bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Emotion Word Use by Adolescents Who Stutter: An Exploratory Study
Authors: G. Richels Corrin , Jessica Rogge
Published: May 2013

Purpose: Deficits in the ability to use emotion vocabulary may result in difficulties for adolescents who stutter (AWS) and may contribute to disfluencies and stuttering. In this project, we aimed to describe the emotion words used during conversational speech by AWS.

Methods: Participants were 26 AWS between the ages of 12 years, 5 months and 15 years, 11 months-old (n=4 females, n=22 males). We drew personal narrative samples from the UCLASS database. We used Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software to analyze data samples for numbers of emotion words.

Results: Results indicated that the AWS produced significantly higher numbers of emotion words with a positive valence. AWS tended to use the same few positive emotion words to the near exclusion of words with negative emotion valence.

Conclusion: A lack of diversity in emotion vocabulary may make it difficult for AWS to engage in meaningful discourse about negative aspects of being a person who stutters
Accent Policy and Accent Modification Enterprises as Potential Indicators of Intercultural Power Relations: A Call for an Updated Research Agenda
Authors: Ovalle Brynne D. , Chakraborty Rahul
Published: May 2013

This article has two purposes: (a) to examine the relationship between intercultural power relations and the widespread practice of accent discrimination and (b) to underscore the ramifications of accent discrimination both for the individual and for global society as a whole. First, authors review social theory regarding language and group identity construction, and then go on to integrate more current studies linking accent bias to sociocultural variables. Authors discuss three examples of intercultural accent discrimination in order to illustrate how this link manifests itself in the broader context of international relations (i.e., how accent discrimination is generated in situations of unequal power) and, using a review of current research, assess the consequences of accent discrimination for the individual. Finally, the article highlights the impact that linguistic discrimination is having on linguistic diversity globally, partially using data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and partially by offering a potential context for interpreting the emergence of practices that seek to reduce or modify speaker accents.
Volunteering in a Short-Term English Immersion Program for Spanish-Speaking Adults
Authors: Berkowitz Shari Salzhauer
Published: May 2013

This article describes English immersion programs in Spain, where native English speakers volunteer as conversation partners and informal tutors for native Spanish speakers. These Spaniards are at an intermediate skill level in English and wish to improve their oral/aural communication. The most well-known immersion programs, VaughanTown and Pueblo Ingles, are approximately 1 week in duration and take place at resorts in Spain, where only English is spoken for the duration of the program. These programs are run by for-profit companies, which do not release any data on the Spanish participants' immediate or long-term progress as a result of the immersion. It is, therefore, difficult to know if the short-term immersion programs produce long-lasting changes in participants' language and speech perception or production. However, the cultural exchange that takes place among the various cultural groups is extremely rich, and many international friendships are formed on these programs. Anecdotal information shows that Spaniards and English-speaking volunteers report great satisfaction with the programs, and many attend more than once. The author offers suggestions regarding volunteering on these immersion programs and for replicating the programs with the addition of collecting objective evidence.
ICA International Mosaic on Cluttering: Historic Origins, Research, Assessment, and Treatment
Authors: Reichel Isabella K. , Scott Kathleen Scaler , van Zaalen Yvonne , St. Louis Kenneth O. , Van Borsel John , Leahy Margaret , Ward David , Sønsterud Hilda , Adams Charley , Ademola-Sokoya Grace A. A.
Published: May 2013

This article presents the highlights of an International Cluttering Association (ICA) international initiative featuring ten experts in fluency disorders from various countries, describing the historical and current state of awareness, research, diagnosis, and treatment of cluttering across countries and continents. In addition, authors discuss the challenges facing people with cluttering and ways of overcoming them in developed and developing countries.
Activity Engagement in Cognitive Aging: A Review of the Evidence
Authors: Rogalski Yvonne , Quintana Muriel
Published: May 2013

The population of older adults is rapidly increasing, as is the number and type of products and interventions proposed to prevent or reduce the risk of age-related cognitive decline. Advocacy and prevention are part of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s (ASHA’s) scope of practice documents, and speech-language pathologists must have basic awareness of the evidence contributing to healthy cognitive aging. In this article, we provide a brief overview outlining the evidence on activity engagement and its effects on cognition in older adults. We explore the current evidence around the activities of eating and drinking with a discussion on the potential benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, polyphenols, alcohol, and coffee. We investigate the evidence on the hypothesized neuroprotective effects of social activity, the evidence on computerized cognitive training, and the emerging behavioral and neuroimaging evidence on physical activity. We conclude that actively aging using a combination of several strategies may be our best line of defense against cognitive decline.
Dynamic fault locator for three‐terminal transmission lines for phasor measurement units
Authors: He Zhengyou Y. , Li Xiaopeng P. , He Wen , Liu Yuping P. , Zhang Shu , Mai Ruikun K. , Qian Qingquan Q.
Published: May 2013

