bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Population effect of influenza vaccination under co-circulation of non-vaccine variants and the case for a multi-strain A/H3N2 vaccine component
Authors: Worby Colin J , Wallinga Jacco , Lipsitch Marc , Goldstein Edward
Published: May 2016

Some past epidemics of different influenza (sub)types (particularly A/H3N2) in the US saw co-circulation of vaccine-type and variant strains. There is evidence that natural infection with one influenza (sub)type offers short-term protection against infection with another influenza (sub)type (henceforth, cross-immunity). This suggests that such cross-immunity for strains within a (sub)type is expected to be strong. Therefore, while vaccination effective against one strain may reduce transmission of that strain, this may also lead to a reduction of the ability of the vaccine-type strain to suppress spread of a variant strain. It remains unclear what the joint effect of vaccination and cross-immunity is for co-circulating influenza strains, and what is the potential benefit of a bivalent vaccine that protects against both strains.

We simulated co-circulation of vaccine-type and variant strains under a variety of scenarios. In each scenario, we considered the case when the vaccine efficacy against the variant strain is lower than the efficacy against the vaccine-type strain (monovalent vaccine), as well the case when vaccine is equally efficacious against both strains (bivalent vaccine).

Administration of a bivalent vaccine results in a significant reduction in the overall incidence of infection compared to administration of a monovalent vaccine, even with lower coverage by the bivalent vaccine. Additionally, we found that the stronger is the degree of cross-immunity, the less beneficial is the increase in coverage levels for the monovalent vaccine, and the more beneficial is the introduction of the bivalent vaccine.

Our work exhibits the limitations of influenza vaccines that have low efficacy against non-vaccine strains, and demonstrates the benefits of vaccines that offer good protection against multiple influenza strains. The results elucidate the need for guarding against the potential co-circulation of non-vaccine strains for an influenza (sub)type, at least during select seasons, possibly through inclusion of multiple strains within a (sub)type (particularly A/H3N2) in a vaccine.
Long shelf-life streptavidin support-films suitable for electron microscopy of biological macromolecules
Authors: Han Bong-Gyoon , Watson Zoe , Kang Hannah , Pulk Arto , Downing Kenneth H. , Cate Jamie , Glaeser Robert M.
Published: May 2016

We describe a rapid and convenient method of growing streptavidin (SA) monolayer crystals directly on holey-carbon EM grids. As expected, these SA monolayer crystals retain their biotin-binding function and crystalline order through a cycle of embedding in trehalose and, later, its removal. This fact allows one to prepare, and store for later use, EM grids on which SA monolayer crystals serve as an affinity substrate for preparing specimens of biological macromolecules. In addition, we report that coating the lipid-tail side of trehalose-embedded monolayer crystals with evaporated carbon appears to improve the consistency with which well-ordered, single crystals are observed to span over entire, 2 μm holes of the support films. Randomly biotinylated 70 S ribosomes are used as a test specimen to show that these support films can be used to obtain a high-resolution cryo-EM structure.
Varying intolerance of gene pathways to mutational classes explain genetic convergence across neuropsychiatric disorders
Authors: Shohat Shahar , Ben-David Eyal , Shifman Sagiv
Published: May 2016

Genetic susceptibility to Intellectual disability (ID), autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia (SCZ) often arises from mutations in the same genes, suggesting that they share common mechanisms. We studied genes withde novomutations in the three disorders and genes implicated by SCZ genome-wide association study (GWAS). Using biological annotations and brain gene expression, we show that mutation class explains enrichment patterns more than specific disorder. Genes with loss of function mutations and genes with missense mutations were enriched with different pathways, shared with genes intolerant to mutations. Specific gene expression patterns were found for each disorder. ID genes were preferentially expressed in fetal cortex, ASD genes also in fetal cerebellum and striatum, and genes associated with SCZ were most significantly enriched in adolescent cortex. Our study suggests that convergence across neuropsychiatric disorders stems from vulnerable pathways to genetic variations, but spatiotemporal activity of genes contributes to specific phenotypes.
A better design for stratified medicine based on genomic prediction
Authors: Lee S. Hong , Weerasinghe W.M. Shalanee P. , Wray Naomi R. , Goddard Michael E. , Van der Werf Julius H.J.
Published: May 2016

