bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
On Computing
Authors: Rosenbloom Paul S.
Published: January 2019

A proposal that computing is not merely a form of engineering but a scientific domain on a par with the physical, life, and social sciences.

Computing is not simply about hardware or software, or calculation or applications. Computing, writes Paul Rosenbloom, is an exciting and diverse, yet remarkably coherent, scientific enterprise that is highly multidisciplinary yet maintains a unique core of its own. In On Computing, Rosenbloom proposes that computing is a great scientific domain on a par with the physical, life, and social sciences.

Rosenbloom introduces a relational approach for understanding computing, conceptualizing it in terms of forms of interaction and implementation, to reveal the hidden structures and connections among its disciplines. He argues for the continuing vitality of computing, surveying the leading edge in computing's combination with other domains, from biocomputing and brain-computer interfaces to crowdsourcing and virtual humans to robots and the intermingling of the real and the virtual. He explores forms of higher order coherence, or macrostructures, over complex computing topics and organizations. Finally, he examines the very notion of a great scientific domain in philosophical terms, honing his argument that computing should be considered the fourth great scientific domain.

With On Computing, Rosenbloom, a key architect of the founding of University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies and former Deputy Director of USC's Information Sciences Institute, offers a broader perspective on what computing is and what it can become.
Progressive Enlightenment
Authors: Tomory Leslie
Published: January 2019

An argument that the gas industry was the first integrated large-scale technological network and that it signaled a new wave of industrial innovation.

In Progressive Enlightenment, Leslie Tomory examines the origins of the gaslight industry, from invention to consolidation as a large integrated urban network. Tomory argues that gas was the first integrated large-scale technological network, a designation usually given to the railways. He shows how the first gas network was constructed and stabilized through the introduction of new management structures, the use of technical controls, and the application of means to constrain the behavior of the users of gas lighting.

Tomory begins by describing the contributions of pneumatic chemistry and industrial distillation to the development of gas lighting, then explores the bifurcation between the Continental and British traditions in distillation technology. He examines the establishment and consolidation of the new industry by the Birmingham firm Boulton & Watt, and describes the deployment of the network strategy by the entrepreneur Frederick Winsor. Tomory argues that the gas industry represented a new wave of technological innovation in industry because of its dependence on formal scientific research, its need for large amounts of capital, and its reliance on business organization beyond small firms and partnerships—all of which signaled a departure from the artisanal nature and limited deployment of inventions earlier in the Industrial Revolution. Gas lighting was the first important realization of the Enlightenment dream of science in the service of industry.
Sensorimotor Cognition and Natural Language Syntax
Authors: Knott Alistair
Published: January 2019

A proposal that the syntactic structure of a sentence reporting a concrete episode in the world can be interpreted as a description of the sensorimotor processes involved in experiencing that episode.

How is the information we gather from the world through our sensory and motor apparatus converted into language? It is obvious that there is an interface between language and sensorimotor cognition because we can talk about what we see and do. In this book, Alistair Knott argues that this interface is more direct than commonly assumed. He proposes that the syntax of a concrete sentence—a sentence that reports a direct sensorimotor experience—closely reflects the sensorimotor processes involved in the experience. In fact, he argues, the syntax of the sentence can be interpreted as a description of these sensorimotor processes.

Knott focuses on a simple concrete episode: a man grabbing a cup. He presents detailed models of the sensorimotor processes involved in experiencing this episode (drawing on research in psychology and neuroscience) and of the syntactic structure of the transitive sentence reporting the episode (drawing on Chomskyan Minimalist syntactic theory). He proposes that these two independently motivated models are closely linked—that the logical form of the sentence can be given a detailed sensorimotor characterization and that, more generally, many of the syntactic principles understood in Minimalism as encoding innate linguistic knowledge are actually sensorimotor in origin.

Knott's sensorimotor reinterpretation of Chomsky opens the way for a psychological account of sentence processing that is compatible with a Chomskyan account of syntactic universals, suggesting a way to reconcile Chomsky's theory of syntax with the empiricist models of language often viewed as Mimimalism's competitors.
The Machine Question
Authors: Gunkel David J.
Published: January 2019

An investigation into the assignment of moral responsibilities and rights to intelligent and autonomous machines of our own making.

One of the enduring concerns of moral philosophy is deciding who or what is deserving of ethical consideration. Much recent attention has been devoted to the "animal question"—consideration of the moral status of nonhuman animals. In this book, David Gunkel takes up the "machine question": whether and to what extent intelligent and autonomous machines of our own making can be considered to have legitimate moral responsibilities and any legitimate claim to moral consideration.

