bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Porcine CD38 exhibits prominent secondary NAD+ cyclase activity
Authors: Ting Kai Yiu , Leung Christina F. P. , Graeff Richard M. , Lee Hon Cheung , Hao Quan , Kotaka Masayo
Published: December 2015

Cyclic ADP‐ribose (cADPR) mobilizes intracellular Ca2+ stores and activates Ca2+ influx to regulate a wide range of physiological processes. It is one of the products produced from the catalysis of NAD+ by the multifunctional CD38/ADP‐ribosyl cyclase superfamily. After elimination of the nicotinamide ring by the enzyme, the reaction intermediate of NAD+ can either be hydrolyzed to form linear ADPR or cyclized to form cADPR. We have previously shown that human CD38 exhibits a higher preference towards the hydrolysis of NAD+ to form linear ADPR while Aplysia ADP‐ribosyl cyclase prefers cyclizing NAD+ to form cADPR. In this study, we characterized the enzymatic properties of porcine CD38 and revealed that it has a prominent secondary NAD+ cyclase activity producing cADPR. We also determined the X‐ray crystallographic structures of porcine CD38 and were able to observe conformational flexibility at the base of the active site of the enzyme which allow the NAD+ reaction intermediate to adopt conformations resulting in both hydrolysis and cyclization forming linear ADPR and cADPR respectively.
Molecular characterisation of the vitellogenin gene (AlVg) and its expression after Apolygus lucorum had fed on different hosts
Authors: Sun Yang , Xiao Liubin , Cao Guangchun , Zhang Yongjun , Xiao Yingfang , Xu Guangchun , Zhao Jing , Tan Yongan , Bai Lixin
Published: December 2015

BACKGROUND

The polyphagous pest Apolygus lucorum is now the dominant pest of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton in China. In this study, the transcriptional and translational profiles of AlVg influenced by different hosts were identified, and then the correlations between AlVg gene or AlVg protein expression and key population proliferation parameters of A. lucorum were further clarified.

RESULTS

AlVg or AlVg expression can be significantly regulated by different host nutrients (P < 0.05). AlVg or AlVg expression was significantly higher in A. lucorum reared on Bt and conventional cotton than in A. lucorum reared on garland chrysanthemum and broad bean (P < 0.05), but there was no significant difference between AlVg or AlVg expression in A. lucorum reared on Bt and conventional cotton (P > 0.05). In addition, there were significant linear regression correlations between AlVg or AlVg expression and total mortality rate of nymphs, female lifespan, per female fecundity and egg hatching rates (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Our results confirm that AlVg or AlVg is the key parameter affecting female fertility of A. lucorum. AlVg and AlVg expression can be influenced by different host nutrients except for Bt toxin. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry
Visual and olfactory enhancement of stable fly trapping
Authors: Zhu Junwei J , Zhang Qing‐he , Taylor David B , Friesen Kristina A
Published: December 2015

BACKGROUND

Stable flies are considered to be one of the major blood‐feeding pests in the US livestock industry, causing losses running into billions of dollars annually. Adult stable flies are highly attracted to Alsynite traps; however, Alsynite is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain and is expensive.

RESULTS

Here, we report on the development of a less expensive and more efficacious trap based upon a white panel with the option to add visual and olfactory stimuli for enhanced stable fly trapping. White panel traps caught twice as many stable flies than Alsynite traps. Baiting the traps with synthetic manure volatiles increased catches 2–3‐fold. Electroretinographic recordings of stable flies showed strong peaks of visual sensitivities occurring at 330–360 nm, 460–525 nm and 605–635 nm. A laboratory study indicated that young stable flies are more responsive to white, whereas gravid females prefer blue; in the field, white traps caught more stable flies than patterned or blue‐black traps.

CONCLUSION

Stable fly control can be enhanced by developing more efficient trapping systems with added visual and olfactory stimuli. Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
Management of growth hormone deficiency in adults
Authors: Bujanova Jana , Cummings Michael H
Published: December 2015

Successful management of adults with growth hormone deficiency requires an effective shared care partnership between primary and secondary care. In this article, Dr Bujanova and Professor Cummings discuss the signs and symptoms of growth hormone deficiency in adults, the range of growth hormone replacement products available and the GP's role in management.
Development of short and highly potent self‐assembling elastin‐derived pentapeptide repeats containing aromatic amino acid residues
Authors: Taniguchi Suguru , Watanabe Noriko , Nose Takeru , Maeda Iori
Published: December 2015

