bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Finding NMO: The Evolving Diagnostic Criteria of Neuromyelitis Optica
Authors: Bennett Jeffrey L.
Published: August 2016

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is an autoimmune demyelinating disorder of the central nervous system (CNS) with predilection for the optic nerves and spinal cord. Since its emergence in the medical literature in the late 1800's, the diagnostic criteria for NMO has slowly evolved from the simultaneous presentation of neurologic and ophthalmic signs to a relapsing or monophasic CNS disorder defined by clinical, neuroimaging, and laboratory criteria. Due to the identification of a specific autoantibody response against the astrocyte water channel aquaporin-4 (AQP4) in the vast majority of affected individuals, the clinical spectrum of NMO has greatly expanded necessitating the development of new international criteria for the diagnosis of NMO spectrum disorder (NMOSD). The routine application of new diagnostic criteria for NMOSD in clinical practice will be critical for future refinement and correlation with therapeutic outcomes.
Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight
Authors: Shepard Emily L. C. , Ross Andrew N. , Portugal Steven J.
Published: August 2016

One of the defining features of the aerial environment is its variability; air is almost never still. This has profound consequences for flying animals, affecting their flight stability, speed selection, energy expenditure and choice of flight path. All these factors have important implications for the ecology of flying animals, and the ecosystems they interact with, as well as providing bio-inspiration for the development of unmanned aerial vehicles. In this introduction, we touch on the factors that drive the variability in airflows, the scales of variability and the degree to which given airflows may be predictable. We then summarize how papers in this volume advance our understanding of the sensory, biomechanical, physiological and behavioural responses of animals to air flows. Overall, this provides insight into how flying animals can be so successful in this most fickle of environments.

This article is part of the themed issue ‘Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight’.
Evolution of avian flight: muscles and constraints on performance
Authors: Tobalske Bret W.
Published: August 2016

Competing hypotheses about evolutionary origins of flight are the ‘fundamental wing-stroke’ and ‘directed aerial descent’ hypotheses. Support for the fundamental wing-stroke hypothesis is that extant birds use flapping of their wings to climb even before they are able to fly; there are no reported examples of incrementally increasing use of wing movements in gliding transitioning to flapping. An open question is whether locomotor styles must evolve initially for efficiency or if they might instead arrive due to efficacy. The proximal muscles of the avian wing output work and power for flight, and new research is exploring functions of the distal muscles in relation to dynamic changes in wing shape. It will be useful to test the relative contributions of the muscles of the forearm compared with inertial and aerodynamic loading of the wing upon dynamic morphing. Body size has dramatic effects upon flight performance. New research has revealed that mass-specific muscle power declines with increasing body mass among species. This explains the constraints associated with being large. Hummingbirds are the only species that can sustain hovering. Their ability to generate force, work and power appears to be limited by time for activation and deactivation within their wingbeats of high frequency. Most small birds use flap-bounding flight, and this flight style may offer an energetic advantage over continuous flapping during fast flight or during flight into a headwind. The use of flap-bounding during slow flight remains enigmatic. Flap-bounding birds do not appear to be constrained to use their primary flight muscles in a fixed manner. To improve understanding of the functional significance of flap-bounding, the energetic costs and the relative use of alternative styles by a given species in nature merit study.

This article is part of the themed issue ‘Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight’.
Wake structure and kinematics in two insectivorous bats
Authors: Hubel Tatjana Y. , Hristov Nickolay I. , Swartz Sharon M. , Breuer Kenneth S.
Published: August 2016

We compare kinematics and wake structure over a range of flight speeds (4.0–8.2 m s−1) for two bats that pursue insect prey aerially,Tadarida brasiliensisandMyotis velifer. Body mass and wingspan are similar in these species, butM. veliferhas broader wings and lower wing loading. By using high-speed videography and particle image velocimetry of steady flight in a wind tunnel, we show that three-dimensional kinematics and wake structure are similar in the two species at the higher speeds studied, but differ at lower speeds. At lower speeds, the two species show significant differences in mean angle of attack, body–wingtip distance and sweep angle. The distinct body vortex seen at low speed inT. brasiliensisand other bats studied to date is considerably weaker or absent inM. velifer. We suggest that this could be influenced by morphology: (i) the narrower thorax in this species probably reduces the body-induced discontinuity in circulation between the two wings and (ii) the wing loading is lower, hence the lift coefficient required for weight support is lower. As a result, inM. velifer,there may be a decreased disruption in the lift generation between the body and the wing, and the strength of the characteristic root vortex is greatly diminished, both suggesting increased flight efficiency.

