bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Development of European Data Protection Law and Regulation
Authors: Erdos David
Published: March 2020

This chapter explores the development of European data protection, both as a codified form of regulation and as a human right, from its inception to the present day. In contrast to more ʻclassicalʼ rights, such as freedom of expression and even privacy, data protection only emerged as a discrete concept with the rise of computer power in the 1970s. The focus in Europe from this time has been on elaborating a progressively more detailed and harmonized regulatory code to govern the processing of personal data across the EU and wider European Economic Area (EEA). Advisory Council of Europe Resolutions in the 1970s led to a binding but optional Data Protection Convention in the 1980s, to a mandatory Data Protection Directive in the 1990s, and finally to a General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the 2010s which is directly applicable across the EU. In addition, data protection has increasingly been recognized as a fundamental right and, in particular, was included within the EU Charter that was drafted in 2000 and acquired pan-EU legal status in 2009. These developments have dovetailed with the emergence of a significant body of relevant Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) jurisprudence. However, the regulatory Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) also remain critical interpretative actors and have issued a number of important opinions including through the Article 29 Working Party that under the GDPR has become the European Data Protection Board.
Second-Generation European Data Protection and Professional Journalism
Authors: Erdos David
Published: March 2020

This chapter explores the legislative interface between data protection and the professional journalistic media under the Data Protection Directive (DPD) and then examines the formal regulatory guidance produced by European Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) during the same period. Despite the DPD’s emphasis on ensuring a careful balancing between equally fundamental rights, statutory provisions at State level were profoundly divergent. In broad terms, Northern European States tended to grant journalism sweeping exemptions from data protection, whilst Southern and Eastern European States set down tough standards even in this sensitive area. These media system differences mapped on to broader cultural fissures concerning individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and attitudes towards power inequalities. In the great majority of cases the national DPA retained a supervisory role in this area and over 60 per cent of these bodies, as well as the Article 29 Working Party, had published some statutory guidance. However, this guidance was often confined to a brief elucidation of the importance of contextual rights balancing coupled, in a number of cases, with an emphasis on promoting a co-regulatory connection between statutory supervision and self-regulation. A minority of DPAs did produce much more extensive guidance focusing especially on children’s rights over data, image rights and visual/audio-visual content, and the right to be forgotten and digital news/media archives.
The Meaning of Attribution
Authors: de Stefano Carlo
Published: March 2020

Chapter I offers a reconstruction of the definition of attribution for the purposes of State responsibility for internationally wrongful acts, drawing from the history and travaux of the process of codification of the international law of State responsibility that resulted in the adoption by the International Law Commission in 2001 of the text of the ARSIWA (Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts). This part emphasizes the preliminary operation and role of rules of attributability in comparison to the other ‘secondary’ rules of international law. In addition, it discusses the threshold principle of the supremacy of international law in order to convey the autonomous dimension of attributability issues in international law vis-à-vis municipal law. Last, it illustrates the distinction between issues of attribution, on the one hand, and issues of jurisdiction and of State immunity, on the other.
The Ordering of Movement
Authors: Scholz Luca
Published: March 2020

Early modern authorities attempted to promote, restrict, and channel the movement of goods and people for reasons that ranged from economic considerations to political motives and public health. In practice, however, these interferences only had mixed success. In the Holy Roman Empire’s dense landscape of ill-defined, overlapping political entities, the control over moving goods and people was a permanent point of contention. While the Empire’s history has often been written in distinctly diachronic terms, this study approaches the Empire in a spatial perspective and stresses its interest beyond the bounds of German history. Conflicts around the ordering of movement were often framed as matters of safe conduct, a quasi-sovereign right to authorize and protect the movement of various goods and people. While safe conduct always maintained a protective function, at the hands of the Empire’s territorial authorities it became a powerful instrument of political, fiscal, and symbolic power as well as a vehicle for gaining control over important thoroughfares.
Analysing Modality
Authors: Wilson Alastair
Published: March 2020

This chapter presents and defends the basic tenets of quantum modal realism. The first of these principles, Individualism, states that Everett worlds are metaphysically possible worlds. The converse of this principle, Generality, states that metaphysically possible worlds are Everett worlds. Combining Individualism and Generality yields Alignment, a conjecture about the nature of possible worlds that is closely analogous to Lewisian modal realism. Like Lewisian modal realism, Alignment entails that each possible world is a real concrete individual of the same basic kind as the actual world. These similarities render EQM suitable for grounding a novel theory of the nature of metaphysical modality with some unique properties. Also like Lewisian modal realism, quantum modal realism is a reductive theory: it accounts for modality in fundamentally non-modal terms. But quantum modal realism also has unique epistemological advantages over Lewisian modal realism and other extant realist approaches to modality.
Diverging Everettian Quantum Mechanics
Authors: Wilson Alastair
Published: March 2020

