bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Flank gland-secreted putative chemosignals pertaining to photoperiod, endocrine states, and sociosexual behavior in golden hamsters
Authors: Liu Ying-Juan , Wang Da-Wei , Sun Lixing , Zhang Jin-Hua , Zhang Jian-Xu
Published: September 2019

Behavioral studies have shown that flank glands are involved in chemical communication in golden hamsters Mesocricetus auratus but little chemical analysis has been conducted on volatiles arising from these glands. Using gas chromatography- mass spectrometry, we detected compounds from the flank glands of males, only eight of which were also produced in females. Based on these chemical data we performed a number of further experiments. By manipulating light we found that males exposed to short-photoperiods developed smaller flank glands than those exposed to long-photoperiods. Six flank gland volatiles reduced in relative abundance, which possibly coded for reproductive status of males of this seasonally breeding hamster species. Through dyadic encounters, we were able to induce the formation of dominant-subordinate relationships and show that two glandular compounds became high in relative abundance and may function as dominance pheromones. Castration eliminated all male-specific compounds resulting from flank glands, but bilateral ovariectomies only affected one compound in females. Once these ovariectomized females were treated with testosterone, their glandular compounds resembled those of males, suggesting these compounds are under the main control of androgen. Two female putative pheromones, tetradecanoic acid and hexadecanoic acid, were used in binary choice tests and were both found to attract males over females. Applying a solution of these pheromone compounds to adult males also suppressed their agonistic behavior.
Roles of the main olfactory and vomeronasal systems in the detection of androstenone in inbred strains of mice
Authors: Voznessenskaya Vera V. , Klyuchnikova Maria A. , Wysocki Charles J.
Published: September 2019

We investigated the role of the main olfactory and accessory olfactory systems (MOS and AOS respectively) in the detection of androstenone. We used the following experimental approaches: behavioral, surgical removal of the vomeronasal organ (VNX) followed by histochemical verification and Fos immunohistochemistry. Using a Y-maze paradigm we estimated sensitivity of NZB/B1NJ and CBA/J mice to androstenone. CBA mice were 2,000-fold more sensitive to androstenone than NZB mice. VNX caused a 4- to16-fold decrease in sensitivity to androstenone in highly-sensitive CBA mice, but did not affect thresholds in NZB mice. Results indicate the involvement of the MOS and AOS in the detection of androstenone. We observed a specific pattern of Fos-positive cells in the main olfactory bulb of CBA mice but not in NZB mice subsequent to exposure of mice to androstenone; the compound activated cells in the accessory olfactory bulb in both strains of mice, indicating the involvement of the vomeronasal organ. Patterns of Fos-positive cells in the vomeronasal organ were recorded subsequent to exposure to androstenone. Fos-positive receptor cells in the vomeronasal organ of CBA and NZB mice were different, in CBA mice Fos-positive cells were noted in both the basal and apical zones, however, in NZB mice activation was observed only in the apical zone.
Neurobiology of mammalian olfactory learning that occurs during sensitive periods
Authors: Kaba Hideto
Published: September 2019

This review examines the organizational principles underlying olfactory learning in three specialized contexts that occur during sensitive periods of enhanced neural plasticity and emphasizes some of their common features. All three forms of olfactory learning are associated with neural changes in the olfactory bulb (OB) at the first stage of sensory processing. These changes require the association of the olfactory and somatosensory signals in the OB. They all depend on somatosensory stimulation- induced release of noradrenaline that induces structural and functional changes at mitral-granule cell reciprocal synapses in the OB, resulting in increases in inhibitory transmission. In the accessory olfactory bulb, this represents the enhanced self-inhibition of mitral cells, which selectively disrupts the transmission of the mating male's pregnancy-blocking signal at this level. In contrast, an extensive network of secondary dendrites of mitral cells in the main olfactory bulb probably results in a sharpening of the odor-induced pattern of activity, due to increases in lateral inhibition, leading to offspring recognition in sheep and neonatal learning in rats and rabbits. These findings show that inhibitory interneurons play a critical role in olfactory learning. Further work on how these neurons shape olfactory circuit function could provide important clues to understand memory functions of interneurons in other systems. Moreover, recent research has suggested that three forms of olfactory learning are controlled by synergistic, redundant, and distributed neural mechanisms. This has general implications regarding the mechanisms that may contribute to the robustness of memories.
Identification of tRNA-derived ncRNAs in TCGA and NCI-60 panel cell lines and development of the public database tRFexplorer
Authors: La Ferlita Alessandro , Alaimo Salvatore , Veneziano Dario , Nigita Giovanni , Balatti Veronica , Croce Carlo M , Ferro Alfredo , Pulvirenti Alfredo
Published: September 2019