The machine question poses a fundamental challenge to moral thinking, questioning the traditional philosophical conceptualization of technology as a tool or instrument to be used by human agents. Gunkel begins by addressing the question of machine moral agency: whether a machine might be considered a legitimate moral agent that could be held responsible for decisions and actions. He then approaches the machine question from the other side, considering whether a machine might be a moral patient due legitimate moral consideration. Finally, Gunkel considers some recent innovations in moral philosophy and critical theory that complicate the machine question, deconstructing the binary agent–patient opposition itself.

Technological advances may prompt us to wonder if the science fiction of computers and robots whose actions affect their human companions (think of HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey) could become science fact. Gunkel's argument promises to influence future considerations of ethics, ourselves, and the other entities who inhabit this world.
The Craft of Economics
Authors: Leamer Edward E.
Published: January 2019

A review of the Heckscher–Ohlin framework prompts a noted economist to consider the methodology of economics.

In this spirited and provocative book, Edward Leamer turns an examination of the Heckscher–Ohlin framework for global competition into an opportunity to consider the craft of economics: what economists do, what they should do, and what they shouldn't do. Claiming “a lifetime relationship with Heckscher–Ohlin,” Leamer argues that Bertil Ohlin's original idea offered something useful though vague and not necessarily valid; the economists who later translated his ideas into mathematical theorems offered something precise and valid but not necessarily useful. He argues further that the best economists keep formal and informal thinking in balance. An Ohlinesque mostly prose style can let in faulty thinking and fuzzy communication; a mostly math style allows misplaced emphasis and opaque communication. Leamer writes that today's model- and math-driven economics needs more prose and less math.

Leamer shows that the Heckscher–Ohlin framework is still useful, and that there is still much work to be done with it. But he issues a caveat about economists: “What we do is not science, it's fiction and journalism.” Economic theory, he writes, is fiction (stories, loosely connected to the facts); data analysis is journalism (facts, loosely connected to the stories). Rather than titling the two sections of his book Theory and Evidence, he calls them Economic Fiction and Econometric Journalism, explaining, “If you find that startling, that's good. I am trying to keep you awake.”
Inter/vention
Authors: Holmevik Jan Rune
Published: January 2019

A proposal that electracy—the special skills needed to navigate and understand our digital world—can be developed through play.

In today's complex digital world, we must understand new media expressions and digital experiences not simply as more technologically advanced forms of “writing” that can be understood and analyzed as “texts” but as artifacts in their own right that require a unique skill set. Just as agents seeking to express themselves in alphabetic writing need to be literate, “egents” who seek to express themselves in digital media need to be—to use a term coined by cybertheorist Gregory Ulmer—electrate. In Inter/vention, Jan Holmevik helps to invent electracy. He does so by tracing its path across the digital and rhetorical landscape—informatics, hacker heuretics, ethics, pedagogy, virtual space, and monumentality—and by introducing play as a new genre of electracy. Play, he argues, is the electrate ludic transversal. Holmevik contributes to the repertoire of electrate practices in order to understand and demonstrate how play invents electracy.

Holmevik's argument straddles two divergences: in rhetoric, between how we study rhetoric as play and how we play rhetorically; and in game studies, between ludology and narratology. Games studies has forged ludology practice by distinguishing it from literate practice (and often allying itself with the scientific tradition). Holmevik is able to link ludology and rhetoric through electracy.

Play can and does facilitate invention: play invented the field of ludology. Holmevik proposes a new heuretic in which play acts as a conductor for the invention of electracy. Play is a meta behavior that touches on every aspect of Ulmer's concept of electracy.
Contested Water
Authors: Robinson Joanna L.
Published: January 2019

An examination of anti–water privatization movements in the United States and Canada that explores the interplay of the local and the global.

Attempts by local governments to privatize water services have met with furious opposition. Activists argue that to give private companies control of the water supply is to turn water from a common resource into a marketized commodity. Moreover, to cede local power to a global corporation puts communities at the center of controversies over economic globalization. In Contested Water, Joanna Robinson examines local social movement organizing against water privatization, looking closely at battles for control of local water services in Stockton, California, and Vancouver, British Columbia. The movements in these two communities had different trajectories, used different tactics, and experienced different outcomes. Robinson analyzes the factors that shaped these two struggles.

Drawing on extensive interviews with movement actors, political leaders, and policymakers and detailed analysis of textual material, Robinson shows that the successful campaign in Vancouver drew on tactics, opportunities, and narratives from the broader antiglobalization movement, with activists emphasizing the threats to local democracy and accountability; the less successful movement in Stockton centered on a ballot initiative that was made meaningless by a pre-emptive city council vote. Robinson finds that global forces are reshaping local movements, particularly those that oppose neoliberal reforms at the municipal level. She argues that anti–water privatization movements that link local and international concerns and build wide-ranging coalitions at local and global levels offer an effective way to counter economic globalization. Successful challenges to globalization will not necessarily come from transnational movements but rather from movements that are connected globally but rooted in local communities.
Intervention in the Brain
Authors: Blank Robert H.
Published: January 2019

The political and policy implications of recent developments in neuroscience, including new techniques in imaging and neurogenetics.

