bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Unveiling microbial activities along the halocline of Thetis, a deep-sea hypersaline anoxic basin
Authors: Pachiadaki Maria G , Yakimov Michail M , LaCono Violetta , Leadbetter Edward , Edgcomb Virginia
Published: June 2014

Deep-sea hypersaline anoxic basins (DHABs) in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea are considered some of the most hostile environments on Earth. Little is known about the biochemical adaptations of microorganisms living in these habitats. This first metatranscriptome analysis of DHAB samples provides significant insights into shifts in metabolic activities of microorganisms as physicochemical conditions change from deep Mediterranean sea water to brine. The analysis of Thetis DHAB interface indicates that sulfate reduction occurs in both the upper (7.0–16.3% salinity) and lower (21.4–27.6%) halocline, but that expression of dissimilatory sulfate reductase is reduced in the more hypersaline lower halocline. High dark-carbon assimilation rates in the upper interface coincided with high abundance of transcripts for ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase affiliated to sulfur-oxidizing bacteria. In the lower interface, increased expression of genes associated with methane metabolism and osmoregulation is noted. In addition, in this layer, nitrogenase transcripts affiliated to uncultivated putative methanotrophic archaea were detected, implying nitrogen fixation in this anoxic habitat, and providing evidence of linked carbon, nitrogen and sulfur cycles.
The niche of an invasive marine microbe in a subtropical freshwater impoundment
Authors: Hambright K David , Beyer Jessica E , Easton James D , Zamor Richard M , Easton Anne C , Hallidayschult Thayer C
Published: June 2014

Growing attention in aquatic ecology is focusing on biogeographic patterns in microorganisms and whether these potential patterns can be explained within the framework of general ecology. The long-standing microbiologist’s credo ‘Everything is everywhere, but, the environment selects’ suggests that dispersal is not limiting for microbes, but that the environment is the primary determining factor in microbial community composition. Advances in molecular techniques have provided new evidence that biogeographic patterns exist in microbes and that dispersal limitation may actually have an important role, yet more recent study using extremely deep sequencing predicts that indeed everything is everywhere. Using a long-term field study of the ‘invasive’ marine haptophyte Prymnesium parvum, we characterize the environmental niche of P. parvum in a subtropical impoundment in the southern United States. Our analysis contributes to a growing body of evidence that indicates a primary role for environmental conditions, but not dispersal, in the lake-wide abundances and seasonal bloom patterns in this globally important microbe.
Probing the solar corona with very long baseline interferometry
Authors: Soja B. , Heinkelmann R. , Schuh H.
Published: June 2014

Understanding and monitoring the solar corona and solar wind is important for many applications like telecommunications or geomagnetic studies. Coronal electron density models have been derived by various techniques over the last 45 years, principally by analysing the effect of the corona on spacecraft tracking. Here we show that recent observational data from very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), a radio technique crucial for astrophysics and geodesy, could be used to develop electron density models of the Sun’s corona. The VLBI results agree well with previous models from spacecraft measurements. They also show that the simple spherical electron density model is violated by regional density variations and that on average the electron density in active regions is about three times that of low-density regions. Unlike spacecraft tracking, a VLBI campaign would be possible on a regular basis and would provide highly resolved spatial–temporal samplings over a complete solar cycle.
Autophagy inhibits chemotherapy-induced apoptosis through downregulating Bad and Bim in hepatocellular carcinoma cells
Authors: Zhou Yan , Sun Kai , Ma Yi , Yang Haozheng , Zhang Yuanliang , Kong Xianming , Wei Lixin
Published: June 2014

The tumor microenvironment, including ischemia, has been increasingly recognized as a critical factor in the process of tumor development. Hypoxia and nutrient deficiency resulting from ischemia widely exist in solid tumors. Recent studies have shown that hypoxia and nutrient deficiency contribute to chemoresistance by inducing autophagy, but the underlying mechanism remains unknown. This study aimed to explore the role of autophagy induced by low glucose and hypoxia (LH) in the chemoresistance of hepatocellular carcinoma cells. Our results demonstrated that LH induced autophagy and downregulated Bad and Bim in hepatocellular carcinoma cells. The inhibition of autophagy reversed the reduction of these pro-apoptotic factors during the LH treatment. Furthermore, Bad and Bim were also significantly downregulated by autophagy during the process that LH promoted the chemoresistance of hepatocellular carcinoma cells. In addition, RNAi or the overexpression of Bad and Bim can significantly reduce or increase chemotherapy-induced cell death, respectively. Taken together, these data indicate that the downregulation of Bad and Bim plays a significant role in the autophagy-induced chemoresistance of hepatocellular carcinoma cells.
Mechanically strong, fluorescent hydrogels from zwitterionic, fully π-conjugated polymers
Authors: Elmalem Einat , Biedermann Frank , Scherer Maik R. J. , Koutsioubas Alexandros , Toprakcioglu Chris , Biffi Giulia , Huck Wilhelm T. S.
Published: June 2014

Mechanically strong supramolecular hydrogels can be obtained by combining a rigid, fully π-conjugated polymer backbone and zwitterionic side chains.
Polymorphism in cocrystals of urea:4,4′-bipyridine and salicylic acid:4,4′-bipyridine
Authors: Tothadi Srinu
Published: June 2014

