bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Poetic Fame
Authors: Cooper Helen
Published: March 2015

Poetry is intertwined with fame: it needs to be known, and to be associated with a named poet. In their dramatization of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale, William Shakespeare and John Fletcher declare that Chaucer is more famous than Petrarch or any contemporary English poets. Shakespeare’s attitude to Chaucer thus highlights the contrast between the high admiration with which he was received in the sixteenth century and the widespread refusal in modern times to recognize him as England’s laureate poet. Numerous other poets, including Edmund Spenser and Ben Jonson, paid tribute to Chaucer throughout the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. This article examines Chaucer’s fame as a poet, his own attitude to fame, and its relation to humanism, Catholicism and Protestantism.
Style
Authors: Nolan Maura
Published: March 2015

Poetic style may be analyzed by starting with the smallest measurable units of poetry. Style has two aspects that are often contradictory: the particular and the general. The notion of style underwent numerous changes over the years between Geoffrey Chaucer and Thomas Wyatt. This article examines the question of style by juxtaposing three poets, three centuries, and two literary-historical periods. It considers the relationship between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance as well as embeddedness of Chaucer, Wyatt, and John Lydgate in those periods in stylistic terms and describes an alternative way of thinking about literary style that reveals the secretive manner that history works in art. It discusses the troublesome poetic terrain of stresses, absences of stress, feet, and meter as a way of scrutinizing the “styles” of Chaucer, Lydgate, and Wyatt in “Truth,” “The World is Variable,” and “What Vaileth Trouth,” respectively.
Idleness
Authors: Kearney James
Published: March 2015

This essay examines the role that the specter of idleness played in the ongoing transformation of labor in England during the late medieval and early modern periods. It begins by tracing an historical shift in Christian conceptions of labor through a knotty genealogy of ideas about labor and idleness that extends from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries. The essay then turns to an early sixteenth-century text that is not often considered in either medieval or early modern histories of Christian thought about labor: Thomas More’s Utopia (1516). The essay contends that Utopia is fundamentally shaped by More’s meditation on labor and idleness and that that meditation opens the utopian text out toward a vexed history of ideas concerning human work that extends forward from the fourteenth century. With its idiosyncratic but historically resonant meditation on human labor, More’s Utopia represents a particularly useful vantage point from which to address the ongoing transformation of Christian conceptions of work in late medieval and early modern England.
Autobiography and the History of Reading
Authors: Cummings Brian
Published: March 2015

Autobiography as a concept asks deep questions about the periodization of history. It is also a scene of persistent rivalry in the construction of medieval and Renaissance models of history. Since Jakob Burckhardt’s Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien of 1860, there has been a war of ownership over the rise of human subjectivity. This article examines the debate over the history of autobiography by focusing on St. Augustine and his Confessions. It considers the exposure of the Confessions to different kinds of reading during the late medieval period, including that by Petrarch. It argues that the Confessions has been read more extensively in the twentieth century than ever before and that the Augustine of the “invention of subjectivity” is a writer of a specifically twentieth-century imagination. In this way it also assesses the impact of the Reformation on the Confessions.
Physiological and Developmental Mechanisms of Emotional Lability in Coercive Relationships
Authors: Beauchaine Theodore P. , Zalewski Maureen
Published: March 2015

Thestaticapproach to characterizing psychopathology classifies disorders syndromally, with little attention to development or social risk mediators. This approach, founded on biological reductionism, characterizes particular syndromes as arising from genetic and/or neural dysfunctions. In contrast, thehigh-riskapproach emphasizes exposure to adversity, with little consideration of neurobiology. Since neurobiological vulnerability × environmental risk interactions often account for more variance in developmental outcomes than do main effects, studying either in isolation can be misleading. This chapter presents an ontogenic process perspective in which neurobiological vulnerabilities interact with coercive family processes to shape and maintain emotional lability and emotion dysregulation—hallmarks of psychopathology. It emphasizes bidirectional transactions across levels of analysis (e.g., behavior ↔ autonomic function), mechanisms through which physiological systems adapt to coercion (neural plasticity, epigenesis), generalization of coercive behaviors across contexts (family, peer groups), and distinct functions of neurobiological systems in transmitting coercive behavior.
Formative Mappings, Political Trappings
Authors: Fong Edmund , Hattam Victoria
Published: March 2015

Contemporary scholarship on racial and ethnic politics in the United States has broadly followed three main approaches in assessing the history of race and ethnicity in the United States. We therefore map three different ways of seeing the relationship between race and ethnicity contained within Whiteness Studies, scholarship on cultural pluralism and multiculturalism, and scholarship on intersections and Intersectionality. Each locates the history of racial and ethnic difference within a larger political problematic, each attaches a different significance and valence between racial and ethnic categories, and each bears with it the particular political investments constituting its origins. By highlighting the divergent ways racial and ethnic categories are mobilized we underscore the irreducibly political nature of race and ethnicity and their ongoing generative role in American politics.
Translation Technology
Authors: Bowker Lynne , Corpas Pastor Gloria
Published: March 2015