New findings in neuroscience have given us unprecedented knowledge about the workings of the brain. Innovative research—much of it based on neuroimaging results—suggests not only treatments for neural disorders but also the possibility of increasingly precise and effective ways to predict, modify, and control behavior. In this book, Robert Blank examines the complex ethical and policy issues raised by our new capabilities of intervention in the brain.

After surveying current knowledge about the brain and describing a wide range of experimental and clinical interventions—from behavior-modifying drugs to neural implants to virtual reality—Blank discusses the political and philosophical implications of these scientific advances. If human individuality is simply a product of a network of manipulable nerve cell connections, and if aggressive behavior is a treatable biochemical condition, what happens to our conceptions of individual responsibility, autonomy, and free will? In light of new neuroscientific possibilities, Blank considers such topics as informed consent, addiction, criminal justice, racism, commercial and military applications of neuroscience research, new ways to define death, and political ideology and partisanship.

Our political and social institutions have not kept pace with the rapid advances in neuroscience. This book shows why the political issues surrounding the application of this new research should be debated before interventions in the brain become routine.
Do Apes Read Minds?
Authors: Andrews Kristin
Published: January 2019

An argument that as folk psychologists humans (and perhaps other animals) don't so much read minds as see one another as persons with traits, emotions, and social relations.

By adulthood, most of us have become experts in human behavior, able to make sense of the myriad behaviors we find in environments ranging from the family home to the local mall and beyond. In philosophy of mind, our understanding of others has been largely explained in terms of knowing others' beliefs and desires; describing others' behavior in these terms is the core of what is known as folk psychology. In Do Apes Read Minds? Kristin Andrews challenges this view of folk psychology, arguing that we don't consider others' beliefs and desires when predicting most quotidian behavior, and that our explanations in these terms are often inaccurate or unhelpful. Rather than mindreading, or understanding others as receptacles for propositional attitudes, Andrews claims that folk psychologists see others first as whole persons with traits, emotions, and social relations.

Drawing on research in developmental psychology, social psychology, and animal cognition, Andrews argues for a pluralistic folk psychology that employs different kinds of practices (including prediction, explanation, and justification) and different kinds of cognitive tools (including personality trait attribution, stereotype activation, inductive reasoning about past behavior, and generalization from self) that are involved in our folk psychological practices. According to this understanding of folk psychology—which does not require the sophisticated cognitive machinery of second-order metacognition associated with having a theory of mind—animals (including the other great apes) may be folk psychologists, too.
Open Access
Authors: Suber Peter
Published: January 2019

A concise introduction to the basics of open access, describing what it is (and isn't) and showing that it is easy, fast, inexpensive, legal, and beneficial.

The Internet lets us share perfect copies of our work with a worldwide audience at virtually no cost. We take advantage of this revolutionary opportunity when we make our work “open access”: digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. Open access is made possible by the Internet and copyright-holder consent, and many authors, musicians, filmmakers, and other creators who depend on royalties are understandably unwilling to give their consent. But for 350 years, scholars have written peer-reviewed journal articles for impact, not for money, and are free to consent to open access without losing revenue.

In this concise introduction, Peter Suber tells us what open access is and isn't, how it benefits authors and readers of research, how we pay for it, how it avoids copyright problems, how it has moved from the periphery to the mainstream, and what its future may hold. Distilling a decade of Suber's influential writing and thinking about open access, this is the indispensable book on the subject for researchers, librarians, administrators, funders, publishers, and policy makers.
Moving without a Body
Authors: Portanova Stamatia
Published: January 2019

A radically empirical exploration of movement and technology and the transformations of choreography in a digital realm.

Digital technologies offer the possibility of capturing, storing, and manipulating movement, abstracting it from the body and transforming it into numerical information. In Moving without a Body, Stamatia Portanova considers what really happens when the physicality of movement is translated into a numerical code by a technological system. Drawing on the radical empiricism of Gilles Deleuze and Alfred North Whitehead, she argues that this does not amount to a technical assessment of software's capacity to record motion but requires a philosophical rethinking of what movement itself is, or can become.

