bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
High dispersion spectroscopy of solar-type superflare stars. II. Stellar rotation, starspots, and chromospheric activities
Authors: Notsu Yuta , Honda Satoshi , Maehara Hiroyuki , Notsu Shota , Shibayama Takuya , Nogami Daisaku , Shibata Kazunari
Published: April 2015

We conducted high dispersion spectroscopic observations of 50 superflare stars with Subaru/HDS. These 50 stars were selected from the solar-type superflare stars that we had discovered from the Kepler data. More than half (34 stars) of these 50 target superflare stars show no evidence of binarity, and we estimated stellar parameters of these 34 stars in our previous study (Notsu et al. 2015, PASJ, 67, 32). According to our previous studies using Kepler data, superflare stars show quasi-periodic brightness variations whose amplitude (0.1%–10%) is much larger than that of the solar brightness variations (0.01%–0.1%) caused by the existence of sunspots on the rotating solar surface. In this study, we investigated whether these quasi-periodic brightness variations of superflare stars are explained by the rotation of a star with fairly large starspots, by using stellar parameters derived in Paper I. First, we confirmed that the value of the projected rotational velocity, v sin i, is consistent with the rotational velocity estimated from the period of the brightness variation. Next, we measured the intensity of Ca ii infrared triplet lines and Hα line, good indicators of the stellar chromospheric activity, and compared them with other stellar properties. The intensity of Ca ii infrared triplet lines indicates that the mean magnetic field strength (〈fB〉) of the target superflare stars can be higher than that of the Sun. A correlation between the amplitude of the brightness variation and the intensity of Ca ii triplet line was found. All the targets expected to have large starspots because of their large amplitude of the brightness variation show high chromospheric activities compared to the Sun. These results support the idea that the brightness variation of superflare stars is due to the rotation with large starspots.
An emergence of a new polarized emission region in blazar Mrk 421 associated with an X-ray flare
Authors: Itoh Ryosuke , Fukazawa Yasushi , Tanaka Yasuyuki T. , Kawabata Koji S. , Takaki Katsutoshi , Hayashi Kazuma , Uemura Makoto , Ui Takahiro , Sasada Mahito , Yamanaka Masayuki , Yoshida Michitoshi
Published: April 2015

We report on long-term multi-wavelength monitoring of blazar Mrk 421 from 2010 to 2011. The source exhibited extreme X-ray flares in 2010. Our research group performed optical photopolarimetric follow-up observations using the Kanata telescope. In 2010, the variability in the X-ray band was significant, while the optical and ultraviolet (UV) flux decreased gradually. Polarization properties also exhibited unique variability in 2010, suggesting the presence of a systematic component of polarization and magnetic field alignment for the emergence of a new polarized emission region. In contrast, in 2011 the variability in the X-ray band was smaller, and the variability in the optical and UV bands was larger, than in 2010. To explore the reasons for these differences, spectral fitting analysis was performed via simple synchrotron self-Compton modeling; the results revealed different behaviors in terms of spectral evolution between these periods, suggesting different variability mechanisms between 2010 and 2011. In 2010, the radiation was likely the result of energy injection into the emitting regions with an aligned magnetic field. In contrast, in 2011 the superposition of different emission regions may have contributed to the low degree of observed polarization. It also implies that high-energy electrons which were not accelerated to ultra-relativistic velocities were injected in 2011.
Multiscale models of skeletal muscle reveal the complex effects of muscular dystrophy on tissue mechanics and damage susceptibility
Authors: Virgilio Kelley M. , Martin Kyle S. , Peirce Shayn M. , Blemker Silvia S.
Published: April 2015

Computational models have been increasingly used to study the tissue-level constitutive properties of muscle microstructure; however, these models were not created to study or incorporate the influence of disease-associated modifications in muscle. The purpose of this paper was to develop a novel multiscale muscle modelling framework to elucidate the relationship between microstructural disease adaptations and modifications in both mechanical properties of muscle and strain in the cell membrane. We used an agent-based model to randomly generate new muscle fibre geometries and mapped them into a finite-element model representing a cross section of a muscle fascicle. The framework enabled us to explore variability in the shape and arrangement of fibres, as well as to incorporate disease-related changes. We applied this method to reveal the trade-offs between mechanical properties and damage susceptibility in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). DMD is a fatal genetic disease caused by a lack of the transmembrane protein dystrophin, leading to muscle wasting and death due to cardiac or pulmonary complications. The most prevalent microstructural variations in DMD include: lack of transmembrane proteins, fibrosis, fatty infiltration and variation in fibre cross-sectional area. A parameter analysis of these variations and case study of DMD revealed that the nature of fibrosis and density of transmembrane proteins strongly affected the stiffness of the muscle and susceptibility to membrane damage.
Comparison of generic and subject-specific models for simulation of pulmonary perfusion and forced expiration
Authors: Hedges Kerry L. , Clark Alys R. , Tawhai Merryn H.
Published: April 2015

