bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Green farming systems for the Southeast USA using manure-to-energy conversion platforms
Authors: Cantrell K. B. , Ro K. S. , Szögi A. A. , Vanotti M. B. , Smith M. C. , Hunt P. G.
Published: August 2012

In the southeastern USA, livestock operations face issues with both manure management and energy. Both issues can be advanced by implementing holistic solutions to manure treatment that involve (1) resourceful energy management and (2) green farming systems. In such systems, current and emerging waste-to-energy conversion platforms can contribute to renewable energy solutions, improved crop yields, and sustained natural resources. System-component technologies can manage both wet and dry manures to provide recycled nutrients to crops while minimizing air and water quality impacts. Relative to energy, anaerobic digestion (AD) is the prevalent biochemical platform. It is a mature technology that readily processes wet manure, and it is used on many levels of sophistication throughout the globe. Thermochemical conversion (TCC) processes with smaller physical footprints are versatile, capable of handling wet and dry feedstocks to yield multiple byproducts. They need (1) manure feedstock conditioning to lessen the effects of salts, metals, and sulfur and (2) heat recovery for energy conservation. Additionally, with appropriate downstream processing, the TCC gases and bio-oils can aid in farm energy management to include liquid fuel. The TCC processes also produce a reasonably transportable, nutrient-dense biochar. While AD provides a digestate suitable for land application, wastewaters within these systems can also be treated at different stages with solids-separation and nitrogen-phosphorous recovery technologies. This cleaner effluent offers more options for its use in meeting crop water needs via irrigation. Thus, through holistic thinking coupled with dynamic agribusiness, there are significant opportunities for future livestock farming systems to improve the sustainability of natural resources including energy.
Water and sanitation provision in a low carbon society: The need for a systems approach
Authors: Voulvoulis Nikolaos
Published: August 2012

In the face of climate change threatening to cause major alterations to hydrological cycles and taking into account the relationship between water, energy use, and food production, water management challenges today prove more complex than ever to address. This paper, recognising the progress made through science and engineering in the last century, reflects on the need to manage water resources more sustainably. It proposes that a change in mindsets is required in order to reconsider our approach in applying established solutions and utilising current technologies and tools to deliver them, with a renewed focus on re-assessing what the real problems are from a systems perspective. Focusing on the water-energy-food nexus, water reuse using desalination processes as a management option is revisited. Findings demonstrate that interdisciplinary, integrated and holistic solutions have the potential to deliver benefits across different sectors, disciplines, and systems, with a real potential for taking us a bit closer to sustainability.
Achieving food security while switching to low carbon agriculture
Authors: Fan Shenggen , Ramirez Ana
Published: August 2012

The increase of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is irreversibly raising the earth’s temperature, with its effects already being seen across the world, with higher frequency and intensity of extreme weather events and natural disasters. Agriculture is extremely vulnerable to these climatic changes, and in most regions of the world, productivity and yields are likely to suffer from shifting seasons and heightened weather variability. These changes could lead to higher food prices for the main food crops and undermine global food security. However, agriculture is also part of the problem of climate change. Together with land-use change and deforestation, it is a large contributor to global GHG emissions. In order to face the challenge of climate change, the carbon intensity of agriculture must be reduced in a way that will not compromise the food security of poor people. With the right innovations, investments, and policy incentives in place, low GHG emission agriculture practices can help mitigate the effects of climate change, reduce emissions while contributing to food security. Governments and donors must ensure that the switch to low GHG emissions technologies and practices—referred to as low carbon throughout the article, is done in a way that is pro-poor and that meets smallholders’ and women’s needs.
Technology and information management for low-carbon building
Authors: Dalene Frank
Published: August 2012

All buildings worldwide combined use 40% of the global energy and are responsible for one third of global energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The majority of GHG emissions of buildings come from fossil fuel energy in several stages of the life cycle of the building; 80%–90% of GHG emissions of buildings are emitted in the operations stage; 10%–20% GHG emissions are from embodied energy and carbon emissions related to construction stage. The greatest potential for low-hanging fruit in cost effective, quick, deep GHG reduction and mitigation is found in the construction industry. With currently available and proven technologies, reductions in energy consumption on both new and existing buildings are estimated to achieve 30%–80%. When costs of implementing energy reduction technologies are offset by energy savings, there is potential for a net profit over the life span of the building. Much has been done to study energy reductions, define GHG emissions, and develop metrics and protocols for measuring and reporting carbon emissions. This paper addresses the “How.” How energy consumption of a house was reduced almost 70%. How CO2 emission was reduced 44%. How embodied GHG emissions of the house were measured and certified carbon neutral. How USGBC LEED for Homes platinum certification was attained. How actual savings from energy reductions are able to pay back up-front cost of implementing technologies and begin earning a profit in fifteen years. How reducing electric consumption has the greatest impact in reducing energy costs and reducing CO2 emissions compared to propane and #2 fuel oil. How earning LEED points provided a surprise benefit of mitigating overall GHG emissions by earning carbon offsets. How these achievements and findings were accomplished in the reconstruction of one home.
Queer Ecology: Nature, Sexuality, and Heterotopic Alliances
Authors: Gandy Matthew
Published: August 2012

