bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
In‐Season Optical Sensing Improves Nitrogen‐Use Efficiency for Winter Wheat
Authors: Li F. , Miao Y. , Zhang F. , Cui Z. , Li R. , Chen X. , Zhang H. , Schroder J. , Raun W. R. , Jia L.
Published: July 2009

Optical sensor‐based N management strategies are promising approaches to improve N‐use efficiency (NUE) and reduce environmental pollution risk. The objective of this study was to evaluate an active optical sensor‐based in‐season N management strategy for winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L) in the North China Plain (NCP). Initially, 10 field experiments were conducted at four villages in NCP in the 2004/05, 2005/06, and 2006/07 growing seasons to evaluate the in‐season N requirement prediction developed by Oklahoma State University. Then the N application rates, winter wheat grain yield, NUE, economic returns, residual N content after harvest and apparent N loss were compared among three different management systems on a total of 16 farmer fields in 2005/2006 and 14 farmer fields in 2006/2007. The systems included a sensor‐based system, a soil test‐based approach crediting soil residual mineral N (Nmin) to different depth at different growth stages, and common farmer practices. Averaged across site‐years, the sensor‐based, soil Nmin–based N management strategies, and farmer practices produced similar grain yields but used 67, 88, and 372 kg N ha−1, respectively. Nitrogen‐use efficiencies were 61.3, 51.0, and 13.1% for the three methods of N recommendations, correspondingly. Their residual N content in the soil and apparent N loss were 115, 122, and 208 kg N ha−1, and 4, 15, and 205 kg N ha−1, respectively. The optical sensor‐based N management strategy is relatively easy to use, has better potential to improve NUE and economic returns, and reduces residual soil N content and apparent N loss than other methods currently used in the NCP.
Human‐Transported Material Soils of Urbanizing Estuarine Landscapes
Authors: Donohue Sean W. , Stolt Mark H. , Gold Art , Groffman Peter
Published: July 2009

Additions of human‐transported materials (HTM) have significantly altered many coastal shorelines and wetlands. The hydrology and the ability of these anthropogenic soils to support ecologically important functions is poorly understood. In this study, we documented soil hydrologic patterns along disturbed estuarine shorelines and wetlands. Our goal was to determine if the soils had properties relative to the potential to support denitrification (i.e., labile C, saturation, and reducing conditions). Eleven anthropogenic sites, located in Rhode Island and 30 to >60 yr old, were studied. Auger transects were completed to characterize anthropogenic soils. Water table levels were monitored twice a month. Anthropogenic soils were described and sampled from pits at five representative locations. Soil organic C (SOC), permanganate‐oxidizable C (POC), bulk density, and pH were measured. Deposits of HTM, comprised of dredge and fill materials, ranged in thickness from 26 to >285 cm, were predominantly sandy and often contained artifacts. In the thickest HTM deposits, water table levels rose as much as 2.5 m above the original buried soil surface. Redoximorphic features were identified within the range of water table activity in 16 of the 18 monitored anthropogenic soils, suggesting reducing conditions. Soil organic C ranged from 1.6 to 88.9 g kg−1, was highest in surface horizons, and had an irregular distribution with depth. Labile C, estimated from POC measurements, followed the SOC distribution. Evidence of labile C, saturation, and reducing conditions in the majority of these soils suggest that most of the disturbed estuarine soils we studied have the capacity for denitrification.
Organic Soils on Basaltic Lava Flows in a Cool, Arid Environment
Authors: Vaughan Karen L. , McDaniel Paul A.
Published: July 2009

Holocene‐aged basaltic lava flows offer a unique opportunity to study the initial stages of soil formation. In the cool, dry climate at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve (CROM) in southern Idaho, organic soils (Histosols in Soil Taxonomy) are the dominant soil on recent lava surfaces. Unsaturated Histosols, or Folists (Folic Histosols in World Reference Base [WRB]), occupy crevices and depressions on the lava surface and support vegetation adapted for life in this harsh environment. These soils are comprised of either a thin fibric (Oi horizon) over a hemic (Oe horizon) or a single, relatively homogenous Oe horizon over relatively unweathered basalt bedrock. The parent material for organic soils is biologic rather than geologic in origin with parent vegetation growing in crevices supplying the necessary organic debris. Soil acidity is directly influenced by the type of vegetation growing in the soil, with more acidic leaf litter creating lower pH soils while more alkaline plant debris generates soil with more neutral pH. Within these shallow soils (12–35 cm), organic C content (mean 333 g kg−1) is proportional to fiber content and cation‐exchange capacity (CEC) and inversely proportional to bulk density. Compared with Folists of wetter climates, those forming at CROM have substantially higher bulk densities with a mean of 0.41 g cm−3 The influence of loessial mineral material likely accounts for the increased mineral content and subsequent increase in bulk density. Knowledge of the morphological, physical, and chemical properties of Folists at CROM is essential to improve our understanding of the ecological significance of Folists and co‐evolution of soils and plant communities in a cool, arid environment.
Soil Metals Analysis Using Laser‐Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)
Authors: Essington Michael E. , Melnichenko Galina V. , Stewart Melanie A. , Hull Robert A.
Published: July 2009