Discussing the development of different audiovisual tools and the shift from analog to digital, she focuses on some choreographic realizations of this evolution, including works by Loie Fuller and Merce Cunningham. Throughout, Portanova considers these technologies and dances as ways to think—rather than just perform or perceive—movement. She distinguishes the choreographic thought from the performance: a body performs a movement, and a mind thinks or choreographs a dance. Similarly, she sees the move from analog to digital as a shift in conception rather than simply in technical realization. Analyzing choreographic technologies for their capacity to redesign the way movement is thought, Moving without a Body offers an ambitiously conceived reflection on the ontological implications of the encounter between movement and technological systems.
Disaster Robotics
Authors: Murphy Robin R.
Published: January 2019

A comprehensive, authoritative, and accessible reference for disaster robotics that covers theory, specific deployments, and ground, air, and marine modalities.

This book offers the definitive guide to the theory and practice of disaster robotics. It can serve as an introduction for researchers and technologists, a reference for emergency managers, and a textbook in field robotics. Written by a pioneering researcher in the field who has herself participated in fifteen deployments of robots in disaster response and recovery, the book covers theory and practice, the history of the field, and specific missions.

After a broad overview of rescue robotics in the context of emergency informatics, the book provides a chronological summary and formal analysis of the thirty-four documented deployments of robots to disasters that include the 2001 collapse of the World Trade Center, Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and numerous mining accidents. It then examines disaster robotics in the typical robot modalities of ground, air, and marine, addressing such topics as robot types, missions and tasks, and selection heuristics for each modality. Finally, the book discusses types of fieldwork, providing practical advice on matters that include collecting data and collaborating with emergency professionals.

The field of disaster robotics has lacked a comprehensive overview. This book by a leader in the field, offering a unique combination of the theoretical and the practical, fills the gap.
Playing with Sound
Authors: Collins KC
Published: January 2019

An examination of the player's experience of sound in video games and the many ways that players interact with the sonic elements in games.

In Playing with Sound, KC Collins examines video game sound from the player's perspective. She explores the many ways that players interact with a game's sonic aspects—which include not only music but also sound effects, ambient sound, dialogue, and interface sounds—both within and outside of the game. She investigates the ways that meaning is found, embodied, created, evoked, hacked, remixed, negotiated, and renegotiated by players in the space of interactive sound in games.

Drawing on disciplines that range from film studies and philosophy to psychology and computer science, Collins develops a theory of interactive sound experience that distinguishes between interacting with sound and simply listening without interacting. Her conceptual approach combines practice theory (which focuses on productive and consumptive practices around media) and embodied cognition (which holds that our understanding of the world is shaped by our physical interaction with it).

Collins investigates the multimodal experience of sound, image, and touch in games; the role of interactive sound in creating an emotional experience through immersion and identification with the game character; the ways in which sound acts as a mediator for a variety of performative activities; and embodied interactions with sound beyond the game, including machinima, chip-tunes, circuit bending, and other practices that use elements from games in sonic performances.
Scripting Reading Motions
Authors: Portela Manuel
Published: January 2019

An exploration of what experimental literature in both print and programmable media tells us about the act of reading.

In Scripting Reading Motions, Manuel Portela explores the expressive use of book forms and programmable media in experimental works of both print and electronic literature and finds a self-conscious play with the dynamics of reading and writing. Portela examines a series of print and digital works by Johanna Drucker, Mark Z. Danielewski, Rui Torres, Jim Andrews, and others, for the insights they yield about the semiotic and interpretive actions through which readers produce meaning when interacting with codes. Analyzing these works as embodiments and simulations of the motions of reading, Portela pays particular attention to the ways in which awareness of eye movements and haptic interactions in both print and electronic media feeds back onto the material and semantic layers of the works. These feedbacks, he argues, sustain self-reflexive loops that link the body of the reader to the embodied work. Readers' haptic actions and eye movements coinstantiate the object that they are reading.

Portela discusses typographic and graphic marks as choreographic notations for reading movements; examines digital recreations of experimental print literary artifacts; considers reading motions in kinetic and generated texts; analyzes the relationship of bibliographic, linguistic, and narrative coding in Danielewski's novel-poem, Only Revolutions; and describes emergent meanings in interactive textual instruments. The expressive use of print and programmable media, Portela shows, offers a powerful model of the semiotic, interpretive, and affective operations embodied in reading processes.

Important Notice: The digital edition of this book is missing some of the images found in the physical edition.
The Experience Machine
Authors: Sutton Gloria
Published: January 2019

An argument that the collaborative multimedia projects produced by Stan VanDerBeek in the 1960s and 1970s anticipate contemporary new media and participatory art practices.