Next-generation sequencing is increasing our understanding and knowledge of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), elucidating their roles in molecular mechanisms and processes such as cell growth and development. Within such a class, tRNA-derived ncRNAs have been recently associated with gene expression regulation in cancer progression. In this paper, we characterize, for the first time, tRNA-derived ncRNAs in NCI-60. Furthermore, we assess their expression profile in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Our comprehensive analysis allowed us to report 322 distinct tRNA-derived ncRNAs in NCI-60, categorized in tRNA-derived fragments (11 tRF-5s, 55 tRF-3s), tRNA-derived small RNAs (107 tsRNAs) and tRNA 5′ leader RNAs (149 sequences identified). In TCGA, we were able to identify 232 distinct tRNA-derived ncRNAs categorized in 53 tRF-5s, 58 tRF-3s, 63 tsRNAs and 58 5′ leader RNAs. This latter group represents an additional evidence of tRNA-derived ncRNAs originating from the 5′ leader region of precursor tRNA. We developed a public database, tRFexplorer, which provides users with the expression profile of each tRNA-derived ncRNAs in every cell line in NCI-60 as well as for each TCGA tumor type. Moreover, the system allows us to perform differential expression analyses of such fragments in TCGA, as well as correlation analyses of tRNA-derived ncRNAs expression in TCGA and NCI-60 with gene and miRNA expression in TCGA samples, in association with all omics and compound activities data available on CellMiner. Hence, the tool provides an important opportunity to investigate their potential biological roles in absence of any direct experimental evidence.

Database URL: https://trfexplorer.cloud/
A general approach for improving deep learning-based medical relation extraction using a pre-trained model and fine-tuning
Authors: Chen Tao , Wu Mingfen , Li Hexi
Published: September 2019

The automatic extraction of meaningful relations from biomedical literature or clinical records is crucial in various biomedical applications. Most of the current deep learning approaches for medical relation extraction require large-scale training data to prevent overfitting of the training model. We propose using a pre-trained model and a fine-tuning technique to improve these approaches without additional time-consuming human labeling. Firstly, we show the architecture of Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), an approach for pre-training a model on large-scale unstructured text. We then combine BERT with a one-dimensional convolutional neural network (1d-CNN) to fine-tune the pre-trained model for relation extraction. Extensive experiments on three datasets, namely the BioCreative V chemical disease relation corpus, traditional Chinese medicine literature corpus and i2b2 2012 temporal relation challenge corpus, show that the proposed approach achieves state-of-the-art results (giving a relative improvement of 22.2, 7.77, and 38.5% in F1 score, respectively, compared with a traditional 1d-CNN classifier). The source code is available at https://github.com/chentao1999/MedicalRelationExtraction.
Relating Aerial Deposition of Entomophaga maimaiga Conidia (Zoopagomycota: Entomophthorales) to Mortality of Gypsy Moth (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) Larvae and Nearby Defoliation
Authors: Elkinton Joseph S , Bittner Tonya D , Pasquarella Valerie J , Boettner George H , Liebhold Andrew M , Gould Juli R , Faubert Heather , Tewksbury Lisa , Broadley Hannah J , Havill Nathan P , Hajek Ann E
Published: September 2019

We collected data on mortality of late-instar gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar (L.), from outbreak populations over 4 wk in June 2017 at 10 sites in the New England region of the United States, along with estimated rainfall at these sites. Deposition of airborne conidia of the fungal pathogen, Entomophaga maimaiga Humber, Shimazu & R.S. Soper, was measured at these same sites as well as at seven other locations in New England. We also quantified the geographical distribution of gypsy moth-caused defoliation in New England in 2017 and 2018 from Landsat imagery. Weekly mortality of gypsy moth larvae caused by E. maimaiga correlated with local deposition of conidia from the previous week, but not with rainfall. Mortality from this pathogen reached a peak during the last 2 wk of gypsy moth larval development and always exceeded that caused by LdNPV, the viral pathogen of gypsy moth that has long been associated with gypsy moth outbreaks, especially prior to 1989. Cotesia melanoscela (Ratzeburg) was by far the most abundant parasitoid recovered and caused an average of 12.6% cumulative parasitism, but varied widely among sites. Deposition of E. maimaiga conidia was highly correlated with percent land area defoliated by gypsy moths within distances of 1 and 2 km but was not significantly correlated with defoliation at distances greater than 2 km. This is the first study to relate deposition of airborne conidia of E. maimaiga to mortality of gypsy moths from that agent.
Measuring price discovery in the European wheat market using the partial cointegration approach
Authors: Vollmer Teresa , Herwartz Helmut , von Cramon-Taubadel Stephan
Published: September 2019

Understanding price discovery in agricultural spot and futures markets is important for market participants and policy makers, because it can contribute to better management decisions and more informed policy debates on market regulation. Combining partial cointegration with state space modelling, we generate time-varying price discovery metrics for the European wheat market that allow for shifts in the long-run relationship. We find that the futures market dominates price discovery in terms of efficiency, but that this dominance is reduced in phases of higher price volatility. We find evidence of persistent shocks in the long-run relationship between spot and futures prices that appear to be related to variations in the quality of the wheat harvest, and to the concatenation of the futures prices.
Ethnic Differences in Labour Market Outcomes—The Role of Language-Based Discrimination
Authors: Schmaus Miriam
Published: September 2019

