bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Children’s Culture and Social Studies
Authors: Donald Stephanie Hemelryk , Qiu Zitong , Yan Zhenhui
Published: June 2013

The study of childhood is crucial to understanding contemporary Chinese society and culture. Successive generations of childhood since the mid-20th century have been given the burden of succession—of revolution, of reform, and now of globalization and national pride. They have been involved in wars as child soldiers; they have found themselves at the forefront of internal struggles for the very meaning of culture; and they have been assigned the task of taking Chinese science and technology to the pinnacle of modernity. Chinese society expects a lot from its children. Nonetheless, there are relatively few academic studies of the subject, although that situation is changing in line with the increasing academic focus on Chinese media, an area where younger generations are leading the way. This article seeks to provide an account of key foci in the study of childhood, while also extending the reach of the works cited to certain writings on “youth.” Childhood is a difficult category to pin down, as cultural and social norms can mean that a sixteen-year-old is a child in one place, but a working adult somewhere else. Here we keep to the United Nations Convention of the Rights of a Child (1988), of which China is a signatory, and mark infancy up to age two, and childhood up to seventeen years of age. However, we have still included titles that are concerned with youth over seventeen (approximately), when those discussions are also pertinent to an overall study of generational change. The twelve sections of this article are not exhaustive, but they tease out important themes: Annual Reports, Premodern History of Children and Childhood, Modern Histories of Childhood and Youth, the Child as a Sign of Value, Youth, Music and Literature, Television and Film, Media Use, Education, Anthropology, Politics and Psychology, and Rural Children. The overwhelming impression is one of a double contradiction. The study of the child entails a focus on the future, on abrupt change, and on China’s potential in the world. At the same time, it leads us back to longstanding discourses of social value, discourses that have been forged in the political philosophies of the Confucian tradition but that have developed through the governmental necessities of imperial systems, whereby education underpinned an imperial bureaucracy that spread across the imperial sphere of influence. Indeed, the Book of Rites is clear that the job of a ten-year-old is to study. Yet it was childhood that became the working metaphor for 20th-century critiques of that tradition, whereby lost childhoods such as of that of the peasant Runtu in Lu Xun’s seminal short story “Old Home” (first published in the radical magazine New Youth, 1921; see also Lu 1972, cited under Premodern History of Children and Childhood) were taken as causes and effects of an impoverished and emasculated China.
South Asian Architecture and Sculpture, 13th to 18th Centuries
Authors: Asher Catherine
Published: June 2013

By the 13th century, the South Asian subcontinent was populated by diverse ethnic and religious groups and the land was divided into multiple kingdoms. Hindus, those adhering to Brahmanical beliefs, were dominant, but Jains also flourished. Followers of Buddhism, once strong in the east and west, died out. While Muslims had been present in South Asia since the 8th century, late in the 12th century Muslim Afghans of Turkish origins established themselves as political authorities in north India. In north India there was no real unified political authority until the establishment of Mughal power (1526–1858), while the Vijayanagara Empire (actually ruled by three different houses) unified a good portion on south India from the 14th through the late 16th century. The first half of the 17th century was a period of stability in most of north India, but in the second half of the 17th century tranquility was marred by incessant warfare, much of which was transacted in the southernmost region of the Mughal Empire, below the Narmada River. From the 17th century on, an increasing European presence was felt in the subcontinent, adding yet more players for control of India’s rich resources. Art and architecture were produced by all these groups, some for religious and some for political reasons, but often for both. Unlike earlier periods, from which only religious art and architecture have survived, commencing about the 14th century, palaces, estates, gardens, fortifications, bridges, hamams, and housing have survived, among others. While sculpture is found more often in a Hindu or Jain context, examples produced by Muslim courts do exist.
Qing Dynasty Painting
Authors: Brown Claudia
Published: June 2013

The Qing (Ch’ing, 1644–1911) period covers nearly three hundred years of China’s history, a long period by any standard, and yet modern scholars have been slow to recognize its importance in Chinese painting history, tending instead to favor earlier periods or contemporary art. The Qing was a conquest dynasty, by which is meant that an outside group, the Manchus, whose homeland was northeast of China proper, came to control the Chinese empire by force. After conquering the cities of the Yangzi (Yangtze) river area, China’s cultural heartland, the Manchu emperors adopted traditional Chinese culture with enthusiasm and embraced the long held practice of placing value on works by scholar-officials who followed the literati ideal of combining painting, poetry, and calligraphy. The Manchus also brought professional painters to court where they produced documentary works, portraits, copies of ancient masterpieces, and decorative programs for palace buildings. Outside the court, literati traditions came again to flourish, especially during the prosperous 18th century. There were contacts with European art, but more important for independent Chinese scholar-painters was the growing interest in collecting ancient inscriptions. This study of antiquities inspired experiments in calligraphy and affected painting as well. Lines between literati and professional painters blurred as urban centers provided new networks and settings for painting. As for the study of Qing painting, in 1743 court officials began the evaluation and cataloguing of the vast palace collection of scrolls and albums, old and new. Their work set the starting point for the study of painting of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Meanwhile, an eager audience in Europe and North America, already keen on chinoiserie, developed interest in “export pictures,” which combined elements of the traditions of China and the West. Although modern art historians were slow to take up the study of Qing painting, the formation of the Palace Museum and the first publications of its collections in the 1930s spurred a general interest that has resurfaced in the last twenty-five years. The challenge remains to sort out the relationship of court painting to private commissions and of scholar-amateur work to that associated with a modern, commercial art market.
Modern and Contemporary Art of South Asia
Authors: Noor Tausif
Published: June 2013