This paper explores the interdisciplinary terrain of ‘queer ecology’ by using the example of an urban cemetery in North London as an empirical and conceptual starting point. Though the term ‘queer ecology’ has cropped up a few times it has yet to be addressed directly in order to consider how the seemingly disparate fields of queer theory and urban ecology might benefit from closer interaction. It will be suggested that the theoretical synthesis represented by queer ecology serves to expand the conceptual and material scope of both fields: queer theory is revealed to have only a partially developed engagement with urban nature whilst critical strands of urban ecology such as urban political ecology have yet to connect in a systematic way with queer theory, posthumanism, or new conceptions of complexity emerging from within the science of ecology itself. It is concluded that queer ecology may enrich our understanding of both urban materiality and the role of metaphors in urban theory. In particular, the idea of queer ecology illuminates the possibility for site-specific ‘heterotopic alliances’ in the contemporary city.
Gendered Biopolitics of Public Health: Regulation and Discipline in Seafood Consumption Advisories
Authors: Mansfield Becky
Published: August 2012

‘Seafood consumption advisories’ that tell childbearing women which fish they should and should not eat are the dominant public health response to the accumulation, in otherwise healthful fish, of environmental pollutants that are harmful to developing fetuses. These advisories are not merely a rational response to an environmental health dilemma but, rather, a form of gendered biopolitics of responsibility for population security. First, because advisories encourage individuals to self-manage risk by altering their lifestyles, they are exemplary of contemporary neoliberal public health approaches that make individuals responsible not only for their own well-being but also for the well-being of the population. Second, advisories also combine elements of reproductive politics, including the medicalization of pregnancy, the production of fetal personhood, and enduring notions about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ mothers. As such, advisories are a gendered technology of biopolitics that intensifies the self-disciplining of women as mothers of potential, future children. In making these arguments, the paper draws from Foucault's lectures and from extensive feminist literature on reproduction and mothering to develop an understanding of biopolitics as an apparatus of power that integrally links liberal regulation and individualized discipline, and does so in ways that are both reflective and productive of gendered relations.
International Science, Domestic Politics: Russian Reception of International Climate-Change Assessments
Authors: Rowe Elana Wilson
Published: August 2012

After Russia's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol in 2004 the domestic debate over climate science cooled and the official discourse on the causes of climate change came somewhat closer to international consensus. This paper seeks to examine how these changes in Russian policy makers' publicly communicated understandings of climate science have been brought about by analyzing the reception of international scientific assessments of climate change in Russian domestic debate. The paper takes as its analytical point of departure the literature on epistemic communities, which suggests that scientists involved in assessment processes may act as agents of diffusion of international expert consensus in their ‘home’ states. The analytical heart of the paper is a case-study analysis based on interviews with Russian scientists who have participated in international climate assessment exercises. Findings indicate that Russian participants in the International Panel on Climate Change and the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment did not play a role as ‘informational entrepreneurs’ in deliberative processes leading to key decision-making moments, although they fulfilled other important functions at the national level. The paper concludes by arguing that stronger Russian adherence to international expert consensus was part of a ‘package deal’ of already well-established international-level political and ideational positions that Russia adopted after deciding to sign the Kyoto Protocol. Consequently, conceptualizations of expert knowledge diffusion need to account for a temporal dimension, as the mechanisms of diffusion and the nature of reception of international expert knowledge may vary according to whether the country in question has been at the vanguard of a policy issue (‘policy leader’) or somewhat more of a laggard (‘policy follower’).
Beyond the ‘Weak State’: Hybrid Sovereignties in Beirut
Authors: Fregonese Sara
Published: August 2012

Depictions of Lebanon in international politics have historically represented it as a ‘weak state’ whose domestic sovereignty is eroded by nonstate actors viewed as anomalies to extirpate. The War on Terror has been no exception. Since at least 2002 international efforts have aimed at reinforcing Lebanon's ‘weak’ domestic sovereignty against ‘extremist elements’. These approaches adopt a classic understanding of sovereignty as the achievable, exclusive, and measurable control by a state over a bounded territory. Such an understanding is misleading and even obstructive of peace for Lebanon. The accepted view of Lebanon as a ‘weak state’ suffering from chronic conflict and the myth of its capital Beirut as cyclically destroyed and reconstructed actually normalise imaginative geographies that ultimately impact on international action. Through the concept of ‘hybrid sovereignties’, this article goes beyond traditional views of legitimate state power and irregular nonstate ‘dissidence’ as dwelling in distinct legitimacy categories. Engaging theoretically with epistemologies of hybridity, and relying empirically on official foreign policy statements, archive material, and interviews conducted in Beirut between 2005 and 2010, the article considers Lebanese sovereignty as resulting from complex hybridisations between state and nonstate actors. Firstly, I review scholarly approaches to sovereignty and engage with the notion of hybridity to set a basis for discussing Lebanon's sovereignty beyond the ‘weak state’ discourse. Secondly, I show that ‘weak state’ approaches to Lebanon fail to account for differential views of sovereignty and weakness from inside the Lebanese political system. Thirdly, I use the notion of hybrid sovereignties to interpret political violence during two moments of intrastate conflict: the early phases of the civil war in 1975–76, and the May 2008 clashes in Beirut. In both moments, distinctions between accepted binaries, such as state/nonstate, legitimate/illegitimate, security/insecurity, and domestic/foreign, blurred. Both state actors and nonstate militias performed sovereignty practices increasingly resembling each other, and coconstituting each other through Beirut's physical environment. Exposing Lebanon's hybrid sovereignties demystifies the self-fulfilling prophecy of the ‘weak state’ rhetoric and its deadly consequences for Lebanon.
Listening to the Tube Map: Rhythm and the Historiography of Urban Map Use
Authors: Hornsey Richard
Published: August 2012