Host country language proficiency has been shown to account for ethnic differences in labour market outcomes. Prior studies generally assume that language skills represent a form of human capital, affecting employees’ productivity. However, language proficiency may also be associated with discrimination. Lower language proficiency may elicit distaste for certain ethnic groups, as it is a prominent reminder of the respective origin. When this reminder vanishes as language skills rise, group-specific distaste should also reduce. Employers may thus not only value language skills in terms of productivity but also factor in less group-specific distaste when evaluating immigrant jobseekers with high-language skills. Moreover, if employers lack information on competences that are hard to observe, high-language proficiency may prevent the application of adverse ethnic beliefs. Using data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), I examine whether language skills affect crucial indicators of labour market success differently for groups that vary with respect to the level of distaste associated with them. I also investigate whether this effect is conditional on the amount of information available to employers. Findings indicate group-specific returns to higher-language proficiency, irrespective of the available information. This might suggest that, in addition to affecting employees’ productivity, language proficiency may also be associated with taste discrimination for certain ethnic groups.
Alcohol in TV series popular with teens: a content analysis of TV series in France 22 years after a restrictive law
Authors: Chapoton Boris , Werlen Anne-Laure , Regnier Denois Véronique
Published: September 2019

Background

European citizens are the largest alcohol users in the world with an average of 11 l of alcohol per individual per year being used. This consumption practice usually begins during adolescence. Youths’ views of substances consumption are built upon socialization experiments from which television takes part. To prevent vulnerable people from media influence, some governments tend to adopt restrictive laws against alcohol marketing within the public space including TV programmes; others rely on the self-control of the alcohol and/or media industry. More than 22 years ago, France adopted a restrictive law made of measures aiming to regulate or prohibit advertising of alcoholic products, especially within media dedicated to minors.

Methods

This study relies on a content analysis to identify the patterns and the frequencies of occurrences linked to alcohol within a sample of 14 TV series (8 French series and 6 American series) most watched by French teenagers. In total, 180 episodes have been analysed representing 111 h 24 min and 6 s of series coded.

Results

Alcohol is depicted within 87.8% of the sample. French series statistically show more events related to alcohol when compared to the American series. In French series, alcohol, mainly wine, is associated with a familiar lifestyle context with primary characters.

Conclusion

The restrictive law ongoing in France does not prevent popular TV programmes watched by minors to depict alcohol. Concerns should be raised about the impact of the values given to the substance integrated to main characters life within the media.
Rhizosphere-enriched microbes as a pool to design synthetic communities for reproducible beneficial outputs
Authors: Tsolakidou Maria-Dimitra , Stringlis Ioannis A , Fanega-Sleziak Natalia , Papageorgiou Stella , Tsalakou Antria , Pantelides Iakovos S
Published: September 2019

Composts represent a sustainable way to suppress diseases and improve plant growth. Identification of compost-derived microbial communities enriched in the rhizosphere of plants and characterization of their traits, could facilitate the design of microbial synthetic communities (SynComs) that upon soil inoculation could yield consistent beneficial effects towards plants. Here, we characterized a collection of compost-derived bacteria, previously isolated from tomato rhizosphere, for in vitro antifungal activity against soil-borne fungal pathogens and for their potential to change growth parameters in Arabidopsis. We further assessed root-competitive traits in the dominant rhizospheric genus Bacillus. Certain isolated rhizobacteria displayed antifungal activity against the tested pathogens and affected growth of Arabidopsis, and Bacilli members possessed several enzymatic activities. Subsequently, we designed two SynComs with different composition and tested their effect on Arabidopsis and tomato growth and health. SynCom1, consisting of different bacterial genera, displayed negative effect on Arabidopsis in vitro, but promoted tomato growth in pots. SynCom2, consisting of Bacilli, didn't affect Arabidopsis growth, enhanced tomato growth and suppressed Fusarium wilt symptoms. Overall, we found selection of compost-derived microbes with beneficial properties in the rhizosphere of tomato plants, and observed that application of SynComs on poor substrates can yield reproducible plant phenotypes.
A novel salt-tolerant genotype illuminates the sucrose gene evolution in freshwater bloom-forming cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa
Authors: Tanabe Yuuhiko , Yamaguchi Haruyo , Sano Tomoharu , Kawachi Masanobu
Published: September 2019

Microcystis aeruginosa is a water bloom-forming cyanobacterium found in fresh and brackish water ecosystems worldwide. Previously, we showed that several instances of M. aeruginosa bloom in brackish water can be explained by the proliferation of salt-tolerant M. aeruginosa strains harboring genes for a compatible solute sucrose. However, evolutionary history of sucrose genes in M. aeruginosa remains unclear because salt-tolerant strains have been poorly described. Here, we characterized a novel salt-tolerant strain of M. aeruginosa (NIES-4325) isolated from the brackish water of Lake Abashiri, Japan. A whole-genome analysis of M. aeruginosa NIES-4325 identified genes for sucrose synthesis (sppA, spsA and susA). Quantitative sucrose and gene expression analyses suggested that sucrose is implicated in acclimation to high salt in NIES-4325. Notably, the sucrose genes of M. aeruginosa are monophyletic, yet sucrose genes of NIES-4325 are highly divergent from those of other salt-tolerant M. aeruginosa strains. This suggests an early sucrose gene import into M. aeruginosa from other cyanobacteria, followed by multiple losses during intraspecific diversification. One of a few survivors of salt-tolerant strains is a likely donor of recent horizontal spreads of sucrose genes across M. aeruginosa lineages.
Older Adults Show Diminished Sensitivity to Potential Losses in Social Bargaining
Authors: Huang Yi , Chai Jingwen , Feng Lei , Yu Rongjun
Published: September 2019