In today’s market, the use of technology by translators is no longer a luxury but a necessity if they are to meet rising market demands for the quick delivery of high-quality texts in many languages. This chapter describes a selection of computer-aided translation tools, resources, and applications, most commonly employed by translators to help them increase productivity while maintaining high quality in their work. This chapter also considers some of the ways in which translation technology has influenced the practice and the product of translation, as well as translators’ professional competence and their preferences with regard to tools and resources.
Corpus Linguistics and Information Structure Research
Authors: Lüdeling Anke , Ritz Julia , Stede Manfred , Zeldes Amir
Published: March 2015

This chapter describes the contributions that Corpus Linguistics (the study of linguistic phenomena by means of systematically exploiting collections of naturally-occurring linguistic data) can make to IS research. It discusses issues of designing a corpus that can serve as a basis for qualitative or quantitative studies, and then turns to the central issue of data annotation: what corpora are available that have been annotated with IS-related annotations, and how can such annotations be evaluated? In case a corpus does not have direct IS annotation, can other types of annotations, especially in the form of multi-layer annotation, be used as indirect evidence for the presence of IS phenomena? Next, the present state of the art in automatic IS annotation (by means of techniques from computational linguistics) is sketched, and finally, several sample studies that exploit IS annotations are introduced briefly.
Constraint Conflict and Information Structure
Authors: Samek-Lodovici Vieri
Published: March 2015

This article examines the insights brought about by a conflict-based approach to the study of information structure. It does so mainly, but not exclusively, through a chronological survey of particularly significant analyses that modelled the syntactic displacements induced by focalization as the effect of prosodic constraints governing the position of prosodic prominence. The historic and conceptual relations between these analyses are highlighted, together with the main theoretical issues they raise and address. While most analyses are based on optimality theory, the article does not assume any prior knowledge of this framework and is accessible to all scholars.
Verum Focus
Authors: Lohnstein Horst
Published: March 2015

This chapter aims to shed light on a phenomenon first described as verum focus by Höhle. He characterizes its semantic effect as emphasizing the expression of truth of a proposition. In German, the phenomenon typically appears in the left periphery of main and embedded clauses. Höhle relates it to a linguistic object VERUM occuring in the syntactic/semantic structure of clauses. After presenting several approaches which make crucial use of VERUM, the concept of truth and its linguistic realization in clausal structures is discussed. This leads to a perspective that connects verum focus to the part of the sentence that spells out the intention of the sentence meaning: the sentence mood. This line of reasoning intends to promote the view that verum focus can be derived from the systematic interaction of sentence mood with the regular properties of focus assignment.
Religion, Nationalism, and the Politics of Secularism
Authors: Hibbard Scott
Published: March 2015

This chapter examines the relationship between religion, nationalism, and the state and advocates a truly neutral conception of secularism. The point of departure is an analysis of the recurring debate over the proper role of religion in public life. Particular attention is given to the relationship between religion and nationalism, the secularization thesis, and the reasons religion remains an important part of modern politics. The chapter then turns toward the “politics of secularism,” and the tension between liberal (or ecumenical) secularism in theory and its practice. At issue is whether the secular tradition is invariably exclusive, or whether secularism as implemented has simply failed to live up to its ecumenical promise. The closing section examines this question in light of the justpeace tradition, and offers an endorsement for a re-conceptualized vision of secularism that is genuinely defined by neutrality in matters of religion and belief.
The New Name for Peace? Religion and Development as Partners in Strategic Peacebuilding
Authors: Appleby R. Scott
Published: March 2015

This chapter compares the fields of development and peacebuilding, with an eye to exploring affinities as well as areas of resistance to collaboration. It identifies the following points of convergence: 1) a focus on the local community; 2) an emerging consensus regarding the “rules of engagement”; and 3) a growing recognition that the criteria for “authentic” human development must be articulated on a case-by-case basis. Religious actors and institutions are already located, indeed long established, at this nexus, and frequently provide the fundamental social infrastructure within which peacebuilders and development workers alike must operate. Accordingly, the chapter argues, first, that peacebuilders and development professionals should collaborate systematically, creating an alliance that would help address structural challenges currently plaguing both fields. Second, religious actors and institutions must be welcomed more deliberately into regional as well as local projects and planning, thereby making the “liberal peace” model more elicitive, holistic, and effective.
Religious Violence and State Violence
Authors: Omar A. Rashied
Published: March 2015

This chapter addresses a neglected theoretical issue in the academic debate on religion and violence, namely, that of systemic violence and state-sponsored terror. It contends that an understanding of the state’s role in conflict, and in particular a critical appraisal of how it obtains its legitimacy and exercises its “monopoly of violence,” is crucial to a more nuanced grasp of the relationship between religion and violence. As the cases of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the “communal” conflict in the Gujarat state of India in 2002 show, the state often plays a role in religious violence. Furthermore, religion in turn can sanctify state-sponsored violence. Going beyond conventional Eurocentric formulations, the chapter advances a polycentric theory of religion, violence, and the state that expands and deepens our understanding of religious conflict and provides new resources for peacebuilding.
The Place of Religious Freedom in the Structure of Peacebuilding
Authors: Durham W. Cole , Clark Elizabeth A.
Published: March 2015