Genomic prediction shows promise for personalised medicine in which diagnosis and treatment are tailored to individuals based on their genetic profiles. Genomic prediction is arguably the greatest need for complex diseases and disorders for which both genetic and non-genetic factors contribute to risk. However, we have no adequate insight of the accuracy of such predictions, and how accuracy may vary between individuals or between populations. In this study, we present a theoretical framework to demonstrate that prediction accuracy can be maximised by targeting more informative individuals in a discovery set with closer relationships with the subjects, making prediction more similar to those in populations with small effective size (Ne). Increase of prediction accuracy from closer relationships is achieved under an additive model and does not rely on any interaction effects (gene × gene, gene × environment or gene × family). Using theory, simulations and real data analyses, we show that the predictive accuracy or the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) increased exponentially with decreasingNe. For example, with a set of realistic parameters (the sample size of discovery set N=3000 and heritability h2=0.5), AUC value approached to 0.9(Ne=100) from 0.6(Ne=10000), and the top percentile of the estimated genetic profile scores had 23 times higher proportion of cases than the general population (withNe=100), which increased from 2 times higher proportion of cases (withNe=10000). This suggests that different interventions in the top percentile risk groups maybe justified (i.e. stratified medicine). In conclusion, it is argued that there is considerable room to increase prediction accuracy for polygenic traits by using an efficient design of a smallerNe(e.g. a design consisting of closer relationships) so that genomic prediction can be more beneficial in clinical applications in the near future.
A metric on phylogenetic tree shapes
Authors: Colijn C. , Plazzotta G.
Published: May 2016

The shapes of evolutionary trees are influenced by the nature of the evolutionary process, but comparisons of trees from different processes are hindered by the challenge of completely describing tree shape. We present a full characterization of the shapes of rooted branching trees in a form that lends itself to natural tree comparisons. The resulting metric distinguishes trees from random models known to produce different tree shapes. It separates trees derived from tropical vs USA influenza A sequences, which reflect the differing epidemiology of tropical and seasonal flu. We extend the shape metric to incorporate summary features such as asymmetry, or statistics on branch lengths. Our approach allows us to construct addition and multiplication on trees, and to create a convex metric on tree shapes which formally allows computation of average trees.
Tellurium: A Python Based Modeling and Reproducibility Platform for Systems Biology
Authors: Choi Kiri , Medley J. Kyle , Cannistra Caroline , König Matthias , Smith Lucian , Stocking Kaylene , Sauro Herbert M.
Published: May 2016

In this article, we present Tellurium, a powerful Python-based integrated environment designed for model building, analysis, simulation and reproducibility in systems and synthetic biology. Tellurium is a modular, cross-platform, and open-source integrated development environment (IDE) composed of multiple libraries, plugins, and specialized modules and methods. Tellurium ensures exchangeability and reproducibility of computational models by supporting SBML (Systems Biology Markup Language), SED-ML (Simulation Experiment Description Markup Language), the COMBINE archive, and SBOL (Synthetic Biology Open Language). Tellurium is a self-contained modeling platform which comes with a fully configured Python distribution independent of other local Python installations on the target machine. The main interface is based on the Spyder IDE which has a highly accessible user interface akin to MATLAB (https://www.mathworks.com/). Tellurium uses libRoadRunner as the default SBML simulation engine due to its superior performance, scalability and ease of integration. libRoadRunner supports deterministic simulations, stochastic simulations and steady state analyses. Tellurium also includes Antimony, a human-readable model definition language which can be converted to and from SBML. Other standard Python scientific libraries such as NumPy, SciPy, and matplotlib are included by default. Additionally, we include several user-friendly plugins and advanced modules for a wide-variety of applications, ranging from visualization tools to complex algorithms for bifurcation analysis and multi-dimensional parameter scanning. By combining multiple libraries, plugins, and modules into a single package, Tellurium provides a unified but extensible solution for biological modeling and simulation.
MPAthic: Quantitative Modeling of Sequence-Function Relationships for massively parallel assays
Authors: Ireland William T. , Kinney Justin B.
Published: May 2016

Massively parallel assays (MPAs) are being rapidly adopted for studying a wide range of DNA, RNA, and protein sequence-function relationships. However, the software available for quantitatively modeling these relationships is severely limited. Here we describe MPAthic, a software package that enables the rapid inference of such models from a variety of MPA datasets. Using both simulated and previously published data, we show that the modeling capabilities of MPAthic greatly improve on those of existing software. In particular, only MPAthic can accurately quantify the strength of epistatic interactions. These capabilities address a major need in the analysis of MPA data.
Improved methods for multi-trait fine mapping of pleiotropic risk loci
Authors: Kichaev Gleb , Roytman Megan , Johnson Ruth , Eskin Eleazar , Lindstroem Sara , Kraft Peter , Pasaniuc Bogdan
Published: May 2016