The study presents a fault locator for three‐terminal transmission lines under dynamic conditions such as power oscillation based on synchronised phasor measurement units. This approach based on conventional static fault locator can express the dynamic characteristics of supplied signals and consider them as time‐variant signals whose magnitude and frequency are changing against time. Therefore the authors can apply its ability of describing dynamic characteristics to three‐terminal transmission lines and get the dynamic parameters of transmission lines under the dynamic conditions. By using Newton iteration, the proposed dynamic fault locator can acquire the three‐terminal fault‐location indices to identify a fault section and estimate the distance to fault. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated by Power Systems Computer Aided Design/Electromagnetic Transients including DC (PSCAD/EMTDC)‐generated signals under various situations. An extensive set of simulation results show that the distinctive features of this method are that it performs with better accuracy than the conventional method for all types of faults at different fault locations and is practically immune to fault resistance.
Study on fog flashover performance and fog‐water conductivity correction coefficient for polluted insulators
Authors: Xingliang Jiang , Shihua Zhao , Yanbin Xie , Zhijin Zhang , Lichun Shu
Published: May 2013

The pollution flashover performance of insulators is generally tested by the steam fog method. However, environmental temperature in tests differs greatly, so the dispensability of test results is high. Moreover, the influence of fog‐water conductivity has not been taken into account. Compared with the steam fog method, the cold‐fog method simulating natural fog is more consistent with the actual operating conditions of transmission line insulators. This deals with the influence of salt deposit density (SDD) and fog‐water conductivity on pollution flashover performance. The influence of the two factors is determined by analysing the results of laboratory experiments where polluted insulators were tested by using the cold‐fog method. The results show that the 50% AC pollution flashover voltage (U50) decreases as SDD and fog‐water conductivity increase. The correction coefficient (K) indicating the influence of fog‐water conductivity on U50 can be expressed as an exponential function, where the factors are 0.0476, 0.0587 and 0.0567 for samples A, B and C, respectively.
Standard Operating Procedures for aluminium box, wire cage, and pitfall trapping, handling, and temporary housing of small wild rodents and marsupials
Authors: Petit Sophie , Waudby Helen P.
Published: May 2013

Many researchers and educators need to provide Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to their Animal Ethics Committee (AEC) for the purpose of trapping, handling, and temporarily housing small mammals. We devised general SOPs that are compatible with most existing ones for Australia and had these SOPs reviewed by a panel of Australian experts. The SOPs may be used as guidelines by researchers who need to provide such protocols to their organisation or AEC, or in teaching.
Cross-validation in cryo-EM–based structural modeling
Authors: Falkner Benjamin , Schröder Gunnar F.
Published: May 2013

Single-particle cryo-EM is a powerful approach to determine the structure of large macromolecules and assemblies thereof in many cases at subnanometer resolution. It has become popular to refine or flexibly fit atomic models into density maps derived from cryo-EM experiments. These density maps are typically significantly lower in resolution than electron density maps obtained from X-ray diffraction experiments, such that the number of parameters that need to be determined is much larger than the number of experimental observables. Overfitting and misinterpretation of the density, thus, become a serious problem. For diffraction data, a cross-validation approach was introduced almost 20 y ago; however, no such approach has been described yet for structure refinement against cryo-EM density maps, although the overfitting problem is, because of the lower resolution, significantly larger. We present a cross-validation approach for real-space refinement against cryo-EM density maps in analogy to cross-validation typically used in crystallography. Our approach is able to detect overfitting and allows for optimizing the choice of restraints used in the refinement. The approach is shown on three protein structures with simulated data and experimental data of the rotavirus double-layer particle. Because cross-validation requires splitting the dataset into at least two independent sets, we further present an approach to quantify correlations between the structure factor sets. This analysis is also helpful for other cross-validation applications, such as refinements against diffraction data or 3D reconstructions of cryo-EM density maps.
Experimental interrogation of the path dependence and stochasticity of protein evolution using phage-assisted continuous evolution
Authors: Dickinson Bryan C. , Leconte Aaron M. , Allen Benjamin , Esvelt Kevin M. , Liu David R.
Published: May 2013

To what extent are evolutionary outcomes determined by a population's recent environment, and to what extent do they depend on historical contingency and random chance? Here we apply a unique experimental system to investigate evolutionary reproducibility and path dependence at the protein level. We combined phage-assisted continuous evolution with high-throughput sequencing to analyze evolving protein populations as they adapted to divergent and then convergent selection pressures over hundreds of generations. Independent populations of T7 RNA polymerase genes were subjected to one of two selection histories (“pathways”) demanding recognition of distinct intermediate promoters followed by a common final promoter. We observed distinct classes of solutions with unequal phenotypic activity and evolutionary potential evolve from the two pathways, as well as from replicate populations exposed to identical selection conditions. Mutational analysis revealed specific epistatic interactions that explained the observed path dependence and irreproducibility. Our results reveal in molecular detail how protein adaptation to different environments, as well as stochasticity among populations evolved in the same environment, can both generate evolutionary outcomes that preclude subsequent convergence.
End-binding proteins sensitize microtubules to the action of microtubule-targeting agents
Authors: Mohan Renu , Katrukha Eugene A. , Doodhi Harinath , Smal Ihor , Meijering Erik , Kapitein Lukas C. , Steinmetz Michel O. , Akhmanova Anna
Published: May 2013

