bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The use of GNSS technology to identify lambing behaviour in pregnant grazing Merino ewes
Authors: Dobos R. C. , Dickson S. , Bailey D. W. , Trotter M. G.
Published: December 2014

This current study investigated whether pre-lambing behavioural changes could be identified with the use of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) technology. GNSS devices were deployed on 20 pregnant Merino ewes grazing a 1.6 ha paddock and their lambing activity was compared with the metrics derived from the spatial data. The aims were to evaluate the lambing event using the following three separate metrics: (1) mean daily speed (MDS) of ewes 7 days before and to 7 days after lambing, inclusive (n = 12); (2) mean hourly speed (MHS) 12 h before and 12 h after lambing, inclusive (n = 9); and (3) the mean distance the lambing ewe to her peers in the 7 days before and the 7 days after lambing (mean distance to peers (MDP); n = 9), inclusive. There was a significant (P < 0.01) difference between pre- and post-lambing MDS with average ± se MDS pre-lambing being faster than post-lambing (0.051 ± 0.0004 vs 0.047 ± 0.0005 m/s). Pre- and post-lambing MHS differed significantly (P < 0.05), with mean ± s.e. MHS pre-lambing being faster than post-lambing (0.049 ± 0.002 vs 0.038 ± 0.002 m/s). Mean distance to peers indicated that at the time of lambing, ewes were significantly (P < 0.01) further from their peers than at either pre- or post-lambing (83.6 ± 14.59 vs 35.2 ± 2.82 vs 35.6 ± 1.68 m). Despite MDS and MHS metrics indicating significant changes pre- and post-lambing, neither metric was able to identify the time of lambing. The MDP metric could not identify differences pre- and post-lambing but was useful at predicting lambing. The current study found that MDS and MHS metrics have the potential to determine a ‘trigger’ point that could identify parturition and therefore could be used to determine the day of lambing. Therefore, further research is required to determine if a combination of these metrics could identify pre-lambing activity that would enable informed management decisions to be made.
Effects of cooked molasses licking block supplementation pre- and post-partum on feed intake, suckling lamb performance, milk yield and milk quality in dairy sheep. Part 1
Authors: Cabiddu A. , Trevisi E. , Molle G. , Lovotti G. , Manca C. , Epifani G. , Dattena M.
Published: December 2014

This study tested the nutritional benefit of a supplement offered freely to dairy sheep over a period from 60 days before lambing to 60 days after lambing, at stall and grazing. Thirty Sarda dairy sheep on Day 90 of gestation, homogeneous for age, parity number, bodyweight (BW) and body condition score (BCS), were allocated to one of two groups: control (Ctr) or treated (Cry). Over 120 days, both groups received ryegrass hay and concentrate indoors. After weaning, the ewes also had access to pasture for 6 h/day. Throughout the experimental period, the Cry group had ad libitum access to a cooked molasses licking block. No significant differences were observed between the groups in forage, concentrate and total DM intake. During the experiment, the reduction in BCS in early lactation tended to be slower in the Cry than in Ctr group (Ptrend < 0.09), whereas no significant effects were seen on BW. Lamb performance tended to be improved by Cry in terms of liveweight of litter size per sheep (9.65 vs 8.22 kg for Cry and Ctr, respectively; P < 0.07), whereas no significant effects were observed on milk yield and composition, except for a trend for increased fat content in the Cry versus Ctr group (6.15% vs 5.95%, respectively; P < 0.08). Cry ewes had higher blood cholesterol concentrations than did Ctr ewes (1.96 vs 1.63 mmol/L; P < 0.01). Because there were no differences between feed intake at stall and the estimated total DM intake at stall and during grazing between the two groups, the better performance of the Cry group could be explained by an increase of feed use efficiency at the digestive and/or metabolic level.
Antioxidant dynamics in the live animal and implications for ruminant health and product (meat/milk) quality: role of vitamin E and selenium
Authors: Chauhan Surinder S. , Celi Pietro , Ponnampalam Eric N. , Leury Brian J. , Liu Fan , Dunshea Frank R.
Published: December 2014

