bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Improving environmental performance through ISO 14001
Authors: Goodwin Max
Published: August 2017

The International Standard for Environmental Management Systems, ISO 14001 (the Standard), has been around for nearly 20 years and 2015 saw its third revision. Various research papers in the early 2000s showed that adoption of—and certification to—the ISO 14001 standard did not have any significant bearing on organisations’ environmental performance, as measured in terms of the frequency of incidents and legal compliance.
In this latest revision it is clear that concerns raised about the Standard have been taken on board, and it now provides for a more rigorous and effective environmental management system, which will ensure greater focus on the actual outcomes of the system, rather than the paperwork and procedures that are often the focus. New areas of focus include: environmental performance evaluation, leadership and commitment, life-cycle thinking, and addressing the needs of external stakeholders.
Through experience gained over 20 years of working with the ISO 14001 standard in the oil and gas industry—including 10 years as a third-party certifier—the author discusses the benefits of adopting the revised ISO 14001 standard, and incorporates case study examples (from Australian oil and gas operators) of best practice as well as some of the pitfalls to avoid. In addition, the paper explores the potential for Australian oil and gas regulators to apply a ‘lighter touch’ to the regulation of ISO14001 certified operators.
Mesozoic tectonostratigraphic evolution of the North Carnarvon Basin unlocked using regional 3D seismic
Authors: Bishop Daniel , Halbert Megan , Welbourn Katherine , Boterhoven Ben , Mansfield Stacey , Gerth Sophia , Maulana Arief
Published: August 2017

Interpretation of regional scale merged 3D seismic data sets covering the North Carnarvon Basin has for the first time enabled a detailed description of Mesozoic stratigraphic and structural features on a basin scale.
Isoproportional slicing of the data enables direct interpretation of Triassic depositional environments, including contrasting low-stand and high-stand fluvial channel complexes, marginal marine clastic systems and reef complexes. Channels vary dramatically between sinuous-straight single channels within low net:gross floodplain successions, to broad channel belts within relatively high net:gross fluvial successions. The latter can be traced from the inboard part of the basin to the outer areas of the Exmouth Plateau. 3D visualisation and interpretation has demonstrated the huge variety of structural styles that are present, including basement-involved extensional faults, detached listric fault complexes, polygonal faults, and regional scale vertical strike-slip faults with flower structures.
Fault trends include north–south, north–northeast to south–southwest, and northeast–southwest, with deformation events occurring mainly between the Rhaetian and Valanginian. Extensional and compressional deformation has created multiple horsts, three-way fault closures, fold belts and associated four-way anticlinal traps. Wrench tectonics may also explain pock-mark trains with the interpreted transfer of over-pressure from Triassic to Early Cretaceous levels. The use of regional scale merged 3D seismic data sets is now shedding light on tectonostratigraphic features on a basin scale that were previously unrecognised or enigmatic on 2D seismic or local 3D seismic data sets.
Facies architecture of the K10 supersequence in the Browse Basin: when sequence stratigraphy meets lithostratigraphy
Authors: Abbott Steve , Khider Kamal , Kelman Andrew , Romine Karen
Published: August 2017

Regional seismic sequence stratigraphic mapping of the K10 supersequence (Berriasian–Valanginian) has brought into focus the relationship between sequence stratigraphic and lithostratigraphic units. In this extended abstract, the relationship between seismically-defined sandstone bodies and the Brewster Member, an important exploration target and reservoir in the Browse Basin, is investigated.
Deposition of the K10 supersequence started at the onset of rifting between Greater India and the Northern Carnarvon Basin. Sediment sourced from uplifted areas resulted in deposition of the Barrow Delta in the Exmouth and Barrow sub-basins. In the Browse Basin, K10 is also a sand-rich progradational sequence, albeit diminutive compared to the Barrow Delta. Seismic mapping of K10 in the Caswell Sub-basin has resolved stratal geometries and, with the integration of well data, recognition gross depositional facies. Sandstone-prone siliciclastic platform facies (clinoform topsets) include the Brewster Member. The first reference to the Brewster Member in the Australian Stratigraphic Units Database applied the name to the upper part of the K10 sequence between 3,284 m and 3,405 m in Heywood–1. Usage of this name, however, has been inconsistently applied to sandstone-prone units within K10.
Given the significance of the Brewster Member as an exploration target, and as a reservoir in the Ichthys-Prelude and Burnside gas fields, attention to integration of sequence stratigraphic and lithostratigraphic frameworks for this interval is timely.
Micro-scale simulation of bubble-water flow in coal seams by the lattice Boltzmann method
Authors: Yi Jie , Xing Huilin , Sun Tianwei , Rudolph Victor
Published: August 2017

