bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The “Less-Is-More” Effect in Group Decision Making
Authors: Luan Shenghua , Katsikopoulos Konstantinos V. , Reimer Torsten
Published: January 2013

If each member of a group makes less accurate decisions than those of another group, can the former actually make more accurate decisions collectively than the latter? Through four simulation studies, the chapter shows conditions under which such “less-is-more” effect may occur. In each study, a group member adopted either the take-the-best or the minimalist heuristic to make an individual decision, and a simple majority rule was then applied to determine the group decision. Although an individual using take-the-best can generally achieve higher decision accuracy than one using the minimalist, results in Study 1 show that the decision accuracy of a group of take-the-best individuals can be lower than that of a group of minimalist individuals in task environments where the distribution of cue validities is relatively flat. Similar less-is-more effects are found in Studies 2 and 3, where a group of less accurate individuals, due to either their usage of erroneous cue information or cue orders differing from cues' validity order, can outperform another group of more accurate individuals. Finally, the chapter compares the decision accuracy of five-member groups with varying compositions of take-the-best and minimalist members, and found that groups with either one or two take-the-best members can achieve the most robust performance across four task environments. Informational diversity and characteristics of task environments are the main factors underlying the observed less-is-more effects. Therefore, the chapter argues that to understand the rationality of group decision making, these two factors, in addition to the competency of group members, must be taken into consideration.
Introduction
Authors: Garvey Ellen Gruber
Published: January 2013

This chapter provides an introduction to nineteenth-century scrapbooks. It describes how newspaper clipping scrapbooks served as a record of how people read and grappled with what they read; the people who made scrapbooks; the development of nineteenth-century newspaper clipping scrapbooks into today's photo-filled, family-centered scrapbooks; and nineteenth-century information management. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Scrapbook as Archive, Scrapbooks in Archives
Authors: Garvey Ellen Gruber
Published: January 2013

Although scrapbook making was a cheap, accessible practice that allowed people to create fixed arrangements of materials that mattered to them, this chapter shows that preservation in the larger bricks-and-mortar archive has been less democratically distributed. As institutions often preferred to “document the well documented,” the materials that people sought to save in the egalitarian archive of the scrapbook often vanished or lost connection to their makers.
The Afterlife of the Nineteenth-Century Scrapbook
Authors: Garvey Ellen Gruber
Published: January 2013

This chapter demonstrates how scrapbooks led the way in materializing an understanding that information was detachable, movable, sortable, and not wedded to the context in which it had been published. Other technologies developed in the late nineteenth century for accessing newspaper articles again, and then for sorting and mining them to turn them into data to move information faster. Robert Budd, an African American entrepreneur in New York, created a newspaper storage establishment. His work highlights the difference between thinking of newspapers as material objects and as movable data. In the 1890s, clipping bureaus took over and industrialized the work of saving and sorting the press that individual scrapbook makers had previously done. Scrapbooks receded as an ideal means for keeping the massive quantities of clippings that the bureaus produced; clipping savers turned toward more flexible modes of sorting and filing by multiple subject headings that developed at the same time.
Blind Rule-Following
Authors: Boghossian Paul A.
Published: January 2013

In this chapter a new problem about rule-following is outlined, one that is distinct both from Kripke’s and Wright’s versions of the problem. This new problem cannot be correctly responsed to, as Kripke’s can, by invoking Wright’s Intentional Account of rule-following. The upshot might be called, following Kant, an antinomy of pure reason: we both must — and cannot — make sense of someone’s following a rule. The chapter explores various ways out of this antinomy without here endorsing any of them.
Expression, Truth, and Reality: Some Variations on Themes from Wright
Authors: Bar-On Dorit
Published: January 2013

In several writings, Crispin Wright lists expressivism among the chief ‘anti-realist paradigms’, and an unsuccessful one at that. The success of expressivism at avoiding unwanted ontological commitments is purchased at the cost of denying that the relevant discourses ‘deal in truth-evaluable contents’. Yet Wright thinks that these discourses do possess truth-evaluability, since they exhibit all the ‘assertoric trappings’, which, on Wright’s minimalist conception, suffice for truth-aptitude and truth. The alliance standardly assumed to exist between expressivism, on the one hand, and the denial of truth-evaluability, as well as anti-realism, on the other, is unfortunate, though historically understandable. Following the neo-expressivist treatment of avowals in Bar-On (2004), this chapter explores the possibility of decoupling the core expressivist idea from the denial of truth-evaluability, and breaking its apparently necessary link to anti-realism. The result presents a viable option in various areas where philosophers have been drawn to expressivism — one which Wright himself may welcome.
Replies Part II: Knowledge of Our Own Minds and Meanings
Authors: Wright Crispin
Published: January 2013