Tropoelastin is the primary component of elastin, which forms the elastic fibers that make up connective tissues. The hydrophobic domains of tropoelastin are thought to mediate the self‐assembly of elastin into fibers, and the temperature‐mediated self‐assembly (coacervation) of one such repetitive peptide sequence (VPGVG) has been utilized in various bio‐applications. To elucidate a mechanism for coacervation activity enhancement and to develop more potent coacervatable elastin‐derived peptides, we synthesized two series of peptide analogs containing an aromatic amino acid, Trp or Tyr, in addition to Phe‐containing analogs and tested their functional characteristics. Thus, position 1 of the hydrophobic pentapeptide repeat of elastin (X1P2G3V4G5) was substituted by Trp or Tyr. Eventually, we acquired a novel, short Trp‐containing elastin‐derived peptide analog (WPGVG)3 with potent coacervation ability. From the results obtained during this process, we determined the importance of aromaticity and hydrophobicity for the coacervation potency of elastin‐derived peptide analogs. Generally, however, the production of long‐chain synthetic polypeptides in quantities sufficient for commercial use remain cost‐prohibitive. Therefore, the identification of (WPGVG)3, which is a 15‐mer short peptide consisting simply of five natural amino acids and shows temperature‐dependent self‐assembly activity, might serve as a foundation for the development of various kinds of biomaterials. Copyright © 2015 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Adsorption of oriented carborane dipoles on a silver surface
Authors: Vetushka Aliaksei , Bernard Laetitia , Guseva Olga , Bastl Zdeněk , Plocek Jiří , Tomandl Ivo , Fejfar Antonín , Baše Tomáš , Schmutz Patrik
Published: December 2015

Modification of surfaces with self‐assembled mono‐layers (SAMs) represents a powerful and innovative tool for adjusting physical and chemical properties of surfaces. The adsorption of isomeric molecules with relatively strong and oppositely oriented molecular dipoles, 1,2‐(HS)2‐1,2‐C2B10H10 and 9,12‐(HS)2‐1,2‐C2B10H10, on a flat silver surface is investigated in order to adjust its work function in a desired way. Time‐of‐flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy (ToF‐SIMS) and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) are used to prove that both isomers (i) chemisorb on a silver surface as thiolates and (ii) exhibit comparable surface densities. Densely packed surfaces of both SAMs are additionally investigated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and effective surface passivation is observed. Co‐deposition of both derivatives is shown to enable effective and fine adjustment of the surface work function value within a range of ∼1 V, which is confirmed by Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM). Experimental data indicate faster SAM formation for the former isomer. Contribution of the interface Ag–S bonds to the work function changes is quantified.
Observation of large low‐field magnetoresistance in spinel cobaltite: A new half‐metal
Authors: Li Peng , Xia Chuan , Zheng Dongxing , Wang Ping , Jin Chao , Bai Haili
Published: December 2015

Low‐field magnetoresistance is an effective and energy‐saving way to use half‐metallic materials in magnetic reading heads and magnetic random access memory. Common spin‐polarized materials with low field magnetoresistance effect are perovskite‐type manganese, cobalt, and molybdenum oxides. In this study, we report a new type of spinel cobaltite materials, self‐assembled nanocrystalline NiCo2O4, which shows large low field magnetoresistance as large as –19.1% at 0.5 T and –50% at 9 T (2 K). The large low field magnetoresistance is attributed to the fast magnetization rotation of the core nanocrystals. The surface spin‐glass is responsible for the observed weak saturation of magnetoresistance under high fields. Our calculation demonstrates that the half‐metallicity of NiCo2O4 comes from the hopping eg electrons within the tetrahedral Co‐atoms and the octahedral Ni‐atoms. The discovery of large low‐field magnetoresistance in simple spinel oxide NiCo2O4, a non‐perovskite oxide, leads to an extended family of low‐field magnetoresistance materials. (© 2016 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Inhibition ofHelicobacter pyloriand Its Associate Urease by Labdane Diterpenoids Isolated fromAndrographis paniculata
Authors: Shaikh Rafik U. , Dawane Ashwini A. , Pawar Rajendra P. , Gond Dhananjay S. , Meshram Rohan J. , Gacche Rajesh N.
Published: December 2015

The present study was carried out to evaluate anti‐Helicobacter pyloriand its associated urease activity of labdane diterpenoids isolated fromAndrographis paniculata. A molecular docking analysis was performed by using ArgusLab 4.0.1 software. The results obtained indicate that compound A possesses strong inhibition toH. pylori, 28 ± 2.98 (minimum inhibitory concentration, 9 µg/mL), and its urease, 85.54 ± 2.62% (IC50, 20.2 µg/mL). Compounds B, C, and D also showed moderate inhibition toH. pyloriand its urease. The obtained results were in agreement with the molecular docking analysis of compounds. The phytochemicals under investigation were found to be promising antibacterial agents. Moreover, the isolated compounds can be considered as a resource for searching novel anti‐H. pyloriagents possessing urease inhibition. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An Optimal Solution for Test Case Generation Using ROBDD Graph and PSO Algorithm
Authors: Kalaee Akram , Rafe Vahid
Published: December 2015