This chapter analyzes the role that the fundamental right to freedom of religion or belief plays in ending or averting religious warfare, and in providing necessary footings for crystallizing peace out of conflict. After stressing that there is a tendency to lay exaggerated blame for many conflicts on religion, the chapter explores the Lockean insight that under certain circumstances, religious pluralism can serve as a stabilizing factor in society if states protect the right to religious diversity instead of imposing homogeneity. International limitation clauses on the scope of religious liberty play an important filtering role in promoting the positive contributions religion makes to society, while constraining negative religious effects. The analysis argues that secularity, understood as a framework welcoming religious pluralism, rather than secularism, as an ideology advocating secularization as an end in itself, is most conducive to the peacebuilding potential of religious freedom.
Reconciliation, Politics, and Transitional Justice
Authors: Philpott Daniel
Published: March 2015

This chapter articulates reconciliation as an ethic of peacebuilding and demonstrates how it is rooted in religious traditions. It shows how the texts and practices of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam support this ethic, though it might well be grounded in other traditions as well. It then applies the ethic to the political sphere and situates it in the context of transitional justice, describing the practices that make up the ethic. The chapter shows how reconciliation both overlaps and contrasts with the liberal peace, the globally dominant paradigm of justice in the wake of massive violence. Finally, it suggests that forgiveness, the practice that most stands in tension with the liberal peace and is most emblematic of religious reconciliation, is a promising avenue for future research in this area.
Secular Militancy as an Obstacle to Peacebuilding
Authors: Shah Timothy Samuel
Published: March 2015

“Persistent unsecularity” more accurately represents the dynamic relationship between religion, modernization, and society in the contemporary world than the secularization paradigm. Secularization is flawed on several counts. It infuses vague concepts like “modernity” and “rationality” with transcendent and irreversible agency, pitting them against religion in a zero-sum conflict that is both self-contradictory and unfalsifiable. In fact, the secularization paradigm is itself a religious worldview, supporting the claim that human persons naturally seek to infuse their lives—as individuals and in community—with unsecular interpretations, activities, and engagement. Despite claims to the contrary, religious structures, frameworks, symbols, and actors are powerfully present in the realities of conflict, violence, and peacemaking around the globe today, and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
Religion and Peace in Asia
Authors: van der Veer Peter , Ngo Tam , Smyer Yu Dan
Published: March 2015

This chapter argues that non-Christian Asian traditions contribute perspectives on peacebuilding that are different from those offered by major Western traditions. Peacebuilding, like reconciliation, refers to a specific set of practices, informed by theory, designed to alleviate human suffering and create the conditions for human flourishing. Much of the theoretical apparatus of peacebuilding and reconciliation seems to build on elements of the Christian tradition; however, other traditions also have much to offer. A major idea about peace and reconciliation that one can find in Asian religious traditions is that a person seeking a superior moral life and liberation from suffering should focus on renunciation and self-cultivation. Such a person provides a moral exemplar to be followed by others that would create world peace, tolerance, and reconciliation. This chapter discusses three major figures who exemplify this tradition: Mahatma Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, and Thich Nhat Hanh.
Religion, Nationalism, and Solidarity Activism
Authors: Omer Atalia
Published: March 2015

The questions animating this chapter revolve around how and why the Palestine trope is invoked so effectively in other contexts, with the goal of scrutinizing the discourses that inform its perceived uniqueness. How does Palestine construed as a utopia echo the rhetorical representation of Israel? What are the implications of making national causes symbols of peace and justice? Is the symbolization of Israel-Palestine unique or indicative of broader patterns? The chapter explores these questions through a comparative consideration of the case of Tibet. Using the discursive tool of orientalism, it then exposes limitations of realist and value-essentialist approaches to analyzing the role of cultural affinities in conflict. It develops a typology of diaspora nationalism that explores how “home” and “diasporas”—real or perceived—transform geography into a utopia or landscape of devotion. Finally, it relates solidarity activism and diasporas to peacebuilding, religion, and nationalism more broadly.
First Tell No Untruth
Authors: Freeman Alan
Published: March 2015

This chapter argues that the precept “first tell no untruth” is the initial premise of an ethical code for economists. Unjustifiable claims of truth for economic statements cause harm when people act on them, when different actions could have produced better outcomes. The harm is avoidable if known critical practices give grounds to doubt the claim of truth. This harm arises from not from the malign intent of economists but from their relation with society, which introduces “misleading bias” by expecting them to certify as true assertions that benefit their employers. This gives rise to “monotheoretic practice,” the production of single answers by means of single theories. The alternative is “systematic pluralism”—the provision of a range of possible answers derived from relevant legitimate theories. This code would be mutual, recognizing the joint responsibility of economists and society, and collective, holding economists ethically responsible for their profession’s output.
Global Aphasia
Authors: Galletta Elizabeth E. , Barrett A. M.
Published: March 2015

