bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The lessons that Caenorhabditis elegans has taught us about the mechanism of action of crystal proteins.
Authors: Sitaram A. , Aroian R. V.
Published: May 2015

Caenorhabditis elegans is susceptible to three domain crystal proteins similar to those that intoxicate insects. Investigations of this organism have several important strengths, for example, ease of forward genetic screens, range of molecular genetic tools available and ease of carrying out RNAi (RNA interference) studies. These have been exploited to study cellular responses known as cellular non-immune defences (CNIDs) to the crystal proteins of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) and pore-forming toxins in general. We will discuss what we have learned through genetics and RNAi (including genome-wide RNAi) to elucidate the pathways that allow cells to respond productively to crystal protein attack. In addition, key results will be discussed from investigations with mammalian pore-forming proteins to highlight the conservation of cellular responses to crystal proteins with cellular responses to pore-forming proteins in general.
Cry toxin binding site models and their use in strategies to delay resistance evolution.
Authors: Jakka S. , Ferré J. , Jurat-Fuentes J. L.
Published: May 2015

The binding of Cry toxins to receptors on the midgut brush border membrane is a necessary step in the Cry intoxication process. Alterations in this binding step are commonly associated with high levels of resistance to Cry toxins in laboratory and field pest populations. When alterations affect binding to a site shared by distinct Cry toxins, cross-resistance is observed. Consequently, pyramiding of Cry toxins recognizing distinct sites has been used to delay the evolution of resistance against transgenic crops expressing cry toxin genes for pest control. The availability of accurate binding site models describing binding sites for diverse Cry toxins in targeted pests is critical to identifying genes that are amenable to pyramiding. Many of these models have been proposed and refined in the past 25 years from quantitative binding competition data. In this chapter, we review and revise Cry toxin binding site models for the most relevant pest species targeted by Bt crops and for Plutella xylostella as the insect pest with the most binding data available. Our motivation is to provide binding site models as a tool to allow predictions of resistance and cross-resistance risks in order to optimize combinations of diverse Cry toxins for delaying resistance evolution to Bt crops.
Countering pest resistance with genetically modified Bt toxins.
Authors: Soberón M. , García-Gómez B. I. , Pacheco S. , Sánchez J. , Tabashnik B. E. , Bravo A.
Published: May 2015

Insecticidal crystalline (Cry) toxins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) used in sprays and transgenic crop plants have provided major benefits for pest control, including decreased reliance on broad-spectrum chemical insecticides. However, extensive use of Bt toxins has selected for resistance, thus reducing or eliminating these benefits against some populations of at least seven species of major crop pests. This chapter reviews efforts to counter pest resistance to native Bt toxins with genetically engineered toxins called Cry1AbMod and Cry1AcMod. We generated these modified toxins by trimming the genes encoding the native toxins Cry1Ab and Cry1Ac so they lack the nucleotides that code for a portion of the amino-terminal end of the protein, including helix α-1 and part of helix α-2. Consistent with the sequential binding model for the mode of action of the toxins, the Cry1AMod toxins formed oligomers without binding to cadherin, but the native toxins required cadherin for oligomer formation. The modified toxins were more potent than the corresponding native toxins in 13 of 19 pairwise comparisons with 12 resistant strains of nine species of Lepidoptera, including field-selected strains of Plutella xylostella, Trichoplusia ni and Spodoptera frugiperda. The potency of modified toxins relative to native toxins in these resistant strains did not depend on the resistance mechanism. Against susceptible strains, the modified toxins were less effective than their native counterparts in nearly all cases. Transgenic tobacco plants producing Cry1AbMod killed larvae of Manduca sexta, which represents progress towards commercial use of the modified toxins for pest management.
Resistance management for Bt maize and above-ground lepidopteran targets in the USA: from single gene to pyramided traits.
Authors: Huang F. N.
Published: May 2015

Since first being commercialized in 1996, transgenic maize expressing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) proteins has gained widespread acceptance in the world. In 2013, nearly 50 Mha of Bt maize were planted in 15 countries. In the same year, growers in the USA alone planted c.30 Mha of Bt maize, which accounted for 76% of the total Bt maize area of the country. Up to now, Bt maize technology can be classified into two generations. The first generation of Bt maize contains only a single Bt gene for a target. In 2010, the second generation of Bt maize became commercially available and this expresses two or more pyramided Bt proteins. Currently, the pyramided products are predominant in the USA. The major lepidopteran targets of Bt maize in the USA are corn borers (Crambidae), the corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea, and the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda. To counter the threat of insect resistance, two resistance management strategies for Bt maize, 'high dose/refuge' and gene pyramiding, have been implemented. The long-term use of Bt maize against the major agricultural pests in North America provides a good opportunity to analyse the effectiveness of the adopted insect resistance management (IRM) plans. Analysis of the available data shows that all corn borer species remain susceptible to Bt proteins and that no field resistance has occurred after nearly two decades of intensive use of Bt maize in the continent. Pyramided Bt maize is effective in controlling corn earworm and fall armyworm, although recent studies indicate that field resistance to single-gene Cry1F maize in the fall armyworm has occurred in the south-east coastal areas of the US mainland. Knowledge of the resistance management gained from the USA should be useful for other countries in their sustainable use of Bt crop technology.
Can Conservation Stocking Enhance Juvenile Emigrant Production in Wild Atlantic Salmon?
Authors: Bacon P. J. , Malcolm I. A. , Fryer R. J. , Glover R. S. , Millar C. P. , Youngson A. F.
Published: May 2015

