bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Violência conjugal, uso de álcool e sofrimento mental em homens atendidos na atenção primária
Authors: Wagner Luciane Carniel , Krug Juliana Cordeiro , Koeche Flávia
Published: February 2015

Modelo do estudo: Estudo quantitativo, descritivo, transversal, de caráter observacional. Introdução: A violência conjugal é um grave problema de saúde pública, freqüentemente associada ao consumo de álcool, trazendo conseqüências adversas à saúde mental e física das famílias. Seu manejo tem sido um desafio para as políticas sociais, especialmente por causa do medo e do silêncio das vítimas. Em função disso, é bastante interessante a utilização de avaliações de estratégias de resolução de conflito que permitam dimensionar indiretamente (e sutilmente) a violência presente no cotidiano conjugal. Objetivo: Identificar a prevalência de violência conjugal, abuso de álcool e sofrimento mental em homens atendidos (por motivos diversos) em uma unidade básica de saúde de um bairro socialmente carente da periferia de Porto Alegre. Metodologia: Foram avaliados 109 homens, escolhidos ao acaso, utilizando-se como instrumentos de pesquisa a Escala de Avaliação de Táticas de Resolução de Conflitos Conjugais; o CAGE, que acessa o abuso atual e passado de álcool; e o Questionário Geral de Saúde (QSG), que identifica sofrimento mental. Resultados: Os 109 participantes tinham idade média de 39±12,8 anos; 59,6% eram brancos; 75,2% tinham companheira estável; predomínio de baixa escolaridade; 65,1% exerciam alguma atividade laboral; 80,7% com renda média mensal de três salários mínimos ou menos. No que tange às táticas de resolução de conflitos conjugais, 24,8% foram agressivos fisicamente e 84,4% verbalmente ao menos uma vez no ano anterior à pesquisa. Sofrimento mental considerável foi diagnosticado em 49,5% dos entrevistados. Com relação ao uso de álcool, 22,9% responderam afirmativamente para abuso e dependência e outros 24,7% apresentaram risco de abuso e dependência. Conclusões: O estudo aponta para uma elevada prevalência de comportamento conjugal violento, consumo de álcool e sofrimento mental entre os sujeitos avaliados. Estes sujeitos tinham demandas diversas e não necessariamente buscaram o serviço para resolver estes problemas. Os serviços de saúde devem ficar atentos, promovendo estratégias de identificação indiretas, além de medidas de prevenção, que visem combater a violência conjugal e suas conseqüências.
Atividade laboral dos pais de estudantes de segundo grau candidatos a Cursos de Graduação em Ciências da Saúde
Authors: Filipini Samuel R. , Silva Maristela M.S. , Stasio Marcia B. di , Ramos Margarete de L. , Marçal-Vieira Marta N.C. , Peres Cristiane M. , Rodriques Maria de L.V.
Published: February 2015

Modelo do estudo: Estudo baseado em coleta de informações por meio de Questionário Estruturado. Objetivo do estudo: Verificar indicadores da situação econômica e cultural das famílias de alunos do segundo grau que pleiteiam o ingresso em cursos destinados a formar profissionais da saúde. Metodologia: Questionários auto-administrados foram respondidos por 256 estudantes do segundo grau, visitantes de Feira das Profissões da USP (FPUSP-interior). Esses questionários continham perguntas relativas ao tipo de escola que frequentavam e as atividades laborais de seus genitores. Os 108 estudantes de Escolas Públicas constituíram o Grupo 1 e os 148 alunos de Escolas Particulares formaram o Grupo 2. Resultados: A atividade profissional paterna mais frequente no Grupo 1 foi a de “Técnico Manual”(42,15%) e no Grupo 2 a de “Profissional de Nível Universitário” (24,11%). O maior grupo de mães do Grupo 1 foi composto por “Donas de Casa” (22,33%) seguido pelo das que exerciam “Outras Profissões Manuais”( 21,36%). No Grupo 2 a categoria mais frequente para as mães foi “Profissionais de Nível Universitário” (23,18%) seguida por “Professores e Diretores de Escolas” (19,56%). Cinco participantes do Grupo 1 e 27 do Grupo 2 eram filhos de Profissionais da Saúde. Conclusões: Apesar das diferenças das atividades laborais predominantes em cada um dos grupos estudados, os resultados confirmam que aspiração de se tornar um Profissional da Saúde independe da formação ou das profissões dos pais.
Online EM with Weight-Based Forgetting
Authors: Celaya Enric , Agostini Alejandro
Published: February 2015

In the online version of the EM algorithm introduced by Sato and Ishii ( 2000 ), a time-dependent discount factor is introduced for forgetting the effect of the old estimated values obtained with an earlier, inaccurate estimator. In their approach, forgetting is uniformly applied to the estimators of each mixture component depending exclusively on time, irrespective of the weight attributed to each unit for the observed sample. This causes an excessive forgetting in the less frequently sampled regions. To address this problem, we propose a modification of the algorithm that involves a weight-dependent forgetting, different for each mixture component, in which old observations are forgotten according to the actual weight of the new samples used to replace older values. A comparison of the time-dependent versus the weight-dependent approach shows that the latter improves the accuracy of the approximation and exhibits much greater stability.
Coding Accuracy Is Not Fully Determined by the Neuronal Model
Authors: Kostal Lubomir , Lansky Petr
Published: February 2015

