bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
MIT Collaborative Innovation: It Takes >2 to Tango
Authors: Ruiz Israel , Plasencia Adolfo
Published: January 2018

Israel Ruiz, Executive Vice President and Treasurer of MIT, starts this dialogue by outlining the model and mechanisms used by MIT, as an institution, to maintain its leadership in disruptive innovation through an economically sustainable process. He goes on to explain the MIT model for the replacement of professors, a dynamic process, which is combined with encouraging the maximum exchange of innovation between bodies and research centers from inside MIT and external ones, keeping the focus on a key idea for the institution: the flexibility of space and ideas aimed at connecting people. Later, he relates how they deal with the continuous influx of new talent on a large scale, while maintaining the peer-to-peer philosophy. He then talks about the way in which MIT assumes the critical opinion of external sources, which assess how the institution is operating, and also discusses how creative freedom is upheld as a nexus in the long term by ensuring that MIT members get time to create; this comprises part of their economic plan. Finally, he outlines how educational and learning practices are renewed by combining face-to-face teaching with their global online project.
Visible Privacy: Norms, Preferences, and Strategies
Authors: Vickery Jacqueline Ryan
Published: January 2018

This chapter critiques the ways privacy is constructed as an individual choice or responsibility and instead draws attention to the ways privacy and identity are collective and networked via social media. Through an analysis of the ways Facebook’s algorithms and user interface have changed over the years, the chapter traces how young people’s expectations and privacy practices are often at odds with commercial platforms. Additionally it considers how corporate platforms conceive of privacy from a privileged perspective that overlook the risks marginalized young people, and specifically people of colour, face online. Young people employ creative strategies for maintaining degrees of visibility including deliberate disassociation from peers and managing different online identities for different purposes and control of privacy.
RECtifying and REConnecting
Authors: Hutto Daniel D. , Myin Erik
Published: January 2018

Chapter 4 provides further examples of RECtification, this time with the aim of showing how REC can fruitfully ally with and strengthen two prominent nonrepresentational E-approaches to cognition—Autopoietic-Adaptive Enactivism and Ecological Dynamics. These examples of RECtification reveal REC’s capacity to marshal and combine powerful resources for explaining basic minds in naturalistic terms. The chapter concludes by discussing the need to show how to basic, contentless minds can meet contentful minds in REC terms – namely, to explicate how REConnecting is possible. Doing so is necessary in light of REC’s commitment to two ideas: that some cognition is content-involving and that organisms become capable of content-involving cognition by mastering special sociocultural practices.
Perceiving
Authors: Hutto Daniel D. , Myin Erik
Published: January 2018

Chapter 7 begins to puts REC positive story into action. It opens by questioning the value of appealing to a priori intuitions in trying to understand the character of perceiving. Focusing on explanatory concerns, it revisits Predictive Processing or PPC proposals about perceiving and defuses arguments that the explanatory punch of PPC requires characterizing perceptual processes and products in representational terms. Instead the chapter shows how REC can successfully appropriate the main apparatus of PPC to explain perception. It demonstrates that mental representations are not needed to explain how intramodal and intermodal forms of perceiving integrate. The chapter concludes by showing how contentless forms of perceiving can connect with contentful attitudes, enabling us to make sense of a range of perceptual phenomena – including our capacity to attune to optical effects and the ways in which we respond to visual illusions.
Remembering
Authors: Hutto Daniel D. , Myin Erik
Published: January 2018

Chapter 9 explicates REC’s duplex account of the many and varied forms of memory. As might be expected, REC is well suited for understanding procedural remembering. Yet, by defending a strong version of the Social Interactionist Theory it is shown how autobiographical remembering is best understood as rooted in narrative capacities. Thus autobiographical memory is a perfect example of a kind of cognition that depends on the mastery and exercise of discursive practices involving content. In defending this strong claim, REC draws on its account of contentless imaginings to how it is also possible to make sense of purely episodic forms of remembering that operate before and below the capacity to autobiographically narrate the past. In sum, this illustrates that REC has the resources to give a gapless account of all of the major varieties of remembering.
The chapter concludes, motivated by empirical findings, by compelling a rethink of purely CIC views of the primary function of remembering.
Ears to the Ground: Voicing Place
Authors: Neumark Norie
Published: January 2018

The chapter proposes that voice is always/already situated or grounded. The author encounters works that voice place in ways that speak to new materialism—following lines and plucking strings, ears to the ground and listening to walls, walking and hearing the voices of things in place and the places of things. Artful voices call forth a particular sense of place as they shift our attention to what we don’t normally see or hear in a place. The chapter brings its examples into conversation with theories of vibration, transperception, memory, and atmosphere, including stemming as voicing of atmosphere. Listening transperceptually to voice, one hears how it vibrates and performatively in/forms the space it traverses as voice connects speaking and listening bodies and things physically and affectively with each other as well as and through the spaces and places they share. In this moment of connection, memory speaks.
The Methodological Argument for Informational Teleosemantics
Authors: Neander Karen
Published: January 2018

