bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Unraveling the mechanistic complexity of Alzheimer's disease through systems biology
Authors: Rollo Jennifer L. , Banihashemi Nahid , Vafaee Fatemeh , Crawford John W. , Kuncic Zdenka , Holsinger R.M. Damian
Published: December 2015

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a complex, multifactorial disease that has reached global epidemic proportions. The challenge remains to fully identify its underlying molecular mechanisms that will enable development of accurate diagnostic tools and therapeutics. Conventional experimental approaches that target individual or small sets of genes or proteins may overlook important parts of the regulatory network, which limits the opportunity of identifying multitarget interventions. Our perspective is that a more complete insight into potential treatment options for AD will only be made possible through studying the disease as a system. We propose an integrative systems biology approach that we argue has been largely untapped in AD research. We present key publications to demonstrate the value of this approach and discuss the potential to intensify research efforts in AD through transdisciplinary collaboration. We highlight challenges and opportunities for significant breakthroughs that could be made if a systems biology approach is fully exploited.
Sustainability in multi‐tier supply chains: Understanding the double agency role of the first‐tier supplier
Authors: Wilhelm Miriam M. , Blome Constantin , Bhakoo Vikram , Paulraj Antony
Published: December 2015

In light of the growing complexity of globally dispersed, multi‐tier supply chains, the involvement of first‐tier suppliers has become instrumental in the quest for achieving sustainability compliance along the supply chain. We describe this new responsibility as the double agency role. We employ agency and institutional theory arguments to explore the conditions under which first‐tier suppliers will act as agents who fulfill the lead firm's sustainability requirements (i.e., the primary agency role) and implement these requirements in their suppliers' operations (i.e., the secondary agency role). The findings from three in‐depth case studies embedded in different institutional contexts highlight the importance for lead firms to incentivize each agency role separately and to reduce information asymmetries, particularly at the second‐tier level. In addition, our inductive analysis reveals several contingency factors that influence the coupling of the secondary agency role of the first‐tier supplier. These factors include resource availability at the first‐tier supplier's firm, the lead firm's focus on the triple‐bottom‐line dimension (i.e., environmental or social), the lead firm's use of power, and the lead firm's internal alignment of the sustainability and purchasing function. We integrate our findings in a conceptual framework that advances the research agenda on multi‐tier sustainable supply chains, and we subsequently outline the practical implications of assigning the double agency role to first tier suppliers.
Holocene glacier fluctuations inferred from lacustrine sediment, Emerald Lake, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Authors: LaBrecque Taylor S. , Kaufman Darrell S.
Published: December 2015

Physical and biological characteristics of lacustrine sediment from Emerald Lake were used to reconstruct the Holocene glacier history of Grewingk Glacier, southern Alaska. Emerald Lake is an ice-marginal threshold lake, receiving glaciofluvial sediment when Grewingk Glacier overtops the topographic divide that separates it from the lake. Sub-bottom acoustical profiles were used to locate core sites to maximize both the length and resolution of the sedimentary sequence recovered in the 4-m-long cores. The age model for the composite sequence is based on 13 14C ages and a 210Pb profile. A sharp transition from the basal inorganic mud to organic-rich mud at 11.4 ± 0.2 ka marks the initial retreat of Grewingk Glacier below the divide of Emerald Lake. The overlaying organic-rich mud is interrupted by stony mud that records a re-advance between 10.7 ± 0.2 and 9.8 ± 0.2 ka. The glacier did not spill meltwater into the lake again until the Little Ice Age, consistent with previously documented Little Ice Ages advances on the Kenai Peninsula. The retreat of Grewingk Glacier at 11.4 ka took place as temperature increased following the Younger Dryas, and the subsequent re-advance corresponds with a climate reversal beginning around 11 ka across southern Alaska.
The Role of Magical Thinking, Religiosity and Thought-Control Strategies in Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms in a Turkish Adult Sample
Authors: Eremsoy C. Ekin , Inozu Mujgan
Published: December 2015

Background:It has been suggested that magical thinking is related to both obsessions and compulsions in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Recent studies have indicated the significant relationship between level of religiosity and beliefs about the importance and need to control unwanted thoughts in OCD. People also use diverse strategies to control their unwanted thoughts.Aims:The present study aimed to examine the interrelationships between magical thinking and worry and punishment as thought-control strategies in mediating the relationship between religiosity and obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms in a Turkish sample.Methods:The sample of the present study was comprised of 179 non-clinical, community-based participants who completed measures of OC symptoms (measured with the Obsessive Compulsive Inventory — Revised), magical thinking (measured with the Magical Ideation Scale), religiosity, and thought-control strategies (measured with the Thought Control Questionnaire).Results:Both worry and punishment as thought-control strategies and magical thinking mediated the links between religiosity and OC symptoms. Furthermore, the relationship between religiosity and OC symptoms was mediated by magical thinking through punishment and worry.Conclusions:Findings pointing out the mediating role of magical thinking through punishment and worry in the relationship between religiosity and OC symptoms are novel and need to be replicated in future studies.
Schoenberg and Hollywood Modernism
Authors: Marcus Kenneth H.
Published: December 2015