It is automatically assumed that the accuracy with which a stimulus can be decoded is entirely determined by the properties of the neuronal system. We challenge this perspective by showing that the identification of pure tone intensities in an auditory nerve fiber depends on both the stochastic response model and the arbitrarily chosen stimulus units. We expose an apparently paradoxical situation in which it is impossible to decide whether loud or quiet tones are encoded more precisely. Our conclusion reaches beyond the topic of auditory neuroscience, however, as we show that the choice of stimulus scale is an integral part of the neural coding problem and not just a matter of convenience.
Self-Organization of Control Circuits for Invariant Fiber Projections
Authors: Fernandes Tomas , von der Malsburg Christoph
Published: February 2015

Assuming that patterns in memory are represented as two-dimensional arrays of local features, just as they are in primary visual cortices, pattern recognition can take the form of elastic graph matching (Lades et al., 1993 ). Neural implementation of this may be based on preorganized fiber projections that can be activated rapidly with the help of control units (Wolfrum, Wolff, Lücke, & von der Malsburg, 2008 ). Each control unit governs a set of projection fibers that form part of a coherent mapping. We describe a mathematical model for the ontogenesis of the underlying connectivity based on a principle of network self-organization as described by the Häussler system (Häussler & von der Malsburg, 1983 ), modified to be sensitive to pattern similarity and to support formation of multiple mappings, each under the command of a control unit. The process takes the form of a soft-winner-take-all, where units compete for the representation of maps. We show simulations for invariant point-to-point and feature-to-feature mappings.
Inventing Legal Combat: Pro-Poor “Struggles” in the Human Rights Jurisprudence of the Nigerian Appellate Courts, 1999–2011
Authors: Okafor Obiora Chinedu , Ugochukwu Basil
Published: February 2015

This article deals with the question whether the jurisprudence of Nigeria’s appellate courts has helped advance or impede the struggles of the poor to assert their human rights in the country. The article begins by defining, delimiting, and situating the concepts “struggle” and “human rights as struggle.” It then moves on to identify and discuss the factors that make the struggles that the poor and the subaltern must wage to realize their human rights a tough one. Following this discussion, the article turns its attention to its main focus, i.e., an analytical examination of the ways in which the corpus of human rights jurisprudence of the Nigerian appellate courts has either aided and/or inhibited the struggles of the poor and the subaltern in that country during the period under study. The latter discussion is sub-divided into two segments: the first is focused on the engagement of these courts with the pro-poor struggles of Nigerian Labour, while the second is devoted to an analysis of the attitude of the courts to other kinds of pro-poor human rights struggles in Nigeria. In both cases, given space and other constraints, only small but representative samples of the relevant cases are discussed.
The Place Name “Jiangjun Yu” in the Inscription of the Sino-Tibetan Treaty of 821-822
Authors: Mei Tsu-Lin
Published: February 2015

The place name Jiangjun Yu 將軍谷 was transliterated as tsang kun yog in Tibetan. Hence, 谷 must have been pronounced as jwok in Middle Chinese and *luk in Old Chinese. Written as 峪 during the Song, 谷 (with a fanqie reading of 余蜀) is still preserved in place names in present day north China. Pre-Qin 谷 *luk was a cognate of lung-pa in Tibetan, both meaning ‘valley’. Characters such as 俗欲裕, etc, with 谷 as the phonetic indicator, further lend evidence to this ancient pronunciation.
1902
Authors: Akitani Hiroyuki , Wang Li
Published: February 2015

This paper analyzes the phonological system of The Gospel of Mark in Wenchow Colloquial (1902), a text that allows an historical investigation of the Wenzhou phonology. Sounds are reconstructed. Characters are listed in homophony sets.
The formation of the inchoative aspect marker heisoenglai in Cantonese
Authors: Yiu Carine Yuk-man
Published: February 2015

There are two aspect markers in Cantonese whose meaning and use are similar: heilai and heisoenglai. Their meaning and use are equivalent to qilai in Mandarin, indicating that an event or a state begins. When an object is involved, it splits the two aspect markers into two parts: hei-Object-lai and hei-Object-soenglai. Examining the Cantonese historical materials compiled in the 19th and the early 20th centuries, it is noted that heilai already existed in the 19th century materials while the first occurrence of heisoenglai is found in a text published in 1930s. This paper tries to explore the formation of the inchoative aspect marker heisoenglai from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives. The paper further suggests that heisoenglai is formed as a result of the grammaticalization of the directional form: Verb + hei + Object + soeng + lai, a form which arises by combining Verb + hei + Object and Verb + Object + soeng + lai.
Progressive Reduplication in Old Chinese
Authors: Sun Jingtao
Published: February 2015

On the basis of an extensive investigation into ancient texts, this paper analyzes the semantic motivation and the corresponding phonological alternation in the process of changing from a monosyllabic form to a disyllabic form, discovering that there is a progressive pattern of reduplication in Old Chinese, which mainly conveys either diminutive meaning or vivid description. This research has been carried out based on the following principles: 1) pay close attention to the interaction between phonology and morphology; 2) try to recover the particular semantic relationship between the base and the reduplication form; 3) seek both phonological and sematic conditions for the derivational liquid consonant as well as its variants; 4) make comparison with the parallel cases in modern dialects; 5) make use of achievements in the phonological research of Old Chinese.
Syntactic Properties of the Discontinuous Construction “mai … lo” in Cantonese
Authors: Tang Sze-Wing
Published: February 2015