The global population is predicted to grow to over 9 billion by the middle of 21st century, with 70% of people living in urban areas, and food demand is projected to grow by 70% by 2050. Climate change presents a series of challenges for global animal agriculture. As a result of thermal challenges associated with climate variability, availability of quality pasture, animal behaviour, physiological and immunological functions are potentially impacted. Oxidative status plays an important role in the regulation and maintenance of several physiological and immunological functions of the body. Ruminants are exposed to several environmental and metabolic challenges that can trigger oxidative stress. In this scenario, it is possible for an increase in free radical production and a depletion of antioxidant reserves, resulting in damage to lipids, proteins and DNA. Since oxidative stress can affect animal health and the quality of their products (meat/milk), antioxidant supplementation of ruminant diets represents a useful tool to sustain redox homeostasis when the ruminants are exposed to oxidative stress. This paper will examine the roles that oxidative stress plays in some physiological functions, and it will discuss the implications of antioxidant supplementation on ruminant health and production. Physiological levels of dietary antioxidants underpin efficient energy utilisation, optimal antioxidant potential, and balanced mitochondrial function to enhance protein deposition without impacting animal health. The research conducted over the last decade has improved the understanding of physiological functions of antioxidants, with selenium and vitamin E receiving particular attention. There is evidence that the functions of selenium and vitamin E extend beyond the classical antioxidant properties to immunomodulation especially when administered at higher doses than recommended. Improving the oxidative status of ruminants will play an important role in delivering high-quality milk and meat products to consumers. Considering the growing awareness among consumers of the benefits of antioxidant-rich food, there is a great opportunity for the livestock industries to focus on producing antioxidant-enriched milk and meat products or functional foods. Therefore, the premise of this paper is to review the recent developments in understanding antioxidant dynamics in ruminants and their role in reducing the impact of environmental stress and metabolic diseases. In addition, the paper will explore the putative implications that antioxidant supplementation has on the quality animal products and how the improved understanding can be best utilised to achieve efficient and sustainable animal production systems to ensure quality animal products for human consumption.
The incidence of dark cutting in southern Australian beef production systems fluctuates between months
Authors: McGilchrist P. , Perovic J. L. , Gardner G. E. , Pethick D. W. , Jose C. G.
Published: December 2014

Dark cutting is detrimental to meat quality and therefore is the major cause of carcass downgrades under the Meat Standards Australia grading system. This study quantified the variation between months in the incidence of dark cutting, in southern Australia. Four years of Meat Standards Australia grading data, from nine individual beef processors in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania, was utilised for the analysis. The dataset contained 42 162 slaughter groups, of 10 or more grass-fed cattle, which allowed for the percentage of dark cutters per slaughter group to be analysed. The interaction between month, year and state was significant (P < 0.001). The lowest risk of dark cutting for South Australia and Western Australia was in October (1.53% ± 0.75 and 6.96% ± 0.76) and November in Tasmania and Victoria (7.34% ± 0.9 and 5.27% ± 0.81) potentially when feed availability and quality is highest. The incidence of dark cutting was highest for all states during the period from February to June. Lower pasture availability and quality in combination with higher levels of stress due to extreme high or low temperatures during this time could all contribute to the higher incidences. The findings of this study show that procurement and management decisions made by cattle buyers, producers and processors need to change throughout the year to help mitigate the incidence of dark cutting carcasses and reduce financial loss.
Carbon precursors of methane synthesis in the rumen of sheep dosed with ionophores
Authors: Loughnan M. L. , Nolan J. V. , Leng R. A.
Published: December 2014

Rates of methane (CH4) production and the sources of carbon (C) for its synthesis were studied in four mature ewes when dosed with a CH4-mitigating ionophore ICI-111075, or monensin, or when untreated. The sheep were given 700 g/day of chaffed lucerne hay in equal portions every hour, before and during experiments in which 14C-labelled NaHCO3–, acetate, propionate, lactate and formate were infused intraruminally over 12 h and the specific radioactivity of C (SR) in each of these substrates was determined. During these infusions, the SR of material in the primary pool (the tracer infusion site) and in secondary metabolites of this material (secondary pools) approached asymptotic or ‘plateau’ values. The rate of infusion of 14CH4 (kBq/day) divided by the plateau SR value (kBq/g C) gave estimates of the rate of irreversible loss of CH4 (g C/day). These calculations indicated that CH4 production rate was reduced by 72% when sheep were dosed with ICI-111075 and by 58% when dosed with monensin. With monensin, the reduction in CH4 production was not associated with hydrogen (H2) accumulation in the rumen headspace gases whereas with ICI-111075, the decrease in CH4 production was associated with marked H2 accumulation in the headspace gases. When plateau SR were attained during the tracer infusions, the percentage ratio, (SR in any secondary pool: SR in the primary pool) gave an estimate of the fraction of C in that secondary pool derived from material of the primary pool. Calculated in this way, the percentage of CH4-C derived from rumen fluid carbon dioxide (CO2) averaged 59% in untreated sheep, and when sheep were dosed with ICI-111075, the corresponding percentage averaged 12%. These findings indicate there are sources of C for rumen CH4 synthesis other than rumen fluid CO2. However, there was no evidence that C from acetate, propionate, lactate or formate in rumen fluid were direct sources of the unidentified CH4-C. One plausible explanation for these findings is that CH4 is synthesised within naturally occurring microbial biofilms (attached to feed particles or the rumen wall) from CO2 that is produced locally by fermentation of unlabelled substrates within the biofilms. It is postulated that such pools of CO2 would be kinetically distinct and, during the infusion of 14C-labelled substrates, would exhibit a lower SR than the CO2 in the surrounding rumen fluid.
Relationships of both urine nitrogen output and plasma urea concentration with rumen protein balance in lactating goats
Authors: Giger-Reverdin S. , Sauvant D.
Published: December 2014