This chapter sets out the version of quantum mechanics—diverging EQM—that constitutes the physics component of quantum modal realism. After a potted history of Everettian quantum mechanics, and an introduction to recent decoherence-based versions of the approach, I sketch a distinctive metaphysical understanding of Everettian quantum mechanics that involves diverging ‘parallel worlds’ instead of overlapping ‘splitting worlds’. I argue that the choice between divergence and overlap is underdetermined by the physics itself; I then adapt an argument of David Lewis’s that supports divergence over overlap, emphasizing the need to make room for objective probabilities in the Everettian picture. The chapter concludes by rejecting some unpersuasive motivations for overlap.
Paideia, or Platonic Education, in Marius the Epicurean
Authors: Lee Adam
Published: March 2020

This chapter examines Platonic education in Marius the Epicurean (1885)—that is, music and gymnastics, also known as paideia. As an apology for the ‘Conclusion’ to The Renaissance, Marius explains aesthetic education Platonically as an overcoming of scepticism brought about by the Heraclitean flux, which led to the establishment of Forms in Plato’s Cratylus as a way to save meaning in language. Much of Pater’s aesthetic education, therefore, is the recognition of form within matter, as beauty indicates reality. Marius has philosophical encounters with the historical Marcus Aurelius, Apuleius, and Lucian, engaging with, among other philosophies, Platonism and outgrowing Epicureanism. But it is more personal encounters that shape Marius, both literary and ultimately religious, as he is increasingly guided by his daimon or guardian spirit. When Marius sacrifices himself for the sake of friends his conversion to Christianity is obscured because the highest knowledge, Platonically, is first-person.
Platonic Communion and ‘An Unfinished Romance’ in Gaston de Latour
Authors: Lee Adam
Published: March 2020

This chapter explores the Platonism in Pater’s Gaston de Latour, which began publication in monthly instalments in 1888. Like Marius, Gaston is set in a time of religious turmoil—the religious wars of sixteenth-century France—and follows a single character in search of spiritual transcendence. Along the way Gaston has critical encounters with historical authors, such as Michel de Montaigne and Giordano Bruno, who enrich his understanding of Platonism. The love that seeks wholeness in Plato’s Symposium is proposed as a model for Pater’s critical engendering with historical authors. Beyond Platonic love narratives, Pater incorporates the Odyssean homecoming, employed by Neoplatonists, and the Christian narrative of desire in Song of Solomon. Gaston’s later chapters seem to engage with Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Portrait of Mr. W. H.’ concerning what Pater means by the phrase ‘lover and philosopher at once’, inspired by Plato’s Phaedrus.
Relational Cosmology
Authors: Kurki Milja
Published: March 2020

This chapter explicates the relational cosmology perspective, specifying its core conceptual and philosophical commitments. The chapter argues that relational cosmology proposes an important set of moves around relational nature of being, the processual nature of ‘things’ and around the inevitably situated nature of knowledge in a relational cosmos. It re-reads the role and significance of laws and maths asking us to think on cosmology as a historical science. Relational cosmology challenges how we think, conceptually, about scientific discoveries and about ourselves as knowers in a processual relational universe. At the same time this perspective also asks us to think on the social sciences and their methods, as well as about the interaction of cosmological and social and political thought.
Relations, Human and Non-human
Authors: Kurki Milja
Published: March 2020

This chapter argues for an extension of how we think relationally via relational cosmology. It places relational cosmology in a conversation with varied relational perspectives in critical social theory and argues that specific kinds of extensions and dialogues emerge from this perspective. In particular, a conversation on how to think relationality without fixing its meaning is advanced. This chapter also discusses in detail how to extend beyond discussion of ‘human’ relationalities towards comprehending the wider ‘mesh’ of relations that matter but are hard to capture for situated knowers in the social sciences and IR. This key chapter seeks to provide the basis for a translation between relational cosmology, critical social theory, critical humanism and International Relations theory.
Blood and Soil
Authors: Pecora Vincent P.
Published: March 2020

Otto Brunner was a follower of Carl Schmitt’s notions of political theology. He became a supporter of Hitler and a proponent of the Anschluss. His major work, Land and Lordship, is perhaps one of the most remarkable German embodiments of my argument’s contours. Brunner re-writes German history, so that the emergence of the Third Reich can be understood as a return to the pre-monarchy, pre-nation-state relationship of early medieval Germans to German land. Like other Blut und Boden writers, such as Knut Hamsun and Friedrich Griese, Brunner embodies populist nativism on a decentralized model of right and law, one that is compatible with a multi-territorial Reich, but not with the centralized state that arose with Bismarck.
Ezekiel Chastises His People
Authors: Pecora Vincent P.
Published: March 2020

In 1864, Fustel de Coulanges argued that burial rites were the basis of the ancient city-state, a claim that harmonized well with late nineteenth-century anthropology. Like the Cambridge anthropologists who drew on Fustel, Jesse Weston held similar views about burial rites, and those views had a strong impact on T. S. Eliot. Drawing from Weston, Paul Deussen’s translations of the Upanishads, and other sources, Eliot presented the neglect of burial rites as equally central to the decline of modern culture, a perspective that dominates The Waste Land. Eliot connects the neglect of the burial of the dead—metaphorically, of the past of one’s civilization and hence the trigger of cultural decay—to a specific alteration in England’s own theological politics: the Reformation’s break with the past, which had haunted England ever since the “dissociation of sensibility” initiated by Cromwell’s and Milton’s era. Eliot’s response is the reimagination of promised land.
Ezekiel Reclaims the Promised Land
Authors: Pecora Vincent P.
Published: March 2020