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified thousands of regions in the genome that contain genetic variants that increase risk for complex traits and diseases. However, the variants uncovered in GWAS are typically not biologicaly causal, but rather, correlated to the true causal variant through linkage disequilibrium (LD). To discern the true causal variant(s), a variety of statistical fine-mapping methods have been proposed to prioritize variants for functional validation. In this work we introduce a new approach, fastPAINTOR, that leverages evidence across correlated traits, as well as functional annotation data, to improve fine-mapping accuracy at pleiotropic risk loci. To improve computational efficiency, we describe an new importance sampling scheme to perform model inference. First, we demonstrate in simulations that by leveraging functional annotation data, fastPAINTOR increases fine-mapping resolution relative to existing methods. Next, we show that jointly modeling pleiotropic risk regions improves fine-mapping resolution relative to standard single trait and pleiotropic fine mapping strategies. We report a reduction in the number of SNPs required for follow-up in order to capture 90% of the causal variants from 23 SNPs per locus using a single trait to 12 SNPs when fine-mapping two traits simultaneously. Finally, we analyze summary association data from a large-scale GWAS of lipids and show that these improvements are largely sustained in real data.
The evolution of alternative splicing inDrosophila
Authors: Gibilisco Lauren , Zhou Qi , Mahajan Shivani , Bachtrog Doris
Published: May 2016

Alternative pre-mRNA splicing (“AS”) greatly expands proteome diversity, but little is known about the evolutionary landscape of AS inDrosophila, and how it differs between embryonic and adult stages, or males and females. Here we study the transcriptome from several tissues and developmental stages in males and females from four species across theDrosophilagenus. We find that 20-37% of multi-exon genes are alternatively spliced. While males generally express a larger number of genes, AS is more prevalent in females, suggesting that the sexes adopt different expression strategies for their specialized function. While the number of total genes expressed increases during early embryonic development, the proportion of expressed genes that are alternatively spliced is highest in the very early embryo, before the onset of zygotic transcription. This indicates that females deposit a diversity of isoforms into the egg, consistent with abundant AS found in ovary. Cluster analysis by gene expression levels (“GE”) show mostly stage-specific clustering in embryonic samples, and tissue-specific clustering in adult tissues. Clustering embryonic stages and adult tissues based on AS profiles results in stronger species-specific clustering, and over development, samples segregate by developmental stage within species. Most sex-biased AS found in flies is due to AS in gonads, with little sex-specific splicing in somatic tissues.
Scaffolding and Completing Genome Assemblies in Real-time with Nanopore Sequencing
Authors: Cao Minh Duc , Nguyen Son Hoang , Ganesamoorthy Devika , Elliott Alysha G. , Cooper Matthew , Coin Lachlan J.M.
Published: May 2016

Genome assemblies obtained from short read sequencing technologies are often fragmented into many contigs because of the abundance of repetitive sequences. Long read sequencing technologies allow the generation of reads spanning most repeat sequences, providing the opportunity to complete these genome assemblies. However, substantial amounts of sequence data and computational resources are required to overcome the high per-base error rate inherent to these technologies. Furthermore, most existing methods only assemble the genomes after sequencing has completed which could result in either generation of more sequence data at greater cost than required or a low-quality assembly if insufficient data are generated. Here we present the first computational method which utilises real-time nanopore sequencing to scaffold and complete short-read assemblies while the long read sequence data is being generated. The method reports the progress of completing the assembly in real-time so users can terminate the sequencing once an assembly of sufficient quality and completeness is obtained. We use our method to complete four bacterial genomes and one eukaryotic genome, and show that it is able to construct more complete and more accurate assemblies, and at the same time, requires less sequencing data and computational resources than existing pipelines. We also demonstrate that the method can facilitate real-time analyses of positional information such as identification of bacterial genes encoded in plasmids and pathogenicity islands.
Practice transfer in MNCs: a process of tension and contestation
Authors: Bjerregaard Toke , Linneberg Mai S. , Lauring Jakob
Published: May 2016

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to further the understanding of how the transfer and adoption of headquarters (HQ)-mandated work practices are shaped by ongoing struggles among the multiple actors of a subsidiary. This paper suggests an alternative perspective for theorizing and researching the management practices and structures that emerge in the face of HQ demands for divergent practice change in subsidiaries, namely, a theory of practice approach.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reports the findings of an ethnographic field study in a UK subsidiary of a multinational corporation based in Denmark.

Findings

The study provides a relevant contribution by demonstrating how the degree of adoption of alternative, HQ-mandated work systems undergoes dramatic changes over time due to socially dynamic negotiations and struggles between interest groups in a subsidiary.

Research limitations/implications

A practice theoretical approach unveils the underlying social micro-dynamics that shape the degree to which employees in subsidiaries “internalize”, actively sustain or disrupt divergent practices representing a given contextual rationale.

