bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cap-layer-dependent oxidation of ultrathin cobalt films and its effect on the magnetic contrast in scanning electron microscopy with polarization analysis
Authors: Kuhrau Susanne , Kloodt-Twesten Fabian , Heyn Christian , Oepen Hans Peter , Frömter Robert
Published: October 2018

We investigate the influence of a non-magnetic cap layer on the magnetic contrast of a Co film by scanning electron microscope with polarization analysis (SEMPA). Ex-situ sputter-deposited [Ir\Co\Pt]2 samples are terminated with wedge-shaped Pt layers with thicknesses ranging from 0 to 2 nm. The magnetic contrast almost vanishes at low capping, as well as towards the maximum Pt thickness. The highest contrast is found around 1 nm Pt cap layer, where about 25% of the contrast of a clean uncapped Co film is obtained. This contrast is sufficient to record high-quality SEMPA images. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) reveals complete protection against oxidation from 1.1 nm onwards. Analysis of the contrast reduction towards higher coverages yields a spin-decay length of 0.7 nm in Pt for electrons with energies of roughly 6–10 eV above Fermi level. Quantitative EDX analysis indicates the formation of cobalt(II)hydroxide Co(OH)2 at a lower Pt coverage. The oxidation causes a roughening of the surface (4.5 Å RMS), while the surface of the closed Pt film is smooth (1.2 Å RMS), as proven by atomic force microscopy. Island growth of the Pt film on Co is observed, yielding a laterally inhomogeneous oxidation of uncovered patches up to an effective Pt coverage of about 0.9 nm.
The influence of metal cluster lattices on the screening of image potential state electrons on graphene
Authors: Jochmann Kira , Bernhardt Thorsten M.
Published: October 2018

The bound unoccupied electronic state structure of an Ir(111)/graphene surface covered by differently sized and spaced Ir clusters was investigated by means of two-photon photoemission spectroscopy. The cluster lattice was found to affect the image potential states of the substrate to a surprisingly large extent. This effect can be related to the influence of the cluster lattice on the screening of the image state electron trapped in front of the surface. The symmetric arrangement of Ir clusters considerably reduces the lateral extension of graphene areas with a homogeneous local work function, and from a certain minimum area size, the excitation of an electron to a stable state in a Coulomb-like potential is not possible anymore. Furthermore, lateral confinement effects could be observed due to the decreasing extension of bare graphene areas.
Interaction of dual sweeping impinging jets at different Reynolds numbers
Authors: Wen Xin , Li Ziyan , Zhou Wenwu , Liu Yingzheng
Published: October 2018

Dual sweeping impinging jets emerging from a synchronized pair of fluidic oscillators were experimentally measured using time-resolved particle image velocimetry in a water tank. Interestingly, distinct behaviors of the dual jets were observed at three different Reynolds numbers. At the lowest Reynolds number Re = 1.8 × 103, the dual jets can be generally treated as two isolated jets with a good in-phase sweeping motion and a relatively stable jet velocity. One pair of wall vortices develops and interacts in a trade-off manner in the middle region between the two jets. In the time-averaged flow fields close to the wall, each jet generates one major peak value of streamwise velocity and one pair of peak values (positive and negative) of transverse velocity laterally along the wall. The turbulence fluctuations in both directions also have peak values laterally. In the transverse direction, the velocity also has high turbulence fluctuations in the middle region between the two jets caused by the wall vortices. At the highest Reynolds number Re = 9.2 × 103, the dual jets experience significantly distorted oscillation patterns and strong variations in their jet velocity during one actuation cycle. The dynamic behavior, the induced wall vortices, and the resulting time-averaged impingement of the dual jets are, in essence, very similar to the sweeping jet that would be produced from a single, but bigger, oscillator. At the intermediate Reynolds number Re = 5.5 × 103, the performance of the dual sweeping jets is at the transition stage.
Impaired terpenoid backbone biosynthesis reduces saponin accumulation in Panax notoginseng under Cd stress
Authors: Liao Peiran , Shi Yue , Li Ziwei , Chen Qi , Xu Tian-Rui , Cui Xiuming , Guan Huilin , Guo Lanping , Yang Ye
Published: October 2018

