bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Research on Collapse Process of Cable-Stayed Bridges under Strong Seismic Excitations
Authors: Wang Xuewei , Zhu Bing , Cui Shengai
Published: June 2017

In order to present the collapse process and failure mechanism of long-span cable-stayed bridges under strong seismic excitations, a rail-cum-road steel truss cable-stayed bridge was selected as engineering background, the collapse failure numerical model of the cable-stayed bridge was established based on the explicit dynamic finite element method (FEM), and the whole collapse process of the cable-stayed bridge was analyzed and studied with three different seismic waves acted in the horizontal longitudinal direction, respectively. It can be found from the numerical simulation analysis that the whole collapse failure process and failure modes of the cable-stayed bridge under three different seismic waves are similar. Furthermore, the piers and the main pylons are critical components contributing to the collapse of the cable-stayed bridge structure. However, the cables and the main girder are damaged owing to the failure of piers and main pylons during the whole structure collapse process, so the failure of cable and main girder components is not the main reason for the collapse of cable-stayed bridge. The analysis results can provide theoretical basis for collapse resistance design and the determination of critical damage components of long-span highway and railway cable-stayed bridges in the research of seismic vulnerability analysis.
Tail Nerve Electrical Stimulation and Electro-Acupuncture Can Protect Spinal Motor Neurons and Alleviate Muscle Atrophy after Spinal Cord Transection in Rats
Authors: Zhang Yu-Ting , Jin Hui , Wang Jun-Hua , Wen Lan-Yu , Yang Yang , Ruan Jing-Wen , Zhang Shu-Xin , Ling Eng-Ang , Ding Ying , Zeng Yuan-Shan
Published: June 2017

Spinal cord injury (SCI) often results in death of spinal neurons and atrophy of muscles which they govern. Thus, following SCI, reorganizing the lumbar spinal sensorimotor pathways is crucial to alleviate muscle atrophy. Tail nerve electrical stimulation (TANES) has been shown to activate the central pattern generator (CPG) and improve the locomotion recovery of spinal contused rats. Electroacupuncture (EA) is a traditional Chinese medical practice which has been proven to have a neural protective effect. Here, we examined the effects of TANES and EA on lumbar motor neurons and hindlimb muscle in spinal transected rats, respectively. From the third day postsurgery, rats in the TANES group were treated 5 times a week and those in the EA group were treated once every other day. Four weeks later, both TANES and EA showed a significant impact in promoting survival of lumbar motor neurons and expression of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and ameliorating atrophy of hindlimb muscle after SCI. Meanwhile, the expression of neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) in the same spinal cord segment was significantly increased. These findings suggest that TANES and EA can augment the expression of NT-3 in the lumbar spinal cord that appears to protect the motor neurons as well as alleviate muscle atrophy.
Baseline amphibian survey and sampling of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in the Icaco and Hormiga valleys, Patillas, Puerto Rico
Authors: Greenhawk Norman , Zlotnik Sara , Billy Lauren Margaret , Boas Sam , Gabel Sara
Published: June 2017

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is the pathogen responsible for chytridiomycosis, a disease implicated in amphibian population declines around the world. In Puerto Rico, Bd has been shown to cause mortalities in endemic anurans of the genus Eleutherodactylus. In July 2014, we conducted visual-encounter surveys and collected 143 Bd swab samples at 10 locations in Icaco and Hormiga, two remote and understudied valleys in Patillas, Puerto Rico. We found five species of Eleutherodactylus and one species of Leptodactylus. Individuals of four species (E. coqui, E. cooki, E. richmondi, and E. wightmanae) yielded either positive or equivocal results for Bd, but 93.7% of the samples tested negative for Bd
Chondrocranium and internal oral morphology of the tadpole of Corythomantis greeningi (Anura: Hylidae)
Authors: Oliveira Marianna Isabella Rosa Rodrigues de , Weber Luiz Norberto , Sá Rafael O. de , Ferreira Johnny Sousa , Libório Anna Evelin Coimbra , Takazone André Masahide Guimarães
Published: June 2017

Corythomantis greeningi is a casque-headed frog that occurs in xeric and sub-humid regions of northeastern Brazil. Individuals are often found on rocks on banks of temporary streams or in ponds upon “lajedos”. Suctorial tadpoles are often found clasping to the rocks in the streams so as not to be dragged by the current; therefore, they have modified external and internal morphology. Here, we describe the internal oral anatomy and the chondrocranium of the tadpole of C. greeningi and compare it to the available descriptions of Lophyohylinae and other suctorial tadpoles. The internal oral morphology in C. greeningi resembles pond-dwelling casque-headed frogs, although it has been found in temporary lotic environments. Corythomantis greeningi has unusual chondrocranial morphology relative to that of other described Lophyohylinae, including marked differences at the cornua trabeculae and palatoquadrate. Apparently, the chondrocranial morphology is related to its ecomorphology, because it is structurally more similar to other suctorial tadpoles that inhabit lotic environments than to phylogenetically related species such as Trachycephalus typhonius and Phyllodytes gyrinaethes
Monuments of Church Architecture in Belozersk: Late Sixteenth to the Early Nineteenth Centuries
Authors: Brumfield William Craft
Published: June 2017