Scholarship on modern and contemporary art has emerged as a significant subfield within the larger field of the art of South Asia, especially since the 1990s. Arguing against earlier historicist readings that presented Europe as the center from which modernism was transmitted to the rest of the world, scholars have critically examined transcontinental artistic encounters and radical aesthetic negotiations in the colony and the post-colony. Moving away from a center-periphery model that inevitably marks modern art in South Asia as merely derivative of its Western counterpart, recent scholarship has presented a number of methodological alternatives appropriate for examining the aesthetic and political imperatives of modern and contemporary art in South Asia on its own terms. Much of this scholarship has paralleled, intersected with, and drawn on the theoretical frames made available by postcolonial and subaltern studies. Thus, although a relatively new arena of inquiry, the methodological sophistication and academic rigor demonstrated by recent scholarship has very rapidly transformed the study of modern and contemporary South Asian art into a subfield with its own vocabulary and lexicon. While significant overlaps exist, the key concerns for the study of modernism, however, differ constitutively from the questions that are central to the study of contemporary art practices. Negotiations between traditional forms and modernist aesthetics, intersections between internationalism and national identity, and questions of authenticity and derivativeness have informed scholarly engagements with the art of the late 19th century and the 20th century. In contrast, globalization and its attendant cultural transformations, accelerated migration and the increased global mobility of both artworks and artists, the rise of new media and the reconfiguration of older aesthetic imperatives, and, in recent years, an alteration in the role of the artist and the audience have emerged as organizing themes for studies on contemporary art. Despite this divergence, the study of modern and contemporary South Asian art, nevertheless, shares a set of theoretical and methodological predilections that give this subfield conceptual coherence. Many of the entries in this article demonstrate that these predilections result from a broader interest in questions of anti-imperialism, marginality, difference, and otherness as articulated through visual representation. This perhaps is inevitable given that the genealogy of this new subfield can be traced to the anticolonial tenor of early-20th-century scholarship on modern South Asian art, citations for which have also been included in this bibliography.
Early Christian Art
Authors: Marsengill Katherine
Published: June 2013

Early Christian art history encompasses a range of material loosely dated from the first known appearances of Christian art in the late second or early third century and continuing through the sixth, seventh, and sometimes even into the early eighth centuries. Early Christian art history, however, has proven to be an inchoate term, often overlapping with, or including, Early Byzantine art history. In previous divisions of the field, Early Byzantine art tended to be too politically confining when one considers cities such as Ravenna before and after its inclusion in the Eastern Byzantine Empire. On the other hand, Early Christian art implied only the earliest centuries, usually through the fourth or mid-fifth centuries, and usually centered on Roman monuments and works of art. Thus, many scholars today favor the term Late Antique in order to integrate the study of art and architecture of the Eastern Roman Empire and Western Roman Empire as well as to understand Christian art in dialogue with Jewish and pagan art. In terms of dating, scholars generally acknowledge the genesis of Christian art and architecture around 200 ce, although some pursue theories that Christians participated in visual culture in the early second century, if they had not yet developed a distinctly Christian visual language. In terms of geography, the eastern and western Mediterranean, Palestine and the Near East, and sometimes even northern Europe and Britain are all included. One result of this large geographical span has been the separation of Early Christian art in Rome, the Eastern Mediterranean, Egypt, the Near East, and so on. Since the late twentieth century, however, scholars have generally recognized a more cohesive Mediterranean world and a more fluid transition from Late Antiquity to medieval art and culture. Questions of continuity between these periods have ultimately made dating the end of “Early Christian” or “Late Antique” difficult, if not impossible. Most scholars see the end of Late Antiquity as coinciding with the death of Justinian I or, for the convenience of a rounded date, the year 600. Others argue the end of the period occurred at the beginning of the seventh century with the spread of Islam in the Near East and across North Africa. Byzantinists sometimes recognize the beginning of the iconoclastic controversy in 730 as the end of Late Antiquity. Accordingly, “true” Byzantine-era art begins after iconoclasm in the nineth century, what some refer to as the Middle Byzantine period, which marks the beginning of a distinguishable Byzantine state and extends until the Latin conquest of Constantinople in 1204, then followed by the Late Byzantine period (until 1453). Those who assert the continuity of Late Antique traditions in early Islamic art have recently broached the year 800 as the cut-off point.
Brazilian Art and Architecture, Post-independence
Authors: Shtromberg Elena , Querin Camilla
Published: June 2013