In this second of the replies, the chapters of Smith and Bar-On concerning self-knowledge and our knowledge of our linguistic meanings are discussed and some new reflections on these issues are presented.
Ø-exponence
Authors: Jochen Trommer
Published: January 2013

Zero, especially under the heading of zero morphemes is one of the ideologically most loaded subjects in theoretical morphology and phonology. However, discussions of the topic suffer from partial terminological confusion since ‘zero morpheme’ is a notion which is not well-defined in realizational theories of morphology, and does hence not make technical sense in any major contemporary approach to morphology since these are all basically realizational. The goal of this chapter is to show that zero exponence is ubiquitous and central in current approaches to exponence with quite subtle differences between different frameworks, and to discuss the main restrictions on zero which have been proposed in the literature.
1 Ancient and Modern: The Grocery Trade in Early Modern England
Authors: Stobart Jon
Published: January 2013

Chapter 1 explores the position of grocers and the grocery trade in the period preceding the arrival of new groceries in the middle decades of the seventeenth century. It begins by considering what defined a grocer during this period, arguing that they were defined both in terms of their specialism and stock, and by their mode of trading. This brought a great range of shopkeepers within this area of retail trade. Attention then shifts to long‐term shifts in the nature of grocers' business and stock‐in‐trade up to the seventeenth century, the widespread availability of novel or exotic goods during the early‐modern period suggesting an earlier and deeper penetration of consumer culture than has previously been suggested. Finally, consideration is given to the rise of so‐called colonial groceries and the motivations which underpinned their growing popularity amongst consumers of all social ranks.
3 From Colony to Counter: Networks of Supply
Authors: Stobart Jon
Published: January 2013

This chapter begins by examining the operations of three key intermediaries in the groceries trade: the auctions of the East India Company; the illicit trade in tea, and provincial merchants, who supplied perhaps a narrower range, but significant quantities of goods. Shifts in the relative importance of these can tell us much about the changing supply options open to grocery retailers, but much more is revealed by a detailed examination of the business networks through which individual shopkeepers connected into these wider systems of supply. Drawing on network theory and new institutional economics, the chapter assesses the nature and durability of business relationships, and the role played by reputation and trust in establishing and maintaining such links. This provides a clearer insight the ability of established systems of supply to match growing demand with increasingly global networks of trade.
7 Exotic, Empire, or Everyday? Advertising Groceries
Authors: Stobart Jon
Published: January 2013

This chapter examines the nature and importance of grocery advertising. The chapter consciously juxtaposes the form and content of trade cards and newspaper advertisements: the intensely visual imagery of trade cards with its emphasis of empire and the exotic contrasting with the more prosaic lists of goods and prices that characterise notices in newspapers. However, the picture was more complex than this simple dichotomy would allow, with the exotic and the everyday placed alongside one another in both forms of advertising. The consumer was thus simultaneously situated in a global‐imperial economy and their own consumption milieu. Examining these two contexts and the links between them thus provides a fuller insight into how groceries were perceived by shopkeepers and consumers. More generally, it tells us much about the active role of shopkeepers in shaping demand for what began as ‘new luxuries’ but which increasingly became everyday goods.
Decomposing the mass/count distinction: Evidence from languages that lack it
Authors: Wiltschko Martina
Published: January 2013

This chapter establishes that not all languages have a grammaticized mass/count distinction and consequently we have to distinguish between ontological properties associated with nouns and categorical properties associated with a functional category dominating these nouns. It is argued that the categorical properties associated with the mass/count distinction are tied to a functional category identified as nominal inner aspect. This category can host the feature responsible for the mass/count distinction (i.e, [± bounded]). It is further shown that languages lacking a categorical mass/count distinction come in at least two varieties. They can lack the functional category which may host the [±bounded] feature (Halkomelem). Alternatively, they can associated a different feature with inner aspect. In particular, it is shown that in Blackfoot [±animate] associates with inner aspect. Consequently, in this language, it is animacy, rather than mass/count which serves as the nominal classification device.
On Sociomateriality
Authors: Faulkner Philip , Runde Jochen
Published: January 2013

This chapter examines the foundations of the emerging sociomateriality perspective via a critical analysis of three of its guiding themes: relationality, interpenetration, and “agential cuts.” The chapter argues that what its proponents have to say about relationality is largely unexceptional, but that their claims about the interpenetration of things are probably not sustainable outside a restricted range of cases. While the chapter accepts some aspects of the notion of agential cuts, the chapter qualifies some of the claims made about the extent to which the object world depends on the practices of “agencies of observation.”
Space Matters, But How?
Authors: Fayard Anne-Laure
Published: January 2013