The history of the community associated with the White Lake (Beloe Ozero) is a rich one. This article covers a brief overview of the developing community from medieval through modern times, and then focuses the majority of its attention on the church architecture of Belozersk. This rich tradition of material culture increases our knowledge about medieval and early modern Rus’ and Russia.
Norman Ingham, Scholar and Golfer, and the History of Golf in Russia
Authors: Miller David B.
Published: June 2017

This contribution is a celebration of Norman Ingham as a passionate scholar and golfer. It also explores the history of golf in Russia from the founding of the first golf facility in 1992 in Moscow to the spread of golf courses in European Russia and Siberia. Finally, it speculates on what Norman might have encountered had he had the opportunity to play these courses.
Democracy in the Russian Far East during the Revolution of 1905–1907
Authors: Sablin Ivan
Published: June 2017

The First Russian Revolution demonstrated that there was considerable interest in democracy in the Transbaikal, Amur, and Maritime Regions in 1905–1907, which was widely shared across the empire and in East Asia. Democracy was understood as economic welfare, social justice, civil liberties, popular representation, decentralization, and national self-determination. Like elsewhere in the empire, protests started with economic demands, but many trade and professional political unions, strike committees, and soviets developed political programs. In Vladivostok, unrests among soldiers and sailors erupted into major riots with numerous casualties in October 1905, despite the attempts of Military Doctor Mikhail Aleksandrovich Kudrzhinskii and other intellectuals to make the movement peaceful. In Blagoveshchensk, the Amur Cossack teacher Mikhail Nikitich Astaf’ev joined a group of intellectuals who attempted to turn the municipal duma into a provisional government. In Nikolsk-Ussuriysky, Doctor Nikolai Vasil’evich Kirilov presided over the founding congress of the Ussuri Peasant Union, which discussed the introduction of rural revolutionary self-government. In Chita, Social Democrats under Anton Antonovich Kostiushko-Voliuzhanich took over much of the Transbaikal Railway. Tsyben Zhamtsarano and other Buryat intellectuals assembled for congresses demanding indigenous self-government. The recognition of these territories as the Russian Far East had already begun, but the loosely united Transbaikal, Maritime, and Amur Regions remained part of Siberia or North Asia for contemporary observers. The unity of Siberia from the Urals to the Pacific was reinforced by Siberian Regionalism which attracted the support of regional liberals and moderate socialists and consolidated through joint activities of Siberian deputies.
A candidate for a Tibeto-Burman innovation
Authors: SAGART Laurent
Published: June 2017

Based on a survey of 21 languages chosen to represent the diversity of Sino-Tibetan, this paper proposes that all Sino-Tibetan languages except Chinese have lost a phonological distinction between two Proto-Sino-Tibetan codas, *-q (Old Chinese *-ʔ, dialectally *-k) and *-k (Old Chinese *-k): the two codas merged as *-k in Proto-Tibeto-Burman. It is shown that the Proto-Sino-Tibetan *-q/*-k distinction as reflected in Old Chinese is correlated with the same distinction in Proto-Austronesian.
Assessment of Social Vulnerability to Floods in the Floodplain of Northern Italy
Authors: Roder G. , Sofia G. , Wu Z. , Tarolli P.
Published: June 2017

Practices for reducing the impacts of floods are becoming more and more advanced, centered on communities and reaching out to vulnerable populations. Vulnerable individuals are characterized by social and economic attributes and by societal dynamics rooted in each community. These indicators can magnify the negative impacts of disasters together with the capacity of each individual to cope with these events. The Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) provides an empirical basis to compare social differences in various spatial scenarios and for specific environmental hazards. This research shows the application of the SoVI to the floodplain of northern Italy, based on the use of 15 census variables. The chosen study area is of particular interest for the high occurrence of flood events coupled with a high level of human activity, landscape transformations, and an elevated concentration of assets and people. The analysis identified a positive spatial autocorrelation across the floodplain that translates into the spatial detection of vulnerable groups, those that are likely to suffer the most from floods. In a second stage, the output of the index was superimposed on the flood hazard map of the study area to analyze the resulting risk. The Piemonte and Veneto regions contain the main areas prone to flood “social” risk, highlighting the need for a cohesive management approach at all levels to recognize local capacities and increase communication, awareness, and preparedness to mitigate the undesirable effects of such events.
Effects of bilirubin photoisomers on the measurement of direct bilirubin by the bilirubin oxidase method
Authors: Okada Hitoshi , Kawada Kou , Itoh Susumu , Ozaki Miyo , Kakutani Isami , Arai Takeshi , Koyano Kosuke , Yasuda Saneyuki , Iwase Takashi , Murao Koji , Kusaka Takashi
Published: June 2017

Background

We occasionally encounter increases in direct bilirubin value on reanalysis of the surplus serum collected in the past from a neonate with indirect hyperbilirubinemia. But the details of this phenomenon are unclear. We evaluated the change of direct bilirubin and the relation of bilirubin photoisomer of the serum exposed to room light.