Microtubule-targeting agents (MTAs) are widely used for treatment of cancer and other diseases, and a detailed understanding of the mechanism of their action is important for the development of improved microtubule-directed therapies. Although there is a large body of data on the interactions of different MTAs with purified tubulin and microtubules, much less is known about how the effects of MTAs are modulated by microtubule-associated proteins. Among the regulatory factors with a potential to have a strong impact on MTA activity are the microtubule plus end-tracking proteins, which control multiple aspects of microtubule dynamic instability. Here, we reconstituted microtubule dynamics in vitro to investigate the influence of end-binding proteins (EBs), the core components of the microtubule plus end-tracking protein machinery, on the effects that MTAs exert on microtubule plus-end growth. We found that EBs promote microtubule catastrophe induction in the presence of all MTAs tested. Analysis of microtubule growth times supported the view that catastrophes are microtubule age dependent. This analysis indicated that MTAs affect microtubule aging in multiple ways: destabilizing MTAs, such as colchicine and vinblastine, accelerate aging in an EB-dependent manner, whereas stabilizing MTAs, such as paclitaxel and peloruside A, induce not only catastrophes but also rescues and can reverse the aging process.
Mutant presenilin 1 expression in excitatory neurons impairs enrichment-mediated phenotypes of adult hippocampal progenitor cells
Authors: Veeraraghavalu Karthikeyan , Sisodia Sangram S.
Published: May 2013

Inheritance of mutant presenilin 1 genes (PSEN1) encoding presenilin 1 (PS1)variants causes autosomal dominant forms of familial Alzheimer’s disease (FAD). We previously reported that ubiquitous expression of FAD-linked PS1 variants in mice impairs environmental enrichment (EE)-induced proliferation and neuronal commitment of adult hippocampal neural progenitor cells (AHNPCs). Notably, the self-renewal and differentiation properties of cultured AHNPCs expressing either human PS1 wild-type or PS1 variants were identical, suggesting that accessory cells within the hippocampal niche expressing PS1 variants may modulate AHNPC phenotypes in vivo. We now report that nontransgenic mouse AHNPCs transduced with retroviruses harboring cDNAs that encode either human PS1 wild-type or FAD-linked PS1 variants show no differences in EE-mediated proliferation and neuronal differentiation. Moreover, conditional inactivation of a mutant PS1 transgene in type-1 primary progenitor cells failed to rescue impairments of EE-induced proliferation, survival, or neurogenesis. In contrast, conditional inactivation of the mutant PS1 transgene in excitatory neurons of the mouse forebrain largely rescued the deficits in EE-induced proliferation and survival of AHNPCs, but not their differentiation into mature neuronal phenotypes. These results persuasively argue for a noncell autonomous effect of FAD-linked PS1 mutants on EE-mediated adult hippocampal neurogenesis.
CD134 is a cellular receptor specific for human herpesvirus-6B entry
Authors: Tang Huamin , Serada Satoshi , Kawabata Akiko , Ota Megumi , Hayashi Emi , Naka Tetsuji , Yamanishi Koichi , Mori Yasuko
Published: May 2013

Human herpesvirus-6B (HHV-6B) is a T lymphotropic β-herpesvirus that is clearly distinct from human herpesvirus-6A (HHV-6A) according to molecular biological features. The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses recently classified HHV-6B as a separate species. The primary HHV-6B infection causes exanthem subitum and is sometimes associated with severe encephalopathy. More than 90% of the general population is infected with HHV-6B during childhood, and the virus remains throughout life as a latent infection. HHV-6B reactivation causes encephalitis in immunosuppressed patients. The cellular receptor for HHV-6A entry was identified as human CD46, but the receptor for HHV-6B has not been clear. Here we found that CD134, a member of the TNF receptor superfamily, functions as a specific entry receptor for HHV-6B. A T-cell line that is normally nonpermissive for HHV-6B infection became highly susceptible to infection when CD134 was overexpressed. CD134 was down-regulated in HHV-6B–infected T cells. Soluble CD134 interacted with the HHV-6B glycoprotein complex that serves as a viral ligand for cellular receptor, which inhibited HHV-6B but not HHV-6A infection in target cells. The identification of CD134 as an HHV-6B specific entry receptor provides important insight into understanding HHV-6B entry and its pathogenesis.
Openings of Chinese telephone service encounters
Authors: Sun Hao
Published: May 2013