As virtual organizing becomes more common and the boundaries between face-to-face and online interactions blur, developing a conceptualization of virtual space is crucial. This chapter discusses perspectives on space developed by philosophers, geographers, and sociologists to understand how they frame our understanding of virtual space. The chapter argues that, despite the geometrical definition of space as an extension or surface frequently found in the literature, virtual space is deeply material and continuously constructed through practices. The chapter illustrates the construction of virtual space with an interactive multimedia installation. The chapter builds upon Malpas's concept of place to suggest a definition of virtual space that recognizes its material and social dimensions as well as the multiplicity of practices and narratives involved in its enactment.
Theorizing Information Technology as a Material Artifact in Information Systems Research
Authors: Robey Daniel , Raymond Benoit , Anderson Chad
Published: January 2013

Research that includes information technology (IT) artifacts within its scope of focus (e.g., “computer impact” studies) often fails to engage adequately with the material properties of those IT artifacts. The result is a limited theoretical account of the relationship between IT and organizations and individuals. This chapter seeks to address that issue by tracing the disappearance of materiality from the concept of technology in organization theory and offering suggestions for meeting the challenge of carefully defining materiality concepts for IT (e.g., affordances), adapting them to a sociomaterial context, and including them in established theories commonly used in information systems (IS) research (e.g., adaptive structuration theory, organizational routines theory, theory of work–life boundary management).
Why Matter Always Matters in (Organizational) Communication
Authors: Cooren François , Fairhurst Gail , Huët Romain
Published: January 2013

The so-called “linguistic turn” purportedly has allowed scholars to demonstrate why it seems so important to focus on language, discourse, and social interaction when studying organizational phenomena. However, it could be argued that it also led them to neglect some key aspects of the role material agency plays in organizational processes, a negligence that the more recent “material turn” could be said to be addressing. This chapter proposes to show, both theoretically and empirically, that analysts do not actually need to keep turning in one direction or another, that is, choose between materiality and discourse, so to speak, but that they should rather focus on the multiple ways by which various forms of reality (more or less material) come to do things and even express themselves in a given interaction.
Epigenetics and the Environmental Regulation of the Genome and Its Function
Authors: Meaney Michael J.
Published: January 2013

There are enduring effects of early experience on neural function. Such effects are often referred to under the rubric of “developmental programming.” This chapter reviews the emerging evidence for epigenetics as a candidate mechanism for such effects. Epigenetics refers to functionally relevant modifications to the genome that do not involve a change in nucleotide sequence and focuses on the study chemical modifications to chromatin that regulate transcription at specific genomic sites. Environmental events can directly modify the epigenetic states. Studies with rodent models suggest that during both early development and in adult life, environmental signals activate intracellular pathways that directly remodel the “epigenome,” leading to changes in gene expression and neural function. While essentially correlational, clinical studies implicate epigenetic mechanisms in the pathophysiology of human disease. These studies define a biological basis for the interplay between environmental signals and the genome in the regulation of individual differences in neural function.
The Neurobiological Basis of Empathy and Its Development in the Context of Our Evolutionary Heritage
Authors: Nelson Eric E.
Published: January 2013

Empathy, or the ability to share feeling states with other individuals, is an important aspect of affiliative, prosocial behavior in modern-day humans. At a neurobiological level, empathic responding is thought to reflect activity within distinct neural circuits subserving other social processes such as understanding person-specific experiences (theory of mind) and reflexive activation of observed experiences in others (mirror neurons). These circuits likely underwent a great deal of elaboration in the environment of evolutionary adaptedness. Evidence suggests that these same empathic behaviors and brain circuits also undergo dramatic change within individuals as they develop and may be influenced by interactive and contextual variation across development. This chapter reviews these findings and speculates on evolutionary implications.
Dividing the World
Authors: Antrim Zayde
Published: January 2013

This chapter examines the textual practice of dividing the world in early Islamic geographical literature. The resulting regions were represented at a larger scale than cities in the discourse of place, but could still be distinguished from the world as a whole by a degree of particularity and boundedness. By exploring the different methods of dividing the world into regions, including the latitudinal clime (iqlīm) system, the circular kishwar system, and others, this chapter argues that regions were endowed with meanings that differentiated peoples as well as plots of land. It moves on to a consideration of itineraries as a method of spatial organization in world geographies and their emphasis on cities as nodes along linear routes. It argues that even in these works, regions appear as meaningful divisions of the world that transcend the cities within them and the routes that crosscut them and enable particular claims to authority.
Situational Analysis of Young Children in a Changing World
Authors: Engle Patrice L. , Rao Nirmala , Petrovic Oliver
Published: January 2013

Millions of the world’s young children do not develop to their full potential due to factors such as poverty, HIV/AIDS, and armed conflict. This chapter examines child, family, community, and environmental factors affecting the status of the world’s children, and, when data are available, changes in children’s status in recent years. Contextual changes such as urbanization, external migration, socially defined gender roles, and environmental issues that influence the way young children grow and develop are highlighted, and recommendations for policies and programs to improve young children’s well-being are outlined.
Global Policy Landscape and Early Childhood Development
Authors: Britto Pia Rebello , Ulkuer Nurper , Hodges William P. , McCarthy Michael F.
Published: January 2013