Teleosemantic theories are diverse, but they all endorse the claim that semantic norms, to do with correct and incorrect representation, derive in part at least from functional norms, to do with normal or proper functioning. Informational teleosemantics adds that semantic norms also derive from natural-factiveinformation. In this chapter, The author starts with the premise defended in chapter 3–– in explaining how bodies and brains operate, biologists use a notion of normal-proper function. To this the author adds that the same notion of function is used in explaining cognitive (including perceptual) capacities, and then argue that, given an information-processing approach, the norms of proper functioning are thus wedded to the aboutness of natural-factive information, so that a basic form of normative aboutness is posited. This elucidates the explanatory role of positing nonconceptual representations, establishes the scientific credentials of informational teleosemantics, and gives us good reason to try to solve its alleged problems. In the last few sections, the author argues that the main naturalistic “alternatives” to teleosemantics also have apparently ineliminableteleosemantic commitments.
Simple Minds
Authors: Neander Karen
Published: January 2018

Plainly enough, the right theory of mental content should (when fed the facts) assign the right contents to mental representations, but which ones are right? There is disagreement among philosophers especially regarding the relatively simple systems often used (and abused) as “test” cases. Some disagreement is due to different meta-analytic aims or background assumptions, but some is due to lack of familiarity with known facts. So, in this chapter, the author sketches some neuroethological findings regarding the vision involved in toad prey-capture. What is argued is that the information-processing approach to explaining the toad’s abilities imposes constraints on which contents ought to be ascribed in this case. The normal system, and its normal causal sensitivities, must be able to support the contents ascribed, and perceptible features must be represented prior to the representation of imperceptible ones (e.g., in vision, visible features must be represented before invisible ones). In exploring the implications of this for philosophical theories of content, the author argues that, if the information-processing approach is along the right lines, the right contents are not those delivered by standard (a.k.a. “High Church”) teleosemantics, such as Millikan’s.
Distal and Distant Red Squares
Authors: Neander Karen
Published: January 2018

The final chapter is about the notoriously difficult problem of distal content (the sixth of the content determinacy challenges listed in chapter 7). In relation to causal theories of reference, the problem is to explain why a representation counts as representing its content, rather than some other item that carries information about it to the sensory-perceptual system that produces the representation. After discussing how the problem concerns nonconceptual representations, as opposed to conceptualized thought, the author offers a solution suitable for nonconceptual representations. She explains why several well-known proposals do not seem to be even designed to assign appropriate distal contents to nonconceptual representations (whatever their success might or might not be for concepts). Neander alsoalso discusses several closely related issues, such as how a hallucinated red square might be experienced as “in the world,” versus “just in the head,” and how distal contents and perceptual constancies are related. Before concluding, the author discusses the issue of how informational teleosemantics handles the content of complex contents produced by the so-called “binding” of perceived features to perceived objects.
The Vanishing Middle Class
Authors: Temin Peter
Published: January 2018

This book analyses the American economy in the twenty-first century as a dual economy in the spirit of W. Arthur Lewis. Adapting the subsistence and capitalist sectors characterized by Lewis, the American dual economy contains a low-wage sector and a FTE (Finance, Technology, and Electronics) sector. The transition from the low-wage to the FTE sector is through education, which is becoming increasingly difficult for members of the low-wage sector because the FTE sector largely abandoned the American tradition of quality public schools and universities. Policy debates about public education and other policies that serve the low-wage sector often characterize members of the low-wage sector as black even though the low-wage sector is largely white. The model of a modern dual economy and the American history of race relations explain difficulties in both current politics and governmental actions in criminal justice, education, infrastructure and household debts.
The FTE Sector
Authors: Temin Peter
Published: January 2018

The FTE sector originated in 1971 when Nixon, elected by a Southern Strategy that appealed to Southern whites, replaced Johnson’s War on Poverty with a War on Drugs. Nixon also appointed Powell to the Supreme Court shortly after Powell wrote a secret memo to the Chamber of Commerce in 1971 calling American business to arms over a perceived threat to the business community. These coincident actions were backlashes from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and they were obscured by the economic turmoil of the 1970s. Reagan appears as the originator of neo-conservatism as he broke unions and lowered taxes even though this ideology arose a decade earlier. The Reagan tax cuts and the growth of finance led to rapidly growing incomes of rich people.
Preferences of the Very Rich
Authors: Temin Peter
Published: January 2018

This chapter surveys the political views of the top one percent of the population, the top one percent of the top one percent, and the top one percent of the top one percent of the top one percent. The higher people are in the income distribution, the more they want taxes to be low and the federal debt to be reduced. The richer they are, the less they favor income redistribution, education, infrastructure investment and universal health care. They may like some policies in the abstract, but they do not support these policies if they require increased taxes or deficit. The Koch brothers formed a secret organization, the Kochtopus, after the Powell Memo to support the political aims of the very rich.
Mass Incarceration
Authors: Temin Peter
Published: January 2018

The United States has a dual justice system; the FTE sector pays fines, and the low-wage sector goes to jail. One out of three black males spends time in prison in a new Jim Crow system. Poor white men are far less likely to be imprisoned, but they still are a majority of prisoners. This dual system is administered by all levels of government, from the Supreme Court to local police and prosecutors. Mass imprisonment destroys social capital in black, brown and white communities alike. Mass imprisonment costs the government large amounts of money that could be used elsewhere. Current policies are complicated by the growth of private prisons and restricted to helping prisoners re-join society.
Introduction
Authors: Lingel Jessa
Published: January 2018