Methods

Surplus serum samples from neonates with indirect hyperbilirubinemia were exposed to room light for 24 h. The bilirubin fraction assay of samples was performed by the bilirubin oxidase method (Nescauto and Aqua-auto Kainos reagent) and high-performance liquid chromatography.

Results

Direct bilirubin increased significantly from 0.61 to 2.36 mg/dL. The respective ratios of bilirubin photoisomers before and after exposure were as follows: cyclobilirubin (0.007 to 0.29) and (EZ)-bilirubin (0.018 to 0.041) increased significantly, (ZZ)-bilirubin decreased 0.84 to 0.55 significantly. The difference of the cyclobilirubin concentration was most closely associated with those of the direct bilirubin concentration.

Conclusion

Direct bilirubin value was increased after exposure to the room light, and increase in direct bilirubin was significantly correlated by cyclobilirubin increase in the serum samples from neonates with indirect hyperbilirubinemia.
Why Do College Graduates Behave More Healthfully Than Those Who Are Less Educated?
Authors: Lawrence Elizabeth M.
Published: June 2017

College graduates live much healthier lives than those with less education, but research has yet to document with certainty the sources of this disparity. This study examines why U.S. young adults who earn college degrees exhibit healthier behaviors than those with less education. I use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, which offers information on education and health behaviors across adolescence and young adulthood ( N = 14,265). Accounting for selection into college, degree attainment substantially reduces the associations between college degree attainment and health behaviors, but college degree attainment demonstrates a strong causal effect on young adult health. Financial, occupational, social, cognitive, and psychological resources explain less than half of the association between college degree attainment and health behaviors. The healthier behaviors of college graduates are the result of sorting into educational attainment, embedding of human capital, and mechanisms other than socioeconomic and psychosocial resources.
The Enjoyment Cycle: A Phenomenology of Musical Enjoyment of 4- to 7-Year-Olds During Musical Play
Authors: Koops Lisa Huisman
Published: June 2017

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe children’s lived experience of enjoyment during musical play. Data sources included class video from 15 weeks of a 24-week extracurricular music class for 4- to 7-year-olds taught by the researcher, parent-filmed video of child participant music-making in home settings during the same period, and transcripts of exit interviews with parents and children. Participants included 12 children and 4 adults, all of whom had contributed to prior studies on children’s music-making in family settings. Phenomenological data analysis followed Moustakas’s approach. Five elements emerged as hallmarks of children’s musical enjoyment and provided the textural description of “what” occurred during musical enjoyment, including active musical engagement, signs of physical engagement, a balance of familiarity and novelty, inclusion of activities allowing for student control or choice, and a safe and playful environment. Structurally, participants’ enjoyment occurred in four ways: within a balance of structure and freedom, within a balance of community and individual expression, as a cycle between children’s musical enjoyment and participation, and as a springboard to musical risk-taking and musical agency. Implications for practice and research are discussed.
Together They Stand: Interpreting Not-At-Issue Content
Authors: Frazier Lyn , Dillon Brian , Clifton Charles
Published: June 2017

Potts unified the account of appositives, parentheticals, expressives, and honorifics as 'Not- At-Issue’ (NAI) content, treating them as a natural class semantically in behaving like root (unembedded) structures, typically expressing speaker commitments, and being interpreted independently of At-Issue content. We propose that NAI content expresses a complete speech act distinct from the speech act of the containing utterance. The speech act hypothesis leads us to expect the semantic properties Potts established. We present experimental confirmation of two intuitive observations made by Potts: first that speech act adverbs should be acceptable as NAI content, supporting the speech act hypothesis; and second, that when two speech acts are expressed as successive sentences, the comprehender assumes they are related by some discourse coherence relation, whereas an NAI speech act need not bear a restrictive discourse coherence relation to its containing utterance, though overall sentences containing relevant content are rated more acceptable than those that do not. The speech act hypothesis accounts for these effects, and further accounts for why judgments of syntactic complexity or evaluations of whether or not a statement is true interact with the at-issue status of the material being judged or evaluated.
The politics of policy practices
Authors: Gill Natalie , Singleton Vicky , Waterton Claire
Published: June 2017

