bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Anomalous dielectric relaxation of water confined in graphite oxide
Authors: Yu Ji , Tian Yuchen , Gu Min , Tang Tong B.
Published: September 2015

Nonmonotonic thermal dependence of dielectric relaxation of water has been observed in hydrated graphite oxide (GO). Graphite oxide prepared via Hummers method then imbued with specific water contents were characterized, with 13C and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, ambient- and variable-temperature X-ray diffractometries, as well as thermogravimetric analysis. Pressed pellets provided with either conducting or blocking electrodes yielded dielectric loss, which was shown to originate from dielectric relaxation of the confined water. Three relaxation processes were observed in impedance spectroscopy. Our previous work has identified two different types of water in GO, namely, intercalated water and water in inter-grain voids. P1 expresses the reorientation of water confined inside inter-grain voids, and P2, the rotation of intercalated water molecules confined in interlayers. The present work reveals a new process P3, which also relates to intercalated water. It slows down with temperature, and this apparent anomaly is explained by the decrease in water content and consequent narrowing of interlayer spacing in graphite oxide, as confirmed by characterization techniques. The present study should contribute to our understanding of surface water dynamics.
Influence of plasma parameters and substrate temperature on the structural and optical properties of CdTe thin films deposited on glass by laser ablation
Authors: Quiñones-Galván J. G. , Camps Enrique , Campos-González E. , Hernández-Hernández A. , Santana-Aranda M. A. , Pérez-Centeno A. , Guillén-Cervantes A. , Santoyo-Salazar J. , Zelaya-Angel O. , de Moure-Flores F.
Published: September 2015

In the pulsed laser deposition of thin films, plasma parameters such as energy and density of ions play an important role in the properties of materials. In the present work, cadmium telluride thin films were obtained by laser ablation of a stoichiometric CdTe target in vacuum, using two different values for: substrate temperature (RT and 200 °C) and plasma energy (120 and 200 eV). Structural characterization revealed that the crystalline phase can be changed by controlling both plasma energy and substrate temperature; which affects the corresponding band gap energy. All the thin films showed smooth surfaces and a Te rich composition.
Note: Resonance magnetoelectric interactions in laminate of FeCuNbSiB and multilayer piezoelectric stack for magnetic sensor
Authors: Li Jianqiang , Lu Caijiang , Xu Changbao , Zhong Ming
Published: September 2015

This paper develops a simple miniature magnetoelectric (ME) laminate FeCuNbSiB/PZT-stack made up of magnetostrictive Fe73.5Cu1Nb3Si13.5B9 (FeCuNbSiB) foils and piezoelectric Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 (PZT) multilayer stack vibrator. Resonant ME interactions of FeCuNbSiB/PZT-stack with different layers of FeCuNbSiB foil (L) are investigated in detail. The experimental results show that the ME voltage coefficient reaches maximum value of 141.5 (V/cm Oe) for FeCuNbSiB/PZT-stack with L = 6. The AC-magnetic sensitivities can reach 524.29 mV/Oe and 1.8 mV/Oe under resonance 91.6 kHz and off-resonance 1 kHz, respectively. The FeCuNbSiB/PZT-stack can distinguish small dc-magnetic field of ∼9 nT. The results indicate that the proposed ME composites are very promising for the cheap room-temperature magnetic field sensing technology.
Note: An improved 3D imaging system for electron-electron coincidence measurements
Authors: Lin Yun Fei , Lee Suk Kyoung , Adhikari Pradip , Herath Thushani , Lingenfelter Steven , Winney Alexander H. , Li Wen
Published: September 2015

We demonstrate an improved imaging system that can achieve highly efficient 3D detection of two electrons in coincidence. The imaging system is based on a fast frame complementary metal-oxide semiconductor camera and a high-speed waveform digitizer. We have shown previously that this detection system is capable of 3D detection of ions and electrons with good temporal and spatial resolution. Here, we show that with a new timing analysis algorithm, this system can achieve an unprecedented dead-time (<0.7 ns) and dead-space (<1 mm) when detecting two electrons. A true zero dead-time detection is also demonstrated.
Current sheets with inhomogeneous plasma temperature: Effects of polarization electric field and 2D solutions
Authors: Catapano F. , Artemyev A. V. , Zimbardo G. , Vasko I. Y.
Published: September 2015

We develop current sheet models which allow to regulate the level of plasma temperature and density inhomogeneities across the sheet. These models generalize the classical Harris model via including two current-carrying plasma populations with different temperature and the background plasma not contributing to the current density. The parameters of these plasma populations allow regulating contributions of plasma density and temperature to the pressure balance. A brief comparison with spacecraft observations demonstrates the model applicability for describing the Earth magnetotail current sheet. We also develop a two dimensional (2D) generalization of the proposed model. The interesting effect found for 2D models is the nonmonotonous profile (along the current sheet) of the magnetic field component perpendicular to the current sheet. Possible applications of the model are discussed.
Microgravity influence on the instability of phase separation in protein solution
Authors: Pan Weichun , Zhang Rui , Tsukamoto Katsuo , Li Ang
Published: September 2015

