bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cloning of a gene-edited macaque monkey by somatic cell nuclear transfer
Authors: Liu Zhen , Cai Yijun , Liao Zhaodi , Xu Yuting , Wang Yan , Wang Zhanyang , Jiang Xiaoyu , Li Yuzhuo , Lu Yong , Nie Yanhong , Zhang Xiaotong , Li Chunyang , Bian Xinyan , Poo Mu-ming , Chang Hung-Chun , Sun Qiang
Published: January 2019

Cloning of macaque monkeys by somatic cell nucleus transfer (SCNT) allows the generation of monkeys with uniform genetic backgrounds that are useful for the development of non-human primate models of human diseases. Here, we report the feasibility of this approach by SCNT of fibroblasts from a macaque monkey (Macaca fascicularis), in which a core circadian transcription factor BMAL1 was knocked out by clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat/Cas9 gene editing (see accompanying paper). Out of 325 SCNT embryos transferred into 65 surrogate monkeys, we cloned five macaque monkeys with BMAL1 mutations in both alleles without mosaicism, with nuclear genes identical to that of the fibroblast donor monkey. Further peripheral blood mRNA analysis confirmed the complete absence of the wild-type BMAL1 transcript. This study demonstrates that the SCNT approach could be used to generate cloned monkeys from fibroblasts of a young adult monkeys and paves the way for the development of macaque monkey disease models with uniform genetic backgrounds.
Nusrat Amin
Authors: Fazaeli Roja
Published: January 2019

Nusrat Amin al-Dawla Isfahani was born in Isfahan, Iran. The prevailing biographical consensus places her birth in 1886. Amin was also known as Hajiye Khanum Nusrat Amin Begum and wrote under the pen name Banu-i-Irani (Iranian Lady). Nusrat Amin holds a place of reverence in contemporary Shiʿism as a mujtahida (a woman who has the capacity to exert her own judgment on questions of religious law) who received ijaza (permission) certificates from a number of high-ranking ulama (religious scholars). Her work spans from mysticism to ethics. Amin died on 13 June1983; her life crossed both the Qajar and Pahlavi dynasties, as well as the Constitutional (1905–1911) and Islamic revolutions (1979) in Iran. As literature on female religious authority in Islam has advanced there has been increased interest in Amin’s status as a female mujtahida, particularly in English language scholarship. Conferences on her work and in her memory were held in Isfahan and Qom in 1992, 1993, 2013, and 2017. Amin’s more traditionally conservative viewpoints on women and the complementarity of genders fits well within the ethos of the Islamic Republic. Amin is also a symbol of female religious authority in Iran.
Abstract Objects
Authors: Balaguer Mark
Published: January 2019

An abstract object is a non-physical, non-mental object that exists outside of space and time and is wholly unextended. For example, one might think that numbers are abstract objects; e.g., it is plausible to think that if the number 3 exists, then it is not a physical or mental object, and it does not exist in space and time. Likewise, one might think that properties and relations are abstract objects; e.g., it is plausible to think that if redness exists, over and above the various red balls and red houses and so on, then it is an abstract object—i.e., it is non-physical, non-mental, non-spatiotemporal, and so on. Other kinds of objects that are often taken by philosophers to be abstract objects are propositions, sentence types, possible worlds, logical objects, and fictional objects. The view the that there are abstract objects—known as platonism—is of course extremely controversial. Many philosophers think there are just no such things as abstract objects. Philosophers who endorse this antiplatonist view have to endorse some other view of objects of the above kinds—i.e., numbers, properties, propositions, etc.; in particular, in connection with each of these kinds of objects, they have to say either that these objects are physical or mental objects or that there are just no such things. There is a vast literature on the existence and nature of abstract objects. This article focuses mostly (but not entirely) on the existence question—that is, the question of whether there are any such things as abstract objects. In addition, it focuses to some extent (though, again, not entirely) on the specific version of this question that is concerned with the existence of abstract mathematical objects.
Metaphysical Grounding
Authors: Raven Michael J.
Published: January 2019

Metaphysical ground is supposed to be a distinctive metaphysical kind of determination. It is or underwrites constitutive explanations. These explanations answer questions asking in virtue of what something is so. For example, suppose that an act is pious just in case it is loved by the gods. Following Socrates, one might still ask whether an act is pious because the gods love it or whether it is loved by the gods because it is pious. This may be interpreted as a question of ground. Then, one answer is that what the gods love grounds what is pious. And an alternative answer is that what is pious grounds what the gods love. Either way, Socrates’s question concerns what something’s being pious consists in, or what it holds in virtue of, or what grounds it. Once one has the notion of ground, one will likely find it involved in many of philosophy’s big questions. In ethics, the question might be whether an action’s maximizing goodness grounds its rightness. In epistemology, the question might be whether a process producing a belief grounds its justification. In language, the question might whether what a speaker means in uttering a sentence grounds its meaning. In law, the question might be whether social and institutional facts ground the legal facts. In metaphysics, the question might be whether physical facts ground all the rest. In mind, the question might be whether a representation’s content grounds its phenomenal character. The list could go on. The extraordinary range and ambition of these questions of ground explains continued interest in them. But only recently have some philosophers viewed these questions as concerning ground as such. This growing self-consciousness is moving more philosophers to view ground as a topic worthy of study. Much of the recent literature on ground has focused on exploring its structure (Structure) and its connections to other notions (Connections). These explorations spring from the hope that clarifying ground will help clarify the big questions it helps express. Some of the literature on ground explores these applications to the big questions (Applications). But there are also skeptics who challenge ground’s grand pretensions. Some of these skeptics doubt ground’s usefulness for clarifying the big questions. Other skeptics doubt that ground is even intelligible. This has led to a vigorous debate over whether ground deserves the attention it receives (Skepticism and Anti-Skepticism).
"Bhakti Movement” Narratives
Authors: Hawley John Stratton
Published: January 2019