Global aphasia is a language disorder that involves the breakdown of all aspects of oral and written language, typically associated with an extensive left hemisphere lesion that involves cortical and subcortical areas as well as white matter tracts. The characteristics of global aphasia include severe auditory comprehension and oral expression deficits with some spared conceptual knowledge and spared comprehension of emotional prosody. The implications for clinical assessment and treatment are described, and recommendations for clinicians and family members are provided.
Game versus Substance in Political News
Authors: Patterson Thomas E.
Published: March 2015

This chapter examines the game schema in news coverage. It argues that substance is often subordinated to the competitive game, particularly during election campaigns but also in governing situations. Moreover, because journalists tend to see politics as a political game, their reporting of policy leadership and problems is often framed in game-like terms The chapter discusses the game schema in theoretical perspective and looks at research on the game schema in US presidential and congressional elections and other contexts. The research on the media effects of game schema is reviewed. The chapter closes by offering future directions for research on the game schema.
Homeless Emerging Adults
Authors: Thompson Sanna , Ferguson Kristin , Bender Kimberly , Begun Stephanie , Kim Yeonwoo
Published: March 2015

Navigating the transition from adolescence to adulthood is challenging for homeless emerging adults due to the absence of basic resources, sexual and physical victimization, psychological challenges, and unstable living conditions. To address the developmental issues associated with homelessness, this chapter utilizes a social estrangement framework to describe homeless emerging adults’ institutional/societal disafﬁliation, human capital, identiﬁcation with the homeless lifestyle, and psychological dysfunction. These terms are used to identify the developmental milestones associated with becoming adults in unconventional circumstances and during the nontraditional developmental processes experienced by homeless emerging adults. Intervention approaches are discussed in terms of services and barriers to care for homeless emerging adults. Policies are discussed that highlight the need for additional attention to service needs, mental health challenges, and criminal justice involvement of this population of emerging adults.
Pepys in Print, 1660–1703
Authors: Loveman Kate
Published: March 2015

This article discusses the printed works produced by Samuel Pepys during his lifetime, along with significant references to him in print by his contemporaries. Pepys’s own print contributions ranged from news reports on Charles II’s Restoration to self-vindicating naval Memoires (1690). Having been the subject of a libel during the Popish Plot in 1679, Pepys was himself criticized for authoring libels as a result of his pamphlet campaign to reform Christ’s Hospital (1698–1699). Pepys’s strategic uses of publication media mean that following his career is a way to investigate the boundaries between print and manuscript publication in the late seventeenth century and examine the association of these media with concepts of private and public. Pepys’s uses of print also provide an important context for interpreting his intentions concerning the preservation and circulation of his diary of the 1660s, which was to remain unprinted until the nineteenth century.
Divine Rhetoric and Prophetic Silence in the Book of Jonah
Authors: Ryu Chesung Justin
Published: March 2015

This chapter analyzes Jonah’s silence at the end of the eponymous book as a justifiable act of resistance employed by the weak against the rhetoric of the strong. A postcolonial interpretation of the Jonah narrative reveals that God, employing a rhetorical tactic often employed by those in power, deprives Jonah of the opportunity to discuss the real reason for his anger by reframing the focus of their dialogue, from its larger historical context involving the legitimacy of God’s plan to save Nineveh to a narrower issue of God’s sovereignty over the life of a plant. The chapter posits that Jonah remains silent at the end of the book because he is trapped by divine rhetoric, which effectively removes the consideration of the power differential between the strong and the weak, intentionally focusing only on the present situation through dehistorization and decontextualization.
The Patrilineal Narrative Machinery of Chronicles
Authors: Kelso Julie
Published: March 2015

This article focuses on the strange story that functions as narrative origin in the Book of Chronicles: the murder of Saul and his sons (1 Chron. 10). In Chronicles, the logic of the production of meaning depends on the logic of patrilineal succession for its consistency. Upon close analysis of 1 Chronicles 10, it emerges that this narrative logic depends on the silencing of the maternal body. The murder of Saul and his sons is read symptomatically as a narrative of the originary repression of the maternal body, a repression necessary to sustain the phantasy of monosexual production that underwrites this masculinist history.
New Testament Narrative and Greco-Roman Literature
Authors: Busch Austin
Published: March 2015

This article discusses Greek literature’s influence on the Gospels and Acts by exploring quotations of and allusions to Aratus and Euripides in Luke-Acts, and Homer in Mark. In particular, it considers the citation of Aratus’ Phaenomena in Paul’s Areopagus Discourse (Acts 17:22–31), of Euripides’s Bacchae in Acts 26:14, and a number of Luke’s more oblique literary engagements with those two works. It also analyzes the subtle allusion to the Odyssey’s Eurycleia episode (19.353–507) in Mark 14:3–9, situating all these representative examples of New Testament narrative’s intertextual engagement with pagan Greek literature in a Greco-Roman rhetorical context with reference to ancient illustrations and discussions of literary influence and adaptation from Virgil (vis-à-vis Homer), Theon, Quintilian, Pliny, and Seneca.
Poetry and Biblical Narrative
Authors: Linafelt Tod
Published: March 2015