The influence of cooling and heating rates on the spinodal temperature of lysozyme liquid–liquid phase separation was assessed under microgravity and normal gravity. During both heating and cooling, the mean spinodal temperature was independent of gravity conditions and the rate of temperature change. However, during the cooling process, the spinodal temperature was always lower under microgravity than under normal gravity, whereas the opposite effect was observed under heating. We attribute this phenomenon to the hydrodynamic effect. Under normal gravity, mass transfer occurs by universal convection, but under microgravity it can occur only by diffusion. Because of the relatively small diffusivity of lysozyme molecules, the size evolution of the dense liquid domain was slower under microgravity than under normal gravity.
Ferromagnetic HfO2/Si/GaAs interface for spin-polarimetry applications
Authors: Tereshchenko O. E. , Golyashov V. A. , Eremeev S. V. , Maurin I. , Bakulin A. V. , Kulkova S. E. , Aksenov M. S. , Preobrazhenskii V. V. , Putyato M. A. , Semyagin B. R. , Dmitriev D. V. , Toropov A. I. , Gutakovskii A. K. , Khandarkhaeva S. E. , Prosvirin I. P. , Kalinkin A. V. , Bukhtiyarov V. I. , Latyshev A. V.
Published: September 2015

In this letter, we present electrical and magnetic characteristics of HfO2-based metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors (MOSCAPs), along with the effect of pseudomorphic Si as a passivating interlayer on GaAs(001) grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Ultrathin HfO2 high-k gate dielectric films (3–15 nm) have been grown on Si/GaAs(001) structures through evaporation of a Hf/HfO2 target in NO2 gas. The lowest interface states density Dit at Au/HfO2/Si/GaAs(001) MOS-structures were obtained in the range of (6−13)×1011 eV−1 cm−2 after annealing in the 400–500 °C temperature range as a result of HfO2 crystallization and the Si layer preservation in non-oxidized state on GaAs. HfO2-based MOSCAPs demonstrated the ferromagnetic properties which were attributed to the presence of both cation and anion vacancies according to the first-principle calculations. Room-temperature ferromagnetism in HfO2 films allowed us to propose a structure for the ferromagnetic MOS spin-detector.
Can camera trapping be used to accurately survey and monitor the Hastings River mouse (Pseudomys oralis)?
Authors: Meek Paul D. , Vernes Karl
Published: September 2015

Camera trapping is increasingly recognised as a survey tool akin to conventional small mammal survey methods such as Elliott trapping. While there are many cost and resource advantages of using camera traps, their adoption should not compromise scientific rigour. Rodents are a common element of most small mammal surveys. In 2010 we deployed camera traps to measure whether the endangered Hastings River mouse (Pseudomys oralis) could be detected and identified with an acceptable level of precision by camera traps when similar-looking sympatric small mammals were present. A comparison of three camera trap models revealed that camera traps can detect a wide range of small mammals, although white flash colour photography was necessary to capture characteristic features of morphology. However, the accurate identification of some small mammals, including P. oralis, was problematic; we conclude therefore that camera traps alone are not appropriate for P. oralis surveys, even though they might at times successfully detect them. We discuss the need for refinement of the methodology, further testing of camera trap technology, and the development of computer-assisted techniques to overcome problems associated with accurate species identification.
Rhizobial peptidase HrrP cleaves host-encoded signaling peptides and mediates symbiotic compatibility
Authors: Price Paul A. , Tanner Houston R. , Dillon Brett A. , Shabab Mohammed , Walker Graham C. , Griffitts Joel S.
Published: September 2015

Significance

The agriculturally important symbiosis between nitrogen-fixing bacteria (rhizobia) and their legume hosts occurs within root nodules. This partnership requires a molecular dialogue that ensures specificity and directs the codevelopment of the two organisms during nodule formation. This paper characterizes a protein, host range restriction peptidase (HrrP), which plays a role in this dialogue. Rhizobial strains that express HrrP tend to exhibit more parasitic properties, such as failing to provide fixed nitrogen for their hosts and proliferating more abundantly within nodule tissue. HrrP likely exhibits these properties by actively degrading plant-derived chemical signals that normally stimulate symbiotic cooperation.
Nucleosome competition reveals processive acetylation by the SAGA HAT module
Authors: Ringel Alison E. , Cieniewicz Anne M. , Taverna Sean D. , Wolberger Cynthia
Published: September 2015

Significance

Crosstalk between histone modifications regulates transcription by establishing spatial and temporal relationships between histone marks. Despite discoveries of reader domains that physically associate with chromatin-modifying enzymes, the mechanisms by which recognition of one modification triggers other kinds of modifications have remained elusive. Gcn5 is the catalytic subunit of the Spt-Ada-Gcn5 acetyltransferase (SAGA) histone acetyltransferase (HAT) module, which also recognizes histone 3 lysine 4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) through the tandem Tudor domain-containing protein Sgf29. Although previous studies could not connect H3K4me3 recognition to differences in acetylation by Gcn5, we report enhanced processivity by the HAT module on methylated substrates using a previously unpublished histone color-coding assay. Our work defines a mechanism for histone crosstalk that may account for genome-wide patterns of Gcn5-mediated acetylation.
Low load for disruptive mutations in autism genes and their biased transmission
Authors: Iossifov Ivan , Levy Dan , Allen Jeremy , Ye Kenny , Ronemus Michael , Lee Yoon-ha , Yamrom Boris , Wigler Michael
Published: September 2015

