bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Invasive Alien Species of Terrestrial Vegetation of North-Eastern Uttar Pradesh
Authors: Srivastava Sumit , Dvivedi Ashish , Shukla Ravindra Prasad
Published: May 2014

The vegetational landscape of north-easternTerairegion at the foot hills of Central Himalayas is a mosaic of grassland, old-field, wasteland, and forest ecosystems. Like many other parts of the country, this region is also infested with alien intruders which not only interfere with the growth and production of food crops but also exercise adverse effects on the biodiversity of native species. The present study attempts to catalogue the invasive alien species of the terrestrial vegetation of north-eastern Uttar Pradesh especially with reference to their habit, taxonomic position, and nativity. A total of 1135 plant species within 580 genera under 119 families are so far known to occur in the region. Of these, only 149 species within 100 genera under 41 families have been found to be invasive aliens as evident from their center of origin, past history, nature of aggregation, and invasion observed under field conditions. About 80% of these invaders have been introduced from neotropics. Out of 173 invasive plants across India, this region shares 149 species, out of which 66% of species have come from Tropical America, 14% from African continent, and the rest from other countries. A better planning in the form of early identification and reporting of infestation and spread of noxious weeds is needed for their control.
Multirobot FastSLAM Algorithm Based on Landmark Consistency Correction
Authors: Chen Shi-Ming , Yuan Jun-Feng , Zhang Fang , Fang Hua-Jing
Published: May 2014

Considering the influence of uncertain map information on multirobot SLAM problem, a multirobot FastSLAM algorithm based on landmark consistency correction is proposed. Firstly, electromagnetism‐like mechanism is introduced to the resampling procedure in single‐robot FastSLAM, where we assume that each sampling particle is looked at as a charged electron and attraction‐repulsion mechanism in electromagnetism field is used to simulate interactive force between the particles to improve the distribution of particles. Secondly, when multiple robots observe the same landmarks, every robot is regarded as one node and Kalman‐Consensus Filter is proposed to update landmark information, which further improves the accuracy of localization and mapping. Finally, the simulation results show that the algorithm is suitable and effective.
New Simple Spectrophotometric Method for the Simultaneous Estimation of Paracetamol and Flupirtine Maleate in Pure and Pharmaceutical Dosage Form
Authors: Giriraj P. , Sivakkumar T.
Published: May 2014

A new, simple, precise, accurate, reproducible, and efficient Vierordt’s method or simultaneous equation method was developed and validated for simultaneous estimation of paracetamol and flupirtine maleate in pure and pharmaceutical dosage form. The method was based on the measurement of absorbance at two wavelengths 245 nm and 344.5 nm, λmax of paracetamol and flupiritine maleate in 0.1 N HCl correspondingly. Calibration curves of paracetamol and flupiritine maleate were found to be linear in the concentration ranges of 5–15 μg/mL and 1.53–4.61 μg/mL, respectively, with their correlation coefficient values (R2) 0.999. LOD and LOQ were 185.90 ng/mL and 563.38 ng/mL for paracetamol and 78.89 ng/mL and 239.06 ng/mL for flupiritine maleate. In the precision study, the % RSD value was found within limits (RSD<2%). The percentage recovery at various concentration levels varied from 99.18 to 100.02% for paracetamol and 98.47 to 100.09% for flupiritine maleate confirming that the projected method is accurate. It could be concluded from the results obtained in the present investigation that this method for simultaneous estimation of paracetamol and flupirtine maleate in pure and tablet dosage form is simple, accurate, precise, and economical. The proposed method can be applied successfully for the simultaneous estimation of paracetamol and flupiritine maleate in pure and pharmaceutical dosage form.
A Probabilistic Design Methodology for a Turboshaft Engine Overall Performance Analysis
Authors: Chen Min , Zhang Kun , Tang Hai-Long
Published: May 2014

In reality, the cumulative effect of the many uncertainties in engine component performance may stack up to affect the engine overall performance. This paper aims to quantify the impact of uncertainty in engine component performance on the overall performance of a turboshaft engine based on Monte-Carlo probabilistic design method. A novel probabilistic model of turboshaft engine, consisting of a Monte-Carlo simulation generator, a traditional nonlinear turboshaft engine model, and a probability statistical model, was implemented to predict this impact. One of the fundamental results shown herein is that uncertainty in component performance has a significant impact on the engine overall performance prediction. This paper also shows that, taking into consideration the uncertainties in component performance, the turbine entry temperature and overall pressure ratio based on the probabilistic design method should increase by 0.76% and 8.33%, respectively, compared with the ones of deterministic design method. The comparison shows that the probabilistic approach provides a more credible and reliable way to assign the design space for a target engine overall performance.
Religious Autonomy and Religious Entrepreneurship: An Evolutionary-Institutionalist’s Take on the Axial Age
Authors: Abrutyn Seth
Published: May 2014