This article is part of the themed issue ‘Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight’.
Does hyperthermia constrain flight duration in a short-distance migrant?
Authors: Guillemette Magella , Woakes Anthony J. , Larochelle Jacques , Polymeropoulos Elias T. , Granbois Jean-Marc , Butler Patrick J. , Pelletier David , Frappell Peter B. , Portugal Steven J.
Published: August 2016

While some migratory birds perform non-stop flights of over 11 000 km, many species only spend around 15% of the day in flight during migration, posing a question as to why flight times for many species are so short. Here, we test the idea that hyperthermia might constrain flight duration (FD) in a short-distance migrant using remote biologging technology to measure heart rate, hydrostatic pressure and body temperature in 19 migrating eider ducks (Somateria mollissima), a short-distance migrant. Our results reveal a stop-and-go migration strategy where migratory flights were frequent (14 flights day−1) and short (15.7 min), together with the fact that body temperature increases by 1°C, on average, during such flights, which equates to a rate of heat storage index (HSI) of 4°C h−1. Furthermore, we could not find any evidence that short flights were limited by heart rate, together with the fact that the numerous stops could not be explained by the need to feed, as the frequency of dives and the time spent feeding were comparatively small during the migratory period. We thus conclude that hyperthermia appears to be the predominant determinant of the observed migration strategy, and suggest that such a physiological limitation to FD may also occur in other species.

This article is part of the themed issue ‘Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight’.
Into rude air: hummingbird flight performance in variable aerial environments
Authors: Ortega-Jimenez V. M. , Badger M. , Wang H. , Dudley R.
Published: August 2016

Hummingbirds are well known for their ability to sustain hovering flight, but many other remarkable features of manoeuvrability characterize the more than 330 species of trochilid. Most research on hummingbird flight has been focused on either forward flight or hovering in otherwise non-perturbed air. In nature, however, hummingbirds fly through and must compensate for substantial environmental perturbation, including heavy rain, unpredictable updraughts and turbulent eddies. Here, we review recent studies on hummingbirds flying within challenging aerial environments, and discuss both the direct and indirect effects of unsteady environmental flows such as rain and von Kármán vortex streets. Both perturbation intensity and the spatio-temporal scale of disturbance (expressed with respect to characteristic body size) will influence mechanical responses of volant taxa. Most features of hummingbird manoeuvrability remain undescribed, as do evolutionary patterns of flight-related adaptation within the lineage. Trochilid flight performance under natural conditions far exceeds that of microair vehicles at similar scales, and the group as a whole presents many research opportunities for understanding aerial manoeuvrability.

This article is part of the themed issue ‘Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight’.
Flight of the dragonflies and damselflies
Authors: Bomphrey Richard J. , Nakata Toshiyuki , Henningsson Per , Lin Huai-Ti
Published: August 2016

This work is a synthesis of our current understanding of the mechanics, aerodynamics and visually mediated control of dragonfly and damselfly flight, with the addition of new experimental and computational data in several key areas. These are: the diversity of dragonfly wing morphologies, the aerodynamics of gliding flight, force generation in flapping flight, aerodynamic efficiency, comparative flight performance and pursuit strategies during predatory and territorial flights. New data are set in context by brief reviews covering anatomy at several scales, insect aerodynamics, neuromechanics and behaviour. We achieve a new perspective by means of a diverse range of techniques, including laser-line mapping of wing topographies, computational fluid dynamics simulations of finely detailed wing geometries, quantitative imaging using particle image velocimetry of on-wing and wake flow patterns, classical aerodynamic theory, photography in the field, infrared motion capture and multi-camera optical tracking of free flight trajectories in laboratory environments. Our comprehensive approach enables a novel synthesis of datasets and subfields that integrates many aspects of flight from the neurobiology of the compound eye, through the aeromechanical interface with the surrounding fluid, to flight performance under cruising and higher-energy behavioural modes.

This article is part of the themed issue ‘Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight’.
Biomechanics and biomimetics in insect-inspired flight systems
Authors: Liu Hao , Ravi Sridhar , Kolomenskiy Dmitry , Tanaka Hiroto
Published: August 2016

Insect- and bird-size drones—micro air vehicles (MAV) that can perform autonomous flight in natural and man-made environments are now an active and well-integrated research area. MAVs normally operate at a low speed in a Reynolds number regime of 104–105or lower, in which most flying animals of insects, birds and bats fly, and encounter unconventional challenges in generating sufficient aerodynamic forces to stay airborne and in controlling flight autonomy to achieve complex manoeuvres. Flying insects that power and control flight by flapping wings are capable of sophisticated aerodynamic force production and precise, agile manoeuvring, through an integrated system consisting of wings to generate aerodynamic force, muscles to move the wings and a control system to modulate power output from the muscles. In this article, we give a selective review on the state of the art of biomechanics in bioinspired flight systems in terms of flapping and flexible wing aerodynamics, flight dynamics and stability, passive and active mechanisms in stabilization and control, as well as flapping flight in unsteady environments. We further highlight recent advances in biomimetics of flapping-wing MAVs with a specific focus on insect-inspired wing design and fabrication, as well as sensing systems.