Originality/value

The practice perspective provides a way for understanding how the practices and rationales that emerge locally in response to HQ-demands are under ongoing (re)reconstruction. It responds to calls for research on why and how contextual rationales, institutional or cultural features, actively are made salient, polarized or convergent, in conflictual practice transfer processes due to local contingencies.
Lost overseas?
Authors: Yang Inju
Published: May 2016

Purpose

This conceptual paper aims to explore the leadership of Korean middle managers in a cross-cultural context.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents three propositions in relation to perceived charisma, individualized consideration and inspirational communication of Korean transformational leadership at home and overseas, especially in comparison with Anglo-Saxon countries such as North America and the UK.

Findings

Following the notion of implicit theory of leadership, this paper argues that the effectiveness of Korean leadership may depend on cultural dimensions such as collectivism/individualism and power distance.

Research limitations/implications

In this paper, the perspective of transformational leadership with its universal appeal to various cultures in examining the effectiveness of Korean leadership at home and overseas has been adapted.

Practical implications

This illustration of the Korean leadership in a cross-cultural context sheds light on the challenges facing the Korean management in global contexts.

Originality/value

Despite significant ongoing investment abroad by Korean conglomerates, relatively little has been written on Korean leadership in cross-cultural contexts. This paper could stimulate further studies in this area.
The impact of environmental management awards and certifications in property management on property price
Authors: Hui Eddie Chi-man , Yu Ka-hung , Tse Cheuk-kin
Published: May 2016

Purpose

As the awareness of environmental preservation and of sustainable development have become increasingly pronounced among various stakeholders, such as governments and communities, many businesses, in response, commence to introduce environmental-friendly measures and/or implement an environmental management system (EMS) in their daily operations. Even a service-oriented industry such as property management is no exception. To showcase their commitment to this cause, property management companies tend to obtain different environmental certifications. This study aims to investigate the effect of green property management, through environmental certifications, on property price.

Design/methodology/approach

The hedonic price model is used to determine the impacts of different environmental certifications on prices of selected residential properties in Hong Kong. Three districts from different parts of Hong Kong, including 16 private residential developments, are covered in this study.

Findings

The results show that ISO 14001 certification itself is not statistically significant in explaining property price. It is only when a property management company has obtained other local environmental management awards/certificates that varying levels of (positive) property price premiums are found. Nonetheless, the authors also find that controlling for other housing attributes, obtaining as many environmental certifications as possible does not necessarily result in the highest property price premium.

Research limitations/implications

Nonetheless, the data sample has its limitations, such as its relatively small size and the unavailability of housing attribute(s) such as orientations.

Practical implications

For the implications, the value of environmental management awards/certificates, from the perspective of the end-users of property management services, is based on the scopes of these environmental certifications; the promotional effort on the part of organizations behind these awards/certificates; the disclosure of information about the EMS itself and the assessment criteria; and the public’s perceptions as to the companies’ rationale behind such certifications.

Originality/value

The study has provided some insights regarding the effect of various management standard certifications in property management, from the perspective of the end-users of the service (i.e. homeowners and potential homebuyers). This serves as a reference for developers, property managers, buyers and users alike.
Typologies for co-working spaces in Finland – what and how?
Authors: Kojo Inka , Nenonen Suvi
Published: May 2016

Purpose

This paper aims to categorize the typologies of co-working spaces and describe their main characteristics.

Design/methodology/approach

The aim is reached by means of analyzing 15 co-working spaces located in the capital area of Finland. The data used consist of interviews, websites, event presentations and brochures.

Findings

As a result, six co-working space typologies were identified: public offices, third places, collaboration hubs, co-working hotels, incubators and shared studios. The categorization was made by using two axes: business model (for profit and non-profit) and level of user access (public, semi-private and private).

Research limitations/implications

The results provide a viewpoint on how co-working spaces can be categorized.

Practical implications

In practise, the results can be applied by all stakeholders who are working with alternative workplace solutions to respond to the needs of new ways of working, especially via workplace services for multi-locational and flexible working, including facilities managers, corporate real estate executives and designers.

Originality/value

This research builds on the previous academic literature on co-working spaces by making the phenomena more explicit for researchers and practitioners who are facing the challenges of developing new alternative workplace offerings.
How important is mobile telephony for economic growth? Evidence from MENA countries
Authors: Ghosh Saibal
Published: May 2016

Purpose

The explosion of mobile telephony in recent times has led to the emergence of a significant volume of literature. One area that has been relatively under-researched has been the role of mobile telephony in impacting economic growth and the relevance of financial inclusion in this respect. Using data on MENA countries during 2001-2012, this paper aims to examine this issue within an empirical framework.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis is based on longitudinal data for the period 2001-2012 and examines the interrelationships among per capita income, financial inclusion and mobile telephony. To take on board this interrelationship, the authors use a simultaneous equation model. In contrast to the ordinary least squares, 3SLS exploits the information that the disturbance terms in the two structural terms are contemporaneously correlated, thereby producing consistent estimates.