This paper is in two parts. In the first half I consider the challenge posed by the recent performative turn in critical cartography to the urban historical geographer. If maps come into being only within the diverse moments of their use, then how can we compensate for the absence of such events within the historical archive? Building on Tim Ingold's work, I suggest that one approach is to make an analogy between printed maps and musical scores, as decentred technologies whose instructions for performance are always mediated by environmental contingencies and the historical particularities of their performers. Returning a map to its original setting and ‘listening’ to the rhythms inscribed within it might enable us to uncover the specific spatial practices it once sought to produce. I then consolidate this approach via a study of Harry Beck's 1933 map of the London Underground. By locating it within the rhythmic dynamics of interwar London, I uncover the Tube Map's covert cybernetic impulse; in gesturing towards its own redundancy, it proffered a mode of cartographic practice that might impel the user toward an environmental docility that accorded with the dynamics of monopoly capitalism. Beck's map thus stands revealed as a watershed technology within attempts to orchestrate 20th-century urban life.
Relational Places: The Surfed Wave as Assemblage and Convergence
Authors: Anderson Jon
Published: August 2012

Taking the lead from social science moves to frame places as “open-ended, mobile, networked, and actor-centred geographic becoming[s]” (M Jones, 2009, “Phase space” Progress in Human Geography 33, page 5), this paper introduces how the ‘surfed wave’ can be understood as a relational place. Drawing on commentaries from surfers on the practice of wave riding, the paper will show that the surfed wave can be usefully understood in two ways: as an ‘assemblage’ (see Delanda, A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity 2006, Continuum Books, London 2006), and as a ‘convergence’ (see J Anderson, 2009, “Transient convergence and relational sensibility” Emotion, Space and Society 2 120–127). Whilst the notion of assemblage suggests that surfers, boards, and waves are ‘connected’ together to form one coherent unit for the lifetime of the ride the notion of convergence suggests that the surfed wave becomes a place whose constituent parts are not simply connected together; rather, their thresholds are blurred into a converged entity/process. Theorising from the sea in this way is an important move. It demonstrates how the relational turn can encourage us not only to consider traditional places in new ways but also to consider new (watery) ‘coming togethers’ as ‘places’. I argue that these theorisations from the sea offer new perspectives on more traditional (terrestrial) places and human relationships with them.
Unveiling Seductions beyond Societies of Control: Affect, Security, and Humour in Spaces of Aeromobility
Authors: Bissell David , Hynes Maria , Sharpe Scott
Published: August 2012

Taking the bare bodies that starred in the recent Air New Zealand in-flight safety demonstration and advertising campaign as its starting point, this paper stages an encounter between bareness and security in order to think about how affective atmospheres might be engineered and manipulated within spaces of aeromobility. From a representational perspective the bare bodies appeal to a particular economy of truth through the unveiling of the corporation, parodying the bareness that is a central technique associated with airport securitisation. But the bareness in the in-flight safety demonstration generates a different kind of intimacy between the corporation and the passenger that facilitates the emergence of affective atmospheres which hinge around fun and lightness. In light of theorisations that invoke the corporation as a model of the control society we finish by drawing out some of the tensions that hinge around figures of veiling and unveiling to demonstrate how affect necessarily exceeds its capture and engineering.
Caring for the Multiple and the Multitude: Assembling Animal Welfare and Enabling Ethical Critique
Authors: Davies Gail
Published: August 2012

