bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Change detection in city of Hilla during period of 2007-2015 using Remote Sensing Techniques
Authors: Kadhum Z M , Jasim B S. , Obaid M K.
Published: March 2020

This study was carried out in order to identify and map the temporal changes in the land covers in Hilla province using Remote Sensing and GIS. Two images were used of land sate taken in Quick Bird Satellite acquired for the ETM sensor taken on 15 April 2015 and 15 April 2007 with spatial accuracy (0.6 m). These were used as reference sources in the selection of some classification samples after matching them with the Landsat 8 above. In this research using topography maps of the study area (Hilla) with scale 1/10000 generated from the General Authority as a reference data and achieved compatibility with the image of space after it was corrected geometrically 1976, 2000 and 2014. In this research using Geographic Information System (GIS) software with projection images WGS84 process (based on the projection of the global map and the global geodetic system) and within the 38th north. Supervised classification was used to identify land cover classes dominated in the study area. Change detection results showed an increase in the urban areas, in the year 2015 the area had become 1380.350-hectare unit, while in the year 2007 the area was 318.562-hectare unit. Similarly, the vegetation had increased between 2007-2015 from (132.531 to 507.296) hectare unit. Results indicated that urban land and salinization process can be considered as the important phenomena which positively affected the agriculture area. So, the increase in the cover of water is an important reason of decrease in the arid land, which was due to the increase of urban land reach to 1061.788-hectare unit. Many changes have happened in the quantity of reclaimed land in these arid lands between the two years (2007 and 2015).
Evaluating the life efficiency of Mosul before liberation
Authors: Jaber T. A. , Ebraheem A K , Ebraheem M A , Abdujalil A. A.
Published: March 2020

The research deals with the concept of urban liveability, which refers to cities that are able to satisfy the requirements of their inhabitants by providing a range of elements (healthy environment, safe public spaces, decent housing, gardens, opportunities for entertainment, social interaction, non-crowded roads and jobs). Studying the liveability of cities from the assessment of the reality of cities in order to identify the strengths of the city to conform them and identify its weaknesses to avoid them.

The Iraqi government intends to assist the donor countries and humanitarian organizations to start the extensive reconstruction of Mosul city after it was destroyed by the liberation operations. So, the study aims to evaluate the reality of the city before the occupation of the city to identify the weaknesses to be avoided, and to identify the points of strengths to be fortified. The researchers came up with a set of conclusions and recommendations that are directly relevant to the research.
Assessment of the drought impacts on the vegetation cover over Iraqi lands
Authors: Beg A A F
Published: March 2020

The current study was carried out on Iraqi lands, which is located between latitudes 29° 00′ to 37° 15′ N and longitudes 38° 45′ to 48° 25′ E and extended over an area of 436364 square kilometres. The study period is characterised by frequent drought conditions and scarcity of herbaceous crops for many years. The study aims to cast light on the impact of drought on vegetation cover using Standardised Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data. Required data are downloaded from Global SPEI database and Copernicus the Global Land Services. The spatial interpolation of the SPEI and NDVI are used for comparing drought conditions and the percentage of vegetation cover. The results point out to six years of dry conditions i.e., 1999, 2000, 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012 during which most of Iraqi regions passed through moderate to extreme drought conditions with a significant decrease in vegetation cover. Measurement of the correlation coefficient marked moderate to very high correlation over areas where herbaceous crops are dominant, except areas in middle-south which show weak correlation due to dependence on irrigation process while southwestern parts due to the presence of sandy soil and north-eastern parts; because of dominance of wet-cold climatic conditions.
The use of Yehya Abu Al Qasim shrine and Al Tahra church and surrounding space for social and mixed religious group development
Authors: Hasan Shatha A. , Ebraheem Mustafa A. , Altaey Mowaffaq
Published: March 2020

The main reason for our endeavour to present syntheses and rehabilitate the tomb of Yahia Abu Al Qasim is to try to insert this area within the boundaries of the heritage area of the old Mosul area. Previous studies were defined the old city according to the boundaries of the main streets surrounding the urban fabric, while in the usual contexts we see that the boundaries of the heritage and historical area are within the historical wall, this is because the heritage values of space confined between the urban fabric and the wall are not less than the building part. The district of Yahia Abu Al Qasim was considered outside the heritage area because the area is defined by the path of the dividing street between the heritage area and the new area in Mosul, rather than the old wall route. Based on the concept of containment of the river by the historic Nineveh on the left side and the old Mosul on the right side, describing this area by butterfly shape and each part of it represents a wing, and to confirm that it was necessary to have every wing entity and areas of polar growth, (Polar Development); and a spine connecting the poles with a filtration area between the old and the new, so we find that this study may complement the high level and functional for previous studies. The re-designation of the importance of the shrine through spatial analysis will re define the historical dimension of old city by adopting the matching maps and satellite images available for that.
Integration urban land use planning with transportation planning: an evaluation toward sustainable transportation for the holy city of Karbala.
Authors: Alourafi Samir Nori , Alrawi Areaj Khairy
Published: March 2020

The integrated planning of urban land use and transport systems addresses the development of strategies to increase economic efficiency, reduce excessive use of resources, improve social aspects.

