that what looks like illiteracy, in other words, might just be another – and equally valuable – form of writing. Continued discussion of female literacy and female schooling in the early modern period should attend more closely to the many marks on cloths and walls – even the flourishes on Elizabeth Tudor’s signature or alphabets adorning embroidered samplers – as evidence of an alternative use of letters by women in the early modern period.
Teaching Eighteenth‐Century Women Writers
Authors: Runge Laura
Published: March 2010

Although the availability of classroom texts and scholarship on 18th century British women writers has grown substantially in the past 20 years, little has been written about the classroom experience. This essay surveys the questions and materials that shape the teaching of female authors from Behn to Barbauld (roughly 1660–1800). Beginning with the arguments on recovery and esthetic or cultural appreciation, the essay reviews available texts (paper and digital sources), organization and methods of teaching, and further resources for the instructor. Throughout, the essay includes strategies for recursive critical reading and achieving general education learning objectives, thus demonstrating how the classroom can be used as a critical space for feminist recovery of early women writers.
Nursing intervention to enhance acceptance of pregnancy in first‐time mothers: Focusing on the comfortable experiences of pregnant women
Authors: NAKAMURA Yasuka
Published: March 2010

Aim:  The purpose of the present study was to describe effective nursing care through evaluation of a nursing intervention that enhanced acceptance of pregnancy and focused on a comfortable experience for pregnant women.

Methods:  Thirty‐two subjects who were expected to have a normal pregnancy were assigned into either the intervention or the control group. The nursing intervention consisted of the use of a pregnancy diary and four interviews, two of which were held in the first trimester, one in the second and one in the third trimester. The nursing care given was recorded in tapes and field notes. The data were analyzed using a qualitative content analysis method.

Results:  As a result of analyzing the nursing care of 13 women pregnant for the first time who were provided with nursing intervention, the following seven categories of nursing care were extracted for the intervention: encouragement of women to record their experiences using a pregnancy diary; recognizing and acknowledging negative feelings; reducing the negative aspects of pregnancy and reframing; expression and reinforcement of positive feelings; clarification and reinforcement of positive meanings; awareness of own comfortable experiences; promotion of diverse comfortable aspects and continuation of comfortable experiences. The seven nursing care interventions were effective in increasing the comfortable experiences of pregnant women and enhancing a positive attitude towards pregnancy.

Conclusions:  Nursing intervention can aid in enhancing positivity and comfort in pregnant women. Furthermore, this nursing intervention can be applied to adolescents, socially disadvantaged pregnant women, and hospitalized women.
Delayed‐onset urinary incontinence in five female dogs with ectopic ureters
Authors: Thomas P. C. , Yool D. A.
Published: March 2010

This case series describes five female dogs with congenital ectopic ureter presenting with delayed‐onset urinary incontinence out of 22 female dogs diagnosed with ectopic ureter over a 102‐month period at a veterinary teaching hospital. All five dogs improved following surgical treatment of ectopic ureter, but only three remained continent long‐term without further intervention. Delayed‐onset urinary incontinence in female dogs with ectopic ureters may be more common than the current literature suggests. Congenital ectopic ureter should be considered and investigated as a possible contributing factor in female dogs presenting with delayed‐onset urinary incontinence.
Cavitary pulmonary lesion associated withAspergillus fumigatusinfection in a German shepherd dog
Authors: Kulendra E. , Halfacree Z. , Goggs R. , Dennis S. , Summers B. , Lamb C. R. , Brockman D.
Published: March 2010

A two‐year‐old female German shepherd dog was presented with chronic cough and haemoptysis. Thoracic radiographs revealed a thin‐walled cavitary lesion within a consolidated left cranial lung lobe. Bronchoalveolar lavage confirmed a concurrent bacterial infection; however, despite antibiotic and anthelmintic therapy the clinical signs failed to resolve. A left cranial lung lobectomy was performed. Histopathology and fungal culture confirmed the presence of Aspergillus fumigatus. The necrotic cavity had features compatible with a bronchial origin, possibly a form of cystic bronchiectasis, arising either as a congenital anomaly or acquired secondary to infection. Surgery provided resolution of clinical signs for just over a year before the dog deteriorated again and was subsequently euthanised. Necropsy was declined by the owners. This case report presents a unique presentation in which the predominant clinical sign was coughing due to pulmonary involvement. Aspergillus fumigatus was isolated from the left cranial lung lobe.
Successful eradication of the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and house mouse (Mus musculus) from the island of Selvagem Grande (Macaronesian archipelago), in the Eastern Atlantic
Authors: OLIVERA Paulo , MENEZES Dilia , TROUT Roger , BUCKLE Alan , GERALDES Pedro , JESUS José
Published: March 2010