Focusing on openings of telephone service encounters, this study utilizes two sets of comparable discourse data in Chinese collected in the same linguistic community more than a decade apart to explore discoursal style changes over time. The comparative analysis examines forms, tasks and discursive interaction of the opening phase oftelephone service encounters in Shanghai, China.Differences in opening routines over time are observed, which include the adoption of institutionalized, more elaborative expressions as well as increased range of interactional tasks performed (including greeting and business self-identification) in more recent data. The findings indicate that a shift may have taken place in business discursive practices in China; it is also suggested that the style of answering telephone calls by businesses or services, or first turn of Chinese telephone service encounters, may have been in the process of being reshaped, gaining certain distinctive institutional markers, thus making such interactions somewhat distinguishable from the pick-up style for non-institutional telephone interactions at home.
Assessing the use of sophisticated EFL writing
Authors: de Haan Pieter , van der Haagen Monique
Published: May 2013

Even very advanced EFL writing tends to be less sophisticated than native writing. One of the problems seems to be finding the right collocations and the correct register. The aim of this article is to pinpoint what characterizes the development in very advanced Dutch EFL students’ written language production. We discuss the development of students’ ability to use appropriate intensifiers. Compared to their native English speaking contemporaries, the Dutch students initially tend to use intensifiers that are found typically in spoken English, such as really and a bit, but they gradually replace them by modifiers more suitable to academic writing. It is argued that the use of appropriate intensifiers can be seen to be a measure of advancedness and hence be used as a criterion in the assessment of advanced EFL writing quality.
Defining proficiency
Authors: Present-Thomas Rebecca L. , Weltens Bert , de Jong John H.A.L.
Published: May 2013

In this study, various proficiency classification methods are explored in order to describe the relevant levels on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEF) that are represented by a group of 127 incoming English students at a Dutch university with respect to academic writing. The weakness of the widely-used group-based institutional status approach is demonstrated with two distinct student-centered approaches, self-assessment and test scores, both of which highlight the within-groups variation that is hidden in group-based approaches. Between-texts variation is further explored through the comparison of self-assessment and text-centered approaches to classification such as test item (response) scores, and widely used measures of lexical variation and syntactic complexity. Findings demonstrate the potential variation in the understanding of academic writing development depending on the the methods of proficiency classification used.
EMBEDding the CEFR in academic writing assessment
Authors: Haines Kevin , Schmidt Nicole , Jansma Petra , Lowie Wander
Published: May 2013

The CEFR is increasingly being used as the framework of choice for the assessment of language proficiency at universities across Europe. However, to attain consistent assessment, familiarization and standardization are essential. In this paper we report a case study of embedding a standardization procedure in writing assessment activities at the University of Groningen. The project shows the value of standardization procedures within the CEFR and reports on the difficulty of finding consistently assessed ‘flat’ samples. Moreover, it reports on the desirability to scaffold teacher training sessions using flat samples with less ‘even’ samples.
Professionalism and ethics in community interpreting
Authors: Rudvin Mette
Published: May 2013

This paper focuses on the relationship between professionalism and cultural constructions of selfhood, in particular the differences
between group-based and individual-based identity-building processes. The underlying assumption is that the interpreter’s cultural
parameters affect his/her view of professional role and professionalism. This assumption raises the question of whether or not s/he is also
guided (consciously or unconsciously) by the host country’s understanding of ethics and professionalism and whether these two potentially
opposing values tend to converge over time. The paper argues that because community interpreting as a profession is still very heterogenous,
the interpreter’s role is often defined by how the institution uses him/her and what its needs are. Consequently, establishing a universal
or near-universal code of professional ethics becomes highly problematic; it also impacts on crucial issues such as impartiality. The paper
argues that the complex nature of professionalism and of cross-cultural differences in attitude towards professional role and social
identity will have to be addressed by the professional community to improve quality and working conditions for clients, users and
interpreters.
The hand-on gesture in gorillas (Gorilla gorilla)
Authors: Luef Eva Maria , Liebal Katja
Published: May 2013

The gestural repertoire of captive gorillas contains the so-called “hand-on” (or “pat-off”) gesture in which one animals puts its flat hand on top of another’s head, which often leads to cessation of the receiver’s previous activity. We investigate the origins of this gesture and developmental aspects of gesture creation. We further analyze gesture form and use in relation to the age of the sender with special consideration of the reaction of the receiver to better explain the function of the hand-on. The focus of the study is to compare this gesture across different age groups in gorillas in regard to both production and reception and to get insights into possible origins of the gesture.
Three-year-olds understand communicative intentions without language, gestures, or gaze
Authors: Moore Richard , Liebal Kristin , Tomasello Michael
Published: May 2013