Significance

Gene targets of de novo mutation in autistic children have a lighter load of rare disruptive variation than typical human genes. This finding suggests such mutations are under negative selection and autism genes are highly vulnerable to mutation. Disruptive variants in these genes have biased transmission: They are more frequently transmitted to affected children, and more often from mothers than from fathers. Targets of mutation in lower intelligence quotient (IQ) affected children have a lower load of disruptive mutations than targets of mutation in higher IQ affected children. Biased transmission is seen more frequently to affected children of lower IQ. These observations are consistent with a correlation between severity of mutations and phenotype, and based on them, we list candidate autism genes ordered by likelihood.
Flushing in anger, blushing in shame
Authors: Porter Edel , Antón Teodoro Manrique
Published: September 2015

This paper comprises a study of the somatic vocabulary associated with particular emotions (especially anger, shame and love) as they appear in Old Norse texts. Through a detailed analysis of the occurrences of these emotion expressions in different textual genres and periods, we investigate the way in which certain physiological manifestations were linked to a specific emotion in a certain type of text and period, and how certain changes in the usage of vocabulary came into being. We conclude that changes in the conceptualization of emotions in Old Norse written texts were mediated by new metaphors and metonymies imported into medieval Icelandic culture in the form of translated texts, both religious and secular.
When romantic love in Gĩkũyũ becomes a human body part
Authors: Gatambuki Gathigia Moses , Ndung’u Ruth W. , Ochieng Orwenjo Daniel
Published: September 2015

Studies in Cognitive Linguistics show that metaphors are fundamental to the structuring of people’s thought and language (Sweetser 1990; Kövecses 2009). It is against this backdrop that this study discusses human body parts as metaphors of conceptualizing love in Gĩkũyũ. To achieve this objective, an interview schedule was administered to 48 respondents of different gender by the researcher assisted by four research assistants. The Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and the main principles of the Metaphor Identification ProcedureVrije Universiteit(MIPVU) (see Steen et al. 2010) were used in this study. The principles of the MIPVU were employed to find out whether the lexical items collected were metaphorical or not. Using three annotators and the researcher, the study identified 100 Metaphor Related Words (MRWs) as per the annotation guidelines adapted from the MIPVU procedures and three lexical units which were annotated as Discard From Metaphor Analysis (DFMA). From the MRWs, the study identified eight metaphors of human body parts which play an indispensable role in the conceptualization of love in Gĩkũyũ. Further, the study noted that gender is a vital variable that provides people with the prism through which they view love since males registered more lexical frequencies for LOVE IS A HUMAN BODY PART than females. The study concludes that metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics is not only a creative device, but an important mental facility and cognitive instrument.
Akan metaphoric expressions based onyam‘stomach’
Authors: Agyekum Kofi
Published: September 2015

This paper discusses the Akan body partyam‘stomach’ and its metaphorical extensions. It will consider how most of the extensions have been conventionalised to the extent that there are no alternative means of expressing the concept, and look at the strong relationship between the stomach, the heart, the chest, the brain, and the womb in the expressions of emotion whether positive or negative. The paper argues that the wordyamcan be considered polysemic with various related senses, but that it is also used metonymically in referring to the SELF or one’s personality. The paper at the same time investigates how some of the ‘stomach’ expressions include the UP/DOWN and the HOT/COOL dimensions.
Physical fitness normative values for 6–18‐year‐old Greek boys and girls, using the empirical distribution and the lambda, mu, and sigma statistical method
Authors: Tambalis Konstantinos D. , Panagiotakos Demosthenes B. , Psarra Glykeria , Daskalakis Stelios , Kavouras Stavros A. , Geladas Nickos , Tokmakidis Savas , Sidossis Labros S.
Published: September 2015

The aim of the this study was to establish age‐ and gender‐specific physical fitness normative values and to compare percentiles and Z scores values in a large, nationwide sample of Greek children aged 6–18 years. From March 2014 to May 2014, a total of 424,328 boys and girls aged 6–18 years who attended school in Greece were enrolled. The studied sample was representative, in terms of age–sex distribution and geographical region. Physical fitness tests (i.e. 20 m shuttle run test (SRT), standing long jump, sit and reach, sit‐ups, and 10 × 5 m SRT) were performed and used to calculate normative values, using the percentiles of the empirical distributions and the lambda, mu, and sigma statistical method. Normative values were presented as tabulated percentiles for five health‐related fitness tests based on a large data set comprising 424,328 test performances. Boys typically scored higher than girls on cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and speed/agility, but lower on flexibility (all p values <0.001). Older boys and girls had better performances than younger ones (p < 0.001). Physical fitness tests' performances tended to peak at around the age of 15 years in both sexes. The presented population‐based data are the most up‐to‐date sex‐ and age‐values for the health‐related fitness of children and adolescents in Greece and can be used as standard values for fitness screening and surveillance systems and for comparisons among the same health‐related fitness scores of children from other countries similar to Greece. Schools need to make efforts to improve the fitness level of the schoolchildren through the physical education curriculum to prevent cardiovascular risk.
the unrecognized politics of de facto states in the post-Soviet space
Authors: Broersa Laurence , Iskandaryan Alexander , Minasyan Sergey
Published: September 2015