The updated INRA system incorporates the notion of rumen protein balance (RPB, g CP/kg DM) in an attempt to better fit feed evaluation, animal requirements and responses to diets. RPB is the difference between crude protein intake and entrance at the duodenum (excluding NH3) which is not very easy to measure in vivo. The aim of this study was to test the strength of the relationships between dietary RPB values obtained from the diet composition and criteria easier to measure, such as N urinary outputs or plasma urea concentration, both at a treatment level and at an individual level in a large dataset obtained from lactating goats fed different types of diets. RPB was a better predictor of urinary N output and plasma urea concentration than was the former French system for protein digestible in the intestine. Within experiments, RPB was highly and positively correlated with urinary nitrogen outputs and plasma urea concentration. RPB can be used to estimate the urinary N output in lactating dairy goats, but this study also showed that some of the residual variance was due to variability among animals.
Stress, acute phase proteins and immune modulation in calves
Authors: Yun Cheol-Heui , Wynn Peter , Ha Jong K.
Published: December 2014

Acute phase and inflammatory responses are triggered by a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic stressors that come at a cost through suppressing the normal function of tissues and organs of domestic animals. Recently, with growing attention placed on global warming and animal welfare, there has been an increased interest in improving our understanding of the relationships between different classes of stress, the expression of acute phase proteins (APPs), the stress-related endocrine system and immunomodulation. Immune function is compromised by all forms of stress including poor nutrition, weaning, extreme thermal conditions, injury and infection in calves. Proinflammatory cytokines, APPs and hormones of the hypothalamic–pituitary adrenal axis as well as the composition of immune cells can all be characterised in culture supernatants and peripheral blood. APPs have been used as biomarkers for the stress status of ruminants both experimentally and in field studies. Therefore detailed studies of the mechanisms of action of these APPs and their interactions in ameliorating different stress responses are warranted. The focus of this review is on the aetiology of the responses in calves under severe stress and its impact on growth and immune status. Possible strategies to alleviate this condition including the role of specific feed additives are presented.
Recent developments in lipid metabolism in ruminants – the role of fat in maintaining animal health and performance
Authors: Hiller Beate
Published: December 2014

Optimising farm animal performance has long been the key focus of worldwide livestock production research. Advances in the understanding of metabolism/phenotype associations have outlined the central role of the lipid metabolism of farm animals for economically relevant phenotypic traits, such as animal health (immune status, fertility/reproductive capacity, adaptability/metabolic flexibility, robustness, well being) and performance aspects (meat/milk quality and quantity) and have led to an extensive exploitation of lipid metabolism manipulation strategies (e.g. tailored nutritional regimes, alimentary/intravenous fat supplementation, rumen-protected fat feeding, hormone application). This contribution gives an overview of established concepts to tailor animals’ lipid metabolism and highlights novel strategies to expand these application-oriented approaches via improved analysis tools, omics-approaches, cell model systems and systems biology methods.
Antimony leaching from contaminated soil under manganese- and iron-reducing conditions: column experiments
Authors: Hockmann Kerstin , Tandy Susan , Lenz Markus , Schulin Rainer
Published: December 2014

Environmental context Contamination of shooting range soils by antimony (Sb) released from corroding ammunition has become an issue of public environmental concern. Because many of these sites are subject to waterlogging and consequently limited aeration, we performed column experiments with contaminated shooting range soil to investigate Sb mobility under such conditions. The results are important for our understanding of the risks arising from Sb-contaminated soils, and also for the derivation of appropriate management strategies for such sites. Abstract Despite the environmental risks arising from antimony-contaminated sites, critical factors controlling the mobility of Sb in soils have still not been fully identified to date. We performed column experiments to investigate how reducing conditions affect Sb leaching from a calcareous shooting range soil, with a special focus on the relationship between Sb release and mineral dissolution processes. After eluting the columns for 5 days with 15mM lactate solution at a flow rate of 33mm day–1, the flow was interrupted for 37 days and then resumed for another 5 days. With the transition to moderately reducing conditions (~300mV) after 1 day of flow, effluent SbV and manganese (Mn) concentrations showed a concomitant increase, providing evidence that SbV associated to these phases was released by the reductive dissolution of Mn minerals. The release of SbV was counteracted by the reduction to SbIII, which was first scavenged by iron (Fe) (hydr)oxides and then slowly liberated again when the redox potential further decreased to Fe-reducing conditions. Laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry revealed the presence of an initial pool of Sb associated with Mn-containing, Fe-free phases, underpinning the important role of the latter in addition to Fe (hydr)oxides as Sb sorbents.
Gender differences in effectiveness of the Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP) lifestyle intervention: an Australasian study
Authors: Kent Lillian M. , Morton Darren P. , Rankin Paul M. , Mitchell Brett G. , Chang Esther , Diehl Hans
Published: December 2014

Issue addressed

Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP) is a lifestyle modification program that promotes healthy diet, physical activity and stress management techniques. Among US CHIP participants, differences in gender responsiveness to improvements in chronic disease risk factors were demonstrated. This study examined gender differences in outcomes to the CHIP intervention in Australasia.

