bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Socioeconomic status and cognitive functioning: moving from correlation to causation
Authors: Duncan Greg J. , Magnuson Katherine
Published: April 2012

A growing body of cognitive research uses sophisticated behavioral and neuroimaging measurements to demonstrate associations between family socioeconomic status (SES) and specific cognitive functions. We argue for the value in these kinds of studies of increased sophistication in the measurement and modeling of SES. With regard to measurement, SES combines several components, each of which represents distinct resources that might benefit children's cognitive development in different ways. Policy implications of studies using omnibus SES composites are problematic because there are no ‘treatments’ for enhancing overall SES, although policies abound for enhancing specific components of SES such as family income. Past literature offers guidance regarding how best to measure each of the SES components. With regard to modeling, we point out that the manipulability of economic, educational, and occupational components of SES varies, which provides opportunities for generating experimental or quasi‐experimental variation in some components but not others. Evidence on the causal connections between SES components and child outcomes is summarized. Both experimental and quasi‐experimental studies involving manipulation of family income have demonstrated consistent associations with a number of cognitive measures. Quasi‐experimental increases in maternal education have also shown associations with child achievement. We end with a discussion of useful directions in SES‐related cognitive research. WIREs Cogn Sci 2012, 3:377–386. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1176

This article is categorized under:

Neuroscience > Cognition
The evolution and development of mammalian flight
Authors: Cooper Lisa Noelle , Cretekos Chris J. , Sears Karen E.
Published: April 2012

Mammals have evolved a stunning diversity of limb morphologies (e.g., wings, flippers, hands, and paws) that allowed access to a wide range of habitats. Over 50 million years ago, bats (Order Chiroptera) evolved a wing (composed of a thin membrane encasing long digits) and thereby achieved powered flight. Unfortunately, the fossil record currently lacks any transitional fossils between a rodent‐like ancestor and a winged bat. To reconstruct how this important evolutionary transition occurred, researchers have begun to employ an evolutionary developmental approach. This approach has revealed some of the embryological and molecular changes that have contributed to the evolution of the bat wing. For example, bat and mouse forelimb morphologies are similar during earliest limb development. Despite this, some key signaling centers for limb development are already divergent in bat and mouse at these early stages. Bat and mouse limb development continues to diverge, such that at later stages many differences are apparent. For example, at these later stages bats redeploy expression of toolkit genes (i.e., Fgf, Shh, Bmp, Grem) in a novel expression domain to inhibit apoptosis of the interdigital tissues. When results are taken together, a broad picture of the developmental changes that drove the transition from a hand to a wing over 50 million years ago is beginning to take shape. Moreover, studies seem to suggest that small changes in gene regulation during organogenesis can generate large evolutionary changes in phenotype. WIREs Dev Biol 2012 doi: 10.1002/wdev.50

For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.
Successful aging: how does physical activity influence engagement with life?
Authors: Liffiton Jacqueline A. , Horton Sean , Baker Joseph , Weir Patricia L.
Published: April 2012

With the increasing number of individuals over the age of 65 years worldwide, it is critical for society to recognize the importance of helping seniors maintain their health, physical, and cognitive functioning as well as their engagement with life. These three dimensions provide the foundation for successful aging (SA). The positive role of engagement with life has been understated to date in the literature. This review highlights the components of SA with particular emphasis on engagement and how physical activity positively impacts engagement which in turn positively influences health and physical function.
Dual-console robotic surgery: a new teaching paradigm
Authors: Smith Ashlee L. , Scott Eirwen M. , Krivak Thomas C. , Olawaiye Alexander B. , Chu Tianjiao , Richard Scott D.
Published: April 2012

Robotic surgery has emerged as an alternative option in minimally invasive gynecologic surgery. The development of the dual-console da Vinci Si Surgical System® has enabled modification of the training atmosphere. We sought to investigate operative times and surgical outcomes while operating with the dual-console model in a training environment for our first fifty cases. We identified the first fifty patients who underwent robot-assisted total hysterectomy (TRH), with or without bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (BSO), with or without pelvic and para-aortic lymph node dissection (PPALND), by use of the dual-console robotic system. Records were reviewed for patient demographics and surgical details. All surgery was conducted using the dual-console system and performed by staff physicians and fellows. Operative time was calculated from robotic docking until completion of the procedure. Cases were identified from November 2009 through July 2010. Mean age was 56.2 years (SD 13.35, 95 % CI 52.46–59.86). Mean BMI was 29.5 (SD 7.67, 95 % CI 27.35–31.61). Seventy-eight percent of these patients were considered overweight, including 12 defined as obese (BMI 30–34.9) and 10 patients classified as morbidly obese (BMI ≥ 35). Surgery completed included PPALND alone (n = 1); radical hysterectomy (n = 1); TRH only (n = 3); TRH/BSO (n = 25); and TRH/BSO/PPALND (n = 20). Mean total operating room time was 188.8 min (SD 55.31, 95 % CI 173.45–204.11). Mean total surgical time for all cases was 118.1 min (SD 44.28, 95 % CI 105.87–130.41). Two vascular injuries were encountered, with one requiring conversion to laparotomy. These results compare favorably with historically reported outcomes from single-console systems. Utilizing the dual-console enables use of an integrated teaching and supervising environment without compromising operative times or patient outcomes.
Students’ educational needs for clinical reasoning in first clerkships
Authors: Wingelaar Thijs T. , Wagter Judith M. , Arnold Alf E. R.
Published: April 2012