Abstract

Through the first millenniumbce, religio-cultural revolutions occurred in China, Greece, Israel, and India. Commonly referred to as the Axial Age, this epoch has been identified by some scholars as period of parallel evolution in which many of the World Religions appeared for the first time and humanity was forever changed. Axial scholarship, however, remains in an early stage as many social scientists and historians question the centrality of this era in the human story, while other unsettled debates revolve around what was common across each case. The paper below considers the Axial Age from an evolutionary-institutionalist’s perspective: what was axial was (1) the first successful religio-cultural entrepreneurs in human history and, thereby, (2) the evolution of autonomous religious spheres distinct from kinship and polity. Like the Urban Revolutions that qualitatively transformed human societies 3,000 years prior, the Axial Age represents a reconfiguration of the physical, temporal, social, and symbolic space in irreversible ways.
Comparing Experiences of Academic Mobility and Migration
Authors: Kirpitchenko Liudmila
Published: May 2014

Abstract

Academic mobility and accompanying migration have become increasingly evident as manifestations of globalization and internationalization of education worldwide. This paper aims to provide some insights into intercultural communication in academia by comparing experiences of students and academics who partake in academic mobility or/and academic migration. It seeks to reflect on how differences in cultural patterns impact on the integrational experiences and outcomes of academic learning and everyday interactions. Two contrasting cultural patterns ofcollectivismandindividualismare explored, as they are displayed in intercultural interactions among migrants and hosting societies. To expose this contrast effectively, this paper focuses on the Russian-speaking mobile academics and compares their intercultural experiences in academia of two countries—Italy and Australia. In-depth interviews were conducted with twenty-two academic migrants or/and mobile academics on their experiences, views and perceptions of intercultural integration in two diverse settings. This paper explores diverse aspects of intercultural dialogue and compares perceptions of intercultural integration and feelings of wellbeing. It analyses evolving empirical manifestations of cosmopolitanism in everyday intercultural interactions and argues that postmodern cosmopolitan milieu facilitates intercultural integration and enables knowledge transfer and creation of shared cultural meanings.
The Old Testament and the Question of Judaism in Reformed Theology: Calvin, Schleiermacher, and Barth
Authors: Capetz Paul E.
Published: May 2014

The Old Testament has always posed a challenge to Christian theology on account of Judaism’s counter-claim to its rightful possession. In Protestant theology, and especially Reformed theology, the Jewish character of this sacred literature has come to the fore demanding special attention on account of the Reformers’ insistence upon interpretation according to the literal sense of the text. Schleiermacher and Barth each embraced divergent aspects of Calvin’s approach to the Old Testament that came into conflict with one another in the modern era. After close analysis of their positions, a constructive alternative for addressing this set of questions is proposed as the most responsible way of furthering the Reformed heritage for our time in dialogue with Judaism.
Jonathan Edwards and Justification: Embodying a Living Tradition
Authors: Huggins Jonathan
Published: May 2014

This article examines Jonathan Edwards’ doctrine of Justification with a view toward noting his developments and contributions to the historic Reformed tradition. This study will also engage the notion of a ‘living theological tradition’ and what it might mean to faithfully embody such a tradition, while at the same time standing critically within it. These two subjects, taken together, will aim to commend Edwards as a helpful resource in Reformed theological thinking today. Does Edwards’ doctrine of Justification include the kind of creative theological thinking that reflects a dynamic, living, and open theological tradition? By exploring this question, I hope to recommend Edwards, not just as America’s greatest theologian, but as a worthy example of the kind of fresh theological thinking the Reformed churches must maintain in the 21st century.
Taking Sides: An Investigation into Reinhold Niebuhr’s Rise to the Position of Public Intellectual
Authors: Smith Graeme
Published: May 2014

Abstract

This article investigates the reason for Reinhold Niebuhr’s rise to prominence as a public intellectual; it considers first the nature of Niebuhr’s success before then arguing that the rhetorical style of his sermons and lectures, the polemical style of his journalism and his political activism were major factors in his rise. What is suggested in the article is that Niebuhr constructed himself as a political figure and that this was crucial in his rise to prominence.
Towards a Theology of Urban Regeneration: Stories from Devonport
Authors: Nixon David
Published: May 2014

Abstract

This article seeks to explore a public theology of urban regeneration, developed out of liberation and postmodern theologies, as well as reflections on place and space, and augmented by critical discussions about the involvement of faith communities in urban development. This theology is actualized in the experience of one uk regeneration programme in Devonport, Plymouth via an analysis of local neighbourhood stories, and extended to include a critique of national urban policy. These local voices expand traditional concepts such as death and resurrection, sin and redemption to provide a richer theological understanding of God’s relationship to the human creation; equally, attention to the tradition provides further insights into what is happening at the level of the street. When neighbourhood and global configurations are juxtaposed, they result in an imaginative Devonport Trinity, which allows and heals the binaries and complexities of (post)modern urban communities.
The Consolidation of the Islamic Community in Modern Croatia: A Unique Path to the Acceptance of Islam in a Traditionally Catholic European Country
Authors: Mujadžević Dino
Published: May 2014