The research aims to assess the integration of urban land uses with the transportation system in Karbala, which achieves sustainability. Through two world strategies, the first is planning the land uses to achieve the reliance on walking and bicycle use. It was evaluated through the zone of influence of service (Zone of influence we can define :the area that benefits from a specific service with a specified distance), the index adopted by the Ministry of Housing for the year 2018. Second is integration of land uses with public transport, identification of public transport routes, type of media used and identification of residential areas served by the network, to identify areas not serviced by the public transport network. The GIS program was used for these uses and analyzes by buffer zone were conducted for the spatial location of the services and the calculation of their zone of influence of service.
Detecting similarity in color images based on perceptual image hash algorithm
Authors: Ali Nada Hussein M. , Mahdi Marwa Emad
Published: March 2020

Due to the ever-increasing digitization, the authentication of digital media content is becoming more and more important. Authentication, in general, means deciding whether a digital media is authentic or not, that is, if it matches a given original image. The authentication depends heavily on the type of the digital media, in other words, it is important that every single bit exactly matches the original digital media. Cryptographic hash functions are adequate for such tasks; in this case, a robust hashing is a technology as a change tolerant alternative to cryptographic hashes. Since normal cryptographic hashing methods are error prone to image processing techniques, perceptual hashing is a promising solution to image content authentication. However, conventional image hash algorithms only offer a limited authentication level for overall protection of the content. When intensity components of the color image are used, it is meant that the image is converted to only hashing functions image to produce strong adaptive hashes and that is lead to inadequate recognition abilities.

In this paper, a hash function for color images has been introduced and it is considered robust against global changes inside the image contents. A good discrimination achievement has been obtained since it takes all constituents of the color images into account. Firstly, the input image is resized or re-scaled into a fixed size that is predefined earlier. Secondly, converting the RGB image to HSI and YCbCr
color spaces, respectively. The purpose of this process is to extract local color features of the RGB image. Thereafter, the YCbCr
image is divided into blocks for computing mean and variance of each block component. Finally, the hash values for both source and attack images are calculated using Euclidian distances formula to measure the difference between them.

Experiments are lead to validate the efficiency of the suggested perceptual robustness hash function. Different image operations; brightness, darkness and rotating; were used to test the robustness of the image hash functions. Besides, different evaluated metrics, such as Mean Square Error (MSE) and Peak to Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), were used to measure the performance of the hash function. The obtained results from the perceptual image hash algorithm matched up to 98% between the source image and their corresponding attack image.
Building-up Affordable Data Collection System to Provide 3D Scaled Image for Heritage Documentation
Authors: Abood Nadia , Kareem Imzahim Abdul , Sarhan Hameed
Published: March 2020

To solve the problem of insufficient efficiency of 2D display for damaged and erosional parts of important historical heritage and a high cost of a scanning systems used, affordable data collection system to provide 3D scaled image for Heritage Documentation has been proposed to obtain scaled image with lower cost upon user. The main target of Smart Automated System (SAS) to reconstruct 3D image for various structures and terrain. Mechanically, this system was designed to apply rotation function, that a digital camera will be rotated by using a stepper motor with specific horizontal angles. While the SAS rotates; non-metric digital camera which must be ready to capture automatically a sequence of 2D images. These captured 2D images must be processed and subjected to registration process for obtaining 3D scaled image. MATLAB software has been used to perform automation function between hardware parts (explained bellow) as well as processing of images.
GIS-based approach for rainwater harvesting site selection
Authors: Sayl K N , Mohammed A S , Ahmed A D
Published: March 2020

The main obstacle to development in arid areas is the scarce and intermittent rainfall. Water harvesting is considered one of means to grantee the sustainability of water for use in domestic, irrigation and even industry. The current study carried out on Haqlan valley basin in western part of Iraq. The selection of suitable location for rainwater harvesting is based on different key determinates such as environment, hydrology, socio-economic, and topography as well as the estimation of the storage volume and the surface area. This study aims to identify the suitable location for rainwater harvesting using Geographical Information System (GIS) and remote sensing with multi-criteria decision techniques in the study area. Many thematic maps were extracted such as soil map, vegetation cover, land use/land cover, slope, and digital elevation model. The drainage network and the contour line map were used to suggest six sites in the study area. The result shows that the total suitable area for water harvesting was 28% of the study area, while 21% indicated moderate suitability. The proposed method is relatively supportive in analyzing geospatial data to determine and select the optimal site for rainwater harvesting and minimize evaporation losses.
Temporal Analysis of Ramsar Sites via Remote Sensing Techniques – A Case Study of Meke Maar
Authors: Yagmur N , Musaoglu N
Published: March 2020