This chapter introduces key definitions of community, appropriation and alterity. I outline a methodological approach, networked case studies, as well as the book’s remaining chapters.
Countercultural Values for Theory and in Design
Authors: Lingel Jessa
Published: January 2018

The final chapter addresses implications of field studies for theory and social media design. I discuss the importance of feeling a shared sense of space for online communities, which may be eroded by an emphasis on mobile devices and continual upgrades. I also describe a series of characteristics for developing platforms better equipped to support countercultural communities.
Mobile Phones: A Truly Transformative Technology
Authors: Ghose Anindya
Published: January 2018

This chapter discusses the rapid proliferation of mobile devices. Consumer adoption of 3G and 4G technologies has outpaced all other technologies, with the Earth becoming home to 3 billion connections in the first 15 years, and projected to grow to 8 billion smartphone users by 2020. Technological advancements have reduced adoption costs and enhanced user experience. The global average cost of mobile subscriptions relative to maximum data speed has decreased 99 percent, decreasing about 40 percent per year between 2005 and 2013. However, the main reason behind the widespread adoption of mobile devices is the tremendous social and economic value generated by the mobile ecosystem. A report by the Boston Consulting Group showed that mobile technologies are a critical driver of the world economy, generating global revenue of almost $3.3 trillion and 11 million new jobs. Mobile phones have also fundamentally altered consumer behavior. Whether it is for entertainment or information gathering purposes, people are spending less time on traditional channels such as print, radio, and television, and more time on mobile devices.
Striking a Balance
Authors: Ghose Anindya
Published: January 2018

This chapter discusses the importance of businesses striking the right balance in consumer lives while leveraging technologies. On the surface, it is very easy for businesses to get discouraged by consumers' seeming resistance or inhibition to advertising. However, what lies beneath the surface is different. On the inside, consumers do have appreciation for advertising, albeit at varying levels. This is reflected in four behavioral contradictions, which are particularly striking as business becomes more aware of the immense and untapped power of the mobile economy: (i) people seek spontaneity, but they are predictable and they value certainty; (ii) people find advertising annoying, but they fear missing out; (iii) people want choice and freedom, but they easily get overwhelmed; and (iv) people protect their privacy, but they increasingly use their personal data as their currency.
Context: What’s Going On?
Authors: Ghose Anindya
Published: January 2018

This chapter discusses the need for businesses to leverage mobile technologies in order incentivize customers to walk into their store at any given point in time. They can also influence who they want walking into their stores by combining their historical data with real-time signals from mobile devices. The key is to know who their customers are. In the mobile economy, knowing the customer starts with identifying each customer's multiple personas. For instance, depending on context, customers can be in “parent mode,” “work mode,” or “family mode.” The remainder of the chapter looks at several contextual questions and the role that mobile data can play in answering them. These questions include: Why is the customer there? What does the customer want now? How is the customer feeling now?
Tech Mix: Solving Wanamaker’s Riddle
Authors: Ghose Anindya
Published: January 2018

This chapter examines one of nine critical forces behind purchase decisions that make mobile advertising so powerful: tech mix. Tech mix can be described as a force that enables businesses to pursue omni-channel marketing. It has two dimensions. First, consumers today spend time on multiple devices (or multiple screens) and this sort of multihoming creates an interdependency between devices that firms can tap into. Second, consumers are exposed to multiple ad messages in different ad formats for the same brand across different channels at different points in time in their path to purchase. This creates potential omni-channel synergies. These two dimensions of tech mix influence consumers' behavior in non-trivial ways and have made digital attribution the holy grail of advertising.
The Next-Generation Technologies
Authors: Ghose Anindya
Published: January 2018

This chapter discusses emerging technologies, including wearable technologies, artificial intelligence, instant messaging and apps, smart homes and connected cars, smart wallets, and virtual reality/augmented reality. It concludes that there is a lot to explore with the technology and capabilities at hand today in the mobile world. At the same time, there is a lot in the future to be excited about as well. Within a few years, the mobile ecosystem and related technologies will transform our lives beyond recognition and usher in a new age. It will without doubt be recognized as one of the hallmark advancements that society has seen in the 21st century.
Situating the Study of Rural China’s Environmental Health Activism
Authors: Lora-Wainwright Anna
Published: January 2018

Chapter 1 situates the book vis-à-vis relevant literature on social movements, environmentalism, environmental health and these areas as they relate to China. In the first part, it suggests that environmentalism may take very diverse forms and it is powerfully shaped by its cultural, social, political and economic contexts. These contexts in turn affect the ways in which locals value environment, health and development and the extent to which they may be uncertain about pollution’s health effects. In light of this, the chapter presents “resigned activism” as a conceptual tool for bridging analyses of activism and resignation, and for showing how they merge across a wide range of villagers’ attitudes and everyday practices. In the second part, it outlines some of China’s environmental challenges and burgeoning environmentalism. It argues in favour of looking beyond the obvious environmental agents (NGOs) and strategies, towards less visible environmental subjectivities.
“Undermining” Environmental Health: “Madness,” Struggles for Clean Water, and the Challenges of Intervention
Authors: Lora-Wainwright Anna
Published: January 2018