The goal of this paper is to explore various syntactic properties of mai and lo in Hong Kong Cantonese. It is argued that mai is an adverb and lo is a sentence final particle. Syntactically, the adverb mai and the sentence final particle lo form a phrase, which can be analyzed as a discontinuous construction expressing mood. It is shown that the mai … lo construction can co-occur with the discontinuous constructions that are correlated with events and tense/aspects and is incompatible with other discontinuous constructions that express mood. In terms of its syntactic distribution, the mai … lo construction occurs in root clauses only and is located in the highest position of the clause.
A Further Consideration of the Pattern “NP1, NP2 + shi ye/shi” in Chinese Translations of Indian Buddhist Text
Authors: Jiang Shaoyu
Published: February 2015

The pattern “NP1, NP2 + shi ye”, as found in the Chinese translations of Buddhist texts in the Han Dynasty, is not a direct imitation of, or derivation from, the pattern “NP1, NP2 (Subj) + shi (Pron) ye” of the pre-Qin era. Rather, it comes from the pattern “NP1, NP2 (Predicate N) + shi (Copula)” of the Western Han, Eastern Han, Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties periods. In the Chinese Buddhist translations of the Han Dynasty, “NP1, NP2 + shi” is a variant of “NP1, NP2 + shi ye”. The copious use of the two grammatical patterns in the Chinese translations is not intended to render the sentence-final copula in the original Sanskrit texts. Rather, when narrating stories that tell “the NP1 in the previous existence is in fact the NP2 in the present existence”, the Buddhist writings place a specific emphasis on the NP2 of the present existence. The Predicate NP appearing before the copula in these two patterns serves precisely that purpose. Hence, the use is most suitable for stories of this nature.
Between Exclamatives and Interrogatives in Li Jing Ji
Authors: Chao Ching-ya , Lien Chinfa
Published: February 2015

This paper explores the similarities and differences between exclamatives and interrogatives in terms of scalar modal. In this modal, they both denote a set of propositions which are organized into a scale according to at least one parameter. But in exclamatives the speaker profiles a proposition which is located towards an extreme end of the scale while in interrogatives the speaker asks the hearer to pick out a proposition from a presupposed set of propositions. The conceptual metaphor “Thinking Is Moving In The Ideascape” is used to provide a cognitive evidence for our approach. Finally, a preliminary study of two types of exclamatives which are marked with wh-words 乜 mih8 or deictic terms 拙 chua3, 障 chionn3, 向 hionn3 in Li Jing Ji is given.
Revisiting the alignment typology of ditransitive constructions in Chinese dialects
Authors: Zhang Min
Published: February 2015

With data from over a thousand regional varieties of Chinese, the paper presents a comprehensive survey of ditransitive constructions in Chinese dialects and their alignment types, focusing in particular on delving in system-internal and external factors correlating with the observed typological distinctions. It starts with questioning the validity of one of Hashimoto’s (1976) well-known parameters for North-South typological classification of Chinese – i.e., the double object construction (DOC) takes the form of V-OR-OT in Northern Chinese and V-OT-OR in Southern Chinese, the latter also known as the ‘Inverted DOC’ (IDOC), – based on the fact that two distinct groups of Southern Chinese, i.e., Min and Southwestern Mandarin spoken in Southwestern China, tally unexpectedly with Northern Chinese and only allow the form of V-OR-OT. It is subsequently found that the distinction is strongly correlated with the typology of the generalpurpose verb of giving (the verb ‘to give’). All dialects with DOC possess an underived ditransitive verb ‘to give’, whereas those with IDOC in general lack such as verb, using instead the combination of a monotransitive handling verb and an allative preposition, i.e., the dative construction in the form of ‘take OT to OR’, to express the ‘give’-type ditransitive event. This finding naturally leads to the following conclusions: (1) it is the loss of the verb ‘to give’ that triggers the loss of DOC in the latter group of dialects, which consequently renders the dative construction as the only ‘give’-type ditransitive construction in such dialects; (2) the IDOC is in nature an indirective construction (dative construction) with merely the dative marker left out, and the driving force of the omission is nothing but a high usage frequency of the indirective construction.

It is further observed that the English-like dative alternation between the DOC and the dative construction existing in Chinese for thousands of years since Archaic Chinese is only preserved in a small fraction of its modern varieties. The majority of Chinese dialects have undergone a typological shift from the mixed type to either the DOC-type (predominantly Northern Chinese) or the indirectivetype (predominantly Southern Chinese), motivated by the systerm-external factor (Altaization of Northern Chinese in the former case) and the systerm-internal factor (loss of the verb ‘to give’ in the latter case) respectively
On the Etyma of maŋ2 nau5 “Steamed Rice” in Xia Pu Dialect and A Related Issue
Authors: Wu Rui-wen
Published: February 2015

According to this author’s fieldwork in Pei Pi Village（北壁鄉），Xia Pu County（霞浦縣），a very interesting finding is that unlike most Chinese dialects, the cognate 飯‘puŋ6’ is not used to mean “steamed rice” but to mean “breakfast”. The word to indicate “steamed rice” is a rare disyllable “maŋ2 nau5” among Eastern Min dialects. This phenomenon is worthy to be looked into by increasing review of dialect materials and expanding the comparative scope.