International declarations and conventions play a unique role in global development by promoting human rights through principles of equality and nondiscrimination. They establish standards and expectations for development for the world community and set benchmarks against which country-level progress is charted and compared. The science of early childhood development (ECD) is rapidly emerging as a focus of international attention. Although young children are mentioned in these global documents, no systematic examination has been made of how they are presented. In considering this question, it is important to distinguish between statements concerning children as intrinsically valuable humans, important in their own right and deserving of services, and children as instrumentally valuable, an important locus of investment due to their future contribution to society. This chapter provides a clear understanding of how rarely ECD is reflected in international declarations and conventions and how ECD evidence must be translated and effectively communicated to inform both global and national policies.
Voices Less Heard
Authors: Pence Alan
Published: January 2013

The last two decades have witnessed unparalleled international interest regarding the development of policies and programs for young children. This chapter places the contemporary discourse into the historical and sociophilosophical contexts that have shaped it. Although the current discourse is impressive, the relative absence of literatures led from the majority (developing) world, and those that utilize critical lenses, restrict the generalizability of the findings. To develop a literature that is more relevant and useful for populations globally, other voices and perspectives must be supported and heard. After introducing examples of such other perspectives that can help broaden and deepen the literature, the chapter identifies policies, programs, research, and training approaches that have opened up to diverse perspectives and promoted local participation and decision making. Such means of opening to other views and becoming more truly global in nature are considered critically important for the future of ECD in international development.
Capacity Building for Early Childhood Development
Authors: Hommel Sara L.
Published: January 2013

The success of sustained expansion of quality ECD programming depends critically on the capacity in practice and the capacity in knowledge among all relevant stakeholders, including designers, planners, trainers, managers, practitioners, monitors and evaluators, funders, and parents. Capacity in practice refers to the skills of direct practitioners, such as preschool teachers, nurses, and social workers. Equally essential is the capacity in knowledge of policymakers, program designers, training institutions, implementing managers, funders and donors, and, ultimately, parents and community members. All of these must have enough knowledge of the larger system and their place in it to play their roles successfully. For this purpose, capacity building strategies for both practice and knowledge must be developed in advance and remain in place after completion of the scaling process to ensure quality sustainability at scale.
Effective Financing
Authors: Valerio Alexandria , Garcia Marito H.
Published: January 2013

Early childhood development (ECD) is a fundamental building block in the formation of human capital. A wide body of research demonstrates the economic and social returns to investing in ECD. Although the benefits of investing in ECD are well established, competing demands for funding often pit these investments against other social and economic priorities. As a result, countries face critical ECD finance shortfalls, which impact the quality, comprehensiveness, and coverage of ECD services. This chapter seeks to present policymakers and researchers with a conceptual framework that provides a set of normative elements of effective ECD finance. In the absence of a single ideal and replicable model for effective ECD finance, we set forth three elements to serve as normative elements for evaluating the effectiveness of an ECD finance strategy: sustainability, equity, and administrative simplicity. We argue that policymakers must effectively balance these three interrelated elements within their unique contexts in order to adequately support their ECD objectives.
Institutional Problems Require Institutional Solutions
Authors: Hayot Eric
Published: January 2013

This chapter discusses four ways to create new periods, none of which requires abandoning the basic premises of period-based history. While the projects emerging from these new periods are easy enough to imagine, what we need most are examples of how to do them, which requires an openness to experimental forms of scholarship. This book aims to provide one example of what experimentation in literary history would look like. The notion of aesthetic worldedness, as well as the variables that govern it, both developed in Part 1 of the book, are essentially transhistorical or even ahistorical analytic categories designed to draw attention to a feature of the artwork (its “world”) and some ways that we can observe its alterations. The system of modes that appears in Part 2 tracks the system or structure governing the actual shapes of aesthetic worldedness in a single social mode (which overlaps, obviously, with the historical period that bears its name). Among the effects on the literary institution of an imaginary, wholescale adoption of the terms in the first two parts of this book would be the development of some new kinds of scholarship.
Ẓafar-Nāmah, Fatḥ-Nāmah, Ḥikāyats, and the Dasam Granth
Authors: Fenech Louis E.
Published: January 2013

Provides the literary context of the Ẓafar-Nāmah, its situation within the Dasam Granth, and its place among other texts with which it is generally associated in early and contemporary Sikh historiography such as the little-known Fatḥ -nāmah (Letter of Victory) attributed to the tenth Guru and the Ḥikāyats (Stories), which some scholars believe form the epistle’s appendix.
Authorship
Authors: Fenech Louis E.
Published: January 2013