Wetlands have globally significant social, economic and environmental benefits. Ramsar supports the conservation and conscious use of wetlands. Meke Maar is one of the Ramsar sites which located in Konya Closed Basin. Aim of the study is analysis of Meke Maar from 1984 to 2017, along with the reasons for the change. Remote sensing techniques were used for change detection from 1984 to 2017. Remote sensing has widely used in environmental analysis and change detection. Change analysis was conducted for 2 different month interval as spring (May-June) and autumn (August-September). For detecting water surface area, Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) and Classification and Regression Tree (CART) methods were used. These methods were implemented in the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. Obtained results evaluate with meteorological data and groundwater level measurements. Gulfet Yayla well is the nearest well to study area. That is why, its observations were used in evaluation of change detection results. In conclusion, water surface area in the Meke Maar has decreased approximately 90%. As a result of the study, it was determined that the factors affecting the water change in Meke Maar were precipitation and groundwater level.
Effect of sulfur on corrosion behavior of Q235 and 16Mn steel in sodium aluminate solutions
Authors: Quan Bian-li , Li Jun-qi , Chen Chao-yi
Published: March 2020

This study investigates the effect of sulfur on Q235 steel and 16Mn steel corrosion in sodium aluminate solution. The corrosion rate of Q235 steel and 16Mn steel reaches the maximum respectively when S2− and S2O3
2− form synergistic corrosion and S2− is contained alone. But, the size of corroded particles is smaller in the solution containing only S2O3
2− for two kinds of steel. The corrosion rate of 16Mn steel is greater than Q235 steel. Surface corrosion of two kinds of steel is both composed of sulfides (FeS and FeS2) and oxides (Fe2O3, Fe3O4, Al2O3 and NaFeO2). The crystal particles of steel surface are mainly iron oxides according to EDS analysis. Nyquist plots of Q235 steel with different forms of sulfur have two capacitance-resistance arcs and no diffusion impedance. Nyquist plots of 16Mn steel with S2O3
2− alone is consistent with Q235 steel. But, Nyquist plots of 16Mn steel presents a typical Warburg diffusion phenomenon with containing S2− alone and forming synergistic corrosion.
Microstructure and microhardness of carbonate apatite particle-reinforced Mg composite consolidated by warm compaction for biodegradable implant application
Authors: Setyadi Iwan , Marsetio Aldo Fransiskus , Kamal Achmad Fauzi , Rahyussalim  , Supriadi Sugeng , Suharno Bambang
Published: March 2020

Magnesium-based composites with carbonate apatite reinforcement are attractive biodegradable implant materials. In this study, we observed the effect of carbonate apatite content (5, 10, and 15% wt.) and milling time (3, 5, and 7 h) on the microstructure and microhardness of magnesium-carbonate apatite composites fabricated by powder metallurgy. The consolidation process involved warm compaction without sintering. Characterization was achieved through density testing, x-ray diffraction (XRD), optical microscopy, SEM-energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and microhardness testing. The powder milling time affects the distribution of apatite carbonate; adding carbonate apatite can increase the hardness of magnesium-based composites. In the XRD spectrum, we identify the dominant magnesium peak but not the magnesium oxide peak. Carbonate apatite powder is distributed at the grain boundaries. The hardness range is 40.26–44.82 Hv or increase by 8.21%–20.23% compared to the hardness of consolidated pure magnesium. The relative density is around 95.92%–98.71%, whereas the relative density of pure magnesium is 99.58%. The obtained optimal conditions for fabricating magnesium composites are the following: content of 10 wt% carbonate apatite (milled for 5 h) with a hardness of 43.58 Hv.
Machine learning at the (sub)atomic scale: next generation scanning probe microscopy
Authors: Gordon Oliver M , Moriarty Philip J
Published: March 2020

We discuss the exciting prospects for a step change in our ability to map and modify matter at the atomic/molecular level by embedding machine learning algorithms in scanning probe microscopy (with a particular focus on scanning tunnelling microscopy, STM). This nano-AI hybrid approach has the far-reaching potential to realise a technology capable of the automated analysis, actuation, and assembly of matter with a precision down to the single chemical bond limit.
Are older patients with diabetes still being overtreated in French long-term care homes?
Authors: Quilot Emilienne , Petit Jean-Michel , Vergès Bruno , Bouillet Benjamin
Published: March 2020

Background

Diabetes management has not been evaluated in French nursing homes (NHs) for 10 years.

Objectives

The present study aimed to compare the management of diabetes with guidelines in older patients living in NHs.

Design

Observational, retrospective and multicentre study carried out in 13 NH in the Cote d’Or region of France.

Settings and subjects

Between January and June 2018, all NH residents older than 65 years and known to have diabetes (n = 148) were included.

Methods

Epidemiological, clinical and biological data and diabetes characteristics were collected from the medical records.