Software testing is one of the most important techniques to examine the behavior of the software products to assure their quality. An effective and efficient testing approach must balance two important but conflicting requirements. One of them is the accuracy that needs a large number of test cases for testing, and the second one is reducing the time and cost, which requires a few test cases. Even for small software, the number of possible test cases is typically very large, and exhaustive testing is impractical. Hence, selecting appropriate test suite is necessary. Cause–effect graph testing is a common black‐box testing technique, which is equivalently representing Boolean relations between input parameters. However, the other traditional black‐box strategies cannot identify the relations that it may result in loss of some of the important test cases. Although the cause–effect graph is regarded very promising in specification testing, it is observed that most of the proposed approaches using the graph are complex or generate impossible and a large number of test cases. This observation has motivated our research to propose an efficient strategy to generate minimal test suite that simultaneously achieves high coverage of input parameters. To do so, at first, we identify major effects from the cause–effect graph using reduced ordered binary decision diagram (ROBDD). ROBDD makes the related Boolean expression of the graph concise and obtains a unique representation of the expression. Using the ROBDD, it is possible to reduce the size of the generated test suite and to perform testing faster. After that, our proposed method utilizes particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to select the optimal test suite, which covers all pairwise combinations of input parameters. The experimental results show that our approach simultaneously achieves high efficacy and reduces cost of testing by selecting appropriate test cases, respectively, to both test size and coverage size. Also, it outperforms some existing state‐of‐the‐art strategies in the black‐box testing. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Measurement of tremor transmission during microsurgery
Authors: Verrelli David I. , Qian Yi , Wood James , Wilson Michael K.
Published: December 2015

Background

Tremor is a major impediment to performing fine motor tasks, as in microsurgery. However, conventional measurements do not involve tasks representative of microsurgery.

Method

We developed a low‐cost surgical simulator incorporating a force transducer capable of detecting and quantifying the effects of tremor upon high‐fidelity silicone replicas of cardiac vessels and substrate muscle. Experienced and trainee surgeons performed simulated anastomoses on this rig. We characterized procedures in terms of tremor intensity, based on Lomb–Scargle periodograms.

Results

Distinctive force oscillations occurred at 8–12 Hz, characteristic of enhanced physiological tremor, yielding peaks in power spectral density. These early results suggest a significantly lower transmission of tremor to the operative field by the experienced surgeon in comparison to the trainees.

Conclusions

This new device quantifies the action of tremor upon a manipulandum during a complex task, which may be used for assessment and providing feedback to trainee surgeons. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
In Planta Response of Arabidopsis to Photothermal Impact Mediated by Gold Nanoparticles
Authors: Koo Yeonjong , Lukianova‐Hleb Ekaterina Y. , Pan Joann , Thompson Sean M. , Lapotko Dmitri O. , Braam Janet
Published: December 2015

Biological responses to photothermal effects of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have been demonstrated and employed for various applications in diverse systems except for one important class – plants. Here, the uptake of GNPs through Arabidopsis thaliana roots and translocation to leaves are reported. Successful plasmonic nanobubble generation and acoustic signal detection in planta is demonstrated. Furthermore, Arabidopsis leaves harboring GNPs and exposed to continuous laser or noncoherent light show elevated temperatures across the leaf surface and induced expression of heat‐shock regulated genes. Overall, these results demonstrate that Arabidopsis can readily take up GNPs through the roots and translocate the particles to leaf tissues. Once within leaves, GNPs can act as photothermal agents for on‐demand remote activation of localized biological processes in plants.
Stochastic modelling and simulation approaches to analysing enhanced fault tolerance on service‐based software systems
Authors: Peng Kuan‐Li , Huang Chin‐Yu
Published: December 2015

Presently, service‐based software systems (SBSSs) have been heavily deployed to fulfil the functionalities of cloud computing and are widely used in many other application fields. Additionally, maintaining functionality and quality of service levels becomes increasingly important for SBSSs; this is because system operational failures may cause great financial loss to an organization. Fault tolerance (FT) is usually used to provide continuous and reliable system service delivery when failures occur. However, the reliability and performance of FT should be carefully analysed because of the overhead of invoking redundant services. It is also noted that the single point of failure on the FT adjudicators as well as the failure correlation also hamper the benefits of FT in SBSSs. To address these problems, this paper proposes two approaches, the stochastic modelling approach and the simulation approach, for analysing the reliability and performance of generalized FT designs. The first approach is suitable for quick analysis at an early design stage, while the second approach is built on top of the ns‐3 simulator and could be well adapted to incorporate varied uncertainty models in the SBSS environments Extensive experiments and analyses uncover some characteristics that could be useful for SBSS engineers. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Origins of the Second World War
Authors: Robertson E.M.
Published: December 2015

Major international experts offer new interpretations of the key aspects of the origins of the Second World War. Many major world events have occurred since the last key anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War, and these events have had a dramatic impact on the international stage: 9/11, the Iraq War, climate change and the world economic crisis. This is an opportune moment to bring together a group of major international experts who will offer a series of new interpretations of the key aspects of the origins of the Second World War. Each chapter is based on original archival research and written by scholars who are all leading experts in their fields. This is a truly international collection of articles, with wide breadth and scope, which includes contributions from historians, and also political scientists, gender theorists, and international relations experts. This is an important contribution to scholarly debate on one of the most important events of the 20th century and a subject of major interest to the general reader, historians, students and researchers, policy makers and conflict prevention experts.
Randomized controlled trials: still the backbone of vascular surgery?
Authors: Naylor A.R.
Published: December 2015

