bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Adaptations to Predators and Prey
Authors: Barrett H. Clark
Published: November 2015

Predator‐prey interactions have shaped our evolutionary lineage since long before we were human. Predation has had a profound influence on the evolution of our perceptual, emotional, cognitive, and social systems, stretching back to the origin of vertebrates. More recently, hunting has shaped the evolution of the hominin lineage, including the evolution of big brains, tool use, and cultural transmission in our genus. This chapter reviews the many influences predator‐prey interactions have had on human psychology. A survey of the evolutionary history of predator‐prey interactions in our lineage is followed by reviews of the influence of predator‐prey interactions on various domains of human psychology including perception, foraging, emotions, learning, inference, and reasoning. The chapter concludes with suggestions for future research on the influence of predator‐prey interactions on human psychology and behavior.
Physical Attractiveness: An Adaptationist Perspective
Authors: Sugiyama Lawrence S.
Published: November 2015

How and why do our minds generate different levels of attraction to others? This chapter integrates life history, evolutionary psychology, and human biology approaches to address this question. Biological adaptations regulate a vast number of life history trade‐offs that affect how we look, smell, sound, and behave. Selection produced adaptations that evaluate these cues and regulate our degree of attraction to others based on their relative probable social value to us in different contexts. This chapter outlinesthe alternative evolutionary explanations for the emergence of an attraction,basic components necessary for attraction systems to evolve, and sources of variation in attractiveness assessment. It identifies different domains of social value for which attractiveness assessment evolved, reviews evidence for some of the hypothesized attractiveness‐assessment adaptations in those domains, and highlights avenues calling for increased attention. Finally, it calls for greater integration of evolutionary psychology, human biological research, and data from small‐scale foraging societies to generate predictions about these domains of social value, the cues or signals associated with them, adaptations selected to regulate attraction to them, and the life history trade‐offs involved in these processes. New research on body shape attractiveness is presented to illustrate these points.
Contest Competition in Men
Authors: Puts David A. , Bailey Drew H. , Reno Philip L.
Published: November 2015

In this chapter, we explore how men's phenotypes, including their psychologies, have been shaped by contest competition, a form of sexual selection involving the use of force or threat of force to exclude same‐sex competitors from mates. We first evaluate the intensity of sexual selection in men, finding evidence of a positive and moderately strong relationship between men's mating success and reproductive success, and between each of these and putative sexually selected traits. Next, we use a comparative and functional approach to evaluate how men's phenotypes were shaped specifically by contest competition. Contrary to inferences made from our negligible canine size and modest body mass dimorphism, we find that human beings are sexually differentiated along dimensions expected of a species with an evolutionary history of male contests, and that men's phenotypes show evidence of design for contest competition. Finally, we explore how contests may have contributed to male mating and reproductive success over human evolution.
Women's Sexual Interests Across the Ovulatory Cycle
Authors: Gangestad Steven W. , Thornhill Randy , Garver‐Apgar Christine E.
Published: November 2015

Women can conceive an offspring about 6 days of every ovulatory cycle and yet are sexually active throughout the cycle. But why? And are women's sexual interests nonetheless sensitive to hormonal changes across the cycle? This chapter explores these issues, and emphasizes several themes: (a) Women appear to have retained a form of fertile‐phase estrus, which shares functional and physiological underpinnings with estrus of other primates; (b) a key unresolved question is whether nonconceptive sexual interests are a diminished form of estrous interests (the graded sexuality model) or have been shaped to have distinct functions (the extended sexuality model); (c) whether and how women's estrous sexual interests have been modified since the evolution of pairbonding also remains unresolved; (d) women are subtly more attractive during the fertile phase, but likely as a by‐product of hormonal variations and not because women signal their fertility status.
Sexual Coercion
Authors: Huppin Mark , Malamuth Neil M.
Published: November 2015

We highlight evolutionary psychological perspectives on sexual coercion, with consideration to hypotheses regarding evolved mechanisms for both males and females. We suggest that over evolutionary history, the possibility of being raped is liable to have been a particularly costly adaptive risk for females relative to the potential adaptive gains for men of being able to impose their will by forcing sexual intercourse. We therefore expect that clearer evidence can be found in women for evolved psychological mechanisms designed to limit the costs of such forced sexual mating than evidence supporting the existence of specialized mechanisms in men. A growing body of research on females' counteradaptations designed to minimize the cost imposed by males' coercion, including studies on the effects of ovulatory cycle status, indeed largely supports the existence of evolved specialized mechanisms in females designed to avoid being sexually coerced. Furthermore, we do find some supportive evidence for the possibility that for males, sexual arousal to force may be an evolved specialized mechanism that under certain conditions may serve as an approach emotion designed to increase the likelihood of engaging in sexually coercive behavior. We outline a model, theevolutionary functionalmodel, whichconsiders the possibility that some perceived negative reactions from females may calibratethis mechanism for some men in a direction more conducive to engaging in coercion. We summarize how this model has fared in its predictions in contrast to other models focusing only on proximate causes as well as to a by‐product evolutionary model.
Parental Investment and Parent‐Offspring Conflict
Authors: Salmon Catherine
Published: November 2015