In the 1930s, T. S. Eliot examines what it means to be attached to native, sacred land. Eliot melds Tory politics, religious orthodoxy, classicism, and authoritarianism in a series of essays and poems. In Four Quartets, Eliot returns to what he calls “the life of significant soil,” that is, his ancestral village at East Coker and his spiritual home at Little Gidding. At Little Gidding, Eliot invokes W. B. Yeats’s failed paganism as if it were in fact the consequence of the Reformation’s rupture with the past. The poem holds out the memory of pious community in a rural village as the promise of Christian redemption in a time of war. Aligned with essays like After Strange Gods, it represents Eliot’s belief, like that of Brunner and Nandy, that no civilization can survive unless it is composed of one spiritually united people, rooted in one land.
Preliminaries
Authors: Predelli Stefano
Published: March 2020

Chapter 1 puts forth some preliminary considerations about our actual (that is, not fictional) use of language. In particular, it motivates the relevance of singular terms for the Radical Fictionalist approach to fiction, it sketches a picture of the semantics of proper names, and it discusses the ideas of empty names and gappy propositions. This chapter also explains some of the terminology employed in what follows, in particular the distinction between fully-fledged expressions (such as proper names) and expression-types (such as mere name-types). The final section focuses on the contentful effects achieved by the use of language and introduces the idea of impartation, one of the central concepts in the Radical Fictionalist approach to fiction.
Emma
Authors: Predelli Stefano
Published: March 2020

Chapter 3 extends and amends the Radical Fictionalist approach from Chapter 2, taking as its starting point the case of heterodiegetic narrative. In particular, this chapter introduces the distinction between storyworlds and narrative peripheries, and it studies its semantic repercussions. The central sections of the chapter are devoted to the study of fictional names in heterodiegetic fiction. They introduce the ideas of referential permeability and of peripheral launching, and they continue the discussion of the role of fictional tellers. The final section of this chapter applies some aspects of the Radical Fictionalist distinction between storyworlds and peripheries to the issue of narrative time, and it defends an understanding of narrative time as fictional.
Ballad Knowledge and the Poetics of Repetition
Authors: Socarides Alexandra
Published: March 2020

Chapter 3 explores a genre (the ballad) that was wildly popular in nineteenth-century America, and investigates the ways in which women poets entered into discussions about authorship, poetics, and gender through their engagements with it. Focusing in particular on tropes of faithlessness, pride, laziness, and general “badness” that had long marked traditional ballads, this chapter shows how these tropes came to be associated with women and how American periodicals seemed to embrace the circulation of such ballads. But as women poets took up this genre and were faced with how to rewrite this female figure, they pushed its primary convention—repetition—to its limits in order to make explicit the particular problem that accompanies the recitation of “ballad knowledge” for women. Instead of looking away from the scenes of repetition that disempower women, these ballads go right to the center, employing repetitions to new ends.
Collaborative Home-Visit Program for Young Children With Motor Delays in Rural Taiwan: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
Authors: Hsieh Yu-Hsin , Liao Hua-Fang , Jeng Suh-Fang , Tseng Mei-Hui , Schiariti Veronica , Tsai Mei-Yan , Sun Sheh-Chia
Published: March 2020

Background

Caregiver engagement and collaborative team early childhood intervention (ECI) services are international trends; however, relevant evidence of collaborative home-visiting ECI in rural areas is as yet undetermined.

Objective

The study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a collaborative ECI program in a rural area of Taiwan.

Design

The study was a pilot randomized control led trial.

Methods

Children aged 6 to 33 months experiencing motor delays and their caregivers were enrolled in Taitung, Taiwan. Using stratified randomization, 24 participants were allocated to either experimental or control groups, and both received 5 home visits within 3 months. The experimental group received ECI services based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health framework and family-centered approaches. The control group received regular home visits by local social workers. Child outcomes included Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory Chinese Version and Peabody Developmental Motor Scale, 2nd edition. Family outcomes included the Disability-Adapted Infant–Toddler version of Home Observation for Measurement, and Chinese versions of the Knowledge of Infant Development Inventory and Parental Stress Index-Short Form. A tester blinded to the study conducted assessments at baseline, postintervention, and 3-month follow-up. Two-way mixed analysis of variance was used with α = .05 (2-tailed).

Results

The experimental group improved scores on the Disability-Adapted Infant–Toddler version of Home Observation for Measurement significantly more than the control group with an effect size of 0.64 at follow-up. In other outcomes, both groups showed no significant differences. The follow-up rate was 69%, and adherence to the ECI program was acceptable.

Limitations

A limitation of the study was the heterogeneity of the sample.

Conclusions

This pilot study revealed possible effectiveness in implementing collaborative ECI programs based on family-centered approaches and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health in rural areas. Larger field studies are needed to confirm our findings.
‘They only smoke in the house when I’m not in’: understanding the limited effectiveness of a smoke-free homes intervention
Authors: O’Donnell R , Amos A , Turner S W , Adams L , Henderson T , Lyttle S , Mitchell S , Semple S
Published: March 2020

Background

Children’s second-hand smoke (SHS) exposure in the home is highest in socio-economically disadvantaged areas. Personalized household air-quality measurements can promote changes in smoking that reduce SHS exposure. The ‘First Steps 2 Smoke-free’ (FS2SF) intervention is the first to trial this approach delivered as part of health professionals’ routine work. This paper reports the findings of qualitative interviews with participants that explored their experiences of the intervention and why outcomes varied.