In many ways the measure of a religion is the history or tradition it is believed to encompass. Rituals, beliefs, representations of deity, and laws of behavior also matter deeply, but nothing replaces the sense that the religion in question builds on a history that is sufficiently coherent and persistent that it can be savored in the present day. The concept of the “bhakti movement” articulates one of the most important understandings of how Hindus stand together as a body. It shapes into a single historical pattern regions, languages, and eras that would otherwise be in danger of seeming fragmented and disparate. In its most widely shared form, it offers a story of how bhakti—the religion of song, communal sharing, common speech, and the heart—swept across the Indian subcontinent in time and space for a thousand years or so, beginning in the middle of the 1st millennium ce. This narrative holds that bhakti first made its appearance as a vernacular force in the Tamil-speaking south; it then spread gradually northward as bhakti songs and sentiments were shared from language to language and region to region; and it arrived finally in northern India in the 15th and 16th centuries, expressing itself in the words of widely revered poet-saints such as Kabīr, Tulsīdās, Mīrābāī, and Nānak. According to “standard” versions of this narrative, the western regions of Karnataka and Maharashtra were the most important intermediate zones of transmission, but Telugu contributions have been emphasized in more recent tellings, and it is widely acknowledged that the periphery of the bhakti movement extends to Bengal, Sindh, Assam, and Kashmir; and in the person of Chaitanya, Bengal and Orissa play more than peripheral roles in the overall story. A major problem that arises in telling this tale is how best to represent the relationship between Muslim, Jain, Sikh, and Dalit devotional practices and those that seem to belong more clearly to a Hindu idiom. This in turn points to the fundamental question of whether the bhakti movement is to be understood as a subset of Hindu religiosity and history or as something that transcends its boundaries. Such matters are actively being debated in the 21st century, both at the scholarly level and in less rarefied domains. To some people’s perception, at least, the stakes are high. If one disbands the notion of the bhakti movement, is one in danger of dismembering the idea of the Indian nation? Especially against the background of the political partition of the subcontinent in 1947, such debates cut deep.
Historical Changes in European Rivers
Authors: Comiti Francesco , Scorpio Vittoria
Published: January 2019

River morphology is dynamic in nature, in that it is dictated by unsteady driving variables (water, sediment, and wood fluxes). Focusing on centennial to decadal changes, these driving variables are subject both to naturally and anthropically induced variations and may occur both at the basin and the channel scales. Indeed, the traditional “river equilibrium concept” in fluvial geomorphology is challenged by the more recent concept of “evolutionary trajectory,” which emphasizes how channel characteristics (width, bed elevation, morphological pattern, habitats) undergo variations over time in response to changing driving variables. In Europe, geomorphologists have long identified how rivers responded to major climatic variations (e.g., Pleistocene glaciations). In contrast, climate-induced morphological changes that occurred in historical times (e.g., associated with the Little Ice Age [LIA], 15th–19th centuries), have received far less attention, surely also because they were less dramatic compared to the former ones. Direct human pressures both on basins and channels have instead greatly affected the vast majority of river systems of Europe. Localized morphological alterations and floodplain deforestation, aimed to protect villages and towns from flooding and to increase pastures, can be traced back to ancient times. In order to augment agricultural productivity for a growing population, extensive channel rectifications coupled with floodplain drainage and basin-scale deforestation took place from the late Middle Ages onward, peaking in the 19th century. Several European rivers in these centuries widened and aggraded, as well as during the concurrent “flood-rich” LIA period. However, the trajectory soon reversed, since from the middle of the 20th century onward, natural afforestation, erosion control works, and hydropower dam construction led to a general reduced sediment supply to the downstream river reaches, causing channel narrowing and bed degradation. Nonetheless, in-channel gravel mining—very pronounced from the 1960s to the 1980s—was the most important cause of stream degradation in several rivers. Most of the European rivers are still sediment and wood starved, are subject to flow regulation, and feature impaired longitudinal and lateral connectivity. Since the end of the 20th century, restoration actions have started to be implemented, though, also to comply with the goals of the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive. Finally, ongoing global warming, increasing in severity since the late 20th century, could determine channel variations in those (few) rivers that are still free to adjust, and the most-relevant changes are expected at the higher elevations and latitudes, where glacial and periglacial processes still exert strong controls on river dynamics.
Slave Resistance in the Atlantic World
Authors: Johnson Amy Marie
Published: January 2019

