bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Lipid profile of bovine blastocysts exposed to insulin during in vitro oocyte maturation
Authors: Laskowski Denise , Andersson Göran , Humblot Patrice , Sirard Marc-André , Sjunnesson Ylva , Ferreira Christina R. , Pirro Valentina , Båge Renée
Published: April 2018

Insulin is a key hormone with important functions in energy metabolism and is involved in the regulation of reproduction. Hyperinsulinaemia is known to impair fertility (for example, in obese mothers); therefore, we aimed to investigate the impact of elevated insulin concentrations during the sensitive period of oocyte maturation on gene expression and lipid profiles of the bovine Day-8 embryo. Two different insulin concentrations were used during in vitro oocyte maturation (INS10 = 10 µg mL−1 and INS0.1 = 0.1 µg mL−1) in order to observe possible dose-dependent effects or thresholds for hyperinsulinaemia in vitro. By investigating gene expression patterns by an mRNA microarray in combination with lipid profile analysis by desorption electrospray ionisation-mass spectrometry (DESI-MS) of embryos derived from insulin-treated oocytes, we gained further insights regarding molecular responses of embryos to insulin provocation during the first days of development. Lipid metabolism appeared to be influenced on multiple levels according to gene expression results but the profiles collected in positive-ion mode by DESI-MS (showing mostly ubiquinone, cholesteryl esters and triacylglycerols) did not differ significantly from controls. There are parallels in follicular development of ruminants and humans that make this bovine model relevant for comparative research on early human embryonic development during hyperinsulinaemia.
Determining the relationship between bull sperm kinematic subpopulations and fluorescence groups using an integrated sperm quality analysis technique
Authors: Yániz J. L. , Palacín I. , Caycho K. S. , Soler C. , Silvestre M. A. , Santolaria P.
Published: April 2018

The aim of the present study was to determine whether there is an association between the kinematic sperm subpopulations and fluorescent groups in bulls using a new fluorescent staining method that allows classification of spermatozoa into groups depending on their acrosomal and membrane integrity, as well as functional status, without inhibiting sperm motility. Cryopreserved semen samples from 10 Holstein bulls were used in the study. A multiparametric analysis of results obtained by the ISAS 3Fun kit (Proiser) was performed. The different fluorescent groups were detected and their motility characteristics evaluated using ISAS software. Clustering procedures using the kinematic data resulted in the classification of spermatozoa into three kinematic sperm subpopulations. The distribution of kinematic sperm subpopulations was different between the fluorescent sperm groups (P < 0.001), although the correlation between them was low (r = 0.113; P < 0.01).
Ecological responses of Stipa steppe in Inner Mongolia to experimentally increased temperature and precipitation 5: Synthesis and implications
Authors: Hu Guozheng , Wan Zhiqiang , Chen Yali , Chao Luomeng , Gao Qingzhu , Wang Xuexia , Yang Jie
Published: April 2018

A randomised block experiment was conducted to study the response of plant community characteristics (biomass, density and diversity) and ecosystem carbon exchange processes to warming, increased precipitation and their combination on Stipa steppe in Inner Mongolia. Increased precipitation enhanced the effect that warming had in promoting community diversity and biomass. Increased precipitation directly increased net ecosystem exchange and gross ecosystem productivity, although ecosystem respiration and soil respiration also increased. However, warming did not have a significant effect on net ecosystem exchange and gross ecosystem productivity, whereas ecosystem respiration and soil respiration were significantly decreased by warming. All carbon flux processes had a significantly positive correlation with soil moisture. However, the carbon sequestration processes, gross ecosystem productivity and net ecosystem exchange, were significantly negatively correlated with temperature, contrary to carbon emission processes, soil respiration and ecosystem respiration. Results suggest that Stipa steppe may be benefited by future climate change, as the predicted precipitation is increasing with warming in Inner Mongolia. However, it is hard to predict the feedback of Stipa steppe to climate, because of the uncertainty in magnitude and temporal dynamics of climate change. To reveal the mechanism of the observed responses, further studies are suggested in this region on the effects of altered climate variables on plant species interactions, soil organic carbon composition, soil extracellular enzyme activity, microbial biomass and microbial respiration.
The first complete mitochondrial genomes of subterranean dytiscid diving beetles (Limbodessus and Paroster) from calcrete aquifers of Western Australia
Authors: Hyde Josephine , Cooper Steven J. B. , Munguia Pablo , Humphreys William F. , Austin Andrew D.
Published: April 2018