Laser‐induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an elemental analysis technique that is based on the measurement of atomic emissions generated on a sample surface by a laser‐induced microplasma. Although often recognized in the literature as a well‐established analytical technique, LIBS remains untested relative to the quantitative analysis of elements in chemically complex matrices, such as soils. The objective of this study was to evaluate the capabilities of LIBS relative to the elemental characterization of surface soils. Approximately 65 surface soil samples from the Pond Creek watershed in east Tennessee were collected and subjected to total dissolution and elemental analysis by inductively coupled argon plasma‐optical emission spectroscopy (ICP–OES). The samples were analyzed by LIBS using a Nd:YAG laser at 532 nm, with a beam energy of 25 mJ per pulse, a pulse width of 5 ns, and a repetition rate of 10 Hz. The wavelength range for the LIBS spectra collection was 200 to 600 nm, with a resolution of 0.03 nm. Elemental spectral lines were identified through the analysis of analytical reagent‐grade chemicals and the NIST and Kurucz spectral databases. The elements that dominated the LIBS spectra were Al, Ca, Fe, and Mg. In addition, emission lines for Ti, Ba, Na, Cu, and Mn were isolated. The emission lines of Cr, Ni, and Zn, which were >100 mg kg−1 in numerous soil samples, were not detected. Further, spectral emission lines for P and K are >600 nm, eliminating them from LIBS analysis. The integrated peak areas of interference‐free elemental emission lines were determined, then normalized to the area of the 288.16 nm Si(I) emission (internal standard) to reduce the variability between replicate analyses. The normalized spectral areas, coupled with linear regression (standard curves for single wavelength response) and multivariate techniques (chemometrics and multiple wavelengths), were used to predict ICP–OES elemental data. In general, the quantitative capabilities of LIBS proved disappointing. Detection and quantitation were generally restricted to those elements with concentrations > 0.5 g kg−1 The correlation between LIBS response and elemental content was poor (r < 0.98). Further, the relative errors of prediction for the LIBS‐detected elements were less than acceptable for an analytical technique (<20%), ranging from ∼20 to ∼40% using linear regression analysis, and from 18 to 48% using partial least squares analysis. Based on these findings, the analytical capability of the LIBS method for soil metals analysis should be considered questionable.
Soil Physicochemical Properties in a Grassland and Agroecosystem Receiving Varying Organic Inputs
Authors: Singh Sonu , Mishra Ritu , Singh Alka , Ghoshal Nandita , Singh K. P.
Published: July 2009

The application of organic amendments in agroecosystems has been widely recommended, but the impact of their C/N ratio on the stabilization and sequestration of soil organic carbon (SOC) is often unaccounted for. The influence of the C/N ratio of amendments on soil physicochemical properties in a rice (Oryza sativa var. NDR97)–barley (Hordeum vulgare var. Lakhan) rotation tropical dryland agroecosystem was compared with an undisturbed grassland. Chemical fertilizer in the form of urea and three organic inputs (Sesbania aculeata shoot, low C/N ratio; air‐dried straw of wheat (Triticum aestivum var. Malviya 533), high C/N ratio; and S. aculeata shoot+wheat straw, high and low C/N ratio combined) carrying an equivalent amount of N, were added to plots of the agroecosystem once during each annual cycle. Soil water‐holding capacity (WHC), porosity, SOC, total N, and aggregate stability were improved in the wheat straw and S. aculeata shoot+wheat straw treatments, reaching levels comparable with the grassland. Soil WHC, porosity, and SOC influenced the productivity of the grassland and the agroecosystem. The grassland recorded highest SOC (53% higher relative to control) followed by the wheat straw (+47%), S. aculeata shoot+wheat straw (+37%) and soil total N was greatest in the S. aculeata shoot+wheat straw treatment (+37.5%). Aggregate stability and macroaggregate distribution were also higher in the wheat straw and S. aculeata shoot+wheat straw treatments, however, the microaggregate and silt + clay fractions showed a reverse trend. Management practices with a higher residue‐C return in the agroecosystem resulted in increased aggregate stability and aggregate‐associated SOC, with C storage attaining levels similar to the natural system.
Assessing Indices for Predicting Potential Nitrogen Mineralization in Soils under Different Management Systems
Authors: Schomberg Harry H. , Wietholter Sirio , Griffin Timothy S. , Reeves D. Wayne , Cabrera Miguel L. , Fisher Dwight S. , Endale Dinku M. , Novak Jeff M. , Balkcom Kip S. , Raper Randy L. , Kitchen Newell R. , Locke Martin A. , Potter Kenneth N. , Schwartz Robert C. , Truman Clinton C. , Tyler Don D.
Published: July 2009