The communicative interactions of very young children almost always involve language (based on conventions), gesture (based on bodily deixis or iconicity) and directed gaze. In this study, ninety-six children (3;0 years) were asked to determine the location of a hidden toy by understanding a communicative act that contained none of these familiar means. A light-and-sound mechanism placed behind the hiding place and illuminated by a centrally placed switch was used to indicate the location of the toy. After a communicative training session, an experimenter pressed the switch either deliberately or accidentally, and with or without ostension (in the form of eye contact and child-directed speech). In no condition did she orient towards the hiding place. When the switch was pressed intentionally, children used the light-and-sound cue to find the toy – and tended to do so even in the absence of ostensive eye contact. When the experimenter pressed the switch accidentally, children searched randomly – demonstrating that they were tracking her communicative intent, and not merely choosing on the basis of salience. The absence of an effect of ostension contradicts research that ostension helps children to interpret the communicative intentions underlying unfamiliar signs. We explain this by concluding that while it may play a role in establishing a communicative interaction, it is not necessary for sustaining one; and that even with a highly novel communicative act – involving none of the means of communication on which children typically rely – three-year-olds can comprehend the communicative intentions behind an intentionally produced act.
Strategic maneuvering in argumentative discourse in political deliberation
Authors: van Eemeren Frans H.
Published: May 2013

In this essay, first the pragma-dialectical theory of strategic maneuvering is explained. Then the focus is on the conventionalization of communicative practices in communicative activity types and the institutional constraints it imposes on strategic maneuvering. Thus, an adequate background is created for discussing, on the basis of several recent projects, pragma-dialectical research of argumentative discourse in the political domain.
Strategic maneuvering in European Parliamentary Debate
Authors: Garssen Bart
Published: May 2013

This paper focuses on argumentation the institutional context of debate in the European Parliament. A parliamentary debate is a distinct argumentative activity type. In the pragma-dialectical approach, argumentative activity types are defined as conventionalized argumentative practices in which the possibilities for strategic maneuvering are predetermined. What are the characteristics of the activity type of a debate in European Parliament that predetermine the possibilities for strategic maneuvering?
The place of counter discourse in two methods of public deliberation
Authors: Doury Marianne , Tseronis Assimakis
Published: May 2013

In this paper, we examine two methods of public participation, namely consensus conference (conférence de citoyens) and public hearing (débat public). While both methods are used in order to involve the public in decision making about science and technology policy, they differ in a number of aspects. Consensus conference seeks the active participation of a selected group of citizens who are expected to elaborate cooperatively a text of recommendations. Public hearing seeks to inform the public and to collect as many reactions by it as possible. In our analysis, we consider the characteristics of these two methods described in the social and political sciences literature as institutional constraints that can play a role in the production of argumentative discourse. We focus our study on the discourse produced in two concrete instances of the application of these participatory methods on the deliberation over the development of nanotechnology in France. More specifically, we study the expression of counter discourse and seek to describe how the participants in the two deliberation processes end up managing the institutional constraints in order to have their criticisms expressed. In this way, we propose a bottom-up approach to the theorization of the role that institutional context plays in the practice of argumentation, and discuss the descriptive adequacy of existing definitions of the deliberative genre within argumentation studies.
Debating multiple positions in multi-party online deliberation
Authors: Lewiński Marcin
Published: May 2013

Dialectical approaches traditionally conceptualize argumentation as a discussion in which two parties debate on “two sides of an issue” (pro and con). However, many political issues engender multiple positions. This is clear in multi-party online deliberations in which often an array of competing positions is debated in one and the same discussion. A proponent of a given position thus addresses a number of possible opponents, who in turn may hold incompatible opinions. The goal of this paper is to shed extra light on such “polylogical” clash of opinions in online deliberation, by examining the multi-layered participation in actual online debates. The examples are drawn from the readers’ discussions on Osama bin Laden’s killing in online versions of two British newspapers: The Guardian and The Telegraph. As a result of the analysis, a distinction between sides, positions, and cases in argumentative deliberation is proposed.
Rebranding the Scottish Executive
Authors: Unger Johann Wolfgang
Published: May 2013

This article examines the change in name of the devolved governing body of Scotland from the Scottish Executive (1999–2007) to the Scottish Government (2007-present) following the majority result for the Scottish National Party in the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections. In the wider European political landscape this is unusual: while ministries, departments and even political parties change their names relatively frequently, the same cannot be said for top-level political institutions. This paper investigates this discursive act of “rebranding” from a discourse-historical perspective (see Reisigl & Wodak 2009). In addition to critical analysis of various texts about the act of rebranding itself (media reports, political speeches and parliamentary debates, policy documents), the historical, cultural and political contexts are examined in relation to the wider significance of this move for top-down Scottish national identity construction.
The visual construction of language hierarchy
Authors: Sebba Mark
Published: May 2013