Chapter 4 describes the diachronic evolution of lead and zinc mining in Qiancun village and its effects. Mining entrenched socio-economic stratification and caused shifting and uneven environmental health impacts. It affected livelihood pathways available to the local population, their perceptions of the benefits and effects of mining, and the ways in which they valued the environment. This chapter takes a closer look at how dynamics of resigned activism overlapped with marginalisation and accusations of “madness” waged against one of the foremost figures in local activism. It explores the intersections between one issue which particularly troubled locals—provision of safe drinking water—local politics and lack of trust in local officials. While concerns with water served to unify the local population, which reinforced feelings of resignation. Finally, the chapter elucidates some of the dynamics animating the interdisciplinary project of which my fieldwork was part and some of the elements which shaped what experimental intervention pathways were explored and embraced at an early stage in this ongoing project.
Enaction: Embodied Cognition
Authors: Varela Francisco J. , Thompson Evan , Rosch Eleanor
Published: January 2018

This chapter explains embodied action. The term embodied highlights two points: first, that cognition depends upon the kinds of experience that come from having a body with various sensorimotor capacities, and second, that these individual sensorimotor capacities are themselves embedded in a more encompassing biological, psychological, and cultural context. The term action emphasizes that sensory and motor processes, perception and action, are fundamentally inseparable in lived cognition. Indeed, the two are not merely contingently linked in individuals; they have also evolved together. The chapter then discusses enaction. In a nutshell, the enactive approach consists of two points: (1) perception consists in perceptually guided action and (2) cognitive structures emerge from the recurrent sensorimotor patterns that enable action to be perceptually guided.
Undisturbed by Reality
Authors: Nordmann Alfred
Published: January 2018

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is not a tale of modern science. Instead, the story of Victor Frankenstein and his creature shows that the premodern, alchemical dream of animating lifeless things returns after science has studied its “realities of little worth.” If Frankenstein speaks to us today, it is because today’s technosciences carry forward the alchemical dream. Whereas science requires a calm and peaceful state of mind, Victor’s technoscience – then and now – is driven by a supernatural enthusiasm. Accordingly we may find that even the supposedly ordinary nanotechnologies and materials sciences of our day and age are not “befitting the human mind” – long before one seeks to create artificial life.
Frankenstein, Gender, and Mother Nature
Authors: Mellor Anne K.
Published: January 2018

Why did Mary Shelley create THE myth of modern science on June 16, 1816? This essay explores the autobiographical and scientific origins of Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, focusing on the ways in which the sexual division of labor in 19th Century Britain shaped the novel. Victor Frankenstein’s project – to have a baby without a woman (and thus eliminate the biological necessity for females) – points to the myriad ways in which the women in the novel, from Elizabeth Lavenza, Caroline Beaufort, and Justine Moritz to the female creature, are de-valued or destroyed. But in Mary’s feminist novel, Mother Nature fights back, killing Victor and transforming his creature into a monster. Shelley’s novel implicitly argues that human beings must co-operate with rather than dominate the natural order of reproduction.
Dynamic clustering of dynamin-amphiphysin helices regulates membrane constriction and fission coupled with GTP hydrolysis
Authors: Takeda Tetsuya , Kozai Toshiya , Yang Huiran , Ishikuro Daiki , Seyama Kaho , Kumagai Yusuke , Abe Tadashi , Yamada Hiroshi , Uchihashi Takayuki , Ando Toshio , Takei Kohji
Published: January 2018

Dynamin is a mechanochemical GTPase essential for membrane fission during clathrin-mediated endocytosis. Dynamin forms helical complexes at the neck of clathrin-coated pits and their structural changes coupled with GTP hydrolysis drive membrane fission. Dynamin and its binding protein amphiphysin cooperatively regulate membrane remodeling during the fission, but its precise mechanism remains elusive. In this study, we analyzed structural changes of dynamin-amphiphysin complexes during the membrane fission using electron microscopy (EM) and high-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM). Interestingly, HS-AFM analyses show that the dynamin-amphiphysin helices are rearranged to form clusters upon GTP hydrolysis and membrane constriction occurs at protein-uncoated regions flanking the clusters. We also show a novel function of amphiphysin in size control of the clusters to enhance biogenesis of endocytic vesicles. Our approaches using combination of EM and HS-AFM clearly demonstrate new mechanistic insights into the dynamics of dynamin-amphiphysin complexes during membrane fission.
Cleavage activates Dispatched for Sonic Hedgehog ligand release
Authors: Stewart Daniel P , Marada Suresh , Bodeen William J , Truong Ashley , Sakurada Sadie Miki , Pandit Tanushree , Pruett-Miller Shondra M , Ogden Stacey K
Published: January 2018