A reliable laboratory index of N availability would be useful for making N recommendations, but no single approach has received broad acceptance across a wide range of soils. We compared several indices over a range of soil conditions to test the possibility of combining indices for predicting potentially mineralizable N (N0). Soils (0–5 and 5–15 cm) from nine tillage studies across the southern USA were used in the evaluations. Long‐term incubation data were fit to a first‐order exponential equation to determine N0,k(mineralization rate), and N0* (N0estimated with a fixedkequal to 0.054 wk−1). Out of 13 indices, five [total C (TC), total N (TN), N mineralized by hot KCl (Hot_N), anaerobic N (Ana_N), and N mineralized in 24 d (Nmin_24)] were strongly correlated to N0(r> 0.85) and had linear regressions withr2> 0.60. None of the indices were good predictors ofkCorrelations between indices and N0* improved compared with N0, ranging fromr= 0.90 to 0.95. Total N and flush of CO2determined after 3 d (Fl_CO2) produced the best multiple regression for predicting N0(R2= 0.85) while the best combination for predicting N0* (R2= 0.94) included TN, Fl_CO2,Cold_N, and NaOH_N. Combining indices appears promising for predicting potentially mineralizable N, and because TN and Fl_CO2 are rapid and simple, this approach could be easily adopted by soil testing laboratories.
Effect of Soil Spectral Properties on Remote Sensing of Crop Residue Cover
Authors: Serbin Guy , Daughtry Craig S. T. , Hunt E. Raymond , Brown David J. , McCarty Gregory W.
Published: July 2009

Conservation tillage practices often leave appreciable amounts of crop residues on soil surfaces after harvesting and generally improve soil structure, enhance soil organic C (SOC) content, and reduce soil erosion. Remote sensing methods have shown great promise in efficiently estimating crop residue cover, and thus inferring soil tillage intensity. Furthermore, these tillage intensity estimates can be used in soil C models. Reflectance spectra of more than 4200 soils and 80 crop residues were measured in the laboratory across the 350‐ to 2500‐nm wavelength region. Six remote sensing spectral indices were used to estimate crop residue cover: the Cellulose Absorption Index (CAI), the Lignin–Cellulose Absorption Index (LCA), the Normalized Difference Tillage Index (NDTI), the Normalized Difference Senescent Vegetation Index (NDSVI), and the Normalized Difference Indices 5 and 7 (NDI5 and NDI7, respectively). Soil mineralogy and SOC affected these spectral indices for crop residue cover more than soil taxonomic order, which generally had little effect on spectral reflectance. The values of the spectral indices for soils were similar within Land Resource Regions and, specifically, for Major Land Resource Areas. The CAI showed the best separation between soils and residues, followed by LCA and NDTI. Although NDSVI, NDI5, and NDI7 had significant overlaps between soil and residue index values, assessments of crop residue cover classes may be possible with local calibrations. Future satellite sensors should include appropriate bands for assessing crop residue and nonphotosynthetic vegetation.
Soil Aggregation and Soil Organic Carbon Stabilization: Effects of Management in Semiarid Mediterranean Agroecosystems
Authors: Álvaro-Fuentes J. , Cantero-Martínez C. , López M. V. , Paustian K. , Denef K. , Stewart C. E. , Arrúe J. L.
Published: July 2009

In semiarid agroecosystems of the Ebro valley (NE Spain) soils are characterized by low soil organic matter (SOM) and a weak structure. In this study we investigated the individual and combined effect of tillage system (no‐tillage, NT; reduced tillage, RT; conventional tillage, CT) and cropping system (barley–fallow rotation at the Peñaflor site, PN‐BF and continuous barley at the Peñaflor site, PN‐BB) on soil organic carbon (SOC) storage as well as the physical protection of SOM fractions by soil aggregates in three long‐term experimental sites. In both cropping systems, total SOC content was more than 30% higher in NT compared with CT in the 0‐ to 5‐cm depth. The suppression of fallowing in the PN‐BB cropping system led to a greater SOC stabilization only in NT. In all the three sites, greater proportion of water‐stable macroaggregates (>250 μm) was found under NT than under CT in the 0‐ to 5‐cm depth. Macroaggregate organic C concentration (250–2000 μm) was greater in NT compared with CT in the BB cropping system, but did not differ with tillage treatment in the PN‐BF rotation. Greater proportion of microaggregates within macroaggregates in NT compared with CT was only found in the Agramunt site (AG). However, greater C stabilized inside these microaggregates was observed in AG, Selvanera site (SV), and PN‐BB in the 0‐ to 5‐cm depth. The results of this study demonstrate that in the semiarid Mediterranean agroecosystems of the Ebro valley, the adoption of NT together with the suppression of long‐fallowing period can significantly increase the amount of SOC stabilized in the soil surface and improve soil structure and aggregation.
Soil Water and Shallow Groundwater Relations in an Agricultural Hillslope
Authors: Logsdon S. D. , Hernandez-Ramirez G. , Hatfield J. L. , Sauer T. J. , Prueger J.H. , Schilling K. E.
Published: July 2009