The Portuguese island of Selvagem Grande (Great Salvage) in Macaronesia is an important seabird breeding station in the eastern Atlantic. Significant populations of Cory's shearwaterCalonectris diomedea(Scopoli, 1769), Bulwer's petrelBulweria bulweria(Jardine & Selby, 1828) and little shearwaterPuffinus assimilis baroli(Bonaparte, 1857) are present, and white‐faced storm‐petrelPelagodroma marina(Latham, 1790) and Madeiran storm‐petrelOceanodroma castro(Harcourt, 1851) populations are of global significance. Selvagem Grande also provides diverse habitats for an extensive flora, including 11 endemic species. The 270‐ha island was also inhabited by two alien invasive mammals: the European rabbitOryctolagus cuniculus(Linnaeus, 1758) and the house mouseMus musculus(Linnaeus, 1758). Both are known to have had adverse impacts on breeding seabirds and island vegetation. In 2002, the Natural Park of Madeira conducted a program using brodifacoum bait formulations aimed at rabbit and mouse eradication. Approximately 17 000 individual baiting points were established on a 12.5 × 12.5 m grid. Baits were also applied by hand “seeding” on steep slopes and cliffs where bait stations could not be placed. Rabbits were removed after a month. However, mice persisted for considerably longer and strategic bait applications against them continued for a further six months. Subsequent assessments by trapping, bait takes and systematic observation of signs over three years, has confirmed the removal of both alien invasive species. This paper presents information on these operations, on measures adopted to mitigate adverse impacts of the eradication program on important vertebrate non‐target species, including Berthelot's pipitAnthus berthelotiiBolle, 1862 and a species of geckoTarentola bischoffiJoger, 1984 and on the initial response of the island's ecosystem to the eradication of rabbits and mice.
Experimentalin situinvestigations of turbulence under high pressure
Authors: Song Kwonyul , Al‐Salaymeh Ahmed , Jovanovic Jovan , Rauh Cornelia , Delgado Antonio
Published: March 2010

In tube injection systems applied in high‐pressure processing of packed biomaterials and foods, the pressure‐transmitting medium is injected into the vessel to increase the pressure up to 1000 MPa, generating a submerged liquid‐free jet. The presence of a turbulent‐free jet during the pressurization phase and its positive influence on the homogeneity of the product treatment has already been examined by computational fluid dynamics investigations. However, no experimental data have supported the existence and properties of turbulent flow under high‐pressure (HP) conditions up to 400 MPa. This contribution presents the development of two experimental setups: HP‐laser Doppler anemometry and HP‐hot wire anemometry. For the first time the time‐averaged velocity profiles of a free jet during pressurization up to 300 MPa at different Reynolds numbers (Re) have been obtained. In this article, the dependence of the velocity profiles on theReis discussed in detail. Moreover, the relaminarization phenomenon of the turbulent pipe flow most likely caused by the compressibility effects and viscosity changes of the pressure‐transmitting medium is examined.
Thermogravimetric study of water state in wheat starch gels obtained under high pressures
Authors: Orlowska Marta , Utzig Ewa , Randzio Stanislaw L.
Published: March 2010

Wheat starch gels containing 56.0% of water were obtained during thermal gelatinization under isobaric conditions at different pressures ranging from 0.5 to 100 MPa. Thermogravimetric analysis allowed determination of pressure influence on water behavior in gel matrix. The vaporization rate indicated that water is released in two main steps. The first step corresponds to the diffusion of the water fraction (so‐called nonbound water) from the porous structure of the amylose gel located between partially swollen starch granules. However, the second step that appears at higher temperature is related to the desorption of water molecules (bound water), included in the swollen granules. It was observed that the most important influence of pressure on water partitioning in the starch gel took place over a pressure range from 0.5 to 10 MPa. The results obtained indicate that pressure is a thermodynamical parameter, which stabilizes the native state of starch granules.
Effects of hydrostatic pressure on the conformational equilibrium of tryptophan synthase from Salmonella typhimurium
Authors: Phillips Robert S. , Miles Edith W. , McPhie Peter , Marchal Stephane , Lange Reinhard , Holtermann Georg , Goody Roger S.
Published: March 2010