Hedgehog ligands activate an evolutionarily conserved signaling pathway that provides instructional cues during tissue morphogenesis, and when corrupted, contributes to developmental disorders and cancer. The transmembrane protein Dispatched is an essential component of the machinery that deploys Hedgehog family ligands from producing cells, and is absolutely required for signaling to long-range targets. Despite this crucial role, regulatory mechanisms controlling Dispatched activity remain largely undefined. Herein, we reveal vertebrate Dispatched is activated by proprotein convertase-mediated cleavage at a conserved processing site in its first extracellular loop. Dispatched processing occurs at the cell surface to instruct its membrane re-localization in polarized epithelial cells. Cleavage site mutation alters Dispatched membrane trafficking and reduces ligand release, leading to compromised pathway activity in vivo. As such, convertase-mediated cleavage is required for Dispatched maturation and functional competency in Hedgehog ligand-producing cells.
The History of the Five Indian Nations Depending on the Province of New-York in America
Authors: Colden Cadwallader
Published: January 2018

This book, originally published in 1727 and revised in 1747, is one of the most important intellectual works published in eighteenth-century British America. The author was among the most learned American men of his time, and his history of the Iroquois tribes makes fascinating reading. The book discusses the religion, manners, customs, laws, and forms of government of the confederacy of tribes composed of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas (and, later, the Tuscaroras), and gives accounts of battles, treaties, and trade with these Indians up to 1697. Since the book was first reprinted in 1958, it has served as an invaluable resource for scholars and students interested in Iroquois history and culture, Enlightenment attitudes toward Native Americans, early American intellectual life, and Anglo-French imperial contests over North America. This new edition features materials not previously included, such as the 1747 introduction, which contains rich and detailed descriptions of Iroquois culture, government, economy, and society. New chapters place the volume in a historical and cultural context and provide a balanced introduction to the historic culture of the Iroquois, as well as their relationship to other Native people.
Advancements of the sFIDA method for oligomer‐based diagnostics of neurodegenerative diseases
Authors: Kulawik Andreas , Heise Henrike , Zafiu Christian , Willbold Dieter , Bannach Oliver
Published: January 2018

Early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is of great importance for the development of therapeutics and their application in the clinical environment. Amyloid β (Aβ) oligomers are crucial for the onset and progression of AD and represent a popular drug target, being presumably the most direct biomarker. Efforts to measure Aβ oligomers in body fluids are hampered by the low analyte concentration and presence of Aβ monomers. The surface‐based fluorescence intensity distribution analysis (sFIDA) features both highly specific and sensitive oligomer quantitation as well as total insensitivity towards monomers. In this Review, we highlight structural features of oligomeric and fibrillar Aβ. Recent advancements in sFIDA assay development have been the successful automation, adaption for additional biomarkers such as α‐synuclein oligomers, and significant improvement of essential assay parameters.
Treatment of Chronic Chikungunya Arthritis With Methotrexate: A Systematic Review
Authors: Amaral J. Kennedy , Sutaria Ravi , Schoen Robert T.
Published: January 2018

Objective

Chikungunya virus infection is a rapidly emerging global viral infection that can cause chronic, debilitating arthritis that in some ways mimics rheumatoid arthritis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the available evidence regarding the efficacy and safety of methotrexate (MTX), a therapy that is widely used in rheumatoid arthritis, for the treatment of chronic chikungunya arthritis.

Methods

A systematic literature search was performed to identify all published trials that evaluated MTX as monotherapy or combination therapy in patients with chronic chikungunya arthritis. PubMed, SciELO, Scopus, and Cochrane Library databases were searched from study inception to August 2017. We also searched Google Scholar, the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform Search Portal, and clinicaltrials.gov.

Results

Among 131 possibly relevant studies, 6 met our criteria for evaluation: 4 were retrospective studies, 1 was a non‐controlled prospective study, and 1 was an unblinded randomized clinical trial of combination MTX therapy. In the randomized clinical trial, triple therapy with MTX, hydroxychloroquine, and sulfasalazine was superior to hydroxychloroquine monotherapy, as assessed by the mean ± SD Disease Activity Score in 28 joints using the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (3.39 ± 0.87 versus 4.74 ± 0.65; P < 0.0001) and the Health Assessment Questionnaire score (1.14 ± 0.31 versus 1.88 ± 0.47; P < 0.0001).

Conclusion

The number of available studies is limited, but taken together, these studies demonstrate that MTX is sufficiently efficacious to justify further study of MTX for the treatment of chronic chikungunya arthritis. The trials lacked rigorous study designs and used different treatment strategies and outcome measures. This systematic review underscores the need for randomized, prospective, placebo‐controlled studies of MTX monotherapy for the treatment of chronic chikungunya arthritis.
Broadband Plasmonic Antenna Enhanced Upconversion and Its Application in Flexible Fingerprint Identification
Authors: Xu Wen , Lee Tae Kyung , Moon Byeong‐Seok , Song Hongwei , Chen Xu , Chun Byungae , Kim Young‐Jin , Kwak Sang Kyu , Chen Peng , Kim Dong‐Hwan
Published: January 2018