Developing clinical reasoning skills early in medical education is important.
However, research to uncover students’ educational needs for learning clinical reasoning
during clerkships is limited. The aim of our study was to investigate these needs. Focus
group discussions with an independent moderator were conducted. Students were included
directly after 10 weeks of clerkships. The (verbatim) transcripts were coded manually
and discussed by the authors until consensus was reached. Saturation was reached after
three focus groups, including 18 students in total. Statistical analysis indicated our
sample matched the approached group of 61 students. After a consistency and redundancy
check in ATLAS.ti, 79 codes could be identified. These could be grouped into seven key
themes: (1) transition to the clinical phase, (2) teaching methods, (3) learning
climate, (4) students’ motivation, (5) teacher, (6) patient and (7) strategies in
clinical reasoning. Students can adequately describe their needs; of the seven key
themes relevant to clinical reasoning five are in line with literature. The remaining
two (patient factors and the need for strategy for clinical reasoning) have not been
identified before.
Alkylresorcinol metabolites in urine correlate with the intake of whole grains and cereal fibre in free-living Swedish adults
Authors: Marklund Matti , Landberg Rikard , Andersson Agneta , Åman Per , Kamal-Eldin Afaf
Published: April 2012

Alkylresorcinols (AR) have been established as short/medium-term biomarkers for whole grain (WG) wheat and rye intake; and AR metabolites, 3,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid and 3-(3,5-dihydroxyphenyl)-propanoic acid, have been suggested as complementary biomarkers to AR. The present study examined the medium-term reproducibility and relative validity of urinary AR metabolites as biomarkers for WG and cereal fibre intake. A total of sixty-six free-living Swedes completed 3 d weighed food records and provided single 24 h urine collections and morning urine spot samples on two occasions, 2–3 months apart. The medium-term reproducibility of urinary AR metabolites was moderate when assessed in 24 h collections and lower in creatinine (CR)-adjusted morning urine. Mean AR metabolite 24 h excretions correlated well with total WG (rs 0·31–0·52, P < 0·05) and cereal fibre (rs 0·46–0·58, P < 0·001) intake on both occasions. As expected, correlations with WG (rs 0·28–0·38, P < 0·05) and cereal fibre (rs 0·35–0·42, P < 0·01) were weaker for mean CR-adjusted AR metabolite concentrations in spot samples of morning urine, although the adjusted concentrations correlated well with 24 h urinary excretion (rs 0·69–0·73, P < 0·001). Adjustment for intra-individual variations substantially improved the correlations between intake and excretion. These findings suggest that urinary AR metabolites can successfully reflect the medium-term intake of WG and cereal fibre when adjusted for intra-individual variation in this population, where rye was the major contributor to high WG intake. The performance of urinary AR metabolites as medium-term biomarkers appears to be comparable to that of fasting plasma AR concentration in this population.
Assessment and prediction of thoracic gas volume in pregnant women: an evaluation in relation to body composition assessment using air displacement plethysmography
Authors: Henriksson Pontus , Löf Marie , Forsum Elisabet
Published: April 2012

Assessment of body fat (BF) in pregnant women is important when investigating the relationship between maternal nutrition and offspring health. Convenient and accurate body composition methods applicable during pregnancy are therefore needed. Air displacement plethysmography, as applied in Bod Pod, represents such a method since it can assess body volume (BV) which, in combination with body weight, can be used to calculate body density and body composition. However, BV must be corrected for the thoracic gas volume (TGV) of the subject. In non-pregnant women, TGV may be predicted using equations, based on height and age. It is unknown, however, whether these equations are valid during pregnancy. Thus, we measured the TGV of women in gestational week 32 (n 27) by means of plethysmography and predicted their TGV using equations established for non-pregnant women. Body weight and BV of the women was measured using Bod Pod. Predicted TGV was significantly (P = 0·033) higher than measured TGV by 6 % on average. Calculations in hypothetical women showed that this overestimation tended to be more pronounced in women with small TGV than in women with large TGV. The overestimation of TGV resulted in a small but significant (P = 0·043) overestimation of BF, equivalent to only 0·5 % BF, on average. A Bland–Altman analysis showed that the limits of agreement were narrow (from − 1·9 to 2·9 % BF). Thus, although predicted TGV was biased and too high, the effect on BF was marginal and probably unimportant in many situations.
Visual information processing dysfunction across the developmental course of early psychosis
Authors: Perez V. B. , Shafer K. M. , Cadenhead K. S.
Published: April 2012

Background

Patients with schizophrenia consistently demonstrate information processing abnormalities assessed with visual masking (VM) tasks, and these deficits have been linked to clinical and functional severity. It has been suggested that VM impairments may be a vulnerability marker in individuals at risk for developing psychosis.

Method

Forward and backward VM performance was assessed in 72 first-episode (FE) psychosis patients, 98 subjects at risk (AR) for psychosis and 98 healthy controls (HC) using two identification tasks (with either a high- or low-energy mask) and a location task. VM was examined for stability in a subgroup (FE,n=15; AR,n=35; HC,n=21) and assessed relative to clinical and functional measures.