Enslaved peoples have employed a variety of techniques to negotiate and overthrow their enslavement in the Atlantic world. The concept of “slave resistance” is quite vast and intricately intertwined with analysis of “slavery,” “freedom,” and, more recently, the scholarship of “unfreedom.” The forms of resistance enslaved people employed varied widely from collective insurrections and running away to individual acts of murder, flight, and negotiation. The range from violence to acceptance has made it challenging to pinpoint “resistance.” Moreover, the method or methods slaves used often overlapped and their choices reflected the age, gender, skill sets, and skin color of the enslaved person as well as the geographical region and time period in which they were enslaved. Since the late 20th century, scholars of slave resistance have explicitly rejected the notion that enslaved peoples were faced with dichotomous choices: resist or submit; act individually or collectively; use violence or avoidance. Consequently, we have a greater understanding of slave resistance and the contradictory qualities of enslaved peoples. The Atlantic world is also expansive—geographically, temporally, and conceptually. It encompasses the eastern regions of North America and South America, the Caribbean, western Africa, and western Europe. These regions can first be thought of as the “Atlantic world” beginning with their sustained contact in the 15th century and it continues to form a conceptual framework in scholarly studies today. In recent years, more scholarly attention has been paid to Dutch-, Portuguese-, and Spanish-speaking regions, providing a more complete picture of the Atlantic world and bringing new scholars into discussions as well as stimulating new conversations. Though much of the current scholarship is still written in European languages—English, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese—researchers are increasingly analyzing non-European source material in their studies. The result has been a notable increase in quantity and quality of Atlantic world studies. In light of the scope of the topics “slave resistance” and “Atlantic world,” this article is based on two guiding decisions. First, the article is organized based on categories of slave resistance, paying special attention to the type of resistance and geographic region. Second, the article includes only scholarship that has been written in English.
Religion and Colonization
Authors: Lachenicht Susanne
Published: January 2019

For the process of European expansion and the colonial endeavors from the late 15th century to the 19th, historians of the Atlantic world have more often than not identified the imperial states as the most powerful players: the Portuguese, Spanish, French, Dutch, and English (later British). From these empires’ perspectives, colonization was also about converting the “heathen” to, first, Catholicism, and then, with the Reformation and the rise of different varieties of Protestantism, to other denominations as well. Colonization in the early modern period was as much about religious missions, about “the harvest of souls,” as it was about expanding territorial boundaries and economic resources (Lachenicht, et al. 2016, cited under General Overviews). What Lauric Henneton has dubbed the “spiritual geopolitics” of the Atlantic world (Henneton 2014, cited under Puritan Colonization Schemes) is an important feature in the conquest and colonization of the Atlantic world. While Catholic and Protestant institutions supported the imperial powers’ colonization schemes, the former had agendas of their own, which at times clashed with more worldly colonization schemes. Among the most powerful of these religious enterprises, we find next to the Jesuits, Franciscans, Dominicans, and Capuchins a number of Protestant churches and communities. This is especially true for the later 17th and 18th centuries with so-called evangelical Protestantisms: Quakers, Halle Pietists, Moravians, and others. Many of these religious orders and communities had not only Atlantic but global networks that stretched from European to African, American, and Asian worlds—in the 19th century also to areas within the Pacific including Australia and New Zealand. In the early modern period, many religious minorities were heavily persecuted for their faith. Forced to migrate, a number of imperial states decided to “make use” of these religious minorities to populate their overseas colonies, to strengthen their might and prosperity. Tolerance, then, was about “suffering” the “religious other”—and about utilitarian motives that included colonization schemes (Lachenicht 2017, cited under General Overviews). Not only Sephardi Jews but also Huguenots, Quakers, Moravians, and others became—as Jonathan Israel has put it for Sephardi Jews—“agents and victims of empire” (Israel 2002, cited under Sephardi Jews and Colonization).
Chinese Approaches to Strategy
Authors: Lorge Peter
Published: January 2019

Although discussions of war and military history were contained in many Chinese works, a number of books and essays focused solely and exclusively on discussing the way war worked, how armies functioned, how to fight in groups and individually, and how to think strategically. The tradition of writing about war was far more extensive in the Chinese tradition than in the West, with one modern collection, The Complete Collection of Chinese Military Books published by the People’s Liberation Army running to fifty volumes. Of those fifty volumes, many containing multiple works, less than a half-dozen texts have been translated into any modern language, including Chinese.
Contemporary Shia–Sunni Sectarian Violence
Authors: Nuruzzaman Mohammed
Published: January 2019