Schoenberg is often viewed as an isolated composer who was ill-at-ease in exile. In this book Kenneth H. Marcus shows that in fact Schoenberg's connections to Hollywood ran deep, and most of the composer's exile compositions had some connection to the cultural and intellectual environment in which he found himself. He was friends with numerous successful film industry figures, including George Gershwin, Oscar Levant, David Raksin and Alfred Newman, and each contributed to the composer's life and work in different ways: helping him to obtain students, making recordings of his music, and arranging commissions. While teaching at both the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles, Schoenberg was able to bridge two utterly different worlds: the film industry and the academy. Marcus shows that alongside Schoenberg's vital impact upon Southern California Modernism through his pedagogy, compositions and texts, he also taught students who became central to American musical modernism, including John Cage and Lou Harrison.
Chomsky
Authors: Smith Neil , Allott Nicholas
Published: December 2015

Noam Chomsky continues to be one of the most influential intellectual figures of modern times. His wide-ranging contributions to the fields of linguistics, psychology, philosophy and politics have revolutionised our view of language, the mind and human nature. Assuming no prior knowledge of linguistics, this book explores Chomsky's key theories, especially recent developments in his Minimalist Program, addressing issues such as: how do we know a language? How do children acquire this knowledge? How did language evolve? This third edition has been expanded and thoroughly updated and includes an exploration of Chomsky's contributions to philosophy and psychology, outlining the impact of his radical and often controversial views. It concludes with an account of his political activism and his critique of recent developments such as the Arab Spring, Wikileaks and the Occupy movement. There is also a new section covering his views on climate change and nuclear disarmament.
Static and Evolutive Treaty Interpretation
Authors: Djeffal Christian
Published: December 2015

How should international treaties be interpreted over time? This book offers fresh insights on this age-old question. The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) sets out the rules for interpretation, stipulating that treaties should be interpreted inter alia according to the 'ordinary meaning' of the text. Evolutive interpretation has been considered since the times of Gentili and Grotius, but this is the first book to systematically address what evolutive interpretation looks like in reality. It sets out to address how and under what circumstances it can be said that the interpretation of a treaty evolves, and under what circumstances it remains static. With the VCLT as its point of departure, this study develops a functional reconstruction of the rules of treaty interpretation, and explores and analyses how the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights have approached the issue.
Reverence, Resistance and Politics of Seeing the Indian National Flag
Authors: Jha Sadan
Published: December 2015

This book studies the politics that make the tricolour flag possibly the most revered of the symbols, icons and markers associated with nation and nationalism in twentieth-century India. The emphasis on the flag as a visual symbol aims to question certain dominant assumptions about visuality. Anchored on Mahatma Gandhi's 'believing eye', this study reveals specificities of visual experience in the South Asian milieu. The account begins with a survey of the pre-colonial period, focuses on colonial lives of the flag, and then moves ahead to explain the contemporary dynamics of seeing the flag in India. The Flag Satyagraha of Jubblepore and Nagpur in 1922–23, the adoption of the Congress Flag in 1931, the resolution for the future flag in the Constituent Assembly of India in 1947, the history of the colour saffron, and the codes governing the flag, as well as legal cases, are all explored in depth in this book.
Stylistic contrast and narrative function inCogad Gáedel re Gallaib
Authors: Downham Clare
Published: December 2015

The Battle of Clontarf was fought in A.D. 1014 by the forces of Brian Boru, over-king of Munster, and his allies against the forces of Viking Dublin, Leinster and their foreign allies. The saga ‘The War of the Irish and the Foreigners’(Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib)was written about events leading up the conflict and gives a dramatic account of events on the battlefield. It became the archetype for many later legends about Clontarf. This paper explores stylistic contrast in thesagabetween the terse description of events in the early Viking Age and the florid account of the reign of Brian Boru. This contrast has led some readers to conclude that two separate narratives were conflated inCogad Gáedel re Gallaib– the first being a summary of annals and the second being a saga. However this paper argues that there is a unity of purpose throughout the work and that its stylistic divisions were deliberately contrived to help glorify Brian’s victory at the Battle of Clontarf.
Comino Vence al Diablo and Other Terrifying Episodes: Teatro Guiñol's Itinerant Puppet Theater in 1930s Mexico
Authors: Albarrán Elena Jackson
Published: December 2015

Ahush fell over the gathering of fidgety kindergarteners on a May morning in 1934 in an Ixtapalapa schoolyard, as stage curtains drew apart to reveal an animated stereotypically black hand puppet (El Negrito) laboriously hauling firewood back and forth at the behest of hispatrón. El Negrito complained about his plight, and the children's eyes widened with terror, reflecting the fear demonstrated by the puppet when the patrón threatened the arrival of the Devil if he did not keep working. Enter Comino, a cheeky young boy puppet, whose grandmother, accusing him of slothfulness, had brought him to the patrón to learn some work ethic. A Devil puppet loomed large on the makeshift stage, bellowing out vague threats. Two kindergarteners burst into tears. Not wanting to disturb the rest of the captive audience, the teacher removed the terrified girls and brought them around to the back of the stage so that they could see the puppeteers manipulating the cloth, felt and wooden dolls. Despite her efforts, the girls remained inconsolable and refused to watch the rest of the show.
Modernizing Message, Mystical Messenger: The Teatro Petul in the Chiapas Highlands, 1954-1974
Authors: Lewis Stephen E.
Published: December 2015