In 1965, the experimental filmmaker Stan VanDerBeek (1927–1984) unveiled his Movie-Drome, made from the repurposed top of a grain silo. VanDerBeek envisioned Movie-Drome as the prototype for a communications system—a global network of Movie-Dromes linked to orbiting satellites that would store and transmit images. With networked two-way communication, Movie-Dromes were meant to ameliorate technology's alienating impulse. In The Experience Machine, Gloria Sutton views VanDerBeek—known mostly for his experimental animated films—as a visual artist committed to the radical aesthetic sensibilities he developed during his studies at Black Mountain College. She argues that VanDerBeek's collaborative multimedia projects of the 1960s and 1970s (sometimes characterized as “Expanded Cinema”), with their emphases on transparency of process and audience engagement, anticipate contemporary art's new media, installation, and participatory practices.

VanDerBeek saw Movie-Drome not as pure cinema but as a communication tool, an “experience machine.” In her close reading of the work, Sutton argues that Movie-Drome can be understood as a programmable interface. She describes the immersive experience of Movie-Drome, which emphasized multi-sensory experience over the visual; display strategies deployed in the work; the Poemfield computer-generated short films; and VanDerBeek's interest, unique for the time, in telecommunications and computer processing as a future model for art production. Sutton argues that visual art as a direct form of communication is a feedback mechanism, which turns on a set of relations, not a technology.
The Bubble Economy
Authors: Ayres Robert U.
Published: January 2019

Why the global economy has become increasingly unstable, and how financial “de-carbonization” could break the pattern of bubble-driven wealth destruction.

The global economy has become increasingly, perhaps chronically, unstable. Since 2008, we have heard about the housing bubble, subprime mortgages, banks “too big to fail,” financial regulation (or the lack of it), and the European debt crisis. Wall Street has discovered that it is more profitable to make money from other people's money than by investing in the real economy, which has limited access to capital—resulting in slow growth and rising inequality. What we haven't heard much about is the role of natural resources—energy in particular—as drivers of economic growth, or the connection of “global warming” to the economic crisis. In The Bubble Economy, Robert Ayres—an economist and physicist—connects economic instability to the economics of energy.

Ayres describes, among other things, the roots of our bubble economy (including the divergent influences of Senator Carter Glass—of the Glass-Steagall Law—and Ayn Rand); the role of energy in the economy, from the “oil shocks” of 1971 and 1981 through the Iraq wars; the early history of bubbles and busts; the end of Glass-Steagall; climate change; and the failures of austerity.

Finally, Ayres offers a new approach to trigger economic growth. The rising price of fossil fuels (notwithstanding “fracking”) suggests that renewable energy will become increasingly profitable. Ayres argues that government should redirect private savings and global finance away from home ownership and toward “de-carbonization”—investment in renewables and efficiency. Large-scale investment in sustainability will achieve a trifecta: lowering greenhouse gas emissions, stimulating innovation-based economic growth and employment, and offering long-term investment opportunities that do not depend on risky gambling strategies with derivatives.
Determination of host proteins composing the microenvironment of coronavirus replicase complexes by proximity-labeling
Authors: V'kovski Philip , Gerber Markus , Kelly Jenna , Pfaender Stephanie , Ebert Nadine , Braga Lagache Sophie , Simillion Cedric , Portmann Jasmine , Stalder Hanspeter , Gaschen Véronique , Bruggmann Rémy , Stoffel Michael H , Heller Manfred , Dijkman Ronald , Thiel Volker
Published: January 2019

Positive-sense RNA viruses hijack intracellular membranes that provide niches for viral RNA synthesis and a platform for interactions with host proteins. However, little is known about host factors at the interface between replicase complexes and the host cytoplasm. We engineered a biotin ligase into a coronaviral replication/transcription complex (RTC) and identified >500 host proteins constituting the RTC microenvironment. siRNA-silencing of each RTC-proximal host factor demonstrated importance of vesicular trafficking pathways, ubiquitin-dependent and autophagy-related processes, and translation initiation factors. Notably, detection of translation initiation factors at the RTC was instrumental to visualize and demonstrate active translation proximal to replication complexes of several coronaviruses. Collectively, we establish a spatial link between viral RNA synthesis and diverse host factors of unprecedented breadth. Our data may serve as a paradigm for other positive-strand RNA viruses and provide a starting point for a comprehensive analysis of critical virus-host interactions that represent targets for therapeutic intervention.
Diverse and variable virus communities in wild plant populations revealed by metagenomic tools
Authors: Susi Hanna , Filloux Denis , Frilander Mikko J. , Roumagnac Philippe , Laine Anna-Liisa
Published: January 2019