Conservation stocking is frequently used by fishery managers to stabilize or increase production of depleted fish stocks. However, in the case of salmonids the benefits are increasingly questioned and generally poorly quantified. We investigated the effects of ova stocking on freshwater emigrant production in a declining Scottish population of “spring” Atlantic SalmonSalmo salar. The stocking program was designed to minimize risks, maximize expected benefits, and bypass population bottlenecks between the ova and fry stages. Long‐term data (33 cohorts over 42 years, including 8 years of stocking) on numbers of ova and juvenile emigrant production were used to investigate whether the ova–emigrant stock–recruitment relationship differed between conditions of natural spawning and stocking. We considered Ricker and Beverton–Holt models that included terms for the effects of stocking, intercohort competition, and changes in trap efficiency on emigrant production. The “best model” was considered to be that with the lowest corrected Akaike information criterion (AICc). The strength of evidence for competing models was provided by smooth AICcweights. There was strong support for intercohort competition whereby large cohorts reduced survival rates of subsequent cohorts. There was little support for a stocking effect, and the best model did not include stocking. Changes in juvenile emigrant production could have been detected with 80% power if those changes had increased by an average of around 24% over the eight stocked years, indicating relatively high power to detect stocking effects. Although focused on a particular river system and set of ova stocking protocols, this study suggests that stocking fails to increase Atlantic Salmon production where wild fish populations and suitable habitat remain.
Exploring transcendental leadership: a conversation
Authors: Barney Jay B. , Wicks Judy , Otto Scharmer C. , Pavlovich Kathryn
Published: May 2015

This paper documents the Management, Spirituality, and Religion’s Plenary Session at the Academy of Management, Philadelphia, 2014, with Jay B. Barney, Judy Wicks, and C. Otto Scharmer. The speakers were asked to discuss their views on Transcendental Leadership in terms of their
own spiritual practices and how these practices contribute to a shift from I to We.
STAT3 is a critical cell-intrinsic regulator of human unconventional T cell numbers and function
Authors: Wilson Robert P. , Ives Megan L. , Rao Geetha , Lau Anthony , Payne Kathryn , Kobayashi Masao , Arkwright Peter D. , Peake Jane , Wong Melanie , Adelstein Stephen , Smart Joanne M. , French Martyn A. , Fulcher David A. , Picard Capucine , Bustamante Jacinta , Boisson-Dupuis Stephanie , Gray Paul , Stepensky Polina , Warnatz Klaus , Freeman Alexandra F. , Rossjohn Jamie , McCluskey James , Holland Steven M. , Casanova Jean-Laurent , Uzel Gulbu , Ma Cindy S. , Tangye Stuart G. , Deenick Elissa K.
Published: May 2015

Unconventional T cells such as γδ T cells, natural killer T cells (NKT cells) and mucosal-associated invariant T cells (MAIT cells) are a major component of the immune system; however, the cytokine signaling pathways that control their development and function in humans are unknown. Primary immunodeficiencies caused by single gene mutations provide a unique opportunity to investigate the role of specific molecules in regulating human lymphocyte development and function. We found that individuals with loss-of-function mutations in STAT3 had reduced numbers of peripheral blood MAIT and NKT but not γδ T cells. Analysis of STAT3 mosaic individuals revealed that this effect was cell intrinsic. Surprisingly, the residual STAT3-deficient MAIT cells expressed normal levels of the transcription factor RORγt. Despite this, they displayed a deficiency in secretion of IL-17A and IL-17F, but were able to secrete normal levels of cytokines such as IFNγ and TNF. The deficiency in MAIT and NKT cells in STAT3-deficient patients was mirrored by loss-of-function mutations in IL12RB1 and IL21R, respectively. Thus, these results reveal for the first time the essential role of STAT3 signaling downstream of IL-23R and IL-21R in controlling human MAIT and NKT cell numbers.
Macroeconomic Theory
Authors: Benassy Jean-Pascal
Published: May 2015

This book is a primer in macroeconomics. It starts from essential macroeconomics and develops the central topics of modern macroeconomic theory in a simple and rigorous manner. Topics covered include rational expectations, intertemporal dynamic models, exogenous and endogenous growth, nonclearing markets and imperfect competition, uncertainty, and money. The book also covers real business cycles and dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models, integrating growth and fluctuations, sticky wages and prices, consumption and investment, and unemployment. Lastly, it studies government policy, stabilization, credibility, and the connections between politics and the macroeconomy. Each topic is presented in the simplest model possible while still delivering the relevant answers and keeping rigorous foundations throughout the book.
Uncertainty and Financial Assets
Authors: Bénassy Jean-Pascal
Published: May 2015

