bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Abnormal Right Ventricular Relaxation in Pulmonary Hypertension
Authors: Murch Stuart D. , La Gerche Andre , Roberts Timothy J. , Prior David L. , MacIsaac Andrew I. , Burns Andrew T.
Published: April 2015

Left ventricular diastolic dysfunction is a well‐described complication of systemic hypertension. However, less is known regarding the effect of chronic pressure overload on right ventricular (RV) diastolic function. We hypothesized that pulmonary hypertension (PHT) is associated with abnormal RV early relaxation and that this would be best shown by invasive pressure measurement. Twenty‐five patients undergoing right heart catheterization for investigation of breathlessness and/or suspected PHT were studied. In addition to standard measurements, RV pressure was sampled with a high‐fidelity micromanometer, and RV pressure/time curves were analyzed. Patients were divided into a PHT group and a non‐PHT group on the basis of a derived mean pulmonary artery systolic pressure of 25 mmHg. Eleven patients were classified to the PHT group. This group had significantly higher RV minimum diastolic pressure (5.1 ± 6.6 vs. −0.1 ± 3.3 mmHg, P = 0.03) and RV end‐diastolic pressure (RVEDP; 11.0 ± 6.3 vs. 3.8 ± 3.7 mmHg, P = 0.004), and RV τ was significantly prolonged (53 ± 32 vs. 31 ± 13 ms, P = 0.04). There were strong correlations between RV τ and RV minimum diastolic pressure (r = 0.93, P < 0.0001) and between RV τ and RVEDP (r = 0.87, P < 0.0001). There was a trend toward increased RV contractility (end‐systolic elastance) in the PHT group (0.73 ± 0.21 vs. 0.52 ± 0.21 mmHg/mL, P = 0.07) and a correlation between RV systolic pressure and first derivative of maximum pressure change (r = 0.58, P = 0.003). Stroke volumes were similar. Invasive measures of RV early relaxation are abnormal in patients with PHT, whereas measured contractility is static or increasing, which suggests that diastolic dysfunction may precede systolic dysfunction. Furthermore, there is a strong association between measures of RV relaxation and RV filling pressures.
Primary cilium suppression by SREBP1c involves distortion of vesicular trafficking by PLA2G3
Authors: Gijs Hannah Laura , Willemarck Nicolas , Vanderhoydonc Frank , Khan Niamat Ali , Dehairs Jonas , Derua Rita , Waelkens Etienne , Taketomi Yoshitaka , Murakami Makoto , Agostinis Patrizia , Annaert Wim , Swinnen Johannes V.
Published: April 2015

Distortion of primary cilium formation is increasingly recognized as a key event in many human pathologies. One of the underlying mechanisms involves aberrant activation of the lipogenic transcription factor sterol regulatory element–binding protein 1c (SREBP1c), as observed in cancer cells. To gain more insight into the molecular pathways by which SREBP1c suppresses primary ciliogenesis, we searched for overlap between known ciliogenesis regulators and targets of SREBP1. One of the candidate genes that was consistently up-regulated in cellular models of SREBP1c-induced cilium repression was phospholipase A2 group III (PLA2G3), a phospholipase that hydrolyzes the sn-2 position of glycerophospholipids. Use of RNA interference and a chemical inhibitor of PLA2G3 rescued SREBP1c-induced cilium repression. Cilium repression by SREBP1c and PLA2G3 involved alterations in endosomal recycling and vesicular transport toward the cilium, as revealed by aberrant transferrin and Rab11 localization, and was largely mediated by an increase in lysophosphatidylcholine and lysophosphatidylethanolamine levels. Together these findings indicate that aberrant activation of SREBP1c suppresses primary ciliogenesis by PLA2G3-mediated distortion of vesicular trafficking and suggest that PLA2G3 is a novel potential target to normalize ciliogenesis in SREBP1c-overexpressing cells, including cancer cells.
Cell cycle regulation of VCIP135 deubiquitinase activity and function in p97/p47-mediated Golgi reassembly
Authors: Zhang Xiaoyan , Wang Yanzhuang
Published: April 2015

In mammalian cells, the inheritance of the Golgi apparatus into the daughter cells during each cycle of cell division is mediated by a disassembly and reassembly process, and this process is precisely controlled by phosphorylation and ubiquitination. VCIP135 (valosin-containing protein p97/p47 complex–interacting protein, p135), a deubiquitinating enzyme required for p97/p47-mediated postmitotic Golgi membrane fusion, is phosphorylated at multiple sites during mitosis. However, whether phosphorylation directly regulates VCIP135 deubiquitinase activity and Golgi membrane fusion in the cell cycle remains unknown. We show that, in early mitosis, phosphorylation of VCIP135 by Cdk1 at a single residue, S130, is sufficient to inactivate the enzyme and inhibit p97/p47-mediated Golgi membrane fusion. At the end of mitosis, VCIP135 S130 is dephosphorylated, which is accompanied by the recovery of its deubiquitinase activity and Golgi reassembly. Our results demonstrate that phosphorylation and ubiquitination are coordinated via VCIP135 to control Golgi membrane dynamics in the cell cycle.
International Law in the U.S. Legal System
Authors: Bradley Curtis A.
Published: April 2015