Comparative analyses of mitochondrial (mt) genomes may provide insights into the genetic changes, associated with metabolism, that occur when surface species adapt to living in underground habitats. Such analyses require comparisons among multiple independently evolved subterranean species, with the dytiscid beetle fauna from the calcrete archipelago of central Western Australia providing an outstanding model system to do this. Here, we present the first whole mt genomes from four subterranean dytiscid beetle species of the genera Limbodessus (L. palmulaoides) and Paroster (P. macrosturtensis, P. mesosturtensis and P. microsturtensis) and compare genome sequences with those from surface dytiscid species. The mt genomes were sequenced using a next-generation sequencing approach employing the Illumina Miseq system and assembled de novo. All four mt genomes are circular, ranging in size from 16 504 to 16 868 bp, and encode 37 genes and a control region. The overall structure (gene number, orientation and order) of the mt genomes is the same as that found in eight sequenced surface species, but with genome size variation resulting from length variation of intergenic regions and the control region . Our results provide a basis for future investigations of adaptive evolutionary changes that may occur in mt genes when species move underground.
Niger-Congo numeral classifiers in a diachronic perspective
Authors: Kießling Roland
Published: April 2018

Numeral classifier systems have only recently come to be recognized in various African languages where they either co-exist with fully fledged noun class systems or supersede residual ones. This chapter explores the semantic and morphosyntactic properties of Niger-Congo numeral classifier systems in a typological and a diachronic perspective. Due to an incipient stage of development, most of these systems are fairly transparent etymologically. With respect to lexical source concepts, the classifier items originate in nouns for concrete objects such as body parts or in basic level terms, most of which relate to the botanical domain. Syntactically, the emergent classifier constructions provide counter-evidence to current generalizations in that they separate the classifier from the numeral, allowing for morphophonological fusion of classifier and enumerated noun rather than classifier and numeral. These syntactic properties reflect constituency relations directly inherited from associative predecessor constructions.
Conventionality and linguistic domain(s) involved in the characterization of metonymies (for the creation of a detailed typology of metonymy)
Authors: Blanco-Carrión Olga
Published: April 2018

This is the second of three chapters devoted to the presentation of a set of criteria included in a database resulting from a project on the characterization of conceptual metonymy. It discusses Fields 5 and 7 of the database entry model, concerning conventionality, either conceptual or conceptual and linguistic, and the linguistic levels where metonymies operate (grammatical rank, meaning, form, grammatical process, and function).
What kind of reasoning mode is metonymy?
Authors: Panther Klaus-Uwe , Thornburg Linda L.
Published: April 2018

In this chapter we present new arguments for a conception of metonymy as a contingent, i.e. defeasible, inferential relation between a source and a target sense within the same conceptual frame. Some scholars have raised objections against our approach to metonymy, claiming that there exist entailment-based metonymies. We demonstrate that the “counterexamples” in support of this thesis are in fact not entailments but cancelable inferences based on encyclopedic knowledge. We develop an account of metonymy inspired by the Peircean concept of abduction, a mode of reasoning that is pervasive in both scientific and everyday inferencing. Finally, we propose a distinction between default and incongruence-based metonymies and point out some parallelisms between metonymies and Gricean conversational implicatures.
Molly married money
Authors: Radden Günter
Published: April 2018

This chapter is concerned with the conceptual basis of metonymy. Particular attention is devoted to properties that are considered crucial to conceptual metonymy. The metonymic source has received little attention. However, it plays an important role as an element of the target and is given due attention. The notion of association is applied to metonymic interconnections, inference, and strength of association. A central element of metonymy is the notion of relation: However, neither contiguity nor indexicality adequately covers the range of metonymic relations. The paper argues that two more properties are pertinent to conceptual metonymy: a metonymic shift from a source concept to a complex metonymic target, and the conceptual

integration of source and target and its resulting emergent meanings.
The mouth of the speaker
Authors: Pannain Rossella
Published: April 2018

Among body parts, speech organs are a default source of metonymic mapping towards the domain of linguistic action. In Italian this conceptual metonymy is responsible for several representations of types of speaker and linguistic behavior, and may be encoded in nominal modification and in word formation by compounding or evaluative suffixation. Within these construction schemas, the semantics of the lexical bases and of the additional lexical/morphological elements interact in conjuring the metonymic (-metaphoric) denotations of the four Italian linguistic items analyzed in the chapter. Their semantics involves value judgment, which partly depends on the target domain, and the contribution of scalar dimensional notions such as size and quantity. The data are primarily drawn from two corpora of contemporary written Italian.
Newt cells secrete extracellular vesicles with therapeutic bioactivity in mammalian cardiomyocytes
Authors: Middleton Ryan C. , Rogers Russell G. , De Couto Geoffrey , Tseliou Eleni , Luther Kristin , Holewinski Ronald , Soetkamp Daniel , Van Eyk Jennifer E. , Antes Travis J. , Marbán Eduardo
Published: April 2018