The urea tape is rare in urea cocrystals. Cocrystal packing polymorphs Form IA and Form IIA were obtained selectively from MeCN and MeOH.
Synthesis of Cu2−xS nanocrystals induced by foreign metal ions: phase and morphology transformation and localized surface plasmon resonance
Authors: Ye Haihang , Tang Aiwei , Yang Chunhe , Li Kai , Hou Yanbing , Teng Feng
Published: June 2014

Phase and morphology transformation of Cu2−xS nanocrystals takes place by the addition of foreign metal ions (such as Zn2+ and Cd2+) into the precursor solution, and the LSPR behavior exhibits a strong dependence on the amount of foreign ions.
Electroanalysis of microbial anodes for bioelectrochemical systems: basics, progress and perspectives
Authors: Rimboud M. , Pocaznoi D. , Erable B. , Bergel A.
Published: June 2014

Over about the last ten years, microbial anodes have been the subject of a huge number of fundamental studies dealing with an increasing variety of possible application domains.
Hydrogen bonding of nitroxide spin labels in membrane proteins
Authors: Gast P. , Herbonnet R. T. L. , Klare J. , Nalepa A. , Rickert C. , Stellinga D. , Urban L. , Möbius K. , Savitsky A. , Steinhoff H.-J. , Groenen E. J. J.
Published: June 2014

On the basis of experiments at 275 GHz, we reconsider the dependence of the continuous-wave EPR spectra of nitroxide spin-labeled protein sites in sensory- and bacteriorhodopsin on the micro-environment.
Quantum chemistry of the Fischer–Tropsch reaction catalysed by a stepped ruthenium surface
Authors: Filot I. A. W. , van Santen R. A. , Hensen E. J. M.
Published: June 2014

A comprehensive density functional theory study of the Fischer–Tropsch mechanism on the corrugated Ru(112̄1) surface has been carried out.
Retrosynthetic approach to the design of molybdenum–magnesium oxoalkoxides
Authors: Kuznetsov Denis A. , Fedyanin Ivan V. , Lyssenko Konstantin A. , Bazhenova Tamara A.
Published: June 2014

A facile synthetic strategy based on a retrosynthetic philosophy was developed and employed for the preparation of the polynuclear Mo–Mg oxomethoxides – high valence precursors of N2 fixing catalysts.
Carbazole substituted boron dipyrromethenes
Authors: Kesavan Praseetha E. , Gupta Iti
Published: June 2014

meso-N-Butylcarbazole substituted BODIPYs showed red shifted emission, large Stokes shifts and efficient energy transfer from the meso-carbazole unit to the BODIPY core.
A first-principles investigation of oxygen reduction reaction catalysis capabilities of As decorated defect graphene
Authors: Sen Dipayan , Thapa Ranjit , Chattopadhyay Kalyan Kumar
Published: June 2014

Arsenic adsorbed double vacancy defect graphene systems are found to demonstrate excellent electrocatalytic properties for oxygen reduction reaction via high affinity towards four electron process.
DFT examination of rare α-SiMe3 abstraction in Ta(NMe2)4[N(SiMe3)2]: formation of the imide compound Ta(NSiMe3)(NMe2)3 and its trapping to give guanidinate imides
Authors: Richmond Michael G. , Xue Zi-Ling
Published: June 2014

Ta(NMe2)4[N(SiMe3)2] adopts the square pyramid stereoisomer with an apical N(SiMe3)2 group before rare α-SiMe3 abstraction by an amide ligand, yielding the imide Ta(NSiMe3)(NMe2)3 and Me3SiNMe2. The imide is then trapped by RNCNR to give guanidinates.
Trace determination of cadmium(ii) and copper(ii) in environmental water samples by solid-phase extraction using a novel ionic liquid-modified composite sorbent combined with flame atomic absorption spectrometry
Authors: Zou Jianping , Ma Xiaoguo , Dang Yongfeng , Chen Yuan
Published: June 2014

A sensitive and reliable method for trace determination of Cd(ii) and Cu(ii) based on solid-phase extraction using a novel sorbent coupled with flame atomic absorption spectrometry.
Revisiting urea-based gelators: strong solvent- and casting-microstructure dependencies and organogel processing using an alumina template
Authors: Lai Thanh-Loan , Canevet David , Almohamed Yasser , Mévellec Jean-Yves , Barillé Régis , Avarvari Narcis , Sallé Marc
Published: June 2014

Microstructures obtained from simple gelators prove to be strongly solvent- and casting-dependent. For the first time, a membrane template was used to process a xerogel-type material.
Exploring dual electrophiles in peptide-based proteasome inhibitors: carbonyls and epoxides
Authors: Xin Bo-Tao , de Bruin Gerjan , Verdoes Martijn , Filippov Dmitri V. , van der Marel Gijs A. , Overkleeft Herman S.
Published: June 2014

Peptide epoxyketones are potent and selective proteasome inhibitors.
C3-Symmetric chiral trisimidazoline-catalyzed Friedel–Crafts (FC)-type reaction
Authors: Takizawa Shinobu , Hirata Shuichi , Murai Kenichi , Fujioka Hiromichi , Sasai Hiroaki
Published: June 2014

The first imidazoline-catalyzed enantioselective Friedel–Crafts (FC)-type reaction was established using C3-symmetric chiral trisimidazolines.
An insight into the extraction of transition metal ions by picolinamides associated with intramolecular hydrogen bonding and rotational isomerization
Authors: Li Yan , Jia Yiming , Wang Zhenwen , Li Xianghui , Feng Wen , Deng Pengchi , Yuan Lihua
Published: June 2014