This chapter provides an overview of uncertainty at the individual and general equilibrium level. It evaluates the behavior of an individual who has to take decisions in uncertain environments. It looks at the traditional expected utility maximization theory, and also provides a few measures of risk aversion. Further, it presents the most classic model of general equilibrium under uncertainty, the Arrow-Debreu model, which is also called a model with “complete markets.” This model conventionally serves as a central benchmark to which other concepts are compared. The chapter then describes the models of “incomplete markets.” It confers a general description of financial securities, and explains the disparity between a complete market and incomplete market. Moreover, it discusses the financial assets pricing in complete or an incomplete markets. It shows the application of the pricing formulas to compare safe and risky assets. Lastly, it sets forth the idea of “nonexpected utility,” which sorts out the concepts of risk aversion and substitutability.
The Ramsey Model
Authors: Bénassy Jean-Pascal
Published: May 2015

This chapter introduces the most famous model of growth, the Ramsey model. The rate growth in the Ramsey model is principally determined by the evolution of technology, which is assumed to be exogenous. The chapter illustrates a state of intertemporal market equilibrium, and evaluates the efficiency properties of the market equilibrium. Also, it examines an important property of the Ramsey model, that of Ricardian equivalence. It reveals how the introduction of government spending alters the dynamics of the model. Further, it presents a state of unambiguous exogenous technical progress, and demonstrates how the basic model is adapted to incorporate such technical progress. The chapter then discusses the Ramsey model in discrete time.
Competitive Business Cycles
Authors: Bénassy Jean-Pascal
Published: May 2015

This chapter discusses the three lines of research used in assessing basic models of fluctuations in competitive markets, namely research with the use of Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium models, a typical Sunspot model, and a combination of Keynesian theory, the Samuelson destabilizing accelerator, and the Philips curve. It explains that the Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium models provide simpler solutions, as they answer simple first-order conditions of asset pricing, and address labor fluctuations. This chapter also includes sample problems regarding alternative shocks in the government and households, incomplete capital depreciation, a Real Business Cycle model with generations, and with autocorrelated shocks.
Money and Cycles
Authors: Bénassy Jean-Pascal
Published: May 2015

This chapter extends the discussion on realistic economies with monetary exchange and assumptions of price flexibility mentioned in Chapter 10 by incorporating the three important features, namely monetary shocks, imperfect competition, and imperfect information. It deals with the relation of the application of simple real models to these shocks while taking into account Walrasian equilibrium theory. The chapter argues that preserving the monetary structure, the theory may become inapplicable. It also explains that imperfect information present in Lucas’ model can lead to misunderstanding of these shocks. This chapter also includes sample problems regarding money and imperfect competition on goods and labor markets and Lucas’ signal extraction model.
Unemployment
Authors: Bénassy Jean-Pascal
Published: May 2015

This chapter examines various explanations for theories of employment fluctuations. It begins with looking at alternative unemployment theories and placing them into a unified framework to emphasize their prominent features. It also considers the discourse on the three classic models of trade union behavior: monopoly trade union, efficient bargains, and the “right to manage” model. In addition, it highlights the concepts of “insider-outsiders” theory, efficiency wage theories, and implicit contracts theories. This chapter includes sample problems regarding the tax scheme to fight unemployment and the simple model of nominal wage rigidity.
A Dynamic View of Unemployment
Authors: Bénassy Jean-Pascal
Published: May 2015

This chapter discusses the problem of unemployment in a dynamic and intertemporal framework. It emphasizes flows in and out of unemployment through the matching function model. It explains a simple common discrete time dynamic framework, as well as the basic employment flows. It also focuses on the shirking model to show how one can go from a static to a dynamic model by extending to a dynamic environment.
Late Classical and Hellenistic Silver Plate from Macedonia
Authors: Zimi Eleni
Published: May 2015

This book studies silver vessels from ancient Macedonia from the 4th to the 2nd centuries bc. These precious vessels formed part of dining sets owned by the royal family and the elite and have been discovered in the tombs of their owners. The book presents 171 artifacts in a study of form, decoration, inscriptions, and manufacturing techniques, set against contemporary comparanda in other media (clay, bronze, glass). It adopts an art historical and sociological approach to the archaeological evidence and demonstrates that the use of silver vessels as an expression of wealth and a status symbol is not only connected with the wealth spread in the empire after Alexander’s the Great expedition to the East, but constitutes a practice reflecting the opulence and appreciation for luxury at least in the Macedonian court from the reign of Philip II onwards.
Phylesystem: a git-based data store for community-curated phylogenetic estimates
Authors: McTavish Emily Jane , Hinchliff Cody E. , Allman James F. , Brown Joseph W. , Cranston Karen A. , Holder Mark T. , Rees Jonathan A. , Smith Stephen A.
Published: May 2015