Through correspondence with ancient Chinese phonological system, this paper aims to demonstrate that the etyma of the disyllable “maŋ2 nau5” are 暝 and 晝 respectively. The compound “maŋ2 nau5” consisted of two elements: the former (which indicates “dinner”) is “maŋ2”, and the latter “nau5” denoted “lunch.” It is obvious that the lexical replacement occurred in Xia Pu dialect. From the lexical shift point of view, the innovation of the replacement is induced by the semantic confusion between “puŋ6”[飯] and “tsa3”[早]. The process of the replacement could be reconstructed as follows:

Further, the etymon of “steamed rice” in several north Eastern Min dialects seems not to be explained reasonably until now, for instance, Fu An “maŋ5”, Zhe Reng “maŋ5”, Shou Ning “maŋ5”, Zhou Ning “maŋ5”. The disyllable “maŋ2 nau5” in Xia Pu may bring the puzzle into light. In view of historical comparison, I have every reason to speculate that “maŋ5” in north Eastern Min dialects could be traced back to the primitive form “maŋ2 nau5”. The phonological strategy is syllable contraction.
The Classification of Shanghai-Area Dialects
Authors: Chen Zhongmin
Published: February 2015

This paper deals with the classification of the dialects of the Shanghai area. I propose that tonal split can be used as a major criterion to classify these dialects. Based on this criterion I classify the dialects in the Shanghai area into five subgroups: the Chongming, Jiading, Songjiang, Liantang and Urban groups. This classification not only reflects the different types of dialectal developments, but is also in keeping with the distinct historical-cultural backgrounds associated with each dialect area. There are three parts to this paper: 1. the criteria of the classification, and the classification of the dialects; 2. the historical background of the classification; 3. some common phonological features of the dialects of the Shanghai area.
The Development of Suffixes Li / Neng / Jiao in Reduplicated Forms of Monosyllabic Adjectives in the Northern Wu Dialects
Authors: Shi Rujie
Published: February 2015

This paper, drawing upon linguistic data from documents dated from the end of the Ming Dynasty to the beginning of the Republican era, analyzes the development of the suffixes li / neng / jiao when attached to reduplicated forms of monosyllabic adjectives in the northern Wu dialects.
On the Lexical Differences between South and North as Revealed by Diachronic Substitutions of mu and yan
Authors: Chou Wen-Huei
Published: February 2015

It is an important task to discover the linguistic differences between South and North during the Southern and Northern Dynasties period. Prior discussions have always concentrated on phonological aspects, while lexical studies are nearly entirely absent. In this paper, we propose a systematic methodology to unearth lexical differences. By investigating diachronic substitutions of disyllabic structures relating to words for “eye”, we observe that the northerners tended to use the ancient word mu 目 while the southerners adopted the new word yan 眼 in formal writing. This conclusion partly confirms Yan Zhitui’s point: “southerners often use vernacular words while northerners use archaisms.” In the future, more studies of this kind will reveal the overall lexical differences between South and North, and will help us to understand the “Yan Zhitui Puzzle”.
The Design Concept and the Phonological System of Huangji Jingshi: Shengyin Changhe Tu: On the Influence of Image-Number Yijing Studies on the Creation of the Korean Alphabet
Authors: Wang Sung-Mu
Published: February 2015

Among the extant rhyme tables of the Song Dynasty, Shao Yong’s (1011–1077) Huangji Jingshi: Shengyin Changhe Tu is the most unique. It is different from other phonological tables, such as Yunjing and Qiyin Lue, that were designed for the interpretation of fanqie formulae in terms of arrangement and phonological terminology. However, most contemporary scholars have failed to notice the unique design in Shengyin Changhe Tu and merely follow Karlgren’s paradigm, which contends that a phonological table objectively reflects certain dialectal phonological features through the prism of historical phonology.

Instead, the present paper approaches the question of how the rhyme table is structured from the perspective of the history of phonological philosophy rather than historical phonology. By so doing, the role of philologists is reconsidered as that of a rhyme designer constructing an ideal sound system, rather than that of a dialectologist investigating a real sound system. The following questions are then discussed: What is the purpose for compiling such a work as Shengyin Changhe Tu and what are its design motivations? Can other scholars’ reconstructions of the sound system and sound values of Shengyin Changhe Tu be considered reasonable? In addition to Shengyin Changhe Tu, did the Image-Number Yijing School have any impact on the design of the later phonological tables? In this way the author wishes to develop a new humanistic approach toward understanding of the rhyme tables in order to correct the blind spots and flaws resulting from an overly extreme tendency toward scientism.
Re-examining the Devoicing of Middle Chinese Voiced Initials in Hakka: When and Where?
Authors: Kwok Bit-Chee
Published: February 2015

The voiced stops and affricates of Middle Chinese have basically shifted to their voiceless aspirated counterparts (henceforth, “devoicing”) regardless of tone categories in the following dialects:

1. the Hakka dialects;

2. the Gan dialects;

3. various Mandarin dialects spoken along the Shanxi-Shaanxi-Henan border;

4. a small group of Mandarin dialects in southeastern Jiangsu; and

5. a northwestern dialect spoken in the Late Tang period.