Often situated within the broader discipline of Latin American art, Brazilian art is distinguished by a unique linguistic and colonial history. Following the first encounter of Brazilian territory in 1500, the Portuguese attempted to pacify the different Indigenous tribes comprising the Tupi people occupying the territories along the Atlantic coast. Many tribes were put to work in the service of the Crown, particularly in harvesting commodities such as the red dye extracted from Brazilwood, the tree that gave Brazil its name. The Indigenous peoples, many of whom were decimated upon contact with heretofore unknown and infectious diseases brought from Europe, were later replaced by a huge influx of African enslaved people who were put to work on sugar plantations. A mixture of African, Indigenous, and Portuguese traditions thus characterizes much of Brazilian art well into the 20th century. One distinguishing feature of Brazilian artistic traditions was the arrival of the Portuguese royal family and their court to Brazil in 1807. Fearing the arrival of Napoleon’s army, the Portuguese king, John VI, fled to Rio de Janeiro, establishing the only monarchy in the Americas, which he ruled until 1822, when Brazil gained its independence. During the 19th century, Rio was established as the political and cultural capital of the Portuguese Empire. In 1816, the French Artistic Mission, comprising a group of French artists arrived in Rio to establish the first art academy there. The discussion of a nationally specific Brazilian art became possible during the 19th century, after the establishment of the first artistic institution dedicated to the teaching of art, the Royal School of Sciences, Arts and Crafts, which was later renamed the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts (it underwent several other name changes through the century). The French Artistic Mission was dominated by European, namely, French artistic models, a practice that continued well into the 20th century. The transition from the 19th to the 20th century brought with it not only significant social upheavals, including the abolition of slavery in 1888, but also a renewed interest in a nationally specific Brazilian art. Modernism in Brazilian art had its culminating moment in 1922 with Modern Art Week in São Paulo, establishing this growing urban center as an important venue for the production and circulation of art. This renewal was furthered with the foundation of the São Paulo Biennial in 1951. By the 1960s and 1970s, Brazilian art was exhibited in important international exhibitions, and today Brazilian artists have a strong presence in all major international art fairs and biennials. Contemporary art, although the most difficult to classify as having any specifically Brazilian traits, is also the most well-known art by international audiences.
Andy Warhol
Authors: Curley John J.
Published: June 2013

Andy Warhol is one of the most important and influential artists of the twentieth century. He is known especially for his silkscreened paintings and experimental films but also for the innovative and controversial ways in which he merged the worlds of art and commerce. Born in 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to working-class immigrants from present-day Slovakia, Warhol was a sickly child with more than a passing interest in celebrities and other mass cultural forms. He studied “pictorial design” at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie-Mellon University), a series of courses that combined fine arts training with more applied skills such as commercial illustration. In 1949, Warhol moved to New York, where he established himself as a successful commercial artist, producing illustrations for clients primarily in the fashion industry. Although he had small gallery exhibitions in the 1950s with works not unlike his commercial output, Warhol began producing paintings in 1960 based on consumer goods (such as Campbell’s soup cans) and other mass media sources (such as newspaper front pages) that were widely viewed as a reaction against the seriousness, existential drama, and machismo attached to abstract expressionism. Alongside artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and James Rosenquist, Warhol was soon considered to be one of the leaders of what came to be known as pop art. But Warhol’s embrace of the photomechanical silkscreen process in 1962 differentiated him from his peers; by producing paintings through photography, he effectively removed notions of handicraft and traditional notions of authorship from his paintings. That he called his studio the “Factory,” where he produced many portraits of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and canvasses based on press images of suicides and car accidents, only solidified this image. By the mid-1960s, Warhol had turned his attention to experimental filmmaking; his works included Empire, an eight-hour static portrait of the Empire State Building from 1964. After surviving an assassination attempt in 1968, he largely turned to making celebrity and commissioned portraits in the early 1970s as well as more commercial films and his monumental silkscreened images of Mao Zedong. In his final decade, he produced a diverse body of paintings, which continued his interest in subjects drawn from popular culture, even as Warhol became more explicit in addressing questions of abstraction in painting. He died in 1987, following routine gallbladder surgery at the age of 58. In addition to his films and paintings, Warhol’s appearance, persona, and quips (such as “In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes”) are widely known.
Nutritional Enhancement of Soy Meal via Aspergillus oryzae Solid‐State Fermentation
Authors: Chen Liyan , Madl Ronald L. , Vadlani Praveen V.
Published: June 2013