Motivation: Phylogenetic estimates from published studies can be archived using general platforms like Dryad (Vision, 2010) or TreeBASE (Sanderson et al., 1994). Such services fulfill a crucial role in ensuring transparency and reproducibility in phylogenetic research. However, digital tree data files often require some editing (e.g. rerooting) to improve the accuracy and reusability of the phylogenetic statements. Furthermore, establishing the mapping between tip labels used in a tree and taxa in a single common taxonomy dramatically improves the ability of other researchers to reuse phylogenetic estimates. As the process of curating a published phylogenetic estimate is not error-free, retaining a full record of the provenance of edits to a tree is crucial for openness, allowing editors to receive credit for their work and making errors introduced during curation easier to correct.

Results: Here, we report the development of software infrastructure to support the open curation of phylogenetic data by the community of biologists. The backend of the system provides an interface for the standard database operations of creating, reading, updating and deleting records by making commits to a git repository. The record of the history of edits to a tree is preserved by git’s version control features. Hosting this data store on GitHub (http://github.com/) provides open access to the data store using tools familiar to many developers. We have deployed a server running the ‘phylesystem-api’, which wraps the interactions with git and GitHub. The Open Tree of Life project has also developed and deployed a JavaScript application that uses the phylesystem-api and other web services to enable input and curation of published phylogenetic statements.

Availability and implementation: Source code for the web service layer is available at https://github.com/OpenTreeOfLife/phylesystem-api. The data store can be cloned from: https://github.com/OpenTreeOfLife/phylesystem. A web application that uses the phylesystem web services is deployed at http://tree.opentreeoflife.org/curator. Code for that tool is available from https://github.com/OpenTreeOfLife/opentree.

Contact: mtholder@gmail.com
Vertical and horizontal habitat use by white marlin Kajikia albida (Poey, 1860) in the western North Atlantic Ocean
Authors: Hoolihan John P. , Luo Jiangang , Snodgrass Derke , Orbesen Eric S. , Barse Ann M. , Prince Eric D.
Published: May 2015

Pop-up satellite archival tags were deployed on 40 white marlin Kajika albida (synonym: Tetrapturus albidus) off the coasts of Maryland and North Carolina (United States), and the island nation of Aruba in the Caribbean. Useful data were available for analysing vertical and horizontal habitat use from 28 individuals. Time at liberty ranged from 10 to 181 d (mean 115, SD 53.3). Seasonal southerly fall migration routes were documented for fish released off the northeastern United States, while those released off Aruba remained in the Caribbean basin. Horizontal movements ranged from 228 to 8084 km (19–100 km d−1) based on light-level geolocation estimates using a sea surface temperature and bathymetry-corrected Kalman filter. Analyses included an evaluation of vertical movements using ΔT, the time spent at temperature relative to the uniform temperature surface layer. Movements included exploration of depths as great as 387 m and ambient temperatures as low as 7.8°C. However, the greatest proportion of time was spent in the upper 20 m of the water column for both day (50.8%) and night (81.6%), and time spent in water colder than 7°C below the uniform temperature surface layer was negligible. Overall, this group showed less variability in vertical movement, and less tolerance to colder temperatures compared with similar studies for blue marlin Makaira nigricans and sailfish Istiophorus platypterus. Values for ΔT are presented in tabular format to allow direct input into habitat standardization models used to estimate vertical distribution and population abundance. The large spatial dispersion and disparate tracks illustrated in the present study serve to underscore the complexity of white marlin behaviour and habitat use, and further emphasize the many challenges facing the management and conservation of this overexploited species.
Development of Glaucomatous Visual Field Defects in Preperimetric Glaucoma Patients Within 3 Years of Diagnosis
Authors: Inuzuka Hiroko , Kawase Kazuhide , Sawada Akira , Kokuzawa Satoko , Ishida Kyoko , Yamamoto Tetsuya
Published: May 2015

Purpose:

To determine the characteristics of eyes diagnosed with preperimetric glaucoma (PPG) that developed glaucomatous visual field defects (VFDs) within 3 years of the diagnosis.

Patients and Methods:

The medical charts of 77 eyes of 77 patients with PPG were reviewed. An eye was diagnosed with PPG when there was neuroretinal rim thinning, cupping of the optic disc, or a suspicious retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) defect, and had no conditions fulfilling Anderson’s criteria for glaucoma. The Central 30-2 SITA-Standard program of the Humphrey Field Analyzer was used to determine the presence of VFDs and the thicknesses of the retinal layers was determined by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography.