It has been claimed that the above-mentioned dialects are closely related, based on the fact that they have undergone the same development of the Middle Chinese voiced stops and affricates. In this paper, we argue that the devoicing of Hakka took place in southern China, probably in modern-day southern Jiangxi, some time between the early 10th century and the late 17th century. The devoicing pattern shared by Hakka and other Chinese dialects should therefore be treated as parallel development rather than as evidence for closer genetic affinity among all these dialects.
Development and Strata Analysis of Shan She Unrounded Cognates in Proto-Min
Authors: Wu Rui-Wen
Published: February 2015

Norman (1980) proposed a complete proto-Min final system for the collquial strata of Min Languages. Based on Norman’s system, I review the fianls about the Shan She unroubed cognates and suggest some modification. In this paper, I increase the materail of Min languages and reconstruct the proto forms of daughter languages of Min by used the comparative method strictly. I also indicate the differnent strata of the collquial strata in proto-Min fianls. Form the viewpoint of historical linguistics, Proto-Min finals of Shan She unrouded cognates include two strata: one is from Chin-Han period and the other Six Dynasity period. The obvious characteristic of Chin-Han Stratum of proto-Min is that Shan She unrouded Grade II and IV was merged and undergone a particular sound change: metathesis. The characteristic of Six Dynasity stratum is that either Shan She unrouded Garde III or IV have a medial constituent and the vowel contrast between Garde III and IV is preserved which is the phonological characteristic of Jiang Dong dialect of Six Dynasity period.
First species of Leptochelia Dana, 1849 (Crustacea: Tanaidacea) from the Eastern Pacific, with an annotated checklist and identification keys for the genus
Authors: JARQUÍN-GONZÁLEZ JANI , GARCÍA-MADRIGAL MARÍA DEL SOCORRO , CARRERA-PARRA LUIS FERNANDO
Published: February 2015

Forty three species of leptocheliids are known worldwide. In the American region only eight species have been described from the Western Atlantic, while for the Eastern Pacific none have been described, suggesting that the diversity of this family has been severely underestimated in this region. Here we describe the first species of Leptochelia from the Eastern Pacific, Leptochelia mexicana n. sp., which is characterized by the males having a spiniform seta on the second segment of uropodal endopod, a novel feature for the genus. In addition, the first annotated checklist and a taxonomic key with illustrations for Leptochelia species are included. The list includes the type locality, type depository, distribution, habitat and, in some cases, remarks.
Column-Integrated Moist Static Energy Budget Analysis on Various Time Scales during TOGA COARE
Authors: Inoue Kuniaki , Back Larissa
Published: February 2015

Moist static energy (MSE) budgets on different time scales are analyzed in the TOGA COARE data using Lanczos filters to separate variability with different frequencies. Four different time scales (~2-day, ~5-day, ~10-day, and MJO time scales) are chosen based on the power spectrum of the precipitation and previous TOGA COARE studies. The lag regression-slope technique is utilized to depict characteristic patterns of the variability associated with the MSE budgets on the different time scales.

This analysis illustrates that the MSE budgets behave in significantly different ways on the different time scales. On shorter time scales, the vertical advection acts as a primary driver of the recharge–discharge mechanism of column MSE. As the time scale gets longer, in contrast, the relative contributions of the other budget terms become greater, and consequently, on the MJO time scale all the budget terms have nearly the same amplitude. Specifically, these results indicate that horizontal advection plays an important role in the eastward propagation of the MJO during TOGA COARE. On the MJO time scale, the export of MSE by the vertical advection is in phase with the precipitation. On shorter time scales, the vertical velocity profile transitions from bottom heavy to top heavy, while on longer time scales, the shape becomes more constant and similar to a first-baroclinic-mode structure. This leads to a more-constant gross moist stability on longer time scales, which the authors estimate.
Estimating the Anthropogenic Sea Surface Temperature Response Using Pattern Scaling
Authors: Bichet Adeline , Kushner Paul J. , Mudryk Lawrence , Terray Laurent , Fyfe John C.
Published: February 2015

This study seeks to derive the sea surface temperature (SST) response to anthropogenic forcing from observations over the last century, using simple methods inspired from pattern scaling. As in pattern scaling, the spatial response is assumed to scale with global-mean and annual-mean surface temperature. The long-term aim of this work is to generate anthropogenically forced SST and sea ice patterns for the recent past and near-term future, and use them to force atmosphere–land climate models for attribution and prediction purposes. The present work compares estimation methodologies and, within a Monte Carlo framework based on large initial condition ensembles of climate model simulations, examines the robustness of the patterns obtained.

The different methods explored here yield a similar SST spatial response, mostly reflecting the observed SST linear trend map. The different methods nevertheless provide distinctive temporal evolution of the global-mean and annual-mean SST response, which in turn affects the temporal evolution of the global-mean and annual-mean air surface temperature simulated in corresponding prescribed SST simulations. The estimated SST spatial response consists mostly of a warming of the midlatitude coasts near the western boundary currents, the tropical Indian Ocean, and the Arctic Ocean. This pattern generally agrees with previously published observational and modeling studies. Based on Monte Carlo analysis of the large ensembles, it is found that between 36% and 56% of its spatial variance results from anthropogenic forcing.