The goal of translating multiscale model analysis of pulmonary function into population studies is challenging because of the need to derive a geometric model for each subject. This could be addressed by using a generic model with appropriate customization to subject-specific data. Here, we present a quantitative comparison of simulating two fundamental behaviours of the lung—its haemodynamic response to vascular occlusion, and the forced expiration in 1 s (FEV1) following bronchoconstriction—in subject-specific and generic models. When the subjects are considered as a group, there is no significant difference between predictions of mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP), pulmonary vascular resistance or forced expiration; however, significant differences are apparent in the prediction of arterial oxygen, for both baseline and post-occlusion. Despite the apparent consistency of the generic and subject-specific models, a third of subjects had generic model under-prediction of the increase in mPAP following occlusion, and half had the decrease in arterial oxygen over-predicted; two subjects had considerable differences in the percentage reduction of FEV1following bronchoconstriction. The generic model approach can be useful for physiologically directed studies but is not appropriate for simulating pathophysiological function that is strongly dependent on interaction with lung structure.
A wrinkle in flight: the role of elastin fibres in the mechanical behaviour of bat wing membranes
Authors: Cheney Jorn A. , Konow Nicolai , Bearnot Andrew , Swartz Sharon M.
Published: April 2015

Bats fly using a thin wing membrane composed of compliant, anisotropic skin. Wing membrane skin deforms dramatically as bats fly, and its three-dimensional configurations depend, in large part, on the mechanical behaviour of the tissue. Large, macroscopic elastin fibres are an unusual mechanical element found in the skin of bat wings. We characterize the fibre orientation and demonstrate that elastin fibres are responsible for the distinctive wrinkles in the surrounding membrane matrix. Uniaxial mechanical testing of the wing membrane, both parallel and perpendicular to elastin fibres, is used to distinguish the contribution of elastin and the surrounding matrix to the overall membrane mechanical behaviour. We find that the matrix is isotropic within the plane of the membrane and responsible for bearing load at high stress; elastin fibres are responsible for membrane anisotropy and only contribute substantially to load bearing at very low stress. The architecture of elastin fibres provides the extreme extensibility and self-folding/self-packing of the wing membrane skin. We relate these findings to flight with membrane wings and discuss the aeromechanical significance of elastin fibre pre-stress, membrane excess length, and how these parameters may aid bats in resisting gusts and preventing membrane flutter.
A century of transitions in New York City's measles dynamics
Authors: Hempel Karsten , Earn David J. D.
Published: April 2015

Infectious diseases spreading in a human population occasionally exhibit sudden transitions in their qualitative dynamics. Previous work has successfully predicted such transitions in New York City's historical measles incidence using the seasonally forced susceptible–infectious–recovered (SIR) model. This work relied on a dataset spanning 45 years (1928–1973), which we have extended to 93 years (1891–1984). We identify additional dynamical transitions in the longer dataset and successfully explain them by analysing attractors and transients of the same mechanistic epidemiological model.
The mortality of companies
Authors: Daepp Madeleine I. G. , Hamilton Marcus J. , West Geoffrey B. , Bettencourt Luís M. A.
Published: April 2015

The firm is a fundamental economic unit of contemporary human societies. Studies on the general quantitative and statistical character of firms have produced mixed results regarding their lifespans and mortality. We examine a comprehensive database of more than 25 000 publicly traded North American companies, from 1950 to 2009, to derive the statistics of firm lifespans. Based on detailed survival analysis, we show that the mortality of publicly traded companies manifests an approximately constant hazard rate over long periods of observation. This regularity indicates that mortality rates are independent of a company's age. We show that the typical half-life of a publicly traded company is about a decade, regardless of business sector. Our results shed new light on the dynamics of births and deaths of publicly traded companies and identify some of the necessary ingredients of a general theory of firms.
Acoustic integrated extinction
Authors: Norris Andrew N.
Published: April 2015

The integrated extinction (IE) is defined as the integral of the scattering cross section as a function of wavelength. Sohl
et al.
(2007
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
122
, 3206–3210. (
doi:10.1121/1.2801546
)) derived an IE expression for acoustic scattering that is causal, i.e. the scattered wavefront in the forward direction arrives later than the incident plane wave in the background medium. The IE formula was based on electromagnetic results, for which scattering is causal by default. Here, we derive a formula for the acoustic IE that is valid for causal and non-causal scattering. The general result is expressed as an integral of the time-dependent forward scattering function. The IE reduces to a finite integral for scatterers with zero long-wavelength monopole and dipole amplitudes. Implications for acoustic cloaking are discussed and a new metric is proposed for broadband acoustic transparency.
Novel APC-like properties of human NK cells directly regulate T cell activation
Authors: Hanna Jacob , Mandelboim Ofer
Published: April 2015