Methods

120 women were recruited from the NHS First Steps Programme, which supports disadvantaged mothers. They received either personalized feedback on their home air quality and advice on reducing SHS or standard SHS advice. Qualitative interviews with 15 mothers were analyzed thematically using the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behaviour (COM-B) model.

Results

The intervention increased women’s capability to change home-smoking behaviour, through increasing awareness and salience of SHS risks to their children, and motivation to act. However, taking effective action was constrained by their limited social and environmental opportunities, including others’ smoking in the home.

Conclusions

The FS2SF intervention was ineffective as it was unable to fully address the precarious, complex life circumstances that make creating a smoke-free home particularly difficult for women experiencing intersecting dimensions of disadvantage.
Determinants of the Recognition of Foreign Certificates in Flanders
Authors: Stoffelen Karen , Salman Mohammad
Published: March 2020

This article explores the assessment of foreign academic certificates in Flanders between January 2014 and February 2019. It examines data NARIC (National Academic and Professional Recognition and Information Centre) Flanders gathered on its applicants, their applications, and its subsequent decisions. As professional recognitions, providing access to regularised professions in Flanders, are given by the designated authorities in their field, it would go beyond the scope of this article.

In the descriptive result part, graphs illustrate the distribution of several characteristics of the applicants, their applications, and the decisions. In the explanatory result part, logistic regression analyses explore the influence of these characteristics on the decision of NARIC Flanders. The goal of this article is twofold. On the one hand, it aims to contribute to the scarce literature on the procedures for the recognition of foreign certificates in Flanders; on the other hand, it aims to contribute to the public debate on the integration of migrants in the labour market.
Phylogenomics, Biogeography, and Morphometrics Reveal Rapid Phenotypic Evolution in Pythons After Crossing Wallace’s Line
Authors: Esquerré Damien , Donnellan Stephen , Brennan Ian G , Lemmon Alan R , Moriarty Lemmon Emily , Zaher Hussam , Grazziotin Felipe G , Keogh J Scott
Published: March 2020

Ecological opportunities can be provided to organisms that cross stringent biogeographic barriers towards environments with new ecological niches. Wallace’s and Lyddeker’s lines are arguably the most famous biogeographic barriers, separating the Asian and Australo-Papuan biotas. One of the most ecomorphologically diverse groups of reptiles, the pythons, is distributed across these lines, and are remarkably more diverse in phenotype and ecology east of Lydekker’s line in Australo-Papua. We used an anchored hybrid enrichment approach, with near complete taxon sampling, to extract mitochondrial genomes and 376 nuclear loci to resolve and date their phylogenetic history. Biogeographic reconstruction demonstrates that they originated in Asia around 38-45 Ma and then invaded Australo-Papua around 23 Ma. Australo-Papuan pythons display a sizeable expansion in morphological space, with shifts towards numerous new adaptive optima in head and body shape, coupled with the evolution of new micro-habitat preferences. We provide an updated taxonomy of pythons and our study also demonstrates how ecological opportunity following colonization of novel environments can promote morphological diversification in a formerly ecomorphologically conservative group. [Adaptive radiation; anchored hybrid enrichment; biogeography; morphometrics; snakes.]
Distinct physiological and transcriptional responses of leaves of paper mulberry (Broussonetia kazinoki × B. papyrifera) under different nitrogen supply levels
Authors: Ni Jianwei , Su Shang , Li Hui , Geng Yonghang , Zhou Houjun , Feng Yanzhi , Xu Xinqiao
Published: March 2020

Paper mulberry, a vigorous pioneer species used for ecological reclamation and a high-protein forage plant for economic development, has been widely planted in China. To further develop its potential value, it is necessary to explore the regulatory mechanism of nitrogen metabolism for rational nitrogen utilization. In this study, we investigated the morphology, physiology and transcriptome of a paper mulberry hybrid (Broussonetia kazinoki × B. papyrifera) in response to different nitrogen concentrations. Moderate nitrogen promoted plant growth and biomass accumulation. Photosynthetic characteristics, concentration of nitrogenous compounds and activities of enzymes were stimulated under nitrogen treatment. However, these enhancements were slightly or severely inhibited under excessive nitrogen supply. Nitrite reductase and glutamate synthase were more sensitive than nitrate reductase and glutamine synthetase and more likely to be inhibited under high nitrogen concentrations. Transcriptome analysis of the leaf transcriptome identified 161,961 unigenes. The differentially expressed genes associated with metabolism of nitrogen, alanine, aspartate, glutamate and glycerophospholipid showed high transcript abundances after nitrogen application, whereas those associated with glycerophospholipid, glycerolipid, amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism were down-regulated. Combined with weighted gene coexpression network analysis, we uncovered 16 modules according to similarity in expression patterns. Asparagine synthetase and inorganic pyrophosphatase were considered two hub genes in two modules, which were associated with nitrogen metabolism and phosphorus metabolism, respectively. The expression characteristics of these genes may explain the regulation of morphological, physiological and other related metabolic strategies harmoniously. This multifaceted study provides valuable insights to further understand the mechanism of nitrogen metabolism and to guide utilization of paper mulberry.
Evaluation of GeneXpert MTB/RIF as a diagnostic tool in patients with sputum smear-negative TB in a high HIV burden region in Nigeria
Authors: Tiamiyu Abdulwasiu Bolaji , Iliyasu Garba , Dayyab Farouq Muhammad , Habib Zaiyad Garba , Tambuwal Sirajo Haliru , Galadanci Habibu , Bwala Sunday A , Lawson Lovett , Habib Abdulrazaq Garba
Published: March 2020