Shallow water tables can contribute water for plant use; therefore, plant available water includes not only the water stored in the root zone, but also the water moving up from below the root zone. The purpose of this study was to quantify the amount of water moving upward to the root zone. Automated water content reflectometers were used to monitor soil water content across a landscape in Central Iowa, which had varying shallow water tables. Either manual or automated water table depths were measured. Tipping bucket raingage and eddy covariance evapotranspiration (ET) methods were used to measure rain and evapotranspiration as part of the water balance. Upward water movement ranges were determined from water balance and uncertainties for each component (rain, ET, change in soil water content). In 2006 out of 53 dry days (days that did not have any rain), 37, 43, and 46 d showed net upward flux for shoulder, backslope, and toeslope positions, shown by an uncertainty range that did not overlap zero. In 2007, 37 out of 62 dry days showed net upward flux for the toeslope position. The mean significant net upward flux for dry days was 2.6, 3.2, and 3.1 mm d−1 for the shoulder, backslope, and toeslope positions in 2006, and 2.5 mm d−1 for the toeslope position in 2007. Mean ET on nonrain days was 4.0 and 4.1 mm d−1 in 2006 and 2007. Automated equipment used to develop a water balance approach provided a quantitative approach to estimate net upward soil water flux in agricultural fields.
Carbon and Nitrogen Fractions in Dryland Soil Aggregates Affected by Long‐term Tillage and Cropping Sequence
Authors: Sainju Upendra M. , Caesar-TonThat Thecan , Jabro Jalal D.
Published: July 2009

Tillage and cropping sequence may influence C and N sequestration, microbial activities, and N mineralization in dryland soil aggregates. We evaluated the 21‐yr effect of tillage and cropping sequence combinations on C and N fractions in aggregates of a Dooley sandy loam (fine‐loamy, mixed, superactive, frigid Typic Argiustolls) at the 0‐ to 20‐cm depth in eastern Montana. Tillage and cropping sequences were no‐tilled continuous spring wheat (NTCW) (Triticum aestivum L.), spring‐tilled continuous spring wheat (STCW), fall‐ and spring‐tilled continuous spring wheat (FSTCW), fall‐ and spring‐tilled spring wheat‐barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) (1984–1999) followed by spring wheat‐pea (Pisum sativum L.)(2000–2004)(FSTW‐B/P), and spring‐tilled spring wheat‐fallow (STW‐F). Carbon and N fractions were soil organic C (SOC), total N (STN), particulate organic C and N (POC and PON), microbial biomass C and N (MBC and MBN), potential C and N mineralization (PCM and PNM), NH4–N, and NO3–N. Aggregate proportion was greater in NTCW than in FSTCW in the 4.75‐ to 2.00‐mm aggregate‐size class at 0 to 5 cm but was greater in STW‐F than in STCW in the 2.00‐ to 0.25‐mm size class at 5 to 20 cm. After 21 yr, STW‐F reduced SOC, STN, POC, and PON concentrations in aggregates by 34 to 42% at 0‐ to 5‐cm and by 20 to 32% at 5‐ to 20‐cm compared with NTCW and STCW. The PCM and MBC were greater in NTCW and STCW than in STW‐F in the <2.00‐mm size class at 0 to 5 cm but MBN varied with treatments, aggregate‐size classes, and soil depths. Compared with other treatments, NH4–N concentration was lower in STW‐F in the 4.75‐ to 0.25‐mm size class but PNM and NO3–N were greater in FSTW‐B/P in the <2.00‐mm size class. Long‐term reduced tillage with continuous spring wheat increased soil aggregation, C and N sequestration, and microbial biomass and activities in all aggregates but increased tillage intensity with spring wheat‐barley/pea rotation increased N mineralization and availability in small aggregates compared with the conventional STW‐F.
Phosphorus Adsorption and Fractionation in a Two‐phase Olive Mill Waste Amended Soil
Authors: López-Piñeiro A. , Cabrera D. , Peña D. , Albarrán A. , Rato Nunes J. M.
Published: July 2009

Two‐phase olive mill waste (TPOMW) is a by‐product of olive oil extraction, contains up to 90% organic matter, and may be used as soil amendment. To investigate the impact of TPOMW amendments to soil on the fractionation, adsorption, and buffering capacity of P, experiments were conducted on soils collected from a typical olive grove amended for 5 yr with 0, 30, and 60 Mg ha−1 of TPOMW. A modified Hedley fractionation scheme evaluated the change in soil P forms while surface models were used to fit the data. The P fractionation results suggested and increase in HCl‐P fraction. Other P pools, such as residual‐P, NaHCO3–Pi, NaOH‐Pi, NaOH‐Po, soluble‐P, and NaHCO3–Po increased to lesser degrees. A two‐surface Langmuir model fit the adsorption data better than a uniform layer model and underestimation of the P adsorption was observed when the traditional Langmuir equation was used. The TPOMW amendments significantly decreased the P adsorption maxima (α = 0.05) and most of the P was adsorbed on low energy sites, independent of the amendment applications received. The TPOMW soil application decreased indices of P‐binding intensity at both high and low affinity sites, decreased the P equilibrium buffering capacity, and increased the equilibrium P concentration (EPC). Coupled with the low energy of P binding, results implied an increase in the readily soluble P, and thus runoff P losses could potentially increase in TPOMW amended soil.
Women Cabinet Ministers and Female‐Friendly Social Policy
Authors: Atchison Amy , Down Ian
Published: July 2009