This book provides an overview of how international law intersects with the domestic legal system of the United States, and points out various unresolved issues and areas of controversy. The book covers all of the principal forms of international law: treaties, decisions and orders of international institutions, customary international law, and jus cogens norms. It also explores a number of issues that are implicated by the intersection of U.S. law and international law, such as the use of “executive agreements” in lieu of treaties, foreign sovereign immunity, international human rights litigation under the Alien Tort Statute, war powers, extradition, international criminal prosecution, and extraterritoriality. The book highlights recent decisions and events relating to the topic (including decisions and events arising out of the war on terrorism), while also taking into account relevant historical materials, including materials relating both to the U.S. constitutional founding and to long-standing practices of Congress and the executive branch.
Courts and Foreign Affairs
Authors: Bradley Curtis A.
Published: April 2015

This chapter provides an overview of some of the constitutional, statutory, and common law doctrines that govern the adjudication of foreign affairs–related disputes in the United States. These doctrines include requirements for federal court jurisdiction, “justiciability” limitations such as the political question doctrine, the Erie doctrine concerning federal court application of state law, and the common law “act of state” doctrine. The chapter also discusses more general interpretive principles such as the Charming Betsy canon of construction and deference to the executive branch. The chapter concludes by briefly describing the constitutional authority of U.S. government institutions other than the courts, including the situations in which state law that concerns foreign affairs will be preempted.
Executive Agreements
Authors: Bradley Curtis A.
Published: April 2015

This chapter considers the status in the U.S. legal system of “executive agreements”—that is, international agreements concluded by the United States outside of the senatorial advice and consent process specified in Article II of the Constitution. After describing the substantial growth during the twentieth century in the number of executive agreements, the chapter focuses in particular on congressional-executive agreements and sole executive agreements. It also considers the extent to which executive agreements are interchangeable with Article II treaties for purposes of domestic law, with respect to the preemption of state law, displacement of federal statutes, and federalism limitations. The chapter further discusses the President’s long-standing use of executive agreements for the settlement of international claims. It concludes with a discussion of the growing phenomenon of non-binding “political” or “soft law” agreements.
Decisions and Orders of International Institutions
Authors: Bradley Curtis A.
Published: April 2015

This chapter considers the status in the U.S. legal system of decisions and orders of international institutions to which the United States is a party. It begins with a description of various constitutional doctrines and principles that are potentially implicated by delegations of authority to international institutions. The chapter also recounts the long history of U.S. engagement with international arbitration and the constitutional debates that this engagement has sometimes triggered. Extensive consideration is given to litigation concerning the consular notice provisions in the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The U.S. relationship with other international institutions, such as the World Trade Organization and the International Criminal Court, are also considered. The chapter concludes by considering the extent to which constitutional concerns relating to international delegations are adequately addressed by presuming that the orders and decisions of international institutions are non–self-executing in the U.S. legal system.
Customary International Law
Authors: Bradley Curtis A.
Published: April 2015

This chapter considers the status in the U.S. legal system of customary international law. After considering what the text of the Constitution suggests about this issue, the chapter discusses how courts historically applied customary international law in cases in which it was relevant and how courts referred to it as “part of our law.” The chapter also explores the possibility that customary international law might have the status of modern “federal common law” and what such a status might mean for questions of jurisdiction, preemption of state law, and limitations on congressional and executive authority. It also discusses ways in which customary international law can be applied indirectly in the U.S. legal system, such as through application of the Charming Betsy canon of construction. The chapter concludes by discussing recent debates over the Supreme Court’s consideration of foreign and international law materials when interpreting the U.S. Constitution.
Extraterritorial Application of U.S. Law
Authors: Bradley Curtis A.
Published: April 2015

This chapter considers the application of federal and state law to conduct that takes place outside the territory of the United States. It begins by discussing the territorial scope of U.S. constitutional rights. The chapter then discusses the “presumption against extraterritoriality” that the Supreme Court applies when interpreting federal statutes. For situations in which the presumption is overcome or is inapplicable, the chapter explains how customary international law principles relating to prescriptive jurisdiction can be relevant in U.S. litigation through application of the Charming Betsy canon of construction. In addition, the chapter discusses the role of “universal jurisdiction” in U.S. litigation and criminal prosecution. Possible constitutional limitations on the extraterritorial application of both federal statutes and state laws, based on due process and other considerations, are also considered.
Alien Tort Statute Litigation
Authors: Bradley Curtis A.
Published: April 2015

This chapter considers litigation under the Alien Tort Statute, which provides for jurisdiction over suits brought by aliens for torts in violation of international law. The chapter begins by exploring Congress’s likely intent in enacting the Statute in 1789, and how the Statute may have related to Article III of the Constitution. The chapter then describes how the Statute received little attention until the Filartiga decision in 1980, which allowed for it to be used by aliens to sue other aliens for human rights abuses committed abroad. The chapter proceeds to explore a variety of doctrinal issues relating to this human rights litigation, including the source of the cause of action, the standards for bringing a claim, and the ability to sue corporations. The chapter then discusses the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, in which the Court substantially curtailed the territorial reach of claims that could be brought under the Statute.
Sovereign and Official Immunity
Authors: Bradley Curtis A.
Published: April 2015