Antinutritional factors in soy meal (SM) include trypsin inhibitor, galactooligosaccharides (GOSs), structural polysaccharides, and large‐molecular‐weight protein. These antinutritional factors limit the usage of SM for young monogastric animals. Aspergillus oryzae solid‐state fermentation was applied to eliminate these factors, and changes in physical and chemical characteristics of SM were investigated. A. oryzae–treated SM was more nutrient dependent than oxygen dependent, which was illustrated by scanning electron microscopy. After 36 h of fermentation, the concentration of GOSs (raffinose, stachyose, and verbascose) and trypsin inhibitor decreased from an initial value of 9.48 mmol/100 g to a nondetectable level. Structural polysaccharides decreased by 59% (w/w), and the degree of hydrolysis of SM protein increased from an initial value of 0.9 to 7% (w/w) through the seven‐day fermentation. Fermentation also modified nutritional factors. Protein content increased from 50.47 to 58.93% (w/w) after 36 h of fermentation. Amino acid contents were significantly enhanced. The research thoroughly studied the A. oryzae solid‐state fermentation of SM, and the resulting premium product could provide a better protein source for monogastric animals.
Xanthomonas albilineansOmpA1 Appears to be Functionally Modular and Both the OMC and C-like Domains Are Necessary for Leaf Scald Disease of Sugarcane
Authors: Fleites Laura A. , Mensi Imène , Gargani Daniel , Zhang Shujian , Rott Philippe , Gabriel Dean W.
Published: June 2013

Several EZ-Tn5 insertions in gene locus XALc_0557 (OmpA1) of the sugarcane leaf scald pathogen Xanthomonas albilineans XaFL07-1 were previously found to strongly affect pathogenicity and endophytic stalk colonization. XALc_0557 has a predicted OmpA N-terminal outer membrane channel (OMC) domain and an OmpA C-like domain. Further analysis of mutant M468, with an EZ-Tn5 insertion in the upstream OMC domain coding region, revealed impaired epiphytic and endophytic leaf survival, impaired resistance to sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), structural defects in the outer membrane (OM), and hyperproduction of OM vesicles. Cloned full-length XALc_0557 complemented M468 for all phenotypes tested, including pathogenicity, resistance to SDS, and ability to survive both endophytically and epiphytically. Another construct, pCT47.3, which expressed only the C-like domain of XALc_0557, restored resistance to SDS in M468 but failed to complement any other mutant phenotype, indicating that the C-like domain functioned independently of the OMC domain to help maintain OM integrity. pCT47.3 also complemented pathogenicity, resistance to SDS, and stalk colonization in mutant M1152, which carries an EZ-Tn5 insert in the C-like coding region, indicating that both predicted domains are modular and necessary but neither is sufficient for X. albilineans pathogenicity, endophytic survival in, and epiphytic survival on sugarcane.
Molecular Phylogenetic Relationships of the Brown Leaf Rust Fungi on Wheat, Rye, and Other Grasses
Authors: Liu Miao , Szabo Les J. , Hambleton Sarah , Anikster Yehoshua , Kolmer James A.
Published: June 2013

The classification of brown leaf rust fungi (Puccinia recondita complex and allied species) on wheat (Triticum aestivum), rye (Secale cereale), and other grasses in the family Poaceae has experienced a long history of controversy and uncertainty due to the reduced morphological characteristics available for taxonomy and difficulty of conducting interfertility experiments. However, because these are pathogens on important crops, it is important to clarify the species delimitations reflecting the natural lineages. In this study, phylogenetic analyses were conducted with DNA sequence data from the ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer region and elongation factor 1-α to elucidate this species complex. Three phylogenetic lineages were recovered within the complex of rye leaf rust fungi, P. recondita sensu stricto, which is congruent with existing classifications based on DNA content, sexual compatibility, and morphological studies. The brown leaf rust fungus on wheat (P. triticina) grouped with the related species P. persistens on Elymus repens and E. intermedia as a strongly supported clade. Collections on other Elymus spp. were separated into six clades. Based on the phylogenetic affinities of nine type specimens and aecial host associations, potential taxonomic names were evaluated for selected lineages.
First Report of Phytophthora tropicalis on Rhododendron in Italy
Authors: Luongo L. , Galli M. , Vitale S. , Haegi A. , Belisario A.
Published: June 2013

The genus Rhododendron comprises over 1,000 species, which represent many important ornamental shrubs. Microbial isolations were made from Rhododendron catawbiense plants showing symptoms of wilt, dieback, and death of shoots obtained from two nurseries in the Latium region in the late summer of 2012. A Phytophthora species was consistently recovered by plating small pieces of stem and collar tissues, cut from the margin of lesions, on P5ARPH selective medium. Pure cultures were obtained by single-hyphal transfers and they grew in a rosaceous pattern on potato dextrose agar (PDA) at an optimum temperature of 28 to 30°C. Sporangia formation was induced on pepper seeds (3). Sporangia were ellipsoid, fusiform or obpyriform, papillate, occasionally bipapillate, caducous, with a long pedicel (up to 100 μm), and mean dimensions of 45 × 25 μm with a mean length/width ratio of 1.8. Chlamydospores ranged from 25 to 32 μm in diameter. Isolates were considered heterothallic because they did not produce gametangia in vitro or in planta. On the basis of morphological features, the isolates were identified as Phytophthora tropicalis Aragaki & Uchida. Identity was confirmed by sequence comparison in GenBank with 99% homology both for internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and mitochondrial partial COI for cytochrome oxidase subunit 1. The sequences of two isolates AB211 and AB212 were deposited in the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) with accession nos. HF937577 and HF937578 for ITS, and HF937579 and HF937580 for COI, respectively. Pathogenicity tests were conducted in the greenhouse on a total of six 1-year-old shoots cut from R. catawbiense plants with two inoculation points each. Mycelial plugs cut from the margins of actively growing 8-day-old cultures on PDA were inserted through the epidermis to the phloem. Controls were treated as described above except for inoculation with sterile PDA plugs. Inoculated shoots were incubated in test tubes with sterile water for 1 week in the dark at 26 ± 2°C. Lesions were evident at the inoculation points. P. tropicalis was consistently reisolated from the margin of symptomatic tissues. Control shoots remained symptomless. In Italy, P. tropicalis has been reported on several ornamental species (1) and on apricot trees (4) indicating a broad host range. On the same host it has been reported in Virginia, United States (2). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of Phytophthora damage on Rhododendron caused by P. tropicalis in Italy.