This article is part of the themed issue ‘Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight’.
Foraging at the edge of the world: low-altitude, high-speed manoeuvering in barn swallows
Authors: Warrick Douglas R. , Hedrick Tyson L. , Biewener Andrew A. , Crandell Kristen E. , Tobalske Bret W.
Published: August 2016

While prior studies of swallow manoeuvering have focused on slow-speed flight and obstacle avoidance in still air, swallows survive by foraging at high speeds in windy environments. Recent advances in field-portable, high-speed video systems, coupled with precise anemometry, permit measures of high-speed aerial performance of birds in a natural state. We undertook the present study to test: (i) the manner in which barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) may exploit wind dynamics and ground effect while foraging and (ii) the relative importance of flapping versus gliding for accomplishing high-speed manoeuvers. Using multi-camera videography synchronized with wind-velocity measurements, we tracked coursing manoeuvers in pursuit of prey. Wind speed averaged 1.3–2.0 m s−1across the atmospheric boundary layer, exhibiting a shear gradient greater than expected, with instantaneous speeds of 0.02–6.1 m s−1. While barn swallows tended to flap throughout turns, they exhibited reduced wingbeat frequency, relying on glides and partial bounds during maximal manoeuvers. Further, the birds capitalized on the near-earth wind speed gradient to gain kinetic and potential energy during both flapping and gliding turns; providing evidence that such behaviour is not limited to large, fixed-wing soaring seabirds and that exploitation of wind gradients by small aerial insectivores may be a significant aspect of their aeroecology.

This article is part of the themed issue ‘Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight'.
Negotiating an ecological barrier: crossing the Sahara in relation to winds by common swifts
Authors: Åkesson Susanne , Bianco Giuseppe , Hedenström Anders
Published: August 2016

The Sahara Desert is one of the largest land-based barriers on the Earth, crossed twice each year by billions of birds on migration. Here we investigate how common swifts migrating between breeding sites in Sweden and wintering areas in sub-Saharan Africa perform the desert crossing with respect to route choice, winds, timing and speed of migration by analysing 72 geolocator tracks recording migration. The swifts cross western Sahara on a broad front in autumn, while in spring they seem to use three alternative routes across the Sahara, a western, a central and an eastern route across the Arabian Peninsula, with most birds using the western route. The swifts show slower migration and travel speeds, and make longer detours with more stops in autumn compared with spring. In spring, the stopover period in West Africa coincided with mostly favourable winds, but birds remained in the area, suggesting fuelling. The western route provided more tailwind assistance compared with the central route for our tracked swifts in spring, but not in autumn. The ultimate explanation for the evolution of a preferred western route is presumably a combination of matching rich foraging conditions (swarming insects) and favourable winds enabling fast spring migration.

This article is part of the themed issue ‘Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight’.
Fine-scale flight strategies of gulls in urban airflows indicate risk and reward in city living
Authors: Shepard Emily L. C. , Williamson Cara , Windsor Shane P.
Published: August 2016

Birds modulate their flight paths in relation to regional and global airflows in order to reduce their travel costs. Birds should also respond to fine-scale airflows, although the incidence and value of this remains largely unknown. We resolved the three-dimensional trajectories of gulls flying along a built-up coastline, and used computational fluid dynamic models to examine how gulls reacted to airflows around buildings. Birds systematically altered their flight trajectories with wind conditions to exploit updraughts over features as small as a row of low-rise buildings. This provides the first evidence that human activities can change patterns of space-use in flying birds by altering the profitability of the airscape. At finer scales still, gulls varied their position to select a narrow range of updraught values, rather than exploiting the strongest updraughts available, and their precise positions were consistent with a strategy to increase their velocity control in gusty conditions. Ultimately, strategies such as these could help unmanned aerial vehicles negotiate complex airflows. Overall, airflows around fine-scale features have profound implications for flight control and energy use, and consideration of this could lead to a paradigm-shift in the way ecologists view the urban environment.

This article is part of the themed issue ‘Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight’.
Flap or soar? How a flight generalist responds to its aerial environment
Authors: Shamoun-Baranes Judy , Bouten Willem , van Loon E. Emiel , Meijer Christiaan , Camphuysen C. J.
Published: August 2016

The aerial environment is heterogeneous in space and time and directly influences the costs of animal flight. Volant animals can reduce these costs by using different flight modes, each with their own benefits and constraints. However, the extent to which animals alter their flight modes in response to environmental conditions has rarely been studied in the wild. To provide insight into how a flight generalist can reduce the energetic cost of movement, we studied flight behaviour in relation to the aerial environmental and landscape using hundreds of hours of global positioning system and triaxial acceleration measurements of the lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus). Individuals differed largely in the time spent in flight, which increased linearly with the time spent in flight at sea. In general, flapping was used more frequently than more energetically efficient soaring flight. The probability of soaring increased with increasing boundary layer height and time closer to midday, reflecting improved convective conditions supportive of thermal soaring. Other forms of soaring flight were also used, including fine-scale use of orographic lift. We explore the energetic consequences of behavioural adaptations to the aerial environment and underlying landscape and implications for individual energy budgets, foraging ecology and reproductive success.