Plasmonic antennas based on metallic nanostructures that can trap long‐wavelength light can be used to substantially enhance the efficiency of optoelectronic devices by utilizing light beyond the visible region. This study experimentally and theoretically demonstrates that a silver nanowire network (AgNW‐net) plasmonic antenna exhibits superwide surface plasmon extinction because of the strong plasmon coupling between AgNWs, providing the ability to trap light spanning the entire solar spectrum. As a proof‐of‐concept demonstration, the AgNW‐net is used to greatly improve the luminescence of lanthanide‐doped upconversion nanocrystals (UCNCs) under dual wavelength excitation and the periodic alternating multilayer structure of AgNWs/UCNCs is further successfully introduced to improve the absolute luminescence intensity of AgNWs/UCNCs composite films. Furthermore, evidence has been provided that this improvement is attributable to excitation field enhancement rather than Purcell effect or plasmon‐enhanced energy transfer. Finally, an upconversion flexible fingerprint identification technology is developed based on AgNW‐net/UCNCs/polyvinyl alcohol composite materials, which allows us extracting fingerprints on various uneven bending surfaces.
Readiness Level of Sodium‐Ion Battery Technology: A Materials Review
Authors: Chen Lin , Fiore Michele , Wang Ji Eun , Ruffo Riccardo , Kim Do‐Kyung , Longoni Gianluca
Published: January 2018

Since the breakthrough achieved in the research around material intercalating lithium, almost a decade has passed before the commercialization of the first lithium‐ion battery (LIB). On the brink of an energy voracious future, convergence of scientific efforts over efficient and low‐cost energy production and storage would be advantageous and beneficial. The research hovering around sodium‐ion rechargeable batteries (SIBs), a more sustainable alternative to LIBs, has been observing a positive momentum for ten years now, and chemically stable and electrochemically performing anode and cathode materials represent important milestones on the path toward a commercial full‐cell. Material science breakthroughs achieved in carbon and graphite based matrices, layered and open framework structures, and sodium storing alloys, disclose new full‐cell set up opportunities going beyond traditional “rocking chair” configuration. In this contribution an in‐depth analysis of chemical and physical principles lying beyond the energy storage provided by SIBs most recently investigated active materials is given. In the second half of the review, challenges, opportunities, and state‐of‐the art description of full‐cell SIBs lab scale prototypes are discussed. The latter, indeed, stands for a technological validation of a low‐cost alternative to lithium‐ion batteries guaranteeing energy densities close to 150 Wh kg−1.
Enhanced Photovoltaic Performance of Amorphous Donor–Acceptor Copolymers Based on Fluorine‐Substituted Benzodioxocyclohexene‐Annelated Thiophene
Authors: Ie Yutaka , Morikawa Koki , Zajaczkowski Wojciech , Pisula Wojciech , Kotadiya Naresh B. , Wetzelaer Gert‐Jan A. H. , Blom Paul W. M. , Aso Yoshio
Published: January 2018

Donor–acceptor (D‐A) type π‐conjugated copolymers with crystalline behavior have been extensively investigated as donor semiconductors in organic photovoltaics (OPVs). On the other hand, the development of high‐performance amorphous donor materials is still behind. The amorphous donor copolymer DTS‐C0(F2) consisting of dithieno[3,2‐b:2′,3′‐d]silole (DTS) donor unit and the recently developed fluorine‐substituted naphtho[2,3‐c]thiophene‐4,9‐dione (C0(F2)) acceptor unit shows moderate photovoltaic performance upon blending with PC71BM. In this work, to enhance the hole‐transporting characteristics, a 3‐hexylthiophene (HT) spacer unit is integrated into the conjugated backbone, resulting in a new amorphous copolymer DTS‐HT‐C0(F2). The strong electron‐accepting nature of C0(F2) allows the introduction of the HT spacer without affecting the frontier orbital energies and thus the D‐A character. Without using solvent additives and thermal annealing, OPVs based on DTS‐HT‐C0(F2) and [6,6]‐phenyl‐C71‐butyric acid methyl ester PC71BM show an improved power conversion efficiency of 9.12%. Investigation of the device physics unambiguously reveals that the hole mobility of the copolymer in the blend is increased by an order of magnitude by the introduction of HT, while keeping an amorphous film nature, leading to higher short‐circuit current density and fill factor. These results demonstrate the realization of high‐performance OPVs based on amorphous active layers.
Flexible Quasi‐Solid‐State Sodium‐Ion Capacitors Developed Using 2D Metal–Organic‐Framework Array as Reactor
Authors: Xu Dongming , Chao Dongliang , Wang Huanwen , Gong Yansheng , Wang Rui , He Beibei , Hu Xianluo , Fan Hong Jin
Published: January 2018