References: (1) S. O. Cacciola et al. Plant Dis. 90: 680, 2006. (2) C. X. Hong et al. Plant Dis. 90: 525, 2006. (3) E. Ilieva et al. Eur. J. Plant Path. 101: 623, 1995. (4) A. Pane et al. Plant Dis. 93: 844, 2009.
Relationship Between Climatic Factors and Distribution of Pratylenchus spp. in the Dryland Wheat-Production Areas of Eastern Washington
Authors: Kandel Shyam L. , Smiley Richard W. , Garland-Campbell Kimberly , Elling Axel A. , Abatzoglou John , Huggins David , Rupp Richard , Paulitz Timothy C.
Published: June 2013

Field surveys were conducted by collecting soil samples to estimate nematode densities in soil from winter wheat, spring wheat, spring barley, and spring legumes (lentil, chickpea, and pea) fields during 2010 and 2011. Pratylenchus spp. were observed in 60% of sampled fields. However, nematodes were detected in nearly all of the survey fields in high numbers where crops were grown every year. To identify climatic variables associated with density of Pratylenchus spp. in soil, correlation and regression analyses were performed using climate data of survey sites from 1979 to 2010. Fifty-seven climate variables were significantly correlated with densities of Pratylenchus spp. All precipitation variables were significantly positively correlated with nematode abundance. Summer maximum air temperature was negatively correlated and winter minimum air temperature was positively correlated with nematode densities. In addition, both years' nematode densities were significantly correlated with cropping intensity. Five multivariate regression models for 2010 and seven models for 2011 nematode abundance levels were developed. The majority of the climate variables selected in the models were related to precipitation. Knowledge of root-lesion nematode distribution in the dryland region of eastern Washington and associated climate variables may be helpful to determine risk and apply management practices to minimize crop damage.
Response of insect parasitism to elevation depends on host and parasitoid life-history strategies
Authors: Péré Christelle , Jactel Hervé , Kenis Marc
Published: June 2013

How global warming will affect insect parasitoids and their role as natural enemies of insect pests is difficult to assess within a short period of time. Considering that elevation gradients can be used as analogues for global warming, we carried out meta-analyses of 27 correlations between parasitoid richness and elevation and 140 correlations between parasitism rate and elevation in natural and semi-natural environments. We also explored various covariates that may explain the observed responses. Both parasitism rates and parasitoid species richness significantly decreased with increasing elevation. The decrease was greater for ectoparasitoids and parasitoids of ectophagous insects than for endoparasitoids and parasitoids of endophagous hosts, possibly because these latter are better protected from adverse and extreme climatic conditions occurring at higher elevations. Although our results suggest an increase of parasitism with increasing temperature, other factors regulating herbivorous insects have to be considered before concluding that climate warming will lead to a decrease in pest density.
Horizontal transmission of the father's song in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata)
Authors: Derégnaucourt Sébastien , Gahr Manfred
Published: June 2013

As is the case for human speech, birdsong is transmitted across generations by imitative learning. Although transfer of song patterns from adults to juveniles typically occurs via vertical or oblique transmission, there is also evidence of horizontal transmission between juveniles of the same generation. Here, we show that a young male zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) that has been exposed to its father during the sensitive period for song learning can lead a brother, that has never heard the paternal song, to imitate some sounds of the father. Moreover, song similarity between the two brothers was higher than the similarity measured between the paternal song and the song of the brother that had a week-long exposure to the father. We speculate that the phenomenon of within-generation song learning among juveniles may be more widespread than previously thought and that when a juvenile evaluates potential models for imitative learning, a sibling may be as salient as an adult.
Predation risk causes oxidative damage in prey
Authors: Janssens Lizanne , Stoks Robby
Published: June 2013

While there is increasing interest in non-consumptive effects of predators on prey, physiological effects are understudied. While physiological stress responses play a crucial role in preparing escape responses, the increased metabolic rates and shunting of energy away from other body functions, including antioxidant defence, may generate costs in terms of increased oxidative stress. Here, we test whether predation risk increases oxidative damage in
Enallagma cyathigerum
damselfly larvae. Under predation risk, larvae showed higher lipid peroxidation, which was associated with lower levels of superoxide dismutase, a major antioxidant enzyme in insects, and higher superoxide anion concentrations, a potent reactive oxygen species. The mechanisms underlying oxidative damage are likely to be due to the shunting of energy away from antioxidant defence and to an increased metabolic rate, suggesting that the observed increased oxidative damage under predation risk may be widespread. Given the potentially severe fitness consequences of oxidative damage, this largely overlooked non-consumptive effect of predators may be contributing significantly to prey population dynamics.
Scaling law and enhancement of lift generation of an insect-size hovering flexible wing
Authors: Kang Chang-kwon , Shyy Wei
Published: June 2013