Methods

Changes in body weight, blood pressure (BP), blood lipid profile and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) were assessed in 925 participants (34.3% men, mean age = 56.0 ± 12.5 years; 65.7% women, mean age = 54.4 ± 13.5 years) 30 days after program commencement.

Results

Significant reductions (P < 0.001) in all biometrics measured were found for men and women but were greater among men for total (TC) and low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), triglycerides (TG), FPG, body mass index (BMI) and TC/high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) ratio. Participants with highest baseline classifications of BMI, systolic BP, blood lipids and FPG showed greatest reductions in 30 days.

Conclusions

CHIP more effectively reduced chronic disease risk factors among men than women. All participants, but particularly men, entering the program with the greatest risk achieved the largest reductions. Possible physiological or behavioural factors include food preferences, making commitments and differential support modes.

So what?

Developers of lifestyle intervention programs should consider gender differences in physiological and behavioural factors when planning interventions. In particular, developers should manage expectations of people entering lifestyle interventions to increase awareness that men tend to respond better than women. In addition, this is a call for further research to identify the underlying mechanisms responsible for the disproportionate responsiveness of males.
FcγRIIb inhibits immune complex-induced VEGF-A production and intranodal lymphangiogenesis
Authors: Clatworthy Menna R. , Harford Sarah K. , Mathews Rebeccah J. , Smith Kenneth G. C.
Published: December 2014

Significance

Antibody (IgG) plays an important role in defense against infection and in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Low affinity-activating fragment crystallizable gamma receptors (FcγRs) that bind IgG immune complexes (ICs) mediate many effector functions of antibody and are controlled by an inhibitory receptor, FcγRIIb. Here we show a previously unappreciated role for IC in driving an expansion of lymphatic conduits within lymph nodes. This was dependent on macrophage VEGF-A production and inhibited by FcγRIIb. Lymphangiogenesis and VEGF-A were increased in the lymph nodes of mice with arthritis and SLE and in macrophages obtained from people with a SLE-associated, defunctioning polymorphism inFCGR2B. These findings have implications for the pathogenesis and treatment of autoimmune diseases.
Resisting marginalisation
Authors: Lamb Eleanor C.
Published: December 2014

In this article, I chart ways in which changing representations of migrants and refugees in the UK have contributed to their marginalisation. The article shows the findings from a study of the role immigrant organisations played in discussions of immigration control since the 1960s. The findings suggest that language about migrants and refugees has become both more marginalising and more difficult to challenge due to its increased complexity, with the increasing division of migrants into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ subgroups; an increased emphasis on ‘the nation’; and the increasing dissociation of discussions of immigration control from issues of race and racism, accompanied by ‘antiracist’ argumentation strategies and a denial of racism. The findings also suggest that speakers wishing to challenge such language, although able to present oppositional voices, may have difficulty getting those voices heard unless they in turn adopt aspects of the marginalising text and talk they wish to oppose.
Talking “race” through 1Malaysia in editorials
Authors: Varghese Mary , Ghazali Kamila
Published: December 2014

This study focuses on the discussion of 1Malaysia, Malaysia’s latest national blueprint for unity and identity, in the New Straits Times (NST), Malaysia’s oldest and state-owned English language print media. We examine the means by which NST has constructed the latest political venture in forging a national identity, while negotiating the various challenges to such an undertaking. Employing the critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach, we look at distinctive nomination and predication patterns as well as the occurrence of high and low factuality. This is conducted primarily through an analysis of social actors, their predication and modality to show how these contribute to the construction of the 1Malaysia ideology. Findings suggest that the signifier of 1Malaysia serves not only as a reference point for discussing subjects of concern to reformists, but also provides opportunities for the newspaper to hold institutions to account.
Village as a discursive space
Authors: Gololobov Ivan
Published: December 2014

Discourse analysis in both its theory and practice is traditionally concerned with politics. The sphere of the non-political rarely attracts attention of the researchers. It appears to be invisible to discourse theorists and unprivileged in empirical studies of discourse. This article aims at filling this gap. With the example of a Russian village it dwells on the discursive organisation of rural communities whose radically “personalised” world resists traditional approaches to political logic and suggests different modes of relations, agency, and power.
Discursive geographies
Authors: Nespor Jan
Published: December 2014