This chapter discusses three types of immunity in U.S. litigation: the immunity of foreign governments and their agencies and instrumentalities; the immunity of diplomats and consular officials; and the immunity of other foreign officials. Foreign governmental immunity is addressed today the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, and both the historical practice predating the Act and its core provisions are considered here. Diplomatic immunity and consular immunity are addressed by multilateral treaties and this chapter describes those treaties and how they have been applied by U.S. courts. The most unsettled category of immunity concerns suits against other foreign government officials, including against sitting and former heads of state. The chapter describes how the lower courts, since the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in the Samantar case, have been developing a common law of immunity for these cases, while also often giving deference to the views of the executive branch.
Extradition and Other Means of Criminal Law Enforcement
Authors: Bradley Curtis A.
Published: April 2015

This chapter considers the extradition of criminal suspects to and from the United States, as well as other issues relating to international criminal law enforcement. The chapter begins by describing early U.S. practice relating to extradition, and then describes the respective roles of the courts and the executive branch in modern extradition cases. The chapter further describes some of the common limitations in U.S. extradition treaties, such as the dual criminality requirement, the political offense exception, and the specialty doctrine. In addition, the chapter considers difficulties that have arisen in some cases involving extradition to the United States where the federal government or a state government is likely to seek the death penalty. Besides extradition treaties, the chapter also discusses Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties and prisoner exchange agreements. The chapter concludes by discussing the domestic legal implications of both international abduction of criminal suspects and “extraordinary rendition” of suspects in the war on terrorism.
Budapest Scientific
Authors: Hargittai István , Hargittai Magdolna
Published: April 2015

This guidebook introduces the reader—the scientific tourist and others—to the visible memorabilia of science and scientists in Budapest—statues, busts, plaques, buildings, and other artefacts. According to the Hungarian–American Nobel laureate Albert Szent-Györgyi, this metropolis at the crossroads of Europe has a special atmosphere of respect for science. It has been the venue of numerous scientific achievements and the cradle, literally, of many individuals who in Hungary, and even more beyond its borders became world-renowned contributors to science and culture. Six of the eight chapters of the book cover the Hungarian Nobel laureates, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the university, the medical school, agricultural sciences, and technology and engineering. One chapter is about selected gimnáziums from which seven Nobel laureates (Szent-Györgyi, de Hevesy, Wigner, Gabor, Harsanyi, Olah, and Kertész) and the five “Martians of Science” (von Kármán, Szilard, Wigner, von Neumann, and Teller) had graduated. The concluding chapter is devoted to scientist martyrs of the Holocaust. A special feature in surveying Hungarian science is the contributions of scientists that left their homeland before their careers blossomed and made their seminal discoveries elsewhere, especially in Great Britain and the United States. The book covers the memorabilia referring to both émigré scientists and those that remained in Hungary.
István Széchenyi
Authors: Hargittai István , Hargittai Magdolna
Published: April 2015

István Széchenyi dedicated his life to the creation of a learned society in Hungary. In 1825, he and a few other aristocrats committed considerable portions of their wealth to found the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Széchenyi did far more; he wrote books and intiated railways, steamboating, and a banking system for the country. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences is the focal point of Hungarian science regardless of whether the respective research is being carried out at the institutes of the Academy, at universities, or in other research organizations. Other notable institutions mentioned include the Hungarian National Museum, the Hungarian National History Museum, and the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music. Statues and plaques commemorate orientalists, humanists, linguists, statisticians, histrorians, and others, including the musicologists Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály.
Pál Kitaibel
Authors: Hargittai István , Hargittai Magdolna
Published: April 2015

The polymath botanist Pál Kitaibel represents agricultural science, which has had strong traditions in Hungary. There are memorabilia of scientists in botany, zoology, veterinary medicine, economics of agriculture, and agricultural science, The principal venues of these activities are the veterinary school, the school of gardening and food industry (now part of Corvinus University), the ministry of agriculture, the Museum of Agriculture at Vajdahunyad Castle, the Budapest Zoo, and the Botanical Garden. Some of these venues are located amid beautiful parks. The statues in the park near Vajdahunyad Castle include those of Winston Churchill and George Washington.
Introduction
Authors: Dalton Bryan J. , Jeffers John , Barnett Stephen M.
Published: April 2015

This chapter provides an overview of the phase space method for treating the physics of systems of bosons and fermions in regimes where quantum degeneracy occurs. Key concepts such as modes, creation and annihilation operators, distribution functions in phase space depending on c-number (bosons) or Grassmann (fermions) phase space variables, quantum correlation functions, and phase space integrals are introduced, together with how the dynamics of the system density operator as described via Liouville–von Neumann or master equations is translated into Fokker–Planck equations for the distribution function, and then how phase space integrals for quantum correlation functions can be determined via Langevin stochastic equations that are equivalent to the Fokker–Planck equations, and which involve stochastic phase space variables. The extension of the phase space approach to systems with large mode numbers, involving field annihilation and creation operators, distribution functionals, and functional Fokker–Planck and Langevin stochastic field equations is also reviewed.
Complex Numbers and Grassmann Numbers
Authors: Dalton Bryan J. , Jeffers John , Barnett Stephen M.
Published: April 2015