The Mexican government's National Indigenist Institute (Instituto Nacional Indigenista, or INI) was at a crossroads in early 1954. Three years after opening its pilot Indigenist Coordinating Center (Centro Coordinador Indigenista, or CCI) in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, the INI had managed to launch several development projects in the highlands despite the hostility of localladinos(non-Indians) and the indifference and distrust of most Tzeltal and Tzotzil Maya communities. The INI operated nearly fifty bilingual schools, called Literacy Centers, but attendance figures were low, especially for girls. It had built four medical clinics, but most highland Maya still turned to shamans when they fell ill. Although water-borne and flea-borne diseases ravaged the indigenous population on a seasonal basis, most Tzeltals and Tzotzils resisted the INI's vaccination and hygiene campaigns and refused to permit the encasement of their sacred springs. The INI also had trouble selling its consumer cooperatives. In short, it had established a foothold in a complicated region, but most Tzeltals and Tzotzils were reluctant to embrace its development programs.
Life, Luck, and How I Became a Historian
Authors: Socolow Susan M.
Published: December 2015

Before I begin, I want to thank the Conference on Latin American History [CLAH] and the Distinguished Service Award Committee for giving me this signal honor. This organization has always been important to me, and it's really nice to know tiiat it thinks I've been important to it.

The last talk I gave to CLAH was in Atlanta five years ago. I told the story of one man, Santiago de Liniers, and his good and bad fortune. Just as for Liniers, luck has played a huge role in my life.
Catholic Action, The Second Vatican Council, and The Emergence of The New Left in El Salvador (1950–1975)
Authors: Chávez Joaquín M.
Published: December 2015

In 1958, Roque Dalton, a young poet affiliated with the Communist Party of El Salvador (PCS), won the first prize in a poetry contest at the University of El Salvador. A few days later, members of Salvadoran Catholic University Action, a student organization known as ACUS or simply Catholic Action, published a demolishing but carelessly written critique of Dalton. The anonymous writer of an article titled “Under the Empire of Vulgarity” turned his disgust with the poem written by Dalton into a diatribe against Dalton's political persona. Dalton's raw allusions to double standards in the sexual morality of priests and his remarks about the Catholic practice of fasting seem to have especially upset the leaders of ACUS. A month later, ACUS published a rejoinder written by Dalton, along with excerpts of the controversial poem. In his retort, Dalton stated that ACUS dodged debates on substantial political and aesthetic issues by engaging in “insults, quick and facile judgments, and rude pigeon-holing that closes all means of intellectual comprehension. ”
III. Southern South America
Authors: McGann Thomas F.
Published: December 2015

There is no egoism or special virtue in the fact that all of us on this program have numerous research possibilities to suggest. The plain truth is that the field of Latin American history bulges with first-class topics for historical writing. In this respect I am sure that we Latin Americanists are more fortunate than colleagues in some other historical fields where, it is my impression, there is a good deal of trampling of each other’s grapes. But historical research is not the contemplation of ideas, no matter how promising they may be, and in Latin America the investigator confronts notorious difficulties in obtaining orderly source materials. Therefore, before turning to some of the research possibilities, I should touch briefly on several underlying assumptions. The first is that the investigators working on these topics shall be qualified linguistically, technically, and intellectually to accomplish their work in Latin America and in the United States. Unhappily, this has not always been the case in this underdeveloped field. Second, for all of these topics I estimate that there exists a sufficiency of source materials, although in some cases that assumption has not been fully tested in the field. (This is the point at which field research in Latin America takes on a more colorful aspect than research, let’s say, in the British Museum.) Finally, an investigator engaged in research in Latin America must have, or quickly develop, a hunter’s ability to move rapidly yet sure-footedly after his quarry, tracking down private and even public archives which, at the outset of his adventure in research, may be completely unknown to him.
Race and Badge: Free-Colored Soldiers in the Colonial Mexican Militia
Authors: Vinson Ben
Published: December 2015

The question of identity has been one of considerable importance to the study of race in Latin America. Particularly for the multitude of racially mixed offspring produced by miscegenation, it has been debated, what exactly was the degree of consciousness that race could produce? What degree of strength, if any, should be attributed to the caste boundaries created in the colonial period, and how did the reins of “caste” contribute to the 19th and 20th century heritage of the region? With the new and emerging research on the African Diaspora in Latin America, the question has often been asked: did the free mulatto, moreno, or pardo ever feel a specific identity, especially during colonial times, and especially when racial discourse was apparently created by, and served the interests of those who held the supreme positions of power?
Portuguese Migration to Rio de Janeiro, 1822-1850
Authors: Nunes Rosana Barbosa
Published: December 2015

During the period between the Brazilian declaration of independence from Portugal in 1822 and Brazil's abolition of the slave trade in 1850, Rio de Janeiro constituted the most important destination of Portuguese emigrants in the world. In 1841, the preponderance of these immigrants in that city was described by a representative of the Portuguese government in Rio, Ildefonso Leopoldo Bayard:

In the shops in Rio de Janeiro you find that the majority of the clerks are Portuguese, … in theengenhosthe Portuguese are the administrators and the slaves' overseers, in the residences they are the servants, and in the maritime work they are the ships' masters, and even the white fishermen.