Results

In the identification tasks, backward VM deficits were observed in both FE and AR relative to HC whereas forward VM deficits were only present in FE patients compared to HC. In the location task, AR subjects demonstrated superior performance in forward VM relative to HC. VM performance was stable over time, and VM deficits were associated with baseline functional measures and predicted future negative symptom severity in AR subjects.

Conclusions

Visual information processing deficits, as indexed by backward VM, are present before and after the onset of frank psychosis, and probably represent a stable vulnerability marker that is associated with negative symptoms and functional decline. Additionally, the paradoxically better performance of AR subjects in select forward tasks suggests that early compensatory changes may characterize an emerging psychotic state.
Performing the Commodity-Sign: Dancing in the Gap
Authors: Dunagan Colleen
Published: April 2012

Between 1998 and 2000, the Gap clothing company produced three advertising campaigns whose visual images consisted of choreographed movement sequences based on vernacular dance forms, theatrical jazz dance, and the codes and conventions of the Hollywood musical: “khakis,” “that's holiday,” and “West Side Story.” Each campaign produced a series of commercials that employed dance and musical theater in an attempt to bridge the gap between entertainment and advertising, and between popular culture and art. By manipulating standard advertising conventions, the Gap framed these televisual texts as performances or artworks, rather than as advertisements, creating choreographic, performance-oriented commercials that became the sign of Gap clothing. As a result, the commercials have been identifiable, just as the clothes have been, by style alone.
Danzas Chuscas: Performing Migration in a Zapotec Community
Authors: Cruz-Manjarrez Adriana
Published: April 2012

Danzas chuscas are parodic dances performed in indigenous and mestizo villages throughout Mexico. In the village of Yalálag, a Zapotec indigenous village in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, danzas chuscas are performed during religious celebrations, a time when many Yalaltecos (people from Yalálag) who have immigrated to Los Angeles return to visit their families. Since the late 1980s, these immigrants have become the subject of the dances. Yalaltecos humorously represent those who have adopted “American” behaviors or those who have remitted negative values and behaviors from inner-city neighborhoods of Los Angeles to Yalálag. Danzas chuscas such as “Los Mojados” (“The Wetbacks”), “Los Cocineros” (“The Cooks”), and “Los Cholos” (“Los Angeles Gangsters”) comically portray the roles that Yalaltec immigrants have come to play in the United States. Danzas chuscas such as “Los Norteños” (“The Northerners”), “Los Turistas” (“The Tourists”), and “El Regreso de los Mojados” (“The Return of the Wetbacks”) characterize Yalaltec immigrants as outsiders and visitors. And the choreography in dances like “Los Yalaltecos” (“The Residents of Yalálag”) and “Las Minifaldas” (“The Miniskirts”) reflect changes in these immigrants' social status, gender behaviors, and class position. In other words, these dances embody the impact of migration on social, economic, and cultural levels. Through physical humor immigrants and nonimmigrants confront the tensions and uncertainties stemming from Zapotec migration into the United States: community social disorganization, social instability, and changes in the meaning of group identity as it relates to gender, class, ethnicity, and culture.
“At the still point”: T. S. Eliot, Dance, and Modernism
Authors: Jones Susan
Published: April 2012

T.S. Eliot's “Burnt Norton” initially appeared in 1936, but eventually this poem became the first of the Four Quartets (1943), a cycle expressing the poet's most mature meditations on time and the timeless. The Quartets confirmed Eliot's already well-established position as a modernist poet, but they also suggested a new sense of spiritual resolution, in part reflecting his journey from religious doubt to newfound faith through his conversion to Anglicanism in 1927. Throughout his work Eliot had described moments of sublime spirituality, but these do not usually endure within the framework of the early poetry. In “Burnt Norton,” however, he embarked on a sustained exploration of time and transcendence. In a striking invocation of this theme, the speaker alludes to dance as representative of the human experience of timelessness:

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;

Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,

But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,

Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,

Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,

There would be no dance, and there is only dance.

I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where.

And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time. (Eliot 1952, 119)

Eliot's definition of dance seems paradoxical, claiming that it is neither still nor in motion, yet both. Its spatial and temporal locations are indefinable and unfixed; the place to which Eliot refers cannot be named—the still point is simply there—but the speaker cannot say where.
Blurring the Boundaries of Genre, Gender, and Geopolitics: Ruth Page and Harald Kreutzberg's Transatlantic Collaboration in the 1930s
Authors: Meglin Joellen A.
Published: April 2012

In 1933, the year Hitler was named chancellor of Germany, Ruth Page and Harald Kreutzberg launched a “new and rather surprising partnership” with a joint recital in Chicago. Page and Kreutzberg were, on the surface, unlikely artistic collaborators: she, an American ballerina and he, an exponent of the German new dance. Nevertheless, their partnership lasted four years—from 1932 through 1936—a fairly long term considering the usual obstacles to collaboration magnified by physical distance. With Chicago as the focal point they toured the Midwest and other regions of the United States, Japan, and Canada. The collaboration offered the two artists a number of advantages. Page had certain difficulties to surmount in achieving her goal of becoming a choreographic entrepreneur in the post-Diaghilev international ballet world: besides being a woman—a decided disadvantage when it came to being taken seriously as a choreographer, artistic director, and impresario in the ballet world—she lived in Chicago, outside the dance mecca of New York. She could parlay her collaboration with Kreutzberg into a cosmopolitan, modernist identity, thus preempting the threat of consignment to Midwestern obscurity. Kreutzberg, for his part, was in need of a continuous and widening stream of performance venues in which to develop his unique gifts as a solo performer; moreover, he had to contend with the rising fascism and homophobic militancy of the Third Reich as a gay man whose identity was antithetical to the nation-state of which he was ultimately to become a pawn.
Women Dancing Back—and Forth: Resistance and Self-Regulation in Belfast Salsa
Authors: Skinner Jonathan
Published: April 2012