Introducing this special issue of Caucasus Survey on the unrecognized politics of de facto states in the post-Soviet space, this article discusses some of the key problems involved in the study of these entities. It relates the origins of the articles contained in this collection and briefly introduces the main themes they deal with: the definition, representational politics, resourcing and engagement of de facto states.
The Chowla-Selberg formula for quartic Abelian CM fields
Authors: Cass Robert
Published: September 2015

We provide explicit evaluations of the Chowla-Selberg formula for quartic abelian CM fields due to Barquero-Sanchez and Masri. These identities relate values of a Hilbert modular function at CM points to values of Euler’s gamma function

Γ
\Gamma

and an analogous function

Γ
2

\Gamma _2

at rational numbers. Our work consists of two main parts. First, we implement an algorithm in SageMath to compute the CM points. Second, we exhibit families of quartic abelian CM fields for which the part of the formula involving values of

Γ
\Gamma

and

Γ
2

\Gamma _2

takes a particularly simple form.
Subelliptic and parametric equations on Carnot groups
Authors: Molica Bisci Giovanni , Ferrara Massimiliano
Published: September 2015

This article concerns a class of elliptic equations on Carnot groups depending on one real parameter. Our approach is based on variational methods. More precisely, we establish the existence of at least two weak solutions for the treated problem by using a direct consequence of the celebrated Pucci-Serrin theorem and of a local minimum result for differentiable functionals due to Ricceri.
Periodic orbits of Lagrangian systems with prescribed action or period
Authors: Paternain Miguel
Published: September 2015

We show that for every convex Lagrangian quadratic at infinity there is a real number

a
0

a_0

such that for every

a
>

a
0

a>a_0

the Lagrangian has a periodic orbit with action

a
a

. We attain estimates on the period and energy of the periodic orbits obtained. We also show that such a Lagrangian has periodic orbits of every period.
On uniform lattices in real semisimple groups
Authors: Bhagwat Chandrasheel , Pisolkar Supriya
Published: September 2015

In this article we prove that the co-compactness of the arithmetic lattices in a connected semisimple real Lie group is preserved if the lattices under consideration are representation equivalent. This is in the spirit of the question posed by Gopal Prasad and A. S. Rapinchuk in 2014 where instead of representation equivalence, the lattices under consideration are weakly commensurable Zariski dense subgroups.
Axonemal dynein light chain-1 locates at the microtubule-binding domain of the γ heavy chain
Authors: Ichikawa Muneyoshi , Saito Kei , Yanagisawa Haru-aki , Yagi Toshiki , Kamiya Ritsu , Yamaguchi Shin , Yajima Junichiro , Kushida Yasuharu , Nakano Kentaro , Numata Osamu , Toyoshima Yoko Y.
Published: September 2015

The outer arm dynein (OAD) complex is the main propulsive force generator for ciliary/flagellar beating. In Chlamydomonas and Tetrahymena, the OAD complex comprises three heavy chains (α, β, and γ HCs) and >10 smaller subunits. Dynein light chain-1 (LC1) is an essential component of OAD. It is known to associate with the Chlamydomonas γ head domain, but its precise localization within the γ head and regulatory mechanism of the OAD complex remain unclear. Here Ni-NTA-nanogold labeling electron microscopy localized LC1 to the stalk tip of the γ head. Single-particle analysis detected an additional structure, most likely corresponding to LC1, near the microtubule-binding domain (MTBD), located at the stalk tip. Pull-down assays confirmed that LC1 bound specifically to the γ MTBD region. Together with observations that LC1 decreased the affinity of the γ MTBD for microtubules, we present a new model in which LC1 regulates OAD activity by modulating γ MTBD's affinity for the doublet microtubule.
Peptide TFP5/TP5 derived from Cdk5 activator P35 provides neuroprotection in the MPTP model of Parkinson’s disease
Authors: Binukumar BK. , Shukla Varsha , Amin Niranjana D. , Grant Philip , Bhaskar M. , Skuntz Susan , Steiner Joseph , Pant Harish C.
Published: September 2015