This article is part of the themed issue ‘Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight’.
Ecology of tern flight in relation to wind, topography and aerodynamic theory
Authors: Hedenström Anders , Åkesson Susanne
Published: August 2016

Flight is an economical mode of locomotion, because it is both fast and relatively cheap per unit of distance, enabling birds to migrate long distances and obtain food over large areas. The power required to fly follows a U-shaped function in relation to airspeed, from which context dependent ‘optimal’ flight speeds can be derived. Crosswinds will displace birds away from their intended track unless they make compensatory adjustments of heading and airspeed. We report on flight track measurements in five geometrically similar tern species ranging one magnitude in body mass, from both migration and the breeding season at the island of Öland in the Baltic Sea. When leaving the southern point of Öland, migrating Arctic and common terns made a 60° shift in track direction, probably guided by a distant landmark. Terns adjusted both airspeed and heading in relation to tail and side wind, where coastlines facilitated compensation. Airspeed also depended on ecological context (searching versus not searching for food), and it increased with flock size. Species-specific maximum range speed agreed with predicted speeds from a new aerodynamic theory. Our study shows that the selection of airspeed is a behavioural trait that depended on a complex blend of internal and external factors.

This article is part of the themed issue ‘Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight’.
Decision-making by a soaring bird: time, energy and risk considerations at different spatio-temporal scales
Authors: Harel Roi , Duriez Olivier , Spiegel Orr , Fluhr Julie , Horvitz Nir , Getz Wayne M. , Bouten Willem , Sarrazin François , Hatzofe Ohad , Nathan Ran
Published: August 2016

Natural selection theory suggests that mobile animals trade off time, energy and risk costs with food, safety and other pay-offs obtained by movement. We examined how birds make movement decisions by integrating aspects of flight biomechanics, movement ecology and behaviour in a hierarchical framework investigating flight track variation across several spatio-temporal scales. Using extensive global positioning system and accelerometer data from Eurasian griffon vultures (
Gyps fulvus
) in Israel and France, we examined soaring–gliding decision-making by comparing inbound versus outbound flights (to or from a central roost, respectively), and these (and other) home-range foraging movements (up to 300 km) versus long-range movements (longer than 300 km). We found that long-range movements and inbound flights have similar features compared with their counterparts: individuals reduced journey time by performing more efficient soaring–gliding flight, reduced energy expenditure by flapping less and were more risk-prone by gliding more steeply between thermals. Age, breeding status, wind conditions and flight altitude (but not sex) affected time and energy prioritization during flights. We therefore suggest that individuals facing time, energy and risk trade-offs during movements make similar decisions across a broad range of ecological contexts and spatial scales, presumably owing to similarity in the uncertainty about movement outcomes.

This article is part of the themed issue ‘Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight’.
Soaring energetics and glide performance in a moving atmosphere
Authors: Taylor Graham K. , Reynolds Kate V. , Thomas Adrian L. R.
Published: August 2016

Here, we analyse the energetics, performance and optimization of flight in a moving atmosphere. We begin by deriving a succinct expression describing all of the mechanical energy flows associated with gliding, dynamic soaring and thermal soaring, which we use to explore the optimization of gliding in an arbitrary wind. We use this optimization to revisit the classical theory of the glide polar, which we expand upon in two significant ways. First, we compare the predictions of the glide polar for different species under the various published models. Second, we derive a glide optimization chart that maps every combination of headwind and updraft speed to the unique combination of airspeed and inertial sink rate at which the aerodynamic cost of transport is expected to be minimized. With these theoretical tools in hand, we test their predictions using empirical data collected from a captive steppe eagle (Aquila nipalensis) carrying an inertial measurement unit, global positioning system, barometer and pitot tube. We show that the bird adjusts airspeed in relation to headwind speed as expected if it were seeking to minimize its aerodynamic cost of transport, but find only weak evidence to suggest that it adjusts airspeed similarly in response to updrafts during straight and interthermal glides.

This article is part of the themed issue ‘Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight’.
Memory Replay in Balanced Recurrent Networks
Authors: Chenkov Nikolay , Sprekeler Henning , Kempter Richard
Published: August 2016

Complex patterns of neural activity appear during up-states in the neocortex and sharp waves in the hippocampus, including sequences that resemble those during prior behavioral experience. The mechanisms underlying this replay are not well understood. How can small synaptic footprints engraved by experience control large-scale network activity during memory retrieval and consolidation? We hypothesize that sparse and weak synaptic connectivity between Hebbian assemblies are boosted by pre-existing recurrent connectivity within them. To investigate this idea, we connect sequences of assemblies in randomly connected spiking neuronal networks with a balance of excitation and inhibition. Simulations and analytical calculations show that recurrent connections within assemblies allow for a fast amplification of signals that indeed reduces the required number of inter-assembly connections. Replay can be evoked by small sensory-like cues or emerge spontaneously by activity fluctuations. Global—potentially neuromodulatory—alterations of neuronal excitability can switch between network states that favor retrieval and consolidation.