Achieving high‐performance Na‐ion capacitors (NICs) has the particular challenge of matching both capacity and kinetics between the anode and cathode. Here a high‐power NIC full device constructed from 2D metal–organic framework (MOFs) array is reported as the reactive template. The MOF array is converted to N‐doped mesoporous carbon nanosheets (mp‐CNSs), which are then uniformly encapsulated with VO2 and Na3V2(PO4)3 (NVP) nanoparticles as the electroactive materials. By this method, the high‐power performance of the battery materials is enabled to be enhanced significantly. It is discovered that such hybrid NVP@mp‐CNSs array can render ultrahigh rate capability (up to 200 C, equivalent to discharge within 18 s) and superior cycle performance, which outperforms all NVP‐based Na‐ion battery cathodes reported so far. A quasi‐solid‐state flexible NIC based on the NVP@mp‐CNSs cathode and the VO2@mp‐CNSs anode is further assembled. This hybrid NIC device delivers both high energy density and power density as well as a good cycle stability (78% retention after 2000 cycles at 1 A g−1). The results demonstrate the powerfulness of MOF arrays as the reactor for fabricating electrode materials.
The spleen of patients with myelofibrosis harbors defective mesenchymal stromal cells
Authors: Avanzini Maria Antonietta , Abbonante Vittorio , Catarsi Paolo , Dambruoso Irene , Mantelli Melissa , Poletto Valentina , Lenta Elisa , Guglielmelli Paola , Croce Stefania , Cobianchi Lorenzo , Jemos Basilio , Campanelli Rita , Bonetti Elisa , Di Buduo Christian Andrea , Salmoiraghi Silvia , Villani Laura , Massa Margherita , Boni Marina , Zappatore Rita , Iurlo Alessandra , Rambaldi Alessandro , Vannucchi Alessandro Maria , Bernasconi Paolo , Balduini Alessandra , Barosi Giovanni , Rosti Vittorio ,   on behalf of the AGIMM Investigators
Published: January 2018

Splenic hematopoiesis is a major feature in the course of myelofibrosis (MF). In fact, the spleen of patients with MF contains malignant hematopoietic stem cells retaining a complete differentiation program, suggesting both a pivotal role of the spleen in maintaining the disease and a tight regulation of hematopoiesis by the splenic microenvironment, in particular by mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs). Little is known about splenic MSCs (Sp‐MSCs), both in normal and in pathological context. In this work, we have in vitro expanded and characterized Sp‐MSCs from 25 patients with MF and 13 healthy subjects (HS). They shared similar phenotype, growth kinetics, and differentiation capacity. However, MF Sp‐MSCs expressed significant lower levels of nestin, and favored megakaryocyte (Mk) differentiation in vitro at a larger extent than their normal counterpart. Moreover, they showed a significant upregulation of matrix metalloprotease 2 (MMP2) and fibronectin 1 (FN1) genes both at mRNA expression and at protein level, and, finally, developed genetic abnormalities which were never detected in HS‐derived Sp‐MSCs. Our data point toward the existence of a defective splenic niche in patients with MF that could be responsible of some pathological features of the disease, including the increased trafficking of CD34+ cells and the expansion of the megakaryocytic lineage.
Three patients with Schaaf–Yang syndrome exhibiting arthrogryposis and endocrinological abnormalities
Authors: Enya Takuji , Okamoto Nobuhiko , Iba Yoshinori , Miyazawa Tomoki , Okada Mitsuru , Ida Shinobu , Naruto Takuya , Imoto Issei , Fujita Atsushi , Miyake Noriko , Matsumoto Naomichi , Sugimoto Keisuke , Takemura Tsukasa
Published: January 2018

MAGEL2 is the paternally expressed gene within Prader–Willi syndrome critical region at 15q11.2. We encountered three individuals in whom truncating mutations of MAGEL2 were identified. Patients 1 and 2, siblings born to healthy, non‐consanguineous Japanese parents, showed generalized hypotonia, lethargy, severe respiratory difficulty, poor feeding, and multiple anomalies including arthrogryposis soon after birth. We carried out whole‐exome sequencing, which detected a MAGEL2 mutation (c.1912C>T, p.Gln638*, heterozygous). The patients’ father was heterozygous for the mutation. Patient 3 was a female infant, showed respiratory difficulty reflecting pulmonary hypoplasia, generalized hypotonia, feeding difficulty and multiple anomalies soon after birth. Targeted next‐generation sequencing detected a novel heterozygous mutation in MAGEL2 (c.3131C>A, p.Ser1044*). This mutation was not found in the parents. MAGEL2 mutations, first reported to be the cause of the Prader–Willi like syndrome with autism by Schaaf et al. (2013) Nature Genetics, 45: 1405–1408 show the wide range of phenotypic spectrum from lethal arthrogryposis multiplex congenital to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and mild intellectual disability (ID). Our results indicate that MAGEL2 mutations cause multiple congenital anomalies and intellectual disability accompanied by arthrogryposis multiplex congenita and various endocrinologic abnormalities, supporting that the view that clinical phenotypes of MAGEL2 mutations are variable.
Chirality Sensing of Molecules with Diverse Functional Groups by Using N‐tert‐Butyl Sulfinyl Squaramide
Authors: Yang Guo‐Hui , Li Yao , Li Xin
Published: January 2018

The readily available bifunctional 3,5‐[di(trifluoromethyl)]phenyl‐substituted N‐tert‐butyl sulfinyl squaramide was used as a unique chiral solvating agent. The strong hydrogen‐bonding donor ability of this chiral compound led to its effective use in the chiral recognition of multiple guest molecules.
Residence rule flexibility and descent groups dynamics shape uniparental genetic diversities in South East Asia
Authors: Ly Goki , Alard Bérénice , Laurent Romain , Lafosse Sophie , Toupance Bruno , Monidarin Chou , Diffloth Gérard , Bourdier Frédéric , Evrard Olivier , Pavard Samuel , Chaix Raphaëlle
Published: January 2018

Objectives

Social organization plays a major role in shaping human population genetic diversity. In particular, matrilocal populations tend to exhibit less mitochondrial diversity than patrilocal populations, and the other way around for Y chromosome diversity. However, several studies have not replicated such findings. The objective of this study is to understand the reasons for such inconsistencies and further evaluate the influence of social organization on genetic diversity.