The production of coal seam gas initially requires pumping and removing significant amounts of water to sufficiently reduce the hydrostatic pressure in the subsurface, so that methane can desorb from the matrix and diffuse into the cleat systems; majority of the methane molecules gather into nucleation or bubbles. During the depression, the flow pattern of gas in cleats changes from bubble flow to slug flow, and finally forms circular flow. The significance of the bubble flow process—during which the liquid phase is continuous while the gas phase exists as small bubbles randomly distributed within the liquid—has not been emphasised because of its complexity.
In this study, a free energy based two-phase lattice Boltzmann model is used to simulate the gas bubble/water flow behaviour in micro-cleats of a coal seam gas reservoir. The model was validated by comparison with analytical results based on dimensionless numbers, and good agreement was found in general. The influences of bubble shape, bubble size, and coal surface wettability on gas water two-phase flow in micro-cleats are discussed.
The simulation results indicate that the bubble size and wettability of gas have significant impacts on the flow capacity of both gas and water. A decrease of the water flow rate is observed when large bubbles occur, and the gas flow rate decreases when the gas wettability becomes stronger. The bubble flow process significantly influences the drainage of water and the further gas production.
Where to from here? Challenges for restoration and revegetation in a fast-changing world
Authors: Hobbs R. J.
Published: August 2017

Ecological restoration provides hope and the opportunity for positive action in the face of ongoing rapid environmental change. Restoration techniques and approaches are improving, and restoration is seen as an important element of conservation management and policy from local to global scales. Motivations for undertaking restoration are numerous, and resources available for this enterprise vary greatly from case to case. Restoration encompasses everything from multinational companies restoring minesites or offsets to comply with environmental regulations to local bushcare groups doing voluntary work in their local patch of bush. The financial and human resources available largely determine the extent and type of restoration activities that are possible. An important task is increasing the resources available for these activities, but it is also important to recognise that resources will continue to fall well short of what is actually required into the foreseeable future. In addition, the need for restoration will only increase with ongoing development and changing environments. In this scenario, how then, should decisions be made about what types of restoration activities are appropriate and possible? How do we ensure that the good intentions behind restoration management and policy translate into good outcomes? Challenges for restoration include not only improving the techniques and approaches but also tackling hard questions about what restoration goals are appropriate and engaging in open discussion of hidden assumptions and values behind decisions.
Short-term impact of a mega-fire on small mammal communities during prolonged drought
Authors: Stevens Mike , White John , Cooke Raylene
Published: August 2017

Increased size, severity and frequency of wildfire is predicted as a consequence of prolonged droughts associated with climate change. In south-eastern Australia severe landscape-scale wildfires (mega-fires) have elicited a strong anthropocentric response due to the significant life and property impacts. However, the impact of mega-fires on fauna, habitat and subsequent management actions are poorly understood. Small mammals were surveyed to examine mega-fire impact using the post-2006 wildfire landscape of the Grampians National Park, Victoria, Australia. Long-term research sites were established with 9620 trap nights completed in autumn 2008 across thirty-six sampling units. Vegetation structure, floristics, fire severity, patch size and overall fuel hazard were measured to investigate correlations with changes in small mammal abundance.Two years post-wildfire, rapid resurgence of house mouse (Mus musculus) was detected, conversely the abundance of native small mammal species was severely impacted. No sampling category within the burnt perimeter provided superior refuge presenting potential conservation implications. A habitat vacancy model is introduced where small mammal recolonisation post-wildfire depends on a lack of isolation and connectivity of populations. Floristic and structural contributions of vegetation to higher overall fuel hazard areas are essential in maintaining diverse fauna assemblages. As such, prescribed burning or fire suppression tactics such as ‘patching out’ or ‘burning out’ require consideration when contributing to further reduction of complex habitat patches following fires.
Climate change adaptation and scenario planning: framing issues and tools
Authors: Rickards Lauren
Published: August 2017

Climate change adaptation means that not only do we have difficult decisions to make, but we also need improved ways of making them. Although not new, scenario planning is one tool increasingly being used to improve thinking about climate change and adaptation, reflecting the way it usefully accommodates the mix of certainty and uncertainty, as well as realism and constructivism, which characterise the climate change issue. This paper provides an overview of climate change adaptation and scenario planning, emphasising the existence of conservative and radical approaches to each and the context of multiple epistemological ideals in modern governance. Overall, the paper highlights the framed, or socially constructed, nature of both adaptation and scenario planning and the implications of their intersection.
Reversal of hyperactive Wnt signaling-dependent adipocyte defects by peptide boronic acids
Authors: Zhang Tianyi , Hsu Fu-Ning , Xie Xiao-Jun , Li Xiao , Liu Mengmeng , Gao Xinsheng , Pei Xun , Liao Yang , Du Wei , Ji Jun-Yuan
Published: August 2017

Significance

Deregulated Wnt signaling is often observed in diverse human diseases, including cancers, and is a potential therapeutic target. Here we report that hyperactivated Wnt/Wg signaling disrupts fat metabolism in
Drosophila
larvae, and that peptide boronic acids, a unique class of proteasome inhibitors, can potently rescue the fat defects by inhibiting Wg signaling through stabilization of α-catenin. We show that
Axn