Findings

The analysis suggests a significant relationship among these variables. In particular, a 1 per cent increase in the fraction of population using mobile telephony improves incomes by roughly 0.3 per cent points, whereas a similar 1 per cent increase in financial inclusion has double the impact on income. The findings also support a convex, non-linear relationship between income and cellular penetration. Robustness tests lend credence to these findings.

Originality/value

Although there are several studies on mobile telephony and growth, this paper provides a completely original contribution in the area of financial inclusion, linking the development of access to mobile communication to new channels for the unbanked population in the Arab economies.
Personality and fashion consumption: a conceptual framework in the Indian context
Authors: Saran Rashmita , Roy Subhadip , Sethuraman Raj
Published: May 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to integrate consumer personality to fashion involvement, fashion-oriented impulse buying behavior, consumer emotions and hedonic consumption in the Indian context.

Design/methodology/approach

– Based on a literature review of personality, fashion involvement, emotions, fashion-oriented impulse buying behavior and hedonic consumption, the authors formulated a conceptual model and subsequent hypotheses. Previously valid and reliable scales were used in the study. The data were collected through mall intercept survey with the sample consisting of respondents in the age group 20-45. Factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used as data analysis tools.

Findings

– Major findings indicate a positive and significant effect of personality on positive emotions. The findings also confirm a significant and positive relationship between fashion involvement and hedonic consumption and hedonic consumption and fashion-related impulse buying behavior. Interestingly, positive emotions were found to mediate the relation between personality and fashion involvement.

Research limitations/implications

– The major implication of the present study is that impulse buying in fashion may be resultant of a complex network of interlinked constructs. One limitation is the restriction to the Indian context.

Practical implications

– The findings note the need for creation of an experiential environment for a fashion shopper that could lead to positive emotions and subsequently impulse purchase.

Originality/value

– The present study for the first time integrates constructs such as personality, emotions, involvement and impulse buying in the same conceptual model and tests it empirically.
Management perspectives on country of origin
Authors: Rashid Arooj , Barnes Liz , Warnaby Gary
Published: May 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to provide a new perspective by conceptualising country of origin (COO) from a management perspective, identifying the impact different COO constructs have in the context of fashion retailer and manufacturer businesses.

Design/methodology/approach

– This qualitative study comprises a series of in-depth interviews with key informants from large-scale fashion retailers and manufacturers in the UK.

Findings

– The major findings of this research demonstrate that COO is considered a strategic business imperative but manifests in a variety of ways depending on brand positioning, long-term strategic plans, expertise, and brand values, etc.

Research limitations/implications

– This study contributes to the body of knowledge about the importance of COO. The findings of this research will have practical implications for manufacturers and retailers, informing the debate on the value of the “Made in […]” epithet. Findings are limited to the UK fashion clothing industry.

Originality/value

– This research presents a new perspective on the COO construct, addressing it from a management rather than consumer perspective. It argues that COO can be considered as a strategic dimension, which is manifested in a variety of ways. COO has been extensively researched from a consumer point of view but this research takes a new approach by presenting findings from a managerial point of view, with fashion manufacturing and retail branding as the context.
Exploration of factors influencing body image satisfaction and purchase intent
Authors: Rieke Sara Emma , Fowler Deborah Clay , Chang Hyo Jung , Velikova Natalia
Published: May 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to determine which factors impact body image satisfaction of Generation Y college age and young professional females born between the years of 1980 and 1993, age 20-33 years in the State of Texas.

Design/methodology/approach

– An online survey created in Qualtrics was e-mailed to recruit research participants. Quantitative data were collected and analyzed in IBM SPSS Statistics 21. Exploratory factor analysis, reliability, computing variable mean, and linear multiple regression were performed. The variables explored were divided and grouped into major factors.

Findings

– Millennial females are influenced by their own personal preferences, morals and beliefs, and certain occasions, seasons, climate, and the weather. These factors significantly influence body image satisfaction. The model developed in this study provides researchers with a new perspective on body image satisfaction and purchase intent. This study extends the theory of reasoned action by identifying specific factors which influence body image satisfaction which leads to the final purchase decision.

Research limitations/implications

– Because of this method of data collection the study might not be generalizable to the entire Millennial population. The sample is a small representative sample in the population with only Millennial females’ ages 20-33 years in the State of Texas. Although the study focussed on a single state, the state is an extremely large state encompassing 36 percent of the USA population. Additionally, race/ethnic diversity was also a limitation, as the majority of the sample was Caucasian. Thus, a larger and more diverse sample of age, race/ethnicity, and residence could be added for more generalizable results.