Initiation of the adaptive immune response is dependent on the priming of naive T cells by APCs. Proteomic analysis of unactivated and activated human NK cell membrane–enriched fractions demonstrated that activated NK cells can efficiently stimulate T cells, since they upregulate MHC class II molecules and multiple ligands for TCR costimulatory molecules. Furthermore, by manipulating antigen administration, we show that NK cells possess multiple independent unique pathways for antigen uptake. These results highlight NK cell–mediated cytotoxicity and specific ligand recognition by cell surface–activating receptors on NK cells as unique mechanisms for antigen capturing and presentation. In addition, we analyzed the T cell–activating potential of human NK cells derived from different clinical conditions, such as inflamed tonsils and noninfected and CMV–infected uterine decidual samples, and from transporter-associated processing antigen 2–deficient patients. This in vivo analysis revealed that proinflammatory, but not immune-suppressive, microenvironmental requirements can selectively dictate upregulation of T cell–activating molecules on NK cells. Taken together, these observations offer new and unexpected insights into the direct interactions between NK and T cells and suggest novel APC-like activating functions for human NK cells.

Nonstandard abbreviations used

ANK

activated NK

dNK

decidual NK

HA

hemagglutinin

ImDC

immature DC

MDC

mature DC

MFI

mean fluorescence intensity

NCR

natural cytotoxicity receptor

TAP2

transporter-associated processing antigen 2

UaNK

unactivated NK
Processes driving nocturnal transpiration and implications for estimating land evapotranspiration
Authors: Resco de Dios Vίctor , Roy Jacques , Ferrio Juan Pedro , Alday Josu G. , Landais Damien , Milcu Alexandru , Gessler Arthur
Published: April 2015

Evapotranspiration is a major component of the water cycle, yet only daytime transpiration is currently considered in Earth system and agricultural sciences. This contrasts with physiological studies where 25% or more of water losses have been reported to occur occurring overnight at leaf and plant scales. This gap probably arose from limitations in techniques to measure nocturnal water fluxes at ecosystem scales, a gap we bridge here by using lysimeters under controlled environmental conditions. The magnitude of the nocturnal water losses (12-23% of daytime water losses) in row-crop monocultures of bean (annual herb) and cotton (woody shrub) would be globally an order of magnitude higher than documented responses of global evapotranspiration to climate change (51-98vs.7-8 mm yr−1). Contrary to daytime responses and to conventional wisdom, nocturnal transpiration was not affected by previous radiation loads or carbon uptake, and showed a temporal pattern independent of vapour pressure deficit or temperature, because of endogenous controls on stomatal conductance via circadian regulation. Our results have important implications from large-scale ecosystem modelling to crop production: homeostatic water losses justify simple empirical predictive functions, and circadian controls show a fine-tune control that minimizes water loss while potentially increasing posterior carbon uptake.
Design of a Toolbox of RNA Thermometers
Authors: Sen Shaunak , Apurva Divyansh , Satija Rohit , Siegal Dan , Murray Richard M
Published: April 2015

Biomolecular temperature sensors can be used for efficient control of large-volume bioreactors, for spatiotemporal control and imaging of gene expression, as well as to engineer robustness to temperature in biomolecular circuit design. While RNA-based sensors, called ‘thermometers’, have been investigated in natural and synthetic contexts, an important challenge is to design different responses to temperature, differing in sensitivities and thresholds. We address this issue using experimental measurements in cells and in cell-free biomolecular ‘breadboards’ in combination with computations of RNA thermodynamics. We designed a library of RNA thermometers, finding, computationally, that it could contain a multiplicity of responses to temperature. We constructed this library and found a wide range of responses to temperature, ranging from 3.5-fold to over 10-fold in the temperature range 29°C – 37°C. These were largely linear responses with over 10-fold difference in slopes. We correlated the measured responses with computational expectations, finding that while there was no strong correlation in the individual values, the overall trends were similar. These results present a toolbox of RNA-based circuit elements with varying temperature sensitivities.
External Microbiota of Western United States Bats: Does It Matter Where You Are From?
Authors: Kooser A.K. , Kimble J.C. , Young J.M. , Buecher D.C. , Valdez E.W. , Porras-Alfaro A. , Northup D.E.
Published: April 2015

White-nose syndrome (WNS), a disease caused by the fungusPseudogymnoascus destructans1, has spread west from New York to Missouri and has killed more than six million bats2. In bat hibernacula where WNS is present, mass mortality has been observed and there is a high potential for population collapse or extinction of some species at a regional level. Although WNS is not yet present in the western U.S., the high diversity ofbat species3and appropriate conditions forP. destructansin area caves may put these populations at risk. The absence of WNS in western caves provides a unique opportunity to ask questions about how bat species, geographic location, and habitat shape pre-WNS bat microbiota. The importance of microbiota is shown in many organisms, including amphibians, where individuals that survive a chytrid infection carry a higher prevalence ofJanthinobacterium lividum4. The establishment of a pre-WNS baseline microbiota of western bats is critical to understanding howP. destructansmay impact the native microbiota of the bats. Previous studies5,6that identified the microbiota of bats have focused on gut and fecal microbiota, with little attention given to the external microbiota. Here we show for the first time that habitat and geography influence differences in the abundance and diversity of external bat microbiota. From our 202 (62 cave-netted, 140 surface-netted) bat samples belonging to 13 species of western bats uninfected with WNS, we identified differences in microbiota diversity among sites, and between cave-netted versus surface-netted bats, regardless of sex and species. These results present novel information about the factors that shape external microbiota of bats providing new insights into patterns of diversity in a pre-WNS bat population.
Non-dichotomous inference using bootstrapped evidence
Authors: Schwarzkopf D. Samuel
Published: April 2015