Immigration has become an object of political contention far from national borders. As migrants and immigrants move into interior cities, border discourses follow them, often propagated by conservative political factions seeking to extend their influence. This article examines one episode of contention around these processes – a struggle among officials, media organizations, and activists to shape the public narrative of a Midwestern U.S by discursively positioning in relation to border processes thousands of kilometers away. Using elements of critical discourse analysis, critical geography, and border studies, the article develops the concept of ‘discursive bordering’ to analyze how policy discourses and political imagery move across national territories, and how “local” actors redefine their own borders, and those of their cities, to resist or support these discursive incursions.
Variation and continuity in intertextual rhetoric
Authors: Oddo John
Published: December 2014

This article employs critical intertextual analysis (CIA) to examine how American presidents from opposing political parties respectively inaugurated and extended the war in Afghanistan. After explaining the CIA framework, I investigate two post-9/11 “call-to-arms” speeches delivered by George W. Bush and Barack Obama. I find that Obama responds to changing circumstances (e.g. public dissatisfaction) by varying stylistic elements of Bush’s rhetoric. Nevertheless, he rearticulates the overarching features of Bush’s “war on terror” discourse. Thus, Obama ultimately achieves policy continuity, but only by employing micro-rhetorical strategies that create the appearance of change. I conclude that, if Obama had been more enterprising, he might have enacted real change – and broken completely with Bush’s rhetoric and policy of global war.
Locational and directional relations and tense and aspect marking in Chalkan, a South Siberian Turkic language
Authors: Nevskaya Irina
Published: December 2014

This paper gives an overview of South Siberian Turkic biverbal constructions with auxiliary verbs of existence, location, posture and motion and their grammaticalization ways. Their lexical component bears markers of non-finite verb forms; their auxiliary component gets finite morphology. They produce numerous actional (Aktionsart), modality and tense-aspect-modus (TAM) forms in South Siberian Turkic languages. We argue that many modern TAM forms in these languages go back to synthesized biverbal constructions and describe processes of their grammaticalization from actional forms to aspect-temporal ones in Chalkan, an unwritten Turkic variety spoken in the north of Republic Altai, Russia. This research is based on a Chalkan electronic database that was created as a result of a Russian-German co-operation project.
Spatial semantics, case and relator nouns in Evenki
Authors: Grenoble Lenore A.
Published: December 2014

Evenki, a Northwest Tungusic language, exhibits an extensive system of nominal cases, deictic terms, and relator nouns, used to signal complex spatial relations. The paper describes the use and distribution of the spatial cases which signal stative and dynamic relations, with special attention to their semantics within a framework using fundamental Gestalt concepts such as Figure and Ground, and how they are used in combination with deictics and nouns to signal specific spatial semantics. Possible paths of grammaticalization including case stacking, or Suffixaufnahme, are discussed.
Anaphora in Ossetic correlatives and the typology of clause combining
Authors: Belyaev Oleg
Published: December 2014

Ossetic, an Iranian language of the North Caucasus, makes extensive use of correlatives in its system of subordination. I argue that most subordinate clause types in Ossetic belong to this construction, with their function being derived from the combination of the meaning of the subordinating element and the form of the demonstrative correlate. I further argue that the link between the relative phrase and the correlate may involve indirect relations such as bridging and split antecedence. They must therefore be viewed as involving obligatory pronominal coreference, where correlates are semantically no different from ordinary anaphoric pronouns or definite descriptions.
Kinds of evidentiality in German complement clauses
Authors: Kostrova Olga A
Published: December 2014

This paper continues my previous work on German complement clauses published in Russia (Gundareva & Kostrova 2005). I developed a system of oppositions between the kinds of reported, evoked and demonstrative evidence in present-day German complement clauses and identified the markers forming these distinctions and their interrelation. Here, viewing complement clauses as the product of complex speech acts, I focus on the locution level, analyzing the functions and semantics of noun and verb phrases in the main and complement clauses and their grammatical description. The system of oppositions that emerges reflects several kinds of evidentiality: quotative vs. indefinite, evoked vs. cited, effective vs. conjectural, acquired through perceived vs. inferred, referred-to-subject vs. referred-to-subject and narrator.
Anatomy assisted PET image reconstruction incorporating multi-resolution joint entropy
Authors: Tang Jing , Rahmim Arman
Published: December 2014