Newts can regenerate amputated limbs and cardiac tissue, unlike mammals which lack broad regenerative capacity. Several signaling pathways involved in cell proliferation, differentiation and survival during newt tissue regeneration have been elucidated, however the factors that coordinate signaling between cells, as well as the conservation of these factors in other animals, are not well defined. Here we report that media conditioned by newt limb explant cells (A1 cells) protect mammalian cardiomyocytes from oxidative stress‐induced apoptosis. The cytoprotective effect of A1‐conditioned media was negated by exposing A1 cells to GW4869, which suppresses the generation of extracellular vesicles (EVs). A1‐EVs are similar in diameter (~100–150 nm), structure, and share several membrane surface and cargo proteins with mammalian exosomes. However, isolated A1‐EVs contain significantly higher levels of both RNA and protein per particle than mammalian EVs. Additionally, numerous cargo RNAs and proteins are unique to A1‐EVs. Of particular note, A1‐EVs contain numerous mRNAs encoding nuclear receptors, membrane ligands, as well as transcription factors. Mammalian cardiomyocytes treated with A1‐EVs showed increased expression of genes in the PI3K/AKT pathway, a pivotal player in survival signaling. We conclude that newt cells secrete EVs with diverse, distinctive RNA and protein contents. Despite ~300 million years of evolutionary divergence between newts and mammals, newt EVs confer cytoprotective effects on mammalian cardiomyocytes.
Predicting novel microRNA: a comprehensive comparison of machine learning approaches
Authors: Stegmayer Georgina , Di Persia Leandro E , Rubiolo Mariano , Gerard Matias , Pividori Milton , Yones Cristian , Bugnon Leandro A , Rodriguez Tadeo , Raad Jonathan , Milone Diego H
Published: April 2018

Motivation

The importance of microRNAs (miRNAs) is widely recognized in the community nowadays because these short segments of RNA can play several roles in almost all biological processes. The computational prediction of novel miRNAs involves training a classifier for identifying sequences having the highest chance of being precursors of miRNAs (pre-miRNAs). The big issue with this task is that well-known pre-miRNAs are usually few in comparison with the hundreds of thousands of candidate sequences in a genome, which results in high class imbalance. This imbalance has a strong influence on most standard classifiers, and if not properly addressed in the model and the experiments, not only performance reported can be completely unrealistic but also the classifier will not be able to work properly for pre-miRNA prediction. Besides, another important issue is that for most of the machine learning (ML) approaches already used (supervised methods), it is necessary to have both positive and negative examples. The selection of positive examples is straightforward (well-known pre-miRNAs). However, it is difficult to build a representative set of negative examples because they should be sequences with hairpin structure that do not contain a pre-miRNA.

Results

This review provides a comprehensive study and comparative assessment of methods from these two ML approaches for dealing with the prediction of novel pre-miRNAs: supervised and unsupervised training. We present and analyze the ML proposals that have appeared during the past 10 years in literature. They have been compared in several prediction tasks involving two model genomes and increasing imbalance levels. This work provides a review of existing ML approaches for pre-miRNA prediction and fair comparisons of the classifiers with same features and data sets, instead of just a revision of published software tools. The results and the discussion can help the community to select the most adequate bioinformatics approach according to the prediction task at hand. The comparative results obtained suggest that from low to mid-imbalance levels between classes, supervised methods can be the best. However, at very high imbalance levels, closer to real case scenarios, models including unsupervised and deep learning can provide better performance.
An optimization framework for network annotation
Authors: Patkar Sushant , Sharan Roded
Published: April 2018

Motivation

A chief goal of systems biology is the reconstruction of large-scale executable models of cellular processes of interest. While accurate continuous models are still beyond reach, a powerful alternative is to learn a logical model of the processes under study, which predicts the logical state of any node of the model as a Boolean function of its incoming nodes. Key to learning such models is the functional annotation of the underlying physical interactions with activation/repression (sign) effects. Such annotations are pretty common for a few well-studied biological pathways.

Results

Here we present a novel optimization framework for large-scale sign annotation that employs different plausible models of signaling and combines them in a rigorous manner. We apply our framework to two large-scale knockout datasets in yeast and evaluate its different components as well as the combined model to predict signs of different subsets of physical interactions. Overall, we obtain an accurate predictor that outperforms previous work by a considerable margin.

Availability and implementation

The code is publicly available at https://github.com/spatkar94/NetworkAnnotation.git.
Inference of species phylogenies from bi-allelic markers using pseudo-likelihood
Authors: Zhu Jiafan , Nakhleh Luay
Published: April 2018

Motivation

Phylogenetic networks represent reticulate evolutionary histories. Statistical methods for their inference under the multispecies coalescent have recently been developed. A particularly powerful approach uses data that consist of bi-allelic markers (e.g. single nucleotide polymorphism data) and allows for exact likelihood computations of phylogenetic networks while numerically integrating over all possible gene trees per marker. While the approach has good accuracy in terms of estimating the network and its parameters, likelihood computations remain a major computational bottleneck and limit the method’s applicability.