Disruption of intramolecular H-bonding via N-substitution leads to rotational isomerization and much improvement in extraction of Hg2+.
Direct glycol assisted synthesis of an amorphous mesoporous silicate with framework incorporated Co2+: characterization and catalytic application in ethylbenzene oxidation
Authors: Pachamuthu Muthusamy P. , Rajalakshmi Rajamanickam , Maheswari Rajamanickam , Ramanathan Anand
Published: June 2014

Exclusive Co2+ incorporation into the framework of a TUD-1 type silicate was obtained using tetraethylene glycol (TEG) as a non-surfactant structure directing agent which was shown to be active for ethylbenzene oxidation.
Synthesis of immobilized heteropolyanion-based ionic liquids on mesoporous silica SBA-15 as a heterogeneous catalyst for alkylation
Authors: Sheng Xiaoli , Zhou Yuming , Yang Yongle , Zhang Yiwei , Zhang Zewu , Zhou Shijian , Fu Xiaoqin , Zhao Shuo
Published: June 2014

Phosphotungstic acid (H3PW12O40) has been successfully loaded onto sulfonate-functionalized ionic liquid-modified mesoporous silica SBA-15 by complete anion exchange. The obtained catalysts were highly effective for alkylation of o-xylene with styrene in terms of yield and stability.
A generalized method for alignment of block copolymer films: solvent vapor annealing with soft shear
Authors: Qiang Zhe , Zhang Yuanzhong , Groff Jesse A. , Cavicchi Kevin A. , Vogt Bryan D.
Published: June 2014

Alignment of block copolymer (BCP) films by solvent vapor annealing with soft shear is strongly dependent on processing conditions with enhanced alignment as the swelling of the BCP (without disordering) and PDMS increases, drying rate decreases and the annealing time increases.
A microfluidic device to sort capsules by deformability: a numerical study
Authors: Zhu Lailai , Rorai Cecilia , Dhrubaditya Mitra Dhrubaditya Mitra , Brandt Luca
Published: June 2014

Guided by extensive numerical simulations, we propose a microfluidic device that can sort elastic capsules by their deformability.
Samarium doped glass-reinforced hydroxyapatite with enhanced osteoblastic performance and antibacterial properties for bone tissue regeneration
Authors: Morais Diana Santos , Coelho João , Ferraz Maria Pia , Gomes Pedro Sousa , Fernandes Maria Helena , Hussain Nandyala Sooraj , Santos José Domingos , Lopes Maria Ascensão
Published: June 2014

Cell adhesion of MG63 osteoblastic cells seeded over GR-HA_control and Sm doped composites, at day 1 of culture. Low (A) and high (B) CLSM images of cells stained for F-actin cytoskeleton (green) and nuclei (red); (C) SEM images.
Up-regulation of brain-enriched miR-107 promotes excitatory neurotoxicity through down-regulation of glutamate transporter-1 expression following ischaemic stroke
Authors: Yang Zhong-Bao , Zhang Zhen , Li Ting-Bo , Lou Zheng , Li Shu-Yu , Yang Huan , Yang Jie , Luo Xiu-Ju , Peng Jun
Published: June 2014

Recent studies have uncovered that accumulation of glutamate after ischaemic stroke is closely associated with the down-regulation of glutamate transporter-1 (GLT-1) expression, suggesting that GLT-1 expression critically controls glutamate accumulation and the abnormal glutamate transport-elicited neuronal cell excitotoxicity in patients with ischaemic stroke. However, it remains unknown how GLT-1 expression is regulated under ischaemic stroke conditions. In the present study, we screened the expression of nine brain-specific or brain-enriched miRNAs in a focal cerebral ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury rat model, which showed glutamate accumulation and down-regulated GLT-1 expression as expected, and revealed that the miR-107 level was elevated in both brain tissue and plasma in the model. Next, we examined the functional relationship of miR-107 with GLT-1 expression in a nerve cell hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) injury model. H/R treatment increased apoptosis of the nerve cells concomitant with glutamate accumulation, miR-107 elevation and suppressed GLT-1 expression, mimicking our in vivo findings in the cerebral I/R injury rat model in vitro. Co-treating the cells with an miR-107 inhibitor blocked all of the effects, demonstrating that miR-107 functions to inhibit GLT-1 expression and elevate glutamate accumulation. To extend these animal and cell-based studies to clinical patients, we measured the plasma levels of miR-107 and glutamate, and observed that both miR-107 and glutamate were elevated in patients with ischaemic stroke. On the basis of these observations, we conclude that elevated miR-107 expression after ischaemic stroke accounts, at least partially, for glutamate accumulation through suppression of GLT-1 expression. Our findings also highlight that the plasma level of miR-107 may serve as a novel biomarker for monitoring excitotoxicity in patients with ischaemic stroke.
Effects of the Teach-Model-Coach-Review Instructional Approach on Caregiver Use of Language Support Strategies and Children's Expressive Language Skills
Authors: Roberts Megan Y. , Kaiser Ann P. , Wolfe Cathy E. , Bryant Julie D. , Spidalieri Alexandria M.
Published: June 2014

Purpose

In this study, the authors examined the effects of the Teach-Model-Coach-Review instructional approach on caregivers' use of four enhanced milieu teaching (EMT) language support strategies and on their children's use of expressive language.