Panax notoginseng saponins (PNS) are major secondary metabolite of Panax notoginseng (Burk.) F.H. Chen. Previous studies identified that P. notoginseng planting soil usually with high content of Cd. However, the effects of Cd stress on the accumulation of PNS and the corresponding regulation mechanisms have yet to be reported. In the present study, the impact of Cd stress on the PNS accumulation of P. notoginseng was studied in pot culture experiments. The effect of Cd stress on antioxidant enzyme activity was studied using hydroponics. In addition, transcriptase sequencing analysis was used to study the effect of Cd stress on the expression of PNS metabolism transcripts in hydroponic experiments. Cd treatments significantly decreased the accumulation of PNS in the rhizome and main root. The sensitive concentration of antioxidant enzyme activity for both leaf and stem was 2.5μM, whereas the sensitive concentration for the root was 5.0μM. Transcriptome analysis showed that 5132 genes (2930 up- and 2202 downregulated) were regulated by 5.0μM Cd stress in the root of P. notoginseng. Among them, six upregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were related to the methylerythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathway, whereas three of the downregulated DEGs were mevalonate kinase (MVK), phosphomevalonate kinase (PMK), and geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase (type II, GGPS). Of the 15 transcripts selected for real-time quantitative-PCR, 13 were expressed in the same manner as identified using RNA-seq. In conclusion, Cd stress inhibited the accumulation of PNS in the root of P. notoginseng by reducing the expression of MVK, PMK, and GGPS in the terpenoid backbone biosynthesis pathway, and also caused by the removal of reactive oxygen species.
Costs and benefits of photosynthetic stems in desert species from southern California
Authors: Ávila-Lovera Eleinis , Haro Roxana , Ezcurra Exequiel , Santiago Louis S.
Published: October 2018

Woody plants with green photosynthetic stems are common in dry woodlands with the possible advantages of extra carbon gain, re-assimilation of CO2, and high water-use efficiency. However, their green stem tissue may also incur greater costs of water loss when stomata are closed. Our study focussed on evaluating the costs and benefits of having green stems in desert plants, addressing the water-use efficiency hypothesis. We measured water status, carbon and water exchange, and carbon, nitrogen and oxygen isotopic composition of 15 species in a desert wash scrub in Joshua Tree National Park, California, USA. We found that all woody species that have green stems relied on their green stems as the sole organ for carbon assimilation for most of the study period. Green stems had similar photosynthetic rate (Amax), stomatal conductance (gs) and intrinsic water-use efficiency (WUEi) to leaves of the same species. However, Amax, gs and cuticular conductance (gmin) were higher in green stems than in leaves of non-green stemmed species. Carbon isotopic composition (δ13C) was similar in both leaves and green stems, indicating no difference in integrated long-term WUE. Our results raise questions about the possible trade-off between carbon gain and water loss through the cuticle in green stems and how this may affect plant responses to current and future droughts.
Bacterial tick-associated infections in Australia: current studies and future directions
Authors: Irwin Peter , Egan Siobhon , Greay Telleasha , Oskam Charlotte
Published: October 2018

It may seem perplexing that there is any uncertainty in Australia about the existence of zoonotic tick-associated infections1–3. Outside this country, particularly in the northern hemisphere, tick-borne diseases such as human granulocytic anaplasmosis, babesiosis, Boutonneuse fever, ehrlichiosis, Lyme borreliosis, and tick-borne encephalitis, have well documented aetiologies, epidemiology, diagnostic methods, and treatments. Why is Australia different and what research is being conducted to address this issue? This article briefly addresses these questions and explains how high-throughput metagenomic analysis has started to shed light on bacterial microbiomes in Australian ticks, providing new data on the presence and distribution of potentially zoonotic microbial taxa.
RNA polymerase II CTD interactome with 3′ processing and termination factors in fission yeast and its impact on phosphate homeostasis
Authors: Sanchez Ana M. , Shuman Stewart , Schwer Beate
Published: October 2018

Significance

The phosphorylation pattern of the Pol2 carboxy-terminal domain (CTD) Y
1
S
2
P
3
T
4
S
5
P
6
S
7
repeats comprises an informational code coordinating transcription and RNA processing. We exploited fission yeast CTD phospho-site mutants and synthetic genetic arraying to illuminate opposing roles for Ser7 and Thr4 in transcription termination whereby:
S7A
elicits precocious termination via cleavage-polyadenylation factor (CPF) subunits and Rhn1; and
T4A
reduces termination and is lethal absent CPF subunits Ppn1 and Swd22. The findings that
Y1F
,
S2A
, and
T4A
are concordantly lethal with
ppn1
∆ and
swd22
∆ provide insights into a CTD vocabulary, implicating Tyr1-Ser2-Thr4 as a three-letter CTD word. This work underscores how the effects of mutating ostensibly inessential CTD marks are genetically buffered by other cellular factors that are functionally redundant to those marks.
Recent advances in target identification of bioactive natural products
Authors: Yoshida Minoru
Published: October 2018

Natural products are a tremendous source of tool discovery for basic science and drug discovery for clinical uses. In contrast to the large number of compounds isolated from nature, however, the number of compounds whose target molecules have been identified so far is fairly limited. Elucidation of the mechanism of how bioactive small molecules act in cells to induce biological activity (mode of action) is an attractive but challenging field of basic biology. At the same time, this is the major bottleneck for drug development of compounds identified in cell-based and phenotype-based screening. Although researchers’ experience and inspiration have been crucial for successful target identification, recent advancements in genomics, proteomics, and chemical genomics have made this challenging task possible in a systematic fashion.
A designed cell-penetrating human SOCS2 protein suppresses GH-dependent cancer cell proliferation
Authors: Miyamoto Azusa , Masuhiro Yoshikazu , Seki Taiichiro , Hanazawa Shigemasa , Shiba Hajime
Published: October 2018

Suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS) 2, a negative regulator of growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), which is associated with acromegaly and cancers, is a promising candidate molecule for treating various diseases. To facilitate its use in protein therapy, we designed and constructed a human SOCS2 protein containing a membrane-permeable peptide sequence and expressed it in an Escherichia coli system. The partially purified recombinant protein was effectively delivered into several cancer cell lines and inhibited cell growth. Biochemical analysis showed that the recombinant SOCS2 protein interacted with growth hormone receptor (GHR) and downregulated GH-STAT5 signaling target genes. Our results suggest that the designed cell-penetrating SOCS2 protein will be useful in intercellular protein therapy to cure cancers.