A wide range of parameters influence allosteric communications between the α‐ and β‐subunits of the Trp synthase α2β2 multienzyme complex with L‐Ser, including monovalent cations, pH, temperature, ligands, organic solvents, and hydrostatic pressure. The conformational change from closed to open can be monitored either by absorbance at 423 nm or fluorescence at 495 nm from the pyridoxal‐5′‐phosphate‐L‐Ser complex. Pressure perturbation was used to quantify the effects of monovalent cations, ligands, and mutations on the conformational equilibrium of Trp synthase. P‐jump kinetics in the presence of Na+, NH4+, and Na+ together with benzimidazole were also examined. The plots of lnk versus P are nonlinear and require a compressibility (β‡o) term to obtain a good fit. β‡o is positive for the Na+ enzyme but negative for NH4+ and Na+ with benzimidazole. These results suggest that there is a large contribution of solvation to the kinetics of the conformational change of Trp synthase. The relaxation kinetics are also different if the P‐jumps are made by increasing or decreasing pressure, suggesting that the enzyme conformations are ensembles of microstates.
Dependency Parsing
Authors: Nivre Joakim
Published: March 2010

Dependency parsing is a form of syntactic parsing of natural language based on the theoretical tradition of dependency grammar. It has recently gained widespread interest in the computational linguistics community and has been used for applications such as information extraction, machine translation and question answering. In this article, we review the current state of the art in dependency parsing, starting with a characterization of the basic problem and some motivation for why dependency parsing may be a useful alternative to other forms of syntactic parsing. The major part of the article is devoted to an examination of the four main approaches that exist in the field today: context‐free dependency parsing, constraint dependency parsing, graph‐based dependency parsing, and transition‐based dependency parsing. Each approach is described in detail and its strengths and weaknesses are highlighted.
La ratification des conventions de l'OIT et les prestations de chômage: analyse empirique
Authors: Kim Wonik
Published: March 2010

Le présent article porte sur le rapport entre la ratification des conventions de l'Organisation internationale du Travail (OIT) et l'octroi de prestations de chômage. Les analyses statistiques sont axées sur deux questions connexes: les raisons pour lesquelles les pays ratifiaient les conventions de l'OIT sur les prestations de chômage, et l'influence ou non de la ratification sur les dépenses publiques consacrées à ces prestations. Les principales conclusions sont les suivantes: la démocratie, la région, les revenus et la mondialisation sont les principaux facteurs qui influent sur la décision des pays de ratifier les conventions de l'OIT sur les prestations de chômage. A son tour, la ratification de ces conventions est systématiquement associée à des dépenses supérieures lorsque les pays ont ratifié plus de deux conventions.
Extensión de la cobertura de la seguridad social: examen de datos recientes
Authors: Van Ginneken Wouter
Published: March 2010

En el presente artículo se presentan los resultados de 13 estudios realizados en el marco del proyecto de la Asociación Internacional de la Seguridad Social (AISS) sobre el «Examen de los conocimientos actuales en materia de cobertura de seguridad social». Se examinan datos recientes que muestran cómo la cobertura de las prestaciones monetarias y de los cuidados de salud, financiada a partir de cotizaciones, de ingresos fiscales o de ambos, puede extenderse y mantenerse en los países de bajos, medios y altos ingresos. En este artículo también se destacan algunos ámbitos prioritarios y cuestiones relacionadas con la extensión de la cobertura, incluida la mejora de la protección de los trabajadores migrantes y de los de la economía informal.
CVhaplot: a consensus tool for statistical haplotyping
Authors: HUANG ZU‐SHI , ZHANG DE‐XING
Published: March 2010