A number of factors made this city attractive to these migrants. The arrival of the Portuguese court and the opening of the city's port to foreign trade and foreign merchants, created an economic boom in Rio de Janeiro in the early nineteenth century. This growth was also perpetuated by the increasing coffee economy after the 1830s.
Herbert Eugene Bolton
Authors: Hammond George P.
Published: December 2015

Early on the Morning of January 30, 1953, the telephone brought the sad though not unexpected news of the death of Herbert Eugene Bolton at his home in Berkeley. There, since a few days before his eighty-second birthday in July, he had lain ill from a cerebral hemorrhage. Though he made a partial recovery in the ensuing months and was able to converse with friends, he finally came to the end of the long trail that he had pioneered in Western and Latin-American history. From humble beginnings on the American frontier, but stimulated by the forces it generated, he became one of the most productive scholars of the century and the ablest interpreter of the essential unity of the peoples of the American nations.
France V. Scholes: Historian of New Spain
Authors: Greenleaf Richard E.
Published: December 2015

WHEN France Vinton Scholes received the Serra Award of the Academy of American Franciscan History in 1956, one of his distinguished colleagues remarked to me that “Scholes is a historian's historian.” Those of us who had the privilege to work with him, students and colleagues, also knew him as a master teacher and an ideal university administrator. In 1969 when the University of New Mexico administration building was named for its former Academic Vice President and Graduate Dean, we told him that it had always been “Scholes Hall ” for us.
THE CONSTRUCT VALIDITY OF LANGUAGE APTITUDE
Authors: Li Shaofeng
Published: December 2015

A meta-analysis was conducted to examine the construct validity of language aptitude by synthesizing the existing research that has been accumulated over the past five decades. The study aimed to provide a thorough understanding of the construct by aggregating the data reported in the primary research on its correlations with other individual difference variables and with second language (L2) achievement. A total of 66 studies were retrieved that contributed effect sizes based on 109 unique samples and 13,035 foreign language learners. The results revealed that (1) aptitude was independent of other cognitive and affective factors: it was distinct from motivation, had a negative correlation with anxiety, and overlapped with, but was distinguishable from, intelligence; (2) executive working memory was more strongly associated with aptitude and aptitude components than phonological short-term memory; (3) aptitude measured using full-length tests was a strong predictor of general L2 proficiency, but it had low predictive validity for vocabulary learning and L2 writing; and (4) different aptitude components demonstrated differential predictive validity for different aspects of learning. The findings are useful for tackling a number of conundrums surrounding language aptitude and shed light on how to reconceptualize the construct and reorient the research.
Local cohomology modules of invariant rings
Authors: PUTHENPURAKAL TONY J.
Published: December 2015

LetKbe a field and letRbe a regular domain containingK. LetGbe a finite subgroup of the group of automorphisms ofR. We assume that |G| is invertible inK. LetRGbe the ring of invariants ofG. LetIbe an ideal inRG. Fixi⩾ 0. IfRGis Gorenstein then:

(i)

injdimRGHiI(RG) ⩽ dim SuppHiI(RG);

(ii)

$H^j_{\mathfrak{m}}$(HiI(RG)) is injective, where$\mathfrak{m}$is any maximal ideal ofRG;

(iii)

μj(P, HiI(RG)) =μj(P′,HiIR(R)) whereP′ is any prime inRlying aboveP.

We also prove that ifPis a prime ideal inRGwithRGPnot Gorensteinthen either the bass numbersμj(P, HiI(RG)) is zero for alljor there existscsuch thatμj(P, HiI(RG)) = 0 forj 0 for allj⩾c.
Double theta polynomials and equivariant Giambelli formulas
Authors: TAMVAKIS HARRY , WILSON ELIZABETH
Published: December 2015

We use Young's raising operators to introduce and studydouble theta polynomials, which specialize to both the theta polynomials of Buch, Kresch, and Tamvakis, and to double (or factorial) SchurS-polynomials andQ-polynomials. These double theta polynomials give Giambelli formulas which represent the equivariant Schubert classes in the torus-equivariant cohomology ring of symplectic Grassmannians, and we employ them to obtain a new presentation of this ring in terms of intrinsic generators and relations.
Sperm dilution ratio affects post-thaw motility rate and velocity of Prochilodus lineatus (Characiformes) sperm
Authors: Viveiros Ana T.M. , Leal Marcelo C.
Published: December 2015