The problems with classical frequentist statistics have recently received much attention, yet the enthusiasm of researchers to adopt alternatives like Bayesian inference remains modest. Here I present thebootstrapped evidence test, an objective resampling procedure that takes the precision with which both the experimental and null hypothesis can be estimated into account. Simulations and reanalysis of actual experimental data demonstrate that this test minimizes false positives while maintaining sensitivity. It is equally applicable to a wide range of situations and thus minimizes problems arising from analytical flexibility. Critically, it does not dichotomize the results based on an arbitrary significance level but instead quantifies how well the data support either the alternative or the null hypothesis. It is thus particularly useful in situations with considerable uncertainty about the expected effect size. Because it is non-parametric, it is also robust to severe violations of assumptions made by classical statistics.
Improving effect size estimation and statistical power with multi-echo fMRI and its impact on understanding the neural systems supporting mentalizing
Authors: Lombardo Michael V. , Auyeung Bonnie , Holt Rosemary J. , Waldman Jack , Ruigrok Amber N. V. , Mooney Natasha , Bullmore Edward T. , Baron-Cohen Simon , Kundu Prantik
Published: April 2015

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research is routinely criticized for being statistically underpowered due to characteristically small sample sizes and much larger sample sizes are being increasingly recommended. Additionally, various sources of artifact inherent in fMRI data can have detrimental impact on effect size estimates and statistical power. Here we show how specific removal of non-BOLD artifacts can improve effect size estimation and statistical power in task-fMRI contexts, with particular application to the social-cognitive domain of mentalizing/theory of mind. Non-BOLD variability identification and removal is achieved in a biophysical and statistically principled manner by combining multi-echo fMRI acquisition and independent components analysis (ME-ICA). Group-level effect size estimates on two different mentalizing tasks were enhanced by ME-ICA at a median rate of 24% in regions canonically associated with mentalizing, while much more substantial boosts (40-149%) were observed in non-canonical cerebellar areas. This effect size boosting is primarily a consequence of reduction of non-BOLD noise at the subject-level, which then translates into consequent reductions in between-subject variance at the group-level. Power simulations demonstrate that enhanced effect size enables highly-powered studies at traditional sample sizes. Cerebellar effects observed after applying ME-ICA may be unobservable with conventional imaging at traditional sample sizes. Thus, ME-ICA allows for principled design-agnostic non-BOLD artifact removal that can substantially improve effect size estimates and statistical power in task-fMRI contexts. ME-ICA could help issues regarding statistical power and non-BOLD noise and enable potential for novel discovery of aspects of brain organization that are currently under-appreciated and not well understood.
Accurate typing of short tandem repeats from genome-wide sequencing data and its applications
Authors: Fungtammasan Arkarachai , Ananda Guruprasad , Hile Suzanne E. , Su Marcia Shu-Wei , Sun Chen , Harris Robert , Medvedev Paul , Eckert Kristin , Makova Kateryna D.
Published: April 2015

Short tandem repeats (STRs) are implicated in dozens of human genetic diseases and contribute significantly to genome variation and instability. Yet profiling STRs from short-read sequencing data is challenging because of their high sequencing error rates. Here, we developed STR-FM, short tandem repeat profiling using flank-based mapping, a computational pipeline that can detect the full spectrum of STR alleles from short-read data, can adapt to emerging read-mapping algorithms, and can be applied to heterogeneous genetic samples (e.g., tumors, viruses, and genomes of organelles). We used STR-FM to study STR error rates and patterns in publicly available human and in-house generated ultradeep plasmid sequencing data sets. We discovered that STRs sequenced with a PCR-free protocol have up to ninefold fewer errors than those sequenced with a PCR-containing protocol. We constructed an error correction model for genotyping STRs that can distinguish heterozygous alleles containing STRs with consecutive repeat numbers. Applying our model and pipeline to Illumina sequencing data with 100-bp reads, we could confidently genotype several disease-related long trinucleotide STRs. Utilizing this pipeline, for the first time we determined the genome-wide STR germline mutation rate from a deeply sequenced human pedigree. Additionally, we built a tool that recommends minimal sequencing depth for accurate STR genotyping, depending on repeat length and sequencing read length. The required read depth increases with STR length and is lower for a PCR-free protocol. This suite of tools addresses the pressing challenges surrounding STR genotyping, and thus is of wide interest to researchers investigating disease-related STRs and STR evolution.
Measuring the Length of Poly(A) Tails
Authors: Nilsen Timothy W.
Published: April 2015