Abstract

Although relations between Catholic Croatia and Islam were burdened historically by more than three centuries of Ottoman/Bosnian-Habsburg/Croatian warfare on Croatian soil, creating an extremely negative image of Muslims in the Croatian culture and collective memory, during most of the 20th century, with exception of early 1990s, attitudes towards Islam and Muslims in Croatian society were surprisingly mostly positive. The legal status of the sole Muslim representative organisation, the Islamic Community in Croatia, was confirmed by special agreement with the state in 2002. The author argues that besides the obvious cultural and linguistic proximity of Bosnian Muslims and Croats, several factors contributed to this positive environment: the remoteness of Ottoman wars in time, a fear of a common political enemy (Serbia), and the Austro-Hungarian tradition of early legal recognition of Islam.
Religious Retreats and Transcultural Challenges: Recreating Senegalese Tijani Islam in Metropolitan France
Authors: Smith Gina Gertrud
Published: May 2014

Abstract

Every year, in agreement with municipal authorities and without publicity, a Senegalese Haalpulaar Sufi sheikh and his Fulfulde-speaking adherents create a daaka, a religious space, in Mantes-la-Jolie. Some 5000 migrants re-establish the social and religious life of their Tijani culture, vitalising the programme of a retreat of the sacred village of Medina Gounass in Senegal and the chain of sheikhs and their Baraka. The article uses various concepts of memory (Jan Assmann, Astrid Erll and Danièle Hervieu-Léger) in order to place the daaka within a transcultural and French context. This is done on the backdrop of Haalpulaar history.
The Typology of PIE Syllabic Sonorants
Authors: Cooper Adam I.
Published: May 2014

One of the most prominent features of reconstructed PIE phonology is sonorant syllabicity: sonorant consonants function as syllable peaks when, generally speaking, they are not adjacent to a vowel. The general acceptance of this phenomenon in its various contours has persisted (see e.g. Mayrhofer 1986, Fortson 2009, Meier-Brügger 2010, Weiss 2011, etc.), despite the absence, for the most part, of any attempt to ascertain its credibility along the cross-linguistic dimension. In this paper, we evaluate the reconstructed PIE system from precisely this perspective. In comparing the established properties of PIE syllabic sonorants—including their distribution across words and morphemes, the complexity of their syllable margins, their participation in prosodic phenomena, their morphophonological alternation, and the directionality of their vocalization—against a survey of syllabic consonants across the languages of the world, we demonstrate the typological plausibility of the reconstruction, and so reinforce the confidence with which it has been maintained.
The Synchrony and Diachrony of a Scalar Coordinator: Latin nēdum ‘Let Alone’
Authors: Goldstein David
Published: May 2014

This paper investigates the amphichronic semantics and pragmatics of the scalar coordinator nēdum, ‘let alone.’ Synchronically, nēdum must be preceded by an assertion that is stronger than all other alternative propositions in the focus domain. The distributional properties of the coordinator result directly from this semantics. Diachronically, the meaning ‘let alone’ developed from metalinguistic nē ‘not’ and the aspectual adverb dum ‘yet.’ Nēdum further developed from ‘let alone’ to ‘not just’ following affirmative left coordinands.
Accent in Thematic Nouns
Authors: Keydana Götz
Published: May 2014

In this paper I show that the columnar accent of the o-stems can be integrated into a simple accent grammar of PIE. After establishing the general pattern I demonstrate how the accented and unaccented thematic suffixes fit into the picture. The grammatical sketch leads to the conclusion that it is unnecessary to assume any break between a more ancient PIE stratum with consonant stems and a more recent one with vocalic stems, each with its own accent and ablaut patterns. In the second part a morphological network for deriving the accent patterns of internal derivation in o-stems is developed. In a short outlook I show that the simple mechanism of accent inversion developed here also accounts for internal derivation in consonant stems and for accent shifts in compounds.
Gryporhynchidae (Cestoda: Cyclophyllidea) in Mexico: species list, hosts, distribution and new records
Authors: ORTEGA-OLIVARES MIRZA P. , GARCÍA-PRIETO LUIS , GARCÍA-VARELA MARTÍN
Published: May 2014

As a result of this study, 8 new host (Botaurus lentiginosus for Glossocercus caribaensis and Valipora mutabilis; Egretta caerulea for Valipora minuta; Egretta thula for Glossocercus cyprinodontis; Egretta tricolor and Nycticorax nycticorax for Glossocercus caribaensis; Pelecanus occidentalis and Platalea ajaja for Paradilepis caballeroi) and 31 new locality records for gryporhynchid cestode species in Mexico are presented. With these data, the total number of species of this group of helminths in Mexico becomes 25 (19 named species and 6 unidentified taxa), which have been registered as parasites of fishes (47 host species) and (or) birds (20 host species). This information comes from 102 localities, pertaining to 20 of 32 Mexican states. Five of the 25 taxa have been exclusivelly collected in fishes, 7 in fish-eating birds, and 13 in both groups of hosts. The most frequent metacestodes found in Mexican fishes are the merocercoids of Cyclustera ralli, Valipora mutabilis, Parvitaenia cochlearii and Valipora campylancristrota; in adult stage, Glossocercus caribaensis was the species with the largest host spectrum, while Paradilepis caballeroi has the widest distribution range. The work includes parasite/host lists, as well as habitat, distribution, references and information on specimens’ deposition.
Onychogomphus marijanmatoki, a new species from Sarawak, Borneo (Odonata: Anisoptera: Gomphidae)
Authors: DOW RORY A.
Published: May 2014