127

mutant is an attractive system for screening for and optimizing small molecules that target Wnt signaling and proteasome in vivo. This work suggests that pharmacologic strategies for stabilizing α-catenin may represent an attractive approach to attenuate Wnt signaling, rather than directly targeting components of the Wnt signaling pathway.
Vertebrate-like CRYPTOCHROME 2 from monarch regulates circadian transcription via independent repression of CLOCK and BMAL1 activity
Authors: Zhang Ying , Markert Matthew J. , Groves Shayna C. , Hardin Paul E. , Merlin Christine
Published: August 2017

Significance

Daily rhythms in animal behavior, physiology, and metabolism are driven by cell-autonomous mechanisms that keep time and control overt rhythms via transcriptional feedback loops, making it fundamental to define the mechanisms driving rhythmic transcription. In mammals, PERIOD and CRYPTOCHROME (CRY) rhythmically repress CLOCK:BMAL1 transcriptional activity, but the mechanisms by which CRY represses CLOCK:BMAL1 activity are not fully understood. Using CRISPR/Cas9 for in vivo genetic manipulations in the monarch, we show that repression of circadian transcription by vertebrate-like CRY is mediated primarily by a BMAL1 transactivation domain (TAD)-independent mechanism involving the CLK-PAS B domain, while repression on the BMAL1 TAD is dispensable for the generation of rhythms but alters circadian phase during the first day of constant darkness by affecting activation levels.
Mechanism of ion adsorption to aqueous interfaces: Graphene/water vs. air/water
Authors: McCaffrey Debra L. , Nguyen Son C. , Cox Stephen J. , Weller Horst , Alivisatos A. Paul , Geissler Phillip L. , Saykally Richard J.
Published: August 2017

Significance

The Gibbs free energy of adsorption of a prototypical anion to a graphene/water interface is determined by surface-sensitive spectroscopy and interpreted via molecular dynamics simulations to establish the adsorption mechanism, which is found to be qualitatively different from that operative for the air/water interface and probably representative of a general water/hydrophobe interface.
Topological impact of noncanonical DNA structures on Klenow fragment of DNA polymerase
Authors: Takahashi Shuntaro , Brazier John A. , Sugimoto Naoki
Published: August 2017

Significance

Alterations in nonduplex structures could play roles during DNA replication in the progression of cancer and other intractable diseases. These noncanonical structures differ topologically from each other. However, the role of these differences in diseases remains unknown. In this study, we found that the presence of i-motif structures in the template caused the DNA polymerase to stall immediately before these structures. The i-motif structures are more efficient than other structures, such as G-quadruplexes and hairpins, although their thermodynamic stabilities are similar. This inhibition effect of the DNA polymerase was regulated by molecular crowding, which mimics conditions in the cell. Therefore, it is possible that the i-motif could impede DNA replication or repair and cause genomic instability.
Cellular cap-binding protein, eIF4E, promotes picornavirus genome restructuring and translation
Authors: Avanzino Brian C. , Fuchs Gabriele , Fraser Christopher S.
Published: August 2017

Significance

Picornaviruses translate their RNA genomes by a cap-independent mechanism that uses an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) to hijack the host translation machinery. The hepatitis A virus (HAV) and poliovirus (PV) IRESs contain binding sites for the eIF4G component of the cap-binding complex, eIF4F. The HAV IRES also requires eIF4E for efficient translation, but the reason for this is unknown. We now show that eIF4E increases the affinity of eIF4F for the HAV IRES and strongly stimulates the helicase activity of eIF4A. Remarkably, we show that PV IRES-mediated translation is also stimulated by eIF4E using the same mechanism of regulated eIF4F recruitment and helicase activity. This reveals an unexpected commonality in the mechanism that picornavirus IRESs use to recruit eIF4F.
Cell-type–specific inhibition of the dendritic plateau potential in striatal spiny projection neurons
Authors: Du Kai , Wu Yu-Wei , Lindroos Robert , Liu Yu , Rózsa Balázs , Katona Gergely , Ding Jun B. , Kotaleski Jeanette Hellgren
Published: August 2017

Significance

Dendritic plateau potentials generated by the activation of clustered excitatory inputs play a crucial role in neuronal computation and are involved in sensory perception, learning, and memory. Current studies largely focus on the genesis of plateau potentials. However, little is known about how somatic and local dendritic inhibitions control dendritic plateau potentials. The conventional view of the effectiveness of local dendritic inhibition relies on shunting inhibition. Moreover, massive excitatory conductance could overweigh the shunting inhibition. Here we describe a form of cell-type–specific dendritic inhibition in the striatal spiny projection neurons, in which the inhibition provides precise control over the amplitude, kinetics, and duration of plateau potentials, and thus the spiking output of spiny projection neurons.
Band gap formation and Anderson localization in disordered photonic materials with structural correlations
Authors: Froufe-Pérez Luis S. , Engel Michael , Sáenz Juan José , Scheffold Frank
Published: August 2017