Method

Four caregiver–child dyads participated in a single-subject, multiple-baseline study. Children were between 24 and 42 months of age and had language impairment. Interventionists used the Teach-Model-Coach-Review instructional approach to teach caregivers to use matched turns, expansions, time delays, and milieu teaching prompts during 24 individualized clinic sessions. Caregiver use of each EMT language support strategy and child use of communication targets were the dependent variables.

Results

The caregivers demonstrated increases in their use of each EMT language support strategy after instruction. Generalization and maintenance of strategy use to the home was limited, indicating that teaching across routines is necessary to achieve maximal outcomes. All children demonstrated gains in their use of communication targets and in their performance on norm-referenced measures of language.

Conclusion

The results indicate that the Teach-Model-Coach-Review instructional approach resulted in increased use of EMT language support strategies by caregivers. Caregiver use of these strategies was associated with positive changes in child language skills.
Probing the inherent stability of siRNA immobilized on nanoparticle constructs
Authors: Barnaby Stacey N. , Lee Andrew , Mirkin Chad A.
Published: June 2014

Significance

Previous research has investigated the interactions between linear oligonucleotides and serum nucleases but the emergence of oligonucleotides conjugated to nanoparticles opens up a new avenue of research that has yet to be fully explored. In this work, we probed the degradation of a model small interfering RNA (siRNA) immobilized on gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). We show that serum nucleases are able to recognize and degrade the immobilized siRNA at specific sites within 4 nm of the AuNP surface, which were different than the sites for siRNA free in solution. These data suggest that oligonucleotides immobilized on nanoparticle surfaces must be studied independently from siRNA free in solution due to the potential influence of the local chemical environment of the oligonucleotide–nanoparticle conjugates.
Chapter 6. Language and literacy teaching, learning and socialization in the Chinese complementary school classroom
Authors: Li Wei  , Hua Zhu
Published: June 2014

The Chinese complementary schools for overseas-born ethnic Chinese children provide an interesting, complex and forever changing context where the teaching and learning of the Chinese language, especially literacy, is intertwined with the teaching and learning of Chinese cultural values and ideologies. These values and ideologies, however, are not static but changing across the generations and with the on-going process of transnational movement and globalization. This article focuses on classroom interactions in Chinese complementary schools in Britain and aims to show how the teachers use the opportunity of language and literacy teaching to pass on cultural values and ideologies to the pupils, how the pupils react to this kind of socializational teaching and how the teachers and the pupils negotiate identities through the process of language and literacy learning. The findings of the study have implications for both policy and practice regarding the education and development of multilingual children.
Chapter 7. Chinese Education in Malaysia
Authors: Xiaomei Wang
Published: June 2014

This chapter reviews the evolution of Chinese education in Malaysia in the past 190 years. For each phase of the development, the medium of instruction, syllabus, curriculum allotment, and learning objectives are discussed against the sociopolitical background during that period. It starts with the introduction of old-style Sishu prior to the 20th century, followed by a description of new-style schools in early 20th century. Subsequently, the process of localization of Chinese education in the 1950s is highlighted as the third stage of evolution. In the 1960s and 1970s, the conversion of medium of instruction has a great impact on the development of Malaysian Chinese education. After the revival movement in the 1970s, Chinese education enters a new stage with the implementation of KBSR curriculum in the 1980s. The sixth section discusses the development of Chinese education in the 1990s when English was to be promoted by the government in response to the global economy and Vision 2020 in Malaysia. This chapter gives a focus on the present situation of Malaysian Chinese education in different types of schools. The last section summarizes the achievements of Malaysian Chinese education and points out some issues in relation to Chinese teaching in Malaysia.
Chapter 10. Speaking of identity?
Authors: Francis Becky , Mau Ada , Archer Louise
Published: June 2014

Young people’s constructions of the relationship between language and ethnic identity is discussed, drawing on data from 60 British-Chinese complementary school attendees, and 38 young people of Chinese/mixed heritage that constructed themselves as not being able to speak Chinese. Those young people attending Chinese complementary school strongly foregrounded fluency in heritage language as essential to Chinese identity. Indeed some of these young people drew on moral and nationalistic discourses to challenge the possibility of identification as ‘Chinese’ without fluency in ‘mother tongue’. However, it was also found that, for those young people not able to speak the language, this did not preclude their identification as Chinese: these young people drew on a range of signifiers of Chinese culture, connection, and engagement to position themselves as wholly or partly ‘Chinese’. The impact of the different diasporic family histories for the two sample groups is discussed in relation to the young people’s different constructions, and theoretical implications of the findings considered. It is argued that, despite discourses that produce idealised notions of ‘essential’ features of Chinese culture, in practice young people demonstrate agency in their diverse productions and understandings of ‘Chineseness’.
Chapter 11. Chinese language learning by adolescents and young adults in the Chinese diaspora
Authors: Li Duanduan , Duff Patricia A.
Published: June 2014

Issues connected with motivation, ethnicity, and identity among adolescent and young adult heritage language learners are the subject of a growing amount of research in diaspora communities. However, until recently, this research has tended to be quantitative, and the constructs were theorized and operationalized in a categorical or essentialist manner. This chapter aims to (1) describe some of the changes in theory that are relevant to Chinese heritage language (CHL) learning, seeing it as a much more dynamic, multilingual, nonlinear, and contingent process; (2) review recent research examining these socio-affective factors among CHL learners; (3) present a study on the longitudinal trajectories, motivations, and identities of four individuals learning CHL in a Western Canadian university program; and (4) consider implications of this work for improving curriculum, pedagogy, learning materials, and policies.
SMS experience and textisms in young adolescents
Authors: Bernicot Josie , Volckaert-Legrier Olga , Goumi Antonine , Bert-Erboul Alain
Published: June 2014