Background

There are challenges in the diagnosis of TB in people with smear-negative pulmonary TB (SNPTB) in resource-limited settings. We evaluated the diagnostic usefulness of Xpert MTB/RIF compared with TB culture among SNPTB.

Methods

The study was a cross-sectional study among patients with SNPTB. The Xpert MTB/RIF tests and sputum culture (using Lowenstein-Jensen medium) were performed. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated.

Results

Of 150 patients studied, the sensitivity and specificity of GeneXpert MTB/RIF were 81.8 and 97.4%, respectively.

Conclusion

The sensitivity and specificity of Xpert MTB/RIF assay was comparative with culture in SNPTB patients.
The dynamics of molecular evolution of emerging avian reoviruses through accumulation of point mutations and genetic re-assortment
Authors: Ayalew Lisanework E , Ahmed Khawaja Ashfaque , Mekuria Zelalem H , Lockerbie Betty , Popowich Shelly , Tikoo Suresh K , Ojkic Davor , Gomis Susantha
Published: March 2020

In the last decade, the emergence of variant strains of avian reovirus (ARV) has caused enormous economic impact in the poultry industry across Canada and USA. ARVs are non-enveloped viruses with ten segments of double-stranded RNA genome. So far, only six genotyping cluster groups are identified worldwide based on sequence analysis of the σC protein encoded by the S1 segment. In this study, we performed deep next generation whole-genome sequencing and analysis of twelve purified ARVs isolated from Saskatchewan, Canada. The viruses represent different genotyping cluster. A genome-wide sequence divergence of up to 25 per cent was observed between the virus isolates with a comparable and contrasting evolutionary history. The proportion of synonymous single-nucleotide variations (sSNVs) was higher than the non-synonymous (ns) SNVs across all the genomic segments. Genomic segment S1 was the most variable as compared with the other genes followed by segment M2. Evidence of positive episodic/diversifying selection was observed at different codon positions in the σC protein sequence, which is the genetic marker for the classification of ARV genotypes. In addition, the N-terminus of σC protein had a persuasive diversifying selection, which was not detected in other genomic segments. We identified only four ARV genotypes based on the most variable σC gene sequence. However, a different pattern of phylogenetic clustering was observed with concatenated whole-genome sequences. Together with the accumulation of point mutations, multiple re-assortment events appeared as mechanisms of ARV evolution. For the first time, we determined the mean rate of molecular evolution of ARVs, which was computed as 2.3 × 10−3 substitution/site/year. In addition, widespread geographic intermixing of ARVs was observed between Canada and USA, and between different countries of the world. In conclusion, the study provides a comprehensive analysis of the complete genome of different genotyping clusters of ARVs including their molecular rate of evolution and spatial distribution. The new findings in this study can be utilized for the development of effective vaccines and other control strategies against ARV-induced arthritis/tenosynovitis in the poultry industry worldwide.
Foundation Species Across a Latitudinal Gradient in China
Authors: Qiao Xiujuan , Zhang Jiaxin , Xu Yaozhan , Mi Xiangcheng , Cao Min , Ye Wanhui , Jin Guangze , Hao Zhanqing , Wang Xugao , Wang Xihua , Tian Songyan , Li Xiankun , Xiang Wusheng , Liu Yankun , Shao Yingnan , Xu Kun , Sang Weiguo , Zeng Fuping , Jiang Mingxi , Ren Haibao , Ellison Aaron M.
Published: March 2020