Not all species engage in parental care. As researchers have noted, investment by parents in offspring is investment that cannot be directed elsewhere, into either somatic effort or other mating opportunities. Which parental and offspring factors influence the degree of parental investment is one of the focuses of this chapter. An additional focus is conflict between parents and offspring. At first glance, the relationship between parent and child seems to begin in perfect harmony. The image of parents' devotion to their infant is one that has been depicted in art for thousands of years and sometimes seems like a sharp contrast to the modern portrayal of the typical adolescent‐parent relationship as full of strife. But is either image really accurate? What factors shape the degree of conflict between parent and child? An adaptationist perspective provides useful insight into these questions.
The Evolutionary Ecology of the Family
Authors: Mace Ruth
Published: November 2015

All human societies base social organization around the building block of families, but the nature of those families does vary through history and around the world. Here I outline how evolutionary ecology provides a framework that can be used to explain a range of phenomena to do with our socialorganization and cultural norms (such as marriage, kinship systems, and descent), reproductive physiology (such as menopause), and parentingbehavior (such as parental investment or a lack of it). Many of these features coevolve to generate the diversity that we observe, both within and between cultures, in human family life. I also address some evolutionary puzzles, including the demographic transition to low fertility, and the prevalence of male homosexuality.
Interpersonal Conflict and Violence
Authors: Daly Martin
Published: November 2015

The investigation of interpersonal conflict and violence requires a sound theory of the nature of self‐interests. The requisite theory is Darwin's: Motives and emotions evolved to promote fitness in ancestral environments, and we thus experience our interests as conflicting in situations where one party's expected fitness can be enhanced at the expense of another's.

Fundamental overlaps and conflicts of interest are relationship‐specific. Genetic relatedness is an obvious and primary determinant of the degree to which fitness interests overlap, and is thus expected to mitigate conflict and facilitate forgiveness. Sexual relationship is more fraught, since the powerful overlap of interests that derives from reproducing together can be undermined by cuckoldry, defection, investment in distinct kindreds, and shirking. Treating homicide as an assay of intense interpersonal conflict, I review how these and other such insights have generated novel predictions about homicide rates and patterns. Evolutionary thinking has motivated numerous discoveries about the demography and epidemiology of violence that had escaped those whose imaginations were not informed by Darwinism.
Women's Competition and Aggression
Authors: Campbell Anne
Published: November 2015

For female mammals, the rewards of aggression (such as increased rank) rarely outweigh the costs (injury or death). These costs exert a stronger effect on natural selection in females than males because offspring survival depends more strongly on maternal than paternal survival. To support the proposal that greater avoidance of aggression (and other risky activities) by women is mediated by a more reactive fear system, experimental, psychometric, hormonal, and neuroimaging studies are reviewed. Evidence suggests that monogamy, characteristic of theHomoline for over a million years, has resulted from sexual conflict (reproductive advantage accruing to women more than men) rather than sexual selection (within‐sex advantage to men who remained with a single mate). However, monogamy means that women as well as men must compete for the best mates. This competition is usually expressed through intersexual strategies in which women advertise those traits favored by men or through low‐risk indirect forms of within‐sex aggression (e.g., stigmatizing, ostracizing). Ecological factors including age, early menarche, operational sex ratio, extreme variance in male resources, and local cultural norms can decrease the threshold for women's use of direct physical aggression.
Prejudices: Managing Perceived Threats to Group Life
Authors: Neuberg Steven L. , DeScioli Peter
Published: November 2015

From an evolutionary perspective, prejudices, stereotypes, and discriminatory behaviors can be viewed as functionally organized strategies designed to manage the threats and opportunities posed by the human forms of sociality. This chapter explores, first, the evolved psychological mechanisms by which individuals (1) identify those who afford fitness threats and opportunities and (2) respond to them in threat‐mitigating and opportunity‐enhancing ways; these affordance management systems contribute significantly to stigma, prejudices, and discrimination. Second, people create within‐group coalitions to counter threats posed by other group members, and the chapter reviews the implications of alliance‐based processes for within‐coalitional prejudices, group‐on‐group conflict, and prejudices against foreigners. Last, the chapter discusses the implications of evolutionary approaches for reducing prejudices and intergroup conflict. By identifying new prejudice phenomena and by anticipating undiscovered nuances in known phenomena, the evolutionary approach poses significant challenges to traditional social psychological and sociological approaches.
The False Allure of Group Selection
Authors: Pinker Steven
Published: November 2015