This collection explores the relations between policy and care drawing on two specific sources of inspiration – that of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and that of Critical Policy Studies. It takes as its starting point a tension within and between the anticipated features of policy and those of care. Policy is often expected to provide general statements, protocols and directives, measurable outcomes, targets and indicators in order to guide and control. But policy – no less than care – is also a set of open-ended practices; policy is performed and re-performed in particular sites and settings and by particular actors, and so it is also a specific kind of ongoing and distributed ‘doing’. It is not simply a generalised dictate. Characteristics of care, similarly, hold opposing dynamics in play. As well as configuring care as responsive, hesitant, situated and experimental practice, recent feminist research in STS has opened up questions about the non-innocence of care. Care has been enacted within particular histories where inequities of race, gender and power have often been to the fore. So, according to STS, both care and policy are practices: these practices mix humans and non-humans, and they are intimate with and implicated in technoscience. Policy, for example, has been examined as a technology and care as technogovernance. As such, both policy and care distribute relations of power and generate categories of difference. This collection has been put together at a time of seeming crisis in both policy and care. Care, including an alleged loss of care in public services, has become a focus of increased public concern, political debate and academic research in the UK, Europe and US. Moreover, many policies have been exposed as ineffective, harmful or deliberately weak. Hence it seems that there is currently a crisis in care that is bound up with a realisation that ‘policies’ are not care-full enough and may promote relations of neglect and suffering. This monograph draws inevitably from this context, offering a collection of case studies of locations, relations and heterogeneous entities that make up policy practices in various sites. The contributions explore the different ways in which policy and care are entangled in these sites and at this time. The aim of the collection is to attend to, and engage in, the politics of policy practices – and, ultimately, to explore how policy is and could be care.
Critical compassion: Affect, discretion and policy–care relations
Authors: Singleton Vicky , Mee Steve
Published: June 2017

Care has become a focus of debate in feminist technoscience studies, with a recent call for researchers to be care-full about the politics of research and theorising and also to challenge ‘care’ as a taken-for-granted good. Care is a current focus of concern in Britain, where a crisis has been declared in national health and social care, and where previous policy has focused on quantity at the expense of quality. The influential government-commissioned Francis Report documents ‘appalling and unnecessary patient suffering’ and calls for action to put ‘compassion at the heart of healthcare’. The report’s conclusions are widely supported, and there are new policy interventions to promote compassionate care. However, current debates frequently cite policy as in tension with care: for example, policies are critiqued as meaningless to the realities of clinical practice and as attempting to control rather than to support practitioners. In order to explore how compassion is being done in diverse instantiations and enactments, in this article the authors juxtapose feminist technoscience studies on the politics of care with an analysis of health policy and with vignettes of located practices. The vignettes articulate affects, materials and relations in clinical locations and explore not only the good of what is considered compassion, but also possible harms, contestation and vulnerabilities. The analytical approach aligns with Martin et al.’s call for ‘critical care’ research that understands care as an affectively charged and selective mode of attention and that exposes the dark side of care. The authors reflect on the relationship between policy and care as a process of contestation, shifts and stabilisation and explore possibilities for formulations that especially attend to, and promote, affective and discretionary aspects of compassion.
Healing, knowing, enduring: Care and politics in damaged worlds
Authors: Tironi Manuel , Rodríguez-Giralt Israel
Published: June 2017

How can politics be articulated or at least imagined by ill, impoverished and abandoned communities? This article documents how care is invoked by activist groups and local citizens in their search for ethical recognition and environmental justice in Puchuncaví, Chile. The authors argue that in a context of prolonged and systematic harm, care emerges as a way to render their suffering understandable, knowable and actionable, and thus as a mode of intervention that instantiates politics in different spaces and at several scales. At the interfaces of feminist science studies, environmental sociology and political theory, this article examines how care acts as a grammar to enunciate problems and make connections deemed irrelevant by expert apparatuses. Specifically, the authors ethnographically track the capacity of care practices to create therapeutic spaces of affective endurance and healing, and to produce new forms of sensual and ecological knowledge about beings, things and relations. These different modes of caring and being cared for, it is suggested, underline the capacity of care for the politicization of harm and suffering: to re-arrange what is visibilized, valued and problematized in the face of intractable environmental crises – a crucial objective for collectives removed from every form of politics. Care, as it is articulated here, is not a coherent and predefined programme, but a fluid and adaptable ethico-political set of practices and potentialities always concerning specific individuals facing specific problems in specific circumstances. If care is to be mobilized to craft more response-able policy, researchers should think more thoroughly about these multiple configurations of care, and the disparate ways in which they can contribute (or not) to invoke new styles and formats, new sensitivities and possibilities for policy-making.
The Effects of a Health Partner Program on Improving Health Status Among Overweight/Obese Individuals With and Without Prediabetes
Authors: Liu Tingting
Published: June 2017

The purpose of this study was to compare baseline health status in overweight/obese adults with and without prediabetes and to determine whether a health partner program improved health status at 1-year follow-up from 2010 to 2011. Sociodemographic information, body composition, blood work, and health status were obtained from both baseline and 1-year follow-up visit. Healthy overweight/obese participants with prediabetes were likely to self-report poorer physical functioning compared with those without prediabetes at baseline. At the 1-year follow-up visit, compared with participants without prediabetes, participants with prediabetes had the greatest improvements in physical functioning. Although participants without prediabetes had a significant improvement in mental functioning, there were no significant differences in changes in mental functioning between those with and without prediabetes. Early interventions to improve health status are important, and provider advice and preventive measures aimed at improving health status should be integrated into clinical practice.
Surface characteristics of KOH-treated commercial carbons applied for CO2 adsorption
Authors: Lendzion-Bieluń Zofia , Czekajło Ł , Sibera Daniel , Moszyński Dariusz , Sreńscek-Nazzal Joanna , Morawski Antoni W , Wrobel Rafal J , Michalkiewicz Beata , Arabczyk Walerian , Narkiewicz Urszula
Published: June 2017