A promising approach in PET image reconstruction is to incorporate high resolution anatomical information (measured from MR or CT) taking the anato-functional similarity measures such as mutual information or joint entropy (JE) as the prior. These similarity measures only classify voxels based on intensity values, while neglecting structural spatial information. In this work, we developed an anatomy-assisted maximum a posteriori (MAP) reconstruction algorithm wherein the JE measure is supplied by spatial information generated using wavelet multi-resolution analysis. The proposed wavelet-based JE (WJE) MAP algorithm involves calculation of derivatives of the subband JE measures with respect to individual PET image voxel intensities, which we have shown can be computed very similarly to how the inverse wavelet transform is implemented. We performed a simulation study with the BrainWeb phantom creating PET data corresponding to different noise levels. Realistically simulated T1-weighted MR images provided by BrainWeb modeling were applied in the anatomy-assisted reconstruction with the WJE-MAP algorithm and the intensity-only JE-MAP algorithm. Quantitative analysis showed that the WJE-MAP algorithm performed similarly to the JE-MAP algorithm at low noise level in the gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) regions in terms of noise versus bias tradeoff. When noise increased to medium level in the simulated data, the WJE-MAP algorithm started to surpass the JE-MAP algorithm in the GM region, which is less uniform with smaller isolated structures compared to the WM region. In the high noise level simulation, the WJE-MAP algorithm presented clear improvement over the JE-MAP algorithm in both the GM and WM regions. In addition to the simulation study, we applied the reconstruction algorithms to real patient studies involving DPA-173 PET data and Florbetapir PET data with corresponding T1-MPRAGE MRI images. Compared to the intensity-only JE-MAP algorithm, the WJE-MAP algorithm resulted in comparable regional mean values to those from the maximum likelihood algorithm while reducing noise. Achieving robust performance in various noise-level simulation and patient studies, the WJE-MAP algorithm demonstrates its potential in clinical quantitative PET imaging.
Impacts of the local environment on recruitment: a comparative study of North Sea and Baltic Sea fish stocks
Authors: Pécuchet Laurène , Nielsen J. Rasmus , Christensen Asbjørn
Published: December 2014

While the impact of environmental forcing on recruitment variability in marine populations remains largely elusive, studies spanning large spatial areas and many stocks are able to identify patterns common to different regions and species. In this study, we investigate the effects of the environment on the residuals of a Ricker stock–recruitment (SR) model, used as a proxy of prerecruits' survival, of 18 assessed stocks in the Baltic and North Seas. A probabilistic principal components (PCs) analysis permits the identification of groups of stocks with shared variability in the prerecruits' survival, most notably a group of pelagics in the Baltic Sea and a group composed of gadoids and herring in the North Sea. The first two PCs generally grouped the stocks according to their localizations: the North Sea, the Kattegat–Western Baltic, and the Baltic Sea. This suggests the importance of the local environmental variability on the recruitment strength. Hence, the prerecruits' survival variability is studied according to geographically disaggregated and potentially impacting abiotic or biotic variables. Time series (1990–2009) of nine environmental variables consistent with the spawning locations and season for each stock were extracted from a physical–biogeochemical model to evaluate their ability to explain the survival of prerecruits. Environmental variables explained >70% of the survival variability for eight stocks. The variables water current, salinity, temperature, and biomass of other fish stocks are regularly significant in the models. This study shows the importance of the local environment on the dynamics of SR. The results provide evidence of the necessity of including environmental variables in stock assessment for a realistic and efficient management of fisheries.
Intellectual Disabilities
Authors: Clegg Jennifer , Jones Jo
Published: December 2014

Ethical issues presented by people with intellectual disabilities (ID) and mental health problems are usually addressed by reference to rights, autonomy, choice, and inclusion. These liberal valuesprovide certainty in the face of uncertain and complex situations. However, Deleuze argues that ethical vision expands more effectively by sitting with repetition: the most obvious repetition in ID is scandals. Inquiries into the abuse of people in the community as well as hospital patients suggest that denial of difficulty associated with ID encourages denial of the difficulty experienced by staff and parents. They also show how an essentially-contested dichotomy between medical and social models is played out, obscuring the significant emotional impact of ID on all parties not least on the individual’s own sense of personhood. We argue for a triple shift in ethical thinking: from individual achievements to enduring relationships; from negative judgment to affirmative living; and from moral rules to practical action.
Ethical Issues in Treating LGBT Patients
Authors: Drescher Jack
Published: December 2014

The American Psychiatric Association’sPrinciples of Medical Ethicsemphasize competence, respect and up-to-date knowledge as a basis for appropriate professional behavior toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) patients. This chapter first reviews historical psychiatric attitudes towards LGBT patients that could be construed, at best, as patronizing and, at worst, overtly hostile. In modern clinical practice, as opposed to trying to “cure” homosexuality or “transsexualism,” LGBT patients are helped to live their lives according to their own natures and desires. This chapter outlines some common clinical questions raised by LGBT patients—what is known and not known about the origins of homosexuality and transgenderism, sexual orientation conversion efforts (SOCE), therapist self-disclosure, how therapists should address LGBT patients, and controversies surrounding treatment of transgender children—as well as ethical issues raised in these clinical encounters.
The Patient as an Autonomous Person
Authors: Stanghellini Giovanni , Rosfort René
Published: December 2014