Abbreviations: SOCS: suppressor of cytokine signaling; GH: growth hormone; GHR: growth hormone receptor; IGF-1: insulin-like growth factor 1; CP: cell-penetrating; STAT: signal transducer and activator of transcription; JAK: Janus kinase; HNF: hepatocyte nuclear factor; MTM: membrane-translocating motif; HIV: human immunodeficiency virus
Biosynthetic study of conidiation-inducing factor conidiogenone: heterologous production and cyclization mechanism of a key bifunctional diterpene synthase
Authors: Shiina Tetsuya , Nakagawa Kazuya , Fujisaki Yukiko , Ozaki Taro , Liu Chengwei , Toyomasu Tomonobu , Hashimoto Masaru , Koshino Hiroyuki , Minami Atsushi , Kawaide Hiroshi , Oikawa Hideaki
Published: October 2018

Conidiogenone, a diterpene with a unique structure, is known to induce the conidiation of Penicillium cyclopium. The biosynthetic pathway of (−)-conidiogenone has been fully elucidated by the heterologous expression of biosynthetic genes in Aspergillus oryzae and by in vitro enzyme assay with 13C-labeled substrates. After construction of deoxyconidiogenol by the action of bifunctional terpene synthase, one cytochrome P450 catalyzes two rounds of oxidation to furnish conidiogenone. Notably, similar biosynthetic genes are conserved among more than 10 Penicillium sp., suggesting that conidiogenone is a common conidiation inducer in this genus. The cyclization mechanism catalyzed by terpene synthase, which involves successive 1,2-alkyl shifts, was fully elucidated using 13C-labeled geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate (GGPP) as substrate. During the structural analysis of deoxyconidiogenol, we observed broadening of some of the 13C signals measured at room temperature, which has not been observed with other structurally related compounds. Careful examination using techniques including 13C NMR studies at −80 °C, conformational analysis and prediction of the 13C chemical shifts using density functional theory gave insights into this intriguing phenomenon.
Synthesis, Growth and Physicochemical Properties of Seminorganic NLO Crystal Bis(Thiourea) Ammonium Nitrate
Authors: Ravi Kumar S.M. , Anbarasi A. , Selvakumar S. , Shanmuga Sundar G.J.
Published: October 2018

Nowadays, NLO materials are of current research interest due to their variety of applications such as second harmonic generation, optical bi-stability, laser remote sensing, optical disk data storage, laser driver fusion, medical and spectroscopic laser, photonic integrated circuitry, optical parametric oscillations and THz wave generation. This work concentrated on (bis)thiourea ammonium nitrate (BTAN) crystal was grown from aqueous solution by slow evaporation technique. The grown crystal has been subjected to single crystal X-ray diffraction to determine the unit cell dimensions. The grown crystal was also characterized by recording the powder X-ray diffraction patterns and by identifying the diffracting planes. The Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectra have been recorded in the range 400–4500 cm-1. Second harmonic generation (SHG) for the materials of this work was confirmed using Nd:YAG laser. The UV–visible spectra show that the grown crystals have wide optical transparency in the entire visible region. The Thermo gravimetric/Differential Thermal Analyses reveal that the materials have good thermal stability.
Artificial lipid membrane: surface modification and effect in taste sensing
Authors: Kumar Saurav , Bhondekar Amol P , Jain Prateek , Bagchi Sudeshna , Sharma Anupma , Kumar Ritesh , Mishra Sunita
Published: October 2018

In this work, an artificial lipid membrane was synthesized using tetra-dodecyl ammonium bromide (TDAB) and doped with gold nanoparticles (AuNP). The taste sensor designed using artificial lipid membrane is composed of tetradodecylammonium bromide (TDAB) as a lipid, dioctylphenyl phosphonate (DOPP) as a plasticizer, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) as a supporting polymer in the ratio of 1:3:2. The lipid/polymer membrane acts as the recognition element which transforms the taste information generated by the chemical substances into an electric potential change. The fundamental taste analytes (like fructose for sweetness, HCl for sourness, NaCl for saltiness, MgCl2 for bitterness and MSG for umami) were used to study the effect of doping on taste sensing at different concentrations (10μM to 10mM). The study was based on the open circuit potential (OCP) change of the membrane with the analytes. The observations implicate that the doping increases the specificity of the artificially synthesized lipid membrane taste sensor for the sweet analytes, particularly for fructose.
The hnRNP RALY regulates PRMT1 expression and interacts with the ALS-linked protein FUS: implication for reciprocal cellular localization
Authors: Gasperini Lisa , Rossi Annalisa , Cornella Nicola , Peroni Daniele , Zuccotti Paola , Potrich Valentina , Quattrone Alessandro , Macchi Paolo
Published: October 2018