Objectives

Leaders in many organizations are older adults who routinely make decisions in social bargaining situations. However, we know little about the age-related differences in strategic decision making.

Methods

In the current study (n = 182), using a modified Prisoner’s Dilemma game (PDG), we examined two important intrinsic motivations for non-cooperation: fear of betrayal and greedy desire to exploit other people among young and older Chinese Singaporeans.

Results

Results showed that compared with young adults, older adults demonstrated an intact greed motive but a diminished fear motive in the PDG.

Discussion

Our findings suggest a diminished sensitivity to social threat or potential losses due to betrayal in older adults’ social decision making. Older adults may have a declined ability to assess social threats even though they retain the motivation to gain an exploitive advantage.
Data-driven regularization of Wasserstein barycenters with an application to multivariate density registration
Authors: Bigot Jérémie , Cazelles Elsa , Papadakis Nicolas
Published: September 2019

We present a framework to simultaneously align and smoothen data in the form of multiple point clouds sampled from unknown densities with support in a $d$-dimensional Euclidean space. This work is motivated by applications in bioinformatics where researchers aim to automatically homogenize large datasets to compare and analyze characteristics within a same cell population. Inconveniently, the information acquired is most certainly noisy due to misalignment caused by technical variations of the environment. To overcome this problem, we propose to register multiple point clouds by using the notion of regularized barycenters (or Fréchet mean) of a set of probability measures with respect to the Wasserstein metric. The first approach consists in penalizing a Wasserstein barycenter with a convex functional as recently proposed in [5]. The second strategy is to transform the Wasserstein metric itself into an entropy regularized transportation cost between probability measures as introduced in [12]. The main contribution of this work is to propose data-driven choices for the regularization parameters involved in each approach using the Goldenshluger–Lepski’s principle. Simulated data sampled from Gaussian mixtures are used to illustrate each method, and an application to the analysis of flow cytometry data is finally proposed. This way of choosing of the regularization parameter for the Sinkhorn barycenter is also analyzed through the prism of an oracle inequality that relates the error made by such data-driven estimators to the one of an ideal estimator.
Constructibility and Reflexivity in Non-Archimedean geometry
Authors: Gaisin Ildar , Welliaveetil John
Published: September 2019

We introduce a notion of constructibility for étale sheaves with torsion coefficients over a suitable class of adic spaces. This notion is related to the classical notion of constructibility for schemes via the nearby cycles functor. We use the work of R. Huber to define an adic Verdier dual and investigate the extent to which we have a six-functor formalism in this context. As an application, we show that the nearby cycles functor commutes with lower shriek. Lastly, we attempt to classify those sheaves that are reflexive with respect to the adic Verdier dual.
Decentering the Self, Seeing Like the Other: Toward a Postcolonial Approach to Ontological Security
Authors: Untalan Carmina Yu
Published: September 2019

This article advances a critical outlook on dominant interpretations of ontological security in international relations. It suggests that the preoccupation with state- and identity-centric analyses diminishes the value of the Other to an archetype of ontological insecurity and a source of ontological insecurity for the Self. It argues that seeing ontological security from the postcolonial perspective expands the self-referential understanding of ontological security to a Self-Other relation of mutual coexistence. To do so, the article proposes a framework that loosely intersects Giddens’ work on late modernity with postcolonial notions of interstitiality and hybridity. Postcolonial ontological security foregrounds the emergence of a “third hybrid Other” from an ontologically insecure status through three interrelated conditions of reflexivity, resourcefulness, and resistance. It aims to shed light on creative, nondestructive ways of confronting ontological insecurity and to encourage a view of the postcolonial Other as a learning source for the Self. These arguments are illustrated with the case of Okinawan “Otherness” vis-à-vis the US and Japanese selves, with particular attention to antimilitary base movements.
The “Enemization” of Criminal Law? An Inquiry into the Sociology of a Legal Doctrine and its Political and Moral Underpinnings
Authors: Linhardt Dominique , Moreau de Bellaing Cédric
Published: September 2019