Chapter 4 queries the authorship of the Ẓafar-Nāmah
The Historiography of the Ẓafar-nāmah
Authors: Fenech Louis E.
Published: January 2013

Chapter 6 focuses upon the intriguing place the Ẓafar-nāmah has been accorded in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Sikh historiography and hagiography.
Conclusion
Authors: Fenech Louis E.
Published: January 2013

The book will conclude with a brief examination of the Ẓafar-nāmah’s place in Sikh popular art, which will also suggest how Sikhs today appropriate and engage the Ẓafar-nāmah.
Genetic analysis in 418 index patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy: overview of 10 years' experience
Authors: van Spaendonck‐Zwarts Karin Y. , van Rijsingen Ingrid A.W. , van den Berg Maarten P. , Lekanne Deprez Ronald H. , Post Jan G. , van Mil Anneke M. , Asselbergs Folkert W. , Christiaans Imke , van Langen Irene M. , Wilde Arthur A.M. , de Boer Rudolf A. , Jongbloed Jan D.H. , Pinto Yigal M. , van Tintelen J. Peter
Published: January 2013

Aims

With more than 40 dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM)‐related genes known, genetic analysis of patients with idiopathic DCM is costly and time‐consuming. We describe the yield from genetic analysis in DCM patients in a large Dutch cohort.

Methods and results

We collected cardiological and neurological evaluations, family screenings, and genetic analyses for 418 index patients with idiopathic DCM. We identified 35 (putative) pathogenic mutations in 82 index patients (20%). The type of DCM influenced the yield, with mutations found in 25% of familial DCM cases, compared with 8% of sporadic DCM cases and 62% of cases where DCM was accompanied by neuromuscular disease. A PLN founder mutation (43 cases) and LMNA mutations (19 cases, 16 different mutations) were most prevalent and often demonstrated a specific phenotype. Other mutations were found in: MYH7, DES, TNNT2, DMD, TPM1, DMPK, SCN5A, SGCB (homozygous), and TNNI3. After a median follow‐up of 40 months, the combined outcome of death from any cause, heart transplantation, or malignant ventricular arrhythmias in patients with a mutation was worse than in those without an identified mutation (hazard ratio 2.0, 95% confidence interval 1.4–3.0). This seems to be mainly attributable to a high prevalence of malignant ventricular arrhythmias and end‐stage heart failure in LMNA and PLN mutation carriers.

Conclusion

The yield of identified mutations in DCM index patients with clinical clues, such as associated neuromuscular disease or familial occurrence, is higher compared with those without these clues. For sporadic DCM, specific clinical characteristics may be used to select cases for DNA analysis.
Null electromagnetic fields and relative Cauchy–Riemann embeddings
Authors: Holland Jonathan , Sparling George
Published: January 2013

This paper applies the notion of relative Cauchy–Riemann (CR) embeddings to study two related questions. First, it answers negatively the question posed by Penrose whether every shear-free null rotating congruence is analytic. Second, it proves that, given any shear-free null rotating congruence in Minkowski space, there exists a null electromagnetic field that is null with respect to the given congruence. In the course of answering these questions, we introduce some new techniques for studying null electromagnetic fields and shear-free congruences, in general, based on the notion of a relative CR embedding.
Bis(diisopropylammonium) thiosulfate and bis(tert-butylammonium) thiosulfate
Authors: Okuniewski Andrzej , Chojnacki Jaroslaw , Baranowska Katarzyna , Becker Barbara
Published: January 2013

Two new dialkylammonium thiosulfates, namely bis(diisopropylammonium) thiosulfate, 2C6H16N+·S2O32−, (I), and bis(tert-butylammonium) thiosulfate, 2C4H12N+·S2O32−, (II), have been characterized. The secondary ammonium salt (I) crystallizes withZ= 4, while the primary ammonium salt (II), with more hydrogen-bond donors, crystallizes withZ= 8 and a noncrystallographic centre of inversion. In both salts, the organic cations and thiosulfate anions are linked within extensive N—H...O and N—H...S hydrogen-bond networks, forming extended two-dimensional layers. Layers are parallel to (10\overline{1}) in (I) and to (002) in (II), and have a polar interior and a nonpolar hydrocarbon exterior. The layered structure and hydrogen-bond motifs observed in (I) and (II) are similar to those in related ammonium sulfates.
Ethyl 4-anilino-2,6-bis(4-fluorophenyl)-1-phenyl-1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridine-3-carboxylate
Authors: Anthal Sumati , Brahmachari Goutam , Das Suvankar , Kant Rajni , Gupta Vivek K.
Published: January 2013

In the title compound, C32H28F2N2O2, the tetrahydropyridine ring adopts a distorted boat conformation. The two fluorophenyl groups are attached to the tetrahydropyridine ring in atransorientation. The dihedral angle between the planes of the fluoro-substituted rings is 57.0 (1)°. The amino group and carbonyl O atom are involved in intramolecular hydrogen bonding. In the crystal, weak C—H...O, C—H...F and C—H...π interactions link the molecules into columns along [010].
Hyperemesis gravidarum and risks of placental dysfunction disorders: a population‐based cohort study
Authors: Bolin M , Åkerud H , Cnattingius S , Stephansson O , Wikström AK
Published: January 2013

Objective

To study whether pregnancies complicated by hyperemesis gravidarum in the first (<12 weeks) or second (12–21 weeks) trimester are associated with placental dysfunction disorders.