Although virtually all other long narratives from the ancient world take the form of verse, biblical authors pioneered a prose style that, for reasons unknown, came to dominate ancient Hebrew narrative, relegating verse to nonnarrative genres. In other words, extended biblical Hebrew narrative always takes the form of prose, and biblical Hebrew poetry is nearly always nonnarrative. And yet, one finds authors and editors of the narratives dropping poems into the stories at key points, often because poetry provides literary resources unavailable in prose. By exploring both the form and function of these poetic insets, we may see the intentionality with which the ancient authors treated literary form and the crucial roles that nonnarrative poetic genres came to play in the biblical stories.
Expression and Functional Roles of the Pepper Pathogen–Induced bZIP Transcription Factor CabZIP2 in Enhanced Disease Resistance to Bacterial Pathogen Infection
Authors: Lim Chae Woo , Baek Woonhee , Lim Sohee , Han Sang-Wook , Lee Sung Chul
Published: March 2015

A pepper bZIP transcription factor gene, CabZIP2, was isolated from pepper leaves infected with a virulent strain of Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria. Transient expression analysis of the CabZIP2-GFP fusion protein in Nicotiana benthamiana revealed that the CabZIP2 protein is localized in the cytoplasm as well as the nucleus. The acidic domain in the N-terminal region of CabZIP2 that is fused to the GAL4 DNA-binding domain is required to activate the transcription of reporter genes in yeast. Transcription of CabZIP2 is induced in pepper plants inoculated with virulent or avirulent strains of X. campestris pv. vesicatoria. The CabZIP2 gene is also induced by defense-related hormones such as salicylic acid, methyl jasmonate, and ethylene. To elucidate the in vivo function of the CabZIP2 gene in plant defense, virus-induced gene silencing in pepper and overexpression in Arabidopsis were used. CabZIP2-silenced pepper plants were susceptible to infection by the virulent strain of X. campestris pv. vesicatoria, which was accompanied by reduced expression of defense-related genes such as CaBPR1 and CaAMP1. CabZIP2 overexpression in transgenic Arabidopsis plants conferred enhanced resistance to Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000. Together, these results suggest that CabZIP2 is involved in bacterial disease resistance.
Phytophthora Species Recovered From Irrigation Reservoirs in Mississippi and Alabama Nurseries and Pathogenicity of Three New Species
Authors: Copes Warren E. , Yang Xiao , Hong Chuanxue
Published: March 2015

From a survey for Phytophthora spp. in containment basins at one nursery each in Alabama and Mississippi, eight species and one taxon were recovered, with Phytophthora gonapodyides dominant in cooler months and P. hydropathica in warmer months, accounting for 39.6 and 46.6% overall recovery, respectively. Among the recoveries were P. macilentosa, P. mississippiae, and P. stricta, three new species recently described from a small lake (labeled M4) that serves as a primary water source for irrigation and to feed another irrigation pond (M5) at the Mississippi nursery. Neither of ponds M4 and M5 directly receives runoff from any production area. The three new species were tested for pathogenicity with Catharanthus roseus, Gardenia jasminoides ‘August Beauty,’ Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Semmes Beauty,’ Ilex magland ‘Oakland,’ Pieris japonica ‘Mountain Snow,’ and Rhododendron × ‘Brandi Michele Raley.’ None of the three species infected any of the test plants or became established in peat or pine bark growing media. Based on the result of pathogenicity trials as well as the field observation that none of the nine Phytophthora taxa recovered from irrigation reservoirs have caused episodic disease in the nurseries, they appear to not present a high risk to ornamental plants at those nurseries.
Impact of White Pine Blister Rust on Resistant Cultivated Ribes and Neighboring Eastern White Pine in New Hampshire
Authors: Munck Isabel A. , Tanguay Philippe , Weimer Jennifer , Villani Sara M. , Cox Kerik D.
Published: March 2015