The RBP associated with lethal yellow mutation (RALY) is a member of the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein family whose transcriptome and interactome have been recently characterized. RALY binds poly-U rich elements within several RNAs and regulates the expression as well as the stability of specific transcripts. Here we show that RALY binds PRMT1 mRNA and regulates its expression. PRMT1 catalyzes the arginine methylation of Fused in Sarcoma (FUS), an RNA-binding protein that interacts with RALY. We demonstrate that RALY down-regulation decreases protein arginine N-methyltransferase 1 levels, thus reducing FUS methylation. It is known that mutations in the FUS nuclear localization signal (NLS) retain the protein to the cytosol, promote aggregate formation, and are associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Confirming that inhibiting FUS methylation increases its nuclear import, we report that RALY knockout enhances FUS NLS mutants’ nuclear translocation, hence decreasing aggregate formation. Furthermore, we characterize the RNA-dependent interaction of RALY with FUS in motor neurons. We show that mutations in FUS NLS as well as in RALY NLS reciprocally alter their localization and interaction with target mRNAs. These data indicate that RALY’s activity is impaired in FUS pathology models, raising the possibility that RALY might modulate disease onset and/or progression.
Ccdc61 controls centrosomal localization of Cep170 and is required for spindle assembly and symmetry
Authors: Bärenz Felix , Kschonsak Yvonne T. , Meyer Annalena , Jafarpour Aliakbar , Lorenz Holger , Hoffmann Ingrid
Published: October 2018

Microtubule nucleation was uncovered as a key principle of spindle assembly. However, the mechanistic details about microtubule nucleation and the organization of spindle formation and symmetry are currently being revealed. Here we describe the function of coiled-coil domain containing 61 (Ccdc61), a so far uncharacterized centrosomal protein, in spindle assembly and symmetry. Our data describe that Ccdc61 is required for spindle assembly and precise chromosome alignments in mitosis. Microtubule tip-tracking experiments in the absence of Ccdc61 reveal a clear loss of the intrinsic symmetry of microtubule tracks within the spindle. Furthermore, we show that Ccdc61 controls the centrosomal localization of centrosomal protein of 170 kDa (Cep170), a protein that was shown previously to localize to centrosomes as well as spindle microtubules and promotes microtubule organization and microtubule assembly. Interestingly, selective disruption of Ccdc61 impairs the binding between Cep170 and TANK binding kinase 1, an interaction that is required for microtubule stability. In summary, we have discovered Ccdc61 as a centrosomal protein with an important function in mitotic microtubule organization.
Prose
Authors: Stewart Garrett
Published: October 2018

Prose is a fabrication, not a linguistic axiom. It has a complex history well before its intricate literary genealogy. Made, not given, prose comes down to modern use with the form, formally determined, of a world-historical invention. As culturally significant in its evolutionary advent as in its ramified means of reporting event, prose thus bears with it a biography as telling as the fictional narratives it eventually serves to recount. Born of empiricism and print culture, prose is neither neutered poetry nor transcribed speech. Only its immediate ancestry is oratorical. Nonetheless, when “modern prose” is launched by leaving embellished declamatory models behind for the reign, first of epistemological lucidity, later of verisimilitude in narrative fiction, the oral is not thereby cancelled entirely. For prose, not unlike poetry, makes—and shapes—its way by incorporating the subvocal underlay of alphabetic (hence phonemic) language into the rhythms of its evoked readerly enunciation. It is in this fashion, by tapping its own linguistic platform or substrate, that prose comes to seem, more than otherwise, a medium rather than just one among several contested rhetorical means. Long after the modified or overthrown “plain style” taken up by early fiction like that of Daniel Defoe or Jonathan Swift, prose’s developing tendency to recover language’s silent phonetic resonance anticipates, in turn, one major Victorian inheritance from the complexities of Romantic verse sonority: a legacy that renders, ever afterward, the idea of “prose poetics” anything but an oxymoron. Here, too, is where the idea of “style” persists as an ongoing flashpoint for literary response. From Charles Dickens and Herman Melville to Joseph Conrad, for instance, we hear the potential sounding of theme in the depth charges of fictional prose. At the same time, from Jane Austen to Virginia Woolf, we can track an alternate mode of deflected orality in the “free indirect discourse” of surfaced inner speech—not overheard talk, these elicited mental monologues, but their own kind of artificial and subliminal eavesdropping—as they channel the cadences of represented psychology. Channel: in precisely that sense of a medium by which prose can best be understood and studied, both in the ecology of modern literary communication and in its reframing by media theory.
Hmong American Literature and Culture
Authors: Lo Aline , Pha Kong Pheng
Published: October 2018