Design

Population‐based cohort study.

Setting

Sweden.

Population

All pregnancies in the Swedish Medical Birth Register estimated to have started on 1 January 1997 or later and ended in a single birth on 31 December 2009 or earlier (n = 1 156 050).

Methods

Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were estimated for placental dysfunction disorders in women with an inpatient diagnosis of hyperemesis gravidarum, using women without inpatient diagnosis of hyperemesis gravidarum as reference. Risks were adjusted for maternal age, parity, body mass index, height, smoking, cohabitation with the infant's father, infant's sex, mother's country of birth, education, presence of hyperthyreosis, pregestational diabetes mellitus, chronic hypertension and year of infant birth.

Main outcome measures

Placental dysfunction disorders, i.e. pre‐eclampsia, placental abruption, stillbirth and small for gestational age (SGA).

Results

Women with hyperemesis gravidarum in the first trimester had only a slightly increased risk of pre‐eclampsia. Women with hyperemesis gravidarum with first admission in the second trimester had a more than doubled risk of preterm (<37 weeks) pre‐eclampsia, a threefold increased risk of placental abruption and a 39% increased risk of an SGA birth (adjusted odds ratios [95% confidence intervals] were: 2.09 [1.38–3.16], 3.07 [1.88–5.00] and 1.39 [1.06–1.83], respectively).

Conclusions

There is an association between hyperemesis gravidarum and placental dysfunction disorders, which is especially strong for women with hyperemesis gravidarum in the second trimester.
Mitochondrial genome primers for Lake Malawi cichlids
Authors: Darrin Hulsey C. , Keck Benjamin P. , Alamillo Hugo , O'Meara Brian C.
Published: January 2013

Resolving the evolutionary history of rapidly diversifying lineages like the Lake Malawi Cichlid Flock demands powerful phylogenetic tools. Although this clade of over 500 species of fish likely diversified in less than two million years, the availability of extensive sequence data sets, such as complete mitochondrial genomes, could help resolve evolutionary patterns in this group. Using a large number of newly developed primers, we generated whole mitochondrial genome sequences for 14 Lake Malawi cichlids. We compared sequence divergence across protein‐coding regions of the mitochondrial genome and also compared divergence in the mitochondrial loci to divergence at two nuclear protein‐coding loci, Mitfb and Dlx2. Despite the widespread sharing of haplotypes of identical sequences at individual loci, the combined use of all protein‐coding mitochondrial loci provided a bifurcating phylogenetic hypothesis for the exemplars of major lineages within the Lake Malawi cichlid radiation. The primers presented here could have substantial utility for evolutionary analyses of mitochondrial evolution and hybridization within this diverse clade.
A sensitive and specific multiplex PCR approach for sex identification of ursine and tremarctine bears suitable for non‐invasive samples
Authors: Bidon Tobias , Frosch Christiane , Eiken Hans G. , Kutschera Verena E. , Hagen Snorre B. , Aarnes Siv G. , Fain Steven R. , Janke Axel , Hailer Frank
Published: January 2013

We report a new approach for molecular sex identification of extant Ursinae and Tremarctinae bears. Two Y‐specific fragments (SMCY and 318.2) and one X‐specific fragment (ZFX) are amplified in a multiplex PCR, yielding a double test for male‐specific amplification and an internal positive control. The primers were designed and tested to be bear‐specific, thereby minimizing the risk of cross‐amplification in other species including humans. The high sensitivity and small amplicon sizes (100, 124, 160 base pairs) facilitate analysis of non‐invasively obtained DNA material. DNA from tissue and blood as well as from 30 non‐invasively collected hair and faeces yielded clear and easily interpretable results. The fragments were detected both by standard gel electrophoresis and automated capillary electrophoresis.
geomorph: anrpackage for the collection and analysis of geometric morphometric shape data
Authors: Adams Dean C. , Otárola‐Castillo Erik
Published: January 2013

Many ecological and evolutionary studies seek to explain patterns of shape variation and its covariation with other variables. Geometric morphometrics is often used for this purpose, where a set of shape variables are obtained from landmark coordinates following aProcrustes superimposition.