Onychogomphus marijanmatoki is described from a male from Gunung Mulu National Park, Miri Division, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. One of only two onychogomphine species known from Borneo, it differs from all others of the group in characters of the genital ligula and terminal appendages.
First record of Poemeniinae (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) from Peru, with description of a new species and a key to the world species of Ganodes Townes
Authors: CASTILLO CAROL , DÍAZ FRANCISCO A. , SÄÄKSJÄRVI ILARI E.
Published: May 2014

The subfamily Poemeniinae (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) is reported for the first time from Peru. We describe and illustrate a new species, Ganodes atayupanquii sp. n. Castillo & Sääksjärvi, which was collected from the Peruvian Andes at 1500 m. A key to the species of Ganodes Townes and new distribution records of G. wahli Díaz and G. matai Gauld are provided.
Use of Radar Chaff for Studying Circulations in and around Shallow Cumulus Clouds
Authors: Jung Eunsil , Albrecht Bruce
Published: May 2014

Circulations in and around cumulus clouds are inferred by using a passive tracer (radar chaff) and an airborne cloud radar during the Barbados Aerosol Cloud Experiment (BACEX). The radar chaff elements used for this experiment are fibers that are cut to a length of about ½ of the radar wavelength to maximize radar returns by serving as dipole antennas. The fibers are packed in fiber tubes and are mounted in a dispenser beneath the wing of the aircraft. The chaff was released near the tops and edges of a growing small cumulus cloud. The aircraft then made penetrations of the cloud at lower levels to observe the chaff signals above the aircraft with the zenith-pointing cloud radar. This study shows that the environmental air above the cloud top descends along the downshear side of the cloud edge and is subsequently entrained back into the same cloud near the observation level. The in-cloud flow follows an inverted letter P pattern. The merits and limitations of the chaff method for tracking circulations in and around small cumuli are discussed.
On Geometrical Aspects of Interior Ocean Mixing
Authors: McDougall Trevor J. , Groeskamp Sjoerd , Griffies Stephen M.
Published: May 2014

The small-slope approximation to the full three-dimensional diffusion tensor of epineutral diffusion gives exactly the same tracer flux as the commonly used projected nonorthogonal diffusive flux of layered ocean models and of theoretical studies. The epineutral diffusion achieved by this small-slope approximation is not exactly in the direction of the correct epineutral tracer gradient. That is, the use of the small-slope approximation leads to a very small flux of tracer in a direction in which there is no epineutral gradient of tracer. For (the tracer) temperature or salinity, the difference between the correct epineutral gradient and the small-slope approximation to it is proportional to neutral helicity. The authors also make the point that small-scale turbulent mixing processes act to diffuse tracers isotropically (i.e., the same in each spatial direction) and hence it is strictly a misnomer to call this process “dianeutral diffusion” or “vertical diffusion.” This realization also has implications for the diffusion tensor.
For a New Periodization of Indian History: The History of India as Part of the History of the World
Authors: Torri Michelguglielmo
Published: May 2014

The model of periodization that is nowadays hegemonic in Indian history, squarely based on the colonial model first articulated by James Mill, is both heuristically unsatisfactory and politically dangerous. From a heuristic viewpoint, it refers only to the ‘religious’ composition of the ‘ruling class’ (and, by the way, not even the whole of the ruling class). From a political viewpoint, it stresses the divisive elements present in the Indian historical tradition, by implicitly equating ‘Hindu’ with ‘Indian’ and ‘Muslim’ with ‘invader/foreigner’. The present article aims at sketching out a scientifically more inclusive and politically less dangerous new model by building on the assumption that Indian history is part of world history and, consequently, that the main socio-economic developments in the Indian subcontinent are part and parcel of the most relevant socio-economic developments world-wide. The resulting model de-emphasizes the divisive elements of the Indian experience, represented by the separate religious strands historically present within the Indian society, and, by focusing on socio-economic evolution, makes obvious both the fundamental unity of Indian history and its relationship with the history of the remainder of the world.
Containing pariah femininities: Lesbians in the sorority rush process
Authors: Stone Amy L , Gorga Allison
Published: May 2014

Mimi Schippers (2007) theorizes that hegemonic femininity operates in relation to and support of hegemonic masculinity. According to Schippers, hegemonic femininity is maintained by the containment of pariah femininities, gender non-conforming femininities that may contaminate the relationship between hegemonic masculinity and femininity. We extend Schippers’ theory by analyzing the containment practices that are used to manage pariah femininities by examining the containment of lesbians in the sorority life of a liberal arts college in the USA. Using interviews and focus groups with sorority members, we demonstrate the way sorority members engage in subtle containment practices such as silencing to prevent lesbians from joining their sorority.
Inverting virginity, abstinence, and conquest: Sexual agency and subjectivity in classroom conversation
Authors: King Brian W
Published: May 2014