Hmong American literature is an emerging field within Asian American literature, seeing a steep rise in production starting in the early 2000s. In collective and individual publication efforts, the literature includes mostly memoirs, short stories, and poetry. Essays, personal narratives, transcribed oral folktales, and plays have also been published in anthologies, including two that are edited by Hmong American writers. Although there has been an upsurge in publication and a wide representation in terms of genres, there is still no widely published Hmong American novel. Coming from an orality-based culture and a long history of marginalization both in Asia and the United States, many Hmong American narratives contend with issues related to silence and secrecy. In the context of 20th-century French imperialism and US neocolonialism, much of the literature also touches on the subjects of displacement, refugee resettlement, trauma, and cultural shifts. Of the latter, there is a definite preoccupation with religion and changes in gender roles and sexuality, particularly as many of the writers have been born or largely raised in the United States and are therefore interested in representing Hmong American identities and experiences. Hmong American literature can also be characterized by a sense of regionalism; many of the narratives and publications take place in heavily Hmong-populated areas like the Central Valley of California and Upper Midwest states like Minnesota and Wisconsin. While the move toward textuality comes with its own problems, it also presents Hmong Americans with a new method of self-representation. Historically studied by outsiders and exoticized for belonging to a culture that has resisted assimilation and maintained a unique language, religion, and cultural practices, Hmong writers are producing their own narratives, and altogether, the literature is rich with complex characters, speakers, and stories that represent and explore Hmong American experiences.
Psychological Considerations of Adolescents in Sport and Performance
Authors: Tamminen Katherine A. , Braun Courtney
Published: October 2018

Adolescent athletes face increasing opportunities for competition at higher levels, as well as increasing demands on their time, pressure from parents and coaches, and conflicts with teammates and opponents, all during a time when adolescents are exploring different aspects of their identity and sense of self. Sport is a context for adolescent development, and despite the wide array of positive benefits that have been associated with sport participation during adolescence and into adulthood, it is also acknowledged that sport participation does not automatically confer benefits to adolescent athletes, and it may lead to potentially negative experiences and poor psychosocial outcomes.

Key concerns for researchers and practitioners working with adolescent athletes include managing various stressors and the development of adaptive coping strategies, the risk of experiencing sport burnout, bullying, and the potential for withdrawing or dropping out of sport. Despite these concerns, a large body of research among adolescent athletes provides evidence that athletes’ performance and positive psychosocial development may be enhanced among adolescent athletes by intentionally structuring the sport environment to promote positive outcomes; in particular, coaches, parents, and peers play an important role in shaping the sport experiences of adolescent athletes. Furthermore, the psychosocial characteristics and competencies associated with sport participation may not automatically transfer to other areas of adolescents’ lives unless they are intentionally and systematically structured to do so. It is important for coaches, parents, and sport administrators who are involved in developing and delivering programs for adolescent athletes to be aware of some of the psychosocial concerns that are relevant for this population, and to consider intentionally structuring sport programs to promote high levels of achievement as well as healthy psychological and social development among young athletes.
Social Relationships Across Adulthood and Old Age
Authors: Wrzus Cornelia , Wagner Jenny
Published: October 2018

Over the entire life span, social relationships are essential ingredients of human life. Social relationships describe regular interactions with other people over a certain period and generally include a mental representation of the relationship and the relationship partner. Social relationships cover diverse types, such as those with family members, romantic partners, friends, colleagues, as well as with other unrelated people. In general, most of these relationships change in number, contact frequency, and relationship quality during adulthood and old age. For example, both the number of and contact with friends and other unrelated people generally decrease with advancing age, whereas the number of and contact with family members remain rather stable. Relatively little is known about longitudinal changes in the quality of relationships, apart from romantic relationships, because few longitudinal studies have tracked specific relationships. Some explanatory factors, which are discussed in the literature, are (a) motivational changes, (b) reduced time due to work and family demands during adulthood, and (c) resource constraints in older age. Future work on social relationships would benefit from increasingly applying dyadic and network approaches to include the perspective of relationship partners as well as from examining online and offline contact in social relationships, which has already proved important among younger adults.
Subjective Aging and Health
Authors: Westerhof Gerben J. , Wurm Susanne
Published: October 2018

Aging is often associated with inevitable biological decline. Yet research suggests that subjective aging—the views that people have about their own age and aging—contributes to how long and healthy lives they will have. Subjective age and self-perceptions of aging are the two most studied aspects of subjective aging. Both have somewhat different theoretical origins, but they can be measured reliably. A total of 41 studies have been conducted that examined the longitudinal health effects of subjective age and self-perceptions of aging. Across a wide range of health indicators, these studies provide evidence for the longitudinal relation of subjective aging with health and longevity. Three pathways might explain this relation: physiological, behavioral, and psychological pathways. The evidence for behavioral pathways, particularly for health behaviors, is strongest, whereas only a few studies have examined physiological pathways. Studies focusing on psychological pathways have included a variety of mechanisms, ranging from control and developmental regulation to mental health. Given the increase in the number of older people worldwide, even a small positive change in subjective aging might come with a considerable societal impact in terms of health gains.
Using Social Media to Resist Gender Violence—A Global Perspective
Authors: Fileborn Bianca , Loney-Howes Rachel
Published: October 2018