Results:

Ten of the 77 patients with PPG (13.0%) developed glaucomatous VFD. These 10 eyes had significantly thinner macular ganglion cell and inner plexiform layer (mGCIPL) thickness in the inferior and inferotemporal sectors, and also the circumpapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (cpRNFL) thickness at the 7 or 8 o’clock sectors. In the 3 years post-PPG period, these eyes had significant decreases in the mGCIPL thickness of all the inferior sectors, and cpRNFL at the 7 or 8 o’clock sectors. The mean intraocular pressure in eyes with VFDs (15.2±2.0 mm Hg) was significantly higher than that in those without VFDs (13.5±2.6 mm Hg; P=0.042).

Conclusions:

Significant structural changes were observed in the mGCIPL and cpRNFL at PPG diagnosis, before the development of a VFDs. Close monitoring of intraocular pressure is essential for the appropriate management of PPG.
Maximuma posterioriestimation of crystallographic phases in X-ray diffraction tomography
Authors: Gürsoy Doĝa , Biçer Tekin , Almer Jonathan D. , Kettimuthu Raj , Stock Stuart R. , De Carlo Francesco
Published: May 2015

A maximuma posterioriapproach is proposed for X-ray diffraction tomography for reconstructing three-dimensional spatial distribution of crystallographic phases and orientations of polycrystalline materials. The approach maximizes thea posterioridensity which includes a Poisson log-likelihood and ana prioriterm that reinforces expected solution properties such as smoothness or local continuity. The reconstruction method is validated with experimental data acquired from a section of the spinous process of a porcine vertebra collected at the 1-ID-C beamline of the Advanced Photon Source, at Argonne National Laboratory. The reconstruction results show significant improvement in the reduction of aliasing and streaking artefacts, and improved robustness to noise and undersampling compared to conventional analytical inversion approaches. The approach has the potential to reduce data acquisition times, and significantly improve beamtime efficiency.
Error analysis of tomographic reconstructions in the absence of projection data
Authors: Shakya Snehlata , Munshi Prabhat
Published: May 2015

Error estimates for tomographic reconstructions (using Fourier transform-based algorithm) are available for cases where projection data are available. These data are used for reconstructions with different filter functions and the reliability of these reconstructions can be checked as per guidelines of those error estimates. There are cases where projection data are large (in gigabytes or terabytes) so storage of these data becomes an issue. It leads to storing of only the reconstructed images. Error estimation in such cases is presented here. Second-level projection data are calculated from the given reconstructed images (‘first-level’ images). These ‘second-level’ data are now used to generate ‘second-level’ reconstructed images. Different filter functions are employed to check the fidelity of these ‘second-level’ images. This inference is extended to first-level images in view of the characteristics of the convolution operator. This approach is validated with experimental data obtained by the X-ray micro-CT scanner installed at IIT Kanpur. Five specimens (of same material) have been scanned. Data are available in this case thus we have performed a comparative error estimate analysis for the ‘first-level’ reconstructions (data obtained from CT machine) and second-level reconstructions (data generated from first-level reconstructions). We observe that both approaches show similar outcome. It indicates that error estimates can also be applied to images when data are not available.
Scatter analysis and correction for ultrafast X-ray tomography
Authors: Wagner Michael , Barthel Frank , Zalucky Johannes , Bieberle Martina , Hampel Uwe
Published: May 2015

Ultrafast X-ray computed tomography (CT) is an imaging technique with high potential for the investigation of the hydrodynamics in multiphase flows. For correct determination of the phase distribution of such flows, a high accuracy of the reconstructed image data is essential. In X-ray CT, radiation scatter may cause disturbing artefacts. As the scattering is not considered in standard reconstruction algorithms, additional methods are necessary to correct the detector readings or to prevent the detection of scattered photons. In this paper, we present an analysis of the scattering background for the ultrafast X-ray CT imaging system ROFEX at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf and propose a correction technique based on collimation and deterministic simulation of first-order scattering.
Effect of high temperature compression deformation strain rate on the microstructure and corrosion behavior of 2205 duplex stainless steel
Authors: Yang Yinhui , Yan Biao
Published: May 2015

Purpose

– The aim of this paper was to investigate the effect of strain rate on microstructure and corrosion behavior of 2205 duplex stainless steel, after high-temperature compression tests.

Design/methodology/approach

– The specimens were prepared using a Gleeble3800 thermo-simulation machine over a range of temperatures from 850 to 1,250°C and strain rates from 0.005 to 5 s−1, and the corresponding flow curves and deformation microstructure obtained were further analyzed. To evaluate the effect of strain rate on corrosion behavior, potentiodynamic polarization tests and double-loop electrochemical potentiodynamic reactivation (DL-EPR) were used to characterize the electrochemical performance.

Findings

– Compared with strain rate of 0.5 s−1, the worst corrosion resistance behavior from the potentiodynamic polarization test results after deformation at 0.005 s−1 was attributed to more austenite (γ) and ferrite (δ) grain boundaries or δ/γ phase interface formation due to the better effect of γ dynamic recrystallization (DRX) or δ dynamic recovery (DRV). Increasing strain rate to 5 s−1 lowered the corrosion resistance, due to the increase in dislocation density. At the low strain rate of 0.005 s−1, the susceptibility to intergranular corrosion (IGC) was comparatively high after deformation at 1050 and 1150°C with more γ/γ grains and δ/γ phase boundary formation, which was lowered with the strain rate increase to 0.5 s−1, due to suppressing effect of γ DRX.