This paper constitutes a speculative bioethical intervention into the challenge of developing cultures of care and assembling enriched environments for genetically altered mice in laboratory environments. The principles of the 3Rs—to reduce, replace, and refine the use of laboratory animals—established in the late 1950s, are still the institutional and international starting point for humane animal experimentation. However, the proliferating diversity and numbers of genetically altered animals used in biomedical research are a challenge to the application of these universal principles. The different capacities of the many mice brought into being through scientific practices constitute biomedical experimentation as a multiple, challenging the identification of universal refinements. In this paper I argue that these capacities constitute a multitude: their indefinite number and irreducible multiplicity are both a threat to these principles and an opening to the possibility of new bioethical formulations. Drawing on ethnographic research with scientists and policy makers involved in animal welfare and biomedical research, this paper explores emerging strategies for reassembling animal welfare in the face of the multitude and the multiple. By using insights from Žižek, Haraway, and Hinchliffe, it aims to demonstrate the value of a speculative ethics, which, instead of seeking new universal principles to protect animals from harm, starts from the inevitable and particular entanglements of animal and human suffering, as a way of connecting affective capacities across space and time. This is illustrated through the experimental conjunctures of barbering mice. In conclusion, I suggest that such speculative bioethical formulations may contribute to renarrating modes of ethical engagement when sociotechnical assemblages are complex, objects and ontological forms are multiple and mutable, data are simultaneously abundant and inadequate, and formal ethical review procedures are incapable of either containing controversy or enabling critique.
Discovery and validation of small-molecule heat-shock protein 90 inhibitors through multimodality molecular imaging in living subjects
Authors: Chan Carmel T. , Reeves Robert E. , Geller Ron , Yaghoubi Shahriar S. , Hoehne Aileen , Solow-Cordero David E. , Chiosis Gabriela , Massoud Tarik F. , Paulmurugan Ramasamy , Gambhir Sanjiv S.
Published: August 2012

Up-regulation of the folding machinery of the heat-shock protein 90 (Hsp90) chaperone protein is crucial for cancer progression. The two Hsp90 isoforms (α and β) play different roles in response to chemotherapy. To identify isoform-selective inhibitors of Hsp90(α/β)/cochaperone p23 interactions, we developed a dual-luciferase (Renilla and Firefly) reporter system for high-throughput screening (HTS) and monitoring the efficacy of Hsp90 inhibitors in cell culture and live mice. HTS of a 30,176 small-molecule chemical library in cell culture identified a compound,
N
-(5-methylisoxazol-3-yl)-2-[4-(thiophen-2-yl)-6-(trifluoromethyl)pyrimidin-2-ylthio]acetamide (CP9), that binds to Hsp90(α/β) and displays characteristics of Hsp90 inhibitors, i.e., degradation of Hsp90 client proteins and inhibition of cell proliferation, glucose metabolism, and thymidine kinase activity, in multiple cancer cell lines. The efficacy of CP9 in disrupting Hsp90(α/β)/p23 interactions and cell proliferation in tumor xenografts was evaluated by non-invasive, repetitive Renilla luciferase and Firefly luciferase imaging, respectively. At 38 h posttreatment (80 mg/kg × 3, i.p.), CP9 led to selective disruption of Hsp90α/p23 as compared with Hsp90β/p23 interactions. Small-animal PET/CT in the same cohort of mice showed that CP9 treatment (43 h) led to a 40% decrease in
18
F-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake in tumors relative to carrier control-treated mice. However, CP9 did not lead to significant degradation of Hsp90 client proteins in tumors. We performed a structural activity relationship study with 62 analogs of CP9 and identified A17 as the lead compound that outperformed CP9 in inhibiting Hsp90(α/β)/p23 interactions in cell culture. Our efforts demonstrated the power of coupling of HTS with multimodality molecular imaging and led to identification of Hsp90 inhibitors.
Rate limit of protein elastic response is tether dependent
Authors: Berkovich Ronen , Hermans Rodolfo I. , Popa Ionel , Stirnemann Guillaume , Garcia-Manyes Sergi , Berne Bruce J. , Fernandez Julio M.
Published: August 2012

The elastic restoring force of tissues must be able to operate over the very wide range of loading rates experienced by living organisms. It is surprising that even the fastest events involving animal muscle tissues do not surpass a few hundred hertz. We propose that this limit is set in part by the elastic dynamics of tethered proteins extending and relaxing under a changing load. Here we study the elastic dynamics of tethered proteins using a fast force spectrometer with sub-millisecond time resolution, combined with Brownian and Molecular Dynamics simulations. We show that the act of tethering a polypeptide to an object, an inseparable part of protein elasticity in vivo and in experimental setups, greatly reduces the attempt frequency with which the protein samples its free energy. Indeed, our data shows that a tethered polypeptide can traverse its free-energy landscape with a surprisingly low effective diffusion coefficient
D
eff
 ∼ 1,200 nm
2
/s. By contrast, our Molecular Dynamics simulations show that diffusion of an isolated protein under force occurs at
D
eff
 ∼ 10
8
 nm
2
/s. This discrepancy is attributed to the drag force caused by the tethering object. From the physiological time scales of tissue elasticity, we calculate that tethered elastic proteins equilibrate in vivo with
D
eff
 ∼ 10
4
–10
6
 nm
2
/s which is two to four orders magnitude smaller than the values measured for untethered proteins in bulk.
Parental Effect as a Primary Factor Limiting Egg‐to‐Fry Survival of Spring Chinook Salmon in the Upper Yakima River Basin
Authors: Johnson Christopher L. , Roni Philip , Pess George R.
Published: August 2012