Prior to the introduction of evidence-based medicine, decision-making was largely based upon ‘intuitive reasoning’, whereby senior clinicians dictated practice based upon personal dogma, personal experience and (often) biased observational studies. This era began to end (in vascular surgery) following completion of the landmark randomized trials in carotid disease, which recruited patients throughout the 1980s. Despite scepticism amongst some surgeons of the time these particular randomized trials have stood the test of time and remain the cornerstone of virtually every guideline of practice to this day. The carotid randomized trials became a beacon for using ‘evidence’ rather than ‘intuitive reasoning’ and randomized trials have now been used to determine optimal practice in a plethora of carotid surgery and stenting trials, lower limb revascularization and numerous aortic aneurysm based studies.

The literature abounds with situations where practice (previously based on observational study data) was changed overnight following publication of a well-designed randomized trial. However, while observational studies are prone to selection bias, randomized trials bring their own unique limitations including problems with external validity, they take too long to complete, they are very expensive, they are notorious for problems with recruitment and they can frequently become obsolete. This has led to a (not unreasonable) call for more observational studies to be used in the development of practice guidelines. Unfortunately, the principle guideline bodies around the world, e.g. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the American Heart Association (AHA), prioritize randomized trial evidence above all else. Until that changes, guideline makers will find it very difficult to deviate from using historical randomized trial evidence, even when high quality observational data suggest that ‘real world’ practice bears little comparison to that reported in the randomized trials. Nowhere is that more evident than in developing contemporary guidelines for the management of asymptomatic carotid disease.
Comparing Latent Means Without Mean Structure Models: A Projection-Based Approach
Authors: Deng Lifang , Yuan Ke-Hai
Published: December 2015

The conventional setup for multi-group structural equation modeling requires a stringent condition of cross-group equality of intercepts before mean comparison with latent variables can be conducted. This article proposes a new setup that allows mean comparison without the need to estimate any mean structural model. By projecting the observed sample means onto the space of the common scores and the space orthogonal to that of the common scores, the new setup allows identifying and estimating the means of the common and specific factors, although, without replicate measures, variances of specific factors cannot be distinguished from those of measurement errors. Under the new setup, testing cross-group mean differences of the common scores is done independently from that of the specific factors. Such independent testing eliminates the requirement for cross-group equality of intercepts by the conventional setup in order to test cross-group equality of means of latent variables using chi-square-difference statistics. The most appealing piece of the new setup is a validity index for mean differences, defined as the percentage of the sum of the squared observed mean differences that is due to that of the mean differences of the common scores. By analyzing real data with two groups, the new setup is shown to offer more information than what is obtained under the conventional setup.
The Lipidomic Analyses in Low and Highly Aggressive Ovarian Cancer Cell Lines
Authors: Zhao Zhenwen , Cai Qingchun , Xu Yan
Published: December 2015

Despite huge advances in the research of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), it remains the most lethal gynecological malignancy. Peritoneal tumor cell dissemination with cell survival and drug‐resistance to taxane and platinum‐based chemotherapy are two of the major challenges of EOC treatment. We have generated highly aggressive EOC cell lines (ID8‐P1 lines or P1) from ID8‐P0 (without in vivo passage, or P0) through in vivo passage in mice. We conducted lipidomic analyses in cells from ID8‐P0 versus three ID8‐P1 cell lines using ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. A total of 16 classes of lipids (149 individual lipids) were analyzed and compared between P0 and P1 cells. In addition to overall lipid profiles in EOC cells, we had several novel observations. Several classes and species of lipids have been identified to be differentially present in P0 versus P1 cells, which are potentially involved in the acquired aggressiveness of P1 cells. Triacylglycerols (TAG) were dramatically increased under detachment stress in EOC cells. Since survival of EOC cells under detachment is one of the major obstacles for EOC treatment, further studies identifying the molecular mechanisms controlling TAG increase may lead to new treatment modalities for EOC.
The Sterol and Erythrodiol + Uvaol Content of Virgin Olive Oils Produced in Five Olive‐Growing Zones of Extremadura (Spain)
Authors: Cano Manuel Martínez , Gordillo Concepción de Miguel , Mendoza Manuel Fuentes , Vertedor Daniel Martín , Casas Jacinto Sánchez
Published: December 2015