Religious violence, primarily stemming from Shia–Sunni conflicts, has occupied the center stage in contemporary Middle East. It’s most recent brutal expression, which is viewed as a symptom rather than the cause, is the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS; also called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant; ISIL) in the summer of 2014 and the violence it unleashed against the Shias, the anti-ISIS Sunnis and other non-Muslim groups across and beyond the Middle East. The violence did not erupt suddenly, however: it is an outcome of a myriad of complex historical, religious, political, economic, and geopolitical factors. Historically, tensions between Islam’s two rival sects, the Shias and the Sunnis, have existed, especially after the Battle of Karbala in 680 (which saw the defeat of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad and the younger son of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the son-in-law of the Prophet and the fourth caliph of Islam, at the hand of Damascus-based Umayyad Caliph Yazid I), mostly in abeyance but occasionally resulting in encounters. In the contemporary context, a host of factors, most notably external interventions including the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and the toppling of the minority Sunni-led Saddam Hussein government, the sectarianization of politics by the Gulf Arab monarchs, Iran, and other dictatorial regimes in the region to consolidate regime survival, and the geopolitical competitions for power and influence between the region’s two archrivals: the Shia powerhouse Iran and the self-proclaimed defender of the Sunnis, Saudi Arabia, have greatly abetted violence between Islam’s two rival sects. Bahrain, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria are the battleground states where the two regional heavyweights, being aided by two extra-regional powers, the United States and the Russian Federation, are jostling and jockeying to edge each other out to claim regional preeminence. The malaise of sectarian violence took a more serious toll on the peoples and societies in the region after the outbreak of Arab movements for democracy, what is dubbed the Arab Spring, in December 2010 and what is continuing today. This article partially originates from the author’s research project “Shia – Sunni Sectarian Violence and Middle East Regional Security” funded by the European Union and tenable at Durham University, U.K.
Causatives
Authors: Pakerys Jurgis
Published: January 2019

A causative is a linguistic expression referring to a situation consisting of a certain event and a force responsible for the realization of it, as seen in the following examples, where the addressee is understood as the cause of laughing of the addresser: English You make me laugh = Lithuanian Tu mane juok-in-i (2sg.nom1sg.acc laugh-caus-prs.2sg). These examples illustrate two major types of causative expressions, where make and -in- serve as markers of causative relations. English employs a free form, and the construction is termed periphrastic (or analytic, syntactic) causative, while Lithuanian uses an affix, and this type is referred to as morphological causative. There are other formal means beside affixation to form morphological causatives, such as reduplication, vowel, consonant, and tone alternations. The periphrastic causatives can be monoclausal or biclausal in their structure, and the monoclausal ones are sometimes specifically referred to as syntactic causatives. In addition to that, lexical causatives can be recognized if a predicate bearing no synchronically transparent relation to another predicate is interpreted as causative on semantic grounds. For example, in the English sentence You killed him, one may paraphrase kill as “cause to die” and argue that kill stands in causative relation with respect to die. Some authors also use the term “lexical causative” when talking about nonproductive and/or semitransparent formations, which typically disallow ambiguity of adverb scope. With regard to semantics, causatives can be factitive (as English make) or permissive (as English let), the causing force may operate directly or indirectly (by certain intermediate actions), and a number of other parameters can be shown to be relevant. It has been argued that these semantic parameters also bear a relation to the formal means of expression of causatives, such as direct causation expressed by morphological causatives and indirect one by periphrastic constructions. Within a larger context, causatives are interpreted as valency-changing operations, which add a causer as an agent (“you” in the previous examples) and demote the subject of the base predicate, which becomes the causee and can be marked as a certain object (“me” in the previous examples). The principles governing the marking of the causee, such as “the paradigm case” and “the semantic role approach,” have been one of the main topics in the study of causatives. The syntax of causative constructions is usually also discussed in the studies dealing with transitivity and voice (see further references in the separate Oxford Bibliographies article in Linguistics “Transitivity and Voice”).
Semantic Maps
Authors: Georgakopoulos Thanasis
Published: January 2019