It's a Tuesday night in Belfast. Christina and Leanne are running their salsa class in Mercury's basement dance room. Afterwards, Christina has arranged to go dancing at the Hairy Hound with her friend Annabel, who is attending Christina and Leanne's class. Leanne will go home and prepare for her school teaching the following day. Christina wants to forget the illnesses and stresses back home for the night and needs no preparation to be at her reception desk the next day. Annabel is in her mid-fifties. She won't go to any classes, or she won't go out, alone. It's not healthy, seemly, or the done thing in her mind. This attitude makes it difficult for Annabel. She's been a widow for nearly thirty years, and now that the children have grown up, her time to herself has to be carefully coordinated with others. She loves to dance but she is fearful that she might appear single, desperate, alone, and looking for a mate beyond the three-minute dance partner. She sits in the Hairy Hound with Christina, who is more youthful, in her thirties, dressed to attract attention, but in a married way. For Annabel, the salsa nights are a night out rather than a night in alone. They are a chance to move to the music she loves and to gossip and socialize and catch up with her female friends. For Christina, the salsa night is an opportunity to dance after the salsa job and a chance to show off how attractive she still is before going home to the husband she so dearly loves.
Crystal structure and powder diffraction reference pattern of type I clathrate Ba8Ni4Ge42
Authors: Wong-Ng W. , Huang Q. , Levin I. , Woicik J. C. , Shi X. , Yang Jihui , Kaduk J. A.
Published: April 2012

The crystal structure of type I clathrate Ba8Ni4Ge42 has been determined using neutron powder diffraction, transmission electron microscopy (TEM, for possible superlattice), and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurements. Ba8Ni4Ge42 is cubic with the space group Pmn and unit-cell parameter a = 10.6769(2) Å (Dx = 5.988 g cm−3). The structure combines two different types of polyhedra: the dodecahedron (Ge20, 20-atom cage with 12 pentagonal faces) and the tetrakaidecahedron (Ge24, 24-atom cage with 12 pentagonal and 2 hexagonal faces). Each unit cell contains two Ge20 dodecahedra and six Ge24 tetrakaidecahedra. The Ge20 dodecahedra are linked via the interstitial 6c positions. The framework structure is formed by a tetrahedrally bounded network of Ge atoms, whereas Ba atoms reside inside the Ge20 and Ge24 cavities at the 2a and 6d crystallographic positions, respectively. Ni atoms exclusively occupy the 6c positions located on the hexagonal faces of the larger tetrakaidecahedra; no Ni atoms are found in the smaller dodecahedra that consist of pentagonal faces. A local structure study using EXAFS supports the coexistence of Ge and Ni on the 6c site. Electron diffraction in TEM reveals no detectable Ge/Ni ordering.
X-ray powder diffraction analysis of imipenem monohydrate
Authors: Needham F. , Crowder C. E. , Reid J. W. , Fawcett T. G. , Faber J.
Published: April 2012

An experimental X-ray powder diffraction pattern was produced and analyzed for imipenem monohydrate, an antimicrobial pharmaceutical agent. Although there are no experimental powder patterns in the ICDD PDF-4/Organics Database, there is one powder pattern calculated with single-crystal X-ray diffraction data from the Cambridge Structural Database. Here, we report the refined experimental powder diffraction data for imipenem monohydrate. These data for imipenem monohydrate are consistent with an orthorhombic crystal system having reduced unit-cell parameters of a = 8.2534(3) Å, b = 11.1293(4) Å, and c = 15.4609(6) Å. The resulting unit-cell volume, 1420.15(15) Å3, indicates four formula units per unit cell. Observed peaks are consistent with the P212121 space group.
Chemical preparation and XRD data for four cyclotriphosphates: Ba3(P3O9)2·4H2O, BaNH4P3O9·2H2O, BaTlP3O9·2H2O, and BaTlP3O9·Ba3(P3O9)2·4H2O
Authors: Kheïreddine A. , Tridane M. , Belaaouad S.
Published: April 2012