Results

The average glycated haemoglobin (HbA1C) was 7.2 ± 1.2%. In total, 51% of patients had HbA1C < 7% (n = 70), of which 39 took one or more antidiabetic drugs. In total, 28 of those patients (40%) were at risk of developing hypoglycaemia as a result of their treatment. In all, 44.6% of patients were treated with insulin. Glinides were the most commonly prescribed oral antidiabetic drug (OAD) (27%). Capillary blood glucose monitoring (CBGM) was not carried out daily for 75% of patients taking a potentially hypoglycaemia-inducing OAD.

Conclusions

We found that glycaemic control was too tight in at least 36.5% of the total population and that 40% of patients with HbA1C < 7% were potentially overtreated. The use of dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitors was still insufficient, as was CBGM. Avoiding hypoglycaemia is one of the priorities in the management of older patients with diabetes. Therefore, NHs should focus on improving the use of glycaemic targets and antidiabetic drugs that do not induce hypoglycaemia, as well as better monitoring of capillary blood glucose.
The Common Wind: A Masterful Study of the Masterless Revolutionary Atlantic
Authors: Lightfoot Natasha
Published: March 2020

The 2018 publication of Julius S. Scott’s The Common Wind: Afro-American Currents in the Age of the Haitian Revolution inspired a renewed focus on the reverberations of the Haitian Revolution. Here, six scholars of the Atlantic World and the Age of Revolutions consider the historiographical implications of The Common Wind and remind us how the Haitian upheaval belongs at the very center of the ripples of modernity that spread across the globe from the revolutionary Atlantic.
Contexts for Critique: Revisiting Representations of Violence in Our Beloved Kin
Authors: Mt. Pleasant Alyssa
Published: March 2020

David Silverman offers a critical appraisal of two prizewinning works in Native American and Indigenous studies (NAIS), Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War, by Lisa Brooks, and Memory Lands: King Philip’s War and the Place of Violence in the Northeast, by Christine M. DeLucia. Silverman’s review treats the methodology associated with NAIS with some skepticism, offering the opportunity for a lively discussion about the merits and perils of community-engaged history scholarship. Four scholars of Native American history, including DeLucia, respond, defending new approaches to Indigenous history represented by these recent works.
Is the Utilization of Helicobacter pylori Stool Antigen Tests Appropriate in an Urban Canadian Population?
Authors: Ma Irene , Guo Maggie , Pillai Dylan R , Church Deirdre L , Naugler Christopher
Published: March 2020

Objectives

Helicobacter pylori stool antigen test (HpSAT) appropriateness was investigated by assessing its testing and positivity rates in Calgary, Canada.

Methods

The laboratory information system was accessed for all patients who received an HpSAT in 2018. Testing volume, test results, age, and sex of patients were collected. Sociodemographic risk factors and geospatial analysis were performed by matching laboratory data to the 2016 census data. Testing appropriateness was defined as a concordance between testing and positivity rates for each sociodemographic variable.

Results

In 2018, 25,518 H pylori stool antigen tests were performed in Calgary, with an overall positivity rate of 14.7%. Geospatial mapping demonstrated significant distribution variations of testing and positivity rates of HpSAT in the city. Certain sociodemographic groups studied (eg, recent immigrants) appeared to be appropriately tested (testing rate relative risk [RR] = 2.26, positivity rate RR = 4.32; P < .0001), while other groups (eg, male) may have been undertested (testing rate RR = 0.85, positivity rate RR = 1.14; P < .0001).

Conclusions

Determining concordance of testing and positivity rate of a laboratory test can be used for assessing testing appropriateness for other diseases in other jurisdictions. This study demonstrated some at-risk patients may be missed for H pylori testing.
The Epidemiologic Toolbox: Identifying, Honing, and Using the Right Tools for the Job
Authors: Lesko Catherine R , Keil Alexander P , Edwards Jessie K
Published: March 2020

There has been much debate about the relative emphasis of the field of epidemiology on causal inference. We believe this debate does short shrift to the breadth of the field. Epidemiologists answer myriad questions that are not causal and hypothesize about and investigate causal relationships without estimating causal effects. Descriptive studies face significant and often overlooked inferential and interpretational challenges; we briefly articulate some of them and argue that a more detailed treatment of biases that affect single-sample estimation problems would benefit all types of epidemiologic studies. Lumping all questions about causality creates ambiguity about the utility of different conceptual models and causal frameworks; 2 distinct types of causal questions include 1) hypothesis generation and theorization about causal structures and 2) hypothesis-driven causal effect estimation. The potential outcomes framework and causal graph theory help efficiently and reliably guide epidemiologic studies designed to estimate a causal effect to best leverage prior data, avoid cognitive fallacies, minimize biases, and understand heterogeneity in treatment effects. Appropriate matching of theoretical frameworks to research questions can increase the rigor of epidemiologic research and increase the utility of such research to improve public health.
Leitmotif: protein motif scanning 2.0
Authors: Biđin Siniša , Vujaklija Ivan , Paradžik Tina , Bielen Ana , Vujaklija Dušica
Published: March 2020

Motivation

Motif-HMM (mHMM) scanning has been shown to possess unique advantages over standardly used sequence-profile search methods (e.g. HMMER, PSI-BLAST) since it is particularly well-suited to discriminate proteins with variations inside conserved motifs (e.g. family subtypes) or motifs lacking essential residues (false positives, e.g. pseudoenzymes).