This study examines youth sexual agency during sexuality lessons in a New Zealand secondary school. Employing poststructuralist discourse analysis, examples are highlighted in which girls (and boys) gain access to sexual agency. Through conversation, girls are simultaneously positioned as ‘asked’ and ‘pursuer’ and boys as ‘asker’ and ‘pursued’ whilst abstinence and virginity are imbued with sexual agency for both sexes. This study demonstrates that it is discursive versions of agency which hold central importance in youth sexual development. Thus the capacities for sexual action that are fostered in classroom conversation cannot plausibly be separated from agentive sexual practices of young people beyond the classroom's walls.
Welcoming Quality in Non-Significance and Replication Work, but Moving Beyond the p-Value
Authors: McBee Matthew T. , Matthews Michael S.
Published: May 2014

The self-correcting nature of psychological and educational science has been seriously questioned. Recent special issues of Perspectives on Psychological Science and Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts have roundly condemned current organizational models of research and dissemination and have criticized the perverse incentive structure that tempts researchers into generating and publishing false positive findings. At the same time, replications are rarely attempted, allowing untruths to persist in the literature unchallenged. In this article, the editors of the Journal of Advanced Academics consider this situation and announce new policies for quantitative submissions. They are (a) an explicit call for replication studies; (b) new instructions directing reviewers to base their evaluation of a study’s merit on the quality of the research design, execution, and written description, rather than on the statistical significance of its results; and (c) an invitation to omit statistical hypothesis tests in favor of reporting effect sizes and their confidence limits.
An Investigation of Elementary Teachers’ Use of Follow-Up Questions for Students at Different Reading Levels
Authors: Gilson Cindy M. , Little Catherine A. , Ruegg Ashley N. , Bruce-Davis Micah
Published: May 2014

Asking questions to promote higher-level thinking is often promoted as a way to challenge students, especially talented readers, to think more deeply about text and share their thinking. Recent research in a variety of educational fields has indicated that follow-up questions may be used to move all students forward in their abilities to understand and respond to such questions accessing higher-level thinking. The purpose of this qualitative investigation was to identify the types of follow-up questions frequently asked by three teachers at a small, urban elementary school in the Northeastern region of the United States and whether those types varied by students’ reading readiness levels. Results indicated that the teachers asked a variety of follow-up questions accessing both higher- and lower-level thinking during reading conferences with students whose reading levels varied; the results also indicated that each teacher tended to ask a greater percentage of higher-level questions of his or her higher-level students than of other students. The identified follow-up question types may be helpful in supporting other elementary reading teachers to expand their repertoire of questions to ask students during discourse around text.
The Experiences of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate Diploma Program Participants
Authors: Park Kelly , Caine Vera , Wimmer Randolph
Published: May 2014

Enriched high school curricula like the Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate Diploma programs are endorsed as “pathway programs” for postsecondary-bound students. Program participation is perceived to have benefits that appeal to a broad stakeholder group of universities, administrators, teachers, students, and parents. In this systematic review, we aim to establish what is known about program experiences by synthesizing pertinent qualitative research on student participation. We identified 20 relevant articles that were published up to July 2013 in English and were listed in commonly accessible databases. Analytical themes explored include the impact of peer relationships, the impact of the teacher–student relationship, the conceptualization of success, the construction of self-image, and perceived preparation for the future. Based on our findings, we offer critical insights into the existing qualitative research and provide recommendations for future research.
A note on geometrically convex functions
Authors: Özdemir Muhamet Emin , Yildiz Çetin , Gürbüz Mustafa
Published: May 2014

In this paper, we establish several new inequalities for twice differentiable mappings that are connected with the celebrated Hermite-Hadamard integral inequality.

MSC:26D15, 26A51.
Biodegradation of cyanide by a new isolated strain under alkaline conditions and optimization by response surface methodology (RSM)
Authors: Mirizadeh Shabnam , Yaghmaei Soheila , Ghobadi Nejad Zahra
Published: May 2014

Background

Biodegradation of free cyanide from industrial wastewaters has been proven as a viable and robust method for treatment of wastewaters containing cyanide.

Results

Cyanide degrading bacteria were isolated from a wastewater treatment plant for coke-oven-gas condensate by enrichment culture technique. Five strains were able to use cyanide as the sole nitrogen source under alkaline conditions and among them; one strain (C2) was selected for further studies on the basis of the higher efficiency of cyanide degradation. The bacterium was able to tolerate free cyanide at concentrations of up to 500 ppm which makes it a good potentially candidate for the biological treatment of cyanide contaminated residues. Cyanide degradation corresponded with growth and reached a maximum level 96% during the exponential phase. The highest growth rate (1.23 × 108) was obtained on day 4 of the incubation time. Both glucose and fructose were suitable carbon sources for cyanotrophic growth. No growth was detected in media with cyanide as the sole carbon source. Four control factors including, pH, temperature, agitation speed and glucose concentration were optimized according to central composite design in response surface method. Cyanide degradation was optimum at 34.2°C, pH 10.3 and glucose concentration 0.44 (g/l).