Methods of chemical preparation and XRD data are reported for four cyclotriphosphates associated with barium alone and with ammonium and thallium. These phosphates are Ba3(P3O9)2·4H2O, BaNH4P3O9·2H2O, BaTlP3O9·2H2O, and BaTlP3O9·Ba3(P3O9)2·4H2O was prepared by the direct method of chlorures, BaNH4P3O9·2H2O and BaTlP3O9·2H2O by the method of ion-exchange resin, and BaTlP3O9 by total dehydration of BaTlP3O9·2H2O. Ba3(P3O9)2·4H2O is monoclinic, space group P21/n, Z = 4, with a = 7.546(3), b = 12.105(4), c = 11.649(4) Å, β = 100.340(3)°, V = 1046.8(2) Å3, M(20) = 81, and F(20) = 117(0.003 419, 50). BaNH4P3O9·2H2O is monoclinic, space group P21/n, Z = 4, with a = 7.547(1), b = 12.065(1), c = 11.697(1) Å, β = 101.111(1)°, V = 1045.1(3) Å3, M(20) = 9 (AV.EPS = 0.000 116 9), and F(20) = 14(0.0287 06, 53). BaTlP3O9·2H2O is monoclinic, space group P21/n, Z = 4, with a = 7.546(3), b = 12.105(4), c = 11.649(4) Å, β = 100.340(3)°, V = 1046.8(2) Å3, M(20) = 81, and F(20) = 117(0.003 419, 50). BaNH4P3O9·2H2O and BaTlP3O9·2H2O are isostructural. BaTlP3O9 is orthorhombic, space group P212121, Z = 4, with a = 11.086(2), b = 12.283(2), c = 5.786(1) Å, V = 787.9(4) Å3, M(20) = 10 (AV.EPS = 0.000 116 9), and F(20) = 14(0.026 955, 56).
Artificial incubation, egg replacement and adoptive parents in bird management: a test with Lesser ElaeniaElaenia chiriquensis
Authors: LOBO YONARA , ÂNGELO MARINI MIGUEL
Published: April 2012

Reducing the time that birds’ eggs are exposed during incubation in the wild is a management strategy with the potential to reduce nest predation rates, enhance breeding success and increase the population size of endangered species. We tested whether manipulation of clutches through artificial incubation of Lesser ElaeniaElaenia chiriquensiseggs and subsequent reintroduction of new-born nestlings to their original nest, and the use of adoptive parents, were efficient ways of increasing the population size of this species. We evaluated the financial cost and benefit of three different management strategies of artificial egg incubation with reintroduction of nestlings to the original nest. We searched for nests and manipulated eggs during the breeding seasons of 2009 and 2010 in a savanna reserve in central Brazil. Real eggs were replaced by artificial eggs and artificially incubated. The following breeding parameters were monitored: hatching rate, fledgling productivity, daily survival rate of nestlings and nest success. The effect of nest monitoring frequency (daily or every 3–4 days) on breeding parameters was also tested. Hatching rate was much higher amongst artificially incubated eggs than naturally incubated eggs. Artificially incubated clutches presented higher rates of fledgling production and apparent nest success than non-manipulated clutches. Clutch manipulation did not interfere with nestling daily survival rate. Daily monitoring did not have negative effects. The clutch manipulation methodology we used proved to be viable and is a potential tool for increasing population size.
‘The folly of particulars’: the political economy of the South Sea Bubble
Authors: Kleer Richard
Published: April 2012

In 1720 Britain embarked on a project to convert a large part of the public debt into shares in the South Sea Company. Most narratives assume the Company stood to profit from an anticipated increase in the market price of its shares. Though some have noted that this assumption is incorrect, no one has yet tried to find an alternative explanation for the Company's motivation for entering into the project. In this article I argue that the Company had no need to profit directly from the conversion operation and instead saw it as an opportunity to establish dominance in the British banking industry.
13C constraints on ocean carbon cycle models
Authors: Sonnerup Rolf E. , Quay Paul D.
Published: April 2012

The sensitivity of oceanic δ13C fields to overturning and gas exchange is investigated in a suite of ocean general circulation models. The deep and oceanic mean δ13C in the models was sensitive to the balance between deep waters forming in the North Atlantic and the Southern Ocean. Increasing the Southern Ocean deep water formation rate to improve deep sea 14C and AOU fields was detrimental to model‐data δ13C fidelity. A concurrent increase in North Atlantic Deep water would be needed to match the observed 14C and δ13C, constraining both the rate and schematics of model deep water formation, respectively, and improving sensitivity to future perturbations. Inter‐basin trends in δ13C were sensitive to the rate of overturning in the models, with ‘high mixing’ model configurations matching the observations best. Models' anthropogenic δ13C changes, used as a diagnostic of model CO2 uptake, were in agreement with the observations, except at high southern latitudes (<50°S), where the model δ13C changes were greater than observed. There were predictive relationships among models' uptake of anthropogenic CO2 and depth‐integrated δ13C changes. Model relationships between model anthropogenic CO2 uptake and the air‐sea δ13C disequilibrium, and the sea surface δ13C, depend on preindustrial riverine fluxes of terrestrial organic carbon, and on the wind field used to drive the model circulation, respectively. Among the models tested, the relations among anthropogenic CO2 uptake and δ13C changes in the ocean are biased by the OCMIP practice of driving model momentum with one wind field, and gas exchange rates with another.
The net carbon footprint of a newly created boreal hydroelectric reservoir
Authors: Teodoru Cristian R. , Bastien Julie , Bonneville Marie‐Claude , del Giorgio Paul A. , Demarty Maud , Garneau Michelle , Hélie Jean‐Francois , Pelletier Luc , Prairie Yves T. , Roulet Nigel T. , Strachan Ian B. , Tremblay Alain
Published: April 2012