Treating the other as an autonomous person is widely considered a guiding ethical principle. The notions of autonomy and personhood are, however, far from evident in a time of striding naturalism. Hermeneutical phenomenology provides an explanation of these notions, and argues that personhood is not merely an ethical principle, but an integral part of vulnerability to mental illness. In other words, ethics and questions of norms and values are not merely a bioethical add-on to psychiatry, but an integral part of what it means to do psychiatry. Being a person is to be faced with the constant task of becoming who I am through the otherness that constitutes my life as a person. Otherness challenges my life from without (e.g., the way other people understand and treat me) and from within (e.g., my body, habits, and dispositions). Although a major aspect of personal identity is constituted by otherness, a person is able, nevertheless, to change her habits, think about her dispositions, and reconsider her actions. This ability to relate ourselves to what and who we are is constitutive of personhood and of the fragility that makes each of us the person that we are.
The Dignity of the Psychiatric Patient
Authors: Thompson Jason M.
Published: December 2014

This chapter presents an autobiographical account of Jason M. Thompson’s psychiatric treatment for depression in February 2005. The author evaluates his experience in terms of the extent to which his treatment either upheld or violated the axiomatic bioethical principle of respect for patient dignity. The concept of dignity is discussed with reference to the idea of autonomy and the ideas of social identity and meaning-making. The author outlines the challenge for clinicians in upholding the dignity of a patient whose capacity for autonomy is undermined as a consequence of mental disorder. Thompson derives a proposal, based on his own experience, that the dignity of the psychiatric patient can be upheld by redefining the cultural meaning of psychiatric hospitalization from asylum to retreat.
Virtue-Based Psychiatric Ethics
Authors: Radden Jennifer
Published: December 2014

Psychiatric practice with those who are severely mentally ill calls for an ethical approach that builds on, but goes beyond, the biomedical principles applicable to all medical sub-specialties including psychiatry. Although it may not be the only answer for the specific ethical demands of the psychiatry setting, a character-focused ethics fits psychiatric practice particularly well. Features of virtues that explain this fit are outlined here: their nature as composite and heterogenous habits that involve mental attitudes, and affections; possess a complex moral psychology; are partialist and role specific; and includephronesis. In the professional role morality underlying virtue approaches, goals of practice can themselves become role constituted virtues, it is shown, so that the distinction between clinical skills and virtues collapses. And some of the implications of these observations for medical education are noted.
Feminist Psychiatric Ethics in the Twenty-First Century and the Social Context of Suffering
Authors: Potter Nancy Nyquist
Published: December 2014

This chapter covers three central developments in feminist psychiatric ethics: nosology, forensic psychiatry, and advances in feminist theorizing the twenty-firstst century. Each of these sections raises key questions in how to think about gender and other socially marked bodies as they intersect with psychiatry. In particular, I highlight feminist challenges to nosological and ontological issues in psychiatry and their relation to ethics; the concept of relationality as it affects our understanding of intimate partner abuse; postcolonialism and how an understanding of epistemologies of ignorance present ethical challenges to psychiatry; and the crucial question of testimonial justice when it comes to listening appropriately to patients. I argue that a consideration of each of these areas entails a shift in how feminists approach ethical issues, making psychiatric ethics more complex, more challenging and, in general, messier, as reflects current social conditions.
Projection and Introjection
Authors: Hinshelwood R.D.
Published: December 2014

Psychiatry straddles a medical approach to the mentally ill, and a dynamic approach to the experiences of severely disturbed people. One consequence of this is that ethical principles apply in different ways. The understanding of processes known as introjection, projection, and splitting seriously disrupt the functioning of a person and his ability to make adequate, responsible decisions. Severe mental illness can be regarded as the disruption of a moral agent, and in a sense treatment has to focus on the resumption of those functions that enable the person to take responsibility again. This chapter explores the ethics of the person’s loss of his personal functioning. Paternalism does not have a free rein, and needs to be carefully used as it supplants autonomy. Over-extended paternalistic care leads to excessive depletion of the patient, and was apparent in the old mental hospital as it still is in contemporary community care as specific organizational dynamics.
Communication with Mass Media
Authors: Dinwiddie Stephen H.
Published: December 2014

In 1964, well over 2000 US psychiatrists responded to a magazine poll questioning Barry Goldwater’s psychological fitness to serve as president of the USA. The embarrassment this poll caused the field subsequently led to the American Psychiatric Association’s adoption of the “Goldwater Rule,” prohibiting psychiatrists from offering a professional opinion about an individual in the absence of an examination and the proper authorization to release such information. Is this sweeping ban proper, or are there situations in which psychiatric commentary on the behavior and motivations of a public figure can be justified? In this chapter, it is argued that under some circumstances, opining from afar—in the absence of direct examination or permission to disclose one’s opinions—can be justified.
Bullying and Peer Aggression in Children and Adolescents
Authors: Pflum Samantha , Goldblum Peter , Chu Joyce , Bongar Bruce
Published: December 2014