Conclusions

Bacterial species degrade cyanide into less toxic products as they are able to use the cyanide as a nitrogen source, forming ammonia and carbon dioxide as end products. Alkaliphilic bacterial strains screened in this study evidentially showed the potential to possess degradative activities that can be harnessed to remediate cyanide wastes.
A coimmunization vaccine of Aβ42 ameliorates cognitive deficits without brain inflammation in an Alzheimer’s disease model
Authors: Wang Shuang , Yu Yang , Geng Shuang , Wang Dongmei , Zhang Li , Xie Xiaoping , Wu Bing , Li Chaofan , Xu Hanqian , Li Xiaolin , Hu Yanxin , Zhang Lianfeng , Kaether Christoph , Wang Bin
Published: May 2014

Introduction

Vaccination against amyloid-β protein (Aβ42) induces high levels of antibody, making it a promising strategy for treating Alzheimer’s disease (AD). One drawback in the past was that clinical trial approval was withheld because of speculation that the Aβ42 vaccine induces CD4+ T cell infiltrations into the central nervous system. To reduce T-cell activation while concomitantly maintaining high anti-Aβ42 titers is a great challenge in immunology.

Methods

We aimed to demonstrate that coimmunization with Aβ42 protein and expression plasmid can be beneficial in a mouse AD model and can prevent inflammation. We immunized the AD mice with the coimmunization vaccine and assessed behavior change and Aβ42 deposition. Furthermore, to determine the safety of the coimmunization vaccine, we used an induced Aβ42-EAE model to mimic the meningoencephalitis that happened in the AN-1792 vaccine clinical phase II trial and tested whether the coimmunization vaccine could ameliorate T-cell-mediated brain inflammation.

Results

The coimmunization vaccination reduced Aβ plaques and significantly ameliorated cognitive deficit while inhibiting T-cell-mediated brain inflammation and infiltration. These studies demonstrate that the coimmunization strategy that we describe in this article can ameliorate AD pathology without notable adverse effects in mice.

Conclusions

A coimmunization strategy leading to the development of a safe immunotherapeutic/preventive protocol against AD in humans is warranted.
Timing of vasopressor initiation and mortality in septic shock: a cohort study
Authors: Beck Vance , Chateau Dan , Bryson Gregory L , Pisipati Amarnath , Zanotti Sergio , Parrillo Joseph E , Kumar Anand ,   The Cooperative Antimicrobial Therapy of Septic Shock (CATSS) Database Research Group
Published: May 2014

Introduction

Despite recent advances in the management of septic shock, mortality remains unacceptably high. Earlier initiation of key therapies including appropriate antimicrobials and fluid resuscitation appears to reduce the mortality in this condition. This study examined whether early initiation of vasopressor therapy is associated with improved survival in fluid therapy-refractory septic shock.

Methods

Utilizing a well-established database, relevant information including duration of time to vasopressor administration following the initial documentation of recurrent/persistent hypotension associated with septic shock was assessed in 8,670 adult patients from 28 ICUs in Canada, the United States of America, and Saudi Arabia. The primary endpoint was survival to hospital discharge. Secondary endpoints were length of ICU and hospital stay as well as duration of ventilator support and vasopressor dependence. Analysis involved multivariate linear and logistic regression analysis.

Results

In total, 8,640 patients met the definition of septic shock with time of vasopressor/inotropic initiation documented. Of these, 6,514 were suitable for analysis. The overall unadjusted hospital mortality rate was 53%. Independent mortality correlates included liver failure (odds ratio (OR) 3.46, 95% confidence interval (CI), 2.67 to 4.48), metastatic cancer (OR 1.63, CI, 1.32 to 2.01), AIDS (OR 1.91, CI, 1.29 to 2.49), hematologic malignancy (OR 1.88, CI, 1.46 to 2.41), neutropenia (OR 1.78, CI, 1.27 to 2.49) and chronic hypertension (OR 0.62 CI, 0.52 to 0.73). Delay of initiation of appropriate antimicrobial therapy (OR 1.07/hr, CI, 1.06 to 1.08), age (OR 1.03/yr, CI, 1.02 to 1.03), and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II Score (OR 1.11/point, CI, 1.10 to 1.12) were also found to be significant independent correlates of mortality. After adjustment, only a weak correlation between vasopressor delay and hospital mortality was found (adjusted OR 1.02/hr, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.03, P <0.001). This weak effect was entirely driven by the group of patients with the longest delays (>14.1 hours). There was no significant relationship of vasopressor initiation delay to duration of vasopressor therapy (P = 0.313) and only a trend to longer duration of ventilator support (P = 0.055) among survivors.

Conclusion

Marked delays in initiation of vasopressor/inotropic therapy are associated with a small increase in mortality risk in patients with septic shock.
Alterations of gene expression and protein synthesis in co-cultured adipose tissue-derived stem cells and squamous cell-carcinoma cells: consequences for clinical applications
Authors: Koellensperger Eva , Gramley Felix , Preisner Fabian , Leimer Uwe , Germann Guenter , Dexheimer Verena
Published: May 2014

Introduction

This is the first study evaluating the interactions of human adipose tissue derived stem cells (ADSCs) and human squamous cell carcinoma cells (SCCs), with regard to a prospective cell-based skin regenerative therapy and a thereby unintended co-localization of ADSCs and SCCs.