This chapter sets out the basic algebraic properties of both complex numbers (c-numbers) and Grassmann numbers (g-numbers). The formal rules of addition and multiplication together with the associative and distributive rules are stated, highlighting the anticommuting multiplication property of g-numbers and the consequences that all powers of g-numbers are zero and they do not have inverses. Complex conjugation rules are also stated, highlighting a second major difference between c- and g-numbers. The concepts of monomials and their order are introduced for Grassmann variables. Grassmann functions are defined, their division into even and odd functions noted, and commutation properties of even and odd Grassmann functions are obtained. Important results for exponential functions involving Grassmann variables and functions are derived, including the Baker–Hausdorff theorem. Linear transformations of Grassmann variables are defined.
Grassmann Calculus
Authors: Dalton Bryan J. , Jeffers John , Barnett Stephen M.
Published: April 2015

This chapter sets out basic definitions and features for the differential and integral calculus of c-number and Grassmann functions. Derivatives and integrals of functions of c-number variables are defined, involving c-numbers and their complex conjugates, and distinguishing analytic and non-analytic functions. Integration over the complex plane is defined. Cauchy–Riemann equations and Glauber identities for analytic functions are presented. Derivatives and integrals of functions of Grassmann variables are defined, involving both left and right differentiation and integration, and extended to cover multiple derivatives and integrals. Results for differentiating even or odd functions, product and chain rules for differentiation, rules relating higher-order derivatives, and Taylor series expressions for Grassmann functions are presented. Properties of Grassmann differentials are set out, and key results obtained for full integrals of Grassmann functions and their derivatives. Grassmann integration changes under linear transformations, and important integration-by-parts and Fourier results for Grassmann functions are obtained.
Coherent States
Authors: Dalton Bryan J. , Jeffers John , Barnett Stephen M.
Published: April 2015

This chapter defines and determines the properties of the important (though non-physical) boson and fermion coherent states, which are specified in terms of c-number (bosons) or Grassmann (fermions) variables and their complex conjugates, and defined via unitary displacement operators acting on the vacuum state. Important non-orthogonality, overcompleteness and coherence properties of coherent states are obtained. Coherent states are shown to be eigenstates of mode annihilation operators, with eigenvalues given by the c-number or Grassmann variable specifying the state. Related (unnormalised) Bargmann states are defined, depending only on the variable and not its complex conjugate, and are used to obtain useful representations of physical states and canonical forms for operators in terms of Bargmann state projectors, as well as obtaining important results such as for traces of operator products in terms of phase space integrals. Mode creation operators acting on Bargmann states are shown as equivalent to differentiation.
Fokker–Planck Equations
Authors: Dalton Bryan J. , Jeffers John , Barnett Stephen M.
Published: April 2015

This chapter deals with deriving Fokker–Planck equations (FPEs) that govern the behaviour of phase space distribution functions (normalised and unnormalised) for boson and fermion systems due to dynamical or thermal evolution. Specific forms are obtained for master equation dynamics, relating the drift vector and diffusion matrix elements in the FPE to coefficients specifying terms in the Hamiltonian and relaxation operators. The approach used is to derive correspondence rules, which map changes in the density operator when multiplied from left or right by mode annihilation or creation operators (as in evolution equations) onto corresponding changes in distribution functions, these being differentiations and or multiplications by phase space variables (left or right for fermions). Derivations are carried out via changes to characteristic functions or to canonical forms of the density operator. The correct successive application of correspondence rules for fermions is treated, and alternative forms obtained for bosons to correspondence rules and the FPE.
Application to Multi-Mode Systems
Authors: Dalton Bryan J. , Jeffers John , Barnett Stephen M.
Published: April 2015

This chapter presents two examples of applying phase space methods in systems where large numbers of modes may be involved, such as in fermion cases with large particle numbers. Functional Fokker–Planck equations (FFPEs) are derived directly using the field operator correspondence rules. The boson application is to colliding bosons in a trap potential, such as for Bose–Einstein condensates. FFPEs and Ito stochastic field equations (SFEs) are derived for both positive P and Wigner distribution functional cases, and expressions obtained for quantum correlation functions. The fermion application is to colliding spin-1/2 fermions in a trap potential, such as an optical lattice. FFPEs and Ito SFEs are derived for the unnormalised B distribution functional. Solutions to the Ito SFE are presented for the untrapped and optical-lattice cases. For the untrapped case with two fermions, evaluation of short-time Fock state coherences and populations gives the same result as obtained in a previous chapter.
Greece and Rome at the Crystal Palace
Authors: Nichols Kate
Published: April 2015