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the loss of dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra, decreased striatal dopamine levels, and consequent extrapyramidal motor dysfunction. Recent evidence indicates that cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) is inappropriately activated in several neurodegenerative conditions, including PD. To date, strategies to specifically inhibit Cdk5 hyperactivity have not been successful without affecting normal Cdk5 activity. Previously we reported that TFP5 peptide has neuroprotective effects in animal models of Alzheimer’s disease. Here we show that TFP5/TP5 selective inhibition of Cdk5/p25 hyperactivation in vivo and in vitro rescues nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurodegeneration induced by 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP/MPP+) in a mouse model of PD. TP5 peptide treatment also blocked dopamine depletion in the striatum and improved gait dysfunction after MPTP administration. The neuroprotective effect of TFP5/TP5 peptide is also associated with marked reduction in neuroinflammation and apoptosis. Here we show selective inhibition of Cdk5/p25 ­hyperactivation by TFP5/TP5 peptide, which identifies the kinase as a potential therapeutic target to reduce neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease.
Shakespeare and Stratford-upon-Avon
Authors: Wells Stanley
Published: September 2015

William Shakespeare is thought to have been born on 23 April 1564 and died on 23 April 1616. ‘Shakespeare and Stratford-upon-Avon’ describes his life in the Warwickshire market town with his parents, John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, and his siblings. Shakespeare’s works confirm he had a good education, most likely at the grammar school. He married Anne Hathaway in 1582 and they had three children. He moved to London, the centre of the literary and theatre world, some time after his children were born, but his family remained in Stratford and Shakespeare retained strong links with the town to the end of his life.
Theatre in Shakespeare’s time
Authors: Wells Stanley
Published: September 2015

Both drama and theatre were developing rapidly in Shakespeare’s early years. ‘Theatre in Shakespeare’s time’ explains how Shakespeare followed in the footsteps of the first great wave of stage writers known as the University Wits—John Lyly, Thomas Lodge, Christopher Marlowe, George Peele, Thomas Nashe, and Robert Greene—learning from them and collaborating with them. It describes the London theatrical scene, the playing spaces, and the actors of the time before outlining Shakespeare’s early career, the narrative poems that kept him afloat financially, and introducing the Lord Chamberlain’s, and later King’s Men, the acting company that formed in 1594.
Shakespeare and comic form
Authors: Wells Stanley
Published: September 2015

Nearly half of Shakespeare’s plays, extending throughout his career, are written in comic form though they play a wide range of variations on it. ‘Shakespeare and comic form’ describes the five earliest as the lightest in tone, but in the five that follow, Shakespeare introduces an antagonist who must be expelled before the play can end happily. The later comedies were written for the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. The plays considered are The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, Love’s Labour’s Lost, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night.
Return to tragedy
Authors: Wells Stanley
Published: September 2015

‘Return to tragedy’ begins by looking at the plays Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. It is a tribute to the Globe playgoers that Shakespeare’s longest play—Hamlet—one of the most complex and intellectually ambitious ever written, was also one of his most popular. When the Lord Chamberlain’s Men became the King’s Men in 1603, Shakespeare’s comedies, and his work in general, took on darker tones and a new seriousness. Both Measure for Measure and All’s Well That Ends Well place their heroines in far more painful situations than those in which the central characters of the earlier comedies find themselves.
PathwaysWeb: a gene pathways API with directional interactions, expanded gene ontology, and versioning
Authors: Melott James M. , Weinstein John N. , Broom Bradley M.
Published: September 2015

Summary: PathwaysWeb is a resource-based, well-documented web system that provides publicly available information on genes, biological pathways, Gene Ontology (GO) terms, gene–gene interaction networks (importantly, with the directionality of interactions) and links to key-related PubMed documents. The PathwaysWeb API simplifies the construction of applications that need to retrieve and interrelate information across multiple, pathway-related data types from a variety of original data sources. PathwaysBrowser is a companion website that enables users to explore the same integrated pathway data. The PathwaysWeb system facilitates reproducible analyses by providing access to all versions of the integrated datasets. Although its GO subsystem includes data for mouse, PathwaysWeb currently focuses on human data. However, pathways for mouse and many other species can be inferred with a high success rate from human pathways.

Availability and implementation: PathwaysWeb can be accessed via the Internet at http://bioinformatics.mdanderson.org/main/PathwaysWeb:Overview.

Contact:  jmmelott@mdanderson.org

Supplementary information:  Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Naturalism in the Philosophy of Mathematics
Authors: Leng Mary
Published: September 2015