This paper analyses the way in which the text displayed on bilingual and multilingual currency (banknotes and coins) and stamps constructs and reproduces linguistic hierarchies, reflecting the relative status of the languages within the issuing country. The paper briefly discusses the selection of languages which appear on stamps and money, which is nearly always in accordance with the dominant language ideologies. It then goes on to show how the choice of language and the relative positioning and size of texts in those languages constructs the languages involved as of equal or unequal status. Two case studies are considered: the construction of equality between English and Afrikaans in South Africa on stamps and banknotes of the period 1910 to 1994, reflecting the constitutional requirement that those languages be treated ‘on a footing of equality’; and the construction of linguistic inequality in the stamps of Palestine and Israel, where first English (under the British Mandate) was displayed as dominant over Arabic and Hebrew, and later Hebrew (in Israel) was shown to dominate over the other two. The paper argues for a dual analysis of text in public texts like stamps and banknotes: on the one hand text is language, and is subject to a (socio)linguistic analysis, while on the other, text has a physical form and dimensions which means that texts are interpreted in terms of their visual features and spatial relationships to other texts. The language hierarchies which are reproduced and transported by stamps and money are thus discursively constructed through a combination of text as language and text as image.
Square complexes and simplicial nonpositive curvature
Authors: Elsner Tomasz , Przytycki Piotr
Published: May 2013

We prove that each nonpositively curved square

V
H

\mathcal {VH}

-complex can be turned functorially into a locally

6
6

-large simplicial complex of the same homotopy type. It follows that any group acting properly and cocompactly on a CAT(0) square

V
H

\mathcal {VH}

-complex is systolic. In particular, the product of two finitely generated free groups is systolic, which answers a question of Daniel Wise. On the other hand, we exhibit an example of a non-

V
H

\mathcal {VH}

nonpositively curved square complex whose fundamental group is neither systolic nor even virtually systolic.
Gene Expression Profiling of a Compatible Interaction Between Douglas-Fir and the Root Rot Fungal Pathogen Phellinus sulphurascens
Authors: Islam M. A. , Sturrock Rona N. , Ekramoddoullah Abul K. M.
Published: May 2013

Douglas-fir (DF) (Pseudotsuga menziesii) is one of the largest and most economically important coniferous species in western North America. Its productivity is greatly affected by the root rot fungus Phellinus sulphurascens Pilát. Evidence of resistance by DF to fungal root pathogens such as P. sulphurascens has been reported but mechanisms of resistance in this compatible pathosystem are not yet known. To better understand the DF–P. sulphurascens interaction, especially at the molecular level, we selected 12 diverse plant genes already identified as defense-related from a cDNA library constructed using root tissues from P. sulphurascens-infected DF seedlings. Using quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction on infected DF root samples collected at five different time points after inoculation, we found that P. sulphurascens infection significantly elevated expression of the 12 selected genes. In most cases the highest expression level was recorded within 2 to 3 days after inoculation. The constructed cDNA library, which is enriched with defense-related host genes and a number of fungal genes, will continue to serve as a useful resource for future larger-scale gene discovery and functional research on the P. sulphurascens and DF pathosystem.
Unilateral Acid Aspiration Augments the Effects of Ventilator Lung Injury in the Contralateral Lung
Authors: Amigoni Maria , Bellani Giacomo , Zambelli Vanessa , Scanziani Margherita , Farina Francesca , Fagnani Lorella , Latini Roberto , Fumagalli Roberto , Pesenti Antonio
Published: May 2013

Background:

Mechanical ventilation is necessary during acute respiratory distress syndrome, but it promotes lung injury because of the excessive stretch applied to the aerated parenchyma. The authors’ hypothesis was that after a regional lung injury, the noxious effect of mechanical ventilation on the remaining aerated parenchyma would be more pronounced.

Methods:

Mice, instilled with hydrochloric acid (HCl) in the right lung, was assigned to one of the following groups: mechanical ventilation with tidal volumes (VT) 25 ml/kg (HCl-VILI25, n = 12), or VT 15 ml/kg (HCl-VILI15, n = 9), or spontaneous breathing (HCl-SB, n = 14). Healthy mice were ventilated with VT 25 ml/kg (VILI25, n = 11). Arterial oxygenation, lung compliance, bronchoalveolar lavage inflammatory cells, albumin, and cytokines concentration were measured.

Results:

After 7 h, oxygenation and lung compliance resulted lower in HCl-VILI25 than in VILI25 (P < 0.05, 210 ± 54 vs. 479 ± 83 mmHg, and 32 ± 3.5 vs. 45 ± 4.1 µl/cm H2O, mean ± SD, respectively). After right lung injury, the left lung of HCl-VILI25 group received a greater fraction of the VT than the VILI25 group, despite an identical global VT. The number of total and polymorphonuclear cells in bronchoalveolar lavage resulted significantly higher in HCl-VILI25, compared with the other groups, in not only the right lung, but also in the left lung. The albumin content in the left lung resulted higher in HCl-VILI25 than in VILI25 (224 ± 85 vs. 33 ± 6 µg/ml; P < 0.05). Cytokines levels did not differ between groups.