The aim of this paper was to study the characteristics of SMSes in a population for which there is currently only limited data: young adolescents (girls and boys) between 11 and 12 years of age. The analysis focused on a corpus of 4,524 SMSes sent by 19 informants in everyday real-life situations over a one-year period. At the beginning of the study, the participants were complete novices. This study sets forth a new analysis grid which distinguishes between two categories of textisms which were defined based on the following cognitive processes: (a) textisms which are consistent with the traditional written code of grapheme–phoneme correspondence and (b) textisms which break with this traditional code. On the whole, the density of textisms was .52 and .26, respectively, for each kind of textism. The results showed an increase in the density of textisms with SMS experience (from month 1 to month 12), but also a variation depending upon the type of textism and the gender of the texter. For boys, the density of both types of textisms increased with SMS experience, while for girls, the density of textisms only increased for textisms which broke with the code. The results were interpreted in terms of the construction of an SMS register with specific linguistic markers resulting from a different use of traditional writing rules or the use of inventions as compared to traditional writing.
French text messages
Authors: Panckhurst Rachel , Moïse Claudine
Published: June 2014

Over a three-month period (spanning 15 September to 15 December 2011), over 90,000 authentic text messages in French were collected by a group of academics in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France. This paper retraces the organisation of the data collection, the elaboration of the sociolinguistic questionnaire that donors were invited to fill out, text message data processing procedures and preliminary results. A shift from individual “isolated” text messages to “conversational” SMS exchanges is then studied, in preparation for a new SMS conversational data collection which is due to take place in the near future. This whole process is important for understanding in-depth interactional practices within contemporary digital textuality and should provide insight for pluri-disciplinary approaches.
Lol, mdr and ptdr
Authors: Uygur-Distexhe Deniz
Published: June 2014

Given the extensive use of LOL (Laughing Out Loud), MDR (Mort De Rire) and PTDR (PéTé De Rire) in French texting and the inclusion of lol in the Oxford English Dictionary in 2011 and in Le Petit Robert in 2013, this paper aims to study the functioning of these three initialisms. Considered mainly as interjections, I hypothesize that lol, mdr, and ptdr could work syntactically (through their non-integration in the syntactic clause and position) and semantically (through their semantic opacity and procedural meaning) as discourse markers. In order to show this discourse marker use, this exploratory study was carried out using a prototypical methodology characterized by an inclusive and gradual approach. Based on syntactic and semantic analysis, a discourse marker ranking was performed, and this resulted in a contextual analysis (co-occurrences, moods and moves).

This inclusive and gradual approach allows for doubt and lack of knowledge of the context in the analysis process. More broadly, this work also throws light on texting as a spontaneous computer-mediated communication type with writing constraints imposed by the communication medium and the situation.
Chapter 1. Academic voices and claims
Authors: Soler-Monreal Carmen , Gil-Salom Luz
Published: June 2014

This paper investigates contrastively how politeness strategies that involve reporting verbs are deployed in the Literature Review (LR) chapters of PhD theses written in English and in Spanish. It analyses a comparable corpus of 20 theses– 10 in English and 10 in Spanish – in computer science. It focuses on usesof reporting structures realised through integral and non-integral citations ofother texts (Hyland 1999). The research design is based on the model proposed by Thompson and Ye (1991), who distinguished three categories of reporting verbs according to the process they perform: textual, mental and research verbs,and analysed the evaluative potential of verbal processes whose responsibility is ascribed either to the reviewed author or to the reporting writer. We also took as a reference the politeness model offered by Brown & Levinson (1987) to study the presence of specific face-redressive politeness means in the double-voiced dialogue which is established in the corpus of LRs. Data show that English writers show personal commitment and tentativeness, while Spanish writers tend to mask individual voices and avoid personal confrontation.
Chapter 2. The role of authorial voice in professional and non-professional reviews of films
Authors: Carretero Marta
Published: June 2014

Following the Appraisal framework, this paper explores the role of authorial voice in 80 English and Spanish film reviews, half professional and half consumer-generated. The analysis focuses on Engagement, a dialogic category that concerns the relation between what is being stated and other actual or potential view points. The realizations of the Engagement sub categories in there views were submitted to a quantitative analysis, whose results reveal: firstly,a pervasive high frequency of disclaimers (i.e. the sub categories of Deny and Counter), for which an explanation is proposed in terms of the importance of counter-expectation in the film reviews; and secondly, a number of distributional differences among the sub categories, depending on the language and the review type. These differences are discussed in detail.
Chapter 3. Multivoiced interaction in English and Italian academic review discourse
Authors: Diani Giuliana
Published: June 2014

The study presented in this chapter is based on an analysis of historical book review articles in English and Italian and investigates the way the genre across national academic cultures represents the typical discursive procedures through the activity of the reviewer and of other voices in the texts. The analysis reveals interesting linguistic features which can shed light on the dialogic and argumentative dimension of the genre under examination. As a result of the analysis carried out, it emerges that both English and Italian historical book review articles are characterised by a plurality of textual voices involved in argumentative dialogue with the reviewer – reviewed book author, discourse community, reader. These voices are powerfully active in the interaction and become the reviewer’s partners in a scientific ‘conversation’.
Investigating variation in Arabic intonation
Authors: Hellmuth Sam
Published: June 2014

