bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Accumulation of soil organic carbon after cropland conversion to short‐rotation willow and poplar
Authors: Georgiadis Petros , Vesterdal Lars , Stupak Inge , Raulund‐Rasmussen Karsten
Published: February 2017

The demand for bioenergy has increased the interest in short‐rotation woody crops (SRWCs) in temperate zones. With increased litter input and ceased annual soil cultivation, SRWC plantations may become soil carbon sinks for climate change mitigation. A chronosequence of 26 paired plots was used to study the potential for increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) under SRWC willow and poplar after conversion from cropland (CR) on well‐drained soils. We estimated SOC stocks in SRWC stands and adjacent CR and related the difference to time since conversion, energy crop species, SOC stock of the adjacent CR (proxy for initial SOC of SRWC) and the fine soil percentage (<63 μm) (FS). Soil cores to 40 cm depth were sampled and separated by layers of fixed depths (0–5, 5–10, 10–15, 15–25 and 25–40 cm). Additionally, soils were sampled from soil pits by genetic horizons to 100 cm depth. Comparisons of SOC stocks by equivalent soil masses showed that mean SOC stocks in SRWC were 1.7 times higher than those of CR in the top 5 cm of the soil (P < 0.001). The differences between SRWC and CR remained significant for the plough layer (0–25 cm) by a factor of 1.2 (P = 0.003), while no changes were detectable for the 0–40 cm (P = 0.32), or for the entire 0–100 cm soil layer (P = 0.29). The SOC stock ratio, that is the ratio of SOC stock in SRWC relative to CR, did not change significantly with time since conversion, although there was a tendency to an increase over time for the top 40 cm (P = 0.09). The SOC stock ratio was negatively correlated to SOC in CR and FS percentage, but there was no significant difference between willow and poplar at any depth. Our results suggest that SOC stocks in the plough layer increase after conversion to SRWC.
Exploring dental student participation in interdisciplinary care team conferences in long‐term care
Authors: Huynh Jeremy , Donnelly Leeann R. , Brondani Mario A.
Published: February 2017

Objective

The purpose of this study was to explore how the participation of dental hygiene students in interdisciplinary care conferences conducted in long‐term care (LTC) facilities influenced the staff's awareness of oral health, the student's provision of care as well as the student's ability to work on an interdisciplinary team.

Background

Oral health in LTC continues to be poor despite many educational and clinical interventions. The care of a frail elder requires an interdisciplinary team approach, yet dental professionals are often absent from these teams. As an educational intervention, dental hygiene students, in addition to providing clinical care to residents and education to staff in a LTC facility, have been participating in interdisciplinary care conferences for 4 years.

Methods

Nine LTC facility staff and eight students participated in two focus groups and five personal interviews to discuss their experiences of the care conferences. Narratives were transcribed verbatim and thematic analysis was conducted.

Results

Four major themes emerged that described the essence of the experience of involving dental professionals within interdisciplinary care conference: (i) addressing oral health, (ii) reciprocal learning, (iii) dealing with complexity and (iv) impact of collaborative care.

Conclusion

Overall, students found the educational intervention to be worthwhile that allowed for the development of interdisciplinary skills and a greater understanding of dental geriatrics. The dental support in care conferences was welcomed by the staff as it facilitated a new way of exchanging knowledge and experiences so that a more holistic approach to care could be undertaken by all.
Destination Choice of the Newly Arrived Immigrants to the U.S. from 2000 to 2005–2007: A Multivariate Explanation for Immigrants from Top Source Countries
Authors: Huang Ting , Bruce Newbold K.
Published: February 2017

Using the PUMS files of the 2000 U.S. Census and 2005–2007 merged ACS data, we study the metropolitan destination choices made by newly arrived immigrants from seven top source countries between 2000 and 2007. Using a multinomial logit model, we find that the dispersion of new immigrant groups varies by origin, although all groups were subject to 1) the attraction of co‐ethnic communities, and 2) the positive effects of labor market conditions in the destination (especially the employment growth rate). However, co‐ethnic concentration is much more important than labor market conditions in the destination choice decision, particularly for the poorly educated. Conversely, there is a strong negative effect of co‐ethnic concentration on highly educated new immigrants, revealing a dispersed geographical pattern of these highly educated immigrants. We also find the importance of employment share growth rate for highly educated immigrants which suggests that they are more sensitive to the upward employment structure at the destination than a specific job growth rate, and they may not be attracted by a metropolitan area with a low‐quality employment structure, despite whether there was an increase in high‐level jobs.
Trait correlates of success at work
Authors: Teodorescu Alexandra , Furnham Adrian , MacRae Ian
Published: February 2017

Identifying and developing high potential individuals is fundamental to successful companies and organizations. The present study focuses on the personality traits of high potential individuals. The High Potential Traits Inventory (HPTI) was used to investigate associations between personality traits and measures of career success, in a sample of 383 employed individuals. Results indicate HPTI personality traits relate to subjective and objective measures of success with Conscientiousness being the strongest predictor. The findings of the current study are consistent with previous research on High Flyers. Implications of the current study are discussed, suggesting a clearer operationalization of success is crucial for understanding the underlying mechanisms which lead from personality to potential.
Can you test me now? Equivalence of GMA tests on mobile and non‐mobile devices
Authors: Brown Matt I. , Grossenbacher Michael A.
Published: February 2017

As technology continues to evolve, organizations seek to use personal electronics like smartphones for selection and assessment. While this promises to increase access to a more diverse applicant pool, research is needed to examine whether commonly used assessments function similarly on these devices as on a conventional computer. Contrary to past research, we did not find meaningful differences in general mental ability (GMA) test scores between device groups. We also observed few differences in item functioning between devices. Screen size had a positive, but marginal effect on test scores. These results are optimistic for the use of mobile devices in GMA testing, but additional research is needed to examine the functioning of alternative GMA tests administered on mobile devices.
Characterization of an entomopathogenic fungi target integument protein, Bombyx mori single domain von Willebrand factor type C, in the silkworm, Bombyx mori
Authors: Han F. , Lu A. , Yuan Y. , Huang W. , Beerntsen B. T. , Huang J. , Ling E.
Published: February 2017

The insect cuticle works as the first line of defence to protect insects from pathogenic infections and water evaporation. However, the old cuticle must be shed in order to enter the next developmental stage. During each ecdysis, moulting fluids are produced and secreted into the area among the old and new cuticles. In a previous study, the protein Bombyx mori single domain von Willebrand factor type C (BmSVWC; BGIBMGA011399) was identified in the moulting fluids of Bo. mori and demonstrated to regulate ecdysis. In this study we show that in Bo. mori larvae, BmSVWC primarily locates to the integument (epidermal cells and cuticle), wing discs and head. During the moulting stage, BmSVWC is released into the moulting fluids, and is then produced again by epidermal cells after ecdysis. Fungal infection was shown to decrease the amount of BmSVWC in the cuticle, which indicates that BmSVWC is a target protein of entomopathogenic fungi. Thus, BmSVWC is mainly involved in maintaining the integrity of the integument structure, which serves to protect insects from physical damage and pathogenic infection.
An evolutionary algorithm for the multi‐objective pick‐up and delivery pollution‐routing problem
Authors: Bravo Mauricio , Rojas Lorena Pradenas , Parada Victor
Published: February 2017

The design of sustainable logistics solutions poses new challenges for the study of vehicle‐routing problems. The design of efficient systems for transporting products via a heterogeneous fleet of vehicles must consider the minimization of cost, emissions of greenhouse gases, and the ability to serve every customer within an available time slot. This phenomenon gives rise to a multi‐objective problem that considers the emission of greenhouse gases, the total traveling time, and the number of customers served. The proposed model is approached with an ε‐constraint technique that allows small instances to be solved and an evolutionary algorithm is proposed to deal with complex instances. Results for small instances show that all the points that approach the Pareto frontier found by the evolutionary algorithm are nondominated by any solution found by the multi‐objective model. For complex instances, nondominated solutions that serve most of the requests are found with low computational requirements.
Stochastic multicriteria decision‐making approach based on SMAA‐ELECTRE with extended gray numbers
Authors: Zhou Huan , Wang Jian‐qiang , Zhang Hong‐yu
Published: February 2017

Actual stochastic multicriteria decision‐making (MCDM) problems usually exhibit two forms of information loss: criteria value uncertainty and criteria weight uncertainty. In this paper, extended gray numbers (EGNs), integrated with discrete gray numbers and interval gray numbers are used to express the uncertainty of stochastic MCDM problems. Stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis (SMAA) and ELECTRE III are combined to solve stochastic MCDM problems with uncertain weight information. First, the outranking relations on interval gray numbers and EGNs are defined. Then, a SMAA‐ELECTRE model for dealing with gray stochastic MCDM problems is constructed. Finally, an illustrative example and two comparative analyses are provided to verify the feasibility and usability of the proposed approach. The proposed approach provides recommendations for alternatives based on uncertain preference information. It therefore contributes a new way to solve stochastic MCDM problems with uncertain, imprecise, and/or missing preference information.
Improved dynamic programming and approximation results for the knapsack problem with setups
Authors: Pferschy Ulrich , Scatamacchia Rosario
Published: February 2017

In this paper, we consider the 0–1 knapsack problem with setups. Items are grouped into families and if any items of a family are packed, this induces a setup cost as well as a setup resource consumption. We introduce a new dynamic programming algorithm that performs much better than a previous dynamic program and turns out to be also a valid alternative to an exact approach based on the use of an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) solver. Then we present a general inapproximability result. Furthermore, we investigate several relevant special cases that still permit fully polynomial‐time approximation schemes and others where the problem remains hard to approximate.
Unilesional plantar mycosis fungoides treated with topical photodynamic therapy – case report and review of the literature
Authors: Kaufmann F. , Kettelhack N. , Hilty N. , Kempf W.
Published: February 2017

Background

Unilesional mycosis fungoides (UMF) and pagetoid reticulosis (PR) are variants of mycosis fungoides. Conventional therapy comprises surgical excision or radiotherapy, which may be associated with long‐term side effects, especially when the lesion is located at a special site like the palms and soles. Therefore, alternative treatment options are needed to treat solitary lesions in the case of UMF or PR. Recently, topical photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been described to be an efficient and non‐invasive therapeutical option with excellent clinical outcome.

Objective

The objective of this study was to report a 43‐year‐old woman with plantar UMF treated successfully with PDT, and to compare our findings with the data on PDT in UMF and PR reported in the literature.

Methods

The literature was analysed for articles on UMF and PR, respectively, treated with topical PDT. Various parameters including form of PDT and response to treatment were analysed and compared with our case.

Results

A total of 24 patients were documented with 24 lesions treated with PDT, either using aminolevulinic acid (ALA) or methylaminolevulinate (MAL). In average, a single lesion was treated 4 times with PDT. In 21 cases (88%), complete response could be achieved, whereas three cases (13%) showed partial remission. None of the cases showed stable or progressive disease.

Conclusions

PDT is a safe, efficient and non‐invasive therapeutical approach for the treatment of UMF and PR. It has no long‐standing adverse events and therefore is of high therapeutic value especially in cases of UMF and PR located at special sites like the palms and soles. We propose to include topical PDT as therapeutic option for the treatment of UMF and PR in future guidelines on the management MF.
Privacy Is Precious: On the Attempt to Lift Anonymity on the Internet to Increase Revenue
Authors: Regner Tobias , Riener Gerhard
Published: February 2017

We investigate the effect of a reduction of anonymity on consumers' purchase decisions (whether to buy, and if so how much to pay) at an online music store with Pay‐What‐You‐Want (PWYW)‐like pricing and in an Internet experiment mimicking the real world situation. Revealing the customer's name, e‐mail, and payment to the artist (seller) led to insignificantly higher payments, although it drastically reduced the number of customers purchasing. Overall, the regime led to a revenue loss of 25%. In the online experiment, revenue drops by 35%. These results suggest that the positive effect of reduced anonymity, previously established for donation or public goods contexts, does not extend to a consumption environment. Instead, the substantial opt‐out of customers is likely to be motivated by concerns about privacy.
Prevention incentives in long‐term insurance contracts
Authors: Bourlès Renaud
Published: February 2017

Long‐term insurance contracts are widespread, particularly in public health and the labor market. Such contracts typically involve monthly or annual premia which are related to the insured's risk profile. A given profile may change, based on observed outcomes which depend on the insured's prevention efforts. The aim of this paper is to analyze the latter relationship. In a two‐period optimal insurance contract in which the insured's risk profile is partly governed by her effort on prevention, we find that both the insured's risk aversion and prudence play a crucial role. If absolute prudence is greater than twice absolute risk aversion, moral hazard justifies setting a higher premium in the first period but also greater premium discrimination in the second period. This result provides insights on the trade‐offs between long‐term insurance and the incentives arising from risk classification, as well as between inter‐ and intragenerational insurance.
Maternal stress during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental outcomes of children during the first 2 years of life
Authors: Polanska Kinga , Krol Anna , Merecz‐Kot Dorota , Jurewicz Joanna , Makowiec‐Dabrowska Teresa , Chiarotti Flavia , Calamandrei Gemma , Hanke Wojciech
Published: February 2017

Aim

A growing body of literature documents associations between maternal stress in pregnancy and child development, but findings across studies are often inconsistent. The aim of this study was to estimate the association between exposure to different kinds of prenatal stress and child psychomotor development.

Methods

The study population consisted of 372 mother‐child pairs from Polish Mother and Child Cohort. The analysis was restricted to the women who worked at least 1 month during pregnancy period. Maternal psychological stress during pregnancy was assessed based on: the Subjective Work Characteristics Questionnaire, Perceived Stress Scale and Social Readjustment Rating Scale. The level of satisfaction with family functioning and support was evaluated by APGAR Family Scale. Child psychomotor development was assessed at the 12th and 24th months of age by Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development.

Results

Negative impact on child cognitive development at the age of two was observed for the Perceived Stress Scale (β = −0.8; P = 0.01) and the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (β = −0.4; P = 0.03) after adjusting for the variety of confounders. Occupational stress, as well as satisfaction with family functioning, was not significantly associated with child psychomotor development (P > 0.05).

Conclusions

The study supports the findings that prenatal exposure to maternal stress is significantly associated with decreased child cognitive functions. In order to further understand and quantify the effects of prenatal stress on child neurodevelopment further studies are needed. This will be important for developing interventions that provide more assistance to pregnant women, including emotional support or help to manage psychological stress.
A normative foundation for equity‐sensitive health evaluation: The role of relative comparisons of health gains
Authors: Moreno‐Ternero Juan D. , Østerdal Lars Peter
Published: February 2017

We explore in this paper the relationship between equity‐sensitive population health evaluation measures and normative concerns for relative comparisons of health gains. Such a relationship allows us to characterize focal equity‐sensitive models for the evaluation of population health. Instances are the so‐called multiplicative Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) and multiplicative Healthy Years Equivalents (HYEs), as well as generalizations of the two. Our axiomatic approach assumes social preferences over distributions of individual health states experienced in a given period of time. It conveys informational simplicity, as it does not require information about individual preferences on health.
Mandating vaccination with unknown indirect effects
Authors: Manski Charles F.
Published: February 2017

Social interactions make communicable disease a core concern of public health policy. A prevalent problem is scarcity of empirical evidence informative about how interventions affect illness. Randomized trials, which have been important to evaluation of treatments for noninfectious diseases, are less informative about treatment of communicable diseases because they do not fully reveal the indirect preventive (herd immunity) effect of vaccination on persons who are not vaccinated or are unsuccessfully vaccinated. This paper studies the decision problem faced by a health planner who observes the illness rate that occurs when persons make decentralized vaccination choices and who contemplates whether to mandate vaccination. The planner's objective is to minimize the social cost of illness and vaccination. Uncertainty about the magnitude of the indirect effect of vaccination implies uncertainty about the illness rate that a mandate would yield. I first study a simple representative‐agent setting and derive conditions under which the planner can determine whether mandating vaccination is optimal. When optimal policy is indeterminate, I juxtapose several criteria for decision making—expected utility, minimax, and minimax‐regret—and compare the policies they generate. I then extend the analysis to a more general setting in which members of the population may have heterogenous attributes.

I have benefitted from the opportunity to present this work in seminars at the Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, the Department of Economics, University of California at Santa Barbara, and the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics, University of Southern California. I have also benefitted from the comments of an anonymous reviewer and associate editor.
Long‐term care policy with lazy rotten kids
Authors: Cremer Helmuth , Roeder Kerstin
Published: February 2017

This paper studies the determination of informal long‐term care (LTC) provided by children in a scenario which is somewhere in between perfect altruism and selfish exchanges. Parents are altruistic but children are purely selfish, and neither side can make credible commitments. The model is based on Becker's “rotten kid” specification except that it explicitly accounts for the sequence of decisions. In Becker's world, with a single good efficiency is achieved. We show that when family aid is introduced the outcome is likely to be inefficient. Still, the rotten kid mechanism is at work and ensures that a positive level of LTC is provided as long as the bequest motive is operative. We identify the inefficiencies by comparing the laissez‐faire (subgame perfect) equilibrium to the first‐best allocation. We first assume that families are identical ex ante and then consider the case where dynasties differ in wealth. We study how the provision of LTC can be improved by public policies. Interestingly, crowding out of private aid by public LTC is not a problem in this setting. With an operative bequest motive, public LTC will have no impact on private aid. More amazingly still, when the bequest motive is (initially) not operative, public insurance may even enhance the provision of informal aid.
Acculturation and its impact on the oral health status of Pacific children in New Zealand: findings from the Pacific Islands Families study
Authors: Schluter Philip J. , Kanagaratnam Sathananthan , Taylor Steve , Tautolo El‐Shadan
Published: February 2017

Objectives

Immigration and acculturation are increasingly recognized as important explanatory factors for health disparities, although their impact on oral health is less well understood. This study investigates the relationship between Pacific children's cultural orientation and oral health, after adjusting for potentially moderating and confounding variables.

Methods

The Pacific Islands Families (PIF) study follows a cohort of Pacific infants born in 2000. PIF study participants' data from their last dental examination were extracted from service records, and matched to the cohort. A bi‐directional acculturation classification, derived from maternal reports, was related to children's oral health indices in crude and adjusted analyses.

Results

1,376 children were eligible, of whom 922 (67.0 percent) had mothers born outside New Zealand. Matching was successful for 970 (70.5 percent) children, with mean age 12.2 years (range: 6.8, 15.4 years). Significant differences were found between acculturation groups for children's tooth brushing frequency and school dental service enrollments but these differences did not moderate relationships between acculturation and oral health status. Unmet treatment need was significantly different between acculturation groups, with children of mothers having higher Pacific orientation having worse unmet needs than those with lower Pacific orientation. No other significant differences were noted.

Conclusions

Pacific children carry a disproportionate oral health burden, particularly amongst those with mothers more aligned to their Pacific culture. Strategies which enable Pacific people to re‐shape their oral health understanding, together with reducing barriers to accessing dental health care, are needed to prevent a legacy of poor oral health in Pacific people within New Zealand.
The Coevolution of Public and Private Security in Nineteenth-Century Chicago
Authors: Obert Jonathan
Published: February 2017

The coevolution of private detective agencies and municipal police bureaucracies in mid-nineteenth-century Chicago arose from the breakdown of an older system in which the provision of law enforcement was delegated to local communities. The growth of anonymity and the presence of strangers in a city undergoing massive changes in transportation undermined this delegative system and created the perception of new public security threats. These threats were compounded by the mobilization of ethnicity in partisan politics. To address these new concerns, political and economic elites did not innovate, but turned to traditional practices like special deputization. The use of deputization allowed some law officers to sell their services as entrepreneurs to private firms, while also paving the way for a new bureaucratic police department. Networks of security providers locked in this transformation and made public and private policing alike a permanent feature of the city's institutional landscape.
The Stretching Method for Vibration‐Based Structural Health Monitoring of Civil Structures
Authors: Tsogka Chrysoula , Daskalakis Emmanouil , Comanducci Gabriele , Ubertini Filippo
Published: February 2017

This article newly proposes the application of the stretching method, that is used in geophysics for detecting variations in the velocity with which waves propagate in the earth's crust from seismic noise recordings, in the context of vibration‐based Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of civil structures. The result is a computationally efficient long‐term vibration‐based SHM tool, that follows the current trend of using a very limited number of sensors permanently installed on site to measure operational structural responses for the purpose of damage detection. In the SHM setting, the proposed method aims at a direct identification of small permanent shifts in the natural frequencies of the structure in a changing environment, which is achieved by maximizing the correlation coefficient between a reference waveform, computed in a training reference period in which the structure is assumed to be undamaged, and a stretched version of the same waveform evaluated at the current time. The comparison is performed in the frequency domain and the waveform of interest is obtained from cross‐correlations of the ambient vibration measurements. More specifically, in the case of multiple sensors, the waveform can be either the cross‐power spectral density of the signals recorded by a pair of sensors, or the largest singular value of the spectral matrix of the measurements. It follows that the method can be regarded as an extension of the classic Frequency Domain Decomposition (FDD). A key feature of the proposed stretching method is mitigating the effects of environmental fluctuations by time domain averaging of cross‐correlations over a proper period of time, before taking their Fourier transform to estimate the spectral densities. Such a time domain averaging is carried out in a relatively long period of time for estimating the reference waveform, whereas it is carried out in a shorter time for estimating the current waveform. The main features of the proposed methodology are its very low sensitivity to environmental fluctuations, resulting in a quite short training period length, and its low computational cost, which could be compatible with a direct integration within smart sensors with embedded electronics. The performance of the method is illustrated in the case study of an Italian historical monumental bell tower that has been monitored by the authors for more than 1 year.
Attentive Visual Reference
Authors: Green E. J.
Published: February 2017

Many have held that when a person visually attends to an object, her visual system deploys a representation that designates the object. Call the referential link between such representations and the objects they designate attentive visual reference. In this article I offer an account of attentive visual reference. I argue that the object representations deployed in visual attention—which I call attentive visual object representations (AVORs)—refer directly, and are akin to indexicals. Then I turn to the issue of how the reference of an AVOR is determined relative to a context. After raising problems for existing accounts, I propose a mechanism of reference determination that is both causal and descriptive: For an AVOR to refer to a particular object, the object must appropriately cause the deployment of the AVOR, and the AVOR must be associated with descriptive information about some of the object's geometrical and mereological properties.
Prepulse inhibition and facilitation of the postauricular reflex, a vestigial remnant of pinna startle
Authors: Hackley Steven A. , Ren Xi , Underwood Amy , Valle‐Inclán Fernando
Published: February 2017

If the postauricular reflex (PAR) is to be used effectively in studies of emotion and attention, its sensitivity to basic modulatory effects such as prepulse inhibition and facilitation must be determined. Two experiments were carried out with healthy young adults to assess the effects of transient and sustained visual prestimuli on the pinna‐flexion response to trains of startle probes. In the first experiment, participants passively viewed a small white square. It was displayed from 1,000 ms prior to onset of a train of noise bursts until the end of that train. Relative to no‐prepulse control trials, PAR amplitude was inhibited, possibly due to the withdrawal of attentional resources from the auditory modality. In the second experiment, participants performed a visual oddball task in which irrelevant trains of startle probes followed most briefly displayed task stimuli (checkerboards). Prepulse inhibition was observed when a transient stimulus preceded the first probe at a lead time of 100 ms. Amplitude facilitation was observed at longer lead times. In addition to documenting the existence of prepulse inhibition and facilitation, the data suggest that the PAR is not elicited by visual stimuli, that temporal expectancy does not influence its amplitude or latency, and that this vestigial microreflex is resistant to habituation. Results are interpreted in light of a recent theory that the human PAR is a highly degraded pinna startle, in which the reflex arc no longer includes the startle center (nucleus reticularis pontis caudalis).
N1 response attenuation and the mismatch negativity (MMN) to within‐ and across‐category phonetic contrasts
Authors: Silva Daniel M. R. , Melges Danilo B. , Rothe‐Neves Rui
Published: February 2017

According to the neural adaptation model of the mismatch negativity (MMN), the sensitivity of this event‐related response to both acoustic and categorical information in speech sounds can be accounted for by assuming that (a) the degree of overlapping between neural representations of two sounds depends on both the acoustic difference between them and whether or not they belong to distinct phonetic categories, and (b) a release from stimulus‐specific adaptation causes an enhanced N1 obligatory response to infrequent deviant stimuli. On the basis of this view, we tested in Experiment 1 whether the N1 response to the second sound of a pair (S2) would be more attenuated in pairs of identical vowels compared with pairs of different vowels, and in pairs of exemplars of the same vowel category compared with pairs of exemplars of different categories. The psychoacoustic distance between S1 and S2 was the same for all within‐category and across‐category pairs. While N1 amplitudes decreased markedly from S1 to S2, responses to S2 were quite similar across pair types, indicating that the attenuation effect in such conditions is not stimulus specific. In Experiment 2, a pronounced MMN was elicited by a deviant vowel sound in an across‐category oddball sequence, but not when the exact same deviant vowel was presented in a within‐category oddball sequence. This adds evidence that MMN reflects categorical phonetic processing. Taken together, the results suggest that different neural processes underlie the attenuation of the N1 response to S2 and the MMN to vowels.
Startle modulation and explicit valence evaluations dissociate during backward fear conditioning
Authors: Luck Camilla C. , Lipp Ottmar V.
Published: February 2017

Blink startle magnitude is linearly modulated by affect such that, relative to neutral stimuli, startle magnitude is inhibited during pleasant stimuli and potentiated during unpleasant stimuli. Andreatta, Mühlberger, Yarali, Gerber, and Pauli (2010), however, report a dissociation between startle modulation and explicit valence evaluations during backward conditioning, a procedure in which the unconditional stimulus precedes the conditional stimulus (CS). Relative to controls, startles elicited during the CS were inhibited, suggesting that the CS had acquired positive valence, but participants still evaluated the CS as unpleasant after the experiment. In Experiment 1, we aimed to replicate this dissociation using a trial‐by‐trial measure of CS valence to measure startle modulation and CS valence simultaneously during forward and backward differential fear conditioning. In Experiment 2, we examined whether early and late portions of the CS could acquire differential valence by presenting startle probes at early and late probe positions during the CS. In both experiments, the dissociation between startle modulation and explicit valence evaluations in backward conditioning replicated, with CS+ evaluated as less pleasant than CS‐, but startles elicited during CS+ inhibited relative to CS‐. In Experiment 2, we provide preliminary evidence that this inhibition was present early, but not late, during the CS+. The results replicate the dissociation between implicit and explicit CS valence reported by Andreatta et al. (2010) using a trial‐by‐trial measure of valence. We also provide preliminary evidence that this dissociation may occur because the implicit and explicit measures are recorded at different times during the CS presentation.
Joint Regression Analysis of Marginal Quantile and Quantile Association: Application to Longitudinal Body Mass Index in Adolescents
Authors: Yang Chi-Chuan , Chen Yi-Hau , Chang Hsing-Yi
Published: February 2017

The paper proposes joint regression analysis of the marginal quantiles of longitudinal or clustered outcomes as well as the association between pairs of the outcomes, with the association measuring the tendency of concordance between pairs of the outcomes with respect to their marginal quantiles. The motivation comes from a longitudinal adolescent body mass index (BMI) study where both the marginal quantile regression of BMI and the tendency that an adolescent with BMI higher than the 75th population quantile of the BMI at some age would still have BMI higher than the 75th population quantile of the BMI at some later age are of interest. The new procedure generalizes the ‘alternative logistic regressions’ to marginal quantile regression and extends the ‘quantile association regression’ to general analysis of longitudinal and clustered data. A novel bivariate induced smoothing technique is proposed for stable and efficient computation. The application to the longitudinal adolescent BMI study reveals the practical utility of our proposal.
Comparison of pro‐inflammatory cytokines of non‐healing and healing cutaneous leishmaniasis
Authors: Moafi M. , Rezvan H. , Sherkat R. , Taleban R. , Asilian A. , Hamid Zarkesh‐Esfahani S. , Nilforoushzadeh M. A. , Jaffary F. , Mansourian M. , Sokhanvari F. , Ansari N.
Published: February 2017

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) heals spontaneously within several weeks or months, but, in rare cases, CL‐active lesions last for many years. In this study, we assessed cell‐mediated immunity in non‐healing CL through the measurement of three pro‐inflammatory cytokines: Interferon‐γ (IFN‐γ), IL‐17a and CXCL‐11. For this, 32 patients afflicted with healing or non‐healing CL were recruited in this study. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of every patient were treated with three antigens: purified protein derivative (PPD), soluble Leishmania antigen (SLA) and phytohaemagglutinin (PHA). Cytokine quantification was performed using enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. Results of our study showed that neither cytokine produced in the presence of a PPD stimulator (as an irrelevant antigen) significantly differed between the healing and non‐healing groups (P‐value ≥0.05 for all of them). However, IFN‐γ, CXCL‐11 and IL‐17a levels produced in the presence of PHA or SLA were significantly higher within the healing than in the non‐healing group (P‐value <0.01 for all of them). It seems that appropriate levels of IFN‐γ, as well as IL‐17a and CXCL‐11, contribute to the control of Leishmania infection.
The sociology of antiracism in Black and White
Authors: Brown Melissa
Published: February 2017

This paper reviews sociological research on antiracism and suggests new directions for the field. Current research indicates although White antiracism constitutes attempts to negotiate privilege, it fails to divest from the systems of power that maintain the current balance of privilege in favor of White supremacy. In contrast, the antiracism of people of color provides some insight into attempts to secure liberation, a complete break from White supremacist power structures. I argue DuBois, Black Feminist Thought, and postcolonial sociology inform a sociology of antiracism that centers people of color rather than Whiteness. To illustrate the nuance of antiracism by people of color, I centered my study on Black antiracism. From this perspective, antiracism emerges as the set of practices that Blacks enact in everyday life to mitigate and confront hegemonic racialization. I suggest that one construct ofhegemonic whitenessmeant to uphold dominant racial ideology that producesemphasized blacknessthat facilitates symbolic and physical violence toward Blacks. Althoughemphasized blacknessproduces and reinforces constraints on Black antiracism,oppositional blacknessexemplifies an ultimate form of antiracism in which Black bodies act as agents of social change through liberatory projects such as marronage and counterhegemonic knowledge production. I conclude this article with a case study of the Windward Maroons of Jamaica to illustrateoppositional blacknessas the dynamics of resistance and empowerment that emerge to confront hegemonic whiteness.
The novel KIR2DL1*00602 allele identified in an individual from a southern Chinese Han population
Authors: He L.‐M. , Wang D.‐M. , Deng Z.‐H. , Zhen J.‐X.
Published: February 2017

KIR2DL1*00602 differs from KIR2DL1*00302 by a non‐synonymous mutation in exon 7.
Optimal strategies for the diagnosis of community‐onset diarrhea in solid organ transplant recipients: Less is more
Authors: Trinh Sonya A. , Echenique Ignacio A. , Penugonda Sudhir , Angarone Michael P.
Published: February 2017

Background

Diarrhea, a common complication after solid organ transplant (SOT), is associated with allograft failure and death. No evidence‐based guidelines exist for the evaluation of diarrhea in SOT recipients. We performed a cost analysis to derive a testing algorithm for the diagnosis of community‐onset diarrhea that minimizes costs without compromising diagnostic yields.

Design

A cost analysis was performed on a retrospective cohort of 422 SOT admissions for community‐onset diarrhea over an 18‐month period. A stepwise testing model was applied on a population level to assess test costs relative to diagnostic yields.

Results

Over an 18‐month period, 1564 diagnostic tests were performed and 127 (8.1%) returned positive. Diagnostic testing accounted for $95 625 of hospital costs. The tests with the lowest cost per decrease in the false‐omission rate (FOR) were stool Clostridium difficile polymerase chain reaction (PCR) ($156), serum cytomegalovirus quantitative PCR ($1529), stool norovirus (NV) PCR ($4673), and stool culture ($6804). A time‐to‐event analysis found no significant difference in the length of hospital stay between patients with and without NV testing (P=.520).

Conclusions

A stepwise testing strategy can reduce costs without compromising diagnostic yields. In the first‐stage testing, we recommend assessment for C. difficile, cytomegalovirus, and food‐borne bacterial pathogens. For persistent diarrheal episodes, second‐stage evaluation should include stool NV PCR, Giardia/Cryptosporidium enzyme immunoassay, stool ova and parasite, reductions in immunosuppressive therapy, and possibly endoscopy. Although NV testing had a relatively low cost per FOR, we recommend NV testing during second‐stage evaluation, as an NV diagnosis may not lead to changes in clinical management or further reductions in length of hospital stay.
Predictive Factors for Fatal Tick‐Borne Spotted Fever in Brazil
Authors: de Oliveira S. V. , Willemann M. C. A. , Gazeta G. S. , Angerami R. N. , Gurgel‐Gonçalves R.
Published: February 2017

In Brazil, two pathogenic Rickettsia species have been identified causing tick‐borne spotted fever (SF). The aetiological agent Rickettsia rickettsii causes serious illness, particularly in the south‐eastern region of the country. Moreover, the Rickettsia sp. strain Atlantic Rainforest cause milder clinical manifestations in south‐eastern, south and north‐east regions. This study has sought to analyse predictive factors for fatal SF. A case–control study was performed using disease notification records in Brazil. The cases included were individuals with laboratory confirmation and fatal progression of SF, while the controls included individuals with SF who were cured. A total of 386 cases and 415 controls were identified (1 : 1.1), and the cases and controls were similar in age. The factors identified as being protective against death were reported presence of ticks (odds ratio [OR], 0.60; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.41–0.88), residing in urban areas (OR, 0.47, 95% CI, 0.31–0.74) and presenting lymphadenopathy (OR, 0.43; 95% CI, 0.23–0.82). Males exhibited a greater chance of death (OR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.13–2.18), as did patients who were hospitalized (OR, 10.82; 95% CI, 6.38–18.35) and who presented hypotension or shock (OR, 10.80; 95% CI, 7.33–15.93), seizures (OR, 11.24; 95% CI, 6.49–19.45) and coma (OR of 15.16; 95% CI, 8.51–27.02). The study demonstrates the severity profile of the SF cases, defined either as the frequency of hospitalization (even in cases that were cured) or as the increased frequency of the clinical complications typically found in critical patients. Opportune clinical diagnosis, a careful evaluation of the epidemiological aspects of the disease and adequate care for patients are determining factors for reducing SF fatality rates.
Bike Desks in the Classroom: Energy Expenditure, Physical Health, Cognitive Performance, Brain Functioning, and Academic Performance
Authors: Torbeyns Tine , de Geus Bas , Bailey Stephen , Decroix Lieselot , Van Cutsem Jeroen , De Pauw Kevin , Meeusen Romain
Published: February 2017

Background:

Physical activity is positively associated with physical health, cognitive performance, brain functioning and academic performance. The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of bike desks in the classroom on adolescents’ energy expenditure, physical health, cognitive performance, brain functioning and academic performance.

Methods:

Forty-four adolescents were randomly assigned to control group (CG) or intervention group (IG). During 5 months, the IG used a bike desk for 4 class hours/week. Energy expenditure was measured during 6 consecutive days. Anthropometric parameters, aerobic fitness, academic performance, cognitive performance and brain functioning were assessed before (T0) and after (T1) the intervention.

Results:

Energy expenditure of the IG was significantly higher during the class hours in which they used the bike desks relative to normal class hours. The CG had a significantly higher BMI at T1 relative to T0 while this was not significantly different for the IG. Aerobic fitness was significantly better in the IG at T1 relative to T0. No significant effects on academic performance cognitive performance and brain functioning were observed.

Conclusions:

As the implementation of bike desks in the classroom did not interfere with adolescents’ academic performance, this can be seen as an effective means of reducing in-class sedentary time and improving adolescents’ physical health.
Relation of Adolescents’ Physical Activity to After-School Recreation Environment
Authors: Thornton Christina M. , Cain Kelli L. , Conway Terry L. , Kerr Jacqueline , Saelens Brian E. , Frank Lawrence D. , Glanz Karen , Sallis James F.
Published: February 2017

Background:

The after-school period provides an opportune context for adolescent physical activity. This study examined how characteristics of after-school recreation environments related to adolescent physical activity.

Methods:

Participants were 889 adolescents aged 12 to 17 (mean = 14.1, SD = 1.4) from 2 US regions. Adolescents reported on whether their school offered after-school supervised physical activity, access to play areas/fields, and presence of sports facilities. Outcomes were accelerometer-measured after-school physical activity, reported physical activity on school grounds during nonschool hours, attainment of 60 minutes of daily physical activity excluding school physical education, and BMI-for-age z-score. Mixed regression models adjusted for study design, region, sex, age, ethnicity, vehicles/licensed drivers in household, and distance to school.

Results:

School environment variables were all significantly associated with self-reported physical activity on school grounds during non-school hours (P < .001) and attainment of 60 minutes of daily physical activity (P < .05). Adolescents’ accelerometer-measured after-school physical activity was most strongly associated with access to supervised physical activity (P = .008).

Conclusions:

Policies and programs that provide supervised after-school physical activity and access to play areas, fields, and sports facilities may help adolescents achieve daily physical activity recommendations.
A Comparison of High Intensity Functional Training and Circuit Training on Health and Performance Variables in Women: A Pilot Study
Authors: Sobrero Gina , Arnett Scott , Schafer Mark , Stone Whitley , Tolbert T. A. , Salyer-Funk Amanda , Crandall Jason , Farley Lauren B. , Brown Josh , Lyons Scott , Esslinger Travis , Esslinger Keri , Maples Jill
Published: February 2017

High intensity functional training (HIFT) emphasizes constantly varied, high intensity, functional activity by programming strength and conditioning exercises, gymnastics, Olympic weightlifting, and specialty movements. Conversely, traditional circuit training (TCT) programs aim to improve muscular fitness by utilizing the progressive overload principle, similar movements weekly, and specified work-to-rest ratios. The purpose of this investigation was to determine if differences exist in health and performance measures in women participating in HIFT or TCT after a six-week training program. Recreationally active women were randomly assigned to a HIFT (n = 8, age 26.0 + 7.3 yrs) or TCT (n = 11, age 26.3 + 9.6 yrs) group. Participants trained three days a week for six weeks with certified trainers. Investigators examined body composition (BC), aerobic and anaerobic capacity, muscular strength, endurance, flexibility, power, and agility. Repeated-measures ANOVA were used for statistical analyses with an alpha level of 0.05. Both groups increased body mass (p = .011), and improved muscular endurance (p < .000), upper body strength (p = .007), lower body power (p = .029) and agility (p = .003). In addition, the HIFT group decreased body fat (BF) %, while the TCT group increased BF% (p = .011). No changes were observed in aerobic or anaerobic capacity, flexibility, upper body power, or lower body stair climbing power. Newer, high intensity functional exercise programs such as HIFT may have better results on BC and similar effects when compared with TCT programs on health and fitness variables such as musculoskeletal strength and performance.