The development of social media, and Web 2.0 more broadly, has revolutionized all aspects of our social, cultural, and political lives. Notably, social media and online platforms have opened up space for resisting gender-based violence (GBV) in a way that, in some respects, was not possible “offline.” Some authors, drawing on Nancy Fraser, have conceptualized online spaces as a form of “counter-public”—a site in which collective and individual resistance to, and contestation of, dominant norms is enabled. Given the well-documented trajectories of victim-blaming and the perpetuation of various myths and misperceptions in relation to gender violence, social media spaces can function as a counter-public or countercultural forum in which victim-survivors can give voice to their experiences in their own words, and in doing so challenge persistent norms and stereotypes. Such practices have been documented across the Global North and South, with the potential of social media as a space of resistance and contestation most recently evidenced by the #MeToo global phenomenon, which was preceded by a string of digital activist efforts such as SlutWalk, Hollaback, #WhyIStayed, and #EndRapeCulture.

Yet the use of digital platforms to resist gender violence brings with it a range of concerns and limitations. While some activists and victim-survivors are able to harness social media to share experiences and be heard, the ability to do so continues to be shaped by factors such as age, (dis)ability, sexuality, socioeconomic status, race, and geographical location. Online resistance has likewise faced critique for actively reproducing certain myths and stereotypes about gender violence, or for providing a limited or partial picture of what this violence “is.” This suggests that only certain victim-survivors and experiences are recognized and validated as such online. In addition, online disclosure and the “naming and shaming” of perpetrators raises serious concerns regarding due process and “vigilantism.” Moreover, social media spaces can themselves be sites of gender violence, with the routine harassment and abuse of (particularly) women online increasingly well documented. Together, such perspectives illustrate the complex, nuanced, and deeply political role of social media as a site of resistance to gender violence.
Methods in the Study of African Historical Geography, Landscapes, and Environmental Change
Authors: Homewood Katherine
Published: October 2018

Increasingly, methods not traditionally used by historians are becoming available for the study of African historical geography, landscapes, and environmental change. Starting with an outline of the main determinants of vegetation formations across African landscapes, the article goes on to look at a selection of macro, micro, and modeling methods. Remote sensing allows analysis of land cover change over the past few decades but also shows enduring features useful in interpreting sources describing these landscapes at times long past. Google Earth–type software makes it possible to take a virtual walk through landscapes with key informants in the present day, exploring how the land was used and has changed. Geographical information systems make it possible to collate different spatially explicit types of information, including qualitative data, for quantitative and statistical analysis. At the other end of the scale, pollen, diatoms, foraminifera, and other micro-particles (spicules, phytoliths, cuticles, micro-charcoal) from lake or oceanic sediment cores, and the chemical and isotopic composition of organic remains, all convey information about the environmental context of a site and its surroundings. Carbon isotope or thermoluminescence dating techniques can pinpoint the changes they indicate across potentially very long time spans. Genetic, protein, and other molecular materials may allow precise lineages and migrations to be traced back across very long periods and distances. Finally, modeling makes it possible to use sparse historical and more robust recent data to predict possible pasts in exploratory but evidence-based ways. The disequilibrium debate in drylands illustrates how environmental narratives, strategically used, silence place-based knowledge in ways that science, seeing itself as apolitical, is not well placed to detect.
Models of Health and Addiction
Authors: Laporte Audrey , Ferguson Brian S.
Published: October 2018

One of the implications of the human capital literature of the 1960s was that a great many decisions individuals make that have consequences not just for the point in time when the decision is being made but also for the future can be thought of as involving investments in certain types of capital. In health economics, this led Michael Grossman to propose the concept of health capital, which refers not just to the individual’s illness status at any point in time, but to the more fundamental factors that affect the likelihood that she will be ill at any point in her life and also affect her life expectancy at each age. In Grossman’s model, an individual purchased health-related commodities that act through a health production function to improve her health. These commodities could be medical care, which could be seen as repair expenditures, or factors such as diet and exercise, which could be seen as ongoing additions to her health—the counterparts of adding savings to her financial capital on a regular basis. The individual was assumed to make decisions about her level of consumption of these commodities as part of an intertemporal utility-maximizing process that incorporated, through a budget constraint, the need to make tradeoffs between health-related goods and goods that had no health consequences. Pauline Ippolito showed that the same analytical techniques could be used to consider goods that were bad for health in the long run—bad diet and smoking, for example—still within the context of lifetime utility maximization. This raised the possibility that an individual might rationally take actions that were bad for her health in the long run. The logical extension of considering smoking as bad was adding recognition that smoking and other bad health habits were addictive. The notion of addictive commodities was already present in the literature on consumer behavior, but the consensus in that literature was that it was extremely difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between a rational addict and a completely myopic consumer of addictive goods. Gary Becker and Kevin Murphy proposed an alternative approach to modeling a forward-looking, utility-maximizing consumer’s consumption of addictive commodities, based on the argument that an individual’s degree of addiction could be modeled as addiction capital, and which could be used to tackle the empirical problems that the consumer expenditure literature had experienced. That model has become the most widely used framework for empirical research by economists into the consumption of addictive goods, and, while the concept of rationality in addiction remains controversial, the Becker-Murphy framework also provides a basis for testing various alternative models of the consumption of addictive commodities, most notably those based on versions of time-inconsistent intertemporal decision making.
Foreign Economic Aid
Authors: Taffet Jeffrey F.
Published: October 2018