Abstract

Foundation species play important roles in structuring forest communities and ecosystems. Foundation species are difficult to identify without long-term observations or experiments and their foundational roles rarely are identified before they are declining or threatened. We used new statistical criteria based on size-frequency distributions, species diversity, and spatial codispersion among woody plants to identify potential (“candidate”) foundation species in 12 large forest dynamics plots spanning 26 degrees of latitude in China. We used these data to identify a suite of candidate foundation species in Chinese forests; test the hypothesis that foundation woody plant species are more frequent in the temperate zone than in the tropics; and compare these results with comparable data from the Americas to suggest candidate foundation genera in Northern Hemisphere forests. We identified more candidate foundation species in temperate plots than in subtropical or tropical plots, and this relationship was independent of the latitudinal gradient in overall species richness. Two species ofAcer, the canopy treeAcer ukurunduenseand the shrubby treeletAcer barbinervewere the only two species that met both criteria in full to be considered as candidate foundation species. When we relaxed the diversity criteria,Acer, Tilia, andJuglansspp., andCorlyus mandshuricawere frequently identified as candidate foundation species. In tropical plots, the treeMezzettiopsis creaghiiand the shrubs or treeletsAporusa yunnanensisandFicus hispidahad some characteristics associated with foundation species. Species diversity of co-occurring woody species was negatively associated with basal area of candidate foundation species more frequently at 5- and 10-m spatial grains (scale) than at a 20-m grain. Conversely, Bray-Curtis dissimilarity was positively associated with basal area of candidate foundation species more frequently at 5-m than at 10- or 20-m grains. Our data support the hypothesis that foundation species should be more common in temperate than in tropical or boreal forests, and suggest that in the Northern Hemisphere thatAcerbe investigated further as a foundation tree genus.
Sustained Release of IL-2 Using an Injectable Hydrogel Prevents Autoimmune Diabetes
Authors: Nagy Nadine , Kaber Gernot , Kratochvil Michael J. , Kuipers Hedwich F. , Ruppert Shannon M. , Yadava Koshika , Yang Jason , Heilshorn Sarah C. , Long S. Alice , Pugliese Alberto , Bollyky Paul L.
Published: March 2020

Interleukin 2 (IL-2) is a promising therapy for autoimmune type 1 diabetes (T1D), but the short half-lifein vivo(less than 6 minutes) limits effective tissue exposure to IL-2. Tissue exposure is required for the tolerogenic effects of IL-2. We have developed an injectable hydrogel that incorporates heparin polymers to enable the sustained release of IL-2. This platform uses clinical grade and commercially available materials, including collagen, hyaluronan, and heparin, to deliver IL-2 by slowly degrading and releasing IL-2 over a two-week periodin vivo. We find that heparin potentiates the activity of IL-2 and IL-2-mediated expansion of Foxp3+ regulatory T cell (Treg). Hydrogel-mediated IL-2 release showed a reduction of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and an increase of FoxP3+ Treg in the lymph nodes of injected mice. Moreover, in the Non-Obese Diabetic (NOD) mouse model of T1D once-weekly administration of IL-2 hydrogels prevented diabetes onset as efficiently as 3x weekly repeated injections of soluble IL-2. Together these data suggest that heparin-containing hydrogels may have benefit in delivering low-dose IL-2 and promoting immune tolerance in autoimmune diabetes.
Tau accumulates in Crohn’s disease gut
Authors: Prigent Alice , Chapelet Guillaume , de Lataillade Adrien de Guilhem , Oullier Thibauld , Durieu Emilie , Bourreille Arnaud , Duchalais Emilie , Hardonnière Kévin , Neunlist Michel , Noble Wendy , Kerdine-Römer Saadia , Derkinderen Pascal , Rolli-Derkinderen Malvyne
Published: March 2020

A sizeable body of evidence has recently emerged to suggest that gastrointestinal inflammation might be involved in the development of Parkinson’s disease. There is now strong epidemiological and genetical evidence linking Parkinson’s disease to inflammatory bowel diseases and we recently demonstrated that the neuronal protein alpha-synuclein, which is critically involved in Parkinson’s disease pathophysiology, is upregulated in inflamed segments of Crohn’s colon. The microtubule associated protein tau is another neuronal protein critically involved in neurodegenerative disorders but, in contrast to alpha-synuclein, no data are available about its expression and phosphorylation patterns in inflammatory bowel diseases. Here, we examined the expression levels of tau isoforms, their phosphorylation profile and truncation in colon biopsy specimens from 16 Crohn’s disease and 6 ulcerative colitis patients and compared them to samples from 16 controls. Additional experiments were performed in full thickness segments of colon of 5 Crohn’s disease and 5 control subjects, in primary cultures of rat enteric neurons and in Nrf2 knockout mice. Our results show the upregulation of two main human tau isoforms in the enteric nervous system in Crohn’s disease but not in ulcerative colitis. This upregulation was not transcriptionally regulated but instead likely resulted from a decrease in protein clearance via an Nrf2 pathway. Our findings, which provide the first detailed characterization of tau in Crohn’s disease, suggest that the key proteins involved in neurodegenerative disorders such as alpha-synuclein and tau, might also play a role in Crohn’s disease.
Cortical Depth-Dependent Modeling of Visual Hemodynamic Responses
Authors: Lacy T.C. , Robinson P.A. , Aquino K.M. , Pang J.C.
Published: March 2020

A physiologically based three-dimensional (3D) hemodynamic model is used to predict the experimentally observed blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) responses versus the cortical depth induced by visual stimuli. Prior 2D approximations are relaxed in order to analyze 3D blood flow dynamics as a function of cortical depth. Comparison of the predictions with experimental data for typical stimuli demonstrates that the full 3D model matches at least as well as previous approaches while requiring significantly fewer assumptions and model parameters (e.g., there is no more need to define depth-specific parameter values for spatial spreading, peak amplitude, and hemodynamic velocity).
Co-contraction uses dual control of agonist-antagonist muscles to improve motor performance
Authors: Saliba Christopher M. , Rainbow Michael J. , Selbie W. Scott , Deluzio Kevin J. , Scott Stephen H.
Published: March 2020