Does the human mind include psychological adaptations that were selected because they fostered the competitive advantage of ancestral groups, even if they harmed the individuals that bore those adaptations? This notion of group selection is the default folk theory of evolution among most nonbiologists, and even among many biologists until the 1960s, when the theory was shown to be at best improbable and at worst incoherent. Nonetheless group selection refuses to die, and has recently been endorsed by a few prominent biologists and anthropologists. I show that the intuitive appeal of group selection is based on multiple confusions. First, group psychology—the phenomenon in which people identify and make sacrifices for their group—should not be equated with group selection. Second, the size, power, influence, or geographic spread of a group over the course of history (the loose analogue of fitness in cultural evolution) is not analogous to an increase in the number of copies of a replicator in biological evolution. Finally, the appeal of group selection rests on an unexamined and highly implausible assumption: that the groups most victorious in violent combat were those that practiced the greatest degree of kindness and generosity within their own societies. I conclude that the theory of natural selection should be invoked in its rigorous sense of the differential representation of replicators across generations, and that “group selection” is a pernicious concept in evolutionary psychology, guaranteed to confuse.
Evolutionary Cognitive Psychology
Authors: Todd Peter M. , Hertwig Ralph , Hoffrage Ulrich
Published: November 2015

The usual approach to studying cognition in evolutionary psychology is in terms of information‐processing mechanisms selected to solve domain‐specific problems. But there are also important selective forces operating widely across domains, leading to common design features in many cognitive systems. In particular, the costs of gathering information, and of using too much information, can be reduced by decision mechanisms that rely on very limited information—or even a lack of information—to come to their choices. The pressures to use small amounts of appropriate information may also have produced particular patterns of forgetting in long‐term memory and particular limits of capacity in short‐term memory. Finally, selection for being able to think about past sets of events can help explain why different representations of the same information, for instance samples versus probabilities, can produce widely varying responses from people. Thus, an evolutionary perspective that takes into account environmental considerations can not only uncover domain‐specific cognitive mechanisms, but also shed new light on topics of central interest to traditional cognitive psychologists, including decision making, memory, and representations of information.
Evolutionary Social Psychology
Authors: Kenrick Douglas T. , Maner Jon K. , Li Norman P.
Published: November 2015

Social psychology holds a central place in human evolution. Much of human behavior is organized around a relatively small set of fundamental motives, each linked to a major adaptive challenge posed by ancestral environments. This chapter organizes research and theory in evolutionary social psychology around seven key motivational domains of social life—coalition formation, disease avoidance, self‐protection, status, mate choice, mate retention, and parental care. Each of these domains involves different problems and opportunities, and requires somewhat different decision rules for adaptive behavior. What is an appropriate exchange rule when dealing with a stranger in the marketplace does not apply to interactions with close kin. Still a different set of rules applies to friends and potential mates. Similarly, the decisionrules involved in seeking status are very different from those involved in forming alliances with new friends.
Biological Function and Dysfunction: Conceptual Foundations of Evolutionary Psychopathology
Authors: Wakefield Jerome C.
Published: November 2015

The concept of function is at the foundation of evolutionary psychology, and dysfunction—failure of biological function—is foundational to theories of psychopathology. Clarity about these concepts' meanings is essential for testing hypotheses and resolving controversies in these fields. This chapter details some disputes about these concepts, addresses some confusions (e.g., Gould's claims about “exaptation”), and reviews recent advances by philosophers of biology in understanding functions as naturally selected effects. Conceptual analysis leads to the conclusion that “function”—in the sense most relevant to evolutionary psychology and clinical theory—refers to effects of an organism's features that somehow explain why the intricately structured features that produce them exist and are structured the way they are (e.g., the fact that hands allow us to grasp cannot be accidental, but somehow must explain why hands are structured as they are). Darwin's scientific discoveries revealed that the most plausible way to understand such intuitions is in terms of natural selection. Consequently, judgments of psychological normality and disorder are in fact judgments about evolutionarily designed psychological features and their failure to produce naturally selected effects. Mental disorders can be best conceived as harmful dysfunctions of naturally selected psychological mechanisms. Some recent applications of the harmful dysfunction analysis, as well as common confusions in applying evolutionary theory to psychopathology, are discussed. The validity of the diagnostic criteria used by clinicians and researchers every day to distinguish disorder from normality hangs on our understanding of human psychological design and thus on progress in evolutionary psychology.
Evolution and Consumer Psychology
Authors: Saad Gad
Published: November 2015

The consumer realm offers a window into our evolved human nature. Many consumer choices, preferences, and behaviors are rooted in one of four key Darwinian clusters: (1) survival (e.g., gustatory penchant for highly caloric foods); (2) mating (e.g., employing products as sexual signals); (3) kin selection (e.g., the effects of genetic relatedness and genetic assuredness on gift giving); and (4) reciprocal altruism (gift‐giving rituals among nonkin). The evolutionary lens provides consumer researchers important benefits including the ability to identify novel research questions, and greater interdisciplinarity, methodological pluralism, theoretical parsimony, and consilience.Homo consumericuscannot be entirely understood without acknowledging the evolutionary forces that have forged our minds and bodies.
Evolution and Organizational Leadership
Authors: Nicholson Nigel
Published: November 2015