Significance

It has been shown recently that disordered dielectrics can support a photonic band gap in the presence of structural correlations. This finding is surprising, because light transport in disordered media has long been exclusively associated with photon diffusion and Anderson localization. Currently, there exists no picture that may allow the classification of optical transport depending on the structural properties. Here, we make an important step toward solving this fundamental problem. Based on numerical simulations of transport statistics, we identify all relevant regimes in a 2D system composed of silicon rods: transparency, photon diffusion, classical Anderson localization, band gap, and a pseudogap tunneling regime. We summarize our findings in a transport phase diagram that organizes optical transport properties in disordered media.
Phenological synchronization disrupts trophic interactions between Kodiak brown bears and salmon
Authors: Deacy William W. , Armstrong Jonathan B. , Leacock William B. , Robbins Charles T. , Gustine David D. , Ward Eric J. , Erlenbach Joy A. , Stanford Jack A.
Published: August 2017

Significance

Climate change is altering the seasonal timing of biological events, effectively rescheduling the potential interactions among species. We know specialist consumers suffer when they fail to synchronize with their prey; however, little is known about how generalist consumers respond to phenological shifts across multiple food resources. This reshuffling may create novel temporal overlap between foods that were once separated in time. We examined how a generalist consumer, the Kodiak brown bear, responded when two key foods, red elderberry and sockeye salmon, became synchronized. Bears switched from eating salmon to elderberries, disrupting an ecological link that typically fertilizes terrestrial ecosystems and generates high mortality rates for salmon. These results demonstrate an underappreciated mechanism by which climate-altered phenologies can alter food webs.
Auxin minimum triggers the developmental switch from cell division to cell differentiation in the
Arabidopsis
root
Authors: Di Mambro Riccardo , De Ruvo Micol , Pacifici Elena , Salvi Elena , Sozzani Rosangela , Benfey Philip N. , Busch Wolfgang , Novak Ondrej , Ljung Karin , Di Paola Luisa , Marée Athanasius F. M. , Costantino Paolo , Grieneisen Verônica A. , Sabatini Sabrina
Published: August 2017

Significance

The maintenance of boundaries between neighboring groups of distinct cell types is vital during development of multicellular organisms, as groups of cells with distinct functions must be kept physically separated to guarantee correct control of organ and body growth and function. In the
Arabidopsis
root, the transition zone is a developmental boundary in the meristem that separates dividing from differentiating cells. Here, we infer that a well-defined and tightly controlled minimum of the hormone auxin acts as a signal to establish the position of the transition zone by controlling the developmental switch from cell division to cell differentiation. We provide the mechanistic and genetic basis of how another hormone, cytokinin, controls and positions this auxin minimum, thus regulating root size.
Mechanisms of synaptic depression at the hair cell ribbon synapse that support auditory nerve function
Authors: Goutman Juan D.
Published: August 2017

Significance

Sensory systems use adaptation as a mechanism to enhance the range of responses to incoming stimuli. In the auditory system, the synapses between inner hair cells and dendrites of auditory nerve neurons have been pointed as the adaptation site. This synapse is responsible for converting graded acoustic signals into trains of action potentials. We present evidence showing that depletion of rapidly releasing vesicles produces an early depression of the synaptic response. Also, we observed that desensitization of postsynaptic receptors plays a fundamental role in synaptic decay. Stronger stimuli produce larger and longer lasting responses that are more profoundly affected by desensitization. Both pre- and postsynaptic mechanisms contribute to depression at this synapse, imparting multiple features to auditory nerve function.
Numerous uncharacterized and highly divergent microbes which colonize humans are revealed by circulating cell-free DNA
Authors: Kowarsky Mark , Camunas-Soler Joan , Kertesz Michael , De Vlaminck Iwijn , Koh Winston , Pan Wenying , Martin Lance , Neff Norma F. , Okamoto Jennifer , Wong Ronald J. , Kharbanda Sandhya , El-Sayed Yasser , Blumenfeld Yair , Stevenson David K. , Shaw Gary M. , Wolfe Nathan D. , Quake Stephen R.
Published: August 2017

Significance

Through massive shotgun sequencing of circulating cell-free DNA from the blood of more than 1,000 independent samples, we identified hundreds of new bacteria and viruses which represent previously unidentified members of the human microbiome. Previous studies targeted specific niches such as feces, skin, or the oral cavity, whereas our approach of using blood effectively enables sampling of the entire body and reveals the colonization of niches which have been previously inaccessible. We were thus able to discover that the human body contains a vast and unexpected diversity of microbes, many of which have highly divergent relationships to the known tree of life.
Caterpillars lack a resident gut microbiome
Authors: Hammer Tobin J. , Janzen Daniel H. , Hallwachs Winnie , Jaffe Samuel P. , Fierer Noah
Published: August 2017

Significance

Microorganisms residing within animal tissues as symbionts can be critically important to many aspects of animal biology. For example, the microbiomes of many insects, such as aphids, honeybees, and termites, can provide nutrients, deter pathogens, and help digest food. We examined whether caterpillars also engage in intimate microbial partnerships. Across a broad diversity of caterpillar species, we found that microbes in the gut are extremely low-abundance and predominantly leaf-derived, suggesting their transient nature. Furthermore, suppressing bacteria in tobacco hornworms (Manduca sexta) had no detectable effect on caterpillar growth or survival. With caterpillars as a prominent—but possibly not unique—example of relative autonomy, the degree of reliance on microbes is an underappreciated yet likely important dimension of animal biodiversity.
Evidence for cue-independent spatial representation in the human auditory cortex during active listening
Authors: Higgins Nathan C. , McLaughlin Susan A. , Rinne Teemu , Stecker G. Christopher
Published: August 2017