Results

In this article, we first demonstrate why likelihood computations of networks take orders of magnitude more time when compared to trees. We then propose an approach for inference of phylogenetic networks based on pseudo-likelihood using bi-allelic markers. We demonstrate the scalability and accuracy of phylogenetic network inference via pseudo-likelihood computations on simulated data. Furthermore, we demonstrate aspects of robustness of the method to violations in the underlying assumptions of the employed statistical model. Finally, we demonstrate the application of the method to biological data. The proposed method allows for analyzing larger datasets in terms of the numbers of taxa and reticulation events. While pseudo-likelihood had been proposed before for data consisting of gene trees, the work here uses sequence data directly, offering several advantages as we discuss.

Availability and implementation

The methods have been implemented in PhyloNet (http://bioinfocs.rice.edu/phylonet).
MicroPheno: predicting environments and host phenotypes from 16S rRNA gene sequencing using a k-mer based representation of shallow sub-samples
Authors: Asgari Ehsaneddin , Garakani Kiavash , McHardy Alice C , Mofrad Mohammad R K
Published: April 2018

Motivation

Microbial communities play important roles in the function and maintenance of various biosystems, ranging from the human body to the environment. A major challenge in microbiome research is the classification of microbial communities of different environments or host phenotypes. The most common and cost-effective approach for such studies to date is 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Recent falls in sequencing costs have increased the demand for simple, efficient and accurate methods for rapid detection or diagnosis with proved applications in medicine, agriculture and forensic science. We describe a reference- and alignment-free approach for predicting environments and host phenotypes from 16S rRNA gene sequencing based on k-mer representations that benefits from a bootstrapping framework for investigating the sufficiency of shallow sub-samples. Deep learning methods as well as classical approaches were explored for predicting environments and host phenotypes.

Results

A k-mer distribution of shallow sub-samples outperformed Operational Taxonomic Unit (OTU) features in the tasks of body-site identification and Crohn’s disease prediction. Aside from being more accurate, using k-mer features in shallow sub-samples allows (i) skipping computationally costly sequence alignments required in OTU-picking and (ii) provided a proof of concept for the sufficiency of shallow and short-length 16S rRNA sequencing for phenotype prediction. In addition, k-mer features predicted representative 16S rRNA gene sequences of 18 ecological environments, and 5 organismal environments with high macro-F1 scores of 0.88 and 0.87. For large datasets, deep learning outperformed classical methods such as Random Forest and Support Vector Machine.

Availability and implementation

The software and datasets are available at https://llp.berkeley.edu/micropheno.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Comment to Hansson, S. et al. (2017): “Competition for the fish – fish extraction from the Baltic Sea by humans, aquatic mammals, and birds”, with special reference to cormorants, perch, and pikeperch
Authors: Heikinheimo Outi , Lehtonen Hannu , Lehikoinen Aleksi
Published: April 2018

Hansson et al. (2017) concluded that competition between fisheries and piscivorous mammals and birds exists in the Baltic Sea, based on the estimation of biomass of the fish species consumed in the ICES subdivisions. We compared their results to the data and scientific knowledge from the coastal waters of Finland and show that local differences in fisheries, fish assemblages and abundance of predators should be taken into account to reliably assess potential competition. Hansson et al. (2017) did not include the piscivorous fish in their analysis, but these may be the most important predators. In the Archipelago Sea, for instance, the consumption by fish predators is considerably larger than that of cormorants.
Constraining the H2 column density distribution at z ∼ 3 from composite DLA spectra
Authors: Balashev S A , Noterdaeme P
Published: April 2018

We present the detection of the average H2 absorption signal in the overall population of neutral gas absorption systems at z∼ 3 using composite absorption spectra built from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III damped Lyman α catalogue. We present a new technique to directly measure the H2 column density distribution function $f_{\rm H_2}(N)$ from the average H2 absorption signal. Assuming a power-law column density distribution, we obtain a slope $\beta = -1.29 \pm 0.06(\rm stat) \pm 0.10 (\rm sys)$ and an incidence rate of strong H2 absorptions [with N(H2) ≳ 1018 cm−2] to be $4.0 \pm 0.5(\rm stat) \pm 1.0 (\rm sys)\, \hbox{ per cent}$ in H i absorption systems with N(H i) ≥1020 cm−2. Assuming the same inflexion point where $f_{\rm H_2}(N)$ steepens as at z = 0, we estimate that the cosmological density of H2 in the column density range $\log N(\rm H_2) ({\rm cm}^{-2})= 18{\text{--}}22$ is ${\sim } 15\hbox{ per cent}$ of the total. We find one order of magnitude higher H2 incident rate in a sub-sample of extremely strong damped Lyman α absorption systems (DLAs) [$\log N(\rm{H\,\small {I}}) ({\rm cm}^{-2}) \ge 21.7$], which, together with the derived shape of $f_{\rm H_2}(N)$, suggests that the typical H i–H2 transition column density in DLAs is log N(H)(cm−2) ≳ 22.3 in agreement with theoretical expectations for the average (low) metallicity of DLAs at high-z.
El Niño–Southern Oscillation and its impact in the changing climate
Authors: Yang Song , Li Zhenning , Yu Jin-Yi , Hu Xiaoming , Dong Wenjie , He Shan
Published: April 2018