There is a lack of standardization in sperm cryopreservation of aquatic organisms and, thus, a necessity of more accurate investigations in all steps of this process. In this study, the effects of sperm dilution ratio on post-thaw sperm quality of Prochilodus lineatus were evaluated. Sperm was diluted in a standard freezing medium (glucose and methyl glycol) at four different ratios (sperm to final volume = 1:5, 1:10, 1:50 or 1:100), frozen in a nitrogen vapour vessel at –170°C and then stored in liquid nitrogen vessel at –196°C. Post-thaw motility rate and velocities (curvilinear = VCL; average path = VAP; straight line = VSL) were determined using a Computer-Assisted Sperm Analyzer (CASA) at 10 and 40 s post-activation. The highest motility rates were observed when sperm was frozen at a ratio of 1:5 (76%) and 1:10 (75%). The highest VCL (225 μm/s) and VAP (203 μm/s) were observed at a ratio of 1:10, while VSL was similar among samples frozen at 1:5, 1:10 and 1:50 (97–124 μm/s). When those parameters were evaluated again 30 s later, motility decreased significantly in samples frozen at a ratio of 1:5 (57%) and 1:10 (61%), while velocities decreased significantly in all samples regardless of dilution ratio (75–85 μm/s of VCL, 38–53 μm/s of VAP and 25–39 μm/s of VSL). P. lineatus sperm should be frozen at a ratio of 1:10, where both the number of loaded sperm per straw and the post-thaw quality are maximized.
TALISMANIC PRACTICE AT LEFKANDI: TRINKETS, BURIALS AND BELIEF IN THE EARLY IRON AGE
Authors: Arrington Nathan T.
Published: December 2015

Excavations at Lefkandi have dispelled much of the gloom enshrouding the Early Iron Age, revealing a community with significant disposable wealth and with connections throughout the Mediterranean. The eastern imports in particular have drawn scholarly attention, with discussion moving from questions of production and transportation to issues surrounding consumption. This article draws attention to some limitations in prevalent socio-political explanations of consumption at Lefkandi, arguing that models relying on gift-exchange, prestige-goods and elite display cannot adequately account for the distribution, chronology, find context and function of imports at Lefkandi. A study of trinkets – small but manifestly foreign imports of cheap material – offers a new perspective. An analysis of their form, context, use and meaning demonstrates that trinkets were meaningfully and deliberately deposited with children as talismans or amulets. Talismanic practice had Late Bronze Age precedents, and in the Early Iron Age was stimulated from personal contact with the Near East or Cyprus and nurtured by the unique mortuary landscape at Lefkandi. This article demonstrates the need for archaeologists to treat mortuary beliefs as a meaningful explanatory variable. Moreover, the ability of non-elite objects to convey powerful ideas has important implications for the nature and dynamics of artistic and cultural exchanges between Greece and the East in the Iron Age.
Hormone Replacement Therapy Associated White Blood Cell DNA Methylation and Gene Expression are Associated With Within-Pair Differences of Body Adiposity and Bone Mass
Authors: Bahl Aileen , Pöllänen Eija , Ismail Khadeeja , Sipilä Sarianna , Mikkola Tuija M. , Berglund Eva , Lindqvist Carl Mårten , Syvänen Ann-Christine , Rantanen Taina , Kaprio Jaakko , Kovanen Vuokko , Ollikainen Miina
Published: December 2015

The loss of estrogen during menopause causes changes in the female body, with wide-ranging effects on health. Estrogen-containing hormone replacement therapy (HRT) leads to a relief of typical menopausal symptoms, benefits bone and muscle health, and is associated with tissue-specific gene expression profiles. As gene expression is controlled by epigenetic factors (including DNA methylation), many of which are environmentally sensitive, it is plausible that at least part of the HRT-associated gene expression is due to changes in DNA methylation profile. We investigated genome-wide DNA methylation and gene expression patterns of white blood cells (WBCs) and their associations with body composition, including muscle and bone measures of monozygotic (MZ) female twin pairs discordant for HRT. We identified 7,855 nominally significant differentially methylated regions (DMRs) associated with 4,044 genes. Of the genes with DMRs, five (ACBA1,CCL5,FASLG,PPP2R2B, andUHRF1) were also differentially expressed. All have been previously associated with HRT or estrogenic regulation, but not with HRT-associated DNA methylation. All five genes were associated with bone mineral content (BMC), andABCA1, FASLG, andUHRF1were also associated with body adiposity. Our study is the first to show that HRT associates with genome-wide DNA methylation alterations in WBCs. Moreover, we show that five differentially expressed genes with DMRs associate with clinical measures, including body fat percentage, lean body mass, bone mass, and blood lipids. Our results indicate that at least part of the known beneficial HRT effects on body composition and bone mass may be regulated by DNA methylation associated alterations in gene expression in circulating WBCs.
The ‘Last’ Friendship Exchanges between Siam and Vietnam, 1879–1882: Siam between Vietnam and France—and Beyond
Authors: Koizumi Junko
Published: December 2015

Studies of Siam's diplomatic relations from the mid-nineteenth century have been focussed on its troubled relations with Western colonial powers, often within a bilateral framework. While highlighting issues such as territorial losses and treaty revisions, scholarly interest tends to have overlooked Siam's relations with its neighbouring countries. Based on archival records at the National Archives of Thailand, this article aims to fill this gap by examining diplomatic exchanges between the Siamese and Vietnamese courts that took place between 1879 and 1882. In April 1879, a royal mission from the Vietnamese court bearing gifts and a royal letter from Tự Đức to Chulalongkorn arrived in Bangkok. It was allegedly the first formal mission from the Vietnamese court in almost half a century after the two countries had come into conflict in the 1830s. By examining how Siam and Vietnam sought to maintain and manipulate ‘traditional’ interstate relations in the face of treaty arrangements that France enforced upon Vietnam, this article reveals complex issues involved in the process of negotiations, such as the questions of maintaining the equality between the two monarchies and of the ‘translation’ of the concepts of sovereignty between Thai and Sino-Vietnamese languages, and suggests the necessity to pay more attention to historical and broader regional contexts in Asia.
Persönliche vs. computerbasierte Alkoholintervention für Krankenhauspatienten: Studiendesign
Authors: Freyer-Adam Jennis , Baumann Sophie , Schnuerer Inga , Haberecht Katja , John Ulrich , Gaertner Beate
Published: December 2015