The fight against terrorism has undergone major changes over the past thirty years. These changes have often been interpreted as a manifestation of “exceptionalism,” a trend that should be criticized for undermining the rule of law. We agree with this diagnosis but want to take a further step by acknowledging that this critical relationship to developments in counterterrorism is an integral part of the social processes to be studied. To this end, our approach places knowledge production at the heart of the scientific study of the fight against terrorism. We aim to understand how the so-called enemy criminal law—a legal dogmatic undertaking that has been used in various settings to reflect on the issue of counterterrorism—has gradually evolved from an objectivist analysis to a critical resource, without its axiomatics having fundamentally changed. With the help of what, in France, is called the “sociologie des épreuves,” we show that this transformation has been achieved through the confrontation of the doctrine with different sociopolitical contexts. We aim to document and help explain this unique trajectory from a sociology of knowledge perspective.
The Schools of Thought Problem in International Relations
Authors: Grieco Joseph M
Published: September 2019

Many scholars are dissatisfied with the tendency of research and teaching in the field of international relations to be framed as clashes among competing schools of thought. I examine two prominent options for reform that relate to the schools and offer one element of an alternative path forward. The first option, which I term analytical singularism, calls for the abandonment of the IR schools and their replacement with a single, uniform framework for the study of international relations. By virtue of a constricted ontology and partialist epistemology, this option is plagued by omitted variable bias and underspecified modeling of important international processes. The second option, analytical eclecticism, suggests that improved IR studies might emerge from the consideration of interactions between causal factors that are drawn from the different IR schools of thought. Analytical eclecticism holds promise but faces serious challenges arising from its preference for qualitative methods and context-specific epistemology. I then outline a process of collaborative challenges between adherents of the different IR schools as one way by which we might advance research in international relations.
Novel staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) type XIV (5A) and a truncated SCCmec element in SCC composite islands carrying speG in ST5 MRSA in Japan
Authors: Urushibara Noriko , Aung Meiji Soe , Kawaguchiya Mitsuyo , Kobayashi Nobumichi
Published: September 2019

Background

Staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) elements are highly diverse and have been classified into 13 types. The arginine catabolic mobile element (ACME) is an SCC-like element harbouring an arginine deiminase pathway gene cluster (ACME-arc). ACME type I (ACME I), additionally including a spermidine/spermine-N1-acetyltransferase gene (speG), is considered to have contributed to the rapid spread of the most successful MRSA clone, USA300.

Objectives

To characterize the SCC composite islands (SCC-CIs) in ST5 MRSA positive for both ACME-arc and speG.

Methods

Three ST5 MRSA strains (SC640, SC792 and SC955) collected in Hokkaido, Japan were subjected to WGS and the SCC-CIs were determined.

Results

The SCC-CIs consisted of four (SC640 and SC792) or three (SC955) SCC/SCC-like elements and commonly harboured both an ACME type II′ and an SCC encoding speG. These SCC-CIs appear to mimic ACME I in USA300, in that they are equipped with ACME-arc and speG. The SCC-CIs of SC640 and SC792 contained novel SCCmec/SCCmec-like elements at the 3′ end, whereas SC955 contained SCCmec type V. The SCCmec of SC792 carried mec complex A and ccrC1, which was determined to be novel and designated as SCCmec type XIV (5A). SC640 harboured an SCCmec-like element derived from SCCmec type XIV. It lacked most of the downstream region of the mec complex, including the left chromosomal attachment site (SCCmec XIV Δkdp/DR-L), and lost its capability for chromosomal excision, suggesting that the mecA gene is immobilized on the chromosome.

Conclusions

These findings provide evidence for increasing complexity of SCC-CIs.
Systematic Review and Expert Consensus on the Use of Orthoses (Splints and Casts) with Adults and Children after Burn Injury to Determine Practice Guidelines
Authors: Parry Ingrid S , Schneider Jeffrey C , Yelvington Miranda , Sharp Patricia , Serghiou Michael , Ryan Colleen M , Richardson Elizabeth , Pontius Kara , Niszczak Jonathan , McMahon Margaret , MacDonald Lori E , Lorello David , Kehrer Catherine Knox , Godleski Matthew , Forbes Lisa , Duch Sarah , Crump Donna , Chouinard Annick , Calva Valerie , Bills Sara , Benavides Lynne , Acharya Hernish J , De Oliveira Ana , Boruff Jill , Nedelec Bernadette
Published: September 2019

The objective of this review was to systematically evaluate the available literature addressing the use of orthoses (splints and casts) with adult and pediatric burn survivors and determine whether practice guidelines could be proposed. This review provides evidence-based recommendations specifically for rehabilitation professionals who are responsible for burn survivor rehabilitation. A summary recommendation was made after the literature was retrieved using a systematic review and critical appraisal by multiple authors. The level of evidence of the literature was determined in accordance with the Oxford Centre for Evidence-based Medicine criteria. Due to the low level of evidence in the available literature, only one practice guideline could be recommended: orthotic use should be considered as a treatment choice for improving range of motion or reducing contracture in adults who have sustained a burn injury. To address the rehabilitation-specific gaps found in the literature regarding orthotic use in burn rehabilitation and provide guidance to clinicians, a formal expert consensus exercise was conducted as a final step to the project. The resultant manuscript provides a summary of the literature regarding orthotic use with burn patients, one practice guideline, proposed orthotic terminology and additional practice recommendations based on expert opinion. The limitations in the current literature are also discussed, and suggestions are made for future studies in the area of orthotic use after burn injury.
Nests placements and spawning in the endangered horseshoe crab Tachypleus tridentatus (Leach, 1819) (Merostomata: Xiphosurida: Limulidae) in Sabah, Malaysia
Authors: Mohamad Faridah , Mohd Sofa Muhd Fawwaz Afham , Manca Azwarfarid , Ismail Noraznawati , Che Cob Zaidi , Ahmad Amirrudin B
Published: September 2019