Leadership among all social species is an efficient mechanism for collective adaptive coordination and direction of effort. Taking a multilevel selection view of human leadership shows how it may take many forms according to circumstances—there is no one right way to lead, for leadership situations vary widely. This chapter explains the differing demands of leadership historically and across business and social structures in terms of a shifting adaptive equilibrium between leadership situations, processes and qualities (the SPQ model). The model explains the duality of leaders as emerging to meet situational demands—history makes leaders—and their role as agents in “niche construction”—leaders make history. The chapter revisits the history of leadership theory via this framework, and what might be some of the universals of the adaptive processes inherent in leadership among humans. The chapter concludes by considering the future prospects for leadership, including shared leadership, the expanding possibilities for women, and the importance of self‐regulatory processes to ensure leadership success.
Evolutionary Psychology and the Law
Authors: Jones Owen D.
Published: November 2015

This chapter explores the implications of evolutionary psychology and biology for law. These include increasing efficiency; discovering useful patterns in regulable behavior; uncovering policy conflicts; sharpening cost‐benefit analyses; clarifying causal links; providing theoretical foundation and potential predictive power; assessing comparative effectiveness of legal strategies; revealing deep patterns in legal architecture; exposing unwarranted assumptions; disentangling multiple causes; increasing accuracy; increasing law‐relevant understanding about people; and generating new research questions.
A New Extensional Mixing Element for Improved Dispersive Mixing in Twin‐Screw Extrusion, Part 1: Design and Computational Validation
Authors: Carson Sidney O. , Covas José A. , Maia João M.
Published: November 2015

Twin‐screw extruders (TSE) are typically the equipment of choice in polymer blending and compounding operations due to the relatively high stresses and controllable residence times they impart on the melts. However, the mixing action is shear dominated and shear flows are energetically inefficient for dispersive mixing by comparison with extensional flows. We present a new extensional mixing element (EME), developed as a static dispersive mixing element for TSEs with dispersive mixing provided by extension‐dominated flow through stationary hyperbolically contracting channels. In Part 1 of the work, we present the design and show, experimentally and computationally, that the EME effectively imparts extension‐dominated flow through its channels. We also show that the flow is fully developed throughout most of the EME sections, with only small inlet transients being observed, and that it is possible to predict the real pressure drop in the system. Experimental validation of the EME for immiscible blends of varying viscosity ratios will be discussed in Part 2.
Self‐Regulative Nanogelator Solid Electrolyte: A New Option to Improve the Safety of Lithium Battery
Authors: Wu Feng , Chen Nan , Chen Renjie , Zhu Qizhen , Tan Guoqiang , Li Li
Published: November 2015

The lack of suitable nonflammable electrolytes has delayed battery application in electric vehicles. A new approach to improve the safety performance for lithium battery is proposed here. This technology is based on a nanogelator‐based solid electrolyte made of porous oxides and an ionic liquid. The electrolyte is fabricated using an in situ method and the porous oxides serve as a nonflammable “nanogelator” that spontaneously immobilizes the ionic liquid. The electrolyte exhibits a high liquid‐like apparent ionic conductivity of 2.93 × 10−3 S cm−1 at room temperature. The results show that the nanogelator, which possess self‐regulating ability, is able to immobilize imidazolium‐, pyrrolidinium‐, or piperidinium‐based ionic liquids, simply by adjusting the ion transport channels. Our prototype batteries made of Ti‐nanogeltor solid electrolyte outperform conventional lithium batteries made using ionic liquid and commercial organic liquid electrolytes.
Mapping the Electrical Properties of ZnO‐Based Transparent Conductive Oxides Grown at Room Temperature and Improved by Controlled Postdeposition Annealing
Authors: Lyubchyk Andriy , Vicente António , Soule Bertrand , Alves Pedro Urbano , Mateus Tiago , Mendes Manuel J. , Águas Hugo , Fortunato Elvira , Martins Rodrigo
Published: November 2015

Indium tin oxide (ITO) is the current standard state‐of‐the‐art transparent conductive oxide (TCO), given its remarkable optical and electrical properties. However, the scarcity of indium carries an important drawback for the long‐term application due to its intensive use in many optoelectronic devices such as displays, solar cells, and interactive systems. Zinc oxide‐based TCOs can be a cost‐effective and viable alternative, but the limitations imposed by their transmittance versus resistivity tradeoff still keep them behind ITO. In this work, an in‐depth study of the structural and compositional material changes induced by specific postannealing treatments is presented, based on aluminum zinc oxide (AZO) and hydrogenated AZO (AZO:H) thin films grown by rf‐magnetron sputtering at room temperature that allows an extensive understanding of the films' electrical/structural changes and the ability to tune their physical parameters to yield increasingly better performances, which put them in line with the best ITO quality standards. The present investigation comprises results of thermal annealing at atmospheric pressure, vacuum, forming gas, H2 and Ar atmospheres and plasmas. Overall the study being performed leads to a decrease in resistivity above 40%, reaching ρ ≈ 3 × 10−4 Ω cm, with an average optical transmittance in the visible region around 88%. Such results are equivalent to the properties of state‐of‐the‐art ITO.
Fundamental Difference in Reductive Lithiations with Preformed Radical Anions versus Catalytic Aromatic Electron‐Transfer Agents: N,N‐Dimethylaniline as an Advantageous Catalyst
Authors: Kennedy Nicole , Liu Peng , Cohen Theodore
Published: November 2015