Practical implications

– The findings of this study enable retailers to understand how body image can impact the customers perceptions of their stores and their employees. Marketers and retailers should focus on marketing to Millennial females through more personal approach targeting what is appropriate for the consumers size body type labeled clothing size and certain occasions.

Social implications

– Confidence in decision making while purchasing apparel is an important aspect of shopping. Further research could benefit from focussing on determining the confidence drivers and their origins.

Originality/value

– This study enhances literature by providing a glimpse into the minds of Generation Y female consumers’ body image satisfaction and the factors driving them to purchase apparel.
Capital structure dynamics among SMEs: Swedish empirical evidence
Authors: Yazdanfar Darush , Öhman Peter
Published: May 2016

Purpose

This paper aims to empirically investigate the existence of dynamic capital structure among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across their life cycle stages.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis examined a sample of 15,952 SMEs across five industry sectors for the 2009-2012 period. Several techniques, including ANOVA and multivariate regressions, were used to analyse firm-level data.

Findings

The findings suggest that start-up SMEs, on average, rely on equity capital, and that the level of equity capital increases as firms age. The short-term debt level is particularly high in early life cycle stages, decreasing later on. The long-term debt ratio is positively related to firm age, although it is low in all life cycle stages investigated.

Practical implications

The findings may help several parties, including firm owners, to better understand how capital structure can be related to various life cycle stages. Such an understanding may help these actors use financial resources efficiently.

Originality/value

To the authors’ best knowledge, little research has addressed whether there are any differences in financing patterns over the firm life cycle.
Competitive advantage and higher fitness in native populations of genetically structured planktonic diatoms
Authors: Sildever Sirje , Sefbom Josefin , Lips Inga , Godhe Anna
Published: May 2016

It has been shown that the planktonic diatom Skeletonema from neighbouring areas are genetically differentiated despite absence of physical dispersal barriers. We revisited two sites, Mariager Fjord and Kattegat, NE Atlantic, and isolated new strains. Microsatellite genotyping and F‐statistics revealed that the populations were genetically differentiated. An experiment was designed to investigate if populations are locally adapted and have a native competitive advantage. Ten strains from each location were grown individually in native and foreign water to investigate differences in produced biomass. Additionally, we mixed six pairs, one strain from each site, and let them grow together in native and foreign water. Strains from Mariager Fjord and Kattegat produced higher biomass in native water. In the competition experiment, strains from both sites displayed higher relative abundance and demonstrated competitive advantage in their native water. The cause of the differentiated growth is unknown, but could possibly be attributed to differences in silica concentration or viruses in the two water types. Our data show that dispersal potential does not influence the genetic structure of the populations. We conclude that genetic adaptation has not been overruled by gene flow, but instead the responses to different selection conditions are enforcing the observed genetic structure.
Malala and the politics of global iconicity
Authors: Olesen Thomas
Published: May 2016

The article presents a case analysis of Malala Yousafzai's transformation into a global injustice icon after she was shot in 2012 by the Pakistani Taliban for advocating for girls’ right to education. The analysis focuses on the political aspects of this process and is divided into three parts. The first looks at factors that facilitated Malala's iconization as she was undergoing medical treatment and was unable to participate in her iconization. The second part starts when Malala enters the global public sphere and begins to actively contribute to the iconization process. The third part identifies de‐iconizing resistance to Malala from Pakistani actors who see her iconization as a symbolic colonization in which Malala has become a vehicle of the West. Theoretically, the article is located within cultural sociology, but expands it in a political and global direction.
Performative family: homosexuality, marriage and intergenerational dynamics in China
Authors: Choi Susanne YP , Luo Ming
Published: May 2016

Using in‐depth interview data on nominal marriages – legal marriages between a gay man and a lesbian to give the appearance of heterosexuality – this paper develops the concept of performative family to explain the processes through which parents and their adult children negotiate and resolve disagreements in relation to marriage decisions in post‐socialist China. We identify three mechanisms – network pressure, a revised discourse of filial piety and resource leverage – through which parents influence their gay offspring's decision to turn to nominal marriage. We also delineate six strategies, namely minimizing network participation, changing expectations, making partial concessions, drawing the line, delaying decisions and ending the marriage, by which gay people in nominal marriages attempt to meet parental expectations while simultaneously retaining a degree of autonomy. Through these interactions, we argue that Chinese parents and their gay adult children implicitly and explicitly collaborate to perform family, emphasizing the importance of formally meeting society's expectations about marriage rather than substantively yielding to its demands. We also argue that the performative family is a pragmatic response to the tension between the persistent centrality of family and marriage and the rising tide of individualism in post‐socialist China. We believe that our findings highlight the specific predicament of homosexual people. They also shed light on the more general dynamics of intergenerational negotiation because there is evidence that the mechanisms used by parents to exert influence may well be similar between gay and non‐gay people.
The predictors of the severity of ischaemic colitis: a systematic review of 2823 patients from 22 studies
Authors: Sun D. , Wang C. , Yang L. , Liu M. , Chen F.
Published: May 2016

Aim

The study reviews the literature related to ischaemic colitis (IC) as the evidence base to identify factors predicting severity.