The effect of an alkali treatment (potassium hydroxide) on the properties of a commercial activated carbon has been studied. The aim of the treatment was to improve the adsorption properties of the material toward carbon dioxide. In the result of the treatment, silica contained in the raw carbon was removed and the density of the material increased. The changes in the surface chemistry were observed as well. The treatment of the activated carbon with KOH resulted in a complete removal of carboxy and lactone groups and a decrease of the general content of the acidic groups (more significant than that of basic groups). Simultaneously, the surface concentration of hydroxyl groups increased. The alkali treatment of activated carbon resulted in an increase of carbon dioxide uptake of 14% (measured using a volumetric method at 0℃). The adsorption of carbon dioxide on activated carbon has a mixed (physicochemical) character and that two types of adsorption sites are present at the surface. The adsorption energy varies roughly from 25 to 60 kJ/mol.
Risk of Engagement of Bipolar Bone Defects in Posterior Shoulder Instability
Authors: Moroder Philipp , Plachel Fabian , Tauber Mark , Habermeyer Peter , Imhoff Andreas , Liem Dennis , Lill Helmut , Resch Herbert , Gerhardt Christian , Scheibel Markus
Published: June 2017

Background:

The risk of re-engagement of bipolar bone defects in posterior shoulder instability has not yet been investigated.

Hypothesis:

Posterior glenoid defects can lead to the engagement of supposedly noncritical reverse Hill-Sachs lesions (RHSLs).

Study Design:

Descriptive laboratory study.

Methods:

In a retrospective multicenter study, 102 cases of posterior shoulder dislocations and resulting RHSLs were collected. Of these cases, all patients with available computed tomography (CT) scans, with a reduced shoulder joint, and without bony posterior glenoid rim defects or concomitant dislocated fractures of the humeral head were included. The gamma angle (measure of the critical size and localization of RHSLs) and the delta angle (measure of the degree of internal rotation necessary for engagement to occur) of the RHSLs were determined on standardized CT scans. Virtual posterior glenoid defects were created, and the effect of increasing defect size on the delta angle was determined.

Results:

The mean gamma angle of the 19 patients included in this study was 94.5° (range, 69.7°-124.8°). After creation of the virtual posterior glenoid defects, a mean reduction of the delta angle by 2.3° ± 0.2° (range, 1.9°-2.9°) per millimeter defect was observed. The cumulative change in the delta angle showed a highly significant correlation with the absolute and relative size of the glenoid defect ( R = 0.982, P < .001 and R = 0.974, P < .001, respectively).

Conclusion:

Concomitant posterior glenoid defects might lead to the engagement of noncritical RHSLs. When measuring the gamma angle to identify critical RHSLs, posterior glenoid bone loss should be accounted for.
Exercise Facilitates Smoking Cessation Indirectly via Intention to Quit Smoking: Prospective Cohort Study Among a National Sample of Young Smokers
Authors: Frith Emily , Loprinzi Paul D.
Published: June 2017

Introduction:

We evaluated the specific association between exercise and smoking cessation via smoking-mediated intentions to quit smoking among a national sample of young daily smokers in the United States.

Design:

Prospective cohort study over a 2-year period, with daily smokers assessed across all 50 states in the United States.

Setting:

Data from the 2003 to 2005 National Youth Smoking Cessation Survey were used.

Participants:

A total of 1175 young adult smokers aged between 18 and 24 years.

Measures:

Baseline exercise and intent to quit smoking were assessed via validated survey measures. Smoking status at the 2-year follow-up period was assessed via survey assessment.

Results:

After adjustments, meeting exercise guidelines at baseline was associated with an increased baseline intent to quit smoking among this national sample of daily smokers (OR = 1.49; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.07-2.07; P = .01). After adjustments, those with a baseline intent to quit smoking had a 71% increased odds ratio (OR) of being a nonsmoker at the 2-year follow-up (OR = 1.71; 95% CI: 1.20-2.44; P = .003). Baseline exercise was not associated with 2-year follow-up smoking status (OR = 0.87; 95% CI: 0.60-1.28; P = .50).

Conclusion:

In this nationally representative sample of young daily smokers, there was a positive association between exercise participation and intention to quit smoking. Baseline intent to quit smoking was independently associated with nonsmoking status at a 2-year follow-up. Thus, this indirect link between exercise and smoking status may be partially explained by the influence of exercise engagement on smoking-specific intentions.
Potential Host Range of the Larval Endoparasitoid Cotesia vestalis (=plutellae) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae)
Authors: Hiroyoshi Satoshi , Harvey Jeffrey A , Nakamatsu Yutaka , Nemoto Hisashi , Mitsuhashi Jun , Mitsunaga Takayuki , Tanaka Toshiharu
Published: June 2017