To determine the impact of white pine blister rust (WPBR) following the recent breakdown of the Cr resistance dominant gene in cultivated Ribes spp., 255 plants of 19 Ribes cultivars and 445 neighboring eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) from 42 sites across New Hampshire were evaluated. Of the 19 Ribes cultivars evaluated, 15 were WPBR resistant, and 4 of these were labeled as black currant (Ribes nigrum) with the Cr gene (Cr Ribes cultivars). Incidence of WPBR ranged from 0 to 88% for WPBR-resistant Ribes cultivars. Mean WPBR severity was 14 and <6% of leaf area for Cr Ribes and partially resistant cultivars, respectively. The presence of Cronartium ribicola was confirmed on 17 of the 19 Ribes cultivars screened with polymerase chain reaction analysis and DNA sequencing. Reference accessions of Cr Ribes cultivars from the Canadian Clonal Genebank were successfully infected with C. ribicola inoculum collected in New Hampshire from Cr Ribes cultivars and P. strobus, confirming that the vCr race of C. ribicola that has overcome the Cr resistance dominant gene in cultivated Ribes spp. is present in New Hampshire. The probability of finding pine trees with WPBR was greater for trees neighboring infected Cr Ribes cultivars (0.18) than trees neighboring WPBR-free Ribes cultivars (0.02). Results from this study suggest that the breakdown of Cr-based resistance in Ribes spp. poses a threat to the white pine resource and to cultivated Ribes production.
Changes in the Antioxidant System in Soybean Leaves Infected by Corynespora cassiicola
Authors: Fortunato Alessandro Antônio , Debona Daniel , Bernardeli Arthur Martins Almeida , Rodrigues Fabrício Ávila
Published: March 2015

Considering the importance of target spot, caused by the fungus Corynespora cassiicola, to reduce soybean yield in Brazil and that more basic information regarding the soybean−C. cassiicola interaction is needed, the present study aimed to investigate whether the cellular damage caused by C. cassiicola infection could activate the antioxidant system and whether a more efficient antioxidant system could be associated with an increase in soybean resistance to target spot. The activities of the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase, catalase, peroxidase, ascorbate peroxidase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, glutathione S-transferase as well as the concentrations of ascorbate (AsA), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), superoxide (O2•−), and malondialdehyde (MDA) were measured in soybean plants from two cultivars differing in resistance to the pathogen. The number of lesions per square centimeter was significantly reduced by 14% in plants from cultivar Fundacep 59 compared with plants from cultivar TMG 132. The area under the disease progress curve was significantly lower, by 15%, in plants from Fundacep 59 than in plants from TMG 132. Generally, antioxidant enzyme activities and AsA concentration significantly increased in response to C. cassiicola infection in plants from both cultivars, however more prominent increases were recorded for plants from Fundacep 59. The concentrations of MDA, H2O2, and O2•− also increased, particularly for plants from TMG 132. The results from this study highlight the importance of a more efficient antioxidative system in the removal of reactive oxygen species generated in soybean plants during C. cassiicola infection, contributing to the resistance to target spot.
Grapevine Red Blotch-Associated Virus, an Emerging Threat to the Grapevine Industry
Authors: Sudarshana Mysore R. , Perry Keith L. , Fuchs Marc F.
Published: March 2015

Grapevine red blotch-associated virus (GRBaV) is a newly identified virus of grapevines and a putative member of a new genus within the family Geminiviridae. This virus is associated with red blotch disease that was first reported in California in 2008. It affects the profitability of vineyards by substantially reducing fruit quality and ripening. In red-berried grapevine cultivars, foliar disease symptoms consist of red blotches early in the season that can expand and coalesce across most of the leaf blade later in the season. In white-berried grapevine cultivars, foliar disease symptoms are less conspicuous and generally involve irregular chlorotic areas that may become necrotic late in the season. Determining the GRBaV genome sequence yielded critical information for the design of primers for polymerase chain reaction-based diagnostics. To date, GRBaV has been reported in the major grape-growing areas in North America and two distinct phylogenetic clades have been described. Spread of GRBaV is suspected in certain vineyards but a vector of epidemiological significance has yet to be identified. Future research will need to focus on virus spread, the production of clean planting stocks, and the development of management options that are effective, economical, and environmentally friendly.
Syntaxin1A-mediated Resistance and Hypersensitivity to Isoflurane in Drosophila melanogaster
Authors: Zalucki Oressia H. , Menon Hareesh , Kottler Benjamin , Faville Richard , Day Rebecca , Bademosi Adekunle T. , Lavidis Nickolas , Karunanithi Shanker , van Swinderen Bruno
Published: March 2015

AbstractAbstract

Isoflurane targets synaptic release mechanisms in addition to sleep pathways in flies. Different mutations in syntaxin1A confer resistance and hypersensitivity across multiple behavioral and electrophysiological endpoints in flies.

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text.

Background:

Recent evidence suggests that general anesthetics activate endogenous sleep pathways, yet this mechanism cannot explain the entirety of general anesthesia. General anesthetics could disrupt synaptic release processes, as previous work in Caenorhabditis elegans and in vitro cell preparations suggested a role for the soluble NSF attachment protein receptor protein, syntaxin1A, in mediating resistance to several general anesthetics. The authors questioned whether the syntaxin1A-mediated effects found in these reductionist systems reflected a common anesthetic mechanism distinct from sleep-related processes.

Methods:

Using the fruit fly model, Drosophila melanogaster, the authors investigated the relevance of syntaxin1A manipulations to general anesthesia. The authors used different behavioral and electrophysiological endpoints to test the effect of syntaxin1A mutations on sensitivity to isoflurane.