The content of sterols and erythrodiol + uvaol was studied in 273 virgin olive oil samples from 40 mills in five olive‐growing zones of Extremadura (Spain). An analysis of variance showed significant differences at a confidence level of 95 % between the different zones in each of the main sterols and in the sum of erythrodiol + uvaol. The results of a linear discriminant analysis, considering the different olive‐growing areas as categorical dependent variables and the different sterols as independent variables, explained 78.2 % of the variance with the first two discriminant functions. The resulting model correctly classified 86.9 % of the samples analysed. A validation study was conducted to verify the goodness of the discriminant analysis, resulting in 79.3 % of the new samples used for validation being correctly classified. In the graphical representation of the different groups studied considering the proposed model's first two discriminant functions, the centroids of the Sierra Norte de Cáceres, Vegas del Guadiana and Tierra de Barros olive‐growing zones were clearly separated, but this was not the case for the other two zones—La Serena and La Siberia.
Girls feeling good at school: School gender environment, internalization and awareness of socio‐cultural attitudes associations with self‐esteem in adolescent girls
Authors: Cribb Victoria L. , Haase Anne M.
Published: December 2015

As society continues to advocate an unrealistically thin body shape, awareness and internalization of appearance and its consequent impact upon self‐esteem has become increasingly of concern, particularly in adolescent girls. School gender environment may influence these factors, but remains largely unexplored. This study aimed to assess differences between two different school environments in appearance attitudes, social influences and associations with self‐esteem. Two hundred and twelve girls (M = 13.8 years) attending either a single‐sex or co‐educational school completed measures on socio‐cultural attitudes towards appearance, social support and self‐esteem. Though marginal differences between school environments were found, significantly higher internalization was reported among girls at the co‐educational school. School environment moderated relations between internalization and self‐esteem such that girls in co‐educational environments had poorer self‐esteem stemming from greater internalization. Thus, in a single‐sex school environment, protective factors may attenuate negative associations between socio‐cultural attitudes towards appearance and self‐esteem in adolescent girls.
In times of war, adolescents do not fall silent: Teacher–student social network communication in wartime
Authors: Ophir Yaakov , Rosenberg Hananel , Asterhan Christa S.C. , Schwarz Baruch B.
Published: December 2015

Exposure to war is associated with psychological disturbances, but ongoing communication between adolescents and teachers may contribute to adolescents' resilience. This study examined the extent and nature of teacher–student communication on Social Network Sites (SNS) during the 2014 Israel–Gaza war. Israeli adolescents (N = 208, 13–18 yrs) completed information about SNS communication. A subset of these (N = 145) completed questionnaires on social rejection and distress sharing on SNS. More than a half (56%) of the respondents communicated with teachers via SNS. The main content category was ‘emotional support’. Adolescents' perceived benefits from SNS communication with teachers were associated with distress sharing. Social rejection was negatively associated with emotional support and perceived benefits from SNS communication. We conclude that SNS communication between teachers and students may provide students with easy access to human connections and emotional support, which is likely to contribute to adolescents' resilience in times of war.
Who is becoming personality disordered? A register-based follow-up study of 508 inpatient adolescents
Authors: Kantojärvi L. , Hakko H. , Riipinen P. , Riala K.
Published: December 2015

Background

Our aim was to investigate which clinical and socio-demographic factors among adolescent psychiatric patient aged 13–17 are associated with a diagnosis of personality disorder (PD) in young adulthood after discharge from psychiatric hospitalization.

Methods

The study sample consisted of 508 adolescents (ages 13–17) admitted to acute psychiatric impatient care between April 2001 and March 2006. DSM IV-based psychiatric diagnoses were obtained from the Schedule for Affective Disorder and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children Present and Lifetime (K-SADS-PL). The information on hospital treatments either in out- or inpatient settings until the end of 2012 was extracted from the national Care Register for Health Care provided by the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare. The follow-up time was 9.2 years (mean, 95% CI 9.0–9.3 yrs).

Results

Altogether 57 (11.2%) of subjects were diagnosed PD in adulthood. Among girls with anxiety disorders in adolescence the risk for PD in adulthood increased to 4.39-fold (95% CI 2.02–9.53). Males with later PD were more likely to be admitted for hospital treatment from child welfare placements (OR 3.23, 95% CI 1.21–8.61). However, axis I disorders in adolescence was not associated with risk for PD among boys.

Conclusions

The results indicate that risk of PD developing later in life is increased among girls with anxiety disorders. A child welfare placement associated with PD in males later in life. These associations in adolescents should be considered in clinical work.
Assessing Threats to Inference with Simultaneous Sensitivity Analysis: The Case of US Supreme Court Oral Arguments
Authors: Budziak Jeffrey , Lempert Daniel
Published: December 2015

Political scientists relying on observational data face substantial challenges in drawing causal inferences. A particularly problematic threat to inference is the unobserved confounder. As a means to assess this threat, we introduce simultaneous sensitivity analysis to the political science literature. As an application, we consider the potentially confounded relationship between Supreme Court justice voting and oral argument quality. We demonstrate that this relationship is sensitive to the presence of a confounder, to a degree that threatens inference, and explore the confounder both theoretically and empirically. More generally, we show how sensitivity analysis can guide inquiry related to a covariate that cannot be directly measured.
Excess maternal salt or fructose intake programmes sex-specific, stress- and fructose-sensitive hypertension in the offspring
Authors: Gray Clint , Gardiner Sheila M. , Elmes Matthew , Gardner David S.
Published: December 2015