This book examines the debates that arose around the presentation of classical plaster casts to a mass audience at the Sydenham Crystal Palace, in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain. It uncovers the social, political, and aesthetic role of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture in Victorian and Edwardian culture, assessing how classical art and architecture figured in debates over design reform, taste, beauty and morality, race and imperialism. A study in classical reception, it draws on diaries, autobiographies, scrapbooks, and pamphlets to analyse audience responses to classical sculpture, and to suggest how these responses figured in contemporary popular and scholarly understandings of the Greek and Roman past. It demonstrates the vital life of classical sculpture for audiences beyond the Royal Academy, high art criticism, the Country House, and the University, and suggests that other less ‘academic’ locations ought to be taken seriously as chapters in the history of archaeology. Focusing on the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, it provides the first in-depth analysis of this popular entertainment venue in South London. This ephemeral, now vanished edifice offers an alternative history of museums to the received vision of order, chronology, and permanence typified by the British Museum. Foregrounding the close connection between entertainment and education at the Palace demonstrates a much longer history of the commercial ‘heritage industry’ usually associated with the 1980s.
Greek Sculpture, Beauty, and Morality
Authors: Nichols Kate
Published: April 2015

Chapter 5 explores the controversy caused by the Palace’s exhibition of nude sculpture. It unpicks Owen Jones’s claims for Greek sculpture’s moral imperative through writings on beauty, morality, and art from Plato and J. J. Winckelmann, to nineteenth-century archaeologists. The chapter examines hostilities to the display of unclothed classical sculpture to the Palace’s new mass audience—especially its polychrome experiments—in the contexts of the artistic and social history of the nude, and Victorian ideas about class, gender, sexuality, and obscenity, to suggest why critics were so preoccupied with the displays of unclothed male bodies rather than the female nude. It offers an analysis of Greek sculpture in mid-century evangelical culture, and as it featured in ‘muscular Christianity’, showing the diversity of Victorian religious responses to ‘heathen’ sculpture.
Greece, Rome, and the Modern British Nation
Authors: Nichols Kate
Published: April 2015

Chapter 6 examines what the presentation and responses to classical civilizations at the Crystal Palace might reveal about Britain’s perceived national and international status. It discusses how Greece and Rome figured in the national roles played by the Palace from 1854 to 1921: host to the Festival of Empire (1911), and the first incarnation of the Imperial War Museum. The Palace boasted a unique Natural History Department, curated by ethnologist Robert Gordon Latham, which exhibited tableaux of models of extra-European peoples engaged in ‘characteristic’ activities. The second section examines these models in the context of what were increasingly coming to be seen as representations of the ur-Europeans; the sculpture in the Greek Court, showing how the historiography of Greek sculpture intersected with Victorian racial thought. The final section considers the presentation of the Roman empire—and in particular, Roman Britain— in changing Victorian and Edwardian imperial culture.
Missing data
Authors: Nakagawa Shinichi
Published: April 2015

Missing data are ubiquitous in ecological and evolutionary data sets as in any other branch of science. The common methods used to deal with missing data are to delete cases containing missing data, and to use the mean to fill in missing values. However, these ‘traditional’ methods will result in biased estimation of parameters and uncertainty, and reduction in statistical power. Now, better missing data procedures such as multiple imputation and data augmentation are readily available and implementable. This chapter introduces the basics of missing data theory—most importantly, the three missing data mechanisms: missing completely at random (MCAR), missing at random (MAR), and missing not at random (MNAR); the chapter also explains relevant concepts of importance such as EM algorithms and MCMC procedures. This chapter enables the application of proper missing data procedures, in particular multiple imputation, using R packages.
Structural equation modeling
Authors: Grace James B. , Scheiner Samuel M. , Schoolmaster, Jr. Donald R.
Published: April 2015

This chapter describes structural equation modeling (SEM), which represents a probabilistic modeling framework for studying causal hypotheses about systems. SEM relies on interconnected series of equations to represent networks as complex hypotheses. As a general modeling methodology, SEM potentially permits any type of functional response (error distributions) and linkage form (linear, non-linear, or non-parametric). The methodology also includes procedures for evaluating proposed models against data, permitting the discovery of unsuspected mechanisms leading to an understanding of how multiple processes collectively control systems. A key element of SEM is the use of graphical models to represent the causal logic implied by the equations. In this treatment the chapter concisely describes SEM fundamentals, incorporating the latest advances in the core methodology. Worked examples are used to illustrate procedures.
Research synthesis methods in ecology
Authors: Gurevitch Jessica , Nakagawa Shinichi
Published: April 2015

Meta-analysis is quantitative synthesis of the results of different studies addressing questions about the same thing in comparable ways, and is part of the general area of research synthesis. It depends on expressing the results of different studies on a common scale, and combining the results by weighting studies by the precision by which they estimate the effect of interest. Research synthesis, the application of the scientific method to summarizing evidence on a scientific question, includes both meta-analysis and systematic reviews. Systematic reviews are unbiased, reproducible literature searches carried out according to clearly specified criteria for searching and selection of evidence. Meta-regression is a term used for meta-analyses where the effects of one or more covariates (moderators) on the outcomes across studies are modeled. Meta-analysis and meta-regression can be used to determine the mean effect across studies, its confidence limits and heterogeneity, and the influence of moderators. This chapter discusses how to carry out and interpret the results of meta-analysis, exploratory and sensitivity analyses, the strengths and limitations of, and objections to, meta-analysis, and common errors in conducting research syntheses.
Pilgrimage
Authors: Reader Ian
Published: April 2015