Extensive research has improved our understanding and forecast of the occurrence, evolution and global impacts of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). However, ENSO changes as the global climate warms up and it exhibits different characteristics and climate impacts in the twenty-first century from the twentieth century. Climate models project that ENSO will also change in the warming future and have not reached an agreement about the flavor, as to the intensity and the frequency, of future ENSO conditions. This article presents the conventional view of ENSO properties, dynamics and teleconnections, and reviews the emerging understanding of the diversity and associated climate impacts of ENSO. It also reviews the results from investigations into the possible changes in ENSO under the future global-warming scenarios.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Authors: Anthes Carolin , De Schutter Olivier
Published: April 2018

The core objective of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) since its founding in 1945 has been to eradicate hunger. International policy debates and the work of the Organization focused until the 1980s on increasing agricultural production; however, a shift has occurred in recent years in the understanding of FAO’s mandate. The modest but growing reference to the right to food has become an essential part of this new thinking, which crystallized at the 1996 World Food Summit and in the adoption of the 2004 Right to Food Guidelines. Although the visibility of the right to food has gradually increased in the Organization’s work, this chapter—while assessing the past and current state of mainstreaming the right to food within FAO—argues that right to food mainstreaming within FAO is far from unidirectional and has more recently seen a period of retrenchment.
The Only Constant is Change
Authors: Epstein Ben
Published: April 2018

The Only Constant Is Change presents and tests the political communication cycle (PCC), a model describing how political actors and organizations make decisions about if, how, and when to innovate their political communication practices. Generally speaking, political communication goals have remained largely stable over time, but the strategies used to accomplish these goals have changed a great deal. The PCC describes the recurring process of political communication innovation through American political history. This model incorporates the technological, political, and behavioral factors influencing how and when changes in political communication activity take place. The PCC is made up of three phases that also serve as an organizational structure for the book. First is the technological imperative, which focuses on how new information and communications technologies (ICT) are developed and what types of ICTs may be more or less likely to be used to innovate political communication. Next, the political choice phase incorporates the behavioral processes embedded in how different types of actors choose whether to innovate or not. This phase is the most critical and is analyzed through case studies evaluating how campaigns, social movements, and interest groups have or have not changed their political communication activities over time. Finally, the stabilization phase encompasses the process of how once innovative techniques become the new status quo though the establishment of new norms, regulations, and institutions. The book explores these changes through historical and contemporary analysis, which offers important context and tools to understand political communication through history and today.
Rentier Islamism
Authors: Freer Courtney
Published: April 2018

This book, using contemporary history and original empirical research, updates traditional rentier state theory, which largely fails to account for the existence of Islamist movements, by demonstrating the political capital held by Muslim Brotherhood affiliates in Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While rentier state theory predicts that citizens of such states will form opposition blocs only when their stake in rent income is threatened, this book demonstrates that ideology, rather than rent, has motivated the formation of independent Islamist movements in the wealthiest states of the region. It argues for this thesis by chronicling the history of the Brotherhood in Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE, and showing how the organization adapted to the changing (and often adverse) political environs of those respective countries to remain a popular and influential force for social, educational, and political change in the region. The presence of oil rents, then, far from rendering Islamist complaint politically irrelevant, shapes the ways in which Islamist movements seek to influence government policies.
Human Rights in Context
Authors: Forst Rainer
Published: April 2018

In the first part of the comments, Andrea Sangiovanni’s “broad view” of human rights is analysed and criticized for being too broad. It does not provide a sufficient normative ground for the core concept of human rights, and its account of constructing more concrete conceptions of human rights is too indeterminate with respect to both substance and procedure. In the second part, an alternative, discourse-theoretical view is outlined.
The Nature of Violations of the Human Right to Subsistence
Authors: Ashford Elizabeth
Published: April 2018

The question this chapter addresses is whether or not the human right to subsistence, which is widely internationally recognized, is underpinned by a fundamental human right, which has a peremptory moral force parallel to that of classic negative human rights such that the persistence of severe poverty should be classified as a human rights violation. While it is uncontroversial that torture or genocide, for example, constitute human rights violations, the claim that the persistence of severe poverty constitutes a human rights violation is much more controversial. The chapter argues that there is a fundamental moral human right to subsistence, and that the ongoing allowing and infliction of severe poverty constitutes a human rights violation that demands abolition. It also argues that the existing international practice of human rights fails to adequately recognize some of the duties not to violate this right, and some of the respects in which the right is being violated.
Reflections on Human Rights and Power
Authors: Gilabert Pablo
Published: April 2018