This paper provides a first description of the intonational patterns of San‘aani Arabic (sa, the dialect of Arabic spoken in the capital of Yemen) and a comparison of these patterns with those observed in Cairene Arabic (ca), revealing differences between the two varieties which mirror cross-linguistic prosodic variation. The sa analysis is based on qualitative transcription of portions of a multi-level corpus, including read speech sentences, a narrative retold from memory and a sociolinguistic data collection tool which yields free conversation data in the desired variety as well as information that can be used to confirm which variety is being used. The corpus design and methodology serve as a prototype for larger data collection to document intonational variation in Arabic.
On negative concord in Egyptian and Moroccan Arabic
Authors: Ouali Hamid , Soltan Usama
Published: June 2014

The aim of this paper is threefold: First, we provide a descriptive account of the facts of negative concord (nc) in both Egyptian and Moroccan Arabic, showing how the two dialects are similar, and how they differ in this regard. Second, we discuss previous analyses of nc and how they fare in accounting for the nc facts in both Arabic dialects, pointing out challenges posed to each approach. Finally, we propose an analysis that treats nc as an instance of syntactic agreement between the negative head and the negative concord item, along the lines suggested in Zeijlstra (2008), but where the parametric variation between Egyptian and Moroccan Arabic lies in the lexical properties of the negative concord items of each dialect, rather than in the negative markers themselves, and where conditions of economy on syntactic derivations are appealed to account for the observed nc patterns.
Modes of interrogatives entail modes of sluicing
Authors: Leung Tommi Tsz-Cheung
Published: June 2014

Recent studies of sluicing as an elliptical construction are divided with respect to how the bare wh-word in the sluicing clause (i.e. wh-sluice) manifests its expected grammatical properties on the one hand, and receives its semantic interpretation on the other hand. In this paper, I investigate Emirati Arabic (ea) sluicing and conclude that ea sluicing should be analyzed as tp-deletion from an underlying wh-construction, at the level of pf. This supports the pf-deletion approach (Ross 1969, Merchant 2001) and argues against the lf-copying approach (Chung, Ladusaw and McCloskey 1995, 2006, Chung 2005) to sluicing. Moreover, I demonstrate that the ea sluicing source is predetermined by the type of wh-construction in ea. ea allows two types of wh-constructions, namely wh-fronting and wh-clefts. Both wh-strategies, while morphosyntactically distinct, are fully attested in the formation of sluicing. This paper also claims that the typology of wh-constructions has a direct impact on the typology of sluicing.
Minimal Model Explanations
Authors: Batterman Robert W. , Rice Collin C.
Published: June 2014

This article discusses minimal model explanations, which we argue are distinct from various causal, mechanical, difference-making, and so on, strategies prominent in the philosophical literature. We contend that what accounts for the explanatory power of these models is not that they have certain features in common with real systems. Rather, the models are explanatory because of a story about why a class of systems will all display the same large-scale behavior because the details that distinguish them are irrelevant. This story explains patterns across extremely diverse systems and shows how minimal models can be used to understand real systems.
Clostridium difficile Infections in Veterans Health Administration Acute Care Facilities
Authors: Evans Martin E. , Simbartl Loretta A. , Kralovic Stephen M. , Jain Rajiv , Roselle Gary A.
Published: June 2014

Objective

An initiative was implemented in July 2012 to decrease Clostridium difficile infections (CDIs) in Veterans Affairs (VA) acute care medical centers nationwide. This is a report of national baseline CDI data collected from the 21 months before implementation of the initiative.

Methods

Personnel at each of 132 data-reporting sites entered monthly retrospective CDI case data from October 2010 through June 2012 into a central database using case definitions similar to those of the National Healthcare Safety Network multidrug-resistant organism/CDI module.

Results

There were 958,387 hospital admissions, 5,286,841 patient-days, and 9,642 CDI cases reported during the 21-month analysis period. The pooled CDI admission prevalence rate (including recurrent cases) was 0.66 cases per 100 admissions. The nonduplicate/nonrecurrent community-onset not-healthcare-facility-associated (CO-notHCFA) case rate was 0.35 cases per 100 admissions, and the community-onset healthcare facility–associated (CO-HCFA) case rate was 0.14 cases per 100 admissions. Hospital-onset healthcare facility–associated (HO-HCFA), clinically confirmed HO-HCFA (CC-HO-HCFA), and CO-HCFA rates were 9.32, 8.40, and 2.56 cases per 10,000 patient-days, respectively. There were significant decreases in admission prevalence (P = .0006, Poisson regression), HO-HCFA (P = .003), and CC-HO-HCFA (P = .004) rates after adjusting for type of diagnostic test. CO-HCFA and CO-notHCFA rates per 100 admissions also trended downward (P = .07 and .10, respectively).

Conclusions

VA acute care medical facility CDI rates were higher than those reported in other healthcare systems, but unlike rates in other venues, they were decreasing or trending downward. Despite these downward trends, there is still a substantial burden of CDI in the system supporting the need for efforts to decrease rates further.
Frequency of Interactions and Hand Disinfections among Anesthesiologists While Providing Anesthesia Care in the Operating Room: Induction versus Maintenance
Authors: Munoz-Price L. Silvia , Riley Bobbie , Banks Shawn , Eber Scott , Arheart Kristopher , Lubarsky David A. , Birnbach David J.
Published: June 2014

We evaluated the behaviors of anesthesiologists during induction and maintenance of anesthesia. Contacts with surfaces occurred a mean (±standard error) of 154.8 ± 7.7 and 60 ± 3.1 times per hour during induction and maintenance, respectively (P < .0001). Hand hygiene events were 1.8 ± 0.27 per hour during induction versus 1.19 ± 0.27 during maintenance (P = .018).