Adenylation status has an important role in the regulation of mRNA metabolism: mRNAs are deadenylated before degradation, microRNAs (miRNAs) can cause deadenylation, and the poly(A) length of certain mRNAs is regulated during development. This protocol describes methods that can be used to measure the poly(A) tail length of specific mRNAs. These include, in the order of increasing sensitivity, (1) northern blotting of intact and experimentally deadenylated mRNAs and (2) northern blotting of intact and experimentally deadenylated mRNA fragments that have been cleaved near the 3′ end with RNase H. Highly sensitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based approaches are also discussed.
Dissociation of Ribosomes into Large and Small Subunits
Authors: Rivera Maria C. , Maguire Bruce , Lake James A.
Published: April 2015

Structural and functional studies of ribosomal subunits require the dissociation of intact ribosomes into individual small and large ribosomal subunits. The dissociation of the prokaryotic 70S ribosomes into the 50S and 30S subunits is achieved by dialysis against a buffer containing a lower Mg2+ concentration. Eukaryotic 80S ribosomes are dissociated into 60S and 40S subunits by incubation in a buffer containing puromycin and higher KCl and Mg2+ concentrations.
Natural Variation in Epigenetic Pathways Affects the Specification of Female Gamete Precursors in Arabidopsis
Authors: Rodríguez-Leal Daniel , León-Martínez Gloria , Abad-Vivero Ursula , Vielle-Calzada Jean-Philippe
Published: April 2015

In angiosperms, the transition to the female gametophytic phase relies on the specification of premeiotic gamete precursors from sporophytic cells in the ovule. In Arabidopsis thaliana, a single diploid cell is specified as the premeiotic female gamete precursor. Here, we show that ecotypes of Arabidopsis exhibit differences in megasporogenesis leading to phenotypes reminiscent of defects in dominant mutations that epigenetically affect the specification of female gamete precursors. Intraspecific hybridization and polyploidy exacerbate these defects, which segregate quantitatively in F2 populations derived from ecotypic hybrids, suggesting that multiple loci control cell specification at the onset of female meiosis. This variation in cell differentiation is influenced by the activity of ARGONAUTE9 (AGO9) and RNA-DEPENDENT RNA POLYMERASE6 (RDR6), two genes involved in epigenetic silencing that control the specification of female gamete precursors. The pattern of transcriptional regulation and localization of AGO9 varies among ecotypes, and abnormal gamete precursors in ovules defective for RDR6 share identity with ectopic gamete precursors found in selected ecotypes. Our results indicate that differences in the epigenetic control of cell specification lead to natural phenotypic variation during megasporogenesis. We propose that this mechanism could be implicated in the emergence and evolution of the reproductive alternatives that prevail in flowering plants.
Data Analysis WorkbeNch(DAWN)
Authors: Basham Mark , Filik Jacob , Wharmby Michael T. , Chang Peter C. Y. , El Kassaby Baha , Gerring Matthew , Aishima Jun , Levik Karl , Pulford Bill C. A. , Sikharulidze Irakli , Sneddon Duncan , Webber Matthew , Dhesi Sarnjeet S. , Maccherozzi Francesco , Svensson Olof , Brockhauser Sandor , Náray Gabor , Ashton Alun W.
Published: April 2015

Synchrotron light source facilities worldwide generate terabytes of data in numerous incompatible data formats from a wide range of experiment types. TheData Analysis WorkbeNch(DAWN) was developed to address the challenge of providing a single visualization and analysis platform for data from any synchrotron experiment (including single-crystal and powder diffraction, tomography and spectroscopy), whilst also being sufficiently extensible for new specific use case analysis environments to be incorporated (e.g.ARPES, PEEM). In this work, the history and current state ofDAWNare presented, with two case studies to demonstrate specific functionality. The first is an example of a data processing and reduction problem using the generic tools, whilst the second shows how these tools can be targeted to a specific scientific area.
Lack of a threefold rotation axis in α-Fe2O3and α-Cr2O3crystals
Authors: Stękiel Michał , Przeniosło Radosław , Sosnowska Izabela , Fitch Andrew , Jasiński Jacek B. , Lussier Joey A. , Bieringer Mario
Published: April 2015

The crystal structure of α-Fe2O3and α-Cr2O3is usually described with the corundum-type trigonal crystal structure based on the space group R\bar 3c. There are, however, some observations of the magnetic ordering of both α-Fe2O3and α-Cr2O3that are incompatible with the trigonal symmetry. We show experimental evidence based on X-ray powder diffraction and supported by transmission electron microscopy that the symmetry of the crystal structure of both α-Fe2O3and α-Cr2O3is monoclinic and it is described with the space groupC2/c(derived from R\bar 3c by removing the threefold rotation axis). The magnetic orderings of α-Fe2O3and α-Cr2O3are compatible with the magnetic space groupsC2/candC2/c′, respectively. These findings are in agreement with the idea from Curie [(1894),J. Phys.3, 393–415] that the dissymmetry of the magnetic ordering should be associated with a dissymmetry of the crystal structure.
Crystal structure of 5,5′-dibromo-3,3′-di-tert-butyl-6,6′-dimethylbiphenyl-2,2′-diol
Authors: Obata Rika , Ohba Shigeru , Einaga Yasuaki , Nishiyama Shigeru
Published: April 2015