Few field estimates of egg‐to‐fry survival of Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha exist, although it is one of the major factors thought to limit freshwater production and recovery of Chinook salmon populations. This is likely due to the challenges of estimating survival at this life stage, which is further complicated by the variety of methods that have been employed. Our study objectives were to (1) develop a method by which spring Chinook salmon egg‐to‐fry survival could be estimated at a large spatial scale, and (2) investigate the primary factors affecting survival in the natural environment. We conducted a field experiment using 81 artificial redds to test our proposed method for evaluating egg‐to‐fry survival at a basin scale and to evaluate the effects of parentage (adult mating), river reach, and fine sediment infiltration on survival in the upper Yakima River basin, Washington. Egg‐to‐fry survival and preemergent Chinook salmon fry developmental stage were significantly different among matings, but were not detectably different among reaches. Fine sediment accumulation in egg boxes from artificial redds was largely below published threshold levels, explained less than 6% of the variation in survival, and was not correlated with developmental stage. In contrast, survival of individual matings in the natural environment and those same matings incubated under controlled hatchery conditions were highly correlated. Our study suggests that in years of low scour and potentially ideal incubation conditions, parental effects play an important role in determining in situ egg‐to‐fry survival, and that extensive replication and tracking of gamete viability is needed to separate parental effects from environmental factors affecting survival. We provide standardized methods for collecting egg‐to‐fry survival data and outline a number of potential biases that should be addressed in future research.
A Marteilia-Like Parasite in Blue Mussels Mytilus edulis in China
Authors: Wang Zhongwei , Lu Xin , Liang Yubo , Zheng Zheng
Published: August 2012

Species of the genus Marteilia (Phylum Paramyxea) are protozoan parasites of marine mollusks. Marteilia spp. have been detected in mollusks from different parts of the world, but the presence of these parasites in China has not been previously reported. Therefore, a survey was conducted to look for the presence of Marteilia spp. in blue mussels Mytilus edulis and Asian green mussels Perna viridis collected along China's coasts. Histological and PCR analyses revealed that 5 of 180 M. edulis (prevalence = 2.8%) were positive for infection with a Marteilia-like organism, whereas the parasite was not detected in any of the 80 P. viridis individuals tested. Total genomic DNA was extracted from the infected tissue sections for PCR amplification. The PCR amplification with Marteilia primers SS1 and SAS1 yielded the expected 641-bp product. Sequencing results showed that the 18S ribosomal RNA gene fragment from the protozoans found in M. edulis from China was 88% similar to that of Marteilia refringens, a species that was reported from M. edulis and European flat oysters Ostrea edulis collected in France. This is the first report of a Marteilia-like organism infecting M. edulis in China.

Received May 9, 2011; accepted March 4, 2012
Xanthogranulomatous Panniculitis of the Head of an Aquarium-Maintained California Moray
Authors: Erlacher-Reid Claire , Tuttle Allison D. , Frasca Salvatore
Published: August 2012

An aquarium-maintained male California moray Gymnothorax mordax had a symmetrical enlargement of the soft tissues of the head dorsal to the cranium for 2 years prior to its death. This individual was anesthetized for radiographic and ultrasonographic examination of the lesion, and blood was collected for plasma biochemical analytes and lipid profiles. Radiographs and ultrasound of the lesion demonstrated a symmetrical and homogeneous soft tissue density that was consistent with adipose tissue. Plasma cholesterol and triglyceride values appeared elevated; therefore, the animal's diet was amended to decrease fat consumption. Triglyceride values decreased after dietary changes were made; however, values for cholesterol, high-density lipoproteins, and low-density lipoproteins fluctuated but remained largely unchanged. Histopathological assessment of the lesion revealed localized xanthogranulomatous inflammation of hypodermal adipose tissue. The etiology of the lesion in this animal was never determined. This paper describes the first documented case of localized xanthogranulomatous panniculitis in a California moray and demonstrates the need for additional research on specific dietary requirements, species-specific physiological differences, and lesions involving the adipose tissue of morays in comparison with other teleost species.

Received September 16, 2011; accepted February 9, 2012
Effect of Trichlorfon on Hepatic Lipid Accumulation in Crucian Carp Carassius auratus gibelio
Authors: Xu WeiNa , Liu WenBin , Shao XianPing , Jiang GuangZhen , Li XianngFei
Published: August 2012

This study evaluated the toxic effects of the organophosphate pesticide trichlorfon on hepatic lipid accumulation in crucian carp Carassius auratus gibelio. Seventy-five fish were divided into five groups (each group in triplicate), and then exposed to 0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0 mg/L of trichlorfon and fed with commercial feed for 30 d. At the end of the experiment, plasma and hepatic lipid metabolic biochemical status were analyzed. Triglyceride contents were significantly (P < 0.05) increased in liver but decreased in plasma after 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0 mg/L trichlorfon treatments. Plasma insulin contents were markedly (P < 0.05) increased when trichlorfon concentrations were 0.5, 1.0, and 4.0 mg/L. There were no significant differences in hepatic hormone-sensitive lipase contents between the trichlorfon-treated fish and the controls. Hepatic cyclic adenosine 3′, 5′-monophosphate, very-low-density lipoprotein, and apolipoprotein B100 contents were decreased in the fish when trichlorfon concentration was 2.0 mg/L. Furthermore, electron microscope observations showed rough endoplasmic reticulum dilatation and mitochondrial vacuolization in hepatocytes with trichlorfon exposure. On the basis of morphological and physiological evidence, trichlorfon influenced crucian carp hepatic pathways of lipid metabolism and hepatocellular ultrastructure, which resulted in lipid accumulation in the liver.