The reductive lithiation of phenyl thioethers, or alkyl chlorides, by either preformed aromatic radical anions or by lithium metal and an aromatic electron‐transfer catalyst, is commonly used to prepare organolithiums. Revealed herein is that these two methods are fundamentally different. Reductions with radical anions occur in solution, whereas the catalytic reaction occurs on the surface of lithium, which is constantly reactivated by the catalyst, an unconventional catalyst function. The order of relative reactivity is reversed in the two methods as the dominating factor switches from electronic to steric effects of the alkyl substituent. A catalytic amount of N,N‐dimethylaniline (DMA) and Li ribbon can achieve reductive lithiation. DMA is significantly cheaper than alternative catalysts, and conveniently, the Li ribbon does not require the removal of the oxide coating when DMA is used as the catalyst.
Modeling of wax deposition for water‐in‐oil dispersed flow
Authors: Zhou Yuanxin , Gong Jing , Wang Pengyu
Published: November 2015

Wax deposition for waxy crude oil is a long standing issue in oil production and transportation systems. With oil produced with water, the oil–water two‐phase wax deposition becomes a research hotspot. Experiments of water‐in‐oil emulsion wax deposition were conducted in the indoor flow loop. The deposit thickness of emulsion wax deposition shows a trend of increasing after decreasing with water cuts. As the oil or coolant temperature decreases, the gelation phenomena becomes more obvious, and the turning point of the deposit thickness curve versus water cut shifts toward the lower water cut. The influence of gelling adhesion in emulsion wax deposition was discovered. A new model was developed for predicting water‐in‐oil dispersed flow wax deposition based on the mechanisms of molecular diffusion and gelling adhesion. The deposit thickness values predicted by the new wax deposit model for water‐in‐oil emulsion laminar flows with different water cuts agree well with experimental results. © 2015 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Practical session assessments in human anatomy: Weightings and performance
Authors: McDonald Aaron C. , Chan Siew‐Pang , Schuijers Johannes A.
Published: November 2015

Assessment weighting within a given module can be a motivating factor for students when deciding on their commitment level and time given to study a specific topic. In this study, an analysis of assessment performances of second year anatomy students was performed over four years to determine if (1) students performed better when a higher weighting was given to a set of practical session assessments and (2) whether an improved performance in the practical session assessments had a carry‐over effect on other assessment tasks within that anatomy module and/or other anatomy modules that follow. Results showed that increasing the weighting of practical session assessments improved the average mark in that assessment and also improved the percentage of students passing that assessment. Further, it significantly improved performance in the written end‐semester examination within the same module and had a carry‐over effect on the anatomy module taught in the next teaching period, as students performed better in subsequent practical session assessments as well as subsequent end‐semester examinations. It was concluded that the weighting of assessments had significant influences on a student's performance in that, and subsequent, assessments. It is postulated that practical session assessments, designed to develop deep learning skills in anatomy, improved efficacy in student performance in assessments undertaken in that and subsequent anatomy modules when the weighting of these assessments was greater. These deep learning skills were also transferable to other methods of assessing anatomy. Anat Sci Educ 9: 330–336. © 2015 American Association of Anatomists.
A General Robust MPC Design for the State‐Space Model: Application to Paper Machine Process
Authors: HosseinNia S. Hassan , Lundh Michael
Published: November 2015

Applying model predictive control (MPC) in some cases such as complicated process dynamics and/or rapid sampling leads us to poorly numerically conditioned solutions and heavy computational load. Furthermore, there is always mismatch in a model that describes a real process. Therefore, in this paper in order to prevail over the mentioned difficulties, we design a robust MPC using the Laguerre orthonormal basis in order to speed up the convergence at the same time with lower computation adding an extra parameter “a” in MPC. In addition, the Kalman state estimator is included in the prediction model and accordingly the MPC design is related to the Kalman estimator parameters as well as the error of estimations which helps the controller react faster against unmeasured disturbances. Tuning the parameters of the Kalman estimator as well as MPC is another achievement of this paper which guarantees the robustness of the system against the model mismatch and measurement noise. The sensitivity function at low frequency is minimized to tune the MPC parameters since the lower the magnitude of the sensitivity function at low frequency the better command tracking and disturbance rejection results. The integral absolute error (IAE) and peak of the sensitivity are used as constraints in optimization procedure to ensure the stability and robustness of the controlled process. The performance of the controller is examined via the controlling level of a Tank and paper machine processes.
Innate immunity against molecular mimicry: Examining galectin‐mediated antimicrobial activity
Authors: Arthur Connie M. , Patel Seema R. , Mener Amanda , Kamili Nourine A. , Fasano Ross M. , Meyer Erin , Winkler Annie M. , Sola‐Visner Martha , Josephson Cassandra D. , Stowell Sean R.
Published: November 2015