Horseshoe crab populations are declining worldwide, and Tachypleus tridentatus (Leach, 1819) has recently been classified as Endangered in the IUCN Redlist. Among the keys for species survival is successful reproduction. Although there are reports on the reproduction, particularly details on the spawning behaviour, of the American species, Limulus polyphemus (Linnaeus, 1758), information on Southeast Asia species is very scant. This field study reports the nesting activities of T. tridentatus at Jambongan Island, Sabah, Malaysia. Observation were carried out on 16 spawning pairs that were spotted during full and new moon from April-July 2016 in Sabah. Nest placements, number of nests, number of eggs, time spent at each nest, and nest widths, depth, and distance from the highest tide line were recorded for each pair. Tachypleus tridentatus generally laid an average of 967 ± 54.1 eggs/nest (171–2,282) in as many as nine nests on the intertidal zone between 125 and 940 cm from the highest tide. The first nest was dug once the tide began rising, followed by the consecutive nests towards the highest tide line with nest depths ranging between 13 and 22 cm. The complete spawning session (first nest to the last) ended in less than two hours. Time spent in spawning correlates positively with the number of nests and the total number of eggs laid by each spawning female. The spawning area, which is made up mainly by fine and medium-size sediment grains, also experience stable temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen conducive for egg-laying and larval development for successful reproduction. The details of spawning are important for planning successful future conservation initiatives for the species, especially in tropical regions.
Previous Aphid Infestation Induces Different Expression Profiles of Genes Associated with Hormone-Dependent Responses in Near-Isogenic Winter Wheat Lines
Authors: Luo Kun , Yao Xin-Jian , Luo Chen , Hu Xiang-Shun , Hu Zu-Qing , Zhang Gai-Sheng , Zhao Hui-Yan
Published: September 2019

Hormone-dependent responses in host plants induced by herbivore infestation have species-specific effects. This study focused on determining the relative expression profiles of the genes associated with hormone-dependent pathways in two near-isogenic wheat lines when attacked by cereal aphids. Infestation with Rhopalosiphum padi Linnaeus (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and/or Sitobion avenae Fabricius (Hemiptera: Aphididae) significantly upregulated the expression of marker genes related to the salicylic acid (SA)- and jasmonic acid (JA)-dependent pathways in the tested lines. In the resistant line 35-E4, previous infestation with R. padi significantly increased the relative expression of plant pathogenesis-related protein 1 at all sampling times but did not have a significant effect on the expression of the phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) gene. In addition, the expression levels of the lipoxygenase (LOX) and allene oxide synthase (AOS) genes immediately increased after the aphid attack. In susceptible line 35-A20, infestation with either R. padi or S. avenae led to significantly increased expression levels of the AOS and PAL genes. Moreover, sequential aphid infestation induced higher expression of AOS compared with a single-species aphid infestation, whereas the expression of the PAL gene was antagonistically affected by sequential aphid infestation. Overall, these results showed that aphid infestation induced SA- and JA-dependent responses in host plants. However, the expression profiles of these genes in resistant and susceptible host lines were significantly different.
Niche Modeling of Economically Important Mahanarva (Hemiptera, Cercopidae) Species in South and Central America: Are Brazilian Spittlebug Sugarcane Pests Potential Invaders of South and Central America?
Authors: Schöbel Christian , Carvalho Gervásio S
Published: September 2019

Mahanarva fimbriolata, Mahanarva spectabilis, Mahanarva liturata, and Mahanarva posticata (Hemiptera: Cercopidae) are known pests in South American sugarcane and pasture plantations. They cause phytotoxicity by feeding directly from plant sap, greatly decreasing their production. In this work, we applied Species Distribution Modeling using the Maxent algorithm to analyze these four spittlebug species possible occurrence in South and Central America. Therefore, current and future bioclimatic variables, as well as elevation and other agricultural variables, were used within RStudio. Future climatic variables were differentiated between the years 2050 and 2070 with several representative concentration pathways. Overall, the species showed various suitable habitats in different countries of South and Central America. Nevertheless, when compared with future climate analysis, the number of suitable habitats is declining due to climate change. Elevation, isothermality, and different precipitation variables were mainly responsible for the results. We were able to analyze that spittlebug populations are not limited by temperature, but rather by other abiotic factors, such as precipitation.
Trade in Services in the African Continental Free Trade Area: Prospects, Challenges and WTO Compatibility
Authors: Simo Regis Y
Published: September 2019