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2014;35(8):1056–1059
Rising Rates of Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae in Community Hospitals: A Mixed-Methods Review of Epidemiology and Microbiology Practices in a Network of Community Hospitals in the Southeastern United States
Authors: Thaden Joshua T. , Lewis Sarah S. , Hazen Kevin C. , Huslage Kirk , Fowler Vance G. , Moehring Rebekah W. , Chen Luke F. , Jones Constance D. , Moore Zack S. , Sexton Daniel J. , Anderson Deverick J.
Published: June 2014

(See the commentary by Pfeiffer and Beldavs, on pages 984–986.)

Objective

Describe the epidemiology of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) and examine the effect of lower carbapenem breakpoints on CRE detection.

Design

Retrospective cohort.

Setting

Inpatient care at community hospitals.

Patients

All patients with CRE-positive cultures were included.

Methods

CRE isolated from 25 community hospitals were prospectively entered into a centralized database from January 2008 through December 2012. Microbiology laboratory practices were assessed using questionnaires.

Results

A total of 305 CRE isolates were detected at 16 hospitals (64%). Patients with CRE had symptomatic infection in 180 cases (59%) and asymptomatic colonization in the remainder (125 cases; 41%). Klebsiella pneumoniae (277 isolates; 91%) was the most prevalent species. The majority of cases were healthcare associated (288 cases; 94%). The rate of CRE detection increased more than fivefold from 2008 (0.26 cases per 100,000 patient-days) to 2012 (1.4 cases per 100,000 patient-days; incidence rate ratio (IRR), 5.3 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.22–22.7]; P = .01). Only 5 hospitals (20%) had adopted the 2010 Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) carbapenem breakpoints. The 5 hospitals that adopted the lower carbapenem breakpoints were more likely to detect CRE after implementation of breakpoints than before (4.1 vs 0.5 cases per 100,000 patient-days; P < .001; IRR, 8.1 [95% CI, 2.7–24.6]). Hospitals that implemented the lower carbapenem breakpoints were more likely to detect CRE than were hospitals that did not (3.3 vs 1.1 cases per 100,000 patient-days; P = .01).

Conclusions

The rate of CRE detection increased fivefold in community hospitals in the southeastern United States from 2008 to 2012. Despite this, our estimates are likely underestimates of the true rate of CRE detection, given the low adoption of the carbapenem breakpoints recommended in the 2010 CLSI guidelines.
An Economic Model: Value of Antimicrobial-Coated Sutures to Society, Hospitals, and Third-Party Payers in Preventing Abdominal Surgical Site Infections
Authors: Singh Ashima , Bartsch Sarah M. , Muder Robert R. , Lee Bruce Y.
Published: June 2014

Background

While the persistence of high surgical site infection (SSI) rates has prompted the advent of more expensive sutures that are coated with antimicrobial agents to prevent SSIs, the economic value of such sutures has yet to be determined.

Methods

Using TreeAge Pro, we developed a decision analytic model to determine the cost-effectiveness of using antimicrobial sutures in abdominal incisions from the hospital, third-party payer, and societal perspectives. Sensitivity analyses systematically varied the risk of developing an SSI (range, 5%–20%), the cost of triclosan-coated sutures (range, $5–$25/inch), and triclosan-coated suture efficacy in preventing infection (range, 5%–50%) to highlight the range of costs associated with using such sutures.

Results

Triclosan-coated sutures saved $4,109–$13,975 (hospital perspective), $4,133–$14,297 (third-party payer perspective), and $40,127–$53,244 (societal perspective) per SSI prevented, when a surgery had a 15% SSI risk, depending on their efficacy. If the SSI risk was no more than 5% and the efficacy in preventing SSIs was no more than 10%, triclosan-coated sutures resulted in extra expenditure for hospitals and third-party payers (resulting in extra costs of $1,626 and $1,071 per SSI prevented for hospitals and third-party payers, respectively; SSI risk, 5%; efficacy, 10%).

Conclusions

Our results suggest that switching to triclosan-coated sutures from the uncoated sutures can both prevent SSIs and save substantial costs for hospitals, third-party payers, and society, as long as efficacy in preventing SSIs is at least 10% and SSI risk is at least 10%.
Infectious Risk Moments: A Novel, Human Factors–Informed Approach to Infection Prevention
Authors: Clack Lauren , Schmutz Jan , Manser Tanja , Sax Hugo
Published: June 2014

We pilot tested a novel human factors–informed concept to identify infectious risk moments (IRMs) that occur with high frequency during routine intensive care. Following 30 observation-hours, 28 potential IRMs related to hand hygiene, gloves, and objects were expert rated. A comprehensive IRM inventory may provide valuable taxonomy for research, training, and intervention.