The whole molecule of the title compound, C22H28Br2O2, is generated by twofold rotation symmetry. The dihedral angle of the biphenyl moiety is 85.05 (11)°. The hydroxy groups show intramolecular O—H...π interactions without any other hydrogen-bond acceptors. In the crystal, there are no other significant intermolecular interactions present.
Perceived managerial and leadership effectiveness in Colombia
Authors: Torres Luis Eduardo , Ruiz Carlos Enrique , Hamlin Bob , Velez-Calle Andres
Published: April 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this study was to identify what Colombians perceive as effective and least effective/ineffective managerial behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

– This study was conducted following a qualitative methodology based on the philosophical assumptions of pragmatism and the “pragmatic approach” (Morgan, 2007). The critical incident technique was used to generate data from a purposive sample of 27 managers and non-managerial employees located in Medellin and Bogota, Colombia.

Findings

– The results of this study suggest that effective managers in Colombia are those who are supportive, caring, considerate, participative, understanding, communicative and flexible, and are also good problem solvers.

Research limitations/implications

– This study focused on the perceptions of Colombian managers and non-managerial employees only. Therefore, the description of effective and least effective/ineffective managers in Colombia could be highly value-laden from the national cultural perspective. Hence, it is recommended that further research should be carried out to explore the perceptions of international managers who have frequently interacted or worked with Colombian managers.

Originality/value

– The results of this study have practical implications for Colombian managers and international managers who manage the Colombian workforce. For Colombian managers, this study provides insight into what is considered effective or least effective/ineffective managerial and leadership behavior. The findings provide useful information on foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) that have operations in Colombia. MNCs can use the results of this study to create effective management development models for their expatriates in Colombia.
2050: New Zealand's sustainable future
Authors: Yeoman Ian , Andrade Amalina , Leguma Elisante , Wolf Natalie , Ezra Peter , Tan Rebecca , McMahon‐Beattie Una
Published: April 2015

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to portray the future of tourism in New Zealand based upon a philosophy of sustainability and cultural identity as a response to the present 2025 Tourism Strategy.

Design/methodology/approach

The research deployed a scenario planning methodology resulting in four portraits of the future.

Findings

Environmental issues and global migration are the key issues that will shape the future of New Zealand tourism. In order to address these issues four scenarios were constructed. New Zealand Wonderland portrays a future based upon a grounded international reputation for environmentalism driven by good governance, climate change targets and ecotourism. Indiana Jones and the Search for Cultural Identity position a future driven by rapid growth and unregulated air travel resulting in environmental degradation. A Peaceful Mixture is a balance of socio‐cultural and environmental dimensions of sustainability at the centre of a tourism product shaped upon Maori culture and economic prosperity. The final scenario, New Zealand in Depression, is the worst possible outcome for New Zealand's tourism industry as the three dimensions of economy, community, and environment are not at equilibrium. New Zealand would be over‐polluted with an uncontrolled number of migrants.

Research limitations/implications

The research was a social construction of ten experts’ views on the future of sustainable tourism.

Originality/value

New Zealand's present approach to the future of tourism is shaped by the 2025 Tourism Framework (http://tourism2025.org.nz/). This is derived from a business perspective and a neoliberal political philosophy and it is void of the words ecotourism and sustainability. This paper argues that the present strategy will fail because of community disengagement that proposes a range of alternative directions based upon a political discourse of sustainability and shaped by environmental credentials and cultural identity.
New Zealand's future: the potential for knitting tourism
Authors: Yeoman Ian , McMahon‐Beattie Una
Published: April 2015

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to gain an understanding of why the phenomena of knitting is important in society and an explanation of the underlying currents for tourism.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper presents a futurist's observations and reflections.

Findings

Why is knitting making a comeback? Consumers are shutting the door on the world and cocooning thus returning to the world of crafts and hobbies as a way to seek enjoyment. An interest in authenticity and the past as an escape from the present. Single people looking for something to do in an urban world, thus some consumers have turned to knitting. Today, the authors are seeing niche holiday providers offering knitting cruises, knitting escapes and knitting adventures. For New Zealand the home Merrino wool knitting tourism has the potential to be bigger than bungy jumping (some would say).

Originality/value

The trends paper provides an insight of the key trends from a societal perspective of what knitting means and its manifestation as a tourism experience. The value to operators is understanding those trends in context of why the phenomena is occurring.
A study of students’ travellers values and needs in order to establish futures patterns and insights
Authors: Cavagnaro Elena , Staffieri Simona
Published: April 2015

Purpose

If the only viable future for tourism is sustainable tourism then ways should be sought to increase the demand for sustainable offers. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether sustainability values influence the travel needs of students. The aim is to discover cues in the present behaviour of young tourists that can enhance sustainable travel choices and therefore secure the future of the tourism industry. Moreover, the study provides a solid basis for predicting the future travel behaviour of young tourists.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected in The Netherlands in 2013 through a survey. A non‐probabilistic sample of 365 students (a sub‐group of young tourists) was reached. Multivariate analyses were used to test whether position in the social structure and value orientation influence the travel need. The logistic models allowed youth tourism behaviour to be predicted.