Haplotypes contain genealogical information and play a prominent part in population genetic and evolutionary studies. However, haplotype inference is a complex statistical problem, showing considerable internal algorithm variability and among‐algorithm discordance. Thus, haplotypes inferred by statistical algorithms often contain hidden uncertainties, which may complicate and even mislead downstream analysis. Consensus strategy is one of the effective means to increase the confidence of inferred haplotypes. Here, we present a consensus tool, the CVhaplot package, to automate consensus techniques for haplotype inference. It generates consensus haplotypes from inferrals of competing algorithms to increase the confidence of haplotype inference results, while improving the performance of individual algorithms by considering their internal variability. It can effectively identify uncertain haplotypes potentially associated with inference errors. In addition, this tool allows file format conversion for several popular algorithms and extends the applicability of some algorithms to complex data containing triallelic polymorphic sites. CVhaplot is written in PERL and freely available at http://www.ioz.ac.cn/department/agripest/group/zhangdx/CVhaplot.htm.
A quantitative review comparing the yield of switchgrass in monocultures and mixtures in relation to climate and management factors
Authors: WANG DAN , LEBAUER DAVID S. , DIETZE MICHAEL C.
Published: March 2010

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), a US Department of Energy model species, is widely considered for US biomass energy production. While previous studies have demonstrated the effect of climate and management factors on biomass yield and chemical characteristics of switchgrass monocultures, information is lacking on the yield of switchgrass grown in combination with other species for biomass energy. Therefore, the objective of this quantitative review is to compare the effect of climate and management factors on the yield of switchgrass monocultures, as well as on mixtures of switchgrass, and other species. We examined all peer‐reviewed articles describing productivity of switchgrass and extracted dry matter yields, stand age, nitrogen fertilization (N), temperature (growing degree days), and precipitation/irrigation. Switchgrass yield was greater when grown in monocultures (10.9 t ha−1, n=324) than when grown in mixtures (4.4 t ha−1, n=85); yield in monocultures was also greater than the total yield of all species in the mixtures (6.9 t ha−1, n=90). The presence of legume species in mixtures increased switchgrass yield from 3.1 t ha−1 (n=65) to 8.9 t ha−1 (n=20). Total yield of switchgrass‐dominated mixtures with legumes reached 9.9 t ha−1 (n=25), which was not significantly different from the monoculture yield. The results demonstrated the potential of switchgrass for use as a biomass energy crop in both monocultures and mixtures across a wide geographic range. Monocultures, but not mixtures, showed a significant positive response to N and precipitation. The response to N for monocultures was consistent for newly established (stand age <3 years) and mature stands (stand age ≥3 years) and for lowland and upland ecotypes. In conclusion, these results suggest that fertilization with N will increase yield in monocultures, but not mixtures. For monocultures, N treatment need not be changed based on ecotype and stand age; and for mixtures, legumes should be included as an alternative N source.
Identifying targets for autoantibodies in CNS inflammation: Strategies and achievements
Authors: Meinl Edgar , Derfuss Tobias , Linington Chris
Published: March 2010

B cells and antibodies are increasingly recognized as an important feature in a broad variety of autoimmune and infectious central nervous system (CNS) diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica, paraneoplastic diseases, acute demyelinating encephalomyelitis, Sydenham chorea, stiff‐person syndrome and channelopathies. Autoantibodies might serve as a biomarker to identify the disease entity. Beyond this, autoantibodies can be a relevant pathogenic component. The present review focuses on strategies applied to identify the targets of autoantibodies and to test their pathogenetic relevance. The pathways of autoantibodies into and out of the CNS are summarized and the issue whether pathogenicity requires recognition of an extracellular target is discussed. (Clin. Exp. Neuroimmunol. doi: 10.1111/j.1759‐1961.2009.00006.x, 2010)
Laboratory diagnosis of malaria in nonhuman primates
Authors: Ameri Mehrdad
Published: March 2010