Author Summary

Synaptic plasticity is the basis for learning and memory, and many experiments indicate that memories are imprinted in synaptic connections. However, basic mechanisms of how such memories are retrieved and consolidated remain unclear. In particular, how can one-shot learning of a sequence of events achieve a sufficiently strong synaptic footprint to retrieve or replay this sequence? Using both numerical simulations of spiking neural networks and an analytic approach, we provide a biologically plausible model for understanding how minute synaptic changes in a recurrent network can nevertheless be retrieved by small cues or even manifest themselves as activity patterns that emerge spontaneously. We show how the retrieval of exceedingly small changes in the connections across assemblies is robustly facilitated by recurrent connectivity within assemblies. This interaction between recurrent amplification within an assembly and the feed-forward propagation of activity across the network establishes a basis for the retrieval of memories.
Climate justice: contested discourse and social transformation
Authors: Scandrett Eurig
Published: August 2016

Purpose

This paper aims to argue that climate justice constitutes a contested discourse reflecting the material interests of social groups that contribute to its production. For climate justice to have integrity, it must be rooted in the material interests of those social groups negatively affected by, and engaged in struggles against, the hydrocarbon economy. The paper locates contestation of discourse production in an understanding of social movement processes.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is a theoretical contribution to the debate about climate justice, drawing on data (published and unpublished) from Scotland.

Findings

The paper concludes that scholars engaged in climate justice work should have consideration to the material interest embedded in the discourse. The pedagogical and dialogical work of engagement with the militant particularism of local struggles against the hydrocarbon industry is an important contribution to discourse construction, and ultimately social transformation is required to achieve climate justice.

Research limitations/implications

This is primarily a theoretical paper, although it draws on limited case study data from environmental conflicts in Scotland.

Practical implications

The argument has practical implications for work in climate justice, including research, policy development and social movement mobilisation.

Social implications

This is intended as a contribution to the social transformation required to achieve climate justice.

Originality/value

The paper draws on existing theoretical frameworks, especially Marxian approaches to discourse and social movement studies, to critique and contribute to the newly developing field of climate justice.
Prophetic blogger identification based on buzzword prediction ability
Authors: Zhang Jianwei , Tomonaga Seiya , Nakajima Shinsuke , Inagaki Yoichi , Nakamoto Reyn
Published: August 2016

Purpose

Identifying important users from social media has recently attracted much attention in the information and knowledge management community. Although researchers have focused on users’ knowledge levels on certain topics or influence degrees on other users in social networks, previous works have not studied users’ prediction ability on future popularity. This paper aims to propose a novel approach to find prophetic bloggers based on their buzzword prediction ability.

Design/methodology/approach

The main approach is to conduct a time-series analysis in the blogosphere considering four factors: post earliness, content similarity, entry frequency and buzzword coverage. Our method has four steps: categorizing a blogger into knowledgeable categories, identifying past buzzwords, analyzing a buzzword’s peak time content and growth period and, finally, evaluating a blogger’s prediction ability on a buzzword and on a category.

Findings

Experimental results on real-world blog data consisting of 150 million entries from 11 million bloggers demonstrate that the proposed approach can find prophetic bloggers and outperforms others that do not take temporal features into account.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, our approach is the first successful attempt to identify prophetic bloggers. Finding prophetic bloggers can bring great values for two reasons. First, as prophetic bloggers tend to post creative and insightful information, analysis on their blog entries may help find future buzzword candidates. Second, communication with prophetic bloggers can help understand future trends, gain insight into early adopters’ thoughts on new technology or even foresee things that will become popular.
H-SPOOL
Authors: Komamizu Takahiro , Amagasa Toshiyuki , Kitagawa Hiroyuki
Published: August 2016

Purpose

Linked data (LD) has promoted publishing information, and links published information. There are increasing number of LD datasets containing numerical data such as statistics. For this reason, analyzing numerical facts on LD has attracted attentions from diverse domains. This paper aims to support analytical processing for LD data.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper proposes a framework called H-SPOOL which provides series of SPARQL (SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language) queries extracting objects and attributes from LD data sets, converts them into star/snowflake schemas and materializes relevant triples as fact and dimension tables for online analytical processing (OLAP).

Findings

The applicability of H-SPOOL is evaluated using exiting LD data sets on the Web, and H-SPOOL successfully processes the LD data sets to ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) for OLAP. Besides, experiments show that H-SPOOL reduces the number of downloaded triples comparing with existing approach.