A growing literature indicates that the representation of women in legislatures is positively associated with the passage of female‐friendly social policy. However, there is little corresponding research concerning the effect of women in cabinet on female‐friendly social policy. Yet, almost all advanced industrial democracies are parliamentary democracies, where policies typically originate within the cabinet and governments typically enjoy substantial control over the legislative process. Thus, to the extent that women promote female‐friendly policy, women in cabinet positions should be ideally placed to do so, and indeed, possibly be more influential than women in legislatures. We find significant support for this argument in analyses of state guaranteed leave entitlement, in eighteen parliamentary democracies from 1980‐2003.
The Economics of Medicaid Dental Care: How Global Budget Methods Affect Reimbursement
Authors: Squillace Joseph
Published: July 2009

The primary factor in level of participation by dentists in Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance (SCHIP) programs is the level of reimbursement received. The purpose of this article is to describe how the use of the global budget method used by managed care vendors, or their subcontractors, discourages dentists from participating in Medicaid/SCHIP programs, ultimately decreasing access to oral health care for the lower‐income populations. The author posits that the global budget method is misapplied to Medicaid/SCHIP systems, and the experience of Missouri is used to demonstrate problems in reimbursement to dental providers.
Anti‐Discrimination Versus Anti‐Poverty: Does Affirmative Action Hurt the Poor?
Authors: Coleman Major G.
Published: July 2009

Scholars have implied that affirmative action is associated with deteriorating conditions for the poor. However, few have attempted to demonstrate any association between affirmative action and poverty empirically. The author relied upon data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) 1975‐1999 and a generalized least squares model to test the relationship between the percent of Blacks who qualify as poor in a given year and several measures of affirmative action. The author finds a mixed but largely null relationship between Black poverty and affirmative action and concludes that affirmative action programs have little impact on Black poverty levels.
Causes and Remedies for Poverty: Perceptions among Local Elected Leaders in Israel
Authors: Lahat Lihi , Menahem Gila
Published: July 2009

In view of the increasing role of local government in formulating and providing welfare programs in many countries, the factors that shape the local policy arena are of much interest. Integrating two bodies of research — that of problem definition and framing in public policy and that of perceptions about poverty — the study investigates how heads of local authorities in Israel perceive the causes of poverty and how these perceptions are related to policy options for combating poverty. The findings reveal the importance of the leaders' perceptions of the causes of poverty and value orientation in explaining their policy preferences for dealing with poverty. The findings also point to the need for further research on the context of the local authority and its influence on the policy preferences of local leaders. The data is based on the responses to mail questionnaires distributed in 2002 to heads of local municipalities in Israel.
Revisiting a Classic after Nearly a Half Century
Authors: Skidmore Max J.
Published: July 2009

Max Skidmore reviews Michael Harrington's 1962 Classic The Other America: Poverty in the United States, assessing the work's staying power over nearly two generations.
Freedom to Constrain
Authors: Bauman Syd
Published: July 2009

Where should attribute constraints live? In an external schema? In the document’s own metadata? In a separate file? Several possibilities are examined, raising lots of questions and offering a few answers.
Putting it all in context
Authors: Townley Andrew , Omerovic Sanida , Brown Peter F.
Published: July 2009

Two major concerns in creating large-scale Topic Maps applications are: first, the role and capture of context within a specific topic map, and second, how the Topic Maps paradigm - specifically the XTM specification - allows the linking and efficient use of Topic Maps deployed on a massive scale, such as the Internet, to support extremely large-scale information sharing. These two subjects initially seem to be separate concerns. However, upon reflection and further discussion, it is clear that they are intertwined and closely related to the issue of scalability.
Reconsidering Conventional Markup for Knowledge Representation
Authors: Dubin David , Birnbaum David J.
Published: July 2009

The main attraction of semantic web technologies such as RDF and OWL over conventional markup is the support those tools provide for expressing precise semantics. Formal grounding for RDF-based languages (in, for example, description logics) and their integration with logic programming tools are guided and constrained by issues of decidability and the tractability of computations. Users of these technologies are invited to use less expressive representations, and thereby work within those constraints. Such compromises seem reasonable when considering the roles automated reasoning agents are expected to play by the semantic web community. But where expectations differ, it may be useful to reconsider using conventional markup and inferencing methods that have been applied with success despite their theoretical weaknesses. We illustrate these issues with a case study from manuscript studies and textual transmission.
XML: It was not televised after all ...
Authors: Gutentag Eduardo
Published: July 2009

Few may remember that XML was launched with an explicit technical and social agenda centered on the revolutionary idea that you own the content you produce. This has now come full circle and has become an almost trivial assertion (albeit far from being universally true). Yet in the meantime, while no TV cameras were watching, it facilitated another revolution, which in turn has had a global transformative effect on the way we define the words "content", "ownership" and even "freedom". Will this now unleash another deep and almost antithetical change, centered on the equally revolutionary concept that ownership of an idea is not necessarily vested upon the person who comes up with it?
Topic maps in near-real time
Authors: Hunting Sam
Published: July 2009