Adaptive immunity provides the unique ability to respond to a nearly infinite range of antigenic determinants. Given the inherent plasticity of the adaptive immune system, a series of tolerance mechanisms exist to reduce reactivity toward self. While this reduces the probability of autoimmunity, it also creates an important gap in adaptive immunity: the ability to recognize microbes that look like self. As a variety of microbes decorate themselves in self‐like carbohydrate antigens and tolerance reduces the ability of adaptive immunity to react with self‐like structures, protection against molecular mimicry likely resides within the innate arm of immunity. In this review, we will explore the potential consequences of microbial molecular mimicry, including factors within innate immunity that appear to specifically target microbes expressing self‐like antigens, and therefore provide protection against molecular mimicry.
Abscisic acid and other plant hormones: Methods to visualize distribution and signaling
Authors: Waadt Rainer , Hsu Po‐Kai , Schroeder Julian I.
Published: November 2015

The exploration of plant behavior on a cellular scale in a minimal invasive manner is key to understanding plant adaptations to their environment. Plant hormones regulate multiple aspects of growth and development and mediate environmental responses to ensure a successful life cycle. To monitor the dynamics of plant hormone actions in intact tissue, we need qualitative and quantitative tools with high temporal and spatial resolution. Here, we describe a set of biological instruments (reporters) for the analysis of the distribution and signaling of various plant hormones. Furthermore, we provide examples of their utility for gaining novel insights into plant hormone action with a deeper focus on the drought hormone abscisic acid.
Co‐production of hydrogen and ethanol from glucose by modification of glycolytic pathways in Escherichia coli – from Embden‐Meyerhof‐Parnas pathway to pentose phosphate pathway
Authors: Seol Eunhee , Sekar Balaji Sundara , Raj Subramanian Mohan , Park Sunghoon
Published: November 2015

Hydrogen (H2) production from glucose by dark fermentation suffers from the low yield. As a solution to this problem, co‐production of H2 and ethanol, both of which are good biofuels, has been suggested. To this end, using Escherichia coli, activation of pentose phosphate (PP) pathway, which can generate more NADPH than the Embden‐Meyhof‐Parnas (EMP) pathway, was attempted. Overexpression of two key enzymes in the branch nodes of the glycolytic pathway, Zwf and Gnd, significantly improved the co‐production of H2 and ethanol with concomitant reduction of pyruvate secretion. Gene expression analysis and metabolic flux analysis (MFA) showed that, upon overexpression of Zwf and Gnd, glucose assimilation through the PP pathway, compared with that of the EMP or Entner‐Doudoroff (ED) pathway, was greatly enhanced. The maximum co‐production yields were 1.32 mol H2 mol−1 glucose and 1.38 mol ethanol mol−1 glucose, respectively. It is noteworthy that the glycolysis and the amount of NAD(P)H formed under anaerobic conditions could be altered by modifying (the activity of) several key enzymes. Our strategy could be applied for the development of industrial strains for biological production of reduced chemicals and biofuels which suffers from lack of reduced co‐factors.
In vivo amyloid aggregation kinetics tracked by time‐lapse confocal microscopy in real‐time
Authors: Villar‐Piqué Anna , Espargaró Alba , Ventura Salvador , Sabate Raimon
Published: November 2015

Amyloid polymerization underlies an increasing number of human diseases. Despite this process having been studied extensively in vitro, aggregation is a difficult process to track in vivo due to methodological limitations and the slow kinetics of aggregation reactions in cells and tissues. Herein we exploit the amyloid properties of the inclusions bodies (IBs) formed by amyloidogenic proteins in bacteria to address the kinetics of in vivo amyloid aggregation. To this aim we used time‐lapse confocal microscopy and a fusion of the amyloid‐beta peptide (A β42) with a fluorescent reporter. This strategy allowed us to follow the intracellular kinetics of amyloid‐like aggregation in real‐time and to discriminate between variants exhibiting different in vivo aggregation propensity. Overall, the approach opens the possibility to assess the impact of point mutations as well as potential anti‐aggregation drugs in the process of amyloid formation in living cells.
When should surgeons retire?
Authors: Bhatt N R , Morris M , O'Neil A , Gillis A , Ridgway P F
Published: November 2015

Background

Retirement policies for surgeons differ worldwide. A range of normal human functional abilities decline as part of the ageing process. As life expectancy and their population increases, the performance ability of ageing surgeons is now a growing concern in relation to patient care. The aim was to explore the effects of ageing on surgeons' performance, and to identify current practical methods for transitioning surgeons out of practice at the appropriate time and age.