Originality/value

H-SPOOL is the first work for extracting OLAP-related information from SPARQL endpoints, and H-SPOOL drastically reduces the amount of downloaded triples.
Implicit communication robots based on automatic scenario generation using web intelligence
Authors: Mashimo Ryo , Kitamura Tatsuya , Umetani Tomohiro , Nadamoto Akiyo
Published: August 2016

Purpose

This paper aims to propose a system that generates dialogue scenarios automatically in real time from Web news articles. Then, the authors used the Manzai metaphor, a form of Japanese traditional humorous comedy, in the system. The generated Manzai scenario consists of snappy patter and a humorous misunderstanding of dialogue based on the gap of our structure of funny points. The authors create communication robots to amuse people with the generated humorous robot dialogue scenarios.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors propose the following: how to generate funny dialogue-based scenario from Web news and Web intelligence, automatically? How to create direction of robots based on the pre-experiment? The authors conducted experiments from three viewpoints, namely, effectiveness of Manzai scenarios as content, effectiveness of Manzai-Robots as a medium and familiarity of Manzai-Robots.

Findings

In this paper, the authors find two points, namely, the new communication style called “human–robots implicit communication-and bridging the knowledge gap using Web intelligence, to communicate smoothly between humans and robots.

Originality/value

Numerous studies have examined communication robots that mutually communicate with people. However, for several reasons, communicating smoothly with people is difficult for robots. One reason is the problem of communication style. Another is knowledge gaps separating humans and robots. The authors propose a new communication style to solve the problems and designate the communication style based on dialogue between robots as “human-robot implicit communication”. The authors then create communication robots to communicate with people naturally, smoothly and with familiarity according to their dialogue.
Evaluations of lipid peroxidation and inflammation in short‐term glycerol‐induced acute kidney injury in rats
Authors: Nara Akina , Yajima Daisuke , Nagasawa Sayaka , Abe Hiroko , Hoshioka Yumi , Iwase Hirotaro
Published: August 2016

Rhabdomyolysis is characterised by acute kidney injury (AKI) resulting from skeletal muscle injury. Lipid peroxidation‐mediated oxidant injury and pro‐inflammatory cytokine‐mediated inflammatory response play critical roles in the pathogenesis of rhabdomyolysis‐induced AKI. The present study aimed to investigate the short‐term effects of both lipid peroxidation and inflammatory responses on rhabdomyolysis‐induced AKI in a rat model of glycerol‐induced rhabdomyolysis. Rhabdomyolysis was induced by the intramuscular injection of 50% glycerol in saline (10 mL/kg) into the hind limbs of rats. Rats were killed 1 or 3 hours after glycerol injection. Time‐dependent increases in serum biochemical parameters, including blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, lactate dehydrogenase and creatine phosphokinase levels, were observed 1 hour after glycerol injection. In kidneys, glycerol injection resulted in histopathological changes such as renal tubular injury and renal tubular myoglobin deposition. Levels of Nε‐(hexanoyl)lysine‐modified, 4‐hydroxy‐2‐nonenal‐modified, and nitrotyrosine‐modified proteins in rat kidneys were unaltered at 1 hour after glycerol injection, but increased significantly at 3 hours. Increases in renal nitric oxide production and the expression levels of inducible nitric oxide synthase, interleukin‐6 and tumour necrosis factor‐α in the renal parenchyma were observed at 1 hour after glycerol injection and plateaued at 3 hours. Our findings suggest that the pro‐inflammatory cytokine‐mediated inflammatory response may cause rhabdomyolysis‐induced AKI very shortly after glycerol injection, and lipid peroxidation‐mediated oxidant injury may promote the development of these pathophysiological processes.
Antipodean agricultural and resource economics – introduction
Authors: Alston Julian M. , Anderson Kym , Pardey Philip G.
Published: August 2016

In February 2016, the 60th Annual Conference of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society (AARES) was held in Canberra, 20 years since we added ‘and Resources’ to the Society's name and Journal. As one way of commemorating those anniversaries, a pre‐Conference workshop was held to highlight the contributions of the Society's agricultural and resource economists. Papers were solicited with the expectation that they would be presented in a way that is accessible for the broad membership of the Society and that revisions would be published along with reviewer comments in the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics (AJARE). This Special Issue is the upshot. This article introduces the Issue and the other articles in it.
The WHO application of ICD‐10 to deaths during the perinatal period (ICD‐PM): results from pilot database testing in South Africa and United Kingdom
Authors: Allanson ER , Tunçalp Ö , Gardosi J , Pattinson RC , Francis A , Vogel JP , Erwich JJHM , Flenady VJ , Frøen JF , Neilson J , Quach A , Chou D , Mathai M , Say L , Gülmezoglu AM
Published: August 2016

Objective

To apply the World Health Organization (WHO) Application of the International Classification of Diseases, tenth revision (ICD‐10) to deaths during the perinatal period: ICD‐Perinatal Mortality (ICD‐PM) to existing perinatal death databases.