Findings

Respondents with a biospheric value orientation associate travel with being in contact with nature and chose rest as a motivation. This is highly interesting from a future perspective because biospheric values are considered the most stable antecedent of sustainable behaviour. Findings also highlight women's role as the sustainable tourists of the future: women harbour strong sustainability values and see travel as a growth opportunity.

Research limitations/implications

This research focuses on travel needs because this is the most future‐oriented phase of the tourism experience, and on students because they tend to travel independently. Future research might include travel consumption and evaluation as well as non‐students in the sample to give a more balanced view on young tourists. Future research might also include values not related to sustainability to assess their relative strengths in influencing youth tourism.

Practical implications

Both policy makers and industry could capitalise on the sustainability values already present in young people's need for travel to nudge this group – who represents tourism's future – towards a sustainable tourism choice. For example, strengthening sustainability values through marketing and education will increase demand for a sustainable offer.

Originality/value

Values related to sustainability influence general tourism choices by young travellers, and not only choices related to a sustainability offer. This finding suggests a path to address the classic dilemma between individualism and sustainability and assure tourism's future by showing young travellers that they already harbour sustainability values.
Pollen diversity captures landscape structure and diversity
Authors: Matthias Isabelle , Semmler Malte Sebastian Swen , Giesecke Thomas
Published: April 2015

Past changes in plant and landscape diversity can be evaluated through pollen analysis, however, pollen‐based diversity indexes are potentially biased by differential pollen production and deposition. Studies examining the relationship between pollen and landscape diversity are therefore needed. The aim of this study was to evaluate how different pollen‐based indexes capture aspects of landscape diversity.

Pollen counts were obtained from surface samples of 50 small‐ to medium‐sized lakes in Brandenburg (north‐east Germany) and compiled into two sets, with one containing all pollen counts from terrestrial plants and the second restricted to wind‐pollinated taxa. Both sets were adjusted for the pollen production/dispersal bias using the REVEALS model. A high‐resolution biotope map was used to extract the density of total biotopes and different biotopes per area as parameters describing landscape diversity. In addition, tree species diversity was obtained from forest inventory data.

The Shannon index and the number of taxa in a sample of 10 pollen grains are highly correlated and provide a useful measure of pollen type diversity which corresponds best to landscape diversity within one km of the lake and the proportion of non‐forested area within seven km. Adjustments of the pollen production/dispersal bias only slightly improve the relationships between pollen diversity and landscape diversity for the restricted data set as well as for the forest inventory data and corresponding pollen types.

Using rarefaction analysis, we propose the following convention: pollen type diversity is represented by the number of types in a small sample (low count e.g. 10), pollen type richness is the number of types in a large sample (high count e.g. 500), and pollen sample evenness is characterized by the ratio of the two.

Synthesis. Pollen type diversity is a robust index that captures vegetation structure and landscape diversity. It is ideally suited for between site comparisons as it does not require high pollen counts. In concert with pollen type richness and evenness, it helps evaluating the effect of climate change and human land use on vegetation structure on long timescales.
Where Is the Organization Looking in Order to Be Proactive about Safety? A Framework for Revealing whether It Is Mostly Looking Back, Also Looking Forward or Simply Looking Away
Authors: Woods David D. , Branlat Matthieu , Herrera Ivonne , Woltjer Rogier
Published: April 2015

Despite the desire to utilize proactive safety metrics, research results indicate imbalances can arise between economic performance metrics and safety metrics. Imbalances can arise, first, because there are fewer proactive metrics available relative to the data an organization can compile to build reactive metrics. Second, there are a number of factors that lead organizations to discount proactive metrics when they conflict with shorter‐term and more definitive reactive metrics. This paper introduces the Q4‐Balance Framework to analyse economy‐safety trade‐offs. Plotting the sets of metrics used by an organization in the four‐quadrant visualization can be used to identify misalignments, overlap and false diversity. It results in a visualization of the set of metrics an organization uses and where these conflict or reinforce each other. The framework also provides a way to assess an organization's safety energy as a kind of analysis of an organization's capability to be proactive about safety.
Time to subsequent live birth according to mode of delivery in the first birth
Authors: O'Neill SM , Khashan AS , Kenny LC , Kearney PM , Mortensen PB , Greene RA , Agerbo E , Uldbjerg N , Henriksen TB
Published: April 2015

Objective

To estimate the rate and time to next live birth by mode of delivery.

Design

Hospital‐based cohort.

Setting

Aarhus University Hospital (AUH), Denmark.

Population

All pregnant women attending AUH were invited to enroll in the Aarhus Birth Cohort (ABC) study between 1989 and 2010 (n = 91 625).