This chapter explores the tensions between the normative ideal of human rights and the facts of asymmetric power. First, it reconstructs and assesses important power-related worries about human rights. These worries are sometimes presented as falsifying the view that human rights exist, or at least as warranting the abandonment of human rights practice. The chapter argues that the worries do not warrant such conclusions. Instead, they motivate the identification of certain desiderata for the amelioration of human rights practice. The chapter identifies twelve such desiderata. Second, this chapter proposes a strategy for satisfying these desiderata. In particular, it suggests some ways to build empowerment into the human rights project that reduce the absolute and relative powerlessness of human rights holders, while also identifying an ethics of responsibility and solidarity for contexts in which power deficits will not dissolve. Power analysis does not debunk the human rights project. Properly articulated, it is an important tool for those pursuing it.
The Third Retail Revolution
Authors: Ellis Steven J. R.
Published: April 2018

This chapter considers the causes behind the reshaping of Roman retail landscapes during the third and last of the retail revolutions; while the process began in the Flavian era, its full expression was more often realized during the urban building boom of the early second century BCE. A homogenization of form now characterized the Roman taberna, as evidenced through the more simplified structural layouts of what are now rows and rows of one- and two-room shops. We also see it in the regularization of shop-fronts as identified through their standardized, mass-produced threshold stones. This chapter questions how the increasingly standardized shop-fronts can be found in so many cities across the Roman world, yet not everywhere. It also considers the dichotomous nature of the evidence for tabernae from this period, which represents both economic prosperity (in their architectural construction) and decline (in their artifact assemblages).
The Rise of Partnerships: From Local to Global
Authors: Gray Barbara , Purdy Jill
Published: April 2018

Multistakeholder partnerships (MSPs) are formed to tackle knotty societal problems, promote innovation, provide public services, expand governance capabilities, set standards for a field, or resolve conflicts that impede progress on critical issues. Partnerships are viewed as collaboration among four types of stakeholders: businesses, governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and civic society. The objective of collaboration is to create a richer, more comprehensive appreciation of the iss/problem than any of the partners could construct alone by viewing it from the perspectives of all the stakeholders and designing robust solutions. Such partnerships are necessary because few organizations contain sufficient knowledge and resources to fully analyze issues and take action on them unilaterally. Five essential components of a rigorous definition of collaboration are presented: interdependence among partners, emergence of shared norms, wrestling with differences, respect for different competencies, and assuming joint responsibility for outcomes. Several examples of MSPs are provided.
Quality and Content
Authors: Levine Joseph
Published: April 2018

The papers presented in this volume cover topics, such as the “phenomenal concept strategy,” to defend materialism from anti-materialist intuitions, the doctrine of representationalism about phenomenal character, the modal argument against materialism, the nature of demonstrative thought, and cognitive phenomenology. On the one hand, I argue that the phenomenal concept strategy cannot work and that representationalism has certain fatal flaws, at least if it’s to be joined to a materialist metaphysics. On the other, I defend materialism from the modal argument, arguing that it relies on a questionable conflation of semantic and metaphysical issues. I also provide a naturalistic theory of demonstrative thought, criticizing certain philosophical arguments involving that notion in the process. I argue as well that the peculiarly subjective nature of secondary qualities provides a window into the nature of the relation between phenomenal character and intentional content, and conclude that relation involves a robust notion of acquaintance.
The OV/VO alternation in early German
Authors: Fuß Eric
Published: April 2018

This chapter discusses a set of theoretical approaches to the OV/VO alternation in Early German (with an emphasis on OHG), focusing on the question of whether it is possible to identify a basic serialization pattern that underlies the ‘mixed’ word order properties found at the syntactic surface. Based on a review of a set of OV/VO diagnostics, including for example the placement of elements that resist extraposition, properties of verbal complexes, and the significance of deviations from the source text in translations, it is argued that—despite some notable exceptions—OHG exhibits a more consistent verb-final nature than other Early Germanic languages (OE, in particular). This conclusion is supported by the observation that OV qualifies as the unmarked surface word order, which is compatible with a larger set of pragmatic contexts.
The ACI construction in the history of German
Authors: Speyer Augustin
Published: April 2018

The ACI (accusativus cum infinitivo) in Modern German is governed almost exclusively by perception verbs. For genuine OHG, the same can be said. In MHG and ENHG authors began to experiment with other verb classes as potentially governing ACIs, probably influenced by Latin, but this usage never made its way in ‘normal’ grammar. The tenacity of the exclusive association of ACI with perception verbs hints at an analysis in which the logical subject of the ACI is a constituent on its own, the predicate part of the ACI being a separate constituent. Other tests, e.g. tests for constituency, point in the same direction. This is different from Latin; here the ACI as a whole counts as constituent and can therefore as a whole function as direct object. The structural difference might account for the fact that the syntactic loan of an extended usage of the ACI never came to fruition.
The Remnants of the Rechtsstaat
Authors: Meierhenrich Jens
Published: April 2018