A new topic map module for the Drupal open-source content management system now supports the publication of collaboratively written topic maps in near-real time, using a plug-in architecture that can be extended to support specific information sets.
xmlsh - a command language (shell) based on the philosophy of the Unix Shells, designed for XML
Authors: Lee David A.
Published: July 2009

xmlsh, an Open Source project, is a command language (shell) modeled after the philosophy of traditional Unix Shells but designed to support XML natively. Largely backwards compatible with the unix shells, xmlsh is designed for both interactive and script use. It has built-in support for XML data (documents and sequences) as expressions, variables, files and pipelines. Support for full multithreading xml and text pipelines as well as direct execution of OS processes in and commands in portable and familiar syntax allows developers to construct complex jobs composed of xml tasks and traditional text and file operations easily and portably. Written in "pure java", and integrated closely with the Saxon XQuery and XSLT library, xmlsh is portable to any platform which runs the java 1.6 JDK.
Graph characterization of overlap-only TexMECS and other overlapping markup formalisms
Authors: Marcoux Yves
Published: July 2009

We establish a necessary and sufficient condition for a graph to correspond to the structure of an overlapping markup document, such as a well-formed TexMECS document (not using interrupted or virtual elements). This provides a test for determining if any given graph can be serialized into a TexMECS document—or any other similar language—using only overlapping markup. Such a test may prove useful in DOM-based applications, to determine if an attempted modification operation would preserve the overlap-only serializability of the document. For example, in a document editor using a graph-oriented interface, the user could be warned when a requested operation would prevent the document from being serializable with overlapping elements only. To our knowledge, no such characterization has been given before.
Optimized Cartesian product: A hybrid approach to derivation-chain checking in XSD 1.1
Authors: Casimirri Maurizio , Marinelli Paolo , Vitali Fabio
Published: July 2009

As XPath predicates are involved, XSD 1.1 conditional declarations make difficult the problem of statically verifying whether a type is a legal restriction of its base. The XSD 1.1 current draft adopts a full dynamic approach to the problem. In this paper we propose a hybrid solution (neither completely static, nor completely dynamic) to the same problem.
An Onion of Documents and Metadata
Authors: Kelleher D. Matthew , Klein Albert J. , Mason James David
Published: July 2009

When a product cannot be tested as a finished unit, its warranty, as it were, depends on extensive testing of its component parts and assemblies. The record for products of the Y-12 National Security Complex has for many years been in the form of lengthy paper documents. Recently we have begun a process to capture some of this information in XML documents. However, this is not simply another XML publishing project. Because our products have a potentially very long shelf life and we cannot foresee the computing environment in their distant future existence, we must take extraordinary measures to document not only the products themselves but also the environment in which the documentation has been prepared. Adding complexity to this documentation challenge is a parallel effort to capture the output data of test equipment and wrap it in XML. While this project is very much a work in progress, we can see that one major component of its possible success will be the coordination of complex metadata.
Structural Metadata and the Social Limitation of Interoperability: A Sociotechnical View of XML and Digital Library Standards Development
Authors: McDonough Jerome
Published: July 2009

The past decade has seen the rise of both the XML standard and a variety of XML-based structural metadata schemas within the digital library community. Both XML itself, and the metadata schemas developed by the digital library community can be considered as cases of sociotechnical artifacts, constructions that bear within them their designers' worldview of how people within the world should appropriate and use their technology. If we examine the metadata schemas produced by the digital library community, we find that the designers' inscription strongly favors local control over encoding practice to insuring interoperability between institutions. If the goal of digital library interoperability is to be realized, schema designers will need to acknowledge the tension between local control and external connection using markup languages, and adjust their standard development efforts accordingly.
Secure Publishing using Schema-level Role-based Access Control Policies for Fragments of XML Documents
Authors: Müldner Tomasz , McNeill Robin , Miziołek Jan Krzysztof
Published: July 2009

Popularity of social networks is growing rapidly and secure publishing is an important implementation tool for these networks. At the same time, recent implementations of access control policies (ACPs) for sharing fragments of XML documents have moved from distributing to users numerous sanitized sub-documents to disseminating a single document multi-encrypted with multiple cryptographic keys, in such a way that the stated ACPs are enforced. Any application that uses this implementation of ACPs will incur a high cost of generating keys separately for each document. However, most such applications, such as secure publishing, use similar documents, i.e. documents based on a selected schema. This paper describes RBAC defined at the schema level, (SRBAC), and generation of the minimum number of keys at the schema level. The main advantage of our approach is that for any application that uses a fixed number of schemas, keys can be generated (or even pre-generated) only once, and then reused in all documents valid for the given schema. While in general, key generation at the schema level has to be pessimistic, our approach tries to minimize the number of generated keys. Incoming XML documents are efficiently encrypted using single-pass SAX parsing in such a way that the original structure of these documents is completely hidden. We also describe distributing to each user only keys needed for decrypting accessible nodes, and for applying the minimal number of encryption operations to an XML document required to satisfy the protection requirements of the policy.
Properties of schema mashups : dynamicity, semantic, mixins, hyperschemas
Authors: Poulard Philippe
Published: July 2009

W3C XML Schemas specifications were published in 2001, but a large community still uses DTDs. Perhaps they didn't adopt new schema technologies because they are still awaiting some missing features ? What kind of feature would be useful to DTD users and schema practitioners ?