Conclusion:

Aggressive mechanical ventilation aggravates the preexisting lung injury, which is noxious for the contralateral, not previously injured lung, possibly because of a regional redistribution of VT.
Evolution of parental incubation behaviour in dinosaurs cannot be inferred from clutch mass in birds
Authors: Birchard Geoffrey F. , Ruta Marcello , Deeming D. Charles
Published: May 2013

A recent study proposed that incubation behaviour (i.e. type of parental care) in theropod dinosaurs can be inferred from an allometric analysis of clutch volume in extant birds. However, the study in question failed to account for factors known to affect egg and clutch size in living bird species. A new scaling analysis of avian clutch mass demonstrates that type of parental care cannot be distinguished by conventional allometry because of the confounding effects of phylogeny and hatchling maturity. Precociality of young but not paternal care in the theropod ancestors of birds is consistent with the available data.
Could brown bears (Ursus arctos) have survived in Ireland during the Last Glacial Maximum?
Authors: Leonard Saoirse A. , Risley Claire L. , Turvey Samuel T.
Published: May 2013

Brown bears are recorded from Ireland during both the Late Pleistocene and early–mid Holocene. Although most of the Irish landmass was covered by an ice sheet during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), Irish brown bears are known to have hybridized with polar bears during the Late Pleistocene, and it is suggested that the Irish brown bear population did not become extinct but instead persistedin situthrough the LGM in a southwestern ice-free refugium. We use historical population modelling to demonstrate that brown bears are highly unlikely to have survived through the LGM in Ireland under any combination of life-history parameters shown by living bear populations, but instead would have rapidly become extinct following advance of the British–Irish ice sheet, and probably recolonized Ireland during the end-Pleistocene Woodgrange Interstadial from a closely related nearby source population. The time available for brown bear–polar bear hybridization was therefore restricted to narrow periods at the beginning or end of the LGM. Brown bears would have been extremely vulnerable to extinction in Quaternary habitat refugia and required areas substantially larger than southwestern Ireland to survive adverse glacial conditions.
Directed evolution of bacteriorhodopsin for applications in bioelectronics
Authors: Wagner Nicole L. , Greco Jordan A. , Ranaghan Matthew J. , Birge Robert R.
Published: May 2013

In nature, biological systems gradually evolve through complex, algorithmic processes involving mutation and differential selection. Evolution has optimized biological macromolecules for a variety of functions to provide a comparative advantage. However, nature does not optimize molecules for use in human-made devices, as it would gain no survival advantage in such cooperation. Recent advancements in genetic engineering, most notably directed evolution, have allowed for the stepwise manipulation of the properties of living organisms, promoting the expansion of protein-based devices in nanotechnology. In this review, we highlight the use of directed evolution to optimize photoactive proteins, with an emphasis on bacteriorhodopsin (BR), for device applications. BR, a highly stable light-activated proton pump, has shown great promise in three-dimensional optical memories, real-time holographic processors and artificial retinas.
Genetic redundancy strengthens the circadian clock leading to a narrow entrainment range
Authors: Erzberger A. , Hampp G. , Granada A. E. , Albrecht U. , Herzel H.
Published: May 2013

Circadian clocks are internal timekeepers present in almost all organisms. Driven by a genetic network of highly conserved structure, they generate self-sustained oscillations that entrain to periodic external signals such as the 24 h light–dark cycle. Vertebrates possess multiple, functionally overlapping homologues of the core clock genes. Furthermore, vertebrate clocks entrain to a range of periods three times as narrow as that of other organisms. We asked whether genetic redundancies play a role in governing entrainment properties and analysed locomotor activity rhythms of genetically modified mice lacking one set of clock homologues. Exposing them to non-24 h light–dark cycles, we found that the mutant mice have a wider entrainment range than the wild types. Spectral analysis furthermore revealed nonlinear phenomena of periodically forced self-sustained oscillators for which the entrainment range relates inversely to oscillator amplitude. Using the forced oscillator model to explain the observed differences in entrainment range between mutant and wild-type mice, we sought to quantify the overall oscillator amplitude of their clocks from the activity rhythms and found that mutant mice have weaker circadian clocks than wild types. Our results suggest that genetic redundancy strengthens the circadian clock leading to a narrow entrainment range in vertebrates.
Asymptotic expansion of multiple oscillatory integrals with a hypersurface of stationary points of the phase
Authors: Benaissa A. , Roger C.
Published: May 2013

In this paper, we present a method solving the problem of the asymptotic expansion of the integral

, in the case when
D
is a bounded domain in

(
n
≥2), and the set
S
of stationary points of the phase
f
is a hypersurface. This problem was considered in the literature, in the two-dimensional case, where it is required that the Laplacian △
f
of the phase
f
does not vanish on
S
, and the curve
S
cuts transversely ∂
D
. It will be seen that the order of degeneracy of normal derivatives of
f
, with respect to the surface
S
, plays a key role in solving the problem. We shall develop complete asymptotic expansions when this order is constant along
S
, and show that the problem leads to the use of special functions in the other case.
Diurnal Changes of Polysome Loading Track Sucrose Content in the Rosette of Wild-Type Arabidopsis and the Starchless pgm Mutant
Authors: Pal Sunil Kumar , Liput Magdalena , Piques Maria , Ishihara Hirofumi , Obata Toshihiro , Martins Marina C.M. , Sulpice Ronan , van Dongen Joost T. , Fernie Alisdair R. , Yadav Umesh Prasad , Lunn John E. , Usadel Björn , Stitt Mark
Published: May 2013