Originality/value

– The paper provides the scientific basis for the practical application of hot working of 2205 duplex stainless steel.
The synergistic inhibition effect between imidazoline and the oxide film on L360 steel in CO2/H2S systems
Authors: Chen Guohao , Li Lingyun , Ouyang Jian , Zhu Zhuoyan , Wang Feng , Wang Yuanyuan , Xue Junjie , Zhao Jingmao
Published: May 2015

Purpose

– The aim of the present paper was to investigate the inhibition performance of the OF and/or IM on L360 steel in CO2/H2S environments. The pipeline steel surface usually has been pre-treated before using in the oil/gas field, such as by passivation, blackening, and phosphiding. The effectiveness of inhibition can vary because there are many differences between the metal matrix and the treated film.

Design/methodology/approach

– Imidazoline (IM) was synthesized by using oleic acid and diethylenetriamine, and its composition was verified using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The oxide film (OF) covering a sample of L360 steel was characterized using X-ray diffraction, and its surface morphology was observed using scanning electron microscope. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements were conducted to study the inhibition performance of IM- and/or OF-covered L360 steel in the CO2/H2S environments.

Findings

– The results show that IM and OF can prevent corrosion on L360 steel in CO2/H2S environments, and the synergistic inhibition effect of IM and OF was very evident. A possible model is proposed to explain the synergistic inhibition effect in the CO2/H2S environments of IM and OF on L360 steel.

Originality/value

– Few reports have concerned the effect of the OF on the inhibitor’s performance, especially in CO2/H2S systems. The aim of the present study was to investigate the inhibition performance of the OF and/or IM on L360 steel in CO2/H2S environments. A model is proposed to explain the synergistic inhibition effect mechanism between IM and OF.
Sport fan maximizing: following the best team or being the best fan?
Authors: Norris J. Ian , Wann Daniel L. , Zapalac Ryan K.
Published: May 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of these studies is to determine how maximizing sport fans seek optimal outcomes through team identification. Maximizers seek optimal outcomes but do not always obtain them. This may be particularly true of sport fans, who often identify with teams for reasons that run deeper than team success. Maximizing fans may be more concerned with being the best fans than following the best teams.

Design/methodology/approach

– In Study 1, the authors measured maximizing tendency and identification with participants’ favorite National Football League (NFL) teams. The authors then used moderated regression to predict identification levels from the interaction of maximizing and the historical win–loss records of these teams. In Study 2, the authors manipulated team success by providing participants either an optimistic or pessimistic preview of their college basketball team’s upcoming season. The authors measured maximizing tendency as a moderator of this relationship and identification with the college basketball team as the dependent variable.

Findings

– In Study 1, maximizers identified more strongly with their favorite NFL team when their favorite team was a historically unsuccessful team. In Study 2, maximizers identified more strongly with their college basketball team after reading a pessimistic preview of the team’s upcoming season than after reading an optimistic preview of that season.

Research limitations/implications

– Study 1 required participants to self-report their favorite NFL teams, so the results were only correlational. However, the authors were able to address this limitation with an experimental Study 2.

Practical implications

– There are a number of potential implications for sport marketing strategy. For one, sport marketers may want to appeal to fans’ desire to be the best by supporting their teams when they need it most, particularly for teams that are not performing well.

Originality/value

– This is the first examination of team or fan identification in the context of maximizing tendency.
Thinking green, buying green? Drivers of pro-environmental purchasing behavior
Authors: Moser Andrea K.
Published: May 2015

Purpose

– The theory of planned behavior (TPB) served as a framework for identifying major antecedents of everyday green purchasing behavior and for determining their relative importance.

Design/methodology/approach

– The German market research institute GfK provided data (n = 12,113) from their 2012 household panel survey. A two-step structural equation modeling approach was applied to test both the measurement and the structural model.

Findings

– Willingness to pay (WTP) was the strongest predictor of green purchasing behavior, followed by personal norms. The impact of attitude is insignificant. This implies an attitude – behavior gap.

Research limitations/implications

– Individuals overestimate their self-reported WTP and behavior, which suggests that the share of explained variance is in reality lower. It has to be doubted whether consumers are objectively able to judge products by their environmental impact. Even if consumers are willing to buy a “greener” product, their subjective evaluation might be incorrect. Further research should be based on actual purchasing data. In addition, the attitude – behavior gap should be scrutinized by further research to identify further barriers to green consumption.

Practical implications

– Consumers need to be aware that their consumption behavior can make a difference. They have to value the benefits of green products and understand why these are priced higher. Firms can apply pricing and promotional strategies addressing personal norms and inducing a higher WTP to capitalize on the opportunities of the green market segment.