We present here the first comprehensive assessment of the carbon (C) footprint associated with the creation of a boreal hydroelectric reservoir (Eastmain‐1 in northern Québec, Canada). This is the result of a large‐scale, interdisciplinary study that spanned over a 7‐years period (2003–2009), where we quantified the major C gas (CO2 and CH4) sources and sinks of the terrestrial and aquatic components of the pre‐flood landscape, and also for the reservoir following the impoundment in 2006. The pre‐flood landscape was roughly neutral in terms of C, and the balance between pre‐ and post‐flood C sources/sinks indicates that the reservoir was initially (first year post‐flood in 2006) a large net source of CO2 (2270 mg C m−2 d−1) but a much smaller source of CH4 (0.2 mg C m−2 d−1). While net CO2 emissions declined steeply in subsequent years (down to 835 mg C m−2 d−1 in 2009), net CH4 emissions remained constant or increased slightly relative to pre‐flood emissions. Our results also suggest that the reservoir will continue to emit carbon gas over the long‐term at rates exceeding the carbon footprint of the pre‐flood landscape, although the sources of C supporting these emissions have yet to be determined. Extrapolation of these empirical trends over the projected life span (100 years) of the reservoir yields integrated long‐term net C emissions per energy generation well below the range of the natural‐gas combined‐cycle, which is considered the current industry standard.
Empirical energy spectra of neutralized solar wind protons from the lunar regolith
Authors: Futaana Y. , Barabash S. , Wieser M. , Holmström M. , Lue C. , Wurz P. , Schaufelberger A. , Bhardwaj A. , Dhanya M. B. , Asamura K.
Published: April 2012

We present an empirical model of the energy spectra for hydrogen energetic neutral atoms (ENA) backscattered from the lunar surface based on Chandrayaan‐1 Energetic Neutral Atom (CENA) observations. The observed energy spectra of the backscattered ENAs are well reproduced by Maxwell‐Boltzmann distribution functions. The backscatter fraction is constant and independent of any solar wind parameters and the impinging solar wind angle. The calculated backscatter fraction is 0.19, and the 25% and 75% percentiles are 0.16 and 0.21. The empirical parameters of the Maxwell‐Boltzman distribution derived from the CENA imager have no correlations with the upstream solar wind parameters, except for a good correlation between the solar wind velocity and the temperature of the backscattered ENAs. These results suggest that the reflected ENAs have experienced several collisions during the interaction with the loose lunar grains, and are then released into space. The mathematical model of the energy spectra of the backscattered ENAs is expressed by a function of the solar wind flux and velocity, which can be used for future investigations of regolith‐solar wind interaction.
A quantitative deconstruction of the morphology of high‐latitude ionospheric convection
Authors: Grocott A. , Milan S. E. , Imber S. M. , Lester M. , Yeoman T. K.
Published: April 2012

We present an analysis of ionospheric convection data derived from velocity measurements made by the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN). Our analysis uses an established technique for combining the network data to produce maps of large‐scale convection by fitting a spherical harmonic expansion of the ionospheric electric potential to the radar measurements. We discuss how the basis functions of the spherical harmonic expansion describe different characteristic elements of the ionospheric convection pattern and show how their associated coefficients can be used to quantify the morphology of the convection, much like the total transpolar voltage is used to quantify its strength, in relation to upstream interplanetary magnetic field conditions and associated magnetospheric activity. We find that ∼2/3 of the voltage associated with the typical convection pattern is described by a simple twin vortex basis function. The magnitude of the twin vortex is strongly dependent on IMF BZ and the degree of its (typically westward) rotation is weakly dependent on IMF BY. The remaining ∼1/3 of the total voltage is associated with deviations from the basic twin vortex pattern, introduced by the addition of other basis functions, such as IMF BY associated dusk‐dawn asymmetries, nightside convection features associated with tail activity, and “reverse” high‐latitude convection cells associated with intervals of IMF BZ > 0.
Standard operating procedures (SOP) in experimental stroke research: SOP for middle cerebral artery occlusion in the mouse
Authors: Dirnagl Ulrich , Group Members of the MCAO-SOP
Published: April 2012

Recently, systematic reviews have found quantitative evidence that low study quality may have introduced a bias into preclinical stroke research. Monitoring, auditing, and standard operating procedures (SOPs) are already key elements of quality control in randomized clinical trials and will hopefully be widely adopted by preclinical stroke research in the near future. Increasingly, funding bodies and review boards overseeing animal experiments are taking a proactive stance, and demand auditable quality control measures in preclinical research. Every good quality control system is based on its SOPs. This article introduces the concept of quality control and presents for the first time an SOP in experimental stroke research.
Double burden of malnutrition among urban Bengalee adolescent boys in Midnapore, West Bengal, India
Authors: Bisai S , Khongsdier R , Bose K , Mahalanabis D
Published: April 2012

Malnutrition is an important public health problem worldwide. Therefore a study was undertaken to assess the prevalence of adolescent thinness, overweight and obesity in Midnapore town, West Bengal, India. A total of 974 adolescent boys aged 10-18 years were selected following multistage cluster sampling method from three higher secondary schools. Data was collected using pretested questionnaire following standard technique. Presence of thinness was evaluated using the cut-off values of international survey as suggested by Cole et al (2007). While overweight and obesity was determine by using international cut-off values develop by Cole et al (2000) based on international surveys as recommended by IOTF. Overall the prevalence of thinness, overweight and obesity were 20.8%, 14.9% and 3.8%, respectively. This study developed age specific smooth BMI percentile values using LMS method. Moreover, the study also developed BMI cut-off values to define thinness, overweight and obesity. In conclusion, the present analyses indicated that the prevalence of adolescent undernutrition is still a major problem. In addition, there was also an emerging trend for overweight/obesity, thereby indicating a double burden of malnutrition as observed in other developing countries.
Deletion of the rat trpc4 gene and its influence on motivated responding for natural reward
Authors: Cooper Donald , Klipec William , Deeney Bridget , Williamson Claire , Wenzel Kami , Nguyen Phuong , Ostertag Eric
Published: April 2012