We report a comprehensive scaling law and novel lift generation mechanisms relevant to the aerodynamic functions of structural flexibility in insect flight. Using a Navier–Stokes equation solver, fully coupled to a structural dynamics solver, we consider the hovering motion of a wing of insect size, in which the dynamics of fluid–structure interaction leads to passive wing rotation. Lift generated on the flexible wing scales with the relative shape deformation parameter, whereas the optimal lift is obtained when the wing deformation synchronizes with the imposed translation, consistent with previously reported observations for fruit flies and honeybees. Systematic comparisons with rigid wings illustrate that the nonlinear response in wing motion results in a greater peak angle compared with a simple harmonic motion, yielding higher lift. Moreover, the compliant wing streamlines its shape via camber deformation to mitigate the nonlinear lift-degrading wing–wake interaction to further enhance lift. These bioinspired aeroelastic mechanisms can be used in the development of flapping wing micro-robots.
Geology and religion in Portugal
Authors: Carneiro Ana , Simoes Ana , Diogo Maria Paula , Mota Teresa Salomé
Published: June 2013

This paper addresses the relationship between geology and religion in Portugal by focusing on three case studies of naturalists who produced original research and lived in different historical periods, from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Whereas in non-peripheral European countries religious themes and even controversies between science and religion were dealt with by scientists and discussed in scientific communities, in Portugal the absence of a debate between science and religion within scientific and intellectual circles is particularly striking. From the historiographic point of view, in a country such as Portugal, where Roman Catholicism is part of the religious and cultural tradition, the influence of religion in all aspects of life has been either taken for granted by those less familiar with the national context or dismissed by local intellectuals, who do not see it as relevant to science. The situation is more complex than these dichotomies, rendering the study of this question particularly appealing from the historiographic point of view, geology being by its very nature a well-suited point from which to approach the theme. We argue that there is a long tradition of independence between science and religion, agnosticism and even atheism among local elites. Especially from the eighteenth century onwards, they are usually portrayed as enlightened minds who struggled against religious and political obscurantism. Religion—or, to be more precise, the Roman Catholic Church and its institutions—was usually identified with backwardness, whereas science was seen as the path to progress; consequently men of science usually dissociated their scientific production from religious belief.
Diversity in neotropical wet forests during the Cenozoic is linked more to atmospheric CO
2
than temperature
Authors: Royer Dana L. , Chernoff Barry
Published: June 2013

Models generally predict a response in species richness to climate, but strong climate-diversity associations are seldom observed in long-term (more than 10
6
years) fossil records. Moreover, fossil studies rarely distinguish between the effects of atmospheric CO
2
and temperature, which limits their ability to identify the causal controls on biodiversity. Plants are excellent organisms for testing climate-diversity hypotheses owing to their strong sensitivity to CO
2
, temperature and moisture. We find that pollen morphospecies richness in an angiosperm-dominated record from the Palaeogene and early Neogene (65–20 Ma) of Colombia and Venezuela correlates positively to CO
2
much more strongly than to temperature (both tropical sea surface temperatures and estimates of global mean surface temperature). The weaker sensitivity to temperature may be due to reduced variance in long-term climate relative to in higher latitudes, or to the occurrence of lethal or sub-lethal temperatures during the warmest times of the Eocene. Physiological models predict that productivity should be the most sensitive to CO
2
within the angiosperms, a prediction supported by our analyses if productivity is linked to species richness; however, evaluations of non-angiosperm assemblages are needed to more completely test this idea.
Rapid Structural Changes and Acidification of Guard Cell Vacuoles during Stomatal Closure Require Phosphatidylinositol 3,5-Bisphosphate
Authors: Bak Gwangbae , Lee Eun-Jung , Lee Yuree , Kato Mariko , Segami Shoji , Sze Heven , Maeshima Masayoshi , Hwang Jae-Ung , Lee Youngsook
Published: June 2013