We introduce geomorph: a software package for performing geometric morphometric shape analysis in therstatistical computing environment.

Geomorph provides routines for all stages of landmark‐based geometric morphometric analyses in two and three‐dimensions. It is an open source package to read, manipulate, and digitize landmark data, generate shape variables viaProcrustes analysis for points, curves and surfaces, perform statistical analyses of shape variation and covariation, and to provide graphical depictions of shapes and patterns of shape variation. An important contribution of geomorph is the ability to performProcrustes superimposition on landmark points, as well as semilandmarks from curves and surfaces.

A wide range of statistical methods germane to testing ecological and evolutionary hypotheses of shape variation are provided. These include standard multivariate methods such as principal components analysis, and approaches for multivariate regression and group comparison. Methods for more specialized analyses, such as for assessing shape allometry, comparing shape trajectories, examining morphological integration, and for assessing phylogenetic signal, are also included.

Several functions are provided to graphically visualize results, including routines for examining variation in shape space, visualizing allometric trajectories, comparing specific shapes to one another and for plotting phylogenetic changes in morphospace.

Finally, geomorph participates to make available advanced geometric morphometric analyses through therstatistical computing platform.
Individual differences in cocaine addiction: maladaptive behavioural traits
Authors: Homberg Judith R. , Karel Peter , Verheij Michel M. M.
Published: January 2013

Cocaine use leads to addiction in only a subset of individuals. Understanding the mechanisms underlying these individual differences in the transition from cocaine use to cocaine abuse is important to develop treatment strategies. There is agreement that specific behavioural traits increase the risk for addiction. As such, both high impulsivity and high anxiety have been reported to predict (compulsive) cocaine self‐administration behaviour. Here, we set out a new view explaining how these two behavioural traits may affect addictive behaviour. According to psychological and psychiatric evolutionary views, organisms flourish well when they fit (match) their environment by trait and genotype. However, under non‐fit conditions, the need to compensate the failure to deal with this environment increases, and, as a consequence, the functional use of rewarding drugs like cocaine may also increase. It suggests that neither impulsivity nor anxiety are bad per se, but that the increased risk to develop cocaine addiction is dependent on whether behavioural traits are adaptive or maladaptive in the environment to which the animals are exposed. This ‘behavioural (mal)adaptation view’ on individual differences in vulnerability to cocaine addiction may help to improve therapies for addiction.
Paediatric oral peanut challenges: a comparison of practice in London and Western Switzerland
Authors: Ludman S. , Wassenberg J. , Du Toit G. , Fox A. T. , Lack G. , Eigenmann P. A.
Published: January 2013

Background

There are guidelines on how to develop a food challenge protocol, but at present there is no gold standard guidance on method, and separate units produce differing protocols.

Methods

We performed a retrospective analysis of 200 patients’ data from the paediatric allergy units in Lausanne and Geneva, Western Switzerland, and St Thomas’ Hospital (STH), UK.

Results

St Thomas’ Hospital has a younger cohort with a lower overall mean spIgE (2.36 kU/l vs 8.00 kU/l, P = 0.004). The target peanut protein volumes differed: Switzerland 4.4 g vs STH 8.4 g. Despite this, the dose actually achieved in positive challenges was not significantly different (2.33 g vs 1.49 g, P = 0.16). 26% of challenges reacted at 4 g or more of peanut protein.

Conclusions

The differences in results highlight how the variation in reasoning behind food challenge alters the outcome. Standardization of food challenges would allow easy comparison between hospitals and geographical areas for research purposes.
Evaluation of a theory of planned behaviour–based breastfeeding intervention in Northern Irish Schools using a randomized cluster design
Authors: Giles Melanie , McClenahan Carol , Armour Cherie , Millar Samantha , Rae Gordon , Mallett John , Stewart‐Knox Barbara
Published: January 2013

Objective

The aim of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of a school‐based intervention designed to enhance young people's motivations to breastfeed.

Design

A cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted involving 50 post‐primary schools from across Northern Ireland. However, dropout and exclusion criteria utilized for the current study resulted in an effective sample size of 42 schools.

Methods

The intervention was delivered in two 35‐min classroom sessions targeting those beliefs identified by the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) as significant in predicting motivation to breastfeed. Questionnaires incorporating the key components of the TPB were administered to all intervention and control schools at baseline, 1 and 6 months post‐intervention. Multi‐level modelling was used to analyse the data.

Results

Findings suggest that the intervention was effective in that it increased females' intentions to breastfeed, expanded their knowledge and led to more favourable attitudes and perceptions of subjective norms. Notably, females' knowledge increased more in secondary schools than in grammar schools irrespective of whether they were control or intervention schools.

Conclusion

The research has provided evidence to support the use of the TPB in the design and evaluation of an intervention to increase females' intentions to breastfeed.