Growth is driven by newly fixed carbon in the light, but at night it depends on reserves, like starch, that are laid down in the light. Unless plants coordinate their growth with diurnal changes in the carbon supply, they will experience acute carbon starvation during the night. Protein synthesis represents a major component of cellular growth. Polysome loading was investigated during the diurnal cycle, an extended night, and low CO2 in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) Columbia (Col-0) and in the starchless phosphoglucomutase (pgm) mutant. In Col-0, polysome loading was 60% to 70% in the light, 40% to 45% for much of the night, and less than 20% in an extended night, while in pgm, it fell to less than 25% early in the night. Quantification of ribosomal RNA species using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction revealed that polysome loading remained high for much of the night in the cytosol, was strongly light dependent in the plastid, and was always high in mitochondria. The rosette sucrose content correlated with overall and with cytosolic polysome loading. Ribosome abundance did not show significant diurnal changes. However, compared with Col-0, pgm had decreased and increased abundance of plastidic and mitochondrial ribosomes, respectively. Incorporation of label from 13CO2 into protein confirmed that protein synthesis continues at a diminished rate in the dark. Modeling revealed that a decrease in polysome loading at night is required to balance protein synthesis with the availability of carbon from starch breakdown. Costs are also reduced by using amino acids that accumulated in the previous light period. These results uncover a tight coordination of protein synthesis with the momentary supply of carbon.
Influence of moisture on corrosion behaviour of steel ground rods in mildly desertified soil
Authors: Fu Jing , Pei Feng , Zhu Zhiping , Tan Zhenghui , Tian Xu , Mao Rongjun , Wang Leijing
Published: May 2013

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of moisture on corrosion behaviour of steel ground rods in mildly desertified soil and the mechanism behind it.

Design/methodology/approach

The specimens were used for weight loss corrosion experiments and polarization scans were taken at different moisture levels. Specimen surfaces were characterized using a scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive spectrometer, and using X‐ray diffraction.

Findings

The results indicated that the moisture content of the soil influenced steel corrosion considerably. The maximum corrosion of 20G and Q235 galvanised steels occurred at 10 per cent and 12.5 per cent soil moisture, respectively. The corrosion products of 20G steel were mostly Fe2O3 and Fe3O4, whereas that of Q235 galvanised steel was Zn5(OH)8Cl2 · H2O.

Originality/value

The paper provides information regarding the relationship between moisture and corrosion of steel ground rods, which is useful for understanding the mechanism of soil corrosion. The research results can provide theoretical guidelines for preventing the corrosion of steel ground rods buried in mildly desertified soil.
Nutritional and medicinal aspects of coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.)
Authors: Nadeem Muhammad , Muhammad Anjum Faqir , Issa Khan Muhammad , Tehseen Saima , El‐Ghorab Ahmed , Iqbal Sultan Javed
Published: May 2013

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of multiple functions of the coriander plant, including its nutritional and nutraceutical benefits, with special reference to linalool.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors undertake a literature review of the coriander plant's history, chemical composition of coriander parts and its oil, and their nutraceutical potential. Various phytopharmacological appraisals have been discussed at length to investigate their important potential.

Findings

Coriander is an annual, herbaceous plant which originated from the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions and known as medicinal plants. Coriander contains an essential oil (0.03‐2.6%). The different parts of this plant contain monoterpenes, limpnene, α‐pinene, γ‐terpinene, p‐cymene, citronellol, borneol, camphor, coriandrin, geraniol, dihydrocoriandrin, coriandronsA‐E, flavonoids and essential oils. It is used as a stomachic, spasmolytic and carminative which have a greater bioactive property. Various parts of this plant, such as seeds, leaves, flower and fruit, possess antioxidant activity, diuretic, anti‐convulsant anti‐diabetic activity, sedative hypnotic activity, anti‐mutagenic, anti‐microbial activity, anthelmintic activity. The physical properties, chemical composition and bioactivity affect the coriander's commercial value.

Research limitations/implications

Currently available information on coriander seeds and leaves is insufficient. These observations have led to continuing research aimed at identifying specific bioactive components in foods, such as antioxidants, which may be responsible for improving and maintaining health. Antioxidants are present in foods as vitamins, minerals, carotenoids, and polyphenols. Coriander is also rich in such compounds. Research supports that some of these foods, as part of an overall healthful diet, have the potential to delay the onset of many age‐related diseases, so there is urgent need to explore the role of these compounds.

Originality/value

This review is unique in its comprehensive nature and reflects the importance of coriander as a medicinal food.