Significance

Individuals determine horizontal sound location based on precise calculations of sound level and sound timing differences at the two ears. Although these cues are processed independently at lower levels of the auditory system, their cortical processing remains poorly understood. This study seeks to address two key questions. (i) Are these cues integrated to form a cue-independent representation of space? (ii) How does active listening to sound location alter cortical response to these cues? We use functional brain imaging to address these questions, demonstrating that cue responses overlap in the cortex, that voxel patterns from one cue can predict the other cue and vice versa, and that active spatial listening enhances cortical responses independently of specific features of the sound.
Coevolutionary arms race versus host defense chase in a tropical herbivore–plant system
Authors: Endara María-José , Coley Phyllis D. , Ghabash Gabrielle , Nicholls James A. , Dexter Kyle G. , Donoso David A. , Stone Graham N. , Pennington R. Toby , Kursar Thomas A.
Published: August 2017

Significance

Although plants and their herbivores account for most of macroscopic, terrestrial biodiversity, we do not fully understand the evolutionary origins of this high diversity. Coevolutionary theory proposes that adaptations between plants and their herbivores are reciprocal and that their interactions might have driven diversification and community composition. Contrary to this scenario of defense and counterdefense, we find an apparent asymmetry in the interactions between plants and herbivores. Specifically, despite the evolutionary constraints of long lifetimes for trees, plant–antiherbivore defenses may be more evolutionarily labile than herbivore adaptations to their hosts, allowing long-lived plant species to persist in the arms race with their insect herbivores. In contrast, herbivores may be evolutionarily “chasing” plants, feeding on species for which they have preadaptations.
Hydrodynamic and entropic effects on colloidal diffusion in corrugated channels
Authors: Yang Xiang , Liu Chang , Li Yunyun , Marchesoni Fabio , Hänggi Peter , Zhang H. P.
Published: August 2017

Significance

When a particle diffuses in a corrugated channel, the channel’s boundaries have a twofold effect of limiting the configuration space accessible to the particle and increasing its hydrodynamic drag. Analytical and numerical approaches well-reproduce the former (entropic) effect, while ignoring the latter (hydrodynamic) effect. Here, we experimentally investigate nonadvective colloidal diffusion in channels with periodically varying width. While validating the current theory for channels much wider than the particle radius, we show that, in narrow channels, hydrodynamic and entropic effects can be equally strong and that hydrodynamic effects can be incorporated into existing descriptions by using an experimentally measured diffusivity. These results significantly advance our understanding of diffusive transport in confined geometries, such as in ionic channels and nanopores.
Covariations in ecological scaling laws fostered by community dynamics
Authors: Zaoli Silvia , Giometto Andrea , Maritan Amos , Rinaldo Andrea
Published: August 2017

Significance

Empirical laws portraying patterns in ecology are routinely observed in marine and terrestrial environments. Such patterns are recurrent but also show features that are distinctive of each ecosystem. For example, the number of species in an ecosystem increases with its area according to a well-defined mathematical law, but the rate of increase may vary across different ecosystem types. We show that different ecological patterns are linked to each other in a way that if one is changed, the others are affected as well. We verify our predictions on available empirical datasets and unravel yet unknown features of natural ecosystems, suggesting directions for empirical research.
On transient climate change at the Cretaceous−Paleogene boundary due to atmospheric soot injections
Authors: Bardeen Charles G. , Garcia Rolando R. , Toon Owen B. , Conley Andrew J.
Published: August 2017

Significance

A mass extinction occurred at the Cretaceous−Paleogene boundary coincident with the impact of a 10-km asteroid in the Yucatán peninsula. A worldwide layer of soot found at the boundary is consistent with global fires. Using a modern climate model, we explore the effects of this soot and find that it causes near-total darkness that shuts down photosynthesis, produces severe cooling at the surface and in the oceans, and leads to moistening and warming of the stratosphere that drives extreme ozone destruction. These conditions last for several years, would have caused a collapse of the global food chain, and would have contributed to the extinction of species that survived the immediate effects of the asteroid impact.
Shooting the Isolation and Marginality of Masculinities in Iranian Cinema
Authors: Pak-Shiraz Nacim
Published: August 2017