The Western diet is typically high in salt and fructose, which have pressor activity. Maternal diet can affect offspring blood pressure, but the extent to which maternal intake of excess salt and fructose may influence cardiovascular function of the offspring is unknown. We sought to determine the effect of moderate maternal dietary intake of salt and/or fructose on resting and stimulated cardiovascular function of the adult male and female offspring. Pregnant rats were fed purified diets (±4 % salt) and water (±10 % fructose) before and during gestation and through lactation. Male and female offspring were weaned onto standard laboratory chow. From 9 to 14 weeks of age, cardiovascular parameters (basal, circadian and stimulated) were assessed continuously by radiotelemetry. Maternal salt intake rendered opposite-sex siblings with a 25-mmHg difference in blood pressure as adults; male offspring were hypertensive (15 mmHg mean arterial pressure (MAP)) and female offspring were hypotensive (10 mmHg MAP) above and below controls, respectively. Sex differences were unrelated to endothelial nitric oxide activity in vivo, but isolation-induced anxiety revealed a significantly steeper coupling between blood pressure and heart rate in salt-exposed male offspring but not in female offspring. MAP of all offspring was refractory to salt loading but sensitive to subsequent dietary fructose, an effect exacerbated in female offspring from fructose-fed dams. Circadian analyses of pressure in all offspring revealed higher mean set-point for heart rate and relative non-dipping of nocturnal pressure. In conclusion, increased salt and fructose in the maternal diet has lasting effects on offspring cardiovascular function that is sex-dependent and related to the offspring’s stress–response axis.
Red Guards and Salarymen: The Chinese Cultural Revolution and Comic Satire in 1960s Japan
Authors: Esselstrom Erik
Published: December 2015

This article explores how Japanese comic artists represented the early years of the Chinese Cultural Revolution in popular print culture, especially lowbrow comic magazines. It posits that Japanese cartoonists in their role as both purveyors of everyday humor and keenly observant social commentators employed the imagery and rhetoric of the Red Guard movement to critique the conservative social and economic order of Japanese corporate culture during the late 1960s era of high-speed growth; moreover, it contends that there was a surprisingly receptive audience for such criticism among the rank-and-file “salarymen” of the urban Japanese middle class. Finally, the precisely informed humor found in these comics also suggests that their target audience possessed detailed familiarity with contemporary events on the continent and interpreted those events through a deeply embedded cultural framework of ambivalence concerning modern Chinese society.
Three Welfare Models and Current Chinese Social Assistance: Confucian Justifications, Variable Applications
Authors: Solinger Dorothy J.
Published: December 2015

To situate today's social assistance program conceptually and historically, this paper presents three ideal-typical stances states may adopt in welfare provision, especially for indigent populations: (1) extend assistance to accord with social citizenship rights—or to fulfill the Confucian concept of the rite of benevolence; (2) offer subsidies to attain support or to pacify anger and silence demands from the poor; or (3) grant benefits (education, health care) to enhance the nation's productivity. The intended beneficiaries of these projects are, respectively, individuals, society and the state, and politicians. This categorization can distinguish, in broad-brush fashion, official handouts at diverse historical moments; the models are meant not so much to characterize entire eras as to illustrate differential styles of allocation. Moreover, each era justifies its practice with reference to Confucian dicta. In this comparative context, today's political elite bestows financial aid—but just a conditional kind—mainly to preempt disturbances and prevent “instability,” in line with the third of the types.
Premonitions of the Past
Authors: Sinha Mrinalini
Published: December 2015

A hundred years ago, on January 9, 1915, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi returned to India after approximately two decades of living and working in South Africa. In 2003, the Government of India designated the day of Gandhi's return as official Pravasi Bharatiya Divas or Overseas Indian Day. The centenary of Gandhi's return was marked at this year's thirteenth annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas with appropriate official fanfare. The occasion was also observed in a wide variety of public celebrations, including a full-scale reenactment of the disembarkation from on board the S. S.Arabiaof Gandhi and his wife, Kasturba, at Apollo Bunder in the Bombay Harbor; and with rallies and functions held all across India (see NDTV 2015;Outlook2015; see also Roy 2015). These centenary celebrations follow upon more than a decade-long shift in official Indian policy towards overseas Indians, or, in official parlance, Non-Resident Indians and Persons of Indian Origin (see Amrute 2010; Hercog and Siegel 2013; Upadhya 2013; Varadarajan 2014). The policy, at first, was directed mainly towards attracting the wealthy in such places as the United States and the United Kingdom. Even though it now extends to the much larger labor diaspora, both old and new, settled throughout the regions of the world, the focus remains on the rich, whose investments in India are greatly coveted. The embrace of a diasporic and deterritorialized Indian imaginary—anchored, ironically, in the commemorations of Gandhi as the poster boy for the global peripatetic Indian—is a symptom of the changes in the nation-state's relationship to global capitalism in these times of accelerated globalization.
Looking Back on the Seventieth Anniversary of Japan's Surrender
Authors: Delury John , Smith Sheila A. , Repnikova Maria , Raghavan Srinath
Published: December 2015