Many parasitoid wasps are highly specialized in nature, attacking only one or a few species of hosts. Host range is often determined by a range of biological and ecological characteristics of the host including diet, growth potential, immunity, and phylogeny. The solitary koinobiont endoparasitoid wasp, Cotesia vestalis, mainly parasitizes diamondback moth (DBM) larvae in the field, although it has been reported that to possess a relatively wide lepidopteran host range. To better understand the biology of C vestalis as a potential biological control of hosts other than the DBM, it is necessary to determine suitability for potential hosts. In this study, the potential host range of the wasp and its developmental capacity in each host larva were examined under laboratory conditions using 27 lepidopteran species from 10 families. The wasp was able to parasitize 15 of the 27 species successfully. Some host species were not able to exclude C vestalis via their internal physiological defenses. When parasitization was unsuccessful, most hosts killed the parasitoid at the egg stage or early first-instar stage using encapsulation, but some host species disturbed the development of the parasitoid at various stages. No phylogenetic relationships were found among suitable and unsuitable hosts, revealing that host range in some endoparasitoids is not constrained by relatedness among hosts based on immunity.
Primary Cutaneous Histoplasma capsulatum Infection in a Patient Treated With Fingolimod: A Case Report
Authors: Veillet-Lemay Gabrielle M. , Sawchuk Michael A. , Kanigsberg Nordau D.
Published: June 2017

Fingolimod is an immune-modulating drug used in the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Histoplasma capsulatum is a dimorphic fungus that can infect humans. Infection with the pathogen typically affects the lungs, but it is usually asymptomatic and self-limited. However, immunocompromised patients infected with the pathogen can present atypically, including the development of primary cutaneous lesions. We describe an interesting clinical case of a cutaneous H capsulatum infection in a patient treated with fingolimod.
Brain activity, regional gray matter loss, and decision-making in multiple sclerosis
Authors: Weygandt Martin , Wakonig Katharina , Behrens Janina , Meyer-Arndt Lil , Söder Eveline , Brandt Alexander U , Bellmann-Strobl Judith , Ruprecht Klemens , Gold Stefan M , Haynes John-Dylan , Paul Friedemann
Published: June 2017

Background:

Decision-making (DM) abilities deteriorate with multiple sclerosis (MS) disease progression which impairs everyday life and is thus clinically important.

Objective:

To investigate the underlying neurocognitive processes and their relation to regional gray matter (GM) loss induced by MS.

Methods:

We used a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) Iowa Gambling Task to measure DM-related brain activity in 36 MS patients and 21 healthy controls (HC). From this activity, we determined neural parameters of two cognitive stages, a deliberation (“choice”) period preceding a choice and a post-choice (“feedback”) stage reporting decision outcomes. These measures were related to DM separately in intact and damaged GM areas as determined by a voxel-based morphometry analysis.

Results:

Severely affected patients (with high lesion burden) showed worse DM-learning than HC ( t = −1.75, p = 0.045), moderately affected (low lesion burden) did not. Activity in the choice stage in intact insular ( t = 4.60, pFamily-Wise Error [FWE] corrected = 0.034), anterior cingulate ( t = 4.50, pFWE = 0.044), and dorsolateral prefrontal areas ( t = 4.43, pFWE = 0.049) and in insular areas with GM loss ( t = 3.78, pFWE = 0.011) was positively linked to DM performance across patients with severe tissue damage and HC. Furthermore, activity in intact orbitofrontal areas was positively linked to DM-learning during the feedback stage across these participants ( t = 4.49, pFWE = 0.032). During none of the stages, moderately affected patients showed higher activity than HC, which might have indicated preserved DM due to compensatory activity.

Conclusion:

We identified dysregulated activity linked to impairment in specific cognitive stages of reward-related DM. The link of brain activity and impaired DM in areas with MS-induced GM loss suggests that this deficit might be tightly coupled to MS neuropathology.
Abnormal functional connectivity of thalamic sub-regions contributes to fatigue in multiple sclerosis
Authors: Hidalgo de la Cruz Milagros , d’Ambrosio Alessandro , Valsasina Paola , Pagani Elisabetta , Colombo Bruno , Rodegher Mariaemma , Falini Andrea , Comi Giancarlo , Filippi Massimo , Rocca Maria Assunta
Published: June 2017

Objective:

To investigate sub-regional thalamic resting-state (RS) functional connectivity (FC) abnormalities in multiple sclerosis (MS) and their correlation with fatigue and its subcomponents (physical, cognitive, and psychosocial).

Methods:

From 122 MS patients and 94 healthy controls, 5 thalamic sub-regions (frontal, motor, postcentral, occipital, temporal) were parcellated based on their cortico-thalamic structural connectivity and used for a seed-based RS FC analysis. Abnormalities of thalamic RS FC in MS patients and their correlation with Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS) were assessed.

Results:

Compared to controls and non-fatigued MS ( n = 86), fatigued MS patients ( n = 36) showed thalamic RS FC abnormalities with middle frontal gyrus, sensorimotor network, precuneus, insula, and cerebellum, which correlated with global MFIS. Higher thalamic RS FC with precuneus and lower RS FC with posterior cerebellum correlated with cognitive MFIS. Higher thalamic RS FC with sensorimotor network in frontal-, motor-, and temporal thalamic sub-regions correlated with physical and psychosocial MFIS. Reduced thalamic RS FC with right insula in motor-, postcentral-, and occipital thalamic sub-regions correlated with psychosocial fatigue.