This article examines the isolation and marginality of Iranian men living in contemporary Iran with a focus on three post-2005 films. As a patriarchal society, Iran has been the subject of many studies on the subjugation and marginality of women. This study demonstrates how recent Iranian films have skillfully employed the cinematic language to narrate men’s stories of alienation and despair. These filmic constructions provide a valuable and complex insight into masculine identities, challenging perceptions of the essentialized image of the Middle Eastern male. By employing Connell’s hierarchy of masculinities, the article demonstrates the position of marginalized men in relation to the dominant ideals of masculinity and the influence of these discourses on the lives of such men. The films discussed here do not perpetuate the construction of the ‘true’ gender, but instead challenge ideas of heroism, manliness and patriarchy.
Holy Figures Portrayed in the Edinburgh Fragment of Rashīd al-Dīn’sWorld History
Authors: Hillenbrand Robert
Published: August 2017

This paper has two purposes. One is to look carefully at the way that the stories of Sālih and Samson are told in the Edinburgh fragment of Rashīd al-Dīn’sWorld Historyand its accompanying illustrations, and the messages that these convey. The second is to explore the interplay of text and image in what might be termed “the Moses cycle” and to consider the motivation for the unusual textual and pictorial emphasis on Moses. Several aspects of the cycle are analyzed: Moses as an antetype of Rashīd al-Dīn himself, the impact of the Qur’anic text and Moses as a precursor of the Prophet Muhammad.
Characterization of lignocellulose particles during lignocellulose solubilization by Clostridium thermocellum
Authors: Ichikawa Shunsuke , Nishida Ayami , Yasui Saori , Karita Shuichi
Published: August 2017

Clostridium thermocellum is a candidate bacterium for lignocellulose utilization due to its efficient lignocellulose solubilization ability. It has been reported that C. thermocellum efficiently degrades purified cellulose substrates, but cannot completely degrade milled lignocellulose powders. Evaluation of cellulose and hemicellulose contents in a lignocellulose residue after the cultivation of C. thermocellum indicated that C. thermocellum degraded cellulose and hemicellulose equally. Microscopic observations demonstrated that C. thermocellum significantly degraded small-sized lignocellulose particles, but it only partially degraded the larger sized particles. The lignin content of the large-sized particles was higher than that of the small particles. The remained large-sized particles included vascular tissues. These results suggest that the lignified structures such as vascular tissues in milled lignocellulose were less susceptible to bacterial lignocellulose solubilization.
Emodin extends lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans through insulin/IGF-1 signaling pathway depending on DAF-16 and SIR-2.1
Authors: Zhao Xuan , Lu Lulu , Qi Yonghao , Li Miao , Zhou Lijun
Published: August 2017

The naturally occurring anthraquinone emodin has been serving primarily as an anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory agent. However, little is known about its potential on anti-aging. This investigation examined the effect of emodin on lifespan and focused on its physiological molecular mechanisms in vivo. Using Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) as an animal model, we found emodin could extend lifespan of worms and improve their antioxidant capacity. Our mechanistic studies revealed that emodin might function via insulin/IGF-1 signaling (IIS) pathway involving, specifically the core transcription factor DAF-16. Quantitative RT-PCR results illustrated that emodin up-regulated transcription of DAF-16 target genes which express antioxidants to promote antioxidant capacity and lifespan of worms. In addition, attenuated effect in sir-2.1 mutants suggests that emodin likely functioned in a SIR-2.1-dependent manner. Our study uncovers a novel role of emodin in prolonging lifespan and supports the understanding of emodin being a beneficial dietary supplement.
Efforts to enhance blood stem cell engraftment: Recent insights from zebrafish hematopoiesis
Authors: Perlin Julie R. , Robertson Anne L. , Zon Leonard I.
Published: August 2017

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is an important therapy for patients with a variety of hematological malignancies. HSCT would be greatly improved if patient-specific hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) could be generated from induced pluripotent stem cells in vitro. There is an incomplete understanding of the genes and signals involved in HSC induction, migration, maintenance, and niche engraftment. Recent studies in zebrafish have revealed novel genes that are required for HSC induction and niche regulation of HSC homeostasis. Manipulation of these signaling pathways and cell types may improve HSC bioengineering, which could significantly advance critical, lifesaving HSCT therapies.
Final report, on-going key comparison BIPM.QM-K1, ozone at ambient level, comparison with ISCIII, March 2017
Authors: Viallon Joële , Moussay Philippe , Idrees Faraz , Wielgosz Robert , Sanchez Carmen , Gomez Pilar Morillo
Published: August 2017

As part of the ongoing key comparison BIPM.QM-K1, a comparison has been performed between the ozone national standard of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) and the common reference standard of the key comparison, maintained by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM). The instruments have been compared over a nominal ozone amount-of-substance fraction range of 0 nmol/mol to 500 nmol/mol.

Main text

To reach the main text of this paper, click on Final Report. Note that this text is that which appears in Appendix B of the BIPM key comparison database kcdb.bipm.org/.