Abstract: Nonhuman primates (NHPs) are commonly used for biomedical research because of the high level of gene homology that underlies physiologic similarity to human beings. Malaria parasites of the genus Plasmodium cause one of the most frequent parasitic diseases of NHPs originating from tropical and subtropical areas and as such represent a significant research confounder. Malaria in NHPs presents a diagnostic challenge especially to those laboratories that see no more than a few malaria cases per year in NHPs. The accurate and timely diagnosis of malaria infection in NHPs facilitates the appropriate treatment of individuals infected with the malaria parasites. Conventional microscopy based on the examination of Giemsa‐stained thick and thin blood films remains the mainstay of laboratory diagnosis of malaria infection because of the high diagnostic sensitivity and specificity and also the capability for Plasmodium species identification and parasite counts. This procedure is recognized as technically difficult and time‐consuming, requiring considerable training to obtain the necessary skills. In the past few years, efforts to replace the traditional but tedious reading of blood films have led to different techniques for the detection of malaria parasites, including fluorescence microscopy, detection of intraleukocytic hemozoin or malaria pigment using automated blood cell analyzers, immunochromatographic rapid diagnostic tests based on malaria antigen detection, and PCR assays. These techniques offer new approaches for diagnosing malaria in NHPs. This review focuses on the available laboratory diagnostic tools for malaria in NHPs.
The Transcendental Nature of Mind and World
Authors: Baird Bryan
Published: March 2010

Critics of John McDowell's Mind and World have by and large failed to take sufficient notice of the transcendental context within which McDowell situates his work—a failure that has adversely affected their criticisms. In this paper, I make clear this transcendental context and show how it figures in the transcendental argument I see McDowell offering in Mind and World. Interpreting McDowell's argument in this way, I further argue, helps to answer some of the most pressing objections to what he is doing in Mind and World, particularly certain objections made by Robert Brandom and Hilary Putnam.
Moral and Nonmoral Freedom in Kant
Authors: Morrisson Iain
Published: March 2010

Many scholars, in view of the close link that he draws between morality and freedom, argue that Kant does not think that there are free choices between nonmoral ends. On this view, Kant only posits a freedom to resist our desires and act morally. We are still responsible for immoral choices because we always have the power to act morally. Henry Allison has opposed this reading by arguing that Kant grounds a notion of nonmoral freedom in the Incorporation Thesis. In this paper, I criticize Allison's argument and then try to replace it with an alternative that grounds nonmoral freedom in morality.
Psychological Nominalism and the Plausibility of Sellars's Myth of Jones
Authors: Schiller Aaron Allen
Published: March 2010

Part of Sellars's general attack on the Myth of the Given is his endorsement of psychological nominalism, a view that implies that awareness of our own mental states is not given but must be earned. Sellars provides an account of how such awareness might have been earned with the Myth of Jones. Such an account is important for Sellars, for without it the Given can look necessary after all. But a problem with such accounts is that they can look extremely implausible. Sellars himself seems unconcerned to make his account plausible, and so others have stepped in here. But, I argue, they have done so in ways that fail to respect his psychological nominalism. This evinces, as well as reinforces, a lack of sensitivity to the scope of Sellars's attack on the Given, the aim of which is the dismantling of “the entire framework of givenness.” In this essay, I show how one can make Sellars's Myth of Jones plausible, while still respecting his psychological nominalism, by seeing how Jones's thought is governed by the norms of rationality as interpretability.
Classical Invariantism and the Puzzle of Fallibilism
Authors: Kelp Christoph
Published: March 2010

This paper revisits a puzzle that arises for theories of knowledge according to which one can know on the basis of merely inductive grounds. No matter how strong such theories require inductive grounds to be if a belief based on them is to qualify as knowledge, there are certain beliefs (namely, about the outcome of fair lotteries) that are based on even stronger inductive grounds, while, intuitively, they do not qualify as knowledge. This paper discusses what is often regarded as the most promising classical invariantist solution to the puzzle, namely, that beliefs about the outcomes of fair lotteries do not qualify as knowledge because they are too lucky to do so (or, relatedly, because they do not satisfy a safety condition on knowledge), while other beliefs based on potentially weaker inductive grounds are not too lucky (or, relatedly, because they are safe). A case is presented that shows that this solution to the puzzle is actually not viable. It is argued that there is no obvious alternative solution in sight and that therefore the puzzle still awaits a classical invariantist solution.
Merleau‐Ponty's Pragmatist Ethics
Authors: Groe Matthew
Published: March 2010