A semantic map is a method for visually representing cross-linguistic regularity or universality in semantic structure. This method has proved attractive to typologists because it provides a convenient graphical display of the interrelationships between meanings or functions across languages, while (at the same time) differentiating what is universal from what is language-specific. The semantic map model was initially conceived to describe patterns of polysemy (or, more generally, of co-expression) in grammatical categories. However, several studies have shown that it can be fruitfully extended to lexical items and even constructions, suggesting that any type of meaning can be integrated in a map. The main idea of the method is that the spatial arrangement of the various meanings reflects their degree of (dis)similarity: the more similar the meanings, the closer they are placed—in accordance with the so-called connectivity hypothesis. Within the semantic map tradition, closeness has taken different forms depending on the approach adopted. In classical semantic maps (alternative terms: “first generation,” “implicational,” “connectivity” maps), the relation between meanings is represented as a line. This is the graph-based approach. In proximity maps (alternative terms: “similarity,” “second generation,” “statistical,” “probabilistic” maps), the distance between two meanings in space— represented as points—indicates the degree of their similarity. In this scale- or distance-based approach, the maps are constructed using multivariate statistical techniques, including the family of methods known as multidimensional scaling (MDS). Both classical and proximity maps have been widely used, although the latter have recently gained interest and popularity under the assumption that they can cope with large data more efficiently than classical semantic maps. However, classical semantic maps continue to be useful for studies aiming to discover universal semantic structures. Most importantly, classical maps can integrate information about directionality of change by drawing an arrow on the line connecting two meanings or functions. Beyond the choice between the two types of maps, one of the issues that has sparked debate and critical reflection among researchers is the universal relevance of semantic maps. The main question that these researchers address is whether semantic maps reflect the global geography of the human mind. Another much discussed issue is the identification of the factors that increase the accuracy of semantic maps in a way that allows for valid cross‐linguistic generalizations. Such factors include the choice of a representative language sample, the quality of the collected cross‐linguistic material, and the establishment of valid cross-linguistic comparators. Acknowledgments: The author wishes to thank one anonymous reviewer for their useful comments. For discussion of the material in this article, the author is grateful to Stéphane Polis.
Discrimination
Authors: Dovidio John , Ikizer Elif
Published: January 2019

Discrimination refers to an act, policy, practice, or social structure that creates, maintains, or reinforces an advantage for some groups and their members over other groups and their members. Discrimination, which can occur at the individual, institutional, and cultural levels, represents unfair treatment and can be distinguished from two other forms of bias: (i) prejudice, which is an attitude reflecting an overall evaluation of a group, and (ii) stereotypes, which are associations and attributions of specific characteristics to a group. Although prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination at the individual level are generally positively associated empirically, prejudice and stereotypes do not necessarily lead to discrimination, and discrimination can occur in the absence of conscious prejudice and stereotypes. Classic contributions on this topic characterized discrimination mainly in terms of negative actions by individuals—ranging from verbal comments to physical injury—directed to harm of another group and its members. However, in addition to blatant and direct forms of discrimination, discrimination may be displayed as unjustified positive treatment of members of one’s own group relative to members of another group, or it may represent actions toward members of another group that initially appear favorable but ultimately disadvantage the other group in the longer term (e.g., patronizing behavior, such as chivalry). Discrimination is often represented in terms of the behavior of individuals directed toward members, but these acts are not necessarily consciously motivated. Moreover, individual bias expressed by individuals is not necessary for discrimination to be experienced by members of some groups. Instead, discrimination may be enacted broadly through institutional structures and policies or embedded in cultural beliefs and representations that value various groups differently. Thus, individual-, institutional-, and cultural-level processes may operate in concert to provide some groups systematic advantages and/or to impose disadvantages on other groups. Often these influences are cloaked in justifications or ideologies that obscure the unfairness of the influences and thus allow the discriminatory nature of the treatment to go undetected and unaddressed. The remainder of this examination of discrimination considers (i) personality and individual differences related to behaving in a discriminatory way, (ii) social psychological influences that promote discrimination, (iii) subtle manifestations of discrimination, (iv) institutional and cultural forms of bias; (v) the impact of discrimination psychologically and physically, and (vi) ways of combating discrimination.
Art and Architecture in the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary
Authors: Jékely Zsombor
Published: January 2019

The Kingdom of Hungary was established in 1000 with the coronation of Stephen as the first king of the realm. In 1102, King Coloman of the House of Árpád assumed the throne, bringing Croatia under the rule of Hungarian kings in a personal union. The Árpádian dynasty continued to rule Hungary until 1301, after which the Neapolitan Angevins rose to power. Following the reign of King Sigismund of Luxemburg (1387–1437), the first Habsburg ruler of Hungary, Albert, ascended the throne. The second half of the 15th century saw the golden age of King Matthias Corvinus, which was followed by a period of Jagiellonian rule. The end of the medieval kingdom was marked by the Battle of Mohacs in 1526, when the advancing Ottoman army defeated the Hungarians, killing young King Louis II as well. The Ottoman conquest resulted in the disintegration of the kingdom into three parts (Royal Hungary, the Ottoman territory, and the Principality of Transylvania). It was only reunited at the end of the 17th century under Habsburg rule. This history explains why the study of art in medieval Hungary is complicated. First of all, major sites in the center of the kingdom, in towns such as Esztergom, Buda, Visegrád, and Szekesfehervar, were destroyed. In the more peripheral areas of the kingdom, especially in Transylvania and the former Upper Hungary (present-day Slovakia), the artistic heritage of the Middle Ages has survived to a greater degree—however, Hungary lost these areas in the 1920 Trianon Peace Treaty. The territory of the medieval kingdom is now located in eight countries in addition to Hungary: Austria, Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. The study of medieval art in this region has often been carried out within the framework of individual modern states. This presents a historiographical and linguistic challenge and makes it quite difficult to survey the entire scholarship on the topic. For an accurate picture of medieval art in the Kingdom of Hungary, the overall geographical framework of research needs to cover the entire historic territory of the medieval kingdom. The present article looks at medieval art from the entire territory of the historic Kingdom of Hungary. The present overview concentrates on recent art historical scholarship, with a strong focus on publications in more accessible Western languages. Thanks to a renewed interest in medieval Hungary in the late 20th and early 21st centuries—which can be measured by the number of exhibitions, international conferences, monographs, and study collections published by Western publishing houses—a large body of scholarship is now available on most topics in the field of medieval art in Hungary. The early Renaissance art that played a major role at the court of King Matthias and his direct successors is not treated in the article, as that topic is the subject of a separate article.
Development and Evaluation of Laboratory Bioassays to Study Powdery Mildew Pathogens of Phlox In Vitro
Authors: Farinas Coralie , Jourdan Pablo , Paul Pierce A. , Peduto Hand Francesca
Published: January 2019