This article engages with the recently adopted agreement for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in the area of services. While services trade had heretofore stood at the queue of African trade pacts, the AfCFTA breaks new grounds by negotiating goods and services concurrently, signalling a paradigm shift and a commitment to a deeper integration of the continent. Upon Members’ implementation of the Protocol on Trade in Services, whose aim is to establish a single market in services, the region will be the largest economic integration agreement ever concluded since the birth of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This paper sets out to analyse the provisions of the Protocol and how they contribute to achieving the objective of attaining a single market where services (alongside goods, people and capital) move unrestricted.
Service Professionals' Response to Volunteer Involvement in Service Production
Authors: Thomsen Mette Kjærgaard , Jensen Ulrich Thy
Published: September 2019

Involving volunteers in the production and delivery of public services is a core policy objective of governments around the world. While existing research on volunteer involvement in service production, for example, has focused on advantages and disadvantages of such involvement and different dimensions of volunteer involvement, little is known about service professionals' response to volunteer involvement in public service production. Integrating perspectives from multiple theories, we build a theoretical framework for understanding how and when service professionals come to see volunteers as a threat to the quality of service, the profession's privileged position and monopoly, and professionals' own work tasks and job security. Based on a central distinction between production of core and complementary tasks, we propose that volunteers come to be seen as a threat in the eyes of service professionals when volunteers solve core rather than complementary tasks. Using a survey experiment among health assistants at nursing homes, we find partial support for our argument. Health assistants are more likely to perceive volunteers as a threat to the quality of care when volunteers solve core rather than complementary tasks. The study guides research toward a more nuanced understanding of volunteer involvement in service production in public organizations.
Institutionalization of a Formalized Intergovernmental Transfer Scheme for Asylum Seekers in Germany: TheKönigstein Keyas an Indicator of Federal Justice
Authors: Bartl Walter
Published: September 2019

Crisis-induced refugee migration raises questions of fair responsibility-sharing among political territories. This is relevant for nation states and for subnational territories alike. Theories addressing this problem have mainly been developed with regard to international responsibility-sharing. They assume collective action problems when it comes to organising intergovernmental transfer schemes, something which cannot be easily overcome. It is not well understood how effective transfer schemes can be institutionalised when no hierarchical decision-making is in place. Complementary to that perspective, this paper builds upon constructivist institutional theories that suggest paying more attention to guiding ideas, which can be called upon when intergovernmental transfer schemes are at stake, and to criteria of rationality that can legitimately claim to embody this idea. Legitimate criteria of rationality are typically the result of “investments in form”, i.e. social practices which imbue material objects with certain qualities so that they stand for particular guiding ideas. The article tests this assumption empirically by tracing the institutionalisation process of the Königstein key (Königsteiner Schlüssel) as a dynamic formula for determining state quotas in Germany's refugee federalism. While important precedents of physical intergovernmental responsibility-sharing in refugee matters had already existed in West Germany, their translation to the territorial dispersal of non-German asylum seekers was highly controversial in the 1970s. In this case, resorting to the Königstein key proved to be feasible in part because, by then, the formula had already become a symbol of the idea of federal justice through its use in a variety of different and far less controversial policy fields. However, during the recent wave of refugee immigration it has increasingly become the object of critique.
The Design, Construction and Maintenance of a SuDS management Train to Address Surface water Flows by Engaging the Community: Gawilan Refugee Camp, Ninewah Governate, Kurdistan Region of Iraq
Authors: Charlesworth Susanne M. , Mctough Mitchell , Adam-Bradford Andrew
Published: September 2019

Refugee camps are set up under crisis conditions in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) with Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) installed as a matter of course. However, in general, little account is taken of surface-water drainage or greywater management until the camp floods or greywater streams become an environmental or health issue. This article reports on the construction of a sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) management train in a refugee camp with the community and local non-governmental organizations to address excess surface water and lack of greywater management in this most challenging of environments. There is thus potential to influence policy, at the first stages of planning, to encourage the installation of drainage as well as WASH. SuDS mimic nature by percolating water into the ground, storing it and allowing slow conveyance to reduce the storm peak, improve water quality and provide space for amenity for residents and for biodiversity. By encouraging the water to infiltrate, polluted standing water between dwellings and on the street is reduced, so that human and environmental health is improved, with the potential to address nuisance-insect-breeding sites. Site walkovers, workshops and meetings engaged residents in the design process from the very beginning. The design produced by the community was professionally drawn up and passed to the UNHCR and local management engineers for comment and approval; this article describes the process of designing and constructing the first SuDS-management train to be built in a humanitarian setting.
Towards a Neo-cosmetic Humanitarianism: Refugee Self-reliance as a Social-cohesion Regime in Lebanon’s Halba
Authors: Carpi Estella
Published: September 2019