Methods

A narrative review was performed in MEDLINE using the terms ‘ageing’ and ‘surgeon’. Additional articles were hand-picked. Modified PRISMA guidelines informed the selection of articles for inclusion. Articles were included only if they explored age-related changes in brain biology and the effect of ageing on surgeons' performance.

Results

The literature search yielded 1811 articles; of these, 36 articles were included in the final review. Wide variation in ability was observed across ageing individuals (both surgical and lay). Considerable variation in the effects of the surgeon's age on patient mortality and postoperative complications was noted. A lack of neuroimaging research exploring the ageing of surgeons' brains specifically, and lack of real markers available for measuring surgical performance, both hinder further investigation. Standard retirement policies in accordance with age-related surgical ability are lacking in most countries around the world.

Conclusion

Competence should be assessed at an individual level, focusing on functional ability over chronological age; this should inform retirement policies for surgeons.
National proficiency-gain curves for minimally invasive gastrointestinal cancer surgery
Authors: Mackenzie H , Markar S R , Askari A , Ni M , Faiz O , Hanna G B
Published: November 2015

Background

Minimal access surgery for gastrointestinal cancer has short-term benefits but is associated with a proficiency-gain curve. The aim of this study was to define national proficiency-gain curves for minimal access colorectal and oesophagogastric surgery, and to determine the impact on clinical outcomes.

Methods

All adult patients undergoing minimal access oesophageal, colonic and rectal surgery between 2002 and 2012 were identified from the Hospital Episode Statistics database. Proficiency-gain curves were created using risk-adjusted cumulative sum analysis. Change points were identified, and bootstrapping was performed with 1000 iterations to identify a confidence level. The primary outcome was 30-day mortality; secondary outcomes were 90-day mortality, reintervention, conversion and length of hospital stay.

Results

Some 1696, 15 008 and 16 701 minimal access oesophageal, rectal and colonic cancer resections were performed during the study period. The change point in the proficiency-gain curve for 30-day mortality for oesophageal, rectal and colonic surgery was 19 (confidence level 98·4 per cent), 20 (99·2 per cent) and three (99·5 per cent) procedures; the mortality rate fell from 4·0 to 2·0 per cent (relative risk reduction (RRR) 0·50, P = 0·033), from 2·1 to 1·2 per cent (RRR 0·43, P < 0·001) and from 2·4 to 1·8 per cent (RRR 0·25, P = 0·058) respectively. The change point in the proficiency-gain curve for reintervention in oesophageal, rectal and colonic resection was 19 (98·1 per cent), 32 (99·5 per cent) and 26 (99·2 per cent) procedures respectively. There were also significant proficiency-gain curves for 90-day mortality, conversion and length of stay.

Conclusion

The introduction of minimal access gastrointestinal cancer surgery has been associated with a proficiency-gain curve for mortality and major morbidity at a national level. Unnecessary patient harm should be avoided by appropriate training and monitoring of new surgical techniques.
Governing the World
Authors: Oliver Caroline
Published: November 2015

Board Leadership Editor Caroline Oliver interviews Otto Spijkers, Assistant Professor of Public International Law at Utrecht University and researcher at the Utrecht Centre for Water, Oceans and Sustainability Law.
HPLC Determination of Fexofenadine in Human Plasma For Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Pharmacokinetic Studies
Authors: Helmy S. A. , El Bedaiwy H. M.
Published: November 2015

A simple and sensitive method was developed for fexofenadine determination in human plasma by liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection. Satisfactory separation was achieved on a Hypersil® BDS C18 column (250 × 4.6 mm, 5μm) using a mobile phase comprising 20 mm sodium dihydrogen phosphate‐2 hydrate (pH adjusted to 3 with phosphoric acid)–acetonitrile at a ratio of 52:48, v/v. The elution was isocratic at ambient temperature with a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The UV detector was set at 215 nm for the drug and 330 nm for the internal standared (tinidazole). The total time for a chromatographic separation was ~6.5 min. Linearity was demonstrated over the concentration range 0.01–4 μg/mL. The observed within‐ and between‐day assay precision ranged from 0.346 to 13.6%; accuracy varied between 100.4 and 111.2%. This method was successfully applied for therapeutic drug monitoring in patients treated with clinical doses of fexofenadine and for pharmacokinetic studies. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An HPLC method with diode array detector for the simultaneous quantification of chloroquine and desethylchloroquine in plasma and whole blood samples from Plasmodium vivax patients in Vietnam, using quinine as an internal standard
Authors: Van Pham Toi , Pham Nguyen Phuong , Nguyen Duc Khanh Tho , Nguyen Thanh Thuy Nhien , Nguyen Thuy Nha Ca , Pouplin Thomas , Farrar Jeremy , Thwaites Guy E. , Tran Tinh Hien
Published: November 2015