Results

In order to make mHMM widely accessible to a broader scientific community, we developed Leitmotif, an mHMM web application with many parametrization options easily accessible through intuitive interface. Substantial improvement of performance (ROC scores) was obtained by using two novel parameters. To the best of our knowledge, Leitmotif is the only available mHMM application.

Availability and implementation

Leitmotif is freely available at https://leitmotif.irb.hr.

Contact

sinisa@heuristika.hr or ivan.vujaklija@fer.hr

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
SphereCon—a method for precise estimation of residue relative solvent accessible area from limited structural information
Authors: Gress Alexander , Kalinina Olga V
Published: March 2020

Motivation

In proteins, solvent accessibility of individual residues is a factor contributing to their importance for protein function and stability. Hence one might wish to calculate solvent accessibility in order to predict the impact of mutations, their pathogenicity and for other biomedical applications. A direct computation of solvent accessibility is only possible if all atoms of a protein three-dimensional structure are reliably resolved.

Results

We present SphereCon, a new precise measure that can estimate residue relative solvent accessibility (RSA) from limited data. The measure is based on calculating the volume of intersection of a sphere with a cone cut out in the direction opposite of the residue with surrounding atoms. We propose a method for estimating the position and volume of residue atoms in cases when they are not known from the structure, or when the structural data are unreliable or missing. We show that in cases of reliable input structures, SphereCon correlates almost perfectly with the directly computed RSA, and outperforms other previously suggested indirect methods. Moreover, SphereCon is the only measure that yields accurate results when the identities of amino acids are unknown. A significant novel feature of SphereCon is that it can estimate RSA from inter-residue distance and contact matrices, without any information about the actual atom coordinates.

Availability and implementation

https://github.com/kalininalab/spherecon.

Contact

alexander.gress@helmholtz-hips.de

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
CPS analysis: self-contained validation of biomedical data clustering
Authors: Zhang Lixiang , Lin Lin , Li Jia
Published: March 2020

Motivation

Cluster analysis is widely used to identify interesting subgroups in biomedical data. Since true class labels are unknown in the unsupervised setting, it is challenging to validate any cluster obtained computationally, an important problem barely addressed by the research community.

Results

We have developed a toolkit called covering point set (CPS) analysis to quantify uncertainty at the levels of individual clusters and overall partitions. Functions have been developed to effectively visualize the inherent variation in any cluster for data of high dimension, and provide more comprehensive view on potentially interesting subgroups in the data. Applying to three usage scenarios for biomedical data, we demonstrate that CPS analysis is more effective for evaluating uncertainty of clusters comparing to state-of-the-art measurements. We also showcase how to use CPS analysis to select data generation technologies or visualization methods.

Availability and implementation

The method is implemented in an R package called OTclust, available on CRAN.

Contact

lzz46@psu.edu or jiali@psu.edu

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
grabseqs: simple downloading of reads and metadata from multiple next-generation sequencing data repositories
Authors: Taylor Louis J , Abbas Arwa , Bushman Frederic D
Published: March 2020

High-throughput sequencing is a powerful technique for addressing biological questions. Grabseqs streamlines access to publicly available metagenomic data by providing a single, easy-to-use interface to download data and metadata from multiple repositories, including the Sequence Read Archive, the Metagenomics Rapid Annotation through Subsystems Technology server and iMicrobe. Users can download data and metadata in a standardized format from any number of samples or projects from a given repository with a single grabseqs command.

Availability and implementation

Grabseqs is an open-source tool implemented in Python and licensed under the MIT license. The source code is freely available at https://github.com/louiejtaylor/grabseqs, the Python Package Index and Anaconda Cloud repository.

Contact

bushman@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
A Metacommunity Approach to Improve Biological Assessments in Highly Dynamic Freshwater Ecosystems
Authors: Cid Núria , Bonada Núria , Heino Jani , Cañedo-Argüelles Miguel , Crabot Julie , Sarremejane Romain , Soininen Janne , Stubbington Rachel , Datry Thibault
Published: March 2020

Rapid shifts in biotic communities due to environmental variability challenge the detection of anthropogenic impacts by current biomonitoring programs. Metacommunity ecology has the potential to inform such programs, because it combines dispersal processes with niche-based approaches and recognizes variability in community composition. Using intermittent rivers—prevalent and highly dynamic ecosystems that sometimes dry—we develop a conceptual model to illustrate how dispersal limitation and flow intermittence influence the performance of biological indices. We produce a methodological framework integrating physical- and organismal-based dispersal measurements into predictive modeling, to inform development of dynamic ecological quality assessments. Such metacommunity-based approaches could be extended to other ecosystems and are required to underpin our capacity to monitor and protect ecosystems threatened under future environmental changes.
To trust or distrust?: Unpacking ethnic minority immigrants’ trust in police
Authors: Pass Michael D , Madon Natasha S , Murphy Kristina , Sargeant Elise
Published: March 2020