Statement of contribution

What is already known on this subject? The beneficial effects of breastfeeding are widely documented, and exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of an infant's life continues to be encouraged. However, Northern Ireland still has the lowest rates of breastfeeding in Europe and one of the lowest rates of breastfeeding worldwide. The school system has the potential to positively promote breastfeeding, but work here is sporadic and uncoordinated. The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) is a useful framework for designing and evaluating behavioural change interventions, but as yet, no study has designed and evaluated the effectiveness of an intervention specifically targeted at those beliefs identified as important in predicting uptake of a particular behaviour.

What does this study add? This study provides evidence to support: The effectiveness of a randomized controlled trial in health psychology. The efficacy of the TPB as a useful framework for the design and evaluation of a behavioural change intervention. The school system as a means of promoting positive attitudes to breastfeeding.
Cognitive biases in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and depression – a pilot study
Authors: Fritzsche Anja , Watz Henrik , Magnussen Helgo , Tuinmann Gert , Löwe Bernd , von Leupoldt Andreas
Published: January 2013

Objectives

Comorbid depression is highly prevalent in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and associated with a worse course of disease; however, the exact mechanisms linking both remain unclear. In currently depressed individuals without lung disease, depression‐specific biases in information processing have been suggested as risk factors for the development and maintenance of depression. We examined whether comparable biases in cognitive information processing might underlie depression in COPD.

Design

Different aspects of cognitive information processing were examined with computer‐based tasks measuring selective attention and memory in patients with COPD who were compared with age‐matched, currently depressed patients without lung disease and healthy control participants.

Methods

The Self‐Referential Encoding and Incidental Recall Task as well as the emotion face dot‐probe task was applied to 21 never‐depressed COPD patients, 18 currently depressed COPD patients, 20 currently depressed patients without lung disease and 19 healthy controls to examine cognitive biases.

Results

In both patients with COPD who were never and who were currently depressed, depression‐like cognitive biases were observed for some attention‐ and memory‐related tasks, but not for all tested aspects of information processing. These biases were particularly prominent in patients with COPD and current depression and comparable to those observed in currently depressed patients without lung disease.

Conclusions

The results of this pilot study suggest that patients with COPD may potentially show depression‐like biases in some aspects of cognitive information processing. Future studies are required to examine whether these biases represent a vulnerability factor for the development of depression in patients with COPD.

Statement of contribution

What is already known on this subject? Depression is a highly prevalent comorbidity in patients with COPD and associated with a negative course of disease, as well as considerable social and economic burden. Cognitive biases in information processing are important aspects since they have been shown to be risk factors in the onset as well as maintenance of depression.

What does this study add? Depressed COPD and lung healthy depressed patients show comparable cognitive biases. Some cognitive biases are even present in COPD without depression. This could be an explanation for vulnerability to depression in COPD.
The evolutionary ecology of alternative migratory tactics in salmonid fishes
Authors: Dodson Julian J. , Aubin‐Horth Nadia , Thériault Véronique , Páez David J.
Published: January 2013

Extensive individual variation in spatial behaviour is a common feature among species that exhibit migratory life cycles. Nowhere is this more evident than in salmonid fishes; individual fish may complete their entire life cycle in freshwater streams, others may migrate variable distances at sea and yet others limit their migrations to larger rivers or lakes before returning to freshwater streams to spawn. This review presents evidence that individual variation in migratory behaviour and physiology in salmonid fishes is controlled by developmental thresholds and that part of the variation in proximal traits activating the development of alternative migratory tactics is genetically based. We summarize evidence that alternative migratory tactics co‐exist within populations and that all individuals may potentially adopt any of the alternative phenotypes. Even though intra‐specific genetic divergence of migratory tactics is uncommon, it may occur if female competition for oviposition sites results in spawning segregation of alternative phenotypes. Because of their polygenic nature, alternative migratory tactics are considered as threshold traits. Threshold traits have two characteristics: an underlying 'liability' trait that varies in a continuous fashion, and a threshold value which is responsible for the discreetness observed in phenotypic distribution. We review evidence demonstrating that body size is an adequate proxy for the liability trait controlling the decision to migrate, but that the same phenotypic outcome (anadromy or residency) may be reached by different developmental pathways. The evidence suggesting a significant heritable component in the development of alternative migratory tactics is subsequently reviewed, leading us to conclude that alternative migratory tactics have considerable potential to respond to selection and evolve. We review what is known about the proximal physiological mechanisms mediating the translation of the continuous value of the liability trait into a discontinuous migratory tactic. We conclude by identifying several avenues for future research, including testing the frequency‐dependent selection hypothesis, establishing the relative importance of adaptive phenotypic plasticity in explaining some geographic gradients in migratory behaviour and identifying the physiological and genetic basis of the switching mechanisms responsible for alternative migratory tactics.