Overall, the work herein provides constraints on the uncertainty associated with the spatial variability of an anthropogenically forced component of climate change derived from observations, which can potentially be used for climate attribution and prediction.
Optimization of a Radiative Transfer Forward Operator for Simulating SMOS Brightness Temperatures over the Upper Mississippi Basin
Authors: Lievens H. , Al Bitar A. , Verhoest N. E. C. , Cabot F. , De Lannoy G. J. M. , Drusch M. , Dumedah G. , Hendricks Franssen H.-J. , Kerr Y. , Tomer S. K. , Martens B. , Merlin O. , Pan M. , van den Berg M. J. , Vereecken H. , Walker J. P. , Wood E. F. , Pauwels V. R. N.
Published: February 2015

The Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite mission routinely provides global multiangular observations of brightness temperature TB at both horizontal and vertical polarization with a 3-day repeat period. The assimilation of such data into a land surface model (LSM) may improve the skill of operational flood forecasts through an improved estimation of soil moisture SM. To accommodate for the direct assimilation of the SMOS TB data, the LSM needs to be coupled with a radiative transfer model (RTM), serving as a forward operator for the simulation of multiangular and multipolarization top of the atmosphere TBs. This study investigates the use of the Variable Infiltration Capacity model coupled with the Community Microwave Emission Modelling Platform for simulating SMOS TB observations over the upper Mississippi basin, United States. For a period of 2 years (2010–11), a comparison between SMOS TBs and simulations with literature-based RTM parameters reveals a basin-averaged bias of 30 K. Therefore, time series of SMOS TB observations are used to investigate ways for mitigating these large biases. Specifically, the study demonstrates the impact of the LSM soil moisture climatology in the magnitude of TB biases. After cumulative distribution function matching the SM climatology of the LSM to SMOS retrievals, the average bias decreases from 30 K to less than 5 K. Further improvements can be made through calibration of RTM parameters related to the modeling of surface roughness and vegetation. Consequently, it can be concluded that SM rescaling and RTM optimization are efficient means for mitigating biases and form a necessary preparatory step for data assimilation.
Observational Perspectives from U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN) and Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) Network: Temperature and Precipitation Comparison
Authors: Leeper Ronald D. , Rennie Jared , Palecki Michael A.
Published: February 2015

The U.S. Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) network was formed in the early 1890s to provide daily observations of temperature and precipitation. However, manual observations from naturally aspirated temperature sensors and unshielded precipitation gauges often led to uncertainties in atmospheric measurements. Advancements in observational technology (ventilated temperature sensors, well-shielded precipitation gauges) and measurement techniques (automation and redundant sensors), which improve observation quality, were adopted by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) into the establishment of the U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN). USCRN was designed to provide high-quality and continuous observations to monitor long-term temperature and precipitation trends, and to provide an independent reference to compare to other networks. The purpose of this study is to evaluate how diverse technological and operational choices between the USCRN and COOP programs impact temperature and precipitation observations. Naturally aspirated COOP sensors generally had warmer (+0.48°C) daily maximum and cooler (−0.36°C) minimum temperatures than USCRN, with considerable variability among stations. For precipitation, COOP reported slightly more precipitation overall (1.5%) with network differences varying seasonally. COOP gauges were sensitive to wind biases (no shielding), which are enhanced over winter when COOP observed (10.7%) less precipitation than USCRN. Conversely, wetting factor and gauge evaporation, which dominate in summer, were sources of bias for USCRN, leading to wetter COOP observations over warmer months. Inconsistencies in COOP observations (e.g., multiday observations, time shifts, recording errors) complicated network comparisons and led to unique bias profiles that evolved over time with changes in instrumentation and primary observer.
Impact of Loss of U.S. Microwave and Radio Occultation Observations in Operational Numerical Weather Prediction in Support of the U.S. Data Gap Mitigation Activities
Authors: Cucurull Lidia , Anthes Richard A.
Published: February 2015

As the U.S. polar-orbiting satellites NOAA-15, -18, and -19 and NASA’s Aqua satellite reach the ends of their lives, there may be a loss in redundancy between their microwave (MW) soundings, and the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) on the Suomi–National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite. With the expected delay in the launch of the next generation of U.S. polar-orbiting satellites, there may be a loss in at least some of the U.S. MW data. There may also be a significant decrease in the number of radio occultation (RO) observations. The mainstay of the global RO system, the COSMIC constellation of six satellites is already past the end of its nominal lifetime. A replacement of RO soundings in the tropics is planned with the launch of COSMIC-2 satellites in 2016. However, the polar constellation of COSMIC-2 will not be launched until 2018 or 2019, and complete funding for this constellation is not assured. Using the NCEP operational forecast system, forecasts for March–April 2013 are carried out in which various combinations of the U.S. MW and all RO soundings are removed. The main results are that the forecasts are only slightly degraded in the Northern Hemisphere, even with all of these observations removed. The decrease in accuracy is considerably greater in the Southern Hemisphere, where the greatest forecast degradation occurs when the RO observations are removed. Overall, these results indicate that the possible gap in RO observations is potentially more significant than the possible gap in the U.S. MW data.
A Review of Planetary Boundary Layer Parameterization Schemes and Their Sensitivity in Simulating Southeastern U.S. Cold Season Severe Weather Environments
Authors: Cohen Ariel E. , Cavallo Steven M. , Coniglio Michael C. , Brooks Harold E.
Published: February 2015