Methods

ADSCs were co-cultured with A431-SCCs and primary SCCs (pSCCs) in a transwell system, and cell-cell interactions were analyzed by assessing doubling time, migration and invasion, angiogenesis, quantitative real time PCR of 229 tumor associated genes, and multiplex protein assays of 20 chemokines and growth factors and eight matrix metalloproteinases (MMPS). Results of co-culture were compared to those of the respective mono-culture.

Results

ADSCs’ proliferation on the plate was significantly increased when co-cultured with A431-SCCs (P = 0.038). PSCCs and ADSCs significantly decreased their proliferation in co-culture if cultured on the plate (P <0.001 and P = 0.03). The migration of pSCC was significantly increased in co-culture (P = 0.009), as well as that of ADSCs in A431-SCC-co-culture (P = 0.012). The invasive behavior of pSCCs and A431-SCCs was significantly increased in co-culture by a mean of 33% and 35%, respectively (P = 0.038 and P <0.001). Furthermore, conditioned media from co-cultured ADSC-A431-SCCs and co-cultured ADSCs-pSCCs induced tube formation in an angiogenesis assay in vitro.

In A431-SCC-co-culture 36 genes were up- and 6 were down-regulated in ADSCs, in A431-SCCs 14 genes were up- and 8 genes were down-regulated. In pSCCs-co-culture 36 genes were up-regulated in ADSCs, two were down-regulated, one gene was up-regulated in pSCC, and three genes were down-regulated. Protein expression analysis revealed that three proteins were exclusively produced in co-culture (CXCL9, IL-1b, and MMP-7). In A431-SCC-co-culture the concentration of 17 proteins was significantly increased compared to the ADSCs mono-culture (2.8- to 357-fold), and 15 proteins were expressed more highly (2.8- to 1,527-fold) compared to the A431-SCCs mono-culture. In pSCC-co-culture the concentration of 10 proteins was increased compared to ADSCs-mono-culture (2.5- to 77-fold) and that of 15 proteins was increased compared to pSCC mono-culture (2.6- to 480-fold).

Conclusions

This is the first study evaluating the possible interactions of primary human ADSCs with human SCCs, pointing towards a doubtlessly increased oncological risk, which should not be neglected when considering a clinical use of isolated human ADSCs in skin regenerative therapies.
J. S. Mill and the Value of Utility
Authors: Kaminitz Shiri Cohen
Published: May 2014

The concept of utility, which stood at the heart of J. S. Mill’s utilitarian moral philosophy, played only a minor role in his account of economics. The economic idea of (individual) utility, as is well known, neither inspired Mill directly nor excited his attention when developed in the work of other economists. The starting point of this article is thus the question of just why was Mill so interested in utility as a seminal concept of moral philosophy but seemingly indifferent to (individual) utility as an economic concept. I argue that Mill’s determination to strengthen and enrich the concept of utility in his moral philosophy ironically largely precluded any development within his political economy of an idea of utility related to a psychological effect within the individual mind; in particular, this is due to the potential of such an interpretation to create an unwelcome obstacle in his struggle with the Romantic critics of utilitarianism.
A Return to Which Self?
Authors: Davari Arash
Published: May 2014

This essay considers the overlap between ʿAli Shari’ati’s ethical reflections and his discussion of insurrectionary violence. Davari argues that the earlier lectures discussing bāzgasht be khishtan (a return to self) formed the conceptual foundation for his advocacy of shahādat (martyrdom) as a model of self-formation. These intellectual tendencies were rooted in a tradition of anticolonial and insurgent political thought, exemplified in Shari’ati’s case by an engagement with the writings of Frantz Fanon. Shari’ati’s borrowing of Fanon’s notions of return and decolonial violence involved alterations within a shared framework. Most notably, Shari’ati emphasized the prospect of a return to a religious self, redefined as political ethics. Whereas Fanon privileged an embodied experience of racialization as the most fundamental constraining and enabling factor in the realization of a new humanism, Shari’ati’s presentation of the “new man” as shahid involved a hermeneutic relationship with a collective self imagined across historical time. In Shari’ati’s hands, Fanon’s eschewal of history became an engagement with historical memory in the present tense. In the process, the body was reimagined as that which dies, its physical death marking the future where Fanon’s new man was said to be found. The shahid’s choosing to die—as opposed to the colonized’s need to kill the colonizer—led to the revision of two central conclusions pertaining to the process of decolonization: the discussion of means as ends, and the critique of a hierarchical relationship between revolutionary leaders and the led.
History from Below and the Writing of Ottoman History
Authors: Quataert Donald
Published: May 2014

This short contribution is a slightly edited version of the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture that Donald Quataert gave at Binghamton University on 5 November 2010—his last public lecture before his death in February 2011. Quataert was a tireless advocate of the method of “history from below,” which reflects the perspectives of ordinary working men and women in the past. He saw it as a necessary corrective to much of the state-centered historiography in the field of Ottoman history. It was in this vein, too, that he trained his graduate students at Binghamton University. Quataert presented several different versions of this talk earlier at Columbia University, Cornell University, the University of Washington, and the University of Toronto. A number of footnotes and a select bibliography have been added, which may prove useful for future scholarly endeavors.
Money, Peasant Mobility, Çiftliks, and Local Politics in Salonika
Authors: Kokdas Irfan
Published: May 2014

This study explores how the monetization and commercialization of rural economy, peasant mobility, and the changing power of landholders in the countryside affected the nature of Salonikan society throughout the eighteenth century. It analyzes the ways in which the emerging power relations in rural areas altered both the status of different social groups and the contours of local administration in an Ottoman provincial setting. It aims to show that the new rural-urban dynamics not only shaped the political alliances and the workings of state, but also set stage for the Ottoman interventionist policy in Salonika. By writing the rural dynamics into the historical narrative, Kokdas’s article thus provides a new understanding of the link between the town-country relationship and the sociopolitical transformation of provincial society in the early modern Ottoman world.
Rule, Misconduct, and Dysfunction
Authors: Ileri Nurcin
Published: May 2014

Assembling the complexities and problems associated with public order and security in fin-de-siècle Istanbul, Ileri’s article presents a brief institutional history of the modern police forces and provides a vivid picture of the everyday lives of police officers through interrogation reports. It engages with a series of regulations on policing not only as a site of modern state formation policies centered on the aims of development, progress, and surveillance, but also as a multifunctional space of conflicting and fragmented experiences articulated through misconduct and dysfunction of the police force between 1879 and 1908.
Armenian Migration to North America, State Power, and Local Politics in the Late Ottoman Empire
Authors: Gutman David
Published: May 2014

Gutman’s article examines the attempts by the Ottoman state under Sultan Abdulhamid II to prevent large-scale Armenian migration to North America. It reveals how these efforts were hampered in practice by contradictions inherent within the state’s attempts to control and surveil the mobility of its subjects, internecine feuding within its provincial bureaucracy, and numerous and often conflicting social and political dynamics on the ground. This article contributes to our understanding of issues of state making, social control, and labor discipline in the last decades of the Ottoman Empire and the various social forces that both shaped and resisted these processes. What emerges is a nuanced view of the post-Tanzimat Ottoman state’s ability to exercise its will on the ground. Finally, it provides crucial and much needed insight into the relationship between the central Ottoman state and its Armenian population in the years prior to the 1915 Armenian genocide.
Short- and long-term habituation of auditory event-related potentials in the rat
Authors: Gurevicius Kestutis , Lipponen Arto , Minkeviciene Rimante , Tanila Heikki
Published: May 2014

An auditory oddball paradigm in humans generates a long-duration cortical negative potential, often referred to as mismatch negativity. Similar negativity has been documented in monkeys and cats, but it is controversial whether mismatch negativity also exists in awake rodents. To this end, we recorded cortical and hippocampal evoked responses in rats during alert immobility under a typical passive oddball paradigm that yields mismatch negativity in humans. The standard stimulus was a 9 kHz tone and the deviant either 7 or 11 kHz tone in the first condition. We found no evidence of a sustained potential shift when comparing evoked responses to standard and deviant stimuli. Instead, we found repetition-induced attenuation of the P60 component of the combined evoked response in the cortex, but not in the hippocampus. The attenuation extended over three days of recording and disappeared after 20 intervening days of rest. Reversal of the standard and deviant tones resulted is a robust enhancement of the N40 component not only in the cortex but also in the hippocampus. Responses to standard and deviant stimuli were affected similarly. Finally, we tested the effect of scopolamine in this paradigm. Scopolamine attenuated cortical N40 and P60 as well as hippocampal P60 components, but had no specific effect on the deviant response. We conclude that in an oddball paradigm the rat demonstrates repetition-induced attenuation of mid-latency responses, which resembles attenuation of the N1-component of human auditory evoked potential, but no mismatch negativity.
An Organizational Perspective on Patenting and Open Innovation
Authors: Bhaskarabhatla Ajay , Hegde Deepak
Published: May 2014

Achange in U.S. patent law in the early 1980s increased the value of patents, particularly for firms in the electronics and semiconductors industry, yet many of the industry’s leading firms did not embrace patenting after the change. We show through an in-depth study of International Business Machines (IBM), the world’s largest patentee, that the company’s practices during much of the 1980s discouraged patenting. IBM adopted pro-patent management practices in 1989 after the installation of a new research and development head and in the face of faltering financial performance. IBM’s increased patenting and licensing activities improved its financial bottom lines but curtailed its industry-wide knowledge spillovers. These causes and consequences of pro-patent practices are visible in several other large U.S. corporations. Thus, in the context of the “patent explosion” of the 1980s, we show that intraorganizational forces such as inertia, financial pressures, and new leadership shaped established firms’ uptake of pro-patent management practices and their success. Our findings also suggest that pro-patent practices associated with “open innovation” may stem the free flow of knowledge across organizational boundaries.