A sensitive, simple method for quantification of chloroquine (CQ) and desethylchloroquine (MCQ) in whole blood and plasma from Plasmodium vivax patients has been developed using HPLC with diode array detection (DAD). Solid‐phase extraction on Isolute‐96‐CBA was employed to process 100 μL of plasma/whole blood samples. CQ, MCQ and quinine were separated using a mobile phase of phosphate buffer 25 mm, pH 2.60–acetonitrile (88:12, v/v) with 2 mm sodium perchlorate on a Zorbax SB‐CN 150 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm column at a flow rate of 1.2 mL/min, at ambient temperature in 10 min, with the DAD wavelength of 343 nm. The method was linear over the range of 10–5000 ng/mL for both CQ and MCQ in plasma and whole blood. The limit of detection was 4 ng/mL and limit of quantification was 10 ng/mL in both plasma and blood for CQ and MCQ. The intra‐, inter‐ and total assay precision were <10% for CQ and MCQ in plasma and whole blood. In plasma, the accuracies varied between 101 and 103%, whereas in whole blood, the accuracies ranged from 97.0 to 102% for CQ and MCQ. The method is an ideal technique with simple facilities and instruments, bringing about good separation in comparison with previous methods. © 2016 The Authors Biomedical Chromatography Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Can university dismiss transgender student for using male locker rooms?
Authors: Gelpi Aileen
Published: November 2015

When applying for admission to the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in 2009, Seamus Johnston marked the application as “female.”
Run, hide, fight … re‐evaluate?
Authors: Zacarese Lawrence M.
Published: November 2015

I am certain that in the last few weeks (and likely again by the time this column is published) many of you, like me, have received inquiries, concerns, and other, what I will call “renewed interests,” in light of recent shooting incidents within and around institutes of higher education. The listservs are heating up. The blogs are being updated fast and furiously. Twitter and Facebook are ablaze with news articles, op‐ed pieces and the like. Questions about best practices for securing classrooms, decisions to shelter in place, mass notification systems, and the litany of actions and responsibilities of public safety professionals are being, shall we say, re‐examined.
Short video offers best practices for active‐shooter preparedness
Authors: Sutton Halley
Published: November 2015

Several Canadian institutions have banded together to create educational materials to provide students, faculty and staff with the best information for response to an active shooter on campus. The materials were created in collaboration between Campus Alberta and the Campus Alberta Risk and Assurance Committee, with representation from Concordia University College, MacEwan University, Mount Royal University, Norquest College, the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, the University of Alberta, and the University of Lethbridge.
A modified method (MK method) of alcohol septal ablation for the treatment of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopahty
Authors: Kawase Yoshiaki , Matsuo Hitoshi
Published: November 2015

Alcohol septal ablation is widely accepted as a therapeutic option for the treatment of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopahty. The selection of an appropriate target vessel is key for an effective and safe procedure. The target vessel sometimes bifurcates from the non‐left anterior descending coronary artery, in which case these vessels are sometimes difficult to select with a wire and deliver a balloon catheter. The combined use of a microcatheter and a balloon catheter is one of the choices for treatment of patients with this type of challenging anatomy. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Highly Selective Cycloalkane Oxidation in Water with Ruthenium Nanoparticles
Authors: Denicourt‐Nowicki Audrey , Lebedeva Anastasia , Bellini Clément , Roucoux Alain
Published: November 2015

Ruthenium(0) nanospecies, with small sizes of approximately 1.75 nm, proved to be active, selective, and retrievable nanocatalysts for the oxidation of various cycloalkanes in neat water, using tert‐butylhydroperoxide as an oxidant and at room temperature. Relevant conversions and selectivities (up to 97 %) were achieved towards the major formation of the ketone product, which constitutes a high‐value‐added intermediate for polymer or fine chemistry. The lifetime of the catalyst has been checked over several runs, with no significant loss of activity and selectivity. Kinetic and mechanistic investigations proved that radical species are involved in the oxidation process. A literature comparison showed the relevance and the usefulness of the present ruthenium nanocatalytic system in a benign reaction context.
Band Gap Energies and Photocatalytic Properties of CdS and Ag/CdS Nanoparticles for Azo Dye Degradation
Authors: Fard Narges Elmi , Fazaeli Reza , Ghiasi Reza
Published: November 2015

CdS nanoparticles were synthesized by the ultrasonic‐assisted sol‐gel method and characterized by X‐ray diffraction (XRD). The Ag‐doped CdS (Ag/CdS) nanoparticles were also synthesized by the ultrasonic‐assisted sol‐gel method and characterized by XRD, X‐ray fluorescence spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy, and energy‐dispersive X‐ray analysis. The calculated sizes and experimental results are in good agreement. The calculated band‐gaps of CdS and Ag/CdS were found to be 2.62 and 2.46 eV, respectively. Photocatalytic degradation of Direct Red 264 azo dye was investigated with CdS and Ag/CdS under UV‐C and visible light irradiation. Experimental results indicate that the degradation rate of DR 264 follows pseudo second‐order kinetics. Also, the intraparticle diffusion coefficients of CdS and Ag/CdS were determined.