Originality/value

– The study integrates WTP and personal norms as critical predictors into the TPB and furthermore expands the extant literature on green purchasing behavior to cover daily consumer goods extending beyond organic food. This enhances understanding of the structure of the constructs and determines their relative importance.
Useless/redundant/unread information returns and protective filings
Authors: Lorence Roger
Published: May 2015

Purpose

– To describe the best practices for complying with the increasingly large body of information returns required by the Internal Revenue Service of participants in the investment management industry and the severe penalties that apply to noncompliant taxpayers.

Design/methodology/approach

– This technical paper describes the explosive growth of information returns and protective return filings required of investment management industry participants, based upon the author’s advising tax return preparers and taxpayers charged with filing these forms.

Findings

– Each tax return filing season has demonstrated the ever-increasing and enormous waste of effort and money but no relief is in sight. The expectation of relief from the tax authorities at any level or from Congress and other legislative bodies, is remote.

Originality/value

– This paper provides timely guidance from a practitioner in the field of tax compliance including a summary of current forms to be reviewed by tax practitioners with investment management industry clients, either on the manager or the investor side.
Expense allocation: the SEC brings down the hammer
Authors: Berman Kenneth , Larkin Gregory , Giglio Phil V. , Berthou Erica , Harrell Michael P. , Murray Jordan C. , Schechter Jaime D. , Kittredge Geoffrey
Published: May 2015

Purpose

– Describe an important recent enforcement action by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding expense allocations by private equity funds.

Design/methodology/approach

– Discusses a recent enforcement action by the SEC regarding a registered investment adviser’s handling of expense allocation with respect to two private fund clients and certain of their underlying portfolio companies.

Findings

– The settlement and sanctions are noteworthy because: (i) there was no suggestion that the misallocations of expenses were designed to systematically favor one private fund client over the other, that the manager benefited from such misallocations, or that the failure to allocate expenses in accordance with the policy had been deliberate and (ii) while not stated explicitly, it appears likely that a significant portion of the disgorgement related to misallocations that occurred before the manager was a registered investment adviser.

Practical implications

– Registered investment advisers should ensure that they and their portfolio companies have written policies in place designed to fairly allocate all expenses among all entities that benefit from the activities driving such expenses and that none of the sponsor’s clients are directly or indirectly benefited or harmed from allocation policies at the portfolio company level.

Originality/value

– Description of a noteworthy SEC enforcement action regarding expense allocation and practical guidance from investment management lawyers to remind private equity sponsors to ensure that they have adopted and implemented expense allocation policies.
CFTC clarifies and expands relief relating to delegation of commodity pool operator responsibilities
Authors: Meer Cary , Patent Lawrence B.
Published: May 2015

Purpose

– To explain CFTC No-Action Letter 14-126, issued on October 15, 2014 by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight, which sets forth a number of conditions with which a commodity pool operator (“CPO”) that delegates its CPO responsibilities (“Delegating CPO”) to a registered CPO (“Designated CPO”) must comply in order to take advantage of no-action relief from the requirement to register as a CPO.

Design/methodology/approach

– Explains the modified conditions provided by Letter 14-126, including clarification of the permissible activities in which a Delegating CPO seeking to take advantage of registration no-action relief may engage regarding investment management, solicitation, and management of pool property; lists other criteria carried over from Letter 14-69 of May 12, 2014; provides analysis and discusses limitations of the relief provided by the CFTC No-Action letter.

Findings

– The letter makes more liberal several of the conditions set forth in CFTC Letter 14-69 of May 12, 2014, with which many Delegating CPOs could not comply.

Originality/value

– Practical guidance from experienced financial services lawyers.
Influence of institutional profiles on time to recall
Authors: Muralidharan Etayankara , Bapuji Hari , Laplume André
Published: May 2015

Purpose

– This paper aims to understand why firms expedite or delay product recall decisions involving international sourcing.

Design/methodology/approach

– This paper combines US toy recall data from the Consumer Products Safety Commission database for the period from 1988to 2011 with World Economic Forum data on institutional environments to predict the effect the host country conditions have on recall timing decisions.

Findings

– Firms tend to expedite decisions to recall defective products sourced from countries where the informal institutional profile is perceived to be unfavorable for quality manufacture.

Research limitations/implications

– The reported research is empirical in nature and uses pooled cross-country, single-industry data.

Practical implications

– Managers should be careful not to allow their biases to affect their product recall timing decisions.

Originality/value

– Whereas previous research has examined recall timing decisions, this study is the first to consider the institutional environment where products are sourced from as an explanatory variable.
Flexibility in metabolic rate confers a growth advantage under changing food availability
Authors: Auer Sonya K. , Salin Karine , Rudolf Agata M. , Anderson Graeme J. , Metcalfe Neil B.
Published: May 2015

Phenotypic flexibility in physiological, morphological and behavioural traits can allow organisms to cope with environmental challenges. Given recent climate change and the degree of habitat modification currently experienced by many organisms, it is therefore critical to quantify the degree of phenotypic variation present within populations, individual capacities to change and what their consequences are for fitness.