Rapid stomatal closure is essential for water conservation in plants and is thus critical for survival under water deficiency. To close stomata rapidly, guard cells reduce their volume by converting a large central vacuole into a highly convoluted structure. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this change are poorly understood. In this study, we used pH-indicator dyes to demonstrate that vacuolar convolution is accompanied by acidification of the vacuole in fava bean (Vicia faba) guard cells during abscisic acid (ABA)–induced stomatal closure. Vacuolar acidification is necessary for the rapid stomatal closure induced by ABA, since a double mutant of the vacuolar H+-ATPase vha-a2 vha-a3 and vacuolar H+-PPase mutant vhp1 showed delayed stomatal closure. Furthermore, we provide evidence for the critical role of phosphatidylinositol 3,5-bisphosphate [PtdIns(3,5)P2] in changes in pH and morphology of the vacuole. Single and double Arabidopsis thaliana null mutants of phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate 5-kinases (PI3P5Ks) exhibited slow stomatal closure upon ABA treatment compared with the wild type. Moreover, an inhibitor of PI3P5K reduced vacuolar acidification and convolution and delayed stomatal closure in response to ABA. Taken together, these results suggest that rapid ABA-induced stomatal closure requires PtdIns(3,5)P2, which is essential for vacuolar acidification and convolution.
Evolution of a Complex Locus for Terpene Biosynthesis in Solanum
Authors: Matsuba Yuki , Nguyen Thuong T.H. , Wiegert Krystle , Falara Vasiliki , Gonzales-Vigil Eliana , Leong Bryan , Schäfer Petra , Kudrna David , Wing Rod A. , Bolger Anthony M. , Usadel Björn , Tissier Alain , Fernie Alisdair R. , Barry Cornelius S. , Pichersky Eran
Published: June 2013

Functional gene clusters, containing two or more genes encoding different enzymes for the same pathway, are sometimes observed in plant genomes, most often when the genes specify the synthesis of specialized defensive metabolites. Here, we show that a cluster of genes in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum; Solanaceae) contains genes for terpene synthases (TPSs) that specify the synthesis of monoterpenes and diterpenes from cis-prenyl diphosphates, substrates that are synthesized by enzymes encoded by cis-prenyl transferase (CPT) genes also located within the same cluster. The monoterpene synthase genes in the cluster likely evolved from a diterpene synthase gene in the cluster by duplication and divergence. In the orthologous cluster in Solanum habrochaites, a new sesquiterpene synthase gene was created by a duplication event of a monoterpene synthase followed by a localized gene conversion event directed by a diterpene synthase gene. The TPS genes in the Solanum cluster encoding cis-prenyl diphosphate–utilizing enzymes are closely related to a tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum; Solanaceae) diterpene synthase encoding Z-abienol synthase (Nt-ABS). Nt-ABS uses the substrate copal-8-ol diphosphate, which is made from the all-trans geranylgeranyl diphosphate by copal-8-ol diphosphate synthase (Nt-CPS2). The Solanum gene cluster also contains an ortholog of Nt-CPS2, but it appears to encode a nonfunctional protein. Thus, the Solanum functional gene cluster evolved by duplication and divergence of TPS genes, together with alterations in substrate specificity to utilize cis-prenyl diphosphates and through the acquisition of CPT genes.
ZnIIand CuIIcomplexes generated from 5-(pyridin-4-yl)-3-[2-(pyridin-4-yl)ethyl]-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2(3H)-thione
Authors: Zhao Hang-Ju , Ma Jian-Ping , Liu Qi-Kui , Dong Yu-Bin
Published: June 2013

A new 1,3,4-oxadiazole-containing bispyridyl ligand, namely 5-(pyridin-4-yl)-3-[2-(pyridin-4-yl)ethyl]-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2(3H)-thione (L), has been used to create the novel complexes tetranitratobis{μ-5-(pyridin-4-yl)-3-[2-(pyridin-4-yl)ethyl]-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2(3H)-thione}zinc(II), [Zn2(NO3)4(C14H12N4OS)2], (I), andcatena-poly[[[dinitratocopper(II)]-bis{μ-5-(pyridin-4-yl)-3-[2-(pyridin-4-yl)ethyl]-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2(3H)-thione}] nitrate acetonitrile sesquisolvate dichloromethane sesquisolvate], {[Cu(NO3)(C14H12N4OS)2]NO3·1.5CH3CN·1.5CH2Cl2}n, (II). Compound (I) presents a distorted rectangular centrosymmetric Zn2L2ring (dimensions 9.56 × 7.06 Å), where each ZnIIcentre lies in a {ZnN2O4} coordination environment. These binuclear zinc metallocycles are linked into a two-dimensional network through nonclassical C—H...O hydrogen bonds. The resulting sheets lie parallel to theacplane. Compound (II), which crystallizes as a nonmerohedral twin, is a coordination polymer with double chains of CuIIcentres linked by bridgingLligands, propagating parallel to the crystallographicaaxis. The CuIIcentres adopt a distorted square-pyramidal CuN4O coordination environment with apical O atoms. The chains in (II) are interlinkedviatwo kinds of π–π stacking interactions along [0\overline 11]. In addition, the structure of (II) contains channels parallel to the crystallographicadirection. The guest components in these channels consist of dichloromethane and acetonitrile solvent molecules and uncoordinated nitrate anions.
Hydrogen-bonding network ofN,N′-bis[2-(tert-butyldimethylsiloxy)ethyl]ethylenediammonium dichloride
Authors: Wen Mei-Feng , Lin Bi-Ting , He Chang-Shuai , Wu Jian-Zhong
Published: June 2013