The genus Phlox consists of approximately 65 species that include some of the most prevalent ornamental plants in the temperate zone. These popular ornamentals are extremely susceptible to powdery mildew (PM) caused by the biotrophic fungi Golovinomyces magnicellulatus and Podosphaera sp. In this study, we used Phlox paniculata and P. glaberrima to develop a set of laboratory tools to study these pathogens in vitro, including a detached leaf and a micropropagated plantlet bioassay. We assessed pathogen growth under different experimental conditions, which included the use of four different media variations (1/2 MS medium amended with benzimidazole and tetracycline), three ages of pathogen culture (14, 18, and 22 days), three phenological stages of the host tissue (1st, 3rd, and 5th node leaves), placement of inoculum on both leaf surfaces (abaxial and adaxial), and three different inoculation techniques (single spore transfer, colony tapping, colony brushing). Detached P. paniculata leaves were successfully maintained on benzimidazole-amended 1/2 MS medium for up to 3 weeks. For both pathogens, the use of 18-day-old cultures resulted in a higher number of larger, higher sporulating colonies compared with 1-4 and 22-day-old cultures. The adaxial side of 3rd node leaves supported statistically significant more fungal growth compared with the adaxial side of 1st and 5th node leaves. Both pathogens also successfully infected micropropagated plantlets of P. glaberrima. These newly developed tools should facilitate in vitro studies on PM of Phlox and possibly be applicable to other ornamental species attacked by the same fungi.
Virulence Structure and Diversity of Puccinia coronata f. sp. avenae P. Syd. & Syd. in Poland During 2013 to 2015
Authors: Paczos-Grzęda Edyta , Sowa Sylwia
Published: January 2019

The crown rust fungus Puccinia coronata f. sp. avenae P. Syd. & Syd. (Pca) attacks cultivated oat and its wild relatives, causing significant losses to the crop worldwide. Although understanding the origin and dynamics of the pathogen’s diversity is critical to developing methods for its control, there are little relevant data on Pca virulence diversity in Europe, the global center of oat production. The goal of this study was to analyze the diversity of Pca populations in Poland in 2013 to 2015 based on their ability to overcome currently available host resistance Pc genes. Pca isolate virulence was evaluated on a panel of lines containing 26 major resistance genes of oat. The isolates were able to overcome from 1 to 16 resistance genes each, with most isolates being virulent on five to seven lines. In all years, a very high level of crown rust pathotype diversity was observed, with Simpson and Evenness indices of 0.99. In total, 156 different pathotypes were detected, with no prevalent pathotype in any of the 3 years analyzed. The results showed that the virulence level of P. coronata isolates was relatively low for each year studied (21% on average), most likely owing to the low take up of Pc genes in Polish oat cultivars, meaning that many sources of resistance are still effective against Pca races occurring in Poland. The long-range dispersal of Puccinia spores supported by the availability of wild, weedy, and cultivated Avena species makes it likely that the virulence profile seen in Poland is representative of much of central Europe and beyond.
Money Matters: Fueling Rapid Recent Insight Into Xylella fastidiosa—An Important and Expanding Global Pathogen
Authors: Lindow Steven
Published: January 2019

Xylella fastidiosa has emerged from relative obscurity into one of the most well-studied bacterial plant pathogens. While Pierce’s disease of grape caused by this pathogen has been recognized as an important disease in warmer regions of the United States for nearly 100 years, the causal pathogen, X. fastidiosa has spread throughout much of the world and now also causes serious diseases of citrus, coffee, almond, olive, and other important crop plants. Our knowledge of this pathogen has been driven by the recent substantial research support justified by the economic importance of these diseases.
Utilization of the Genomewide Wheat 55K SNP Array for Genetic Analysis of Stripe Rust Resistance in Common Wheat Line P9936
Authors: Huang Shuo , Wu Jianhui , Wang Xiaoting , Mu Jingmei , Xu Zhi , Zeng Qingdong , Liu Shengjie , Wang Qilin , Kang Zhensheng , Han Dejun
Published: January 2019