Editor's Introduction: In mid-August 2015, Japanese prime minister Abe Shinzo gave a high-profile speech looking back at the Japanese surrender of 1945. Three weeks later, also to mark the seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II in Asia, China's Communist Party head and president Xi Jinping presided over a lavish parade in the heart of Beijing, which featured missiles and other Chinese military hardware as well as large contingents of People's Liberation Army soldiers and small contingents of troops from various other countries. Following up on a trio of essays in the August issue of the JAS, which looked ahead to events such as these, we now publish this special “Asia Beyond the Headlines” section made up of four essays that explore the meaning, for different individual or sets of countries, of Abe's speech and Xi's spectacle. This quartet of commentaries, by three political scientists and one historian, is designed to complement the last issue's contributions by historians Carol Gluck, Rana Mitter, and Charles Armstrong, as well as the historical photograph from seventy years ago that appears on the cover of this issue.

The set begins with an essay by historian John Delury, a scholar trained in Chinese history and currently teaching in Seoul, who has written on varied aspects of East Asian international relations and notes, among other things, the curious fact that the representative from South Korea rather than from North Korea got the warmer reception from Xi during the recent Beijing spectacle. Following this comes Sheila A. Smith, a scholar based at a Washington, D.C., think tank, reflecting on the current state of the complex bilateral relationship between Tokyo and Beijing. Appearing next is a commentary by Maria Repnikova, a specialist in both Chinese and Russian affairs who was trained in political science and holds a postdoctoral fellowship in a school of communications. She writes on the increasingly close ties yet lingering tensions between Beijing and Moscow, as well as the way that official media has celebrated, while some users of social media have mocked, the symbolism of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping presiding over recent victory day parades in their respective capitals. The series concludes with a commentary by Srinath Raghavan, a London-trained scholar now based at a New Delhi policy institute. He completes our survey of commemoration of the end of World War II with a look at the way recent parades revealed the Indian government's tricky position vis-à-vis Moscow and Beijing, as well as the relatively scant attention that India's significant contributions to World War II received, at home and internationally, during the season of commemorative speeches and displays.
Plasma stability theory including the resistive wall effects
Authors: Pustovitov V. D.
Published: December 2015

Plasma stabilization due to a nearby conducting wall can provide access to better performance in some scenarios in tokamaks. This was proved by experiments with an essential gain in${\it\beta}$and demonstrated as a long-lasting effect at sufficiently fast plasma rotation in the DIII-D tokamak (see, for example, Straitet al.,Nucl. Fusion, vol. 43, 2003, pp. 430–440). The rotational stabilization is the central topic of this review, though eventually the mode rotation gains significance. The analysis is based on the first-principle equations describing the energy balance with dissipation in the resistive wall. The method emphasizes derivation of the dispersion relations for the modes which are faster than the conventional resistive wall modes, but slower than the ideal magnetohydrodynamics modes. Both the standard thin wall and ideal-wall approximations are not valid in this range. Here, these are replaced by an approach incorporating the skin effect in the wall. This new element in the stability theory makes the energy sink a nonlinear function of the complex growth rate. An important consequence is that a mode rotating above a critical level can provide a damping effect sufficient for instability suppression. Estimates are given and applications are discussed.
Narrative abilities in bilingual children
Authors: GAGARINA NATALIA , KLOP DALEEN , TSIMPLI IANTHI M. , WALTERS JOEL
Published: December 2015

The number of bilingual children is growing dramatically all over the world. In 2010 the International Organization of Migration documented 214 million migrants worldwide, many bilingual (Koser & Laczko, 2010). One of the challenges arising from the rapid increase of bilingual children is scientifically grounded assessment of linguistic proficiency in both of a child's languages in various language domains. Assessment in both languages is especially important to avoid misdiagnosis of language impairment. Specific language impairment (SLI) is among the most prevalent impairments, estimated to affect 7%–10% of children entering formal education (Grimm, 2003; Tomblin, Smith, & Zhang, 1997). Assessment tools for bilinguals in both the home language and the majority language are often lacking (for exceptions, see Gagarina, Klassert, & Topaj, 2010; Schulz & Tracy, 2011).
Narrative competence of Italian–English bilingual children between 5 and 7 years
Authors: ROCH MAJA , FLORIT ELENA , LEVORATO CHIARA
Published: December 2015

The study explored narrative production and comprehension in typically developing Italian–English sequential bilinguals. Thirty 5- to 6-year-olds and 32 6- to 7-year-olds were presented with story telling and retelling tasks, each followed by comprehension questions in Italian (their first language) and English (their second language). The macrostructure of narratives produced was analyzed, considering total amount of relevant information, story complexity, and mental state terms. Comprehension questions focused on implicit story information (i.e., characters’ mental states and goals). The results indicated that (a) older children outperformed younger ones on all measures; (b) an advantage of first language (Italian) over second language (English) emerged for younger children; and (c) comprehension and production were both more accurate in story retelling than in telling. Theoretical and methodological implications of these results are discussed.
Narratives of Russian–German preschool and primary school bilinguals:RasskazandErzaehlung
Authors: GAGARINA NATALIA
Published: December 2015

The goal of this study was to trace the dual language development of the narrative macrostructure in three age groups of Russian–German bilingual children and to compare the performance of simultaneous and sequential bilinguals. Fine-grained analyses of macrostructure included three components: story structure, story complexity, and internal state terms. Oral narratives were elicited via the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives. Fifty-eight Russian–German speaking bilingual children from three age groups participated: preschoolers (mean age = 45 months) and elementary school pupils (mean age first grade = 84 months, mean age third grade = 111 months); and there were 34 simultaneous and 24 sequential bilinguals. The results showed significant improvement for all three components of macrostructure between the preschool and first-grade period. Additional significant development from first to third graders was found only for story complexity in Russian. This is explained by the Russian curriculum explicitly teaching narrative skills during early literacy training. In the two older groups, simultaneous bilinguals showed advantages over sequential bilinguals, for story complexity only. This finding suggests considering bilingual type when evaluating narrative skills of bilinguals. The results indicate cross-language association of only some components of narrative score across languages. The findings support the examination of various constituents of macrostructure when evaluating its development as well as the progression of narrative skills.
Extending model-mediation method to multi-degree-of-freedom teleoperation systems experiencing time delays in communication
Authors: Uzunoğlu Emre , Dede Mehmet İsmet Can
Published: December 2015

In this study, a bilateral teleoperation control algorithm is developed in which the model-mediation method is integrated with an impedance controller. The model-mediation method is also extended to three-degrees-of-freedom teleoperation. The aim of this controller is to compensate for instability issues and excessive forcing applied to the slave environment stemming from time delays in communication. The proposed control method is experimentally tested with two haptic desktop devices. Test results indicate that stability and passivity of the bilateral teleoperation system is preserved under variable time delays in communication. It is also observed that safer interactions of the slave system with its environment can be achieved by utilizing an extended version of the model-mediation method with an impedance controller.
Identity formation of Filipino ESL teachers teaching Korean students in the Philippines
Authors: Choe Hohsung
Published: December 2015

One of the recent trends in Korean English Language Teaching (ELT) is that Korean parents are sending their children to countries in which English is a second language (ESL). Among these countries, the Philippines is the most preferred country due to its low tuition costs, low cost of living, and a population of well-educated ESL teachers. Every year, approximately 30,000 Korean students study in universities, elementary and secondary schools, and language academies in the Philippines. 10% of this student population consists of student visa holders and 90% are Special Study Permit (SSP) holders. SSPs are issued to international students studying non-degree special courses for a period not exceeding one year, and 90% of Korean students are presumed to enroll on short-term intensive English programs. The exodus of Koreans to the Philippines to learn English is being led by private language academies, which are founded and run by Koreans, solely targeting Korean students. In 2011, the number of such private language academies was estimated to be 280 (Kim, 2011). Furthermore, it was reported that Korean students were spending over 425 million US dollars annually in the Philippines (KEDI, 2012).
DOES ONE SIZE FIT ALL? COST UTILITY ANALYSES OF ALTERNATIVE MAMMOGRAPHIC FOLLOW-UP SCHEDULES, BY RISK OF RECURRENCE
Authors: Bessen Taryn , Keefe Dorothy M.K. , Karnon Jonathan
Published: December 2015

Objectives: International guidelines recommend annual mammography after early breast cancer, but there is no randomized controlled trial evidence to support this schedule over any other. Given that not all women have the same risk of recurrence, it is possible that, by defining different risk profiles, we could tailor mammographic schedules that are more effective and efficient.

Methods: A discrete event simulation model was developed to describe the progression of early breast cancer after completion of primary treatment. Retrospective data for 1,100 postmenopausal women diagnosed with early breast cancer in South Australia from 2000 to 2008 were used to calibrate the model. Women were divided into four prognostic subgroups based on the Nottingham Prognostic Index of their primary tumor. For each subgroup, we compared the cost-effectiveness of three different mammographic schedules for two different age groups.

Results: Annual mammographic follow-up was not cost-effective for most postmenopausal women. Two yearly mammography was cost-effective for all women with excellent prognosis tumors; and for women with good prognosis tumors if high compliance rates can be achieved. Annual mammography for 5 years and 2 yearly surveillance thereafter (a mixed schedule) may be cost-effective for 50- to 69-year-old women with moderate prognosis tumors, and for women aged 70–79 years with poor prognosis tumors. For younger women with poor prognosis tumors, annual mammography is potentially cost-effective.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that mammographic follow-up could be tailored according to risk of recurrence. If validated with larger datasets, this could potentially set the stage for personalized mammographic follow-up after breast cancer.