The final report has been peer-reviewed and approved for publication by the CCQM, according to the provisions of the CIPM Mutual Recognition Arrangement (CIPM MRA).
Feeling Our Way
Authors: Stuart Susan A. J.
Published: August 2017

Every action, touch, utterance, and look, every listening, taste, smell, and feel is a living question. But it is no ordinary propositional one-by-one question, rather it is a plenisentient sensing and probing non-propositional enquiry about how our world is and how we anticipate its becoming. Using the notion of enkinaesthesia, this paper explores the ways in which an agent’s affectively saturated coengagement with its world establishes patterns of co-articulation of meaning within the anticipatory affective dynamics and the experiential entanglement necessary for expedient action and adaptation. An amplification and extension of the claims made by the most radical of the embodied mind theories transcends minimalist notions of embodiment and yields a new wave of embodiment theory. This suggests an immanent intercorporeality where the living being of other agents is experienced by us directly, without cognitive mediation.
Taking the World by Hand
Authors: Cuffari Elena , Streeck Jürgen
Published: August 2017

Pairing interpretation of philosophical texts with microanalysis of video data, this essay examines some particular ways that hand gestures enable embodied meaning making and sharing. The point of departure is Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s statement that gesture is the initial basis by which a subject lives and signifies. Intercorporeality and interpretive effort then become the basis of interactive meaning making. Meaning emerges when hand gestures, as intercorporeal acts, reflect and reflexively alter the constituting norms, perspectives, and possibilities found in a given space. This double movement is appropriative and disclosive—hand gestures must fit to a given world of meaning even as they take hold of and form it. Explaining this common feature of distinct gesture ecologies leads to a number of conclusions for the study of language.
Intercorporeality at the Motor Block
Authors: Alkemeyer Thomas , Brümmer Kristina , Pille Thomas
Published: August 2017

Central to this paper is the analysis of a video sequence in which car mechanics try to solve a technical problem. The sequence is analyzed by means of Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and practical sense understood as a sociological reformulation of the phenomenological concept of intercorporeality. It is demonstrated that this sense implies two interrelated dimensions: It functions both as an embodied background foundation for functional problem-solving as well as a sense for social hierarchies. The cooperative solution of a technical problem opens up the stage for power games. In conclusion, the different ways are discussed in which the “twofold” interpretation of the video sequence allows for a specification of “intercorporeality”.
The Etna Idea
Authors: Williams Gareth D.
Published: August 2017

As a preface of sorts to our later investigation (especially in Chapter 6) of the symbolic properties of Pietro Bembo’s representation of Mount Etna, Chapter 1 explores the rich diversity of Greco-Roman treatments of the volcano from Pindar down to Virgil, Ovid, Seneca, and the so-called Aetna poem (its authorship unknown). In mapping the Classical dimensions and contours of the cumulative Etna Idea, this chapter not only functions as a form of excavation into the literary geology of Pietro’s mountain, but also defines the question that much of the rest of this study seeks to address: in what ways, and to what extent, does Pietro challenge, exploit, and depart from (even upstage) the imaginative applications that are already encoded in Etna’s literary past?
Physical Form and Textual Meaning in the Aldine Book
Authors: Williams Gareth D.
Published: August 2017

Chapter 5 begins with the early 1490s rise of the Aldine Press at Venice and De Aetna’s place in relation to Aldo Manuzio’s print experimentation through the 1501 introduction of his libelli portatiles (“portable little books”). The interaction between theme and typographic form in De Aetna, between Pietro’s Etna adventure and the novelty of Manuzio’s own print venture, unites author and printer in a mutually reinforcing mode of self-display and aesthetic alignment. Bernardo Bembo complicates this vision of type form as a physical picturing of Pietro in particular – unless Bernardo is seen to be similarly pictured, father like son, in a distinctive familial sharing of print script. Bernardo was demonstrably interested in the interplay between textual form and content explored earlier in Chapter 5 and demonstrated in the chapter’s end by appeal to Petrarch, and also to a portrait that Bernardo possibly commissioned: Leonardo da Vinci’s Ginevra de’ Benci.
Absolute Sounding Images
Authors: Daniels Dieter
Published: August 2017

In the Weimar Republic in the years between 1920 and 1930, the then “new” media of film and radio led to absolute forms of art whose aesthetics were guided by their idiosyncratic technological identities. In particular, abstract (or absolute) film and radiogenic (funkisch) drama, today often referred to as the predecessors of media art, were underpinned by theoretical examination of the relationship between music and moving image, and between sound and visual perception. Musicians such as Kurt Weill, fine artists and filmmakers such as Walther Ruttmann, radio makers such as Hans Flesch and Friedrich W. Bischoff, and authors such as Rudolf Arnheim worked—partially in dialogue and partially independently of one other—on related questions that explored the parallels, differences and interactions between these media. This chapter explores the networks and complex superimpositions that reside among and between these artistic disciplines.
Grid Intensities
Authors: Hegarty Paul
Published: August 2017

Chantal Akerman’s work of the 1970s is a sustained dissection of the connections and separations between sound and visual tracks within film. Indexicality comes under intense pressure, but is never dismissed, and the question of diegetic sound is permanently in play, as Akerman undermines easy distinctions between what is inside or beyond the accepted conventions of a film’s visual borders. This chapter argues that sound becomes a mode of structuring events and their perception, allowing a rigorous formalism to suggest not only meaning but also its fractalisation. Hearing underneath the visual and political strategies of Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) and News from Home (1976) via Saute ma ville (1968), Je tu il elle (1974) and Les rendez-vous d’Anna (1978), we can sense a pulsing of meaning that expands the film event into intermediality.
Conclusions
Authors: Guisinger Alexandra
Published: August 2017