Breeding for resistance to stripe rust (caused by Puccinia striiformis f. tritici) is essential for reducing losses in yield and quality in wheat. To identify genes for use in breeding, a biparental population of 186 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) from a cross of the Chinese landrace Mingxian 169 and CIMMYT-derived line P9936 was evaluated in field nurseries either artificially or naturally inoculated in two crop seasons. Each of the RILs and parents was genotyped with the wheat 55K single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) ‘Breeders’ array and a genetic linkage map with 8,225 polymorphic SNP markers spanning 3,593.37 centimorgans was constructed. Two major quantitative trait loci (QTL) and two minor QTL were identified. The major QTL QYr.nwafu-3BS.2 and QYr.nwafu-7BL on chromosomes arms 3BS and 7BL were detected in all field locations and explained an average 20.4 and 38.9% of phenotypic variation stripe rust severity, respectively. QYr.nwafu-3BS.2 likely corresponds to the locus Yr30/Sr2 and QYr.nwafu-7BL may be a resistance allele identified previously in CIMMYT germplasm. The other minor QTL had limited individual effects but increased resistance when in combinations with other QTL. Markers linked to QYr.nwafu-7BL were converted to kompetitive allele-specific polymerase chain reaction markers and validated in a panel of wheat accessions. Wheat accessions carrying the same haplotype as P9936 at the identified SNP loci had lower average stripe rust severity than the average severity of all other haplotypes.
HCV Screening and Treatment Uptake Among Patients in HIV Care During 2014–2015
Authors: Radwan Daniel , Cachay Edward , Falade-Nwulia Oluwaseun , Moore Richard D. , Westergaard Ryan , Mathews William Christopher , Aberg Judith , Cheever Laura , Gebo Kelly A. ,   for the HIV Research Network
Published: January 2019

Background:

Despite the high prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) among persons living with HIV (PWH), the prevalence of HCV screening, treatment, and sustained virologic response (SVR) is unknown. This study aims to characterize the continuum of HCV screening and treatment among PWH in HIV care.

Setting:

Adult patients enrolled at 12 sites of the HIV Research Network located in 3 regions of the United States were included.

Methods:

We examined the prevalence of HCV screening, HCV coinfection, direct-acting antiretroviral (DAA) treatment, and SVR-12 between 2014 and 2015. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to identify characteristics associated with outcomes, adjusted for site.

Results:

Among 29,071 PWH (age 18–87, 74.8% male, 44.4% black), 77.9% were screened for HCV antibodies; 94.6% of those screened had a confirmatory HCV RNA viral load test. Among those tested, 61.1% were determined to have chronic HCV. We estimate that only 23.4% of those eligible for DAA were prescribed DAA, and only 17.8% of those eligible evidenced initiating DAA treatment. Those who initiated treatment achieved SVR-12 at a rate of 95.2%. Blacks and people who inject drugs (PWID) were more likely to be screened for HCV than whites or those with heterosexual risk. Persons older than 40 years, whites, Hispanics, and PWID [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 8.70 (7.74 to 9.78)] were more likely to be coinfected than their counterparts. When examining treatment with DAA, persons older than 50 years, on antiretroviral therapy [AOR 2.27 (1.11 to 4.64)], with HIV-1 RNA <400 [AOR 2.67 (1.71 to 4.18)], and those with higher Fib-4 scores were more likely to be treated with DAA.

Conclusions:

Although rates of screening for HCV among PWH are high, screening remains far from comprehensive. Rates of SVR were high, consistent with previously published literature. Additional programs to improve screening and make treatment more widely available will help reduce the impact of HCV morbidity among PWH.
Exaggerated in vivo IL-17 responses discriminate recall responses in active TB
Authors: Pollara Gabriele , Turner Carolin T , Tomlinson Gillian S , Bell Lucy CK , Khan Ayesha , Peralta Luis Felipe , Folino Anna , Akarca Ayse , Venturini Cristina , Baker Tina , Ricciardolo Fabio LM , Marafioti Teresa , Ugarte-Gil Cesar , Moore David AJ , Chain Benjamin M , Noursadeghi Mahdad
Published: January 2019

Host immune responses at the site ofMycobacterium tuberculosis(Mtb) infection serve to contain the pathogen, but also mediate the pathogenesis of tuberculosis (TB) and onward transmission of infection. Interferon gamma (IFNγ) responses do not discriminate between protection and pathogenicity, but IL-17A/F responses, known to drive pathology in diverse chronic inflammatory diseases, have also been associated with TB pathogenesis in animal models. At the site of in vivo immune recall responses to Mtb modelled by the tuberculin skin test, we show for the first time that active TB in humans is also associated with exaggerated IL-17A/F expression, accumulation of Th17 cells and IL-17A/F bioactivity, including increased neutrophil recruitment and matrix metalloproteinase-1 expression directly implicated in TB pathogenesis. These features discriminate recall responses in patients with active TB from those with cured or latent infection and are also evident at the site of TB disease. Our data support targeting of this pathway in host-directed therapy for TB.
Development of a sequence-based reference physical map of pea (Pisum sativum L.)
Authors: Kishore Gali Krishna , Tar’an Bunyamin , Madoui Mohammed-Amin , van der Vossen Edwin , Oeveren Jan van , Labadie Karine , Berges Helene , Bendahmane Abdelhafid , Lachagari Reddy V.B. , Burstin Judith , Warkentin Tom
Published: January 2019