The representation of turbulent mixing within the lower troposphere is needed to accurately portray the vertical thermodynamic and kinematic profiles of the atmosphere in mesoscale model forecasts. For mesoscale models, turbulence is mostly a subgrid-scale process, but its presence in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) can directly modulate a simulation’s depiction of mass fields relevant for forecast problems. The primary goal of this work is to review the various parameterization schemes that the Weather Research and Forecasting Model employs in its depiction of turbulent mixing (PBL schemes) in general, and is followed by an application to a severe weather environment. Each scheme represents mixing on a local and/or nonlocal basis. Local schemes only consider immediately adjacent vertical levels in the model, whereas nonlocal schemes can consider a deeper layer covering multiple levels in representing the effects of vertical mixing through the PBL. As an application, a pair of cold season severe weather events that occurred in the southeastern United States are examined. Such cases highlight the ambiguities of classically defined PBL schemes in a cold season severe weather environment, though characteristics of the PBL schemes are apparent in this case. Low-level lapse rates and storm-relative helicity are typically steeper and slightly smaller for nonlocal than local schemes, respectively. Nonlocal mixing is necessary to more accurately forecast the lower-tropospheric lapse rates within the warm sector of these events. While all schemes yield overestimations of mixed-layer convective available potential energy (MLCAPE), nonlocal schemes more strongly overestimate MLCAPE than do local schemes.
Kinetics of the solvent-mediated transformation of hydromagnesite into magnesite at different temperatures
Authors: Di Lorenzo F. , Rodríguez-Galán R. M. , Prieto M.
Published: February 2015

The process of transforming hydromagnesite to magnesite is analysed in the context of the theory of solvent-mediated transformations. A series of experiments at 120, 150 and 180ºC with different heating times was designed to determine, by powder X-ray diffraction, the amount of magnesite generated as a function of time. The aqueous-phase composition was monitored by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and carbonate alkalimetry. From the analytical data, the evolution of saturation indexes with respect to both phases was determined using the geochemical codePHREEQC. Finally, two different methods were applied to obtain the activation energy of the process and a TTT (Temperature- Transformation-Time) graph was constructed to define suitable conditions in which to obtain magnesite.
The effect of heating on the morphology of crystalline neodymium hydroxycarbonate, NdCO3OH
Authors: Vallina Beatriz , Rodriguez-Blanco Juan Diego , Blanco Jesus A. , Benning Liane G.
Published: February 2015

The crystallization of hexagonal NdCO3OH through hydrothermal synthesis carried out at slow (reaching the desired temperature within 100 min) and quick (50 min) rates of heating but at variable temperatures (165–220ºC) are reported here. The formation of NdCO3OH occurs via the crystallization of an amorphous precursor. Both the precursor and the crystalline NdCO3OH were characterized by X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy and high-resolution electron microscopy. The mechanism of crystallization is very dependent on the experimental conditions (rate of heating and temperature treatment). With increasing temperature, the habit of NdCO3OH crystals changes progressively to more complex spherulitic or dendritic morphologies. The development of these crystal morphologies is suggested here to be controlled by the level at which supersaturation was reached in the aqueous solution during the breakdown of the amorphous precursor. At the highest temperature (220ºC) and during rapid heating (50 min) the amorphous precursor breaks down rapidly and the fast supersaturation promotes spherulitic growth. At the lowest temperature (165ºC) and slow heating (100 min), however, the supersaturation levels are approached more slowly than required for spherulitic growth, and thus more regular, previously unseen, triangular pyramidal shapes form.
Pore-volume alteration measurements to evaluate scale formation during solid–fluid interactions
Authors: Moola Prathap , Sigfússon Bergur , Stefánsson Andri
Published: February 2015

Pore-volume changes in porous media during water–rock interaction can be studied using hydrological tracers. The tracers used here were amino G acid, napthionic acid and fluorescein at pH 3 and 6.5 in contact with basaltic glass, quartz and rhyolite. The experimental setup mimicked that of a hydrological tracer test where a fixed volume of tracer was injected into a flow-through column and the breakthrough curve monitored. The measured breakthrough tracer curves were compared to theoretical 1-D reactive transport simulations calculated using the PHREEQC program. In some cases the tracers were observed to behave ideally, whereas in others they clearly reacted with the solid surfaces. This implies that some common hydrological tracers used in groundwater hydrology may not be suitable under all conditions as they may react with the surrounding rocks in the groundwater system.
An experimental study of tremolite dissolution rates as a function of pH and temperature: Implications for tremolite toxicity and its use in carbon storage
Authors: Diedrich Tamara , Schott Jacques , Oelkers Eric H.
Published: February 2015