This book provides an intellectual history of Ernst Fraenkel’s classic The Dual State (1941), one of the most erudite books on the theory of dictatorship ever written. Fraenkel’s was the first comprehensive analysis of the rise and nature of National Socialism, and the only such analysis written from within Hitler’s Germany. His sophisticated––not to mention courageous––analysis amounted to an ethnography of Nazi law. Because of its clandestine origins, The Dual State has been hailed as the ultimate piece of intellectual resistance to the racial regime. This book brings Fraenkel’s innovative concept of “the dual state” back in, restoring it to its rightful place in the annals of public law scholarship. Uniquely blending insights from legal theory and legal history, it tells in an accessible manner the truly suspenseful gestation of Fraenkel’s ethnography of law inside the belly of the behemoth. But this is also a book about the ordering presence of institutions more generally. In addition to upending conventional wisdom about the law of the “Third Reich,” it explores the legal origins of dictatorship elsewhere, then and now. It theorizes the idea of an authoritarian rule of law, a cutting edge topic in law-and-society scholarship, and thus also speaks to the topic of democratic backsliding in the twenty-first century.
Translating leadership into safe nursing practice
Authors: Kiper Valerie
Published: April 2018

Because nurses have the most interaction with patients, nurse leaders at all levels can influence organizational safety culture.
Global Prevalence of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Among Children and Youth: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Authors: Lange Shannon , Probst Charlotte , Gmel Gerrit , Rehm Jürgen , Burd Larry , Popova Svetlana
Published: April 2018

(Abstracted from JAMA Pediatr 2017;171(10):948–956)

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is an umbrella term for the wide range of adverse effects to the developing fetus when exposed to alcohol during pregnancy, some of which are lifelong. The severity and type of defects induced by FASD are affected by the age of embryo at exposure, pattern of exposure, and dose; however, other factors including genetic background, maternal age, and environmental influences also appear to impact susceptibility.
Inter/Intraobserver Reliability of T1 Pelvic Angle (TPA), a Novel Radiographic Measure for Global Sagittal Deformity
Authors: Plachta Stephen M. , Israel Heidi , Brechbuhler Jennifer , Hayes Ann , Huebner Stephen , Place Howard M.
Published: April 2018

Study Design.

Reliability analysis.

Objective.

To assess intra- and interobserver agreement of the T1 pelvic angle (T1PA), a novel radiographic measure of spinal sagittal alignment. Orthopedic surgeons of various levels of experience measured the T1PA in a series of healthy adult volunteers. The relationship of the TIPA to pelvic position was also assessed.

Summary of Background Data.

Recent literature suggests that the T1PA is a more reliable measure of global sagittal alignment than traditional measurements (i.e., sagittal vertical axis). Previous research focuses on postoperative patients with known spinal deformity. No published research exists evaluating the use of T1PA on healthy subjects without spinal deformity. The purpose of this study is: (1) to assess the reliability of measurements of the T1PA, (2) to examine its relationship to pelvic position.

Methods.

Seven evaluators of varying orthopedic experience measured the T1PA in 50 healthy adult volunteers. Subjects were radiographed in each of three pelvic positions: resting, maximal anterior pelvic rotation, and maximal posterior pelvic rotation. After a washout period, the measurement was repeated. Using intraclass correlation coefficients, the intra- and inter-rater agreement for the T1PA was measured. The collected data was also used to determine the accuracy of this measurement and its relationship to pelvic position.

Results.

A very high level of agreement was found in measurements of the T1PA (intraclass correlation coefficients r = 0.98). At each pelvic position, all examiners had excellent intrarater reliability, > 0.85. The inter-rater reliability, compared with a gold standard, consistently measured the T1PA within ± 2°. The data also shows that the T1PA changes with pelvic rotation.

Conclusion.

T1PA is a reproducible and reliable measure of global sagittal alignment regardless of the level of training. The T1PA varies based on pelvic rotation; this variation must be taken into account when assigning an absolute target for correction.

Level of Evidence: 4
Measurement Properties of the Functional Rating Index
Authors: Bai Zhongfei , Shu Tian , Lu Jiani , Niu Wenxin
Published: April 2018

Study Design.

A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective.

To assess the measurement properties of the Functional Rating Index (FRI) and determine whether its measurement properties are comparable with other region-specific questionnaires.

Summary of Background Data.

In addition to low back pain (LBP) and neck pain (NP), multiregion spinal pain (SP) is a common problem with a considerable prevalence in the general population. The FRI was built to assess physical functioning in patients with SP. However, a systematic review assessing evidence of its measurement properties in separated populations and a comparison with other questionnaires regarding each measurement property is lacking.

Methods.

Articles concerning the FRI's measurement properties or head-to-head comparison with other questionnaires on measurement properties were obtained from MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, and PsycINFO. Two reviewers independently reviewed the articles, extracted data, and conducted the methodological quality assessment. The COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) checklist was used to assess the methodological quality of the included studies.