In the first half of the 20th century, and more actively in the post–World War II period, the United States government used economic aid programs to advance its foreign policy interests. US policymakers generally believed that support for economic development in poorer countries would help create global stability, which would limit military threats and strengthen the global capitalist system. Aid was offered on a country-by-country basis to guide political development; its implementation reflected views about how humanity had advanced in richer countries and how it could and should similarly advance in poorer regions. Humanitarianism did play a role in driving US aid spending, but it was consistently secondary to political considerations. Overall, while funding varied over time, amounts spent were always substantial. Between 1946 and 2015, the United States offered almost $757 billion in economic assistance to countries around the world—$1.6 trillion in inflation-adjusted 2015 dollars. Assessing the impact of this spending is difficult; there has long been disagreement among scholars and politicians about how much economic growth, if any, resulted from aid spending and similar disputes about its utility in advancing US interests. Nevertheless, for most political leaders, even without solid evidence of successes, aid often seemed to be the best option for constructively engaging poorer countries and trying to create the kind of world in which the United States could be secure and prosperous.
Autoworkers and Their Unions
Authors: Clark Daniel
Published: October 2018

Since the introduction of “Fordism” in the early 1910s, which emphasized technological improvements and maximizing productive efficiency, US autoworkers have struggled with repetitive, exhausting, often dangerous jobs. Yet beginning with Ford’s Five Dollar Day, introduced in 1914, auto jobs have also provided higher pay than most other wage work, attracting hundreds of thousands of people, especially to Detroit, Michigan, through the 1920s, and again from World War II until the mid-1950s. Successful unionization campaigns by the United Auto Workers (UAW) in the 1930s and early 1940s resulted in contracts that guaranteed particular wage increases, reduced the power of foremen, and created a process for resolving workplace conflicts. In the late 1940s and early 1950s UAW president Walter Reuther negotiated generous medical benefits and pensions for autoworkers. The volatility of the auto industry, however, often brought layoffs that undermined economic security. By the 1950s overproduction and automation contributed heavily to instability for autoworkers. The UAW officially supported racial and gender equality, but realities in auto plants and the makeup of union leadership often belied those principles. Beginning in the 1970s US autoworkers faced disruptions caused by high oil prices, foreign competition, and outsourcing to Mexico. Contract concessions at unionized plants began in the late 1970s and continued into the 2000s. By the end of the 20th century, many American autoworkers did not belong to the UAW because they were employed by foreign automakers, who built factories in the United States and successfully opposed unionization. For good reason, autoworkers who survived the industry’s turbulence and were able to retire with guaranteed pensions and medical care look back fondly on all that they gained from working in the industry under UAW contracts. Countless others left auto work permanently and often reluctantly in periodic massive layoffs and the continuous loss of jobs from automation.
Spanish Diplomacy in the Age of Atlantic Revolutions
Authors: Hawkins Timothy
Published: October 2018

Spain entered the Age of Atlantic Revolutions (1775–1825) motivated by a desire to re-establish its traditional status as a major European power, a position that its Habsburg monarchs gradually had relinquished over the course of the 17th century and that was lost in dramatic fashion during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1713). Over the first six decades of the 18th century, the newly installed Bourbon dynasty launched a series of administrative, military, clerical, and economic reforms designed to spark and then protect an imperial revival. As a regular participant in the colonial wars of the period, the Spanish crown relied heavily on military strength to signify its renewed standing vis-à-vis its international adversaries. Any gains won by force of arms also needed to be confirmed by treaty and reinforced by positive peacetime relationships with these same rivals. As a result, an assertive diplomacy played an important role in promoting Spanish interests during a tumultuous era that began with great hopes for the restoration of Spain’s historic preeminence in the Atlantic World but ended with the collapse of its American empire.
fulling
Authors: Flohr Miko
Published: October 2018

The practice of fulling woollen garments was never part of an integrated textile production chain in the Greco-Roman world, though in several contexts, there were developments towards large-scale investment and rationalization in fulling workshops. Fullers, particularly in the Roman period, developed a strong, and positive, occupational identity, and were well-integrated members of their respective urban communities.
Can luteolin be a therapeutic molecule for both colon cancer and diabetes?
Authors: Ambasta Rashmi K , Gupta Rohan , Kumar Dhiraj , Bhattacharya Saurabh , Sarkar Aditi , Kumar Pravir
Published: October 2018