In the context of the philosophy of mathematics, the term “naturalism” has a number of uses, covering approaches that look to be fundamentally at odds with one another. In one use, the “natural” in naturalism is contrasted with non-natural, in the sense of supernatural; in this sense, naturalism in the philosophy of mathematics appears in opposition to Platonism (the view that mathematical truths are truths about a body of abstract mathematical objects). Naturalism thus construed takes seriously the epistemological challenge to Platonism presented by Paul Benacerraf in his paper “Mathematical Truth” (cited under Ontological Naturalism). Benacerraf points out that a view of mathematics as a body of truths about a realm of abstract objects appears to rule out any (non-mystical) account of how we, as physically located embodied beings, could come to know such truths. The naturalism that falls out of acceptance of Benacerraf’s challenge as presenting a genuine problem for our claims to be able to know truths about abstract mathematical objects is sometimes referred to as “ontological naturalism,” and suggests a physicalist ontology. In a second use, the “natural” in naturalism is a reference specifically to natural science and its methods. Naturalism here, sometimes called methodological naturalism, is the Quinean doctrine that philosophy is continuous with natural science. Quine and Putnam’s indispensability argument for the existence of mathematical objects places methodological naturalism in conflict with ontological naturalism, since it is argued that the success of our scientific theories confirms the existence of the abstract mathematical objects apparently referred to in formulating those theories, suggesting that methodological naturalism requires Platonism. A final use of “naturalism” in the philosophy of mathematics is distinctive to mathematics, and arises out of consideration of the proper extent of methodological naturalism. According to Quine’s naturalism, the natural sciences provide us with the proper methods of inquiry. But, as Penelope Maddy has noted, mathematics has its own internal methods and standards, which differ from the methods of the empirical sciences, and naturalistic respect for the methodologies of successful fields requires that we should accept those methods and standards. This places Maddy’s methodological naturalism in tension with the original Quinean version of the doctrine, because, Maddy argues, letting natural science be the sole source of confirmation for mathematical theories fails to respect the autonomy of mathematics.
Prison History
Authors: Schmalleger Frank , Atkin-Plunk Cassandra
Published: September 2015

Prisons in the United States and Western European nations have a rich history, with the use of confinement as a form of punishment dating back to medieval times. Throughout the centuries, scholars and penal reformers have widely documented reform efforts and the shift in punishment philosophies. This shift resulted in corporal punishment methods being abandoned and replaced with incarceration. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the confinement of criminals in prisons expanded across the United States and Europe. As the use of prisons as punishment became common practice, penal innovations throughout continental Europe influenced the development of competing prison discipline systems in the United States. The opposing systems in the United States in turn promoted a change in penal practices across Europe. The state of early prison systems has been well documented, from first-hand accounts of abysmal conditions in early European prisons to historical examinations of physical prison structures. Scholars have conducted case studies of historical penal institutions as well as examined the history of women in prison, which paints a vivid picture of prisons throughout history. Historians and scholars also place great emphasis on reform efforts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where authors cite social transformations, ideological shifts, economic changes, and political events that resulted in the widespread use of incarceration that continues in the early 21st century. The 1970s is arguably the most pivotal decade in the recent history of prisons, where the United States witnessed a sweeping change in the political climate. This change resulted in a transformation of penal and sentencing policies, which ultimately resulted in mass incarceration practices in the United States, and to a lesser extent in Europe. A substantial amount of scholarly research on trends in the correctional population emerged in the 1990s and 2000s. The consequences of the unprecedented increase in incarceration have also been examined, particularly with regard to the large-scale incarceration of minorities. Overall, the numerous historical accounts of prison development and penal practices throughout time will help researchers and students alike gain a comprehensive understanding of the history of prisons in the United States and Europe.
Bernardo Giustiniani
Authors: Parry Seth
Published: September 2015

Bernardo Giustiniani (b. 1408–d. 1489) was a prominent Venetian humanist, politician, and diplomat of the middle and late 15th century. He was tutored by Guarino Veronese and George of Trebizond before studying arts and law at the university at Padua. He was known for his numerous orations and epistolary relationships, but his reputation rests principally on his history of Venice, De origine urbis Venetiarum rebusque ab ipsa gestis historia (hereafter abbreviated De origine urbis). This text is considered a significant and modern work of Venetian historiography of the 15th century. Giustiniani also played a substantial diplomatic role for Venice in the midst of a turbulent century: he was ambassador from Venice to Emperor Frederick III, the French king Louis XII, Popes Pius II and Paul II, Naples, Ferrara, and Milan. Giustiniani was also elected by either the Senate or the Maggior Consilio to other posts; he was a ducal councilor, a member of the Council of Ten, and eventually one of the nine procurators of St. Mark—the second-highest positions in the republic, after the doge. A key humanist in his own right, he was also a significant patron of others, and altogether a major figure in late-15th-century Venetian culture, society, and politics.
Soldiers
Authors: Dziennik Matthew P.
Published: September 2015

No history of warfare is complete without an appreciation of those who physically conduct the fighting. The history of soldiers is a human history and, while analyses of tactics and weapon systems are essential to military history, it is the human element that makes histories of soldiering so compelling. Although soldiers have always been the most crucial element of battle, what a soldier is and how he or she is defined has rarely been consistent across time and space. Historians of warfare in the Atlantic world, from the Renaissance to the mid-19th century, have been at the forefront of interpreting soldiering as part of a much wider political, cultural, and intellectual milieu. Atlantic history’s focus on the movement of peoples and ideas has given investigations of the military profession a marked prominence in the literature. The spatial and temporal range of Atlantic history has allowed historians to examine multiple forms of soldiering, embracing non-Western and non-state models of military activity as well as the better-known Western shift from feudal to professional armies. Atlantic world historians have also embraced the “new military history” and its insistence that the army is a social institution tied to wider social currents and value systems. This article examines how historians have dealt with the three crucial questions regarding soldiering in the Atlantic world: the origins, identities, and experiences of soldiers; the social and political systems that brought men to the army; and how soldiers interacted with (and indeed shaped) the political and cultural world around them. It is in response to this last question that some of the most innovative work has been done. No longer seen as mere cannon fodder for the game of kings, the soldier is now seen as a reflection and often progenitor of wider changes in the Atlantic world.
Electoral and Party System Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
Authors: Backer David , Long James D.
Published: September 2015