Conclusion:

Regional thalamic RS FC abnormalities with different cortical regions, including the frontal lobe, sensorimotor network, precuneus, insular cortices, and cerebellum contribute to fatigue in MS. Abnormal RS FC of selected thalamo-cortical connections explains different components of fatigue.
The moral economy of open access
Authors: Bacevic Jana , Muellerleile Chris
Published: June 2017

Digital technologies have made access to and profit from scientific publications hotly contested issues. Debates over open access (OA), however, rarely extend from questions of distribution to questions of how OA is transforming the politics of academic knowledge production. This article argues that the movement towards OA rests on a relatively stable moral episteme that positions different actors involved in the economy of OA (authors, publishers, the general public), and most importantly, knowledge itself. The analysis disentangles the ontological and moral side of these claims, showing how OA changes the meaning of knowledge from a good in the economic, to good in the moral sense. This means OA can be theorized as the moral economy of digital knowledge production. Ultimately, using Boltanski and Thévenot’s work on justification, the article reflects on how this moral economy frames the political subjectivity of actors and institutions involved in academic knowledge production.
Practice of offender profiling in Japan
Authors: Yokota Kaeko , Kuraishi Hiroki , Wachi Taeko , Otsuka Yusuke , Hirama Kazuki , Watanabe Kazumi
Published: June 2017

The main aim of this study was to determine the current situation of offender profiling in Japan. In addition, the accuracy of crime linkage and inferring offenders’ profiles were examined. To evaluate offender profiling comprehensively, we conducted a national survey of 156 people responsible for offender profiling between 2011 and 2012 to obtain their demographic characteristics and experience related to profiling. Furthermore, we also used a sample of 296 resolved cases to examine the content of profiling and the accuracy of predictions in offender profiling. The results of the statistical analyses revealed that police professionals from various backgrounds were engaged in profiling in Japan; 76% were police investigators, and 19% were professionals at forensic science laboratories engaged in psychological work. Regarding the utilization of profiling results in police investigations, 46% of profiling ‘led to identification of offender’. As for prediction accuracy, the rate of linkage errors (i.e. where profilers could not correctly link incidents even when they knew of the occurrence of these incidents) was 15%. Accurately inferring an offender’s profile was found to be between 72% (means of transportation) and 100% (sex). We also discussed the challenges faced by the police who practise offender profiling in Japan.
Reducing Calorie Intake May Not Help You Lose Body Weight
Authors: Benton David , Young Hayley A.
Published: June 2017

As the widespread availability of highly calorific food has resulted in a high incidence of obesity, attempts to decrease body weight have concentrated on trying to reduce energy intake. It is suggested that this is not the best approach. Although consuming more calories than expended is part of the initial problem, it does not follow that reducing intake, unless consciously counting calories, is the best solution. Mechanisms smooth out the large day-to-day differences in energy consumption, decreasing the importance of the size of a meal. In the short term a reduction in energy intake is counteracted by mechanisms that reduce metabolic rate and increase calorie intake, ensuring the regaining of lost weight. For example, even a year after dieting, hormonal mechanisms that stimulate appetite are raised. Over a million calories are consumed a year yet weight changes to only a small extent; there must be mechanisms that balance energy intake and expenditure. As obesity reflects only a small malfunctioning of these mechanisms, there is a need to understand the control of energy balance and how to prevent the regaining of weight after it has been lost. By itself, decreasing calorie intake will have a limited short-term influence.
Current status on the place of FOLFIRINOX in metastatic pancreatic cancer and future directions
Authors: Lambert Aurélien , Gavoille Céline , Conroy Thierry
Published: June 2017

Pancreatic cancer (PC) incidence rates are rapidly increasing in developed countries, with half the patients being metastatic at diagnosis. For decades, fluorouracil, then gemcitabine regimens were the preferred palliative first-line options for fit patients with metastatic PC. FOLFIRINOX (a combination of bolus and infusional fluorouracil, leucovorin, irinotecan and oxaliplatin) was introduced to clinical practice in 2010 due to the results of the phase II/III trial (PRODIGE 4/ACCORD 11) comparing FOLFIRINOX with single-agent gemcitabine as first-line treatment for patients with MPC. Median overall survival, progression-free survival, and objective response rate were superior with FOLFIRINOX over gemcitabine and there was prolonged time to definitive deterioration in quality of life. Although FOLFIRINOX was also associated with increased toxicity, mainly febrile neutropenia and diarrhea, there has been rapid uptake of this regimen. This review closely examines optimal management and prevention of toxicities, international recommendations for first-line treatment, and use of modified FOLFIRINOX protocols. In this review, we also look at the potential benefit of FOLFIRINOX in selected groups of patients: second-line therapy, adjuvant chemotherapy, induction therapy in patients with borderline resectable and locally advanced PC. Robust validation of the FOLFIRINOX regimen in these settings requires confirmation in further randomized trials.
G-equation modelling of thermoacoustic oscillations of partially premixed flames
Authors: Semlitsch Bernhard , Orchini Alessandro , Dowling Ann P , Juniper Matthew P
Published: June 2017