Results.

A total of 18 studies evaluating the FRI's measurement properties, including seven that carried out head-to-head comparisons in at least one measurement property with other questionnaires, were included in the current review. Our findings show strong positive evidence for structural validity and internal consistency in patients with SP and LBP. Evidence for most of the FRI's measurement properties is limited, conflicting, or even unknown. The current evidence shows that the FRI is comparable with both the Oswestry Disability Index and the Neck Disability Index in responsiveness. However, relevant information about the majority of the other measurement properties is lacking.

Conclusion.

Our finding suggests that clinicians and researchers should use the FRI with caution until there are more studies with high methodological quality that support the view that it is positive in all measurement properties, especially in regard to patients with multiregion SP.

Level of Evidence: 1
Simplified Chinese Version of the Japanese Orthopaedic Association Back Pain Evaluation Questionnaire
Authors: Yao Min , Yang Long , Zhu Bin , Xu Bao-ping , Chen Ni , Wang Xiao-tao , Cheng Shao-dan , Wang Yong-jun , Cui Xue-jun
Published: April 2018

Study Design.

Psychometric test of the cross-cultural adaptation the Japanese Orthopaedic Association Back Pain Evaluation Questionnaire (JOABPEQ) in low back pain (LBP) patients.

Objective.

To investigate the agreement, responsiveness, and minimal important change (MIC) of the simplified Chinese version of the JOABPEQ in LBP patients.

Summary of Background Data.

The factor structure, internal consistency, test–retest reliability, validity, floor and ceiling effect of simplified Chinese JOABPEQ have been tested, while the agreement, responsiveness, and MIC were required.

Methods.

The agreement, responsiveness, and MIC of the simplified Chinese version were assessed by completing the Chinese JOABPEQ twice. Agreement was tested with Bland–Altman plot. Responsiveness was operationalized using receiver operating characteristic analyses. The anchor-based method was used to calculate MIC.

Results.

One hundred sixty-two of 184 patients returned to finish the booklet twice were available for analysis (response rate: 88.0%). While the responsiveness, the area under the curves of each subscale were ranged from 0.746 to 0.875, which meant a good responsiveness. While the MIC (MIC%) of simplified Chinese JOABPEQ was 19.28 (44.98%) for Q1 Low back pain, 15.20 (24.13%) for Q2 Lumbar function, 15.79 (22.76%) for Q3 Walking ability, 9.58 (19.86%) for Q4 Social life function, 7.33 (17.28%) for Q5 Mental health. While compared with the MIC, only the Q3 Walking ability had a positive rating for agreement in the Bland–Altman plot.

Conclusion.

The simplified Chinese JOABPEQ has positive agreement of Q3 Walk ability and acceptable to excellent responsiveness of all the subscales. The MICs for subscales of the simplified Chinese JOABPEQ ranged from 7.33 to 19.28 points.

Level of Evidence: 3
Vasopressors During Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. A Network Meta-Analysis of Randomized Trials
Authors: Belletti Alessandro , Benedetto Umberto , Putzu Alessandro , Martino Enrico A. , Biondi-Zoccai Giuseppe , Angelini Gianni D. , Zangrillo Alberto , Landoni Giovanni
Published: April 2018

Objectives:

Several randomized controlled trials have compared adrenaline (epinephrine) with alternative therapies in patients with cardiac arrest with conflicting results. Recent observational studies suggest that adrenaline might increase return of spontaneous circulation but worsen neurologic outcome. We systematically compared all the vasopressors tested in randomized controlled trials in adult cardiac arrest patients in order to identify the treatment associated with the highest rate of return of spontaneous circulation, survival, and good neurologic outcome.

Design:

Network meta-analysis.

Patients:

Adult patients undergoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Interventions:

PubMed, Embase, BioMed Central, and the Cochrane Central register were searched (up to April 1, 2017). We included all the randomized controlled trials comparing a vasopressor with any other therapy. A network meta-analysis with a frequentist approach was performed to identify the treatment associated with the highest likelihood of survival.

Measurements and Main Results:

Twenty-eight studies randomizing 14,848 patients in 12 treatment groups were included. Only a combined treatment with adrenaline, vasopressin, and methylprednisolone was associated with increased likelihood of return of spontaneous circulation and survival with a good neurologic outcome compared with several other comparators, including adrenaline. Adrenaline alone was not associated with any significant difference in mortality and good neurologic outcome compared with any other comparator.

Conclusions:

In randomized controlled trials assessing vasopressors in adults with cardiac arrest, only a combination of adrenaline, vasopressin, and methylprednisolone was associated with improved survival with a good neurologic outcome compared with any other drug or placebo, particularly in in-hospital cardiac arrest. There was no significant randomized evidence to support neither discourage the use of adrenaline during cardiac arrest.