Flexibility in standard metabolic rate (SMR) may be particularly important since SMR reflects the minimal energetic cost of living and is one of the primary traits underlying organismal performance. SMR can increase or decrease in response to food availability, but the consequences of these changes for growth rates and other fitness components are not well known.

We examined individual variation in metabolic flexibility in response to changing food levels and its consequences for somatic growth in juvenile brown trout (Salmo trutta).

SMR increased when individuals were switched to a high food ration and decreased when they were switched to a low food regime. These shifts in SMR, in turn, were linked with individual differences in somatic growth; those individuals that increased their SMR more in response to elevated food levels grew fastest, while growth at the low food level was fastest in those individuals that depressed their SMR most.

Flexibility in energy metabolism is therefore a key mechanism to maximize growth rates under the challenges imposed by variability in food availability and is likely to be an important determinant of species’ resilience in the face of global change.
Marine Bioactive Compounds and Their Health Benefits: A Review
Authors: Hamed Imen , Özogul Fatih , Özogul Yesim , Regenstein Joe M.
Published: May 2015

The significance of marine creatures as a source of unique bioactive compounds is expanding. Marine organisms constitue nearly half of the wordwide biodiversity; thus, oceans and sea present a vast resource for new substances and it is considered the largest remaining reservoir of beneficial natural molecules that maight be used as functional constituents in the food sector. This review is an update to the information about recent functional seafood compounds (proteins, peptides, amino acids, fatty acids, sterols, polysaccharides, oligosaccharides, phenolic compounds, photosynthetic pigments, vitamins, and minerals) focusing on their potential use and health benefits.
Improved outcomes for emergency department patients whose ambulance off‐stretcher time is not delayed
Authors: Crilly Julia , Keijzers Gerben , Tippett Vivienne , O'Dwyer John , Lind James , Bost Nerolie , O'Dwyer Marilla , Shiels Sue , Wallis Marianne
Published: May 2015

Objective

To describe and compare characteristics and outcomes of patients who arrive by ambulance to the ED. We aimed to (i) compare patients with a delayed ambulance offload time (AOT) >30 min with those who were not delayed; and (ii) identify predictors of an ED length of stay (LOS) of >4 h for ambulance‐arriving patients.

Methods

A retrospective, multi‐site cohort study was undertaken in Australia using 12 months of linked health data (September 2007–2008). Outcomes of AOT delayed and non‐delayed presentations were compared. Logistic regression analysis was undertaken to identify predictors of an ED LOS of >4 h.

Results

Of the 40 783 linked, analysable ambulance presentations, AOT delay of >30 min was experienced by 15%, and 63% had an ED LOS of >4 h. Patients with an AOT <30 min had better outcomes for: time to triage; ambulance time at hospital; time to see healthcare professional; proportion seen within recommended triage time frame; and ED LOS for both admitted and non‐admitted patients. In‐hospital mortality did not differ. Strong predictors of an ED LOS >4 h included: hospital admission, older age, triage category, and offload delay >30 min.

Conclusion

Patients arriving to the ED via ambulance and offloaded within 30 min experience better outcomes than those delayed. Given that offload delay is a modifiable predictor of an ED LOS of >4 h, targeted improvements in the ED arrival process for ambulance patients might be useful.
Successive Reduction Dry Milling of Normal and Waxy Corn: Grain, Grit, and Flour Properties
Authors: Thakur Sheetal , Kaur Amritpal , Singh Narpinder , Virdi Amardeep Singh
Published: May 2015

Dry milling of different corn types resulted in varied proportions of germ, pericarp, grit and flour. Grit and flour produced during different reduction stages varied in particle size and chemical constituents, hence applications in food industry. In this study, recovery of different fractions and variation in physicochemical and pasting properties of grit and flour fractions obtained during 3 successive reduction dry millings of 2 normal (African tall, HQPM1) and 1 waxy corn (IC 550353) were evaluated. Waxy corn grains had the highest L*, a*, b*, ash, fat, and protein content and the lowest weight. Waxy and African tall gave the highest recovery of germ and pericarp, respectively. Waxy corn showed lower grit and flour recovery as compared to normal corn. Flour fractions showed higher L* and lower a* and b* values than grit fractions. Particle size of grit and flour fractions ranged from 840 to 982 μm and 330 to 409 μm, respectively. Fractions with larger particle size showed lower L* value. The b* value showed positive correlation with yellow pigment content. Grit and flour from the 1st reduction stage showed higher ash and fat content. Protein content was correlated positively with ash content and negatively with L* value. Grit and flour fractions with higher protein content had lower pasting viscosities. Pasting viscosities were higher for flours than their corresponding grits. Protein profiling of grit and flour fractions from different stages showed quantitative and qualitative differences in medium (22, 28, and 35 kDa) and low molecular weight (16, 17, and 19 kDa) polypeptides and were related to grit and flour yield.