Elections and political parties hold a central position in the study and practice of modern politics. Of course, they stand out as integral to the dimensions of participation, association, advocacy, and representation that are fundamental to democracy. They can also be present in certain forms amid settings lacking fully consolidated democracy, and their absence can characterize illiberal and autocratic regimes. This entire spectrum of circumstances is observed in sub-Saharan Africa, where elections and parties exhibit a complex and diverse history. The advent, evolution, features, and impact of elections and parties are heavily influenced by the environment in which they are situated, including different eras and regional, local, institutional, and other contexts. This backdrop organizes how related research has conventionally framed the study of elections and parties. In conjunction with the transition to multiparty elections in most of Africa in the early 1990s, studies on democratization have examined elements of electoral systems and institutions, including the management and observation of voting and the outcomes of electoral processes. A related area focuses on the nature and sources of variation in types of parties and party systems. The emergence of research on this array of intersecting topics reflects the difficult questions inherent in achieving better political, economic, and social outcomes and meaningful change across sub-Saharan Africa. Opportunities to expand scholarship arise with new cases of countries transitioning to democracy as well as the advent of new techniques to conduct rigorous empirical analyses. Contributors are increasingly in a better position to help fill large gaps in understanding that still persist about elections and parties in sub-Saharan Africa, while also reflecting constructively on their significance for general comparative theories and knowledge.
Media Bias
Authors: Lichter Robert , Rolfe-Redding Justin , Farnsworth Stephen
Published: September 2015

Are the news media biased? This has long been a heated question in the public sphere, particularly in the American political setting. The question has drawn extensive attention from scholars as well as politicians and political partisans. The contentious nature of what constitutes biased and unbiased coverage—both conceptually and methodologically—has been a central concern for this literature. Indeed, a lack of commonly agreed-upon standards has limited the development of a coherent research tradition. This article focuses on media bias within the United States, which has seen the most robust debate and scholarly examination of the topic. It focuses principally on claims of ideological bias, along with the structural and negativity biases that are often presented as alternative explanations, rather than attempting to catalogue the panoply of issue-specific biases of which the media stand accused. While the fields of communication and political science have traditionally hosted investigations of media bias, economics has become a relatively recent addition to the scholarly conversation, generating work on new measures of bias and the role that audience preferences may play in producing slanted news. While arbitrating the existence and extent of bias has been a focus of research, other works have investigated what leads individuals to perceive bias (even in neutral reporting) and what effects biased coverage may have.
Fantasy
Authors: Butler David
Published: September 2015

Fantasy films can be traced to the early years of film history and Georges Méliès, cinema’s first great fantasist, in particular. Méliès is often presented (somewhat simplistically) as embodying one of the two fountainheads of cinema, alongside the documentary realism of the Lumière brothers, placing fantasy as a vital founding impulse in film. Fantasy films represent hopes and desires for better or alternative worlds, and through the technical developments required to portray those worlds, they have contributed significantly to the development of cinema and how we experience it. For many, fantasy films are typified by formulaic products—fairy tales for children and heroic quest narratives in magical pseudo-medieval realms for adolescents—but the range of fantasy films is remarkable, taking in popular mainstream “classics” (e.g., The Wizard of Oz [1939]), big-budget franchises (e.g., Harry Potter), small-scale independent projects (e.g., Tideland [2005]), and films by prominent figures in so-called art-house cinema (e.g., Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander [1982]). That diversity and perceived emphasis on the populist and juvenile has contributed to the academic literature on fantasy film being slow to develop. Although the Freudian notion of fantasy as a psychic process to help negotiate and repress traumatic memories meant that the psychoanalytical term “fantasy” was often evident, especially in the “grand theory” flourishing across film studies in the 1970s–1990s, there was relatively little discussion of fantasy films in the sense of narrative fictions featuring worlds or events that in some way break empirically (or magically) and ontologically with the known laws of our universe. From the 1980s, science fiction and horror cinema began to accumulate a substantial literature, but the more amorphous notion of fantasy would lag far behind: scattered articles rather than sustained dialogue, despite the early and mid-1980s seeing sustained fantasy filmmaking, especially from Hollywood. Defining fantasy has been problematic (e.g., is it a coherent genre? Is it a broader impulse to move away from mimetic representations of what is understood to be empirical and ontological reality? In what way can (or should) it be distinguished from science fiction and horror?), but it has also suffered from suspicious intellectual schools of thought (Marxism not least). Perhaps inevitably, given the influx of films released in the wake of the phenomenal success of The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003) and Harry Potter films revealing a “global hunger” for fantasy, as Susan Napier refers to it in Anime from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation (Napier 2005, cited under Individual Genres), the 2000s witnessed a welcome change with the publication of several introductory texts on studying fantasy film, collections on aspects of fantasy film, monographs on individual films, and articles from a wealth of theoretical perspectives.
OP‐3 THE PROTECTIVE ROLE OF LACTOBACILLUS RHAMNOSUS GG‐DERIVED FACTORS AGAINST LPS‐INDUCED DAMAGE OF HUMAN COLONIC SMOOTH MUSCLE CELLS.
Authors: Cicenia A , Santagelo F , Gambardella L , Iebba V , Scirocco A , Pallotta L , Marignani M , Chirletti P , Carabotti M , Schippa S , Corazziari E , Severi C
Published: September 2015