The title salt, C18H46N2O2Si22+·2Cl−, has been synthesized by reaction ofN,N′-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)ethylenediamine withtert-butyldimethylsilyl chloride. The zigzag backbone dication is located across an inversion centre and the two chloride anions are related by inversion symmetry. The ionic components form a supramolecular two-dimensional networkviaN—H...Cl hydrogen bonding, which is responsible for the high melting point compared with the oily compoundN,N′-bis[2-(tert-butyldimethylsiloxy)ethyl]ethylenediamine.
How good are my data and what is the resolution?
Authors: Evans Philip R. , Murshudov Garib N.
Published: June 2013

Following integration of the observed diffraction spots, the process of `data reduction' initially aims to determine the point-group symmetry of the data and the likely space group. This can be performed with the programPOINTLESS. The scaling program then puts all the measurements on a common scale, averages measurements of symmetry-related reflections (using the symmetry determined previously) and produces many statistics that provide the first important measures of data quality. A new scaling program,AIMLESS, implements scaling models similar to those inSCALAbut adds some additional analyses. From the analyses, a number of decisions can be made about the quality of the data and whether some measurements should be discarded. The effective `resolution' of a data set is a difficult and possibly contentious question (particularly with referees of papers) and this is discussed in the light of tests comparing the data-processing statistics with trials of refinement against observed and simulated data, and automated model-building and comparison of maps calculated with different resolution limits. These trials show that adding weak high-resolution data beyond the commonly used limits may make some improvement and does no harm.
Wheat (Triticum aestivum L. and T. turgidum L. ssp. durum) Kernel Hardness: II. Implications for End‐Product Quality and Role of Puroindolines Therein
Authors: Pauly Anneleen , Pareyt Bram , Fierens Ellen , Delcour Jan A.
Published: June 2013

Wheat kernel hardness is a major quality characteristic used in classifying wheat cultivars. Differences in endosperm texture among Triticum aestivum L. or between T. aestivum and T. turgidum L. ssp. durum cultivars profoundly affect their milling behavior, the properties of the obtained flour or semolina particles, as well as the quality of products made thereof. It is now widely accepted that the presence, sequence polymorphism, or absence of the basic and cysteine‐rich puroindolines a and b are responsible for differences in endosperm texture. These proteins show features in vitro, including foaming and lipid‐binding properties, which provide them with a potential impact in the production of wheat‐based food products, where they may improve gas cell stabilization or modulate interactions between starch, proteins, and/or lipids. We here summarize the impact of wheat hardness on milling properties and bread, cookie, cake, and pasta quality and discuss the role of puroindolines therein.
Wheat (Triticum aestivum L. and T. turgidum L. ssp. durum) Kernel Hardness: I. Current View on the Role of Puroindolines and Polar Lipids
Authors: Pauly Anneleen , Pareyt Bram , Fierens Ellen , Delcour Jan A.
Published: June 2013

Wheat hardness has major consequences for the entire wheat supply chain from breeders and millers over manufacturers to, finally, consumers of wheat‐based products. Indeed, differences in hardness among Triticum aestivum L. or between T. aestivum L. and T. turgidum L. ssp. durum wheat cultivars determine not only their milling properties, but also the properties of flour or semolina endosperm particles, their preferential use in cereal‐based applications, and the quality of the latter. Although the mechanism causing differences in wheat hardness has been subject of research more than once, it is still not completely understood. It is widely accepted that differences in wheat hardness originate from differences in the interaction between the starch granules and the endosperm protein matrix in the kernel. This interaction seems impacted by the presence of either puroindoline a and/or b, polar lipids on the starch granule surface, or by a combination of both. We focus here on wheat hardness and its relation to the presence of puroindolines and polar lipids. More in particular, the structure, properties, and genetics of puroindolines and their interactions with polar lipids are critically discussed as is their possible role in wheat hardness. We also address future research needs as well as the presence of puroindoline‐type proteins in other cereals.
Looking Back to Look Forward: A Review of FDA's Food Additives Safety Assessment and Recommendations for Modernizing its Program
Authors: Maffini Maricel V. , Alger Heather M. , Olson Erik D. , Neltner Thomas G.
Published: June 2013

Scientists participating in 2 multistakeholder meetings in 2011 and in other events have identified a number of ways in which the methods the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) uses to assess the safety of chemicals in human food should be improved and updated. We evaluated whether FDA's current methods, including its decision‐making process, are outdated, as alleged by its critics. We examined a 1982 report by the Select Committee on GRAS Substances (SCOGS) that included suggestions to enhance food additive safety. FDA established SCOGS to review the safety of “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) substances in response to a directive by President Nixon. When evaluating FDA's response to SCOGS’ suggestions, we found that many remain unresolved and relevant today. Our analysis demonstrates that in many cases FDA has not kept pace with scientific developments. Although difficult to pinpoint, we concluded that this situation became more significant after 1997, when FDA launched the voluntary GRAS notification program aimed at enticing manufacturers to inform the agency of their own safety decisions. Looking forward, we recommend that the agency convene an unbiased and independent expert workgroup to conduct a comprehensive review of FDA's science and decision making and develop a path to modernize food additives safety assessment. Areas of concern include toxicology test guidelines, tools used to predict health outcomes, conflict of interest in manufacturers’ decisions, lack of a reassessment strategy, and lack of a definition of harm.