Pilgrimage is found in most religious cultures and pilgrimage sites around the world—including Mecca in Saudi Arabia, Lourdes in France, and Shikoku in Japan—attract millions of pilgrims annually, while a flourishing 'spiritual tourism' industry has grown to promote the practice. In the present day, new pilgrimage locations, including 'secular' ones with no official affiliation, such as Graceland, Elvis Presley's house, continue to emerge across the world. Pilgrimage: A Very Short Introduction explores the key issues and themes of pilgrimage through early history to the present, looking at its various forms, how people take part, what is learnt from the journeys, and why pilgrimage remains popular in an increasingly secular age.
5. Festivity, tourism, and souvenirs
Authors: Reader Ian
Published: April 2015

‘Festivity, tourism, and souvenirs’ describes the elements that are often woven into pilgrimage structures: celebration, entertainment, holidays, markets, and shopping. The scope pilgrimages offer for play, sightseeing, and shopping, as well as for prayer, devotion, and ascetic activities, has been influential in their appeal but can cause tensions and unease. Examples include the communal feast to celebrate the end of the hajj, the annual autumn festival at the Our Lady of the Realm shrine in Vietnam, and the souvenirs on offer at Lourdes. Items brought back from a pilgrimage are important as reminders of the place visited, of one’s journey there, and as symbols of its power.
6. Secular sites and contemporary developments
Authors: Reader Ian
Published: April 2015

If pilgrimage is found almost universally across religious traditions, it has also, in modern contexts, become widely associated with places that have no specific religious affiliations or links to formal religious traditions. ‘Secular sites and contemporary developments’ describes a variety of themes and activities described as secular and nonreligious pilgrimages, along with other modern developments in which existing pilgrimage sites have acquired new dimensions and been reinterpreted in accord with contemporary trends, notably in the form of New Age activities. These include visits to the graves and homes of deceased celebrities, war memorials, places associated with seminal political figures, and itineraries relating to the search for cultural roots, identity, and heritage.
2. Building the bomb
Authors: Siracusa Joseph M.
Published: April 2015

No single decision created the atomic bomb, but most accounts begin with the presidential discussion of a letter written by Albert Einstein. ‘Building the bomb’ describes how the bomb came about, from Einstein's letter to Roosevelt about the threat of nuclear weapons to the bombings in Japan. What were the ramifications of the atomic bombs? The impact of the Manhattan Project’s new weapon spread well beyond military and scientific circles, to an extent unprecedented in the popular imagination. A turning point in the history of the contemporary world had been reached. ‘The bomb’, as it was dubbed, became a defining feature of the post-World War II world.
4. Race for the H-bomb
Authors: Siracusa Joseph M.
Published: April 2015

In September 1949, Clement Atlee announced that an atomic explosion had occurred in the Soviet Union, which signalled America’s atomic monopoly was over sooner than expected. ‘Race for the H-bomb’ looks at the impact of Soviet atomic capabilities. The United States moved slowly at first to articulate a coherent strategic policy linking military planning to foreign policy objectives. Few had thought seriously about how to wage an atomic war, should the need arise. Stalin's general reaction was one of indifference, which was useful politically and diplomatically, but intentionally masked reality. Popular opposition to nuclear energy first emerged shortly after the atomic bomb was built, but significant anti-nuclear opposition did not emerge until the 1950s.
Intrafamilial Aggregation and Heritability of Aortic Reflected (Backward) Waves Derived From Wave Separation Analysis
Authors: Djami-Tchatchou Arnaud T. , Norton Gavin R. , Raymond Andrew , Booysen Hendrik L. , Hodson Bryan , Libhaber Elena , Sareli Pinhas , Woodiwiss Angela J.
Published: April 2015

BACKGROUND

Although aortic wave reflection may be inherited, the extent to which indexes of wave reflection derived from wave separation analysis (reflected (backward) wave index (RI) and pressure (Pb)) show intrafamilial aggregation and heritability is uncertain. We therefore aimed to determine the intrafamilial aggregation and heritability of RI and Pb and compare these with indexes of pressure augmentation.

METHODS

Aortic Pb, RI, augmented pressure (Pa), and augmentation index (AIx) were determined using radial applanation tonometry and SphygmoCor software in 1,152 participants of 315 families (111 father-mother, 705 parent-child, and 301 sibling-sibling pairs) from an urban developing community of black Africans. Heritability estimates were determined from Statistical Analysis for Genetic Epidemiology software.