Chapter 9 discusses two questions: first, whether the explanation for declining trade salience is specific to the American experience; and second, what conditions in the U.S. could change to revive the salience of trade policy. To address the first question, the chapter compares trade salience patterns in the U.S. and eight other similar advanced industrial countries (AICs). It provides a comparison of beliefs about the benefits of trade the 9 identified AICs; analysis of parties’ position taking and trade’s salience in the party platforms of those countries since 1920, and two comparative case studies of the relationship between party position taking on trade the varying trade salience in Canada and the United Kingdom. The chapter also provides additional detail on the American experience of higher trade salience surrounding the debate and subsequent passage of North American Free Trade Agreement. The chapter concludes with implication for the future of trade policy, electoral politics, and applies the lessons to Donald Trump’s success in the 2016 Republican primary.
Heathens and Hindoos in Early America
Authors: Altman Michael J.
Published: August 2017

This chapter analyses the earliest representations of religion in India in America by focusing on three writers: Cotton Mather, Hannah Adams, and Joseph Priestley. Cotton Mather saw India and America as lands of heathens on the edges of Christian Europe. Hannah Adams, however, began to sketch out a system of Hindoo religion in her comparative accounts of religion around the world. Priestly compared Hindoo religion with biblical religion in order to prove the superiority of Christianity. The chapter argues that these three writers all engaged a larger European Enlightenment debate about the nature of religions and a desire to classify and compare religions.
Missionaries, Unitarians, and Raja Rammohun Roy
Authors: Altman Michael J.
Published: August 2017

This chapter analyzes the way American Protestants used representations of “Hindoo religion” to further their own ends. First, it analyzes the representations of “heathenism” and “Hindoos” in the missionary reports of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). These missionaries represented Hindoo religion as noisy, chaotic, bloody, and ritual. Second, it examines how American Unitarians discovered and promoted the writings of Bengali reformer Rammohun Roy. Roy’s monotheistic form of Vedanta attracted Unitarian readers. They saw him as an ally in their fight against Trinitarian oppenents in New England. Both of these examples show how Protestants used “Hindoo religion” to further their own religious claims.
Putting the “Religions” in the World’s Parliament of Religions
Authors: Altman Michael J.
Published: August 2017

This chapter narrates the various representations of religion in India that occurred at the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions. Protestant speakers deployed many of the same representations found earlier in the century. Some described India as a land of heathenism while others found admirable qualities in Hindu religion. However, for the first time, Indian representatives were able to represent themselves. Most famously, Swami Vivekananda offered a lecture titled “Hinduism” that introduced Americans to Hinduism as a world religion. Yet, the Parliament stands as a conflicted and multivocal event where Protestants and Hindus disagreed over the true meaning of Hinduism and Hindu religion.
Data Privacy
Authors: Cowhey Peter F. , Aronson Jonathan D.
Published: August 2017

Chapter 8 lays out the political economic trade-offs in privacy protection designs and their implications for the types of privacy risks and constraints on innovations. To delve more deeply, it then contrasts the U.S. and EU approaches. This leads into an analysis of the protracted U.S.–EU disputes on privacy safeguards and the efforts to forge international agreements on privacy protection forged at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. The most promising initiatives will require a significant role for global civil society in governance. The three issues examined in Part III are interlinked. A robust trade regime for the cloud ecosystem requires that common international understandings about cybersecurity and digital privacy also be developed. However, tidy grand bargains are unnecessary to make progress on these linked issues.
Fragmentation in Context
Authors: Wright Almeda M.
Published: August 2017

Chapter 2 continues addressing the psychological and sociological dimensions of fragmented spirituality among African American youth. African American youth navigate multiple and competing systems structured to pull or push them into “fragmentation.” In a world where basic life skills for young African Americans have come to include “keep your hands where everyone can see them,” the prospect of individuation—based on a notions of autonomous selves and American meritocracy—seem almost fantastical. How does shifting from the assumption of an autonomous self toward an emphasis on relational and communal selves help counter fragmented spirituality? This chapter moves beyond binaries to consider the positive function of fragmentation and developmental characteristics that allow African Americans, and particularly youth, to navigate, interpret, and integrate multiple perspectives without necessitating resolution into a simple “self.”
Tapping into the Legacy
Authors: Wright Almeda M.
Published: August 2017

Previous chapters have outlined the fragmented spirituality, beliefs, and practices of African American youth. This chapter assesses and affirms these as the building blocks of a more robust spirituality. Building on the work of Womanist theologians, this chapter articulates key theological concepts that are essential in helping African American youth resist and transcend the negative effects of spiritual fragmentation. Womanist public theology and reorientation of adolescent spirituality to communal ends does not necessarily reduce spirituality to political action. This chapter suggests approaches to participating in public theological reflection and action to help youth leverage their religious convictions and ideals to work for the common good.