Whole genome profiling (WGP) is a sequence-based physical mapping technology and uses sequence tags generated by next generation sequencing for construction of bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) contigs of complex genomes. The physical map provides a framework for assembly of genome sequence and information for localization of genes that are difficult to find through positional cloning. To address the challenges of accurate assembly of the pea genome (~4.2 GB of which approximately 85% is repetitive sequences), we have adopted the WGP technology for assembly of a pea BAC library. Multi-dimensional pooling of 295,680 BAC clones and sequencing the ends of restriction fragments of pooled DNA generated 1,814 million high quality reads, of which 825 million were deconvolutable to 1.11 million unique WGP sequence tags. These WGP tags were used to assemble 220,013 BACs into contigs. Assembly of the BAC clones using the modified Fingerprinted Contigs (FPC) program has resulted in 13,040 contigs, consisting of 213,719 BACs, and 6,294 singleton BACs. The average contig size is 0.33 Mbp and the N50 contig size is 0.62 Mbp. WGPTM technology has proved to provide a robust physical map of the pea genome, which would have been difficult to assemble using traditional restriction digestion based methods. This sequence-based physical map will be useful to assemble the genome sequence of pea. Additionally, the 1.1 million WGP tags will support efficient assignment of sequence scaffolds to the BAC clones, and thus an efficient sequencing of BAC pools with targeted genome regions of interest.
Sensory-motor brain dynamics reflect architectural affordances
Authors: Djebbara Zakaria , Fich Lars Brorson , Petrini Laura , Gramann Klaus
Published: January 2019

Anticipating meaningful actions in the environment is an essential function of the brain. Such predictive mechanisms originate from the motor system and allow for inferring actions from environmental affordances, the potential to act within a specific environment. Using architecture, we provide a unique perspective to the abiding debate in cognitive neuroscience and philosophy on whether cognition depends on movement or is decoupled from our physical structure. To investigate cognitive processes associated with architectural affordances, we used a Mobile Brain/Body Imaging approach recording brain activity synchronized to head-mounted virtual reality. Participants perceived and acted upon virtual transitions ranging from non-passable to easily passable. We demonstrate that early sensory brain activity, upon revealing the environment and before actual movement, differed as a function of affordances. Additionally, movement through transitions was preceded by a motor-related negative component also depended on affordances. Our results suggest that potential actions afforded by an environment influence perception.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT

By using electroencephalography and virtual reality, our research provide a unique perspective to the centurial open-ended debate in cognitive neuroscience and philosophy on the relation between cognition, movement and environment. Our results indicate that cortical potentials vary as a function of bodily affordances reflected by the physical environment. Firstly, the results of this study implies that cognition is inherently related to potential movement of the body, thus we advance that action is interrelated with perception, actively influencing the perceivable environment. Secondly, as cortical potentials are influenced by the potential to move, which in turn is the task of architectural design, architects holds largely a privilege of human health, and thus potentially capable of provoking and preventing physiological conditions.
The Caudate Nucleus Undergoes Dramatic and Unique Transcriptional Changes in Human Prodromal Huntington’s Disease Brain
Authors: Agus Filisia , Crespo Diego , Myers Richard H. , Labadorf Adam
Published: January 2019

The mechanisms underlying degeneration of the specific neurons in the striatum of Huntingon’s Disease (HD) brain are currently unknown. The striatum is massively degenerated in late stage HD, making examination of post-mortem brain tissue from symptomatic individuals problematic. Striatal tissue is largely intact in the brains of asymptomatic HD positive (HD+) gene carriers, but these samples are exceedingly rare. In this study, caudate nucleus (CAU) tissue from two asymptomatic HD+ individuals was subjected to high throughput mRNA sequencing (mRNA-Seq) for comparison with similar datasets from symptomatic HD individuals and healthy controls. The overall transcriptional response in HD+ CAU shares much of the same response observed in HD Brodmann Area 9 (BA9) samples, an area that is relatively spared from significant degeneration. A set of differentially expressed (DE) genes predominantly related to the heat shock response are found in common between brain regions, and show much higher induction in HD+ CAU than HD BA9. The most highly perturbed pathways show near complete agreement when comparing diseased tissue with control, and a random forest classifier predicted that the two HD+ CAU samples strongly resemble HD BA9 and not control BA9. Nonetheless, when genes were prioritized by their specificity to HD+ CAU, a large number of pathways spanning many biological processes emerged. Further comparison of HD+ BA9 with HD BA9 identified genes that may be early responders to disease, and have altered expression in symptomatic individuals. This study presents the first and largest examination of asymptomatic brain gene expression to date, and suggests many new avenues of investigation into the mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration in HD.