RESULTS

With appropriate adjustments, significant correlations were noted between parent-child pairs for Pb and Pa (P < 0.05 for all), but not for RI (P = 0.50) or AIx (P = 0.90) and between sib-sib pairs for Pb and Pa (P < 0.05), but not for RI (P = 0.54) or AIx (P = 0.14). No correlations for indexes of wave reflection were noted between fathers and mothers (P > 0.57). After adjustments, Pb (h2 = 0.24±0.07) and Pa (h2 = 0.23±0.07) (P < 0.001 for both) but not RI (h2 = 0.04±0.06, P = 0.27) or AIx (h2 = 0.10±0.07, P = 0.07) showed significant heritability.

CONCLUSIONS

Aortic reflected (backward) waves derived from either wave separation (Pb) or pulse wave analysis (Pa) show a similar degree of intrafamilial aggregation and heritability, but the use of RI or AIx may underestimate reflected wave effects.
Late Presentation of Enlarging Lower Eyelid Mass and Muscle Degeneration Secondary to Hyaluronic Acid Filler
Authors: Teo Alison A. , Mokhtarzadeh Ali , Cameron J. Douglas , Harrison Andrew R.
Published: April 2015

A 66-year-old female presented for evaluation of progressively worsening edema and palpable masses in both lower eyelids. While she denied prior filler to the lower eyelid or tear trough, histopathology revealed degenerating striated muscle surrounding pools of hyaluronic acid. While cases of gradually enlarging masses associated with facial filler placement have been reported, there is no literature identifying muscle degeneration adjacent to hyaluronic acid filler.
Proton Pump Inhibitor Therapy for the Treatment of Laryngopharyngeal Reflux
Authors: Guo Huaiyuan , Ma Haijun , Wang Jinliang
Published: April 2015

Goals:

To compare the treatment effect of proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy and placebo for patients with laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR).

Study:

PubMed, Cochrane Library, and EMBASE were searched from the date of conception to August 2014. Randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) were included in this meta-analysis if they compared the treatment response of PPI therapy and placebo among patients with LPR. The risk difference, the standard mean difference (SMD), and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated for the endpoints evaluated.

Results:

Fourteen eligible RCTs with 771 participants were identified and analyzed in this meta-analysis. By pooling all eligible data, we found that patients treated with PPI therapy had a significantly higher response rate than those who received placebo (risk difference=0.15; 95% CI, 0.01-0.30). Compared with placebo, PPI therapy could also improve the total reflux symptom index significantly (SMD=1.65; 95% CI, 0.15-3.14), but results of the reflux symptom index varied for specific symptoms. However, PPI therapy did not show any advantage over placebo in the improvement of the reflux finding score (SMD=0.62; 95% CI, −0.96-2.19).

Conclusions:

In this meta-analysis of 14 eligible RCTs, we found that in patients with LPR, PPI therapy could improve reflux symptoms significantly compared with placebo.
Damaging Effects of Total Parenteral Nutrition Formula on Vascular Endothelium
Authors: Demircan Mehmet , Gurunluoglu Kubulay , Karaman Abdurrahman , Mizrak Bulent
Published: April 2015

Objectives:

Sepsis in one of the most serious complications that can occur during total parenteral nutrition (TPN) procedures. In this experimental study, we investigated the effects of TPN, with or without lipid emulsion, on vascular endothelial damage.

Methods:

In total, 50 rabbits were used, divided into 5 groups of 10 each. TPN with lipids (group 1), TPN without lipids (group 2), and 0.09% saline (group 3) were given for 10 days via a central venous catheter. Group 4 received no treatment other than placement of a central venous catheter for 10 days. Group 5 was a control group. At the end of day 10, rabbits were sacrificed and tissue samples of liver, kidney, and inferior vena cava were prepared and examined by immunohistochemical methods for vascular cellular adhesion molecule (VCAM)‐1 expression.

Results:

In tissue sections of liver, kidney, and inferior vena cava, VCAM‐1 activity was increased prominently in TPN with and without lipids compared with the control group. VCAM‐1 activity in the TPN with lipids group was decreased versus the TPN without lipids group (P > 0.05).

Conclusions:

The TPN procedure results in vascular endothelial cell damage not only in the vein where the solution is introduced but also in other parts of the vascular system. Even if it is not statistically significant, lipids in the TPN formula may decrease this endothelial cell damage, as shown by immunohistochemistry.
Implementing Updated Recommendations on Hepatitis C Virus Screening: Translating Federal Guidance Into State Practice
Authors: Martin Erika G. , Norcott Amanda M. , Khalid Hina , O'Connell Daniel A.
Published: April 2015

Context:

Chronic viral hepatitis is a leading infectious cause of death. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released updated recommendations for hepatitis C virus testing, including recommending that all individuals born between 1945 and 1965 be tested once. States' consistency with these national testing guidelines is unknown.

Objective:

To evaluate the extent to which state health departments have current hepatitis C virus testing recommendations listed on their Web sites, consistent with national guidelines.

Design:

The CDC guidelines were reviewed to identify the risk groups recommended for or against testing. State health department Web sites (50 US states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico) were then systematically reviewed to classify whether, for each risk group, testing is recommended, not recommended, or with unclear recommendations.

Main Outcome Measure:

States' consistency with national recommendations for each risk group mentioned by the CDC.