Steady-state tremolite dissolution rates, at far-from-equilibrium conditions, were measured as a function of aqueous silica and magnesium activity, pH from 1.9 to 6.7, and temperature from 25 to 150ºC. Calcium is released from tremolite faster than either Mg or Si throughout most of the experiments even after these latter elements attained steady-state release rates. The preferential removal of Ca releases fine Mg-Si rich needle-like fibres from the tremolite, probably promoting its toxicity. In contrast, Mg was released in stoichiometric or near to stoichiometric proportion to Si once steady-state was attained. Measured steady-state tremolite dissolution rates based on Si release can be described using

where r+ signifies the BET surface area-normalized forward tremolite steady-state dissolution rate, AA refers to a pre-exponential factor = 6610–3 mol cm–2 s–1, EA designates an activation energy equal to 80 kJ mol–1, R represents the gas constant, T denotes absolute temperature, and ai refers to the activity of the subscripted aqueous species. This rate expression is consistent with tremolite dissolution rates at acidic pH being controlled by the detachment of partially liberated silica tetrahedra formed from the exchange of Mg2+ for two protons near the mineral surface after the near-surface Ca has been removed. Nevertheless, Mg release rates from tremolite are ~3 orders of magnitude slower than those from forsterite and enstatite suggesting that tremolite carbonation will be far less efficient than the carbonation of these other Mg-silicate minerals.
Second-generation PLINK: rising to the challenge of larger and richer datasets
Authors: Chang Christopher C , Chow Carson C , Tellier Laurent CAM , Vattikuti Shashaank , Purcell Shaun M , Lee James J
Published: February 2015

Background

PLINK 1 is a widely used open-source C/C++ toolset for genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and research in population genetics. However, the steady accumulation of data from imputation and whole-genome sequencing studies has exposed a strong need for faster and scalable implementations of key functions, such as logistic regression, linkage disequilibrium estimation, and genomic distance evaluation. In addition, GWAS and population-genetic data now frequently contain genotype likelihoods, phase information, and/or multiallelic variants, none of which can be represented by PLINK 1's primary data format.

Findings

To address these issues, we are developing a second-generation codebase for PLINK. The first major release from this codebase, PLINK 1.9, introduces extensive use of bit-level parallelism, (n)-time/constant-space Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and Fisher's exact tests, and many other algorithmic improvements. In combination, these changes accelerate most operations by 1-4 orders of magnitude, and allow the program to handle datasets too large to fit in RAM. We have also developed an extension to the data format which adds low-overhead support for genotype likelihoods, phase, multiallelic variants, and reference vs. alternate alleles, which is the basis of our planned second release (PLINK 2.0).

Conclusions

The second-generation versions of PLINK will offer dramatic improvements in performance and compatibility. For the first time, users without access to high-end computing resources can perform several essential analyses of the feature-rich and very large genetic datasets coming into use.
Live time-lapse dataset of in vitro wound healing experiments
Authors: Zaritsky Assaf , Natan Sari , Kaplan Doron , Ben-Jacob Eshel , Tsarfaty Ilan
Published: February 2015

Background

The wound healing assay is the common method to study collective cell migration in vitro. Computational analyses of live imaging exploit the rich temporal information and significantly improve understanding of complex phenomena that emerge during this mode of collective motility. Publicly available experimental data can allow application of new analyses to promote new discoveries, and assess algorithms' capabilities to distinguish between different experimental conditions.

Findings

A freely-available dataset of 31 time-lapse in vitro wound healing experiments of two cell lines is presented. It consists of six different experimental conditions with 4–6 replicates each, gathered to study the effects of a growth factor on collective cell migration. The raw data is available at ‘The Cell: an Image Library' repository. This Data Note provides detailed description of the data, intermediately processed data, scripts and experimental validations that have not been reported before and are currently available at GigaDB. This is the first publicly available repository of live collective cell migration data that includes independent replicates for each set of conditions.

Conclusions

This dataset has the potential for extensive reuse. Some aspects in the data remain unexplored and can be exploited extensively to reveal new insight. The dataset could also be used to assess the performance of available and new quantification methods by demonstrating phenotypic discriminatory capabilities between the different experimental conditions. It may allow faster and more elaborated, reproducible and effective analyses, which will likely lead to new biological and biophysical discoveries.
Kidney injury molecule-1 as a predicting factor for inflamed kidney, diabetic and diabetic nephropathy Egyptian patients
Authors: Ahmed Samia A , Hamed Manal A
Published: February 2015

Background

Kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1), a recently discovered transmembrane protein, is expressed in dedifferentiated proximal renal tubular epithelial cells in damaged regions. Kidney injury early detection in diabetic patients has great importance for therapy and prognosis. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to predict, validate and evaluate the presence of KIM-1 in kidney inflammation, dialectic and diabetic nephropathy diseases.

Methods

Sixty males and females subjects (30-52 years) were selected for this study. They were subdivided into three main groups; kidney injury, diabetic and diabetic nephropathy patients. The work was extended to evaluate KIM-1 after treatment of each disease.

Results

The results revealed significant elevation of KIM-1 in the diseased groups and a noticeable reduction after treatment. Diabetic nephropathy recorded the highest KIM-1 level than the AKI state or the diabetic patients. We noticed an association between KIM-1 and sex and a positive correlation (p < 0.0001) with the disease severity.

Conclusions

In conclusion, urinary KIM-1 has been reported to be a noninvasive, rapid, sensitive, and reproducible biomarker to detect early kidney injury. We speculate that KIM-1 is expected to be a therapeutic target for kidney injury.