Zusammenfassung. Ziel: Persönliche Beratungen können bei stationären Krankenhauspatienten Alkoholkonsum und Mortalität reduzieren. Sie sind jedoch mit hohen Kosten verbunden, wenn aus Public-Health-Erfordernis viele Menschen einer Bevölkerung erreicht werden müssen. Computerbasierte Interventionen stellen eine Alternative dar. Jedoch ist ihre Wirksamkeit im Vergleich zu persönlichen Beratungen und im Allgemeinkrankenhaus noch unklar. Eine quasi-randomisierte Kontrollgruppenstudie „Die Bedeutung der Vermittlungsform für Alkoholinterventionen bei Allgemeinkrankenhauspatienten: Persönlich vs. Computerisiert“ soll dies untersuchen. Design und Methoden werden beschrieben. Methode: Über 18 Monate sind alle 18- bis 64-jährigen Patienten auf Stationen der Universitätsmedizin Greifswald mittels Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) zu screenen. Frauen/Männer mit AUDIT-Consumption ≥ 4/5 und AUDIT < 20 werden einer von drei Gruppen zugeordnet: persönliche Intervention (Beratungen zur Konsumreduktion), computerbasierte Intervention (individualisierte Rückmeldebriefe und Broschüren) und Kontrollgruppe. Beide Interventionen erfolgen im Krankenhaus sowie telefonisch bzw. postalisch nach 1 und 3 Monaten. In computergestützten Telefoninterviews nach 6, 12, 18 und 24 Monaten wird Alkoholkonsum erfragt. Schlussfolgerung: Das Studienvorhaben, sofern erfolgreich umgesetzt, ist geeignet die längerfristige Wirksamkeit einer persönlichen und computerbasierten Intervention im Vergleich zu untersuchen.
Moderators of Outcome in a Web-Based Substance Use Intervention for Adolescents
Authors: Arnaud Nicolas , Baldus Christiane , Elgán Tobias H. , Tønnesen Hanne , Paepe Nina De , Csemy Ladislav , Thomasius Rainer
Published: December 2015

Abstract. Aims: In this article we explore the moderators of effectiveness of WISEteens (Web-based brief Intervention for SubstancE using teens), a fully automated web-based brief motivational intervention targeting risky substance use among adolescents. Based on previous studies, we examined the differential effects on drinking of sex, readiness to change, self-efficacy, alcohol risk status, and parental monitoring as hypothesized moderators. Methods: We analyzed completers data from a two-armed RCT study with follow-up assessment after 3 months, including N = 211 self-enrolled adolescents (16 – 18 years) who screened positive for at-risk substance use in Sweden, Belgium, the Czech Republic, and Germany. The trial compared a single-session brief motivational intervention to an assessment-only control group with AUDIT-C scores for drinking frequency, quantity, and frequency of binge drinking in the past month as study outcome. Results: The analyses revealed a statistically significant moderation effect for sex on drinking in the previous month, with a stronger effect for males. In contrast, readiness to change, self-efficacy, alcohol risk status, and parental monitoring did not moderate the effects. Conclusions: Although the trial was limited by large dropout, our findings imply that web-based interventions can be particularly effective for male adolescents, although the effects of WISEteens were largely independent of other individual characteristics. Web-based brief intervention should integrate gender-specific components to raise effectiveness for females.
Polyoxometalate-based homochiral metal-organic frameworks for tandem asymmetric transformation of cyclic carbonates from olefins
Authors: Han Qiuxia , Qi Bo , Ren Weimin , He Cheng , Niu Jingyang , Duan Chunying
Published: December 2015

Currently, great interest is focused on developing auto-tandem catalytic reactions; a substrate is catalytically transferred through mechanistically distinct reactions without altering any reaction conditions. Here by incorporating a pyrrolidine moiety as a chiral organocatalyst and a polyoxometalate as an oxidation catalyst, a powerful approach is devised to achieve a tandem catalyst for the efficient conversion of CO2 into value-added enantiomerically pure cyclic carbonates. The multi-catalytic sites are orderly distributed and spatially matched in the framework. The captured CO2 molecules are synergistically fixed and activated by well-positioned pyrrolidine and amine groups, providing further compatibility with the terminal W=O activated epoxidation intermediate and driving the tandem catalytic process in a single workup stage and an asymmetric fashion. The structural simplicity of the building blocks and the use of inexpensive and readily available chemical reagents render this approach highly promising for the development of practical homochiral materials for CO2 conversion.
Selenium isotope evidence for progressive oxidation of the Neoproterozoic biosphere
Authors: Pogge von Strandmann Philip A. E. , Stüeken Eva E. , Elliott Tim , Poulton Simon W. , Dehler Carol M. , Canfield Don E. , Catling David C.
Published: December 2015