Received November 28, 2011; accepted February 16, 2012
Kinetics of Viral Load and Erythrocytic Inclusion Body Formation in Pacific Herring Artificially Infected with Erythrocytic Necrosis Virus
Authors: Glenn Jolene A. , Emmenegger Eveline J. , Grady Courtney A. , Roon Sean R. , Gregg Jacob L. , Conway Carla M. , Winton James R. , Hershberger Paul K.
Published: August 2012

Viral erythrocytic necrosis (VEN) is a condition that affects marine and anadromous fish species, including herrings and salmonids, in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Infection is frequently associated with severe anemia and causes episodic mortality among wild and hatchery fish when accompanied by additional stressors; VEN can be presumptively diagnosed by (1) light microscopic identification of a single characteristic—a round, magenta-colored, 0.8-μm-diameter inclusion body (IB) within the cytoplasm of erythrocytes and their precursors on Giemsa-stained blood films; or (2) observation (via transmission electron microscopy [TEM]) of the causative iridovirus, erythrocytic necrosis virus (ENV), within erythrocytes or their precursors. To better understand the kinetics of VEN, specific-pathogen-free Pacific herring Clupea pallasii were infected with ENV by intraperitoneal injection. At 1, 4, 7, 10, 14, 21, and 28 d postexposure, samples of blood, spleen, and kidney were collected and assessed (1) via light microscopy for the number of intracytoplasmic IBs in blood smears and (2) via TEM for the number of virions within erythrocytes. The mean prevalence of intracytoplasmic IBs in the blood cells increased from 0% at 0–4 d postexposure to 94% at 28 d postexposure. Viral load within circulating red blood cells peaked at 7 d postexposure, fell slightly, and then reached a plateau. However, blood cells observed within the kidney and spleen tissues demonstrated high levels of ENV between 14 and 28 d postexposure. The results indicate that the viral load within erythrocytes does not correlate well with IB prevalence and that the virus can persist in infected fish for more than 28 d.

Received September 7, 2011; accepted March 8, 2012
Bodies and occlusion: Item types, cognitive processes, and gender differences in mental rotation
Authors: Doyle Randi A. , Voyer Daniel
Published: August 2012

The aim of the current study was to reexamine previous findings in which the magnitude of the male advantage in mental rotation abilities increased when participants mentally rotated occluded versus nonoccluded items and decreased when participants mentally rotated human figures versus blocks. Mainly, the study aimed to address methodological issues noted on previous human figure mental rotations tests as the items composed of blocks and human body were probably not equivalent in terms of their cognitive requirements. Our results did not support previous research on embodied cognition as mental rotation performance decreased among both men and women when mentally rotating human figures compared to block items. However, for women, the effect of occlusion was decreased when mentally rotating human figures. Results are discussed in terms of task difficulty and gender differences in confidence and guessing behaviour.
Adult lung stem cells and their contribution to lung tumourigenesis
Authors: Asselin-Labat Marie-Liesse , Filby Caitlin E.
Published: August 2012

The isolation and characterization of lung stem and progenitor cells represent an important step towards the understanding of lung repair after injury, lung disease pathogenesis and the identification of the target cells of transformation in lung carcinogenesis. Different approaches using prospective isolation of progenitor cells by flow cytometry or lineage-tracing experiments in mouse models of lung injury have led to the identification of distinct progenitor subpopulations in different morphological regions of the adult lung. Genetically defined mouse models of lung cancer are offering new perspectives on the cells of origin of different subtypes of lung cancer. These mouse models pave the way to further investigate human lung progenitor cells at the origin of lung cancers, as well as to define the nature of the lung cancer stem cells. It will be critical to establish the link between oncogenic driver mutations recently discovered in lung cancers, target cells of transformation and subtypes of lung cancers to enable better stratification of patients for improved therapeutic strategies.
Apoptosis in mosquito salivary glands: Sindbis virus-associated and tissue homeostasis
Authors: Kelly Erica M. , Moon Daniel C. , Bowers Doria F.
Published: August 2012

Apoptosis is observed during a spectrum of conditions including exogenous virus infection and endogenous cellular turnover. Adult femaleAedes albopictusmosquitoes challenged with increasing titres of Sindbis virus (SINV) via intrathoracic inoculation demonstrated that the injection dosage did not result in significantly different levels of virus growth or mosquito survival at day 10 post-infection. Tissues probed for apoptosis using anin situTUNEL assay revealed SINV-associated apoptotic cells scattered throughout the proximal and distal regions of the salivary gland (SG) lateral lobes but which were not detected in the median lobe or the midgut and hindgut. Apoptosis was also identified in SG duct cells in both infected and uninfected mosquitoes, suggesting routine tissue homeostasis. SINV-associated apoptosis sequestered to the SG lateral lobes indicates a differential epithelial cell response to an arbovirus and provides insight into mosquito defence mechanisms against pathogens and SG infection barriers, hurdles to transmission of arboviruses of public health concern.
The BEAF-32 insulator coordinates genome organization and function during the evolution of Drosophila species
Authors: Yang Jingping , Ramos Edward , Corces Victor G.
Published: August 2012

Understanding the relationship between genome organization and expression is central to understanding genome function. Closely apposed genes in a head-to-head orientation share the same upstream region and are likely to be coregulated. Here we identify the Drosophila BEAF-32 insulator as a cis regulatory element separating close head-to-head genes with different transcription regulation modes. We then compare the binding landscapes of the BEAF-32 insulator protein in four different Drosophila genomes and highlight the evolutionarily conserved presence of this protein between close adjacent genes. We find that changes in binding of BEAF-32 to sites in the genome of different Drosophila species correlate with alterations in genome organization caused by DNA rearrangements or genome size expansion. The cross-talk between BEAF-32 genomic distribution and genome organization contributes to new gene-expression profiles, which in turn translate into specific and distinct phenotypes. The results suggest a mechanism for the establishment of differences in transcription patterns during evolution.
Crystal structures of calcium hemicarboaluminate and carbonated calcium hemicarboaluminate from synchrotron powder diffraction data
Authors: Runčevski Tomče , Dinnebier Robert E. , Magdysyuk Oxana V. , Pöllmann Herbert
Published: August 2012

One of the main phases formed at the beginning of the carbonation reaction of cementitious building materials is the calcium hemicarboaluminate (abbreviated as Hc). This AFm (shorthand for hydrated calcium aluminate phases structurally related to hydrocalumite) phase was synthesized, crystallized and then studied by synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction and micro-Raman spectroscopy. At room temperature and standard experimental conditions two major cementitious phases were detected, the Hc phase (as a major phase) and carbonated calcium hemicarboaluminate (abbreviated as cHc). By increasing the temperature the Hc form transforms into cHc. The crystal structures of these important AFm phases were successfully solved and refined in the R\bar 3c space group of the trigonal crystal system. Hc has the unit-cell parameters a = 5.7757 (1) and c = 48.812 (2) Å, and cHc the unit-cell parameters a = 5.7534 (1) and c = 46.389 (1) Å. The two crystal structures are composed of positively charged main layers, [Ca4Al2(OH)12]2+, and negatively charged interlayers, [OH2n
(CO3)1 − n
·4H2O]2−. The structure of the main layers is typical of the AFm family. Conversely, the interlayer region has a characteristic structure built up from water molecules and statistically distributed anions. In the interlayer, the Hc carbonate and hydroxyl anions are distributed in a 0.25:0.5 ratio, whereas the ratio of the anions in the cHc interlayers is 0.4:0.2.
Hypoalbuminaemia is an independent predictor for hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis in childhoodEpstein–Barr virus‐associated infectious mononucleosis
Authors: Huang Shu‐Ching , Chen Jiann‐Shiuh , Cheng Chao‐Neng , Yang Yao‐Jong
Published: August 2012

Background

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a potentially fatal condition in children withEpstein–Barr virus (EBV)‐associated infectious mononucleosis (IM). This study aimed to identify commonly available clinical and laboratory predictors that might help clinicians decide to perform the bone marrow and immunological tests forHLHin paediatricEBV‐associatedIM.

Methods

A retrospective case–control study of patients aged <18 yr diagnosed withEBV‐associatedIMandHLHfrom 1991 to 2010 in a tertiary medical centre was conducted. A diagnosis ofHLHwas defined as fulfilling the criteria of the guidelines of theHLH‐2004 protocol of theHistiocyteSociety and consisted of at least evidence of hemophagocytosis in a bone marrow biopsy.

Results

A total of 177IMand 27HLHpatients were enrolled. The mean age was 5.3 yr with a female‐to‐male ratio of 1.06. The most common characteristics (>70% of patients) were fever, lymphadenopathy and hepatomegaly. In addition to the diagnostic criteria ofHLHincluding fever, splenomegaly, cytopenia, hyperferritinaemia, hypertriglyceridemia and/or hypofibrinogenaemia, children withHLHhad a significantly higher rate of prolonged fever >10 d, hepatomegaly, jaundice, general malaise, elevated aspartate aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase,C‐reactive protein and hypoalbuminaemia compared to those withIM(allP < 0.01). Multiple logistic regression confirmed that hypoalbuminaemia (OR = 23.1,P = 0.01) was an independent predictor of paediatricHLH, with a high sensitivity (96%) and a good negative likelihood ratio (0.06) in patients withEBV‐associatedIM.

Conclusions

Hypoalbuminaemia is a unique characteristic and potentially a valuable predictor forHLHin paediatricEBV‐associatedIM.
Living in proximity of a bar and risky alcohol behaviours: a longitudinal study
Authors: Halonen Jaana I. , Kivimäki Mika , Virtanen Marianna , Pentti Jaana , Subramanian S.V. , Kawachi Ichiro , Vahtera Jussi
Published: August 2012

Aims

We examined whether distance from home to the nearest bar, i.e. alcohol outlet permitting consumption on the premises, is associated with risky alcohol behaviours.