Design

Retrospective application of ICD‐PM.

Setting

South Africa, UK.

Population

Perinatal death databases.

Methods

Deaths were grouped according to timing of death and then by the ICD‐PM cause of death. The main maternal condition at the time of perinatal death was assigned to each case.

Main outcome measures

Causes of perinatal mortality, associated maternal conditions.

Results

In South Africa 344/689 (50%) deaths occurred antepartum, 11% (n = 74) intrapartum and 39% (n = 271) in the early neonatal period. In the UK 4377/9067 (48.3%) deaths occurred antepartum, with 457 (5%) intrapartum and 4233 (46.7%) in the neonatal period. Antepartum deaths were due to unspecified causes (59%), chromosomal abnormalities (21%) or problems related to fetal growth (14%). Intrapartum deaths followed acute intrapartum events (69%); neonatal deaths followed consequences of low birthweight/ prematurity (31%), chromosomal abnormalities (26%), or unspecified causes in healthy mothers (25%). Mothers were often healthy; 53%, 38% and 45% in the antepartum, intrapartum and neonatal death groups, respectively. Where there was a maternal condition, it was most often maternal medical conditions, and complications of placenta, cord and membranes.

Conclusions

The ICD‐PM can be a globally applicable perinatal death classification system that emphasises the need for a focus on the mother—baby dyad as we move beyond 2015.

Tweetable abstract

ICD‐PM is a global system that classifies perinatal deaths and links them to maternal conditions.
Mortgage Shoppers: How Much Do They Save?
Authors: Damen Sven , Buyst Erik
Published: August 2016

Survey evidence suggests that many U.S. and European consumers do not spend a lot of time comparing mortgage products. We show, however, that mortgage shopping is associated with a substantial monetary payoff, using a unique data set from a website where borrowers (not the lenders) can post their complete set of received mortgage rate offers. A borrower who shops for five mortgage offers is able to save 7,078 euros in net present value on average. The potential savings suggest suboptimal mortgage shopping as the opportunity cost of time to renegotiate additional quotes is unlikely to be that high.
A New Age forQuercusspp. Fruits: Review on Nutritional and Phytochemical Composition and Related Biological Activities of Acorns
Authors: Vinha Ana F. , Barreira João C. M. , Costa Anabela S.G. , Oliveira M. Beatriz P. P.
Published: August 2016

The current global food system must adapt to the expected growth of world population (about 9 billion individuals by 2050). This adaptation will probably include an increased consumption of edible wild foods, due to their richness in micronutrients and bioactive compounds, besides providing a cost‐effective and sustainable way of improving caloric food security. A striking example of such natural matrices is theQuercusgenus, which has the additional advantage of being widespread throughout the Northern Hemisphere. In a traditional sense,Quercusfruits (acorns) were mainly used in animal feeding, despite their potentially important role on the rural economy. But this preconception is changing. In fact, their nutritional value, high contents in phytochemical compounds, biological activity (such as antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, and cardioprotective properties) and use in the treatment of specific diseases (such as atherosclerosis, diabetes, or Alzheimer's disease) have raised the interest in integrating acorns into the human diet. Accordingly, this comprehensive overview was designed to provide an evidence‐based review of the literature, with the objective to achieve useful conclusions regarding the nutritional properties, methodologies of extraction, identification, and characterization of a wide variety of bioactive compounds and scientifically validated bioactivities inQuercusspecies worldwide. The industrial by‐products from acorn oil extraction or flour production are also included. Data regarding the analytical techniques, individual compounds, and their bioactivities, are organized in tables. The reported data are discussed and directions for further investigations are suggested, highlighting the use of acorns in food, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical applications.
Applying Disruptive Preference Test Protocols to Increase the Number of “No Preference” Responses in the Placebo Pair, Using Chinese Consumers
Authors: Xia Yixun , Zhong Fang , O'Mahony Michael
Published: August 2016

One form of paired preference test protocol requires consumers to assess 2 pairs of products. One is the target pair under consideration, while the other is a putatively identical pair named the “placebo pair” which is also presented as a control. Counterintuitively, the majority of consumers report preferences when presented with the placebo pair. Their response frequencies are hypothesized to be those of consumers having “no preference” and are compared with the response frequencies elicited by a target pair, to determine whether the target pair elicits significant preferences. The primary goal of this paper was to study the robustness of 2 new so called disruptive protocols that reduced the proportion of consumers, who reported preferences when assessing a putatively identical pair of products. For this task, the tests were performed in a different language, in a different country, using different products from before. The results showed that the proportion of consumers reporting preferences for the placebo pair was reduced, confirming earlier work. Also, comparison of dʹ values showed a lack of significant overall differences between the placebo and target pairs, while chi‐squared analyses indicated significant differences in the response frequencies. This indicated that the sample was segmented into 2 balanced groups with opposing preferences.
Mechanism of Different Stereoisomeric Astaxanthin in Resistance to Oxidative Stress in Caenorhabditis elegans
Authors: Liu Xiaojuan , Luo Qingxin , Cao Yong , Goulette Timothy , Liu Xin , Xiao Hang
Published: August 2016