Studies find that immigrants can be less trusting of police than non-immigrants, with immigrants’ views deteriorating as their length of residence in a host country increases. However, existing research has failed to consider different dimensions of trust. This study applies different trust measures (single-item and multi-item measures) to examine whether trust in police varies by immigrant status and length of residence. Using survey data from 1,367 first- and second-generation ethnic minority immigrants in Australia, we find that the effect of immigrant status and length of residence on trust varies depending on how trust in police is measured. The theoretical and policy implications of these findings are discussed.
Cerebellar lesions at a young age predict poorer long-term functional recovery
Authors: Beuriat Pierre-Aurélien , Cristofori Irene , Richard Nathalie , Bardi Lara , Loriette Celia , Szathmari Alexandru , Di Rocco Federico , Leblond Pierre , Frappaz Didier , Faure-Conter Cécile , Claude Line , Mottolese Carmine , Desmurget Michel
Published: March 2020

Early studies on long-term functional recovery after motor and premotor lesions showed better outcomes in younger monkeys than in older monkeys. This finding led to the widespread belief that brain injuries cause less impairment in children than adults. However, this view has limitations and a large body of evidence now indicates that cerebral damages can be more harmful when inflicted at young age, during critical periods of neural development. To date, this issue has been mainly investigated in the context of focal and diffuse cortical lesions. Much less is known about the potential influence of early cerebellar damages. Several studies exist in survivor of posterior fossa tumours. However, in these studies, critical confounders were not always considered and contradictory conclusions were provided. We studied the impact or early cerebellar damage on long-term functional recovery in three groups of 15 posterior fossa survivors, comparable with respect to their tumour characteristics (type, size and location) but operated at different ages: young (≤7 years), middle (>7 and ≤13 years) and older (>13 years). Daily (health-related quality of life scale, performance status scale), motor (International Cooperative Ataxia Rating Scale, Pegboard Purdue Test) and cognitive (full-scale intelligence quotient) functioning were assessed. A general linear model controlling for age at surgery, radiotherapy, preservation of deep cerebellar nuclei, tumour volume and delay between surgery and assessment was used to investigate significant variations in outcome measures. Early age at surgery, lesion of deep cerebellar nuclei and postoperative radiotherapy had a significant, independent negative influence on long-term recovery. Tumour volume and delay between surgery and assessment had no statistically detectable impact. The negative influence of early age at surgery was significant in all domains: daily functioning (health-related quality of life scale, performance status scale), motor functioning (International Cooperative Ataxia Rating Scale, Pegboard Purdue Test) and cognitive functioning (full-scale intelligence quotient). These results support the existence of an early critical period of development during which the cerebellar ‘learning machine’ is of critical importance. Although the extent to which the early deficits here observed can be reversed needs now to be established, our data plead for the implementation of prompt and intense rehabilitation interventions in children operated before 7 years of age.
Bcl2-induced DNA replication stress promotes lung carcinogenesis in response to space radiation
Authors: Xie Maohua , Park Dongkyoo , Sica Gabriel L , Deng Xingming
Published: March 2020

Space radiation is characterized by high-linear energy transfer (LET) ionizing radiation. The relationships between the early biological effects of space radiation and the probability of cancer in humans are poorly understood. Bcl2 not only functions as a potent antiapoptotic molecule but also as an oncogenic protein that induces DNA replication stress. To test the role and mechanism of Bcl2 in high-LET space radiation-induced lung carcinogenesis, we created lung-targeting Bcl2 transgenic C57BL/6 mice using the CC10 promoter to drive Bcl2 expression selectively in lung tissues. Intriguingly, lung-targeting transgenic Bcl2 inhibits ribonucleotide reductase activity, reduces dNTP pool size and retards DNA replication fork progression in mouse bronchial epithelial cells. After exposure of mice to space radiation derived from 56iron, 28silicon or protons, the incidence of lung cancer was significantly higher in lung-targeting Bcl2 transgenic mice than in wild-type mice, indicating that Bcl2-induced DNA replication stress promotes lung carcinogenesis in response to space radiation. The findings provide some evidence for the relative effectiveness of space radiation and Bcl-2 at inducing lung cancer in mice.
A Digital Postracial Parity? Black Women’s Everyday Resistance and Rethinking Online Media Culture
Authors: Maragh-Lloyd Raven
Published: March 2020