Co-contraction of agonist-antagonist muscles is commonly observed when performing difficult motor tasks. The benefit of co-contraction is thought to be zero-delay corrections to unexpected disturbances from increased intrinsic muscle impedance. We used upper-limb postural and tracking tasks to characterize the effects of co-contraction on motor corrections to loads applied to the limb. We systematically controlled pre-perturbation muscle activity and showed that co-contraction improves subsequent corrective responses in both tasks. However, substantial improvements in the corrective response are only observed at the time when neural feedback pathways can also contribute. We demonstrate that muscle impedance appears to play a minor role in improving performance. Instead, co-contraction engages a dual agonist-antagonist control strategy to counter disturbances, that is distinct from the control strategy used when not co-contracting or selectively pre-activating a single muscle group. Critically, we showed that this dual agonist-antagonist control strategy improved performance even at low levels of co-contraction.
MeRIP-seq and RNA-seq data of mycelium and spore ofAscosphaera apis, a widespread bee fungal pathogen
Authors: Du Yu , Jiang Haibin , Zhu Zhiwei , Wang Jie , Chen Huazhi , Xiong Cuiling , Zheng Yanzhen , Chen Dafu , Guo Rui
Published: March 2020

Ascosphaera apisis widespread fungal pathogen of honeybee larvae, causing chalkbrood, a chronic disease that weakens bee health and colony productivity. In this article, mecylia and spores ofA. apiswere respectively purified followed by RNA isolation, cDNA library construction, MeRIP-seq and RNA-seq. A total of 62,551,172, 41,773,158, 49,535,092 and 61,569,610 raw reads were produced from Aam_IP, Aas_IP, Aam_input and Aas_input groups, respectively. After quality control, 58,484,368, 37,381,432, 44,655,434 and 58,739,742 clean reads were obtained. Furthermore, 47,706,205, 31,356,690, 35,259,810 and 44,319,061 clean reads were mapped to the reference genome ofA. apis, including 39,337,036, 26,731,957, 31,987,396 and 40,017,855 unique mapped reads, and 8,369,169, 4,624,733, 3,272,414 and 4,301,206 multiple mapped reads. Among them, 96.31%, 96.51%, 96.82% and 97.11% of clean reads were mapped to exons; 2.09%, 2.31%,1.83% and 1.81% to introns; 1.60%, 1.18%, 1.35% and 1.08% to intergenic regions.

Value of the data

The data can be used to investigate the relationship between the m6A modification extent and the transcript level in theA. apistranscriptome.

This dataset contributes to transcriptome-wide characterization of the m6A distributing patterns in mRNAs and non-coding RNAs inA. apismycelium and spore.

Current data benefits new functions of m6A modification in the transcripts extensively modified by m6A inA. apismycelium and spore.

Our data could be used to characterize differential patterns of the m6A methylation between mycelium and spore ofA. apis.
Ebola virus requires phosphatidylserine scrambling activity for efficient budding and optimal infectivity
Authors: Acciani Marissa D. , Lay-Mendoza Maria F. , Havranek Katherine E. , Duncan Avery M. , Iyer Hersha , Linn Olivia L. , Brindley Melinda A.
Published: March 2020

Ebola virus (EBOV) interacts with cells using two categories of cell surface receptors, C-type lectins and phosphatidylserine (PS) receptors. PS receptors typically bind to apoptotic cell membrane PS and orchestrate the uptake and clearance of apoptotic bodies. Many viruses coated with PS-containing lipid envelopes, acquired during budding from host cells, can also exploit these receptors for internalization. PS is restricted to the inner leaflet of the plasma membrane in homeostatic cells, an orientation that would be unfavorable for PS receptor-mediated uptake if conserved on the viral envelope. Therefore, it is theorized that viral infection induces host cell PS externalization to the outer leaflet during replication. Cells have several membrane scramblase enzymes that enrich outer leaflet PS when activated. Here, we investigate two scramblases, TMEM16F and XKR8, as possible mediators of cellular and viral envelope surface PS levels during recombinant VSV/EBOV-GP replication and EBOV virus-like particle (VLP) production. We found that rVSV/EBOV-GP and EBOV VLPs produced in XKR8 knockout cells contain decreased levels of PS in their outer leaflets. ΔXKR8-made rVSV/EBOV-GP is 70% less efficient at infecting cells through apoptotic mimicry compared to viruses made in parental cells. Our data suggest that virion surface PS acquisition requires XKR8 activity, whereas TMEM16F activity is not essential. Unexpectedly, we observed defective rVSV/G, rVSV/EBOV-GP, and EBOV VLP budding in ΔXKR8 cells, suggesting that phospholipid scrambling via XKR8 enhances both Ebola infectivity and budding efficiency. Overexpression of XKR8 dramatically increased budding activity, suggesting outer leaflet PS is required for both particle production and increased infectivity.