Wild plant populations may harbour a myriad of unknown viruses. As the majority of research efforts have targeted economically important plant species, the diversity and prevalence of viruses in the wild has remained largely unknown. However, the recent shift towards metagenomics-based sequencing methodologies, especially those targeting small RNAs, is finally enabling virus discovery from wild hosts. Understanding this diversity of potentially pathogenic microbes in the wild can offer insights into the components of natural biodiversity that promotes long-term coexistence between hosts and parasites in nature, and help predict when and where risks of disease emergence are highest. Here, we used small RNA deep sequencing to identify viruses inPlantago lanceolatapopulations, and to understand the variation in their prevalence and distribution across the Åland Islands, South-West Finland. By subsequent design of PCR primers, we screened the five most common viruses from two sets ofP. lanceolataplants: 164 plants collected from 12 populations irrespective of symptoms, and 90 plants collected from five populations showing conspicuous viral symptoms. In addition to the previously reported speciesPlantago lanceolata latent virus(PlLV), we found four potentially novel virus species belonging toCaulimovirus, Betapartitivirus, Enamovirus,andClosterovirusgenera. Our results show that virus prevalence and diversity varied among the sampled host populations. In six of the virus infected populations only a single virus species was detected, while five of the populations supported between two to five of the studied virus species. In 20% of the infected plants, viruses occurred as coinfections. When the relationship between conspicuous viral symptoms and virus infection was investigated, we found that plants showing symptoms were usually infected (84%), but virus infections were also detected from asymptomatic plants (44%). Jointly, these results reveal a diverse virus community with newly developed tools and protocols that offer exciting opportunities for future studies on the eco-evolutionary dynamics of viruses infecting plants in the wild.
Life history responses of two ephemeral plant species to increased precipitation and nitrogen in the Gurbantunggut Desert
Authors: Chen Yanfeng , Zhang Lingwei , Shi Xiang , Liu Huiliang , Zhang Daoyuan
Published: January 2019

Precipitation change and nitrogen deposition are not only hot topics of current global change but also the main environmental factors affecting plant growth in desert ecosystems. Thus, we performed an experiment of increased precipitation, nitrogen, and precipitation plus nitrogen on the ephemeral annual species Nepeta micrantha and Eremopyrum distans in the Gurbantunggut Desert. We aimed to determine the life history responses of N. micrantha and E. distans to environment changes, and the germination percentage of the offspring (seeds) was also tested in the laboratory. The results showed that increased nitrogen and precipitation plus nitrogen increased the growth of both plant species, whereas increased precipitation inhibited the growth of N. micrantha but increased the growth of E. distans. This differential response of these two species to precipitation and nitrogen also affected the germination of their offspring. In response to increased nitrogen and precipitation plus nitrogen, the germination percentage of the offspring produced by two species decreased in conjunction with the plants exhibiting high reproduction, which may prevent overcrowding during the following year; however, the N. micrantha plants produced more nondormant offspring in conjunction with low reproduction under relatively greater amounts of precipitation, and N. micrantha offspring could occupy their habitat via rapid germination in suitable environments. Therefore, with increased precipitation and nitrogen deposition, these differences in offspring dormancy may affect their ecological niche in the community.
Artificial liver research output and citations from 2004 to 2017: a bibliometric analysis
Authors: Li Yan , He Meizhi , Zou Ziyuan , Bian Xiaohui , Huang Xiaowen , Yang Chen , Wei Shuyi , Dai Shixue
Published: January 2019

Background

Researches on artificial livers greatly contribute to the clinical treatments for liver failure. This study aimed to evaluate the research output of artificial livers and citations from 2004 to 2017 through a bibliometric analysis.

Methods

A list of included articles on artificial livers were generated after a comprehensive search of the Web of Science Core Collection (from 2004 to 2017) with the following basic information: number of publications, citations, publication year, country of origin, authors and authorship, funding source, journals, institutions, keywords, and research area.

Results

A total of 968 included articles ranged from 47 citations to 394 citations with a fluctuation. The publications were distributed in 12 countries, led by China (n = 212) and the US (n = 207). There were strong correlations of the number of citations with authors (r2 = 0.133, p < 0.001), and countries (r2 = 0.275, p < 0.001), while no correlations of the number of citations with the years since publication (r2 = 0.016, p = 0.216), and funding (r2 < 0.001, p = 0.770) were identified. Keyword analysis demonstrated that with the specific change of “acute liver failure,” decrease in “bioartificial livers” and “hepatocyte,” and increase in “tissue engineering” were identified. The top 53 cited keyword and keyword plus (including some duplicates counts) were identified, led by bioartificial liver (405 citations) and hepatocyte (248 citations). The top 50 cited keywords bursts were mainly “Blood” (2004–2008), “hepatocyte like cell” (2008–2015), and “tissue engineering” (2014–2017). All keywords could be classified into four categories: bioartificial livers (57.40%), blood purification (25.00%), clinical (14.81%), and other artificial organs (2.78%).