This article examines and critiques digital media culture and its embedded postracial logics through the resistance strategies of Black women online. Specifically, I am interested in everyday resistance strategies as “seemingly innocuous” communication, which is understood from theorizations of “hidden transcripts” that black publics utilize to counteract dominance. In order to explore “everyday resistance” I employed focus groups with 20 Black women and present patterns of resistance strategies online, such as visual signifiers and posting news articles. Secondly, I interrogate how these resistance strategies “talk back” to and circumvent the underpinnings of digital media culture through the postracial logics of individuality and networked influence. Ultimately, Black women’s interconnected identities reveal the flaws of digital culture as postracial by demonstrating their resistance strategies that must work around any assumption of a “postracial parity.”
Passive acoustic monitoring effectively detects Northern Spotted Owls and Barred Owls over a range of forest conditions
Authors: Duchac Leila S , Lesmeister Damon B , Dugger Katie M , Ruff Zachary J , Davis Raymond J
Published: March 2020

Passive acoustic monitoring using autonomous recording units (ARUs) is a fast-growing area of wildlife research especially for rare, cryptic species that vocalize. Northern Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) populations have been monitored since the mid-1980s using mark–recapture methods. To evaluate an alternative survey method, we used ARUs to detect calls of Northern Spotted Owls and Barred Owls (S. varia), a congener that has expanded its range into the Pacific Northwest and threatens Northern Spotted Owl persistence. We set ARUs at 30 500-ha hexagons (150 ARU stations) with recent Northern Spotted Owl activity and high Barred Owl density within Northern Spotted Owl demographic study areas in Oregon and Washington, and set ARUs to record continuously each night from March to July, 2017. We reviewed spectrograms (visual representations of sound) and tagged target vocalizations to extract calls from ~160,000 hr of recordings. Even in a study area with low occupancy rates on historical territories (Washington’s Olympic Peninsula), the probability of detecting a Northern Spotted Owl when it was present in a hexagon exceeded 0.95 after 3 weeks of recording. Environmental noise, mainly from rain, wind, and streams, decreased detection probabilities for both species over all study areas. Using demographic information about known Northern Spotted Owls, we found that weekly detection probabilities of Northern Spotted Owls were higher when ARUs were closer to known nests and activity centers and when owls were paired, suggesting passive acoustic data alone could help locate Northern Spotted Owl pairs on the landscape. These results demonstrate that ARUs can effectively detect Northern Spotted Owls when they are present, even in a landscape with high Barred Owl density, thereby facilitating the use of passive, occupancy-based study designs to monitor Northern Spotted Owl populations.
Zinc concentrations in teeth of female walruses reflect the onset of reproductive maturity
Authors: Clark Casey T , Horstmann Lara , Misarti Nicole
Published: March 2020

Age at maturity is an important parameter in many demographic models and, for some species, can be difficult to obtain using traditional methods. Incremental growth structures act as biological archives, recording information throughout an organism’s life and possibly allowing for the reconstruction of life history events. Concentrations of zinc (Zn) in animal tissues are known to be linked to life history, physiology and reproduction and may be retained in incremental growth structures. This study reconstructed lifetime Zn concentrations in teeth (n = 93) of female Pacific walruses (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) collected from 1932–2016. Zn displayed a characteristic pattern of accumulation, with a change point marking the beginning of a lifelong, linear increase in Zn concentrations. We hypothesized that this change point marks the onset of reproductive maturity. The age at which the change point occurred (agecp) was estimated by counting tooth cementum growth layers. These estimates closely matched literature values of timing of first ovulation in female walruses. Total number of ovulations (estimated from ovary corpora counts from paired tooth/ovary specimens) was closely related to reproductive lifespan (total lifespan – agecp; R2 = 0.70). Further, agecp tracked changes in Pacific walrus population size as a proportion of carrying capacity, decreasing when the population was depleted by commercial hunting and peaking when carrying capacity was exceeded. This novel approach will aid walrus management, and is likely applicable to other species, offering a potentially powerful tool for research, management and conservation of wildlife populations.
Update now or later? Effects of experience, cost, and risk preference on update decisions
Authors: Rajivan Prashanth , Aharonov-Majar Efrat , Gonzalez Cleotilde
Published: March 2020

Installing software updates is one of the most important security actions that people can take to protect their computer systems. However, people often delay installing updates. Why would people delay installation of security updates, knowing that these updates may reduce the risk of information loss from attacks? In a laboratory experiment, we studied how people learn to make update decisions from past experiences. In a simulated “work” environment, participants could defend against low probability and high impact losses, by installing a security update. The cost of updates was variable; participants could update immediately for a high cost or wait to update for free, risking increased exposure to attacks and losses. Thus, the optimal decision was to update immediately when the update was made available. The results from our experiment indicate people learn from experience to delay security updates. The cost of the update and individual risk preference both significantly predicted the tendency to delay the update; people with higher willingness to take risks may be more likely to neglect to update, keeping the status quo even when it may be sub-optimal. We discuss the implications of these findings for the design of interventions to reduce delays in update installations.
Host-directed therapies targeting the tuberculosis granuloma stroma
Authors: Hortle Elinor , Oehlers Stefan H
Published: March 2020