Impaired gut barrier function has been reported in some functional gastrointestinal (GI) disorders.Evidences suggest that gut microbiota affects GI motility in particular Lactobacillus species elicits anti‐inflammatory activity and exerts protective effects on damage induced by pathogen Gram negative‐derived lipopolysaccharide(LPS). LPS produced an oxidative imbalance in human colonic smooth muscle cells (SMC) that persists after LPS‐washout and contributes to SMC morphofunctional alterations. Aim: evaluate if supernatants harvested from LGG cultures protect SMC from LPS‐induced myogenic damage.Methods:L. rhamnosus GG (ATCC 53103 strain) was grown in MRS medium and samples were collected from bacterial cultures in middle exponential phase, in early, in middle and late stationary phase (overnight).Supernatants were recovered, filtered and stored at ‐20 °C. Highly pure human SMC culture was then exposed for 24 h to highly purified LPS (1 μg/ml) of E.coli (O111:B4) in the absence and presence of the supernatants.Their effects were evaluated on LPS‐induced SMC morphofunctional alterations and pro‐inflammatory IL‐6 production. Data are expressed as mean ± SE (p < 0.05 significant).Results:LPS induced persistent significant 20.7% ± 1.2 cell shortening and 35.2% ± 2.6 decrease in contraction of human colonic SMC. These alterations were paralleled to a 238.5% ± 82.5 increase in IL‐6 production.These effects disappeared in the presence of LGG‐supernatants, following a progression related to LGG growth curve phases. Supernatants collected in the middle exponential phase already significantly partially restored LPS‐induced cell shortening by 43.4% ± 10.2 and IL6 increase by 47.6% ± 13.1 but had no effect on LPS‐induced inhibition of contraction. Supernatants collected later, in the early and middle stationary phase, further counteract LPS‐induced damage, including inhibition of contraction. Maximal protective effects were observed with supernatants of the late stationary phase where LPS‐induced cell shortening was reversed by 86% ± 4.7, inhibition of contraction by 98.2% ± 1.8 and IL6 basal production by 91.3% ± 0.6.Conclusions: LGG secreted products are substances/byproducts able to directly protect human SMC from LPS‐induced myogenic damage. Novel insights are then provided about the possibility that LGG‐derived products could reduce the risk of progression to a post‐infective motor disorder.
OP‐4 ADVANCES IN TISSUE ENGINEERING TO REGENERATE THE INTESTINAL EPITHELIUM
Authors: Meran L , Li V , De Coppi P
Published: September 2015

Introduction:

Irreversible intestinal failure (IF) due to anatomical or functional loss is a devastating condition is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Patients referred for intestinal transplantation suffer low survival rates due to the high graft‐rejection rate and sepsis as a consequence long‐term immunosuppression. These clinical challenges reveal an urgent need for research into new treatments for IF. Here, we present recent advances in our work on intestinal tissue engineering.

Methods:

Ethical approval is in place to collect intestinal tissue from patients at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Intestinal crypts were isolated and organoids were cultured as previously described. Decellularization of whole intestinal sections was performed using 2 cycles of the Detergent Enzymatic Treatment (DET) as previously reported. Organoids were cultured on the epithelial surface of the acellular matrix in vitro for 10 days. Cell survival was analysed by histology, immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy techniques.

Results:

Intestinal crypts from the small intestine and colon were successfully isolated from endoscopic biopsies and cultured in order to generate 3 dimensional organoids. The presence of goblet cells and enterocyte cells were confirmed on immunohistochemistry. Whole sections of intestine of varying lengths were successfully decellularized and assessed using H&E staining and scanning electron microscopy. Organoids were seeded onto the epithelial surface of the acellular intestinal matrices and allowed to engraft for a period of 10 days in vitro. The formation of a neo‐epithelium with evidence of a microvillus brush border was evident after 10 days in culture. Furthermore, the cells had successfully migrated into the crypt domains of the matrix.

Conclusions:

We demonstrate the potential of tissue engineering for intestinal failure by combining organoid cultures with decellularization expertise. Our results confirm human intestinal organoids to be the ideal source of progenitor cells to regenerate the intestinal epithelium, with potential clinical applications for transplantation.