Crafting prevention and intervention strategies for peer bullying, aggression, and suicidality in youth is a complex, multifaceted task. Involvement in bullying and peer aggression is accompanied by numerous psychosocial consequences, including suicidal ideation and behavior. Care must be taken to examine this relationship in an objective, evidence-based manner, rather than overattributing or causally relating youth suicidality to bullying. Mental health professionals, medical providers, teachers, and school administrators are uniquely positioned to intervene in the risk factors that impact bullying and suicidality in youth. Taking an ecological systems perspective, this chapter will review extant efforts to ameliorate bullying, aggression, and suicidality in children and adolescents, with a focus on individual- and group-level protective factors that can facilitate positive health and academic outcomes. Recommendations for providers, educators, parents, policymakers, and researchers offer evidence-based guidance for future work in these domains.
The Endocrinology of Female Competition
Authors: Cobey Kelly D. , Hahn Amanda
Published: December 2014

This chapter takes a broad look at women’s competitive behavior and the hormonal mechanisms that contribute to it, beginning with a comparative discussion of competition in female, males, and nonhumans. Here we hope to illustrate how hormonal trade-offs impact women’s competition similarly in some respects but distinctively in others when compared to men and nonhumans. We then discuss naturally occurring hormonal variation across the female lifespan, from birth to menarche, during the reproductive years, and after menopause, and what impact such fluctuation has on women’s competition. This section highlights how knowledge of the impact of hormonal variation on women’s competition at one stage of life may be extended to inform knowledge at others. Through utilizing both a comparative and lifespan approach we hope to provide a broad scope for how hormones regulate competitive behavior in women. We conclude with a discussion of avenues for future research in this area.
Goal Setting and Control Theory: Implications for Job Search
Authors: Latham Gary P. , Mawritz Mary B. , Locke Edwin A.
Published: December 2014

The benefit of using theories in the behavioral sciences for job search is that they facilitate predicting, explaining, and influencing behavior. This chapter compares and contrasts two such theories, namely, goal setting and control theory. Empirical research, emanating from these two theories on job search, is reviewed. The chapter closes with a checklist for job seekers and suggestions for future research.
Reemployment Quality, Underemployment, and Career Outcomes
Authors: Virick Meghna , McKee-Ryan Frances
Published: December 2014

This chapter provides an overview of research on underemployment among laid-off workers, with a particular focus on workers who are more vulnerable to underemployment based on age, gender, and minority status. This review identifies issues, problems, and gaps in the current research and outlines directions for future research, specifically highlighting the importance of examining career outcomes of underemployed workers.
Depression During Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period
Authors: Misri Shaila , Abizadeh Jasmin , Nirwan Sonya
Published: December 2014

Depression affects 9–13% of pregnant women and 12–16% of postpartum women. Rates vary depending on whether depressive symptoms or DSM diagnoses of depression are considered. Risk factors of perinatal depression include socioeconomic status, social support, personality style, personal and family history of depression, and hormonal changes. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) is a self-report instrument commonly used to assess for perinatal depression. The treatment of perinatal depression with antidepressant medication is controversial. Most guidelines recommend psychotherapy for mild to moderate depression and medication for moderate to severe depression. Established psychotherapies include interpersonal psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy, as well as alternative therapies such as infant massage in the postpartum. Although extensive research on perinatal depression has been conducted over the past two decades, future research could include designing prospective, methodologically sound studies with larger samples to compare treatment modalities, teratogenicity associated with pharmacotherapy, and prevalence of perinatal depression in various cultures.
Generational Perspectives on Emerging Adulthood
Authors: Paulsen Jacob A. , Syed Moin , Trzesniewski Kali , Donnellan M. Brent
Published: December 2014

Sociologists, psychologists, and others in the social sciences generally agree that the nature of adulthood is different now from what it was 50 years ago. There is much less agreement, however, on what these changes mean for the psychological experience of emerging adults. There has been extensive discussion and debate in the academic literature and popular press about whether there have been generational changes in how young people view themselves and their place in society. This chapter explores the debate over the self-focused nature of emerging adulthood from a generational perspective, focusing on the construct of narcissism. The authors review past and current conceptualizations and measurements of narcissism, summarize the ongoing debate about the nature of young people today, discuss narcissism from a lifespan developmental perspective, and offer suggestions for future research. Throughout, the authors emphasize the historical context of narcissism and societal beliefs about young people more broadly and stress that a generational perspective must be considered alongside a developmental perspective (i.e., individual ontogenetic change) to provide a more nuanced understanding of emerging adulthood.
Legitimacy of the Modern Age?
Authors: Schmitz Alexander
Published: December 2014

The opposition between religiosity and secularism is the key to both a discourse-historical epochal threshold and the question of the self-understanding of Western modernity. The controversy between Carl Schmitt and Hans Blumenberg constitutes one episode in the long-term, many-faceted debate over secularization. At the core of the controversy is the question of how modern science on the one hand and rational law on the other hand can be differentiated as autonomous realms. At the same time, the anthropological framing conditions for a technologized life world are here at issue. Carl Schmitt began the controversy in the afterword of his last book, which criticized Blumenberg’s Legitimacy of the Modern Age in a basic way. Political Theology II thus also became Schmitt’s testament, in which he formulated instructions about how to read the continuity and identity of his life and work.