This article focuses on Syrian-refugee self-reliance and humanitarian efforts meant to foster it in Halba, northern Lebanon. I argue that humanitarian livelihood programming is ‘neo-cosmetic’, as the skills refugees acquire through humanitarian programmes turn out to be little more than a cosmetic accessory. While the humanitarian apparatus deliberately limits its action in order not to challenge host economies, the acquired skills do not practically enhance refugees’ possibility to be employed. Instead, refugee self-reliance is reconfigured as the ‘inter-ethnic promotion of host stability’. Relatedly, I propose that the aim of implementing social cohesion in multi-ethnic areas reveals a new ethnicization of care within the humanitarian system. Within this framework, the citizen practice of running hardware stores on a permanent basis coexists with the temporariness of refugee livelihood practices. Lastly, I rethink social membership in a refugee–host setting by adopting a practice-based approach to the research subjects in an effort to challenge the ethnic definitions of social groups and other pre-established forms of belonging.
Chronic constrictive pericarditis complicated with huge right atrial thrombus in a child with abdominal tuberculosis: a rare life-threatening condition
Authors: Kumar Rupesh , Raja Javid , Rawat Sanjib , Srivastava Ayush , Thingnam Shyam Kumar Singh
Published: September 2019

Chronic constrictive pericarditis (CCP) is the most common pericardial pathology. CCP complicating with intracardiac thrombus is a rare entity, the detection of thrombus preoperatively is life-saving in avoiding the risk of pulmonary thromboembolism during anterior pericardiectomy. Transesophageal echocardiography has been shown to have better sensitivity in detecting atrial thrombus than transthoracic echocardiography. Surgical removal of right atrial thrombus under cardiopulmonary bypass should be considered.
The Rationally Supererogatory
Authors: Benn Claire , Bales Adam
Published: September 2019

The notion of supererogation—going above and beyond the call of duty—is typically discussed in a moral context. However, in this paper we argue for the existence of rationally supererogatory actions: that is, actions that go above and beyond the call of rational duty. In order to establish the existence of such actions, we first need to overcome the so-called paradox of supererogation: we need to provide some explanation for why, if some act is rationally optimal, it is not the case that we are rationally required to carry out that act. We argue that a response to this ‘paradox’ can be found by reflecting on normative conflicts: cases where what is best according to some normative domain is different from what is best according to some other normative domain.
Synchrocurvature modelling of the multifrequency non-thermal emission of pulsars
Authors: Torres Diego F , Viganò Daniele , Coti Zelati Francesco , Li Jian
Published: September 2019

We apply a synchrocurvature spectral emission model based on characterizing the dynamics of magnetospheric particles to fit the phase-average spectra of the most extended data base for the non-thermal spectra of pulsars. We consider 36 pulsars with well-determined non-thermal spectra from X-rays to gamma-rays. The sample includes Crab and the Crab twin, for which the spectra extend even to the optical/ultraviolet and infrared energies. We find that the model – with just three physical parameters and a global scaling – can fit the observations well across eight orders of magnitude for 18 of the 36 pulsars studied. Additionally, we find a set of eight pulsars for which the model still provides arguably good fits and another set of 10 pulsars for which the model fails in reproducing the spectra. We discuss why, propose and provide physical interpretations for a simple model extension (related to the geometry of the accelerating system with regards to the observer) that allows dealing with all such cases, ultimately providing very good fits for all pulsars. The extended model is still austere, adding only two additional parameters to the former set, of the same kind of the ones previously used. We use these fits to discuss issues going from the observed spectral origin, to the extent of the dominance of synchrotron or curvature regimes, the use of a model as predictor for searching new non-thermal pulsars starting from gamma-ray surveys, and how the model offers a setting where phase shifts between X-ray and gamma-ray light curves would naturally arise.
Gaussian process modelling of granulation and oscillations in red giant stars
Authors: Pereira Filipe , Campante Tiago L , Cunha Margarida S , Faria João P , Santos Nuno C , Barros Susana C C , Demangeon Olivier , Kuszlewicz James S , Corsaro Enrico
Published: September 2019

The analysis of photometric time series in the context of transiting planet surveys suffers from the presence of stellar signals, often dubbed ‘stellar noise’. These signals, caused by stellar oscillations and granulation, can usually be disregarded for main-sequence stars, as the stellar contributions average out when phase-folding the light curve. For evolved stars, however, the amplitudes of such signals are larger and the timescales similar to the transit duration of short-period planets, requiring that they be modelled alongside the transit. With the promise of TESS delivering of the order of ∼105 light curves for stars along the red giant branch, there is a need for a method capable of describing the ‘stellar noise’ while simultaneously modelling an exoplanet’s transit. In this work, a Gaussian process regression framework is used to model stellar light curves and the method validated by applying it to TESS-like artificial data. Furthermore, the method is used to characterize the stellar oscillations and granulation of a sample of well-studied Kepler low-luminosity red giant branch stars. The parameters determined are compared to equivalent ones obtained by modelling the power spectrum of the light curve. Results show that the method presented is capable of describing the stellar signals in the time domain and can also return an accurate and precise measurement of νmax, i.e. the frequency of maximum oscillation amplitude. Preliminary results show that using the method in transit modelling improves the precision and accuracy of the ratio between the planetary and stellar radius, Rp/R⋆. The method’s implementation is publicly available.1