Numerical simulations aid combustor design to avoid and reduce thermoacoustic oscillations. Non-linear heat release rate estimation and its modelling are essential for the prediction of saturation amplitudes of limit cycles. The heat release dynamics of flames can be approximated by a flame describing function. To calculate a flame describing function, a wide range of forcing amplitudes and frequencies needs to be considered. For this reason, we present a computationally inexpensive level-set approach, which accounts for equivalence ratio perturbations on flames with arbitrarily complex shapes. The influence of flame parameters and modelling approaches on flame describing functions and time delay coefficient distributions are discussed in detail. The numerically obtained flame describing functions are compared with experimental data and used in an acoustic network model for limit cycle prediction. A reasonable agreement of the heat release gain and limit cycle frequency is achieved even with a simplistic, analytical velocity fluctuation model. However, the phase decay is over-predicted. For sophisticated flame shapes, only the realistic modelling of large-scale flow structures allows the correct phase decay predictions of the heat release rate response.
Bifurcation study of azimuthal bulk flow in annular combustion systems with cylindrical symmetry breaking
Authors: Rouwenhorst Driek , Hermann Jakob , Polifke Wolfgang
Published: June 2017

In annular combustion systems, azimuthal thermoacoustic modes manifest themselves predominantly as travelling or standing waves. Several phenomena can influence the modal behaviour of annular thermoacoustics. To monitor the stability of azimuthal thermoacoustics in industrial installations, a better understanding of the dynamics is required to correctly interpret online measurements. In this work, thermoacoustic eigensolutions of annular combustion systems are investigated, using a low-order analytic model. Heat release fluctuations are considered as a weak source term for a given acoustic eigenmode. The fluctuating heat release is modelled as a linear feedback to the local acoustics, in which the feedback response is a function of the azimuthal coordinate, causing cylindrical symmetry breaking. A bifurcation map is generated as a function of azimuthal mean flow velocity around the annulus. It is shown that a pitchfork bifurcation exists, separating standing wave and travelling wave solutions. Due to the interaction with non-uniform thermoacoustic feedback, an azimuthal flow with a low Mach number can significantly influence the system stability. Close to the bifurcation point, the non-normal nature of the dynamic system can induce a considerable gain of acoustic energy and yield more predictable time traces. These findings address the influence of non-normality, when applying a linear damping rate, acoustic amplitude or entropy-based quantity with the intent to monitor combustion dynamics in an annular combustion system.
Prospective study of surgical fixation of radial head fractures using cannulated headless compression screws for simple and complex radial head fractures
Authors: Wu Pang Hung , Dixit Anushri , Kiat Tan David Meng , Shen Liang , Chee Yu Han
Published: June 2017

Introduction:

Fixing the two-part Mason II radial head fracture using screws is becoming a popular practice. However, the screw fixation efficacy for three-part Mason III and IV fractures is controversial. The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of using a uniform technique of headless compression screw fixation in simple, isolated Mason II and complex three-part Mason III and IV radial head fractures in terms of functional outcome, treatment efficiency and assessment of complications with the procedure.

Methods:

A prospective evaluation were performed on 31 adult patients with closed, non-pathological Mason II, III and IV radial head fractures sustained due to trauma and who underwent fixation using either two or three cannulated headless compression screws of 2.0 to 2.5 mm, and all patients were followed up for 2 years after the injury. They were divided into simple Mason II fracture group and complex three-part Mason III–IV fracture group. Operation time, time to discharge and radiological union were used as parameters for assessment of clinical outcome, while Mayo Elbow Performance Score, range of motion and complications were used to assess the functional outcomes.

Results:

Twelve cases of two-part simple fracture group and 18 cases of complex fracture group were identified. The mean age of 39 years is comparable between the two groups. Both groups had comparable days to union, mean hospital stay and operation time. In the simple fracture group, the mean Mayo Elbow Score was 97 (80–100), which is better than the complex fracture group score of 89 (75–100), p = 0.035. Both groups had no statistical difference in complication rates. All fractures united in our series. The mean range of motion for the simple fracture group was significant, with 133° ± 17.0° for flexion–extension arc, 85° ± 5° in pronation and supination as compared to the complex fracture group with 120° ± 20° flexion–extension arc, 69° ± 10° in pronation and 70° ± 8° in supination, p = 0.068.

Conclusion:

Overall clinical and functional outcomes of this technique are satisfactory in both simple and complex fracture groups, with simple Mason II fracture group doing better than the complex three-part Mason III and IV fractures in terms of Mayo Elbow Score and range of motion. Screw fixation has the advantage of less periosteal stripping and less impingement compared to other fixation methods and also allows for flexible fixation in constrained areas. Headless compression screw fixation can be considered as a method of fracture fixation for both simple and complex three-part radial head fractures.