Neoproterozoic (1,000–542 Myr ago) Earth experienced profound environmental change, including ‘snowball’ glaciations, oxygenation and the appearance of animals. However, an integrated understanding of these events remains elusive, partly because proxies that track subtle oceanic or atmospheric redox trends are lacking. Here we utilize selenium (Se) isotopes as a tracer of Earth redox conditions. We find temporal trends towards lower δ82/76Se values in shales before and after all Neoproterozoic glaciations, which we interpret as incomplete reduction of Se oxyanions. Trends suggest that deep-ocean Se oxyanion concentrations increased because of progressive atmospheric and deep-ocean oxidation. Immediately after the Marinoan glaciation, higher δ82/76Se values superpose the general decline. This may indicate less oxic conditions with lower availability of oxyanions or increased bioproductivity along continental margins that captured heavy seawater δ82/76Se into buried organics. Overall, increased ocean oxidation and atmospheric O2 extended over at least 100 million years, setting the stage for early animal evolution.
ChIP-seq reveals broad roles of SARD1 and CBP60g in regulating plant immunity
Authors: Sun Tongjun , Zhang Yaxi , Li Yan , Zhang Qian , Ding Yuli , Zhang Yuelin
Published: December 2015

Recognition of pathogens by host plants leads to rapid transcriptional reprogramming and activation of defence responses. The expression of many defence regulators is induced in this process, but the mechanisms of how they are controlled transcriptionally are largely unknown. Here we use chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing to show that the transcription factors SARD1 and CBP60g bind to the promoter regions of a large number of genes encoding key regulators of plant immunity. Among them are positive regulators of systemic immunity and signalling components for effector-triggered immunity and PAMP-triggered immunity, which is consistent with the critical roles of SARD1 and CBP60g in these processes. In addition, SARD1 and CBP60g target a number of genes encoding negative regulators of plant immunity, suggesting that they are also involved in negative feedback regulation of defence responses. Based on these findings we propose that SARD1 and CBP60g function as master regulators of plant immune responses.
AKAP9 regulates activation-induced retention of T lymphocytes at sites of inflammation
Authors: Herter Jan M. , Grabie Nir , Cullere Xavier , Azcutia Veronica , Rosetti Florencia , Bennett Paul , Herter-Sprie Grit S. , Elyaman Wassim , Luscinskas Francis W. , Lichtman Andrew H. , Mayadas Tanya N.
Published: December 2015

The mechanisms driving T cell homing to lymph nodes and migration to tissue are well described but little is known about factors that affect T cell egress from tissues. Here, we generate mice with a T cell-specific deletion of the scaffold protein A kinase anchoring protein 9 (AKAP9) and use models of inflammatory disease to demonstrate that AKAP9 is dispensable for T cell priming and migration into tissues and lymph nodes, but is required for T cell retention in tissues. AKAP9 deficiency results in increased T cell egress to draining lymph nodes, which is associated with impaired T cell re-activation in tissues and protection from organ damage. AKAP9-deficient T cells exhibit reduced microtubule-dependent recycling of TCRs back to the cell surface and this affects antigen-dependent activation, primarily by non-classical antigen-presenting cells. Thus, AKAP9-dependent TCR trafficking drives efficient T cell re-activation and extends their retention at sites of inflammation with implications for disease pathogenesis.
A novel Fanconi anaemia subtype associated with a dominant-negative mutation in RAD51
Authors: Ameziane Najim , May Patrick , Haitjema Anneke , van de Vrugt Henri J. , van Rossum-Fikkert Sari E. , Ristic Dejan , Williams Gareth J. , Balk Jesper , Rockx Davy , Li Hong , Rooimans Martin A. , Oostra Anneke B. , Velleuer Eunike , Dietrich Ralf , Bleijerveld Onno B. , Maarten Altelaar A. F. , Meijers-Heijboer Hanne , Joenje Hans , Glusman Gustavo , Roach Jared , Hood Leroy , Galas David , Wyman Claire , Balling Rudi , den Dunnen Johan , de Winter Johan P. , Kanaar Roland , Gelinas Richard , Dorsman Josephine C.
Published: December 2015

Fanconi anaemia (FA) is a hereditary disease featuring hypersensitivity to DNA cross-linker-induced chromosomal instability in association with developmental abnormalities, bone marrow failure and a strong predisposition to cancer. A total of 17 FA disease genes have been reported, all of which act in a recessive mode of inheritance. Here we report on a de novo g.41022153G>A; p.Ala293Thr (NM_002875) missense mutation in one allele of the homologous recombination DNA repair gene RAD51 in an FA-like patient. This heterozygous mutation causes a novel FA subtype, ‘FA-R’, which appears to be the first subtype of FA caused by a dominant-negative mutation. The patient, who features microcephaly and mental retardation, has reached adulthood without the typical bone marrow failure and paediatric cancers. Together with the recent reports on RAD51-associated congenital mirror movement disorders, our results point to an important role for RAD51-mediated homologous recombination in neurodevelopment, in addition to DNA repair and cancer susceptibility.
Prion protein localizes at the ciliary base during neural and cardiovascular development and its depletion affects α-tubulin post-translational modifications
Authors: Halliez Sophie , Martin-Lannerée Séverine , Passet Bruno , Hernandez-Rapp Julia , Castille Johan , Urien Céline , Chat Sophie , Laude Hubert , Vilotte Jean-Luc , Mouillet-Richard Sophie , Béringue Vincent
Published: December 2015