Design

Cross‐sectional and longitudinal study.

Setting and participants

The cross‐sectional data consisted of 78 858 and the longitudinal data of 54 778 Finnish Public Sector Study participants between 2000 and 2009 [mean follow‐up 6.8 years (SD = 2.0)].

Measurements

Distances from home to the nearest bar were calculated using Global Positioning System coordinates. The outcome variables were heavy alcohol use (drinking above the weekly guidelines) and extreme drinking occasions (passing out because of alcohol use). We used binomial logistic regression in cross‐sectional analyses and in longitudinal mixed effects (between‐individual) analyses. Conditional logistic regression was used in longitudinal fixed effects (within‐individual) analyses.

Findings

Cross‐sectionally, the likelihood of an extreme drinking occasion and heavy use was higher among those who resided <1 versus ≥ 1 km from a bar. Longitudinally, between individuals, a decrease from >1 km to ≤1 km in distance was weakly associated with an extreme drinking occasion [odds ratio (OR) 1.18, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.98–1.41] and heavy use (1.12, 95% CI 0.97–1.29). Within‐individual, the OR for becoming a heavy user was 1.17 (95% CI 1.02–1.34), per 1 km decrease in log‐transformed continuous distance, the corresponding OR for an extreme drinking occasion was 1.03 (95% CI 0.89–1.18).

Conclusions

Moving place of residence close to, or far from, a bar appears to be associated with a small corresponding increase or decrease in risky alcohol behaviour.
Are the 1976–1985 birth cohorts heavier drinkers? Age‐period‐cohort analyses of the National Alcohol Surveys 1979–2010
Authors: Kerr William C. , Greenfield Thomas K. , Ye Yu , Bond Jason , Rehm Jürgen
Published: August 2012

Aims

To estimate age‐period‐cohort models predicting alcohol volume, heavy drinking and beverage‐specific alcohol volume in order to evaluate whether the 1976–1985 birth cohorts drink relatively heavily.

Design

Data from seven cross‐sectional surveys of the USA conducted between 1979 and 2010 were utilized in negative binomial generalized linear models of age, period and cohort effects predicting alcohol measures.

Setting

General population surveys of the USA.

Participants

Thirty‐six thousand four hundred and thirty‐two US adults (aged 18 years or older).

Measurements

Monthly number of alcohol drinks, beer, wine and spirits drinks, and days drinking five or more drinks in the past year derived from beverage‐specific graduated frequency questions.

Findings

Relative to the reference 1956–60 birth cohort, men in the 1976–1980 cohort for were found to consume more alcohol [incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 1.222: confidence interval (CI) 1.07–1.39) and to have more 5+ days (the number of days having five or more drinks) (IRR = 1.365: CI 1.09–1.71) as were men in the 1980–85 cohort for volume (IRR = 1.284: CI 1.10–1.50) and 5+ days (IRR = 1.437: CI 1.09–1.89). For women, those in the 1980–85 cohort were found to have higher alcohol volume (IRR = 1.299: CI 1.07–1.58) and more 5+ days (IRR = 1.547: CI 1.01–2.36). Beverage‐specific models found different age patterns of volume by beverage with a flat age pattern for both genders' spirits and women's wine, an increasing age pattern for men's wine and a declining age pattern from those in their early 20s for beer.

Conclusions

In the USA, men born between 1976 and 1985, and women born between 1981 and 1985 have higher alcohol consumption than in earlier or later years.
Bioavailability of bioactive food compounds: a challenging journey to bioefficacy
Authors: Rein Maarit J. , Renouf Mathieu , Cruz‐Hernandez Cristina , Actis‐Goretta Lucas , Thakkar Sagar K. , da Silva Pinto Marcia
Published: August 2012

Bioavailability is a key step in ensuring bioefficacy of bioactive food compounds or oral drugs. Bioavailability is a complex process involving several different stages: liberation, absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination phases (LADME). Bioactive food compounds, whether derived from various plant or animal sources, need to be bioavailable in order to exert any beneficial effects. Through a better understanding of the digestive fate of bioactive food compounds we can impact the promotion of health and improvement of performance. Many varying factors affect bioavailability, such as bioaccessibility, food matrix effect, transporters, molecular structures and metabolizing enzymes. Bioefficacy may be improved through enhanced bioavailability. Therefore, several technologies have been developed to improve the bioavailability of xenobiotics, including structural modifications, nanotechnology and colloidal systems. Due to the complex nature of food bioactive compounds and also to the different mechanisms of absorption of hydrophilic and lipophilic bioactive compounds, unravelling the bioavailability of food constituents is challenging. Among the food sources discussed during this review, coffee, tea, citrus fruit and fish oil were included as sources of food bioactive compounds (e.g. (poly)phenols and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs)) since they are examples of important ingredients for the food industry. Although there are many studies reporting on bioavailability and bioefficacy of these bioactive food components, understanding their interactions, metabolism and mechanism of action still requires extensive work. This review focuses on some of the major factors affecting the bioavailability of the aforementioned bioactive food compounds.