Let's transpose the buzzword "mashups" to schema technologies: mashups of several schema languages and mashups of schema languages with non-schema languages. From this bazaar, we'll discuss some of the emerging features that could make what would be the next generation of schema languages: dynamicity, semantic, mixins, and hyperschemas.
Text Retrieval for XML-Encoded Corpora: A Lexical Approach
Authors: Quin Liam R. E.
Published: July 2009

This paper describes some modifications done to an open source text retrieval package to make it XML-aware, and contrasts this lexical approach, in which XML documents are primarily treated as sequences of characters rather than trees, with the W3C XPath 1.0 and XQuery 2.0 Full-Text facility.

Specific usage scenarios are taken into consideration, including World Wide Web publication and the searching and analysis of text corpora for research purposes.
An event-centric API for processing concurrent markup
Authors: Schonefeld Oliver
Published: July 2009

Programmers can basically choose from two different types APIs when working with XML documents. On provides an event-centric view (SAX) on the document, while the offers an object-centric view (DOM). This contribution introduces an event-centric programming interface to work with XCONCUR documents which is inspired by the XML's SAX-API. It provides a very easy to use API for parsing XCONCUR documents.
SGF - An integrated model for multiple annotations and its application in a linguistic domain
Authors: Stührenberg Maik , Goecke Daniela
Published: July 2009

Seamless integration of various, often heterogeneous linguistic resources (in terms of their output formats) and merging of the respective annotation layers are crucial tasks for linguistic research. After a decade of concentration on the development of formats in order to structure single annotations for specific linguistic issues, a variety of specifications to store multiple annotations over the same primary data has been developed in the last years. Among these approaches three main architectures can be identified: Prolog-based architectures, XML-related approaches and graph-based models that follow the XML syntax. However, these architectures are not free of disadvantages when used in real world applications. In the Sekimo project the XML-based Sekimo Generic Format (SGF) was developed for the purpose of storing multiple annotations on the same primary data and examine relationships between elements of different annotation layers without prepended conversion. SGF is based on the design principles of graph-based approaches but makes use of the XML-inherent tree structures whenever possible to reduce processing costs. Analysing data stored in SGF can be done via standard XML-related specifications such as XPath, XSLT or XQuery and is done in our project in the linguistic application domain of anaphora resolution.
Cool versus useful
Authors: Usdin B. Tommie
Published: July 2009

True versus Useful, or True versus Likely-to-be-useful, are tradeoffs we find ourselves making in document modeling and many other markup-related situations all the time. But Cool versus Useful is a far more difficult tradeoff, especially since our world now includes a number of very cool techniques, tools, and specifications. Cool toys can have a lot of gravitational pull; attracting attention, users, projects, and funding. Unfortunately, there is sometimes a disconnect between the appeal of a particular tool/technology and its applicability in a particular circumstance.
A Hybrid Parallel Processing for XML Parsing and Schema Validation
Authors: Wu Yu , Zhang Qi , Yu Zhiqiang , Li Jianhui
Published: July 2009

XML is playing crucial roles in web services, databases, and document representing and processing. However, the processing of XML document has been regarded as the main performance bottleneck especially for the processing of very large XML data. On the other hand, multi-core processing gains increasingly popularity both on the desktop computers and server computing machines. To take full advantage of multi-cores, we present a novel hybrid parallel XML processing model, which combines data-parallel and pipeline processing. It first partitions the XML by chunks to perform data parallel processing for both XML parsing and schema validation, then organize and execute them as a two stage pipeline to exploit more parallelism. The hybrid parallel XML processing model has shown great overall performance advantage on multi-core platform as indicated by the experiment performance results.
State of the art on streaming
Authors: Zergaoui Mohamed
Published: July 2009

It's now 10 years that XML is out and is now mainstream. Eventually, XML is perceived for its value (Unicode, Structure, Extensibility) and not only for something heavy and difficult to use. XML needs still to gain in its capacity to be processed more naturally as a stream of information.

After a short presentation of where we come from, we will take a look very closely at where are the work around streaming processing, and especially from the XSLT WG, XProc WG and ISO DSDL; We will also see how some interesting approach are trying to find workarounds on streaming and propose some new area of use for XML.
This paper has no version: Versioning as a social construct
Authors: Brown Peter F.
Published: July 2009

To declare that something "is" or "has" a "version" is to imply that there is some "original" or true referent for that "version" and that the "version" has some standing in the eyes of some authority. However, whether it be versions of the Bible, versions of documents, or versions of application code, there can be no satisfactory approach to understanding "version" as a purely scalar property. It is necessary to see the concept of "version" for what it is: a social construct that may serve particular needs and may, equally, fail to capture what it is intended to. Understanding this will free us to build information systems that more adequately reflect the mutability of knowledge and its complex relationship with static information.
Forward compatibility using XML transform-as-needed (XTAN)
Authors: Hawke Sandro
Published: July 2009