Methods

Women were followed from their first live birth until the subsequent live birth or until censoring due to study end using Cox regression models.

Main outcome measures

Rate and time to subsequent live birth according to mode of delivery.

Results

46 162 index live births were identified, of which 22 462 (49%) had a subsequent live birth. Women with any type of caesarean had a 6% reduction in the rate of subsequent live birth (HR 0.94, 95% CI 0.89, 0.98), which remained unchanged in the analysis by type (emergency, HR 0.95, 95% CI 0.89, 1.02; elective, HR 0.91, 95% CI 0.85, 0.98) compared with women who had a spontaneous vaginal delivery (SVD). Operative vaginal delivery was associated with an 8% reduction in subsequent live birth rates (HR 0.92, 95% CI 0.86, 0.98) and vaginal delivery complicated by shoulder dystocia with a 19% reduction compared with SVD. Median time to next birth in days was shortest in women with a first caesarean (994 days, 95% CI 973, 1026) and longest in women with a vaginal delivery complicated by shoulder dystocia (1065 days, 95% CI 994, 1191). In women with planned pregnancies, the shortest median time to second birth was in women with breech vaginal deliveries (859 days, 95% CI 737, 1089) and the longest in women with vaginal deliveries complicated by shoulder dystocia (1193 days, 95% CI 1028, 1430).

Conclusion

The impact of mode of delivery on subsequent rate and time to next birth was minimal in this study. The greatest reduction was among women with assisted vaginal delivery complicated by shoulder dystocia. This study is strengthened by data on pregnancy planning as well as information on complications of pregnancy, delivery and neonatal morbidities, all of which may influence a woman's decision on subsequent birth.
Human Cutaneous Myiasis by the Australian Sheep Blowfly, Lucilia cuprina (Diptera: Calliphoridae), in Oklahoma
Authors: Ahadizadeh Emily N. , Ketchum Heather R. , Wheeler Russell
Published: April 2015

This case report describes an incident of myiasis in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Paramedics treated a 53‐year‐old man in the field when he suffered cardiac arrest. He was intubated by the paramedics and transported to an emergency room, where he received two stents and a balloon pump. He was found to have a GCS of three and remained in the hospital for 7 days before passing away. After his death, the breathing tube was removed, revealing the presence of several maggots. On closer inspection, the dipteran larvae were found in both the oral and nasal cavities. Four of these larvae were reared to adulthood and identified as Lucilia cuprina (Weidemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), commonly known as the Australian sheep blowfly, by the Biology Department of the University of Oklahoma. Based on the fly's life cycle and rate of development, the infestation is suspected to be hospital acquired.
Correlations between phytohemagglutinin response and leukocyte profile, and bactericidal capacity in a wild rodent
Authors: ZHANG Zhiqiang , ZHAO Zhijun
Published: April 2015

phytohemagglutinin (PHA)‐induced swelling is widely used to investigate cell‐mediated and innate immunity across different vertebrate taxa. However, its physiological mechanism is still an open question due to the complexity of the involved immune components. In the present study, we measured the synchronous variations of PHA response, the proportion of different subtypes of leukocytes, as well as serum bactericidal capacity in circulation blood at 6, 12 and 24 h after PHA versus PBS injection in striped hamster, Cricetulus barabensis. First, the results showed that PHA responses reached a peak at 6 h postinjection, then sharply declined at 12 h and 24 h postinjection. Serum bactericidal capacity was higher at 6 h and 12 h than at 24 h. The proportion of different subtypes of leukocytes, as well as the ratio of neutrophils to lymphocytes did not display significant changes across different time points. Second, PHA response was positively correlated with the proportion of neutrophils and serum bactericidal capacity. The proportion of monocytes was negatively correlated with that of eosinophils and neutrophils. The proportion of basophils was negatively correlated with that of lymphocytes. Our results indicate that earlier enhanced PHA response is important for the striped hamster to cope with changing environmental conditions due to its small body mass, and the increased components of innate immunity in circulation blood may contribute to the enhancement of PHA swelling response.
The Nursing Diagnosis Disturbed Thought Processes in Psychiatric Patients: Prevalence and Associated Characteristics
Authors: Escalada‐Hernández Paula , Marín‐Fernández Blanca
Published: April 2015

Purpose

To analyze the frequency of the nursing diagnosis disturbed thought processes (DTP) (00130) in a sample of psychiatric and psychogeriatric patients in medium‐ and long‐term units and to describe those factors associated with its presence.

Methods

A secondary analysis of the data obtained in a multicentric and cross‐sectional study developed in Spain was undertaken.

Findings

The total sample was 624 patients, from which 39.4% (n = 246) had the nursing diagnosis DTP. A statistically significant relationship between the presence of DTP and different variables was found.

Conclusions

The nursing diagnosis DTP is very frequent among psychiatric and psychogeriatric institutionalized patients.

Implications for Nursing Practice

Patients with DTP may require a more complex nursing attention as its presence is associated with specific care needs.