Utilizing a characterization of pragmatism drawn from Joseph Margolis, and with reference to the thought of C. S. Peirce and John Dewey, this paper first exposes a pragmatist conception of rationality within the French philosophy of Maurice Merleau‐Ponty. It then explores how this praxical, biologically rooted understanding of rationality leads Merleau‐Ponty to espouse the same broadly pragmatist conception of ethical life that we find in a recent work from Joseph Margolis: one that repudiates fixed principles and absolute ends in order to prompt us, under the pressing exigencies of life, to learn from radically different ways of thinking, thus committing us to negotiating peaceful solutions to our moral and political conflicts across diverse rational perspectives in a manner that, although taking us far from any form of objectivism, nevertheless refuses to renounce all claims to objectivity.
Naming and Nonexistence
Authors: Feit Neil
Published: March 2010

I defend a cluster of views about names from fiction and myth. The views are based on two claims: first, proper names refer directly to their bearers; and second, names from fiction and myth are genuinely empty, they simply do not refer. I argue that when such names are used in direct discourse, utterances containing them have truth values but do not express propositions. I also argue that it is a mistake to think that if an utterance of, for example, “Vulcan is a planet” fails to express a proposition, then an utterance of “Le Verrier believed that Vulcan is a planet” cannot express a proposition. The argument applies to claims about fiction, such as “Sherlock Holmes is strong,” and claims about the attitudes of authors and auditors. The upshot is a semantics for fictional statements that provides a satisfying way for direct reference theorists to avoid taking fictional entities to be abstract objects and to accept the commonsense view that what is true in a fiction is ultimately a matter of what is pretended to be the case.
On Cheering Charles Bronson: The Ethics of Vigilantism
Authors: Dumsday Travis
Published: March 2010

Vigilantes are a staple of popular culture, from Charles Bronson's 1974 classic Death Wish, and its parade of sequels, to the latest batch of Batman films. Outside of the fictional sphere, society continues to wrestle with vigilantism, notably in the current debates over the prudence and ethics of the Minuteman civilian border patrol group. And though vigilantism has been the subject of speculation and debate among criminologists, historians, and legal scholars, it has unfortunately been given scant attention by philosophers. Surely a topic of such prominence in popular culture, and continued relevance in real life, is ripe for treatment by applied ethicists. In this paper I seek to formulate a definition of vigilantism and then argue that there are conditions under which vigilantism is not only permissible but, at least for some, obligatory.
What's That Smell?
Authors: Batty Clare
Published: March 2010

In philosophical discussions of the secondary qualities, color has taken center stage. Smells, tastes, sounds, and feels have been treated, by and large, as mere accessories to colors. We are, as it is said, visual creatures. This, at least, has been the working assumption in the philosophy of perception and in those metaphysical discussions about the nature of the secondary qualities. The result has been a scarcity of work on the “other” secondary qualities. In this paper, I take smells and place them front and center. I ask: What are smells? For many philosophers, the view that colors can be explained in purely physicalistic terms has seemed very appealing. In the case of smells, this kind of nonrelational view has seemed much less appealing. Philosophers have been drawn to versions of relationalism—the view that the nature of smells must be explained (at least in part) in terms of the effects they have on perceivers. In this paper, I consider a contemporary argument for this view. I argue that nonrelationalist views of smell have little to fear from this argument.
Meno's Paradox, the Slave‐Boy Interrogation, and the Unity of Platonic Recollection
Authors: Franklin Lee
Published: March 2010

Plato invokes the Theory of Recollection to explain both ordinary and philosophical learning. In a new reading of Meno's Paradox and the Slave‐Boy Interrogation, I explain why these two levels are linked in a single theory of learning. Since, for Plato, philosophical inquiry starts in ordinary discourse, the possibility of success in inquiry is tied to the character of the ordinary comprehension we bring to it. Through the claim that all learning is recollection, Plato traces the knowledge achievable through inquiry back to our pretheoretical comprehension, showing not just that knowledge is in us, but that it is inchoate in the grasp of a property—akin to a concept—that enables us to speak and think about it ordinarily. Plato acknowledges in the Meno that a second step of argument, and a second application of Recollection, is needed to explain how knowledge comes to be inchoate in our ordinary grasp of a property. Though this second argument is provided most fully in the Phaedo, the evidence of the Meno is sufficient to outline Recollection as a two‐stage theory of learning, beginning in ordinary speech and thought and extending, through philosophical reflection, to knowledge.
The effect of fatigue from exercise on human limb position sense
Authors: Allen Trevor J. , Leung Michael , Proske Uwe
Published: March 2010