Method

A systematic review of the literature was conducted on the predictors of the severity of IC. Severe IC or adverse outcome of IC was defined as a patient requiring surgery or who died. MEDLINE, Embase and Cochrane Library databases were searched from inception to 15 January 2015. Manual searches of reference lists from potentially relevant papers and meetings were also performed.

Results

In all, 22 studies involving 2823 patients were identified; 19 were case series, two were case–control studies and one was a cohort study. The overall adverse outcome rate was 22.0% (620/2823). The prognostic predictors for surgery or mortality which were most frequently reported included right sided IC, peritonitis, shock or arterial hypotension (< 90 mmHg), male gender, tachycardia and lack of rectal bleeding. Thirteen studies relating to the right colon from which data could be extracted were further analysed. The right colon was involved in 277 cases, with an incidence of adverse outcomes of 48.4% (134/277), while in the non‐right colonic involvement group the incidence was significantly lower at 12.1% (142/1175) (P = 0.000).

Conclusion

The incidence of adverse outcome in patients with IC remains high. Male gender, tachycardia, lack of rectal bleeding, peritonitis, shock or arterial hypotension (< 90 mmHg) and right sided IC are predictors of poor prognosis. Right‐sided IC, shock or arterial hypotension (< 90 mmHg) and signs of peritonitis may be the most significant predictors of severity.
Contrasting trait assembly patterns in plant and bird communities along environmental and human‐induced land‐use gradients
Authors: Concepción Elena D. , Götzenberger Lars , Nobis Michael P. , de Bello Francesco , Obrist Martin K. , Moretti Marco
Published: May 2016

Human‐driven environmental changes can induce marked shifts in the functional structure of biological communities with possible repercussion on important ecosystem functions and services. At the same time it remains unclear to which extent these changes may differently affect various types of organisms. We investigated species richness and community functional structure of species assemblages at the landscape scale (1 km2 plots) for two contrasting model taxa, i.e. plants (producers and sessile organisms) and birds (consumers and mobile organisms), along topography, climate, landscape heterogeneity, and land‐use (agriculture and urbanization) gradients in a densely populated region of Switzerland. Our study revealed that agricultural and urban land uses drove marked shifts in the functional structure of biological communities compared to changes along climate and topography gradients, especially for plants, while for birds these changes were comparable. Agricultural and urban land uses enhanced divergence in traits related to resource use for birds (diet and nesting), growth forms, dispersal, and reproductive traits for plants, while it induced convergence in vegetative plant traits (plant height and leaf dry matter content). These results suggest that contrasting assembly patterns may arise within and across taxonomic groups along the same environmental gradients as result of distinct underlying processes and ‘organism‐specific’ environmental perceptions. Our results further suggest a potential homogenization of biological communities, as well as low functional diversity and redundancy levels of bird assemblages in our human‐dominated study region. This might potentially compromise the maintenance of key ecological processes under future environmental changes.
Integrating trait and phylogenetic distances to assess scale‐dependent community assembly processes
Authors: Gianuca Andros T. , Declerck Steven A. J. , Cadotte Marc W. , Souffreau Caroline , De Bie Tom , De Meester Luc
Published: May 2016

Biodiversity is structured by multiple mechanisms that are dependent, at least in part, on ecological similarities and differences among species. Integrating traits and phylogenies in diversity metrics may provide deeper insight into community assembly processes across spatial scales. However, different traits are influenced by processes at different spatial scales, and it is not clear how trait‐spatial scale mismatches skew our ability to detect assembly patterns. An additional complexity is how phylogenetic distances, which might capture unmeasured traits, reflect spatially dependent processes. Here we analyze a freshwater zooplankton dataset from 91 ponds and show that different traits are associated with processes at different spatial scales. We first assessed the response of individual traits to processes at both α‐ and β‐scales, and then quantified the power of different combinations of traits and phylogenetic distances to reveal environmental and spatial drivers of α‐ and β‐diversity. We found that explanatory power was maximised when we accounted for environmental and spatial drivers with single, but different traits for α‐ and β‐diversity. Using the most appropriate trait for each spatial scale outperformed phylogenetic information, but phylogenetic information outperformed the same traits when these were used at the wrong spatial scale, and all outperformed taxonomic analyses that ignore trait and phylogenetic information. We demonstrate that accounting for species’ similarities and differences provides important information about dominant assembly mechanisms at different spatial scales, and that phylogeny is especially useful when measured traits are uninformative at a given spatial scale or when there is lack of trait data. Our study also indicates, however, that trait‐scale mismatches among phylogenetically conserved traits may affect the performance of phylogenetic indices compared to indices that account only for the best single trait at each spatial scale.
Evidence of structural balance in spatial ecological networks
Authors: Saiz Hugo , Gómez‐Gardeñes Jesús , Nuche Paloma , Girón Andrea , Pueyo Yolanda , Alados Concepción L.
Published: May 2016