It is often desirable to design vocabularies for forward compatibility, that is, to design them in such a way that domain-specific applications that use them can be adapted to changes in them at minimal (and predictable) costs. XTAN is a vocabulary for annotating XML Schemas to indicate how documents that use certain vocabulary extensions can be transformed by an XTAN preprocessor into documents that do not use those features. The transformation may have specific impacts, including losses of fitness for specific uses in specific domains. By using XTAN, systems can provide forward compatibility: a document that uses features not specified in version n of its vocabulary can be transformed automatically (with some impact) into a version n document. XTAN is being developed to meet the needs of the W3C Rule Interchange Format (RIF) Working Group, but the design is general.
Versions in UBL
Authors: Holman G. Ken
Published: July 2009

There are many aspects of "different versions" when considering the artefacts defined for the OASIS Universal Business Language (UBL). UBL is expected to be widely deployed over a long period of time. How it is specified needs to support deployments in a heterogeneous network of different levels of implementation in different scenarios with different participants. Differences in versions can be seen in three different perspectives of the one specification. This paper describes (1) different versions of the UBL standard defined by the UBL technical committee, (2) different versions of UBL customizations defined by communities of users, and (3) different versions of deployed code lists defined by trading partners using UBL. Some aspects described apply only to UBL because of characteristics of UBL not shared with other vocabularies. This may limit how other vocabularies can take advantage of the approaches being used.
Development and validation of the Subtypes of Antisocial Behavior Questionnaire
Authors: Burt S. Alexandra , Donnellan M. Brent
Published: July 2009

There is converging evidence that physical aggression, rule‐breaking, and social aggression constitute meaningfully distinct, if somewhat overlapping, components of the broader construct of antisocial behavior. Indeed, these subtypes appear to have different developmental trajectories, demographic correlates, and personological underpinnings. They also demonstrate important etiological distinctions. One potential limitation to accumulating additional scientific insights into the correlates and origins of these three types of antisocial behavior is the lack of an efficient self‐report assessment in the public domain. We developed the 32‐item Subtypes of Antisocial Behavior Questionnaire (STAB) to fill this gap. Our goal was to develop a brief measure that could reliably and validly assess each of the three major subtypes of antisocial behavior and that would be freely available for other researchers. The present series of studies provides initial evidence of the factorial validity, internal consistency, and criterion‐related validity of the STAB scales. In short, it appears that the STAB is a brief and useful measure that can be used to differentiate and assess physically aggressive, rule‐breaking, and socially aggressive forms of antisocial behavior. Aggr. Behav. 35:376–398, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Memory distrust and acceptance of misinformation
Authors: van Bergen Saskia , Horselenberg Robert , Merckelbach Harald , Jelicic Marko , Beckers Roos
Published: July 2009

Relying on a community sample (N = 80), the present study examined whether memory distrust is related to an increased tendency to accept misinformation and whether it interacts with passage of time. Participants were shown video footage of an armed robbery. Approximately 30 minutes later, they were asked to describe as accurately as possible what they had seen. Either 1 day or 2 weeks later they were presented with their own statements, to which five misinformation items had been added. The results showed that people suffering from memory distrust accepted more misinformation than those with optimistic beliefs about their memory. In addition, both age and free recall seemed to modulate this relationship. However, memory evaluation did not interact with time interval. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Efficacy of a group memory training method for older adults based on visualization and association techniques: A randomized, controlled trial with a placebo group
Authors: Latorre Postigo José Miguel , Hernández‐Viadel José Vicente , Trives Jorge Javier Ricarte
Published: July 2009

The aim of this trial has been to determine the efficacy of a group memory training method. The experimental group was compared to a placebo group (health education) or to a control group (waiting list). Forty‐five adults between the ages of 60 and 70 years (M = 66.9) were recruited by placing notices in senior citizen community centres, which encouraged people with memory problems to participate in the study. Data were collected at baseline, 1 week, and 6 months after the intervention. The efficacy of the training was evaluated by measures of objective and subjective everyday memory performance. After intervention, the experimental group participants showed an increase in objective memory performance (d = 1.95). The effect size was even higher at 6 months after intervention (d = 2.88). Further, their subjective experience related to everyday memory slips decreased (d = −0.52). The memory training method was effective in improving everyday memory in older people with some cognitive decline. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Hydrogels in Regenerative Medicine
Authors: Slaughter Brandon V. , Khurshid Shahana S. , Fisher Omar Z. , Khademhosseini Ali , Peppas Nicholas A.
Published: July 2009

Hydrogels, due to their unique biocompatibility, flexible methods of synthesis, range of constituents, and desirable physical characteristics, have been the material of choice for many applications in regenerative medicine. They can serve as scaffolds that provide structural integrity to tissue constructs, control drug and protein delivery to tissues and cultures, and serve as adhesives or barriers between tissue and material surfaces. In this work, the properties of hydrogels that are important for tissue engineering applications and the inherent material design constraints and challenges are discussed. Recent research involving several different hydrogels polymerized from a variety of synthetic and natural monomers using typical and novel synthetic methods are highlighted. Finally, special attention is given to the microfabrication techniques that are currently resulting in important advances in the field.