We have previously shown, in a two‐limb position‐matching task in human subjects, that exercise of elbow flexors of one arm led the forearm to be perceived as more extended, while exercise of knee extensors of one leg led the lower leg to be perceived as more flexed. These findings led us to propose that exercise disturbs position sense because subjects perceive their exercised muscles as longer than they actually are. In order to obtain further support for this hypothesis, in the first experiment reported here, elbow extensors were exercised, with the prediction that the exercised arm would be perceived as more flexed after exercise. The experiment was carried out under three load conditions, with the exercised arm resting on a support, with it supporting its own weight and with it supporting a load of 10% of its voluntary contraction strength. For each condition, the forearm was perceived as more extended, not more flexed, after exercise. This result was confirmed in a second experiment on elbow flexors. Again, under all three conditions the exercised arm was perceived as more extended. To explore the distribution of the phenomenon, in a third experiment finger flexor muscles were exercised. This had no significant effect on position sense at the elbow. In a fourth experiment, position sense at the knee was measured after knee flexors of one leg were exercised and, as for knee extensors, it led subjects to perceive their exercised leg to be more flexed at the knee than it actually was. Putting all the observations together, it is concluded that while the influences responsible for the effects of exercise may have a peripheral origin, their effect on position sense occurs centrally, perhaps at the level of the sensorimotor cortex.
High resolution medium energy ion scattering analysis for the quantitative depth profiling of ultrathin high-k layers
Authors: Reading M. A. , van den Berg J. A. , Zalm P. C. , Armour D. G. , Bailey P. , Noakes T. C. Q. , Parisini A. , Conard T. , De Gendt S.
Published: March 2010

Ultrathin high-k layers such as hafnium oxide (HfO2) in combination with a subnanometer SiO2 or Hf silicate have emerged as Si compatible gate dielectric materials. Medium energy ion scattering (MEIS) analysis has been carried out on a range of such metal oxide chemical vapor deposition grown HfO2∕SiO2 and HfSiOx(60%Hf)∕SiO2 gate oxide films of thickness between 1 and 2nm on Si(100), before and after decoupled plasma nitridation (DPN). The ability of MEIS in combination with energy spectrum simulation to provide quantitative layer information with subnanometer resolution is illustrated and the effect of the DPN process is shown. Excellent agreement on the deduced layer structures and atomic composition with the as grown layer parameters, as well as with those obtained from cross section electron microscopy and other studies, is demonstrated. MEIS analysis of a high-k, metal gate TiN∕Al2O3∕HfO2∕SiO2∕Si stack shows the interdiffusion, after thermal treatment, of Hf and Al from the caplayer, inserted to modify the metal gate workfunction.
Grazing incidence x-ray fluorescence and secondary ion mass spectrometry combined approach for the characterization of ultrashallow arsenic distribution in silicon
Authors: Pepponi G. , Giubertoni D. , Bersani M. , Meirer F. , Ingerle D. , Steinhauser G. , Streli C. , Hoenicke P. , Beckhoff B.
Published: March 2010

Dopant depth profiling and dose determination are essential for ultrashallow junction technology development. However they pose a challenge to the widely used dynamic secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) technique that suffers uncertainties due to an initial transient width comparable to the dopant depth distribution. In this work the authors report on the application of grazing incidence x-ray fluorescence (GIXRF) for arsenic in silicon dose and profile determination and its combination with SIMS in order to try to overcome the limitations of the latter in the topmost few nanometers. A polynomial variation of the sputtering rate is supposed in the first sputtering stage of the SIMS analysis and the parameters that regulate the magnitude of such correction are determined by a least square fitting of the angle dependent fluorescence signal. The total retained fluence was also measured by instrumental neutron activation analysis and synchrotron radiation soft x-ray GIXRF. The comparison among the total retained fluence determinations shows a good agreement among the techniques. Furthermore, from this first set of measurements it was clearly shown that the GIXRF profile correction is very sensitive to the SIMS profile in the very first nanometers. Therefore if matrix effects are present in the SIMS analysis beside the sputtering rate change, the tested sputtering rate correction can produce nonreliable profiles.