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2014;35(8):1051–1055
A Plant‐Level, Spatial, Bioeconomic Model of Plant Disease Diffusion and Control: Grapevine Leafroll Disease
Authors: Atallah Shady S. , Gómez Miguel I. , Conrad Jon M. , Nyrop Jan P.
Published: June 2014

Grapevine leafroll disease threatens the economic sustainability of the grape and wine industry in the United States and around the world. This viral disease reduces yield, delays fruit ripening, and affects wine quality. Although there is new information on the disease spatial‐dynamic diffusion, little is known about profit‐maximizing control strategies. Using cellular automata, we model the disease spatial‐dynamic diffusion for individual plants in a vineyard, evaluate nonspatial and spatial control strategies, and rank them based on vineyard expected net present values. Nonspatial strategies consist of roguing and replacing symptomatic grapevines. In spatial strategies, symptomatic vines are rogued and replaced, and their nonsymptomatic neighbors are virus‐tested, then rogued and replaced if the test is positive. Both nonspatial and spatial classes of strategies are formulated and examined with and without considering vine age. We find that spatial strategies targeting immediate neighbors of symptomatic vines dominate nonspatial strategies, increasing the vineyard expected net present value by 18% to 19% relative to the strategy of no disease control. We also find that age‐structured disease control is preferred to non‐age‐structured control but only for nonspatial strategies. Sensitivity analyses show that disease eradication is possible if either the disease transmission rate or the virus undetectability period is substantially reduced.
Omega: an Overlap-graphde novoAssembler for Metagenomics
Authors: Haider Bahlul , Ahn Tae-Hyuk , Bushnell Brian , Chai Juanjuan , Copeland Alex , Pan Chongle
Published: June 2014

Motivation : Metagenomic sequencing allows reconstruction of microbial genomes directly from environmental samples. Omega ( o verlap-graph me ta g enome a ssembler) was developed for assembling and scaffolding Illumina sequencing data of microbial communities.

Results : Omega found overlaps between reads using a prefix/suffix hash table. The overlap graph of reads was simplified by removing transitive edges and trimming short branches. Unitigs were generated based on minimum cost flow analysis of the overlap graph and then merged to contigs and scaffolds using mate-pair information. In comparison with three de Bruijn graph assemblers (SOAPdenovo, IDBA-UD and MetaVelvet), Omega provided comparable overall performance on a HiSeq 100-bp dataset and superior performance on a MiSeq 300-bp dataset. In comparison with Celera on the MiSeq dataset, Omega provided more continuous assemblies overall using a fraction of the computing time of existing overlap-layout-consensus assemblers. This indicates Omega can more efficiently assemble longer Illumina reads, and at deeper coverage, for metagenomic datasets.

Availability and implementation : Implemented in C++ with source code and binaries freely available at http://omega.omicsbio.org .

Contact : panc@ornl.gov

Supplementary information:  Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Inflammasomes and intestinal homeostasis: regulating and connecting infection, inflammation and the microbiota
Authors: Gagliani Nicola , Palm Noah W. , de Zoete Marcel R. , Flavell Richard A.
Published: June 2014

Inflammasomes are large cytosolic protein complexes that detect infection and stress-associated signals and promote immediate inflammatory responses. In the intestine, activation of the inflammasome leads to an inflammatory response that is important for controlling enteric infections but can also result in pathological tissue damage. Recent studies have suggested that the inflammasome also regulates intestinal homeostasis through its effects on the intestinal microbiota. Notably, many conflicting studies have been published regarding the effect of inflammasome deficiencies on intestinal homeostasis. Here, we attempt to reconcile these contrasting data by highlighting the many ways that the inflammasome contributes to intestinal homeostasis and pathology and exploring the potential role of alterations in the microbiota in these conflicting studies.
Proton Gradient Regulation5-Like1-Mediated Cyclic Electron Flow Is Crucial for Acclimation to Anoxia and Complementary to Nonphotochemical Quenching in Stress Adaptation
Authors: Kukuczka Bernadeta , Magneschi Leonardo , Petroutsos Dimitris , Steinbeck Janina , Bald Till , Powikrowska Marta , Fufezan Christian , Finazzi Giovanni , Hippler Michael
Published: June 2014

To investigate the functional importance of Proton Gradient Regulation5-Like1 (PGRL1) for photosynthetic performances in the moss Physcomitrella patens, we generated a pgrl1 knockout mutant. Functional analysis revealed diminished nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) as well as decreased capacity for cyclic electron flow (CEF) in pgrl1. Under anoxia, where CEF is induced, quantitative proteomics evidenced severe down-regulation of photosystems but up-regulation of the chloroplast NADH dehydrogenase complex, plastocyanin, and Ca2+ sensors in the mutant, indicating that the absence of PGRL1 triggered a mechanism compensatory for diminished CEF. On the other hand, proteins required for NPQ, such as light-harvesting complex stress-related protein1 (LHCSR1), violaxanthin de-epoxidase, and PSII subunit S, remained stable. To further investigate the interrelation between CEF and NPQ, we generated a pgrl1 npq4 double mutant in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii lacking both PGRL1 and LHCSR3 expression. Phenotypic comparative analyses of this double mutant, together with the single knockout strains and with the P. patens pgrl1, demonstrated that PGRL1 is crucial for acclimation to high light and anoxia in both organisms. Moreover, the data generated for the C. reinhardtii double mutant clearly showed a complementary role of PGRL1 and LHCSR3 in managing high light stress response. We conclude that both proteins are needed for photoprotection and for survival under low oxygen, underpinning a tight link between CEF and NPQ in oxygenic photosynthesis. Given the complementarity of the energy-dependent component of NPQ (qE) and PGRL1-mediated CEF, we suggest that PGRL1 is a capacitor linked to the evolution of the PSII subunit S-dependent qE in terrestrial plants.