Discussion

This study shows the process and tendency of artificial liver research with a comprehensive analysis on artificial livers. However, although it seems that the future of artificial livers seems brighter for hepatocyte transplantation, the systems of artificial livers now are inclined on focusing on blood purification, plasma exchange, etc.
Local fishermen’s perceptions of the usefulness of artificial reef ecosystem services in Portugal
Authors: Ramos Jorge , Lino Pedro G. , Himes-Cornell Amber , Santos Miguel N.
Published: January 2019

Proponents of artificial reef (AR) deployment are often motivated by the usefulness of such structures. The usefulness of ARs is related to their capability of providing ecosystem services/additional functions. We present two distinct Portuguese AR case studies: (1) The Nazaré reef off the central coast of Portugal and (2) the Oura reef off the Algarve coast. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with local fishermen in the fishing towns of Nazaré and Quarteira pre-and post-AR deployment. The main focus of the interviews was to understand fishermen’s perception of AR usefulness (or lack thereof) in terms of nine ecosystem services/additional functions potentially provided by the ARs. We tested the null hypothesis that ARs do not provide additional ecosystem services/additional functions. When queried pre-AR deployment, fishermen indicated that ARs are most likely to provide three ecosystem services: “habitat and refuge,” “biodiversity preservation” and “food production.” Fishermen had similar perceptions post-deployment. For the Nazaré reef, fishermen tended to have a positive or neutral perception of ecosystem services/additional functions being provided by ARs. For the Oura reef, fishermen tended to have a mostly neutral perception of AR ecosystem services; however, there were also some positive and other negative perceptions. It was difficult for stakeholders to conceptualize some of the ecosystem services/additional functions provided by ARs prior to actively using them. As a result, some stakeholders changed their perception of the ecosystem services/additional functions after using the structures. These results indicate that stakeholders likely need to perceive ARs as useful in order for them to provide their support for AR installation. Likewise, their support is often needed to justify the use of public funds to install ARs, therefore making it imperative for resource managers to undertake similar interviews with fishermen when considering the use of ARs in other areas.
Immunohistochemical analysis of cyclin A expression in Wilms tumor
Authors: Radojević-Škodrić Sanja , Brašanac Dimitrije , Đuričić Slaviša M. , Glumac Sofija , Lončar Zlatibor , Pavlović Ivan , Todorović Ana , Nikolić Gorana , Baralić Ivana , Pejić Snežana
Published: January 2019

Background

Cyclin A overexpression is found in a variety of human tumors and correlates with unfavorable outcome. We analyzed immunohistochemical expression of cyclin A in Wilms tumor (WT) in relation to clinicopathological characteristics, preoperative chemotherapy (PrOpChTh), and overall survival (OS).

Methods

This retrospective study involved 43 patients who underwent nephrectomy from January 1996 to October 2010. Tumor stage and histological subtype were determined by revised Societé International d’Oncologie Pediatrique protocol, based on histological components/alterations caused by PrOpChTh, within the prognostic group of low, intermediate and high risk, and with criteria for anaplasia. The regressive/necrotic changes in total tumor mass of primary tumor and the proportion of epithelial, blastemal, and stromal components in the remaining viable tumor tissue were also determined. Cyclin A expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry using a polyclonal rabbit, antihuman antibody (H-432).

Results

Cyclin A overexpression was found in 34.3% of WTs, with higher frequency in tumors with epithelial (31.3%) and blastemal (37.1%) components than those with stromal component (17.7%). Regarding histological type, cyclin A overexpression was found most often in focal anaplasia (100%), stromal (60%), and diffuse anaplastic (66.7) WTs. The overexpression was also more frequent in stages 3 and 4 (77.8% and 66.7%, respectively) compared to tumors in stages 1 and 2 (13.3% and 12.5%, respectively; p = 0.004) in all components, as well as in blastemal component in stages 3 and 4 (77.8% and 66.7%, respectively) vs. stages 1 and 2 (13.3% and 25%, respectively, p = 0.009). Cyclin A overexpression in all components was 66.7% in WTs with metastasis and 31.3% in WTs without metastasis (p = 0.265, Fisher test). Log-rank testing revealed differences of OS regarding stage (p = 0.000), prognostic groups (p = 0.001), and cyclin A expression in blastemal component (p = 0.025). After univariate analysis, tumor stage (p = 0.001), prognostic group (p = 0.004), and cyclin A expression in blastemal component (p = 0.042) were significant prognostic factors for OS; however, after multivariate analysis, none of these factors were confirmed as independent predictors of survival.