TRPC4 ion channels are expressed extensively in corticolimbic brain regions and a subpopulation of midbrain dopamine neurons. TRPC4 knockout (KO) rats show reduced sociability and social exploration, but show no differences in simple and complex strategic learning compared to normal wild type (WT) rats. Using water reward, we found no differences between TRPC4-KO and WT rats in the break point on a progressive ratio schedule of reinforcement. Although deletion of the trpc4 gene alters social interaction/anxiety it does not appear to affect motivation for natural rewards. Current experiments are underway testing the role of trpc4 gene deletion on cocaine reward (see www.neuro-cloud.net/nature-precedings/klipec3 for updates and collaborations).
Inhaled Insulin: Intrapulmonary or Intranasal?
Authors: Ahmed Danish , Kumari Sweta , Mishra Shruti , Jaiswal Shivangi
Published: April 2012

Initial attempts delivered the insulin hormone intramuscularly, intravenously, and eventually subcutaneously. Other routes of administration of the drug were explored. These included oral, rectal, sublingual, buccal, transdermal, vaginal, intramuscular, intrapulmonary, and intranasal delivery systems. The purpose of these latter studies was to determine a noninjectable method to deliver insulin to patients with type 1 and 2 diabetes that would effectively lower blood sugar, control hemoglobin A1c (in much later studies), and allow patients a simpler, less invasive, and more direct control oftheir underlying disease process. * In January 2006 the United States Food and Drug Administration approved Exubera (Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, New York, NY) as the first pulmonary inhaled insulin. In actuality attempts to explore various methods to deliver insulin using intrapulmonary delivery had occurred since1925. *
Some Concepts of Graph Theory
Authors: Bhattacharyya Malay
Published: April 2012

We present some preliminary concepts of graph theory with interesting and easy examples.
Mining the Largest Quasi-clique in Human Protein Interactome
Authors: Bandyopadhyay Sanghamitra , Bhattacharyya Malay
Published: April 2012

A clique is a complete subgraph of a graph. Often, a clique is interpreted as a dense module of vertices within a graph. However, in many real-world situations, the classical problem of finding a clique is required to be relaxed. This motivates the problem of finding quasicliques that are almost complete subgraphs of a graph. In sparse and very large scale-free networks, the problem of finding the largest quasi-clique becomes hard to manage with the existing approaches. Here, we propose a heuristic algorithm in this paper for locating the largest quasi-clique from the human protein-protein interaction networks. The results show promise in computational biology research by the exploration of significant protein modules.
Prevalence and Familial Patterns of Night Eating in the Québec Adipose and Lifestyle InvesTigation in Youth (QUALITY) Study
Authors: Lundgren Jennifer D. , Drapeau Vicky , Allison Kelly C. , Gallant Annette R. , Tremblay Angelo , Lambert Marie A. , Lemieux Simone , O'Loughlin L. Jennifer , Pérusse Louis , Stunkard Albert J.
Published: April 2012

The prevalence and familial patterns of night eating syndrome (NES) in families enrolled in the Québec Adipose and Lifestyle InvesTigation in Youth (QUALITY) study was examined. Families (n = 395; one child, mother, and father for whom at least one parent was obese or had abdominal obesity) completed the Night Eating Questionnaire (NEQ) as part of a longitudinal study on the development of metabolic disease in children at risk for obesity. Responses on the NEQ were used to establish a diagnosis of NES and to determine the correlation and heritability of NES symptoms in families. Using comprehensive research diagnostic criteria, full threshold NES was rare: 0% of children, 0.5% of mothers, and 0.3% of fathers met criteria. When controlling for age, sex, and BMI, NEQ scores of spouses were not significantly correlated, but mothers' NEQ scores were significantly correlated with the scores of both sons (r = 0.19, P < 0.001) and daughters (r = 0.15, P = 0.05). The heritability of NEQ scores was 0.24 when controlling for age, sex, and BMI. These findings replicate previous research suggesting a low prevalence of night eating behavior in children and the aggregation of NES in families.
Quasi-static analysis of a ferrofluid blob in a capillary tube
Authors: Reza Rahmani Amir , Prodanović Maša , Bryant Steven L. , Huh Chun
Published: April 2012