Importance

The Democratic Republic of the Congo experienced its deadliest Ebola outbreak from 2018 to 2020, with 3,444 confirmed cases and 2,264 deaths (as of March 12, 2020). Owing to the extensive damage that these outbreaks have caused in Africa, as well as its future epidemic potential, Ebola virus (EBOV) ranks among the top eight priority pathogens outlined by the WHO in 2018. A comprehensive understanding of Ebola entry pathways into target cells is critical for antiviral development and outbreak control. Thus far, host-cell scramblases TMEM16F and XKR8 have each been named as the sole mediator of Ebola envelope surface phosphatidylserine (PS). We assessed the contributions of these proteins using CRISPR knockout cells and two EBOV models: rVSV/EBOV-GP and EBOV VLPs. We observed that XKR8 is required for optimal EBOV envelope PS levels, PS receptor engagement, and particle budding across all viral models, whereas TMEM16F did not play a major role.
A convex optimization framework for gene-level tissue network estimation with missing data and its application in understanding disease architecture
Authors: Dey Kushal K. , Mazumder Rahul
Published: March 2020

Genes with correlated expression across individuals in multiple tissues are potentially informative for systemic genetic activity spanning these tissues. In this context, the tissue-level gene expression data across multiple subjects from the Genotype Tissue Expression (GTEx) Project is a valuable analytical resource. Unfortunately, the GTEx data is fraught with missing entries owing to subjects often contributing only a subset of tissues. In such a scenario, standard techniques of correlation matrix estimation with or without data imputation do not perform well. Here we proposeRobocov, a novel convex optimization-based framework for robustly learning sparse covariance or inverse covariance matrices for missing data problems.Robocovproduces more interpretable and less cluttered visual representation of correlation and causal structure in both simulation settings and GTEx data analysis. Simulation experiments also show thatRobocovestimators have a lower false positive rate than competing approaches for missing data problems. Genes prioritized based on the average value ofRobocovcorrelations or partial correlations across tissues are enriched for pathways related to systemic activities such as signaling pathways, heat stress factor, immune function and circadian clock. Furthermore, SNPs linked to these prioritized genes provide unique signal for blood-related traits; in comparison, no disease signal is observed for SNPs linked to genes prioritized by the standard correlation estimator.Robocovis an important stand-alone statistical tool for sparse correlation and causal network estimation for data with missing entries; and when applied to GTEx data, it provides insights into both genetic and autoimmune disease architectures.
Neuron-specific cilia loss alters locomotor responses to amphetamine
Authors: Ramos Carlos , Roberts Jonté B. , Jasso Kalene R. , Ten Eyck Tyler W. , Setlow Barry , McIntyre Jeremy C.
Published: March 2020

The neural mechanisms that underlie responses to drugs of abuse are complex, and impacted by a number of neuromodulatory peptides. Within the past ten years it has been discovered that several of the receptors for neuromodulators are enriched in the primary cilia of neurons. Primary cilia are microtubule-based organelles that project from the surface of nearly all mammalian cells, including neurons. Despite what we know about cilia, our understanding of how cilia regulate neuronal function and behavior is still limited. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the contributions of primary cilia on specific neuronal populations to behavioral responses to amphetamine. To test the consequences of cilia loss on amphetamine-induced locomotor activity we selectively ablated cilia from dopaminergic or GAD2-GABAergic neurons in mice. Cilia loss had no effect on baseline locomotion in either mouse strain. Both female and male mice lacking cilia on dopaminergic neurons showed significantly reduced responses to acute administration of 3.0 mg/kg amphetamine compared to wildtype mice. In contrast, changes in the locomotor response to amphetamine in mice lacking cilia on GAD2-GABAergic neurons were primarily driven by reductions in locomotor activity in males. Following repeated amphetamine administration (1.0 mg/kg/day over 5 days), mice lacking cilia on GAD2-GABAergic neurons exhibited enhanced sensitization of the locomotor stimulant response to the drug, whereas mice lacking cilia on dopaminergic neurons did not differ from their wildtype controls. These results indicate that cilia play neuron-specific roles in both acute and neuroplastic responses to psychostimulant drugs of abuse.
Structural manipulations of a shelter resource reveal underlying preference functions in a shell-dwelling cichlid fish
Authors: Bose Aneesh P. H. , Windorfer Johannes , Böhm Alex , Ronco Fabrizia , Indermaur Adrian , Salzburger Walter , Jordan Alex
Published: March 2020

Many animals can modify the environments in which they live, thereby changing the selection pressures they experience. A common example of such niche-construction is the use, creation, or modification of environmental resources for use as nests or shelters. Because these resources often have correlated structural elements, it can be difficult to disentangle the relative contribution of these elements to resource choice, and the preference functions underlying niche-construction behaviour remain hidden. Here, we present an experimental paradigm that uses 3D-scanning, -modelling, and -printing to create replicas of structures that differ with respect to key structural attributes. We show that a niche-constructing, shelldwelling cichlid fish,Neolamprologus multifasciatus, has strong open-ended preference functions for exaggerated shell replicas. Fish preferred shells that were fully intact and either enlarged, lengthened, or had widened apertures. Shell intactness was the most important structural attribute, followed by shell length, then aperture width. We disentangle the relative roles of different shell attributes, which are tightly correlated in the wild, but nevertheless differentially influence shelter choice and therefore niche construction in this species. We highlight the broad utility of our approach when compared to more traditional methods (e.g. two-choice tasks) for studying animal decision-making in a range of contexts.