Discussion

This study showed that cyclin A overexpression might be associated with the development and progression of WT with anaplasia. Also, cyclin A overexpression was more often observed in advanced stages (3 and 4) of WT, in the group of high-risk WTs, and in focal and diffuse anaplasia WTs. There was no relation of cyclin A overexpression and metastatic ability of WT. Although this study has not confirmed the prognostic value of cyclin A overexpression, its association with unfavorable prognosis should be further evaluated.
Individual tree crown delineation and tree species classification with hyperspectral and LiDAR data
Authors: Dalponte Michele , Frizzera Lorenzo , Gianelle Damiano
Published: January 2019

An international data science challenge, called National Ecological Observatory Network—National Institute of Standards and Technology data science evaluation, was set up in autumn 2017 with the goal to improve the use of remote sensing data in ecological applications. The competition was divided into three tasks: (1) individual tree crown (ITC) delineation, for identifying the location and size of individual trees; (2) alignment between field surveyed trees and ITCs delineated on remote sensing data; and (3) tree species classification. In this paper, the methods and results of team Fondazione Edmund Mach (FEM) are presented. The ITC delineation (Task 1 of the challenge) was done using a region growing method applied to a near-infrared band of the hyperspectral images. The optimization of the parameters of the delineation algorithm was done in a supervised way on the basis of the Jaccard score using the training set provided by the organizers. The alignment (Task 2) between the delineated ITCs and the field surveyed trees was done using the Euclidean distance among the position, the height, and the crown radius of the ITCs and the field surveyed trees. The classification (Task 3) was performed using a support vector machine classifier applied to a selection of the hyperspectral bands and the canopy height model. The selection of the bands was done using the sequential forward floating selection method and the Jeffries Matusita distance. The results of the three tasks were very promising: team FEM ranked first in the data science competition in Task 1 and 2, and second in Task 3. The Jaccard score of the delineated crowns was 0.3402, and the results showed that the proposed approach delineated both small and large crowns. The alignment was correctly done for all the test samples. The classification results were good (overall accuracy of 88.1%, kappa accuracy of 75.7%, and mean class accuracy of 61.5%), although the accuracy was biased toward the most represented species.
Assigning confidence scores to homoeologs using fuzzy logic
Authors: Glover Natasha M. , Altenhoff Adrian , Dessimoz Christophe
Published: January 2019

In polyploid genomes, homoeologs are a specific subtype of homologs, and can be thought of as orthologs between subgenomes. In Orthologous MAtrix, we infer homoeologs in three polyploid plant species: upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), rapeseed (Brassica napus), and bread wheat (Triticum aestivum). While we can typically recognize the features of a “good” homoeolog prediction (a consistent evolutionary distance, high synteny, and a one-to-one relationship), none of them is a hard-fast criterion. We devised a novel fuzzy logic-based method to assign confidence scores to each pair of predicted homoeologs. We inferred homoeolog pairs and used the new and improved method to assign confidence scores, which ranged from 0 to 100. Most confidence scores were between 70 and 100, but the distribution varied between genomes. The new confidence scores show an improvement over our previous method and were manually evaluated using a subset from various confidence ranges.
Characterizing ecomorphological patterns in hyenids: a multivariate approach using postcanine dentition
Authors: Coca-Ortega Carlos , Pérez-Claros Juan Antonio
Published: January 2019

We analyze the multivariate pattern of lower and upper cheek dentition for the family Hyaenidae along its evolutionary history. A total of 11,698 individual measurements of lengths and widths for the main postcanine teeth were collected for 54 extinct and three extant species of this family and analyzed by means of principal component analyses. Our results indicate that the functional aspects are better reflected by lower cheek dentition as a result of mosaic evolution. The multivariate structure captured by the three first principal components correspond to different adaptive strategies. The two first components characterize the main groups of ecomorphs, while hunting species separate from scavengers along the third axis. In the context of Hyaenidae, the post-canine cheek dentition ofParahyaena brunneaandHyaena hyaenashows an extreme degree of specialization in scavenging.
Use of a leaf chlorophyll content index to improve the prediction of above-ground biomass and productivity
Authors: Liu Chuang , Liu Yi , Lu Yanhong , Liao Yulin , Nie Jun , Yuan Xiaoliang , Chen Fang
Published: January 2019

Improving the accuracy of predicting plant productivity is a key element in planning nutrient management strategies to ensure a balance between nutrient supply and demand under climate change. A calculation based on intercepted photosynthetically active radiation is an effective and relatively reliable way to determine the climate impact on a crop above-ground biomass (AGB). This research shows that using variations in a chlorophyll content index (CCI) in a mathematical function could effectively obtain good statistical diagnostic results between simulated and observed crop biomass. In this study, the leaf CCI, which is used as a biochemical photosynthetic component and calibration parameter, increased simulation accuracy across the growing stages during 2016–2017. This calculation improves the accuracy of prediction and modelling of crops under specific agroecosystems, and it may also improve projections of AGB for a variety of other crops.