Diabetes and colon cancer are the leading cause of mortality worldwide. According to World Health Organization, the number of patients with diabetes and cancer is going to be elevated by 50% in 2020. However, several flavonoids have been known to be useful in reducing the chance of cancer/diabetes but the hunt of a single biomolecule that can act as therapeutic and preventive molecules for future epidemic continues. In this review, we aim to perform an illustration of all researches done that target molecular signaling using luteolin in cancer/diabetes and predicted target protein using PharmMapper. The search confirms that luteolin can be a remedial molecule for both cancer and diabetes via acting on variety of signaling pathway. Furthermore, we also intend to illustrate/compare the predicted and verified molecular modes of action of luteolin. Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis confirms the expression of CCND1 in colon cancer while immunofluorescence analysis confirms the CDK4 in diabetes. Finally, an effort has been made to map docking of marker protein-luteolin at a particular site using docking software. This review gives a holistic overview about luteolin as a therapeutic molecule for cancer/diabetes via acting on multiple signaling cascade such as p53, Wnt, eNOS, iNOS, SOD and MMP9, with especial emphasis on the cyclin-CDK pathway. Altogether, the review concludes that luteolin can be a molecule for the therapy of both cancer and diabetes by acting on broad signaling pathway.
Non-parametric frailty Cox models for hierarchical time-to-event data
Authors: Gasperoni Francesca , Ieva Francesca , Paganoni Anna Maria , Jackson Christopher H , Sharples Linda
Published: October 2018

We propose a novel model for hierarchical time-to-event data, for example, healthcare data in which patients are grouped by their healthcare provider. The most common model for this kind of data is the Cox proportional hazard model, with frailties that are common to patients in the same group and given a parametric distribution. We relax the parametric frailty assumption in this class of models by using a non-parametric discrete distribution. This improves the flexibility of the model by allowing very general frailty distributions and enables the data to be clustered into groups of healthcare providers with a similar frailty. A tailored Expectation–Maximization algorithm is proposed for estimating the model parameters, methods of model selection are compared, and the code is assessed in simulation studies. This model is particularly useful for administrative data in which there are a limited number of covariates available to explain the heterogeneity associated with the risk of the event. We apply the model to a clinical administrative database recording times to hospital readmission, and related covariates, for patients previously admitted once to hospital for heart failure, and we explore latent clustering structures among healthcare providers.
Inference on treatment effect modification by biomarker response in a three-phase sampling design
Authors: Juraska Michal , Huang Ying , Gilbert Peter B
Published: October 2018

An objective in randomized clinical trials is the evaluation of “principal surrogates,” which consists of analyzing how the treatment effect on a clinical endpoint varies over principal strata subgroups defined by an intermediate response outcome under both or one of the treatment assignments. The latter effect modification estimand has been termed the marginal causal effect predictiveness (mCEP) curve. This objective was addressed in two randomized placebo-controlled Phase 3 dengue vaccine trials for an antibody response biomarker whose sampling design rendered previously developed inferential methods highly inefficient due to a three-phase sampling design. In this design, the biomarker was measured in a case-cohort sample and a key baseline auxiliary strongly associated with the biomarker (the “baseline surrogate measure”) was only measured in a further sub-sample. We propose a novel approach to estimation of the mCEP curve in such three-phase sampling designs that avoids the restrictive “placebo structural risk” modeling assumption common to past methods and that further improves robustness by the use of non-parametric kernel smoothing for biomarker density estimation. Additionally, we develop bootstrap-based procedures for pointwise and simultaneous confidence intervals and testing of four relevant hypotheses about the mCEP curve. We investigate the finite-sample properties of the proposed methods and compare them to those of an alternative method making the placebo structural risk assumption. Finally, we apply the novel and alternative procedures to the two dengue vaccine trial data sets.
Direct Electrophysiological Correlates of Body Ownership in Human Cerebral Cortex
Authors: Guterstam Arvid , Collins Kelly L , Cronin Jeneva A , Zeberg Hugo , Darvas Felix , Weaver Kurt E , Ojemann Jeffrey G , Ehrsson H Henrik
Published: October 2018

Over the past decade, numerous neuroimaging studies based on hemodynamic markers of brain activity have examined the feeling of body ownership using perceptual body-illusions in humans. However, the direct electrophysiological correlates of body ownership at the cortical level remain unexplored. To address this, we studied the rubber hand illusion in 5 patients (3 males and 2 females) implanted with intracranial electrodes measuring cortical surface potentials. Increased high-γ (70–200 Hz) activity, an index of neuronal firing rate, in premotor and intraparietal cortices reflected the feeling of ownership. In both areas, high-γ increases were intimately coupled with the subjective illusion onset and sustained both during and in-between touches. However, intraparietal activity was modulated by tactile stimulation to a higher degree than the premotor cortex through effective connectivity with the hand-somatosensory cortex, which suggests different functional roles. These findings constitute the first intracranial electrophysiological characterization of the rubber hand illusion and extend our understanding of the dynamic mechanisms of body ownership.