Results:

The authors found two syntaxin1A mutations that confer opposite general anesthesia phenotypes: syxH3-C, a 14-amino acid deletion mutant, is resistant to isoflurane (n = 40 flies), and syxKARRAA, a strain with two amino acid substitutions, is hypersensitive to the drug (n = 40 flies). Crucially, these opposing effects are maintained across different behavioral endpoints and life stages. The authors determined the isoflurane sensitivity of syxH3-C at the larval neuromuscular junction to assess effects on synaptic release. The authors find that although isoflurane slightly attenuates synaptic release in wild-type animals (n = 8), syxH3-C preserves synaptic release in the presence of isoflurane (n = 8).

Conclusion:

The study results are evidence that volatile general anesthetics target synaptic release mechanisms; in addition to first activating sleep pathways, a major consequence of these drugs may be to decrease the efficacy of neurotransmission.
Association of VEGFR-2 Gene Polymorphisms With Clopidogrel Resistance in Patients With Coronary Heart Disease
Authors: Zhang Li-Jun , Zhang Yan-Qun , Han Xia , Zhang Zeng-Tang , Zhang Zhi-Qiang
Published: March 2015

Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR-2) plays a central role in atherogenesis. We investigated the correlation between VEGFR-2 polymorphisms and the risk of clopidogrel resistance (CR) in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). The study involved 275 patients with CHD undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention and on antiplatelet clopidogrel therapy. The participants were divided into CR group (n = 59) and non-CR group (NCR, n = 216) based on maximum platelet aggregation measurements. VEGFR-2 gene polymorphisms, +1192C>T (rs2305948), +1416T>A (rs1870377), and −271A>G (rs7667298), were genotyped using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to measure serum transforming growth factor, beta receptor 2 levels. CR was found in 59 patients (20.45%). A significantly higher proportion of patients in the CR group had a history of diabetes mellitus compared with the NCR group (P < 0.05). Genotype and allele frequency of VEGFR-2 +1192C>T (rs2305948) was significantly higher in the CR group than in the NCR group (all P < 0.01). In the VEGFR-2 +1192C>T (rs2305948), the angina pectoris, recurrent myocardial infarction, and combined end point events were significantly more prevalent in the TT carriers than in the CC + CT carriers. In VEGFR-2 −271A>G (rs7667298), the GG carriers had a lower proportion of target lesion revascularization and angina pectoris in contrast to the AA + AG carriers (all P < 0.05). Based on our results, VEGFR-2 +1192C>T (rs2305948) polymorphism is strongly associated with increased CR and main adverse cardiovascular event incidence in patients with CHD undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. Additionally, patients with CHD with diabetes mellitus history were more likely to develop CR. The associations of +1416T>A (rs1870377) and −271A>G (rs7667298) polymorphisms with CR were inconclusive and will need to be examined further.
Modelling the heart as a communication system
Authors: Ashikaga Hiroshi , Aguilar-Rodríguez José , Gorsky Shai , Lusczek Elizabeth , Marquitti Flávia Maria Darcie , Thompson Brian , Wu Degang , Garland Joshua
Published: March 2015

Electrical communication between cardiomyocytes can be perturbed during arrhythmia, but these perturbations are not captured by conventional electrocardiographic metrics. We developed a theoretical framework to quantify electrical communication using information theory metrics in two-dimensional cell lattice models of cardiac excitation propagation. The time series generated by each cell was coarse-grained to 1 when excited or 0 when resting. The Shannon entropy for each cell was calculated from the time series during four clinically important heart rhythms: normal heartbeat, anatomical reentry, spiral reentry and multiple reentry. We also used mutual information to perform spatial profiling of communication during these cardiac arrhythmias. We found that information sharing between cells was spatially heterogeneous. In addition, cardiac arrhythmia significantly impacted information sharing within the heart. Entropy localized the path of the drifting core of spiral reentry, which could be an optimal target of therapeutic ablation. We conclude that information theory metrics can quantitatively assess electrical communication among cardiomyocytes. The traditional concept of the heart as a functional syncytium sharing electrical information cannot predict altered entropy and information sharing during complex arrhythmia. Information theory metrics may find clinical application in the identification of rhythm-specific treatments which are currently unmet by traditional electrocardiographic techniques.
Addendum to ‘Sharp inequalities that generalize the divergence theorem: an extension of the notion of quasi-convexity’
Authors: Milton Graeme W.
Published: March 2015

The paper ‘Sharp inequalities that generalize the divergence theorem: an extension of the notion of quasi-convexity’ published in
Proc. R. Soc. A
2013, 469, 20130075 (
doi:10.1098/rspa.2013.0075
) is clarified. Notably, much more general boundary conditions are given under which sharp lower bounds on the integrals of certain quadratic functions of the fields can be obtained. More precisely, if the quadratic form is
Q
*-convex then any solution of the Euler–Lagrange equations will necessarily minimize the integral. As a consequence, strict
Q
*-convexity is found to be an appropriate condition to ensure uniqueness of the solutions of a wide class of linear Euler–Lagrange equations in a given domain
Ω
with appropriate boundary conditions.
Modelling water flow under glaciers and ice sheets
Authors: Flowers Gwenn E.
Published: March 2015