Despite recent advances in applying networks to study ecological systems, most of the network datasets are built attending only to a single type of interaction between nodes, which can be an oversimplification. In the present work, we built ecological networks that had positive and negative links for multiple plant communities based on the local spatial association between species. Then, we evaluated whether those networks were in balance, a hypothesis commonly formulated for real signed graphs but never tested in systems other than social networks. Specifically, we quantified the global and the local structural balance in the networks. We found that plant community networks were more balanced than expected by chance, and that this pattern was due to a large number of balanced triads to the detriment of unbalanced ones. Furthermore, this pattern was consistent among all of the types of the plant communities examined, which suggests that configurations that promote structural balance might be common in ecological signed networks. We also found that almost all networks had some unbalanced components, which might be responsible for the adaptation of the system. Mechanisms behind these structure and possible applications for community ecology are discussed. Our results encourage testing structural balance in other ecological networks to confirm if it is a widespread architecture of natural systems.
Differential expression of axon‐sorting molecules in mouse olfactory sensory neurons
Authors: Ihara Naoki , Nakashima Ai , Hoshina Naosuke , Ikegaya Yuji , Takeuchi Haruki
Published: May 2016

In the mouse olfactory system, the axons of olfactory sensory neurons that express the same type of odorant receptor (OR) converge to a specific set of glomeruli in the olfactory bulb (OB). It is widely accepted that expressed OR molecules instruct glomerular segregation by regulating the expression of axon‐sorting molecules. Although the relationship between the expression of axon‐sorting molecules and OR types has been analyzed in detail, those between the expressions of axon‐sorting molecules remain to be elucidated. Here we collected the expression profiles of four axon‐sorting molecules from a large number of glomeruli in the OB. These molecules demonstrated position‐independent mosaic expressions, but their patterns were not identical in the OB. Comparing their expressions identified positive and negative correlations between several pairs of genes even though they showed various expressions. Furthermore, the principal component analysis revealed that the factor loadings in the principal component 1, which explain the largest amount of variation, were most likely to reflect the degree of the cyclic nucleotide‐gated (CNG) channel dependence on the expression of axon‐sorting molecules. Thus, neural activity generated through the CNG channel is a major component in the generation of a wide variety of expressions of axon‐sorting molecules in glomerular segregation.
Alcohol consumption increases basal extracellular glutamate in the nucleus accumbens core of Sprague–Dawley rats without increasing spontaneous glutamate release
Authors: Pati Dipanwita , Kelly Kyle , Stennett Bethany , Frazier Charles J. , Knackstedt Lori A.
Published: May 2016

Glutamate neurotransmission in the nucleus accumbens core (NAc) mediates ethanol consumption. Previous studies using non‐contingent and voluntary alcohol administration in inbred rodents have reported increased basal extracellular glutamate levels in the NAc. Here, we assessed basal glutamate levels in the NAc following intermittent alcohol consumption in male Sprague‐Dawley rats that had access to ethanol for 7 weeks on alternating days. We found increased basal NAc glutamate at 24 h withdrawal from ethanol and thus sought to identify the source of this glutamate. To do so, we employed a combination of microdialysis, slice electrophysiology and western blotting. Reverse dialysis of the voltage‐gated sodium channel blocker tetrodotoxin did not affect glutamate levels in either group. Electrophysiological recordings in slices made after 24 h withdrawal revealed a decrease in spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic current (sEPSC) frequency relative to controls, with no change in sEPSC amplitude. No change in metabotropic glutamate receptor 2/3 (mGlu2/3) function was detected as bath application of the mGlu2/3 agonist LY379268 decreased spontaneous and miniature EPSC frequency in slices from both control and ethanol‐consuming rats. The increase in basal glutamate was not associated with changes in the surface expression of GLT‐1, however, a decrease in slope of the no‐net‐flux dialysis function was observed following ethanol consumption, indicating a potential decrease in glutamate reuptake. Taken together, these findings indicate that the increase in basal extracellular glutamate occurring after chronic ethanol consumption is not mediated by an increase in action potential‐dependent glutamate release or a failure of mGlu2/3 autoreceptors to regulate such release.