Results:

Among the risk groups that the CDC currently recommends for testing, 50% of states updated their Web sites to include individuals born between 1945 and 1965. All states recommend testing current or former injection drug users, but only 58% recommended testing HIV-positive individuals. Among the risk groups for which the CDC has issued uncertain recommendations, states most frequently recommended testing individuals with tattoos or body piercing done with unsterile materials (46%) or with a history of multiple sex partners (31%).

Conclusions:

There is substantial variation in state Web sites' consistency with the CDC guidelines. The public health importance of risk factors is not associated with their inclusion in Web content. Improving the uptake of these recommendations and the manner in which they are conveyed to the public are critical to implementing the national viral hepatitis action plan, thereby increasing diagnoses and averting new infections.
Individual boldness is linked to protective shell shape in aquatic snails
Authors: Ahlgren Johan , Chapman Ben B. , Nilsson P. Anders , Brönmark Christer
Published: April 2015

The existence of consistent individual differences in behaviour (‘animal personality’) has been well documented in recent years. However, how such individual variation in behaviour is maintained over evolutionary time is an ongoing conundrum. A well-studied axis of animal personality is individual variation along a bold–shy continuum, where individuals differ consistently in their propensity to take risks. A predation-risk cost to boldness is often assumed, but also that the reproductive benefits associated with boldness lead to equivalent fitness outcomes between bold and shy individuals over a lifetime. However, an alternative or complementary explanation may be that bold individuals phenotypically compensate for their risky lifestyle to reduce predation costs, for instance by investing in more pronounced morphological defences. Here, we investigate the ‘phenotypic compensation’ hypothesis, i.e. that bold individuals exhibit more pronounced anti-predator defences than shy individuals, by relating shell shape in the aquatic snailRadix balthicato an index of individual boldness. Our analyses find a strong relationship between risk-taking propensity and shell shape in this species, with bolder individuals exhibiting a more defended shell shape than shy individuals. We suggest that this supports the ‘phenotypic compensation’ hypothesis and sheds light on a previously poorly studied mechanism to promote the maintenance of personality variation among animals.
Attenuation of species abundance distributions by sampling
Authors: Shimadzu Hideyasu , Darnell Ross
Published: April 2015

Quantifying biodiversity aspects such as species presence/ absence, richness and abundance is an important challenge to answer scientific and resource management questions. In practice, biodiversity can only be assessed from biological material taken by surveys, a difficult task given limited time and resources. A type of random sampling, or often called sub-sampling, is a commonly used technique to reduce the amount of time and effort for investigating large quantities of biological samples. However, it is not immediately clear how (sub-)sampling affects the estimate of biodiversity aspects from a quantitative perspective. This paper specifies the effect of (sub-)sampling as attenuation of the species abundance distribution (SAD), and articulates how the sampling bias is induced to the SAD by random sampling. The framework presented also reveals some confusion in previous theoretical studies.
Characterization of a bifidobacterial system that utilizes galacto-oligosaccharides
Authors: Shigehisa Akira , Sotoya Hidetsugu , Sato Takashi , Hara Taeko , Matsumoto Hoshitaka , Matsuki Takahiro
Published: April 2015

The galacto-oligosaccharide (GOS) OLIGOMATE 55N (Yakult) is a mixture of oligosaccharides, the main component of which is 4′-galactosyllactose (4′-GL). Numerous reports have shown that GOSs are non-digestible, reach the colon and selectively stimulate the growth of bifidobacteria. The product has been used as a food ingredient and its applications have expanded rapidly. However, the bifidobacterial glycoside hydrolases and transporters responsible for utilizing GOSs have not been characterized sufficiently. In this study, we aimed to identify and characterize genes responsible for metabolizing 4′-GL in Bifidobacterium breve strain Yakult. We attempted to identify B. breve Yakult genes induced by 4′-GL using transcriptional profiling during growth in basal medium containing 4′-GL with a custom microarray. We found that BbrY_0420, which encodes solute-binding protein (SBP), and BbrY_0422, which encodes β-galactosidase, were markedly upregulated relative to that during growth in basal medium containing lactose. Investigation of the substrate specificity of recombinant BbrY_0420 protein using surface plasmon resonance showed that BbrY_0420 protein bound to 4′-GL, but not to 3′-GL and 6′-GL, structural isomers of 4′-GL. Additionally, BbrY_0420 had a strong affinity for 4-galactobiose (4-GB), suggesting that this SBP recognized the non-reducing terminal structure of 4′-GL. Incubation of purified recombinant BbrY_0422 protein with 4′-GL, 3′-GL, 6′-GL and 4-GB revealed that the protein efficiently hydrolysed 4′-GL and 4-GB, but did not digest 3′-GL, 6′-GL or lactose, suggesting that BbrY_0422 digested the bond within Gal1,4-β-Gal. Thus, BbrY_0420 (SBP) and BbrY_0422 (β-galactosidase) had identical, strict substrate specificity, suggesting that they were coupled by co-induction to facilitate the transportation and hydrolysis of 4′-GL.