Recent observations of dynamic water systems beneath the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have sparked renewed interest in modelling subglacial drainage. The foundations of today's models were laid decades ago, inspired by measurements from mountain glaciers, discovery of the modern ice streams and the study of landscapes evacuated by former ice sheets. Models have progressed from strict adherence to the principles of groundwater flow, to the incorporation of flow ‘elements’ specific to the subglacial environment, to sophisticated two-dimensional representations of interacting distributed and channelized drainage. Although presently in a state of rapid development, subglacial drainage models, when coupled to models of ice flow, are now able to reproduce many of the canonical phenomena that characterize this coupled system. Model calibration remains generally out of reach, whereas widespread application of these models to large problems and real geometries awaits the next level of development.
The search for human pheromones: the lost decades and the necessity of returning to first principles
Authors: Wyatt Tristram D.
Published: March 2015

As humans are mammals, it is possible, perhaps even probable, that we have pheromones. However, there is no robust bioassay-led evidence for the widely published claims that four steroid molecules are human pheromones: androstenone, androstenol, androstadienone and estratetraenol. In the absence of sound reasons to test the molecules, positive results in studies need to be treated with scepticism as these are highly likely to be false positives. Common problems include small sample sizes, an overestimate of effect size (as no effect can be expected), positive publication bias and lack of replication. Instead, if we are to find human pheromones, we need to treat ourselves as if we were a newly discovered mammal, and use the rigorous methods already proven successful in pheromone research on other species. Establishing a pheromone relies on demonstration of an odour-mediated behavioural or physiological response, identification and synthesis of the bioactive molecule(s), followed by bioassay confirmation of activity. Likely sources include our sebaceous glands. Comparison of secretions from adult and pre-pubertal humans may highlight potential molecules involved in sexual behaviour. One of the most promising human pheromone leads is a nipple secretion from the areola glands produced by all lactating mothers, which stimulates suckling by any baby not just their own.
Artificial selection for food colour preferences
Authors: Cole Gemma L. , Endler John A.
Published: March 2015

Colour is an important factor in food detection and acquisition by animals using visually based foraging. Colour can be used to identify the suitability of a food source or improve the efficiency of food detection, and can even be linked to mate choice. Food colour preferences are known to exist, but whether these preferences are heritable and how these preferences evolve is unknown. Using the freshwater fish
Poecilia reticulata
, we artificially selected for chase behaviour towards two different-coloured moving stimuli: red and blue spots. A response to selection was only seen for chase behaviours towards the red, with realized heritabilities ranging from 0.25 to 0.30. Despite intense selection, no significant chase response was recorded for the blue-selected lines. This lack of response may be due to the motion-detection mechanism in the guppy visual system and may have novel implications for the evolvability of responses to colour-related signals. The behavioural response to several colours after five generations of selection suggests that the colour opponency system of the fish may regulate the response to selection.
Desulfuromonas carbonis sp. nov., an Fe(III)-, S0- and Mn(IV)-reducing bacterium isolated from an active coalbed methane gas well
Authors: An Thuy T. , Picardal Flynn W.
Published: March 2015

A novel, mesophilic, obligately anaerobic, acetate-oxidizing, dissimilatory iron-, sulfur-, and manganese-reducing bacterium, designated strain ICBMT, was obtained from an active, coalbed methane gas well in Indiana, USA. Strain ICBMTwas a Gram-stain-negative, non-spore-forming, rod-shaped, non-motile bacterium that was rich inc-type cytochromes and formed red colonies in solid medium. Strain ICBMTconserved energy to support growth from the oxidation of acetate, propionate, pyruvate, malate, fumarate, succinate anddl-lactate, concomitant with dissimilatory iron reduction. Strain ICBMTfermented fumarate yielding succinate and acetate. Strain ICBMTwas able to grow in the temperature range of 10 °C to 37 °C, NaCl concentration range of 0 to 1.2 M, and pH range of 6.5 to 8.0. The physiological characteristics of strain ICBMTindicated that it belongs to theDesulfuromonascluster. The G+C content of its genomic DNA was 61.2 mol%. The predominant cellular fatty acids were C16 : 0(39.3 %), C16 : 1ω7cand/or iso-C15 : 02-OH (36.6 %). The closest cultured phylogenetic relative of strain ICBMTwasDesulfuromonas michiganensisBB1Twith only 95 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity. This confirmed that strain ICBMTis affiliated with the genusDesulfuromonas. On the basis of phenotypic and genotypic differences between strain ICBMTand other taxa of the genusDesulfuromonas, strain ICBMTrepresents a novel species for which the nameDesulfuromonas carbonissp. nov. is proposed (type strain ICBMT = DSM 29759T = JCM 30471T). Strain ICBMTis the first Fe(III)-, S0-, and Mn(IV)-reducing bacterium that was isolated from a coal bed.