Mycobacteria have co-evolved with their hosts resulting in pathogens adept at intracellular survival. Pathogenic mycobacteria actively manipulate infected macrophages to drive granuloma formation while subverting host cell processes to create a permissive niche. Granuloma residency confers phenotypic antimicrobial resistance by physically excluding or neutralising antibiotics. Host-directed therapies (HDTs) combat infection by restoring protective immunity and reducing immunopathology independent of pathogen antimicrobial resistance status. This review covers innovative research that has discovered ‘secondary’ symptoms of infection in the granuloma stroma are actually primary drivers of infection and that relieving these stromal pathologies with HDTs benefits the host. Advances in our understanding of the relationship between tuberculosis and the host vasculature, haemostatic system and extracellular matrix reorganisation are discussed. Preclinical and clinical use of HDTs against these stromal targets are summarised.
Swedish Feminist Foreign Policy and “Gender Cosmopolitanism”
Authors: Bergman Rosamond Annika
Published: March 2020

Gender justice and equality have risen to prominence in the constitution of foreign and security policy. This article locates the analysis of feminist foreign policy (FFP) within the wider context of Sweden's state feminist tradition as well as its pursuit of “gender cosmopolitanism” in global politics. Both “gender cosmopolitanism” and Sweden's state feminist tradition provided fertile ground for the formal adoption of FFP in 2014. The article employs poststructural discursive techniques that enable the identification of the statist feminist and cosmopolitan foundations of feminist foreign policy. More specifically, the article provides a discursive analysis of the ethical and feminist ambitions, normative contents, and pitfalls of FFP. Though FFP is grounded in other-regarding cosmopolitan care for vulnerable women and girls beyond borders, it exhibits a range of pitfalls and inconsistencies, such as equating gender with women and, at times, privileging results-oriented strategies over thoroughgoing gender analysis of structural injustices such as gendered violence. The article ends with a discussion of Sweden's attempts to translate the feminist and cosmopolitan contents of FFP commitments into policy practice, with a focus on the eradication of gender-based violence.
The Paradox of Dementia and Driving Cessation: “It’s a Hot Topic,” “Always on the Back Burner”
Authors: Stasiulis Elaine , Rapoport Mark J , Sivajohan Brintha , Naglie Gary
Published: March 2020

Background and Objectives

Despite the well-recognized difficulty that persons with dementia and family carers experience in the decision making and transition to nondriving, there are few interventions and resources to support them. As part of our ongoing research to develop a driving cessation toolkit that addresses this gap, we sought to examine the context-specific factors relevant to its effective implementation in settings that support older adults with dementia.

Research Design and Methods

A qualitative descriptive approach was used to explore the perspectives of Alzheimer Society (AS) staff in their work of supporting people with dementia and family carers within the context of driving cessation. Individual in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 AS staff members in 4 Canadian provinces. Data were examined using interpretative thematic analysis.

Results

The study results revealed an overarching paradox that despite the importance of driving cessation in people with dementia, it continues to be largely avoided at the individual and system levels. This is explored via the themes of (a) paradox of importance and avoidance identified in AS settings; (b) lack of awareness and understanding about dementia and driving among people with dementia and family carers; (c) distress and avoidance rooted in ongoing system issues; and (d) moving driving cessation to the “front burner.”

Discussion and Implications

Viewed through the emerging social health paradigm, which focuses on the social and emotional consequences of dementia, our results highlight the urgent need to mobilize our communities, medical education systems, and transportation authorities to finally resolve the dementia and driving cessation paradox.
Chromosome-level genome assembly and annotation of the loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) genome
Authors: Jiang Shuang , An Haishan , Xu Fangjie , Zhang Xueying
Published: March 2020

Background

The loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae that is widely cultivated in Asian, European, and African countries. It blossoms in the winter and ripens in the early summer. The genome of loquat has to date not been published, which limits the study of molecular biology in this cultivated species. Here, we used the third-generation sequencing technology of Nanopore and Hi-C technology to sequence the genome of Eriobotrya.

Findings

We generated 100.10 Gb of long reads using Oxford Nanopore sequencing technologies. Three types of Illumina high-throughput sequencing data, including genome short reads (47.42 Gb), transcriptome short reads (11.06 Gb), and Hi-C short reads (67.25 Gb), were also generated to help construct the loquat genome. All data were assembled into a 760.1-Mb genome assembly. The contigs were mapped to chromosomes by using Hi-C technology based on the contacts between contigs, and then a genome was assembled exhibiting 17 chromosomes and a scaffold N50 length of 39.7 Mb. A total of 45,743 protein-coding genes were annotated in the Eriobotrya genome, and we investigated the phylogenetic relationships between the Eriobotrya and 6 other Rosaceae species. Eriobotrya shows a close relationship with Malus and Pyrus, with the divergence time of Eriobotrya and Malus being 6.76 million years ago. Furthermore, chromosome rearrangement was found in Eriobotrya and Malus.

Conclusions

We constructed the first high-quality chromosome-level Eriobotrya genome using Illumina, Nanopore, and Hi-C technologies. This work provides a valuable reference genome for molecular studies of the loquat and provides new insight into chromosome evolution in this species.