Materials and Methods

We explored uniparental diversity patterns using mitochondrial HV1 sequences and 17 Y‐linked short tandem repeats (STRs) in 12 populations (n = 619) from mainland South–East Asia exhibiting a wide range of social organizations, along with quantitative ethno‐demographic information sampled at the individual level.

Results

MtDNA diversity was lower in matrilocal than in multilocal and patrilocal populations while Y chromosome diversity was similar among these social organizations. The reasons for such asymmetry at the genetic level were understood by quantifying sex‐specific migration rates from our ethno‐demographic data: while female migration rates varied between social organizations, male migration rates did not. This unexpected lack of difference in male migrations resulted from a higher flexibility in residence rule in patrilocal than in matrilocal populations. In addition, our data suggested an impact of clan fission process on uniparental genetic patterns.

Conclusions

The observed lack of signature of patrilocality on Y chromosome patterns might be attributed to the higher residence flexibility in the studied patrilocal populations, thus providing a potential explanation for the apparent discrepancies between social and genetic structures. Altogether, this study highlights the need to quantify the actual residence and descent patterns to fit social to genetic structures.
Olfactory dysfunction and cognition among older adults in the United States
Authors: Choi Janet S. , Hur Kevin , Chow Michael , Shen Jasper , Wrobel Bozena
Published: January 2018

Background

In this work we assess the association between olfactory dysfunction and cognition in a nationally representative sample of older adults in the United States.

Methods

Participants aged ≥60 years (n = 1236) from the 2013–2014 National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey underwent both olfactory and cognitive testing. Olfaction was assessed by both objective test (8‐odor Pocket Smell Test: smell impairment defined as score ≤2) and self‐report. Cognitive assessment consisted of the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST), the Animal Fluency Test, and the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD). Regression models were used to examine the association between olfaction and cognition while adjusting for demographics, cardiovascular factors, and associated medical history.

Results

The prevalence of smell impairment in US older adults was 18.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 14.0‐22.0%) and 22.0% (95% CI, 18.5‐25.6%) based on objective smell test and self‐report, respectively. In a multivariate model adjusted for relevant factors, low smell test scores were consistently associated with low scores on cognitive assessments, with a DSST score difference of −1.5 (95% CI, −2.2 to −0.8), Animal Fluency Test score difference of −0.4 (95% CI, −0.7 to −0.1), and CERAD Word List score difference of −0.4 (95% CI, −0.6 to −0.2) per 1‐point decrease in smell test score. There was no association between self‐reported smell impairment and cognition.

Conclusion

Objectively measured olfactory dysfunction is independently associated with cognitive impairment. These findings are consistent with previous studies and suggest the utility of objective olfactory tests as an indicator for cognitive impairment as compared with self‐reported olfactory dysfunction, which is an uncertain indicator.
A mendelian form of neural tube defect caused by a de novo null variant in SMARCC1 in an identical twin
Authors: Al Mutairi Fuad , Alzahrani Fatema , Ababneh Farouq , Kashgari Amna A. , Alkuraya Fowzan S.
Published: January 2018

Neural tube defects (NTDs) are among the most common birth defects in humans and yet their molecular etiology remains poorly understood. NTDs are believed to result from the complex interaction of environmental factors with a multitude of genetic risk factors in a classical multifactorial disease model. Mendelian forms of NTDs in which single variants are sufficient to cause the disease are extremely rare. We report a monozygotic twin with severe NTDs (occipital encephalocele and myelomeningocele) and a shared de novo, likely truncating, variant in SMARCC1. RTPCR analysis suggests the potential null nature of the variant attributed to nonsense‐mediated decay. SMARCC1 is extremely constrained in humans and encodes a highly conserved core chromatin remodeler, BAF155. Mice that are heterozygous for a null allele or homozygous for a hypomorphic allele develop severe NTDs in the form of exencephaly. This is the first report of SMARCC1 mutation in humans, and it shows a critical and conserved requirement for intact BAF chromatin remodeling complex in neurulation. Ann Neurol 2018;83:433–436
Modern Electrochemical Aspects for the Synthesis of Value‐Added Organic Products
Authors: Möhle Sabine , Zirbes Michael , Rodrigo Eduardo , Gieshoff Tile , Wiebe Anton , Waldvogel Siegfried R.
Published: January 2018

The use of electricity instead of stoichiometric amounts of oxidizers or reducing agents in synthesis is very appealing for economic and ecological reasons, and represents a major driving force for research efforts in this area. To use electron transfer at the electrode for a successful transformation in organic synthesis, the intermediate radical (cation/anion) has to be stabilized. Its combination with other approaches in organic chemistry or concepts of contemporary synthesis allows the establishment of powerful synthetic methods. The aim in the 21st Century will be to use as little fossil carbon as possible and, for this reason, the use of renewable sources is becoming increasingly important. The direct conversion of renewables, which have previously mainly been incinerated, is of increasing interest. This Review surveys many of the recent seminal important developments which will determine the future of this dynamic emerging field.