As a potent antioxidant in human diet, astaxanthin (AST) may play important roles in alleviating oxidative stress‐driven adverse physiological effects. This study examined the effects of different stereoisomers of AST in protecting Caenorhabditis elegans from chemically induced oxidative stress. Three stereoisomers of AST investigated herein included 3S,3´S (S) AST, 3R,3´R (R) AST, and a statistical mixture (S: meso: R = 1:2:1) (M) AST. Under paraquat‐induced oxidative conditions, all three types of AST significantly enhanced survival rate of C. elegans. The accumulation levels of ROS in the worms were reduced by 40.12%, 30.05%, and 22.04% by S, R, and M AST, respectively (P < 0.05). Compared with R and M AST, S significantly enhanced the expression levels of SOD‐3. The results of RNA‐Seq analysis demonstrated that AST protected C. elegans from oxidative damage potentially by modulating genes involved in the insulin/insulin‐like growth factor (IGF) signaling (IIS) pathway and the oxidoreductase system. It is noteworthy that different stereoisomers of AST showed different effects on the expression levels of various genes related with oxidative stress. This study revealed important information on the in vivo antioxidative effects of AST stereoisomers, which might provide useful information for better utilization of AST.
Effect of Gradual Heating and Fat/Oil Type on Fat Stability, Texture, Color, and Microstructure of Meat Batters
Authors: Barbut S. , Youssef M. K.
Published: August 2016

The effects of endpoint cooking temperature (40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90 °C) on emulsion stability, texture, color, and microstructure of meat batters prepared with different fats/oils were studied. Canola oil treatments showed the highest cooking loss whereas hydrogenated palm oil provided the most stable meat batters. Rendered beef fat was less stable than regular beef fat. Increasing endpoint cooking temperatures resulted in a progressive reduction of water holding capacity in all treatments. As temperature was raised, meat batters showed higher hardness and cohesiveness values, but no appreciable changes in cohesiveness above 60 °C. Canola and hydrogenated palm oil treatments showed the highest hardness and chewiness values. Lightness (L*) values of all meat batters increased significantly with increasing temperature from 40 to 60 or 70 °C; no major changes observed above 70 °C. Light microscopy revealed no substantial changes in the microstructure of all the stable meat batters cooked to between 50 and 70 °C. Heating to 90 °C changed the microstructure in all meat batters except the hydrogenated palm oil treatments, which still showed nonround fat particles and a less aggregated protein matrix.
Variations in target volume definition and dose to normal tissue using anatomic versus biological imaging (18F‐FDG‐PET) in the treatment of bone metastases: results from a 3‐arm randomized phase II trial
Authors: Berwouts Dieter , De Wolf Katrien , De Neve Wilfried , Olteanu Luiza AM , Lambert Bieke , Speleers Bruno , Goethals Ingeborg , Madani Indira , Ost Piet
Published: August 2016

Introduction

To report the impact on target volume delineation and dose to normal tissue using anatomic versus biological imaging (18F‐FDG‐PET) for bone metastases.

Methods

Patients with uncomplicated painful bone metastases were randomized (1:1:1) and blinded to receive either 8 Gy in a single fraction with conventionally planned radiotherapy (ConvRT‐8 Gy) or 8 Gy in a single fraction with dose‐painting‐by‐numbers (DPBN) dose range between 6 and 10 Gy) (DPBN‐8 Gy) or 16 Gy in a single fraction with DPBN (dose range between 14 and 18 Gy) (DPBN‐16 Gy). The primary endpoint was overall pain response at 1 month. Volumes of the gross tumour volume (GTV) – both biological (GTVPET) and anatomical (GTVCT) ‐, planning target volume (PTV), dose to the normal tissue and maximum standardized‐uptake values (SUVMAX) were analysed (secondary endpoint).

Results

Sixty‐three percent of the GTVCT volume did not show 18F‐FDG‐uptake. On average, 20% of the GTVPET volume was outside GTVCT. The volume of normal tissue receiving 4 Gy, 6 Gy and 8 Gy was at least 3×, 6× and 13× smaller in DPBN‐8 Gy compared to ConvRT‐8 Gy and DPBN‐16 Gy (P < 0.05).

Conclusion

Positron emitting tomography‐information potentially changes the target volume for bone metastases. DPBN between 6 and 10 Gy significantly decreases dose to the normal tissue compared to conventional radiotherapy.