Although conversion of the cellular form of the prion protein (PrPC) into a misfolded isoform is the underlying cause of prion diseases, understanding PrPC physiological functions has remained challenging. PrPC depletion or overexpression alters the proliferation and differentiation properties of various types of stem and progenitor cells in vitro by unknown mechanisms. Such involvement remains uncertain in vivo in the absence of any drastic phenotype of mice lacking PrPC. Here, we report PrPC enrichment at the base of the primary cilium in stem and progenitor cells from the central nervous system and cardiovascular system of developing mouse embryos. PrPC depletion in a neuroepithelial cell line dramatically altered key cilium-dependent processes, such as Sonic hedgehog signalling and α-tubulin post-translational modifications. These processes were also affected over a limited time window in PrPC–ablated embryos. Thus, our study reveals PrPC as a potential actor in the developmental regulation of microtubule dynamics and ciliary functions.
Mapping Chemical Selection Pathways for Designing Multicomponent Alloys: an informatics framework for materials design
Authors: Srinivasan Srikant , Broderick Scott R. , Zhang Ruifeng , Mishra Amrita , Sinnott Susan B. , Saxena Surendra K. , LeBeau James M. , Rajan Krishna
Published: December 2015

A data driven methodology is developed for tracking the collective influence of the multiple attributes of alloying elements on both thermodynamic and mechanical properties of metal alloys. Cobalt-based superalloys are used as a template to demonstrate the approach. By mapping the high dimensional nature of the systematics of elemental data embedded in the periodic table into the form of a network graph, one can guide targeted first principles calculations that identify the influence of specific elements on phase stability, crystal structure and elastic properties. This provides a fundamentally new means to rapidly identify new stable alloy chemistries with enhanced high temperature properties. The resulting visualization scheme exhibits the grouping and proximity of elements based on their impact on the properties of intermetallic alloys. Unlike the periodic table however, the distance between neighboring elements uncovers relationships in a complex high dimensional information space that would not have been easily seen otherwise. The predictions of the methodology are found to be consistent with reported experimental and theoretical studies. The informatics based methodology presented in this study can be generalized to a framework for data analysis and knowledge discovery that can be applied to many material systems and recreated for different design objectives.
Construction of brain atlases based on a multi-center MRI dataset of 2020 Chinese adults
Authors: Liang Peipeng , Shi Lin , Chen Nan , Luo Yishan , Wang Xing , Liu Kai , Mok Vincent CT , Chu Winnie CW , Wang Defeng , Li Kuncheng
Published: December 2015

Despite the known morphological differences (e.g., brain shape and size) in the brains of populations of different origins (e.g., age and race), the Chinese brain atlas is less studied. In the current study, we developed a statistical brain atlas based on a multi-center high quality magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) dataset of 2020 Chinese adults (18–76 years old). We constructed 12 Chinese brain atlas from the age 20 year to the age 75 at a 5 years interval. New Chinese brain standard space, coordinates and brain area labels were further defined. The new Chinese brain atlas was validated in brain registration and segmentation. It was found that, as contrast to the MNI152 template, the proposed Chinese atlas showed higher accuracy in hippocampus segmentation and relatively smaller shape deformations during registration. These results indicate that a population-specific time varying brain atlas may be more appropriate for studies involving Chinese populations.
Acarbose Decreases the Rheumatoid Arthritis Risk of Diabetic Patients and Attenuates the Incidence and Severity of Collagen-induced Arthritis in Mice
Authors: Chen Hsin-Hua , Chen Der-Yuan , Chao Ya-Hsuan , Chen Yi-Ming , Wu Chao-Liang , Lai Kuo-Lung , Lin Ching-Heng , Lin Chi-Chen
Published: December 2015

Acarbose has been found to decrease some inflammatory parameters in diabetic patients. This study aimed to examine the influence of acarbose on rheumatoid arthritis (RA) risk in diabetes mellitus (DM) patients and on the incidence and severity of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) in mice. In a nationwide, matched case–control study, we identified 723 incident RA cases and selected 7,230 age-, sex- and RA diagnosis date–matched controls from all newly treated DM patients. We found that use of acarbose at > 16,950 mg per year was associated with a lower RA risk (odds ratio 0.60; 95% CI, 0.41–0.89). In the CIA mouse study, acarbose was orally administered from days -7 to 38 relative to type II collagen (CII) immunization. The results revealed that acarbose at the dose of 500 mg/kg/day attenuated the incidence and severity of arthritis and the expression of proinflammatory cytokines, including TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-17 in the paw tissues. Acarbose further decreased the productions of anti-CII-IgG, IL-17 and IFN-γ by collagen-reactive lymph node cells. This work suggests that the use of acarbose decreased RA risk in DM patients and the incidence of CIA in mice. Acarbose also attenuated the severity of CIA via anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects.