bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Coping and Survival Skills: The Role School Personnel Play Regarding Support for Bullied Sexual Minority‐Oriented Youth
Authors: Marshall Alexandra , Yarber William L. , Sherwood‐Laughlin Catherine M. , Gray Mary L. , Estell David B.
Published: April 2015

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND

Research has shown that bullying has serious health consequences, and sexual minority‐oriented youth are disproportionately affected. Sexual minority‐oriented youth include lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (LGBTQ) individuals. This study examined the bullying experiences of sexual minority‐oriented youth in a predominantly rural area of a Midwestern state. The purpose of this study was to have bullied youth describe their experiences and to present their perspectives.

METHODS

Using critical qualitative inquiry, 16 in‐depth interviews were conducted in‐person or online with youth, ages 15‐20, who self‐identified as having been bullied based on their perceived minority sexual orientation status.

RESULTS

The role of supportive school personnel was found to be meaningful, and supportive school personnel were mentioned as assisting with the coping and survival among this group of bullied sexual minority youth.

CONCLUSIONS

Supportive school personnel are crucial to the coping and survival of these youth. All school personnel need to be aware of the anti‐bullying policies in their school corporations. They may then work to strengthen and enforce their policies for the protection of bullied youth.
Out‐of‐School Time Activity Participation Among US‐Immigrant Youth
Authors: Yu Stella M. , Newport‐Berra McHale , Liu Jihong
Published: April 2015

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND

Structured out‐of‐school time (OST) activities are associated with positive academic and psychosocial outcomes.

METHODS

Data came from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health, restricted to 36,132 youth aged 12‐17 years. Logistic regression models were used to examine the joint effects of race/ethnicity and immigrant family type on the participation in OST activities.

RESULTS

Compared with US‐born (USB) non‐Hispanic White youth with USB parents, USB Hispanic youth with USB parents were less likely to participate in sports, whereas non‐Hispanic Black youth with immigrant parents were more likely to participate in sports. White youth with at least 1 immigrant parent had higher odds of participating in after‐school clubs. All Hispanic youth were less likely to participate in after‐school clubs. USB Hispanic youth, USB Black youth, and White youth and “other” youth with at least 1 immigrant parent had higher odds of engaging in community services. Youth from immigrant families had lower odds of doing paid work.

CONCLUSIONS

Hispanic youth were less likely to participate in OST activities. Non‐Hispanic youth with immigrant parents did not engage in fewer OST activities compared with USB White youth with USB parents. Intervention and recruitment strategies for OST activities may need to be customized for immigrant groups.
Comparison of Height, Weight, and Body Mass Index Data From State‐Mandated School Physical Fitness Testing and a Districtwide Surveillance Project
Authors: Khaokham Christina B. , Hillidge Sharon , Serpas Shaila , McDonald Eric , Nader Philip R.
Published: April 2015

BACKGROUND

Approximately one third of California school‐age children are overweight or obese. Legislative approaches to assessing obesity have focused on school‐based data collection. During 2010‐2011, the Chula Vista Elementary School District conducted districtwide surveillance and state‐mandated physical fitness testing (PFT) among fifth grade students. We compared height, weight, and body mass index (BMI) to examine measurement differences between the projects.

METHODS

We assessed demographic characteristics and BMI category frequencies. We used paired t‐tests to test continuous variables. κ statistics were used to assess categorical agreement.

RESULTS

Of 3549 children assessed, 69% were Hispanic. Fifty‐one percent were boys. Mean heights, weights, and BMIs were significantly different for each project (p < .0001). Surveillance height (106.7‐165.1 cm) and weight (21.6‐90.8 kg) ranges were lesser than PFT ranges (109.2‐180.3 cm and 22.7‐98.4 kg). The overall BMI category agreement was good (weighted κ = 0.77). Categorical percentage agreement was highest among normal weight children (94.9%) and lowest among underweight children (56.6%).

CONCLUSIONS

Methodological differences might have resulted in the observed height, weight, and BMI differences. As school‐based interventions become common, districts should carefully consider measurement reliability, training, and data‐handling protocols to have confidence in their findings.
From the School Health Education Study to the National Health Education Standards: Concepts Endure
Authors: Nobiling Brandye D. , Lyde Adrian R.
Published: April 2015

BACKGROUND

The landmark School Health Education Study (SHES) project influenced by the conceptual approach to teaching and learning provides perspective on modern school health instruction. Conceptual education, the cornerstone of the SHES curriculum framework (CF), Health Education: A Conceptual Approach to Curriculum Design, fosters a student's understanding of information that develops with experience.

METHODS

Data were collected through content analysis of the SHES CF and the National Health Education Standards: Achieving Excellence (NHES), 2nd edition. Similarity of essential framework elements was established. Inter‐rater reliability was established.

RESULTS

Alignment of the SHES components with the NHES reveals parallel conceptual structures around which to develop curriculum.

CONCLUSIONS

The conceptual approach to curriculum planning has enduring value. It provides a foundation for teaching and learning that is adaptable, flexible, and can maintain permanence in conjunction with emerging scientific evidence and cultural and political influences on health behavior.
Believe, But Verify? The Effect of Market Structure on Corruption in Religious Organizations
Authors: Gutmann Jerg
Published: April 2015

This first cross‐country analysis of the causes of corruption in religious organizations provides evidence in support of policy recommendations by Adam Smith. He argued that clergy are best constrained by competition among religious groups. Their appointment and promotion should, however, be regulated by the state. Both factors are shown to confine corruption. In contrast, David Hume's approach of supporting state religion and limiting entry into the religious market is not a promising strategy for mitigating religious corruption. More generally, these results suggest that the private sector may indeed be shielded from sprawling corruption as long as markets are sufficiently competitive.
Does Fairness Matter for the Success of Fiscal Consolidation?
Authors: Kaplanoglou Georgia , Rapanos Vassilis T. , Bardakas Ioanna C.
Published: April 2015

Does it matter for fiscal consolidation programs to be fair in order to be successful? This question has never been empirically addressed despite its profound importance especially since many developed countries have embarked on fiscal consolidation programs, which in many cases have led to sizeable increases in unemployment and poverty, and are met with public dissatisfaction. Using a data set for 29OECDcountries over the period 1971–2009, we argue that fairness matters, namely that improving the targeting of social transfers and their effectiveness in terms of poverty alleviation, higher public expenditure on training and active labor market programs and programs like social housing directed to the poor, even decreasing theVATrate on necessities, improve the success probabilities of consolidation attempts. Introducing such concerns sheds new light on the prevailing view that the successful fiscal adjustments are those that rely on spending‐cuts rather than on tax increases. The results of this paper provide empirical evidence that ameliorating the effects of adjustment, by supporting the weaker parts of society, is crucial for the success of fiscal consolidations and argues that “fair fiscal adjustments” may provide the double dividend of enhancing the probability of success of the adjustment and of promoting social cohesion.
Does Economics Make Politicians Corrupt? Empirical Evidence from the United States Congress
Authors: Ruske René
Published: April 2015

The present article analyzes the differences between economists and non‐economists with respect to observed corruption behavior used as a proxy for selfishness. For this purpose, I analyzed real world data of relating to the 109th–111th US Congress between 2005 and 2009, including 695 representatives and senators. I show that those who hold a degree in economics are significantly more prone to corruption than ‘non‐economists’. These findings hence support the widespread, but controversial hypothesis in the ‘economist vs. non‐economist literature’ that economists lack what Frey and Meier (2004) call ‘social behavior’. Moreover, by using real world data, these findings overcome the lack of external validity, which impact on the (low cost) experiments and surveys to date.
Ownership, Visibility and Effort: Golf Handicaps as Proxies for Managers' Extra Effort
Authors: Schön Constantin , Ehrmann Thomas , Rost Katja
Published: April 2015

Economics suggests that owners, CEOs and chairmen have different claims in a company's output, and thus that these groups exert different efforts. However, the effort an agent invests in his/her firm is difficult to measure. Golf handicaps enable us to look into the relationship between different degrees of ownership and their implications for the effort that agents exert. Handicaps have the advantage that they can be directly observed and can be viewed as a mirror image of a manager's effort. We expect that times of crisis and changes in management positions influence golf handicaps, mostly for owners and, to a lesser extent, for CEOs and chairmen. Data of 440 Swiss top managers and their handicaps during eight years, from 2003 to 2010, strongly support this assumption.
World Literature and Japan: Tokyo, Worlding and Murakami Haruki
Authors: Stewart Rachel
Published: April 2015

Following on from the publication of The Oxford Handbook of Global Modernisms, this essay develops understandings of the worldliness of world literature as part of a more inclusive system of exchange, circulation and multidirectional flows that could create new spaces for multiple world perspectives in literature. Arguing that the world in World Literature should be theorised as a concept as opposed to a marker of scale, Eric Hayot's On Literary Worlds (2012) forms the theoretical and conceptual foundations for analysing the scope and limits of a more sufficiently global view of the nature of worlding in Murakami Haruki's contemporary Japanese fiction. Building on David Damrosch's seminal work What is World Literature (2003a), the aim of this essay is two‐fold: to renew common conceptions of the spatial implications attached to the overarching singularity of the word ‘world’ in world literature; and to expand the categories of ‘world’ and of ‘literature’ as individual ‘whole’ parts that together create new overlapping spaces in the history of worldedness as a cultural phenomenon. Overlaps between anthropologists, sociologists, urban planners, urban rhythm analysis, linguistics and academics are discussed with reference to worlding in Murakami's depiction of Tokyo's multiple world‐passages with particular reference to his 2011 trilogy IQ84. Ultimately, this essay aims to present Japan as a (re)creator of global worlds in which the rebuilding of post‐war Tokyo comprises shifting spatial boundaries pertaining to both our world totality and our capability for (re)reading infinite world spaces. Reading the spatial liminality of Murakami's Tokyo in IQ84 while historicising the building of Tokyo as a world city aims to place transculturation and transliteration at the forefront of developing a multiple worlds perspective for our understandings of the world as a concept.
Abdominal pain endpoints currently recommended by the FDA and EMA for adult patients with irritable bowel syndrome may not be reliable in children
Authors: Saps M. , Lavigne J. V.
Published: April 2015

Background

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended ≥30% decrease on patient‐reported outcomes for pain be considered clinically significant in clinical trials for adults with irritable bowel syndrome. This percent change approach may not be appropriate for children. We compared three alternate approaches to determining clinically significant reductions in pain among children.

Methods

80 children with functional abdominal pain participated in a study of the efficacy of amitriptyline. Endpoints included patient‐reported estimates of feeling better, and pain Visual Analog Scale (VAS). The minimum clinically important difference in pain report was calculated as (i) mean change in VAS score for children reporting being ‘better’; (ii) percent changes in pain (≥30% and ≥50%) on the VAS; and (iii) statistically reliable changes on the VAS for 68% and 95% confidence intervals.

Key Results

There was poor agreement between the three approaches. 43.6% of the children who met the FDA ≥30% criterion for clinically significant change did not achieve a reliable level of improvement (95% confidence interval).

Conclusions & Inferences

Children's self‐reported ratings of being better may not be statistically reliable. A combined approach in which children must report improvement as better and achieve a statistically significant change may be more appropriate for outcomes in clinical trials.
Oral Mucoceles in Children—Analysis of 56 New Cases
Authors: Bodner Lipa , Manor Esther , Joshua Ben‐Zion , Shaco‐Levy Ruthy
Published: April 2015

Background

Mucoceles are common cystic lesions of the oral mucosa. Extravasation mucoceles (EMs) are mainly found in the lower lip of young patients, whereas retention mucoceles (RMs) are usually located in the cheek or palate of older patients. This study was undertaken to more fully characterize the clinicopathologic features of mucoceles in pediatric patients.

Methods

The records of 56 pediatric patients with mucoceles were included in the study. Age, sex, history of trauma, intraoral site, size, and method of treatment were evaluated. Histopathologically the lesions were classified as being EMs or RMs.

Results

The age range was 1.5 to 16 years (mean age 11.2 yrs). Of the 56 patients, 24 (43%) were males and 32 (57%) were females, with a male:female ratio of 1:1.33. A history of trauma was recorded in 32 (57%) patients of the lower lip. The intraoral sites were the lower lip (38 [68%]), tongue (10 [18%]), and floor of the mouth (8 [14%]). Of the 56 patients, 44 (79%) were EM and 12 (21%) were ranulas. No RMs were found. Mucoceles ranged from 0.3 to 3.8 cm in diameter (mean 0.9 cm). The treatment of EMs was surgical excision. Cryosurgey, electrosurgery, and carbon dioxide laser were also used.

Conclusion

In contrast to adults, where EM and RM types can be found, among children all cases are of the EM type. The disparate site and age incidences of EMs and RMs of the oral mucosa suggest that these two types are not related and possibly have a different etiopathogenesis.
Catharine Cockburn on Unthinking Immaterial Substance: Souls, Space, and Related Matters
Authors: Thomas Emily
Published: April 2015

The early modern Catharine Cockburn wrote on a wide range of philosophical issues and recent years have seen an increasing interest in her work. This paper explores her thesis that immaterial substance need not think. Drawing on existing scholarship, I explore the origin of this thesis in Cockburn and show how she applies it in a novel way to space. This thesis provides a particularly useful entry point into Cockburn's philosophy, as it emphasises the importance of her metaphysics and connects with many of her further philosophical views. This paper shows that it is rewarding to consider Cockburn's philosophical views as a holistic system.
The Human Right to Health
Authors: Hassoun Nicole
Published: April 2015

Is there a human right to health? If so, what are its grounds? Can a legal or moral human right to health provide any practical guidance when it comes to making decisions about, for instance, the allocation of scarce health resources? There are many possible answers to these questions in the literature. This article surveys some of these replies. First, however, it examines the distinctions between legal and moral human rights and rights to health vs. health care. It then surveys the literature on potential grounds for a moral (and possibly legal) human right to health. It concludes by considering replies to several common objections to the existence of a human right to health.
Can Drug Effects Explain the Recent Temporal Increase in Atonic Postpartum Haemorrhage?
Authors: Joseph K. S. , Sheehy Odile , Mehrabadi Azar , Urquia Marcelo L. , Hutcheon Jennifer A. , Kramer Michael , Bérard Anick
Published: April 2015

Background

Rates of postpartum haemorrhage and atonic postpartum haemorrhage have increased in several high‐income countries. We carried out a study to examine if drug use in pregnancy, or drug and other interactions, explained this increase in postpartum haemorrhage.

Methods

The linked administrative and hospital databases of the Québec Pregnancy Cohort were used to define a cohort of pregnant women in Québec, Canada, from 1998 to 2009 (n = 138 704). Case–control studies on any postpartum haemorrhage and atonic postpartum haemorrhage were carried out within this population, with up to five controls randomly selected for each case after matching on index date and hospital of delivery (incidence density sampling). Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate the effects of drug use on postpartum haemorrhage and atonic postpartum haemorrhage.

Results

There was an unexpected non‐linear, declining temporal pattern in postpartum haemorrhage and atonic postpartum haemorrhage between 1998 and 2009. Use of antidepressants (mainly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) was associated with higher rates of postpartum haemorrhage [adjusted rate ratio (aRR) 1.48, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.23, 1.77] and atonic postpartum haemorrhage [aRR 1.40, 95% CI 1.13, 1.74]. Thrombocytopenia was also associated with higher rates of postpartum haemorrhage [aRR 1.52, 95% CI 1.16, 2.00]. There were no statistically significant drug interactions. Adjustment for maternal factors and drug use had little effect on temporal trends in postpartum haemorrhage and atonic postpartum haemorrhage.

Conclusions

Although antidepressant use and thrombocytopenia were associated with higher rates of atonic postpartum haemorrhage, antidepressant and other drug use did not explain temporal trends in postpartum haemorrhage.
Cardiac Response During Auditory Selective Attention to Tones and Affective Sounds
Authors: da Silva Sérgio P. , Backs Richard W.
Published: April 2015

We conducted an experiment to determine if attention to affective sounds showed a lateral bias. Twenty‐two participants were instructed to respond to one of two pure tones presented monaurally and to a set of pleasant and unpleasant sounds from the International Affective Digitized Sounds set. Participants were instructed to respond to pleasant or unpleasant sounds in the right or left ear, attending to pleasant/right, pleasant/left, unpleasant/right, and unpleasant/left sounds in separate blocks. Evoked cardiac response to the tones showed significant cardiac deceleration in response to attended sounds in the attended ear. In addition, pleasant sounds elicited significant cardiac deceleration when attended in the right ear, but not in the left. Unpleasant sounds elicited significant cardiac deceleration when attended in both ears. Consistent with the anterior valence hypothesis, our data suggests that pleasant sounds are mainly processed in the left hemisphere, but in contrast to this hypothesis, unpleasant sounds are processed bilaterally.
The act of penning in William Baldwin's Beware the Cat
Authors: Stenner Rachel
Published: April 2015

This essay argues that Beware the Cat presents itself as a penned text, not just an oral or printed one. Baldwin highlights the specifically handwritten word as a unique component in the text and considers its various hermeneutic facets. His interest in the materials and processes of writing anticipates that of later prose fiction writers, such as Thomas Nashe and George Gascoigne; in this sense he can be seen in the 1550s articulating concerns that would become characteristic of subsequent prose narrative. Two areas in Beware the Cat are particularly important to this discussion: the editorial fiction as established in G. B.'s framing material, and the bawd's letter as described in Mouse‐slayer's oration. Baldwin identifies handwriting as an intermediate stage in the book production process, imagining the relationship between orality and printing not in opposition but along a continuum. He also presents handwriting as an act that is at once manual, creative and performative, that becomes a subject of fiction and a philosophical problem. The philosophical context is introduced through allusions to the Platonic dialogue, Phaedrus, and Baldwin's own Treatise of Moral Philosophy. This has consequences for the text's meditations on not only penning but on printing and orality too.
Empirical Likelihood Confidence Intervals for Complex Sampling Designs
Authors: Berger Y. G. , De La Riva Torres O.
Published: April 2015

We define an empirical likelihood approach which gives consistent design-based confidence intervals which can be calculated without the need of variance estimates, designeffects, resampling, joint inclusion probabilities and linearization, even when the point estimator is not linear. It can be used to construct confidence intervals for a large class of sampling designs and estimators which are solutions of estimating equations. It can be used for means, regressions coefficients, quantiles, totals or counts even when the population size is unknown. It can be used with large sampling fractions and naturally includes calibration constraints. It can be viewed as an extension of the empirical likelihood approach to complex survey data. This approach is computationally simpler than the pseudoempirical likelihood and the bootstrap approaches. The simulation study shows that the confidence interval proposed may give better coverages than the confidence intervals based on linearization, bootstrap and pseudoempirical likelihood. Our simulation study shows that, under complex sampling designs, standard confidence intervals based on normality may have poor coverages, because point estimators may not follow a normal sampling distribution and their variance estimators may be biased.
Fluvial sedimentation in a salt‐controlled mini‐basin: stratal patterns and facies assemblages, Sivas Basin, Turkey
Authors: Ribes Charlotte , Kergaravat Charlie , Bonnel Cédric , Crumeyrolle Philippe , Callot Jean‐Paul , Poisson André , Temiz Haluk , Ringenbach Jean‐Claude
Published: April 2015

The Sivas Basin, located on the Central Anatolian Plateau in Turkey, is an elongate Oligo‐Miocene basin that contains numerous salt‐walled mini‐basins. Through field analysis, including stratigraphic section logging, facies analysis and geological mapping, a detailed tectono‐stratigraphic study of the Emirhan mini‐basin and its 2·6 km thick sediment fill has been undertaken. Three main palaeoenvironments are recognized – playa‐lake, braided stream and lacustrine – each corresponds to a relatively long‐lived depositional episode within a system that was dominated overall by the development of a distributive fluvial system. At local scale, this affects the geometry of the succession and influences facies distributions within preserved sequences. Sequences affected by wedge geometries are characterized by localized channelized sandstone bodies in the area of maximum subsidence and these pass laterally to floodplain mudstone towards the diaper; several internal unconformities are recognized. By contrast, sequences affected by hook geometries display narrow and steep drape‐fold geometries with no evidence of lateral facies change and apparent conformity in the preserved succession. The sediment fill of the Emirhan mini‐basin records the remobilization of diapir‐derived detritus and the presence of evaporitic bodies interbedded within the mini‐basin, implying the growth of salt walls expressed at the surface as palaeo‐topographic highs. The mini‐basin also records the signature of a regional change in stratigraphic assemblage, passing from playa‐lake facies to large‐scale highly amalgamated fluvial facies that represent progradation of the fluvial system. The initiation and evolution of this mini‐basin involves a variety of local and regional controls. Local factors include: (i) salt withdrawal, which influenced the rate and style of subsidence and consequently temporal and spatial variation in the stratigraphic assemblage and the stratal response related to halokinesis; and (ii) salt inflation, which influenced the topographic expression of the diapirs and consequently the occurrence of diapir‐derived detritus intercalated within the otherwise clastic‐dominated succession.
Participatory Practices in Organizations
Authors: Lee Caroline W.
Published: April 2015

The literature on participatory practices in organizations has been less coherent and more limited to subspecialties than the literature on bureaucracy in organizations – despite a number of celebrated studies of participation in 20th century American sociology. Due to the practical nature of participatory reforms and the ambiguity of participation as a concept, attempts to review participatory knowledge have a tendency to focus on refining definitions and clarifying frameworks within subfields. This article instead provides a broad thematic overview of three different types of research on participation in organizations, all critical to an understanding of today's dramatic expansion of participatory practices across a variety of organizations. Classic research studied participation as dynamic and central to organizational legitimacy. Institutional design research has focused on participation as a stand‐alone governance reform with promising empowerment potential, but mixed results in domains such as health care, environmental politics, and urban planning. Finally, recent research seeks to place participatory practices in the context of shifting relationships between authority, voice, and inequality in the contemporary era. The article concludes with suggestions for building on all three categories of research by exploring what is old and new in the 21st century's changing participatory landscape.
What is the KKK a Case Of? Extreme Cases as Analytic Device
Authors: Cunningham David , Madsen Rachel S.
Published: April 2015

Social scientists frequently deploy extreme or rare cases as analytic devices to produce insight into broader social processes. Such a move requires that analysts understand what their object of inquiry is in fact “a case of.” Focusing on the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as one emblematic instance of an extreme case, this article considers the stakes associated with casing decisions around rare and extreme phenomena. Interrogating how the KKK has been understood as both an object of inquiry (i.e. a case) and a signal of broader social processes (i.e. a variable), the discussion emphasizes how to view the associated literature to more reflexively examine the KKK, as well as gain more global insight into the value and cautions associated with using extreme cases to produce generalizable conclusions.
In Search Of True Things Worth Knowing: Considerations For A New Article Prototype
Authors: Tullett Alexa M.
Published: April 2015

Within social and personality psychology, the existing “old prototype” of a publishable article is at odds with new expectations for transparent reporting. If researchers anticipate having to report everything while continuing to aim for a research product that includes multiple studies, examining a novel effect, with only statistically significant results, this will have negative implications for initial decisions about what research to conduct. First, researchers will be discouraged from collecting additional data because this could potentially mar existing findings. Second, they will be discouraged from pursuing questions for which the answers are unknown, as this would be a waste if the results do not fit old‐prototype expectations. These practices undermine what seem to be two universal values within personality and social psychology: truth and interestingness. Suggestions for a “new prototype” that de‐emphasizes p‐value cutoffs, multiple studies, and novelty will be discussed with an eye toward encouraging research decisions that foster true and interesting findings.
Cognitive Dissonance in Groups
Authors: McKimmie Blake M.
Published: April 2015

Cognitive dissonance theory, as originally set out by Festinger (), described dissonance as an intraindividual phenomenon in a social context. Much of the research on dissonance has focused on the intraindividual aspect of dissonance. The limited research that has looked at cognitive dissonance in groups has done so from a range of different perspectives. These perspectives seem to result in contradictory predictions about the role of social information on the arousal and reduction of cognitive dissonance, despite generally sharing a model of the social self based on, or consistent with, social identity theory (Tajfel, ). Thinking about how these group‐based models of cognitive dissonance fit together may better illuminate the nature of dissonance and also suggest productive avenues for research to integrate these various perspectives on dissonance.
A library of synthetic transcription activator‐like effector‐activated promoters for coordinated orthogonal gene expression in plants
Authors: Brückner Kathleen , Schäfer Petra , Weber Ernst , Grützner Ramona , Marillonnet Sylvestre , Tissier Alain
Published: April 2015

A library of synthetic promoters containing the binding site of a single designer transcription activator‐like effector (dTALE) was constructed. The promoters contain a constant sequence, consisting of an 18‐base long dTALE‐binding site and a TATA box, flanked by degenerate sequences of 49 bases downstream and 19 bases upstream. Forty‐three of these promoters were sequenced and tested in transient assays in Nicotiana benthamiana using a GUS reporter gene. The strength of expression of the promoters ranged from around 5% to almost 100% of the viral 35S promoter activity. We then demonstrated the utility of these promoters for metabolic engineering by transiently expressing three genes for the production of a plant diterpenoid in N. benthamiana. The simplicity of the promoter structure shows great promise for the development of genetic circuits, with wide potential applications in plant synthetic biology and metabolic engineering.
Improved and versatile viral 2A platforms for dependable and inducible high‐level expression of dicistronic nuclear genes in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii
Authors: Plucinak Thomas M. , Horken Kempton M. , Jiang Wenzhi , Fostvedt Jessica , Nguyen Sanh Tan , Weeks Donald P.
Published: April 2015

A significantly improved viral 2A peptide system for dependable high‐level expression of dicistronic genes in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii has been developed. Data are presented demonstrating that use of an especially proficient ‘extended FMDV 2A’ coding region allows production of two independent protein products from a dicistronic gene with almost complete efficiency. Importantly, results are also presented that demonstrate the utility of this 2A system for efficient high‐level expression of foreign genes in C. reinhardtii, which has not previously been reliably achievable in this algal model system. To expand the versatility of the 2A expression system, a number of commonly used selectable marker proteins were assessed for their compatibility with the extended FMDV 2A peptide. Additional experiments demonstrate the feasibility and utility of 2A‐containing dicistronic systems that rely on a strong conditional promoter for transcriptional control and a low‐expression marker gene for selection. This strategy allows easy and efficient delivery of genes of interest whose expression levels require regulation either to mitigate potential toxicity or allow differential expression under controlled experimental conditions. Finally, as an additional practical demonstration of the utility of the extended FMDV 2A system, confocal fluorescence microscopy is used to demonstrate that native and foreign proteins of interest bearing post‐translational remnants of the extended FMDV 2A peptide localize correctly to various cellular compartments, including a striking demonstration of the almost exclusive localization of the Rubisco small subunit protein to the pyrenoid of the C. reinhardtii chloroplast in cells maintained under ambient CO2 concentrations.
No association between iron status and self‐reported health‐related quality of life in 16,375 Danish blood donors: results from the Danish Blood Donor Study
Authors: Rigas Andreas S. , Pedersen Ole B. , Sørensen Cecilie J. , Sørensen Erik , Kotzé Sebastian R. , Petersen Mikkel S. , Thørner Lise W. , Hjalgrim Henrik , Erikstrup Christian , Ullum Henrik
Published: April 2015

BACKGROUND

Health‐related quality of life (HRQL) represents people's subjective assessment of their mental and physical well‐being. HRQL is highly predictive of future health. The effect of iron deficiency without anemia induced by blood donation on HRQL is presently unknown. The aim was to explore the relationship between iron status and self‐reported mental component score (MCS; SF‐12) and physical component score (PCS; SF‐12) in Danish blood donors.

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS

Complete relevant data, including the 12‐item short‐form health survey (SF‐12), plasma ferritin levels, age, body mass index, smoking status, C‐reactive protein levels, number of donations in the previous 3 years, and PCS and MCS, were available for 8692 men and 7683 women enrolled from March 1, 2010, to December 31, 2010. Multivariable linear and logistic (cutoff at the 10th percentile) regression analyses were used to assess the relationship between iron deficiency (ferritin < 15 ng/mL) and MCS and PCS, respectively. Analyses were performed separately for men and women.

RESULTS

There was no significant relationship between iron deficiency and self‐reported mental or physical health.

CONCLUSION

This study found no association between iron stores and self‐reported HRQL among Danish blood donors.
Landscape complexity has limited effects on the genetic structure of two arable plant species, Adonis aestivalis and Consolida regalis
Authors: Meyer S , Wesche K , Hans J , Leuschner C , Albach D C
Published: April 2015

The agricultural landscape of central Europe has changed dramatically in recent decades due to intensified cultivation, bringing many of its characteristic species to the brink of extinction. We investigated whether landscape structure affects the genetic structure and diversity of remnant populations of the two arable plant species Adonis aestivalis and Consolida regalis. We used dominant amplified fragment length polymorphism markers (AFLPs) and compared populations from six regions of 5 km² in central Germany. These regions represent two different classes of landscape structural complexity: intensively used, homogeneous landscapes (>95% of area covered by arable land with low extent of field margins) or heterogeneous regions (<60% of area covered by arable land with large extent of field margins). Contrary to expectations, within‐population diversity levels did not significantly differ between homogeneous and heterogeneous landscapes. No significant isolation‐by‐distance was found for either species, regardless of landscape structure, and genetic structures may still mirror more continuous conditions before large‐scale restructuring commenced in Germany's arable landscapes from the 1950s onwards. These results suggest that current landscape complexity, as such, is not as important for local‐level genetic structure for the species studied. Thus, homogenised and intensively used landscapes may also be important for the conservation of arable plant diversity and should not be neglected.
A Comparative Study on the Optimization of a Ternary P3HT:PCBM:Pentacene Active Layer in Bulk Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells
Authors: dos Santos Gerson , Cavallari Marco Roberto , Fonseca Fernando Josepetti
Published: April 2015

This work shows a comparative and processing optimization study of the recent ternary bulk heterojunction (BHJ) of P3HT: PCBM:pentacene (1:0.9:0.1 wt. ratio) against the well-known active layer of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) blended to phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) (1:1 wt. ratio). Initially, monochlorobenzene (MCB) was compared and later replaced by dichlorobenzene (DCB) as active layer solvent. The following optimization step related to thermal annealing effects on solar cell power conversion efficiency (PCE) and fill-factor (FF). Ternary junction slow drying at room temperature without a postproduction thermal treatment proved to be the most suitable to improve BHJ morphology at nanoscale. Finally, ternary composite mass concentration ranged from 20 to 60 mg/ml in DCB to achieve an efficiency near 3% at 40 mg/ml. An observed improvement of at least 15% in photovoltaic efficiency and a practically constant open-circuit voltage (i.e., just 1.2% variation) compared to the already-established P3HT:PCBM blend corroborates the role of pentacene in the active layer to balance mobility from both charge carrier types.
Analysis of moving source characteristics using polynomial chirplet transform
Authors: Xu Lingji , Yang Yixin , Yu Shiduo
Published: April 2015

The received Doppler signal of a stationary sensor, as emitted by a transiting acoustic source, is used to estimate source motion parameters, including speed, closest distance, rest frequency, and closest point of approach (CPA) time. First, the instantaneous frequency, amplitude, and CPA time are accurately estimated by the polynomial chirplet transform of the Doppler signal. Thereafter, the three other source motion parameters are obtained with a simplified amplitude-weighted nonlinear least squares method. The proposed scheme is successfully applied to the analysis of the characteristics of a moving truck.
Hydrologic regime and turbidity influence entrance of terrestrial material into river food webs
Authors: Roach Katherine A. , Winemiller Kirk O.
Published: April 2015

We used stable isotope signatures of deuterium (δD) and a Bayesian stable isotope mixing model to estimate contributions of algae versus terrestrial plants to consumers during different hydrologic phases in three Texas rivers spanning a gradient of turbidity and light penetration. In the two rivers where high-flow pulses increased turbidity, assimilation of source material by consumers varied according to discharge stage. In these rivers, algae made greater contributions to macroinvertebrates and fish biomass following low-flow periods, and terrestrial plants made greater contributions following high-flow pulses. In the river with greatest loads of suspended sediments, contributions of material from terrestrial plants also increased slightly following an extended low-flow period, possibly because of increased abundance of inedible cyanobacteria. During flow pulses, lower algal biomass and production, combined with increased inputs of terrestrial organic matter from watersheds and riparian habitats, can result in greater inputs of terrestrial material into aquatic food chains. These patterns most closely match predictions of the River Wave Concept, which posits that flow is the key process determining the source of organic matter assimilated by higher consumers in rivers. Incorporation of interactions between hydrology and turbidity into river ecosystem models should facilitate more accurate predictions of food web dynamics.
On the Conley conjecture for Reeb flows
Authors: Ginzburg Viktor L. , Gürel Başak Z. , Macarini Leonardo
Published: April 2015

In this paper, we prove the existence of infinitely many closed Reeb orbits for a certain class of contact manifolds. This result can be viewed as a contact analogue of the Hamiltonian Conley conjecture. The manifolds for which the contact Conley conjecture is established are the pre-quantization circle bundles with aspherical base. As an application, we prove that for a surface of genus at least two with a non-vanishing magnetic field, the twisted geodesic flow has infinitely many periodic orbits on every low energy level.
Weak amenability for subfactors
Authors: Brothier Arnaud
Published: April 2015

We define the notions of weak amenability and the Cowling–Haagerup constant for extremal finite index subfactors s of type II1. We prove that the Cowling–Haagerup constant only depends on the standard invariant of the subfactor. Hence, we define the Cowling–Haagerup constant for standard invariants. We explicitly compute the constant for Bisch–Haagerup subfactors and prove that it is equal to the constant of the group involved in the construction. Given a finite family of amenable standard invariants, we prove that their free product in the sense of Bisch–Jones is weakly amenable with constant 1. We show that the Cowling–Haagerup of the tensor product of a finite family of standard invariants is equal to the product of their Cowling–Haagerup constants.
Graphic analysis and multifractal on percolation-based return interval series
Authors: Pei A. Q. , Wang J.
Published: April 2015

A financial time series model is developed and investigated by the oriented percolation system (one of the statistical physics systems). The nonlinear and statistical behaviors of the return interval time series are studied for the proposed model and the real stock market by applying visibility graph (VG) and multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA). We investigate the fluctuation behaviors of return intervals of the model for different parameter settings, and also comparatively study these fluctuation patterns with those of the real financial data for different threshold values. The empirical research of this work exhibits the multifractal features for the corresponding financial time series. Further, the VGs deviated from both of the simulated data and the real data show the behaviors of small-world, hierarchy, high clustering and power-law tail for the degree distributions.
Fusion-Based Hand Geometry Recognition Using Dempster–Shafer Theory
Authors: Bera Asish , Bhattacharjee Debotosh , Nasipuri Mita
Published: April 2015

This paper presents a new technique for user identification and recognition based on the fusion of hand geometric features of both hands without any pose restrictions. All the features are extracted from normalized left and right hand images. Fusion is applied at feature and also at decision level. Two probability-based algorithms are proposed for classification. The first algorithm computes the maximum probability for nearest three neighbors. The second algorithm determines the maximum probability of the number of matched features with respect to a thresholding on distances. Based on these two highest probabilities initial decisions are made. The final decision is considered according to the highest probability as calculated by the Dempster–Shafer theory of evidence. Depending on the various combinations of the initial decisions, three schemes are experimented with 201 subjects for identification and verification. The correct identification rate is found to be 99.5%, and the false acceptance rate (FAR) of 0.625% has been found during verification.
New perturbative method for solving the gravitational N-body problem in the general theory of relativity
Authors: Turyshev Slava G. , Toth Viktor T.
Published: April 2015

We present a new approach to describe the dynamics of an isolated, gravitationally bound astronomical N-body system in the weak field and slow-motion approximation of the general theory of relativity. Celestial bodies are described using an arbitrary energy–momentum tensor and assumed to possess any number of internal multipole moments. The solution of the gravitational field equations in any reference frame is presented as a sum of three terms: (i) The inertial flat spacetime in that frame, (ii) unperturbed solutions for each body in the system that is covariantly transformed to the coordinates of this frame and (iii) the gravitational interaction term. We use the harmonic gauge conditions that allow reconstruction of a significant part of the structure of the post-Galilean coordinate transformation functions relating global coordinates of the inertial reference frame to the local coordinates of the noninertial frame associated with a particular body. The remaining parts of these functions are determined from dynamical conditions, obtained by constructing the relativistic proper reference frame associated with a particular body. In this frame, the effect of external forces acting on the body is balanced by the fictitious frame-reaction force that is needed to keep the body at rest with respect to the frame, conserving its relativistic three-momentum. We find that this is sufficient to determine explicitly all the terms of the coordinate transformation. The same method is then used to develop the inverse transformations. The resulting post-Galilean coordinate transformations have an approximate group structure that extends the Poincaré group of global transformations to the case of accelerating observers in a gravitational field of N-body system. We present and discuss the structure of the metric tensors corresponding to the reference frames involved, the rules for transforming relativistic gravitational potentials, the coordinate transformations between frames and the resulting relativistic equations of motion.
ELECTRIC PROPERTIES OF Mn-DOPED BiFeO3 THIN FILM DEPOSITED ON ITO SUBSTRATE
Authors: LUO J. M.
Published: April 2015

Nanoscale Mn -doped BiFeO 3 thin film with a perovskite crystal structure has been fabricated on ITO substrate using chemical solution deposition, which shows a large dielectric constant and a low leakage current. The ferroelectric test result demonstrates that large values of remanent polarization and coercive field can be attained in this structure. Additionally, stable resistive switching characteristics with an analysis of current conduction mechanisms have also been investigated, which can be attributed to the redistribution of oxygen vacancies under an electric field. This study suggests that Mn -doped BFO thin film grown on ITO substrate may provide a potential application for multifunctional memories.
INFLUENCE OF WAVEGUIDE LAYERS ON DEEP VIOLET InGaN DQW LASERS PERFORMANCE
Authors: ALAHYARIZADEH GH. , AMIRHOSEINY M. , HASSAN Z.
Published: April 2015

This paper focuses on the performance characteristics of laser diodes (LDs) to improve output light emission properties. The optical and electrical properties such as threshold current, output power, slope efficiency, differential quantum efficiency, optical intensity and optical confinement factor has been compared for diode lasers with different waveguide structures. The waveguide structures which were analyzed in this research were a basic GaN waveguide structure, an InGaN waveguide structure, and AlInGaN waveguide structure. In addition the effects of Indium concentration and the thickness of the top and down waveguide layers have been studied. The InGaN waveguide layer, which has a higher concentration of Indium, appears to increase the OCF. The increased thickness of the GaN layer improves light emission. However, laser performance deteriorates with increasing thickness of waveguide layers more than 100 nm. Over all, LD with AlInGaN waveguide structure has highest OCF, slope efficiency and DQE.