Ferrofluids have promising application potentials for biological, medical, subsurface, and many other industrial purposes. To bring the potentials to reality, it is of utmost importance to characterize the behavior of ferrofluids under different conditions, especially in the presence of more than one phase. In this study, the quasi-static behavior of a non-wetting incompressible and inviscid ferrofluid blob surrounded by a wetting non-magnetic fluid confined in a capillary tube is theoretically and computationally investigated when a uniform magnetic field is applied, assuming isothermal conditions. The effect of geometrical, hydrodynamic, and magnetic properties of the blob on its deformations when subject to a magnetic field is explained. Moreover, the effect of nonlinear magnetization on the ferrofluid blob evolution in the capillary tube is investigated in detail. In the case of a tube with constant circular cross-section, the behavior of the blob before the critical state of detachment is determined numerically, while the post-critical behavior is resolved analytically. To characterize the pre-critical blob deformations, the magnetic field distribution inside the blob for given external magnetic fields is calculated using a commercial finite element software and is employed to calculate the interfacial configuration from balances among magnetic, capillary, and hydrostatic forces. We show that increasing magnetic field intensity above a critical value causes the blob to detach from the tube wall under certain conditions and quantitatively characterize the critical magnetic field as well as blob configurations before and after detachment. Results show that there is a maximum blob length beyond which detachment does not occur, due to the nonlinear magnetization of the ferrofluid blob. This length depends on the relative magnitude of magnetic and capillary forces and also on the geometry of the confining capillary tube. Even if detachment occurs, the nonlinear magnetization prevents the blob from evolving infinitely after detachment. The conditions under which detachment may occur are analytically determined. The simulations confirm that, for sufficiently small magnetic fields, the linear approximate magnetization yields satisfactory results. However, with increasing magnetic field intensity, the deviation between the results with nonlinear magnetization and those with linear approximate magnetization increases significantly. In addition, this deviation is more pronounced for longer blobs. These findings emphasize the importance of incorporating the nonlinear magnetization for relatively large magnetic field intensities. Finally, in order to relax the simple confining geometry assumption, we show preliminary simulations using the level set method in complex solid geometries. The method was previously developed for capillarity and used for realistic rock geometries and now accounts for the magnetic pressures as well.
C–C bond unsaturation degree in monosubstituted ferrocenes for molecular electronics investigated by a combined near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure, x-ray photoemission spectroscopy, and density functional theory approach
Authors: Boccia A. , Lanzilotto V. , Marrani A. G. , Stranges S. , Zanoni R. , Alagia M. , Fronzoni G. , Decleva P.
Published: April 2012

We present the results of an experimental and theoretical investigation of monosubstituted ethyl-, vinyl-, and ethynyl-ferrocene (EtFC, VFC, and EFC) free molecules, obtained by means of synchrotron-radiation based C 1s photoabsorption (NEXAFS) and photoemission (C 1s XPS) spectroscopies, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Such a combined study is aimed at elucidating the role played by the C–C bond unsaturation degree of the substituent on the electronic structure of the ferrocene derivatives. Such substituents are required for molecular chemical anchoring onto relevant surfaces when ferrocenes are used for molecular electronics hybrid devices. The high resolution C 1s NEXAFS spectra exhibit distinctive features that depend on the degree of unsaturation of the hydrocarbon substituent. The theoretical approach to consider the NEXAFS spectrum made of three parts allowed to disentangle the specific contribution of the substituent group to the experimental spectrum as a function of its unsaturation degree. C 1s IEs were derived from the experimental data analysis based on the DFT calculated IE values for the different carbon atoms of the substituent and cyclopentadienyl (Cp) rings. Distinctive trends of chemical shifts were observed for the substituent carbon atoms and the substituted atom of the Cp ring along the series of ferrocenes. The calculated IE pattern was rationalized in terms of initial and final state effects influencing the IE value, with special regard to the different mechanism of electron conjugation between the Cp ring and the substituent, namely the σ/π hyperconjugation in EtFC and the π-conjugation in VFC and EFC.
Defect-induced solid state amorphization of molecular crystals
Authors: Lei Lei , Carvajal Teresa , Koslowski Marisol
Published: April 2012

We investigate the process of mechanically induced amorphization in small molecule organic crystals under extensive deformation. In this work, we develop a model that describes the amorphization of molecular crystals, in which the plastic response is calculated with a phase field dislocation dynamics theory in four materials: acetaminophen, sucrose, γ-indomethacin, and aspirin. The model is able to predict the fraction of amorphous material generated in single crystals for a given applied stress. Our results show that γ-indomethacin and sucrose demonstrate large volume fractions of amorphous material after sufficient plastic deformation, while smaller amorphous volume fractions are predicted in acetaminophen and aspirin, in agreement with experimental observation.
First-principles calculations of size-dependent giant electroresistance effect in nanoscale asymmetric ferroelectric tunnel junctions
Authors: Luo Xin , Zheng Yue , Wang Biao
Published: April 2012

Based on the first principle calculations, we predicted the electronic structures and ferroelectric instability of the asymmetric ferroelectric tunneling junction with the ferroelectric barrier thickness changing, and found two undiscovered and important behaviors, i.e., absence of the critical thickness for the positive polarization state and the larger critical thickness for the negative polarization state. Using nonequilibrium Green function’s approach, the corresponding two-probe systems and their electronic transport properties at different ferroelectric barrier thickness have been constructed. It is found that reorienting the polarization direction in the ferroelectric barrier can dramatically change the internal electric field and macroscopic potential barrier, resulting in several orders of magnitude change in tunneling electroresistance ratio. Results also found that the tunneling electroresistance can be distinctly controlled by adjusting thickness of the ferroelectric barrier, which behavior is defined as the size-dependent giant electroresistance effect. Our results enable architectures of large density and high sensitivity in the next generation of ferroelectric random access memories with nondestructive resistive readout.