bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Thomas Reid on Active Power and Free Agency
Authors: Xiangdong XU
Published: August 2011

The paper argues that it is a mistake to interpret Thomas Reid as holding a libertarian notion of freedom, and to make use of Reid to argue in support of a libertarian position. More precisely, this paper shows that Reid’s theory of agent-causation may not be what these philosophers take it to be, once such crucial notions as agent-causation and active power in Reid’s theory of free agency have been fully explicated. Reid is more committed to accepting the view of freedom as rational self-control over the determination of the will than a contracausal view of freedom.
Intralevel Mental Causation
Authors: Buckareff Andrei A.
Published: August 2011

This paper identifies and critiques a theory of mental causation defended by some proponents of nonredutive physicalism that I call “intralevelism.” Intralevelist theories differ in their details. On all versions, the causal outcome of the manifestation of physical properties is physical and the causal outcome of the manifestation of mental properties is mental. Thus, mental causation on this view is intralevel mental to mental causation. This characterization of mental causation as intralevel is taken to insulate nonreductive physicalism from some objections to nonreductive physicalism, including versions of the exclusion argument. This paper examines some features of three recent versions of intralevelism defended by John Gibbons, Markus Schlosser, and Amie Thomasson. This paper shows that the distinctive problems faced by these three representative versions of intralevelism suggest that the intralevelist strategy does not provide a viable solution to the exclusion problem.
Against Classical Dialetheism
Authors: Wenfang WANG
Published: August 2011

Dialetheism is the view that there are true contradictions. Classical dialetheism holds further the view that the law of excluded middle is indeed a logical law. Most famous dialetheists, such as G. Priest and J. Beall, are classical dialetheists; they take classical dialetheism to be the only plausible solution to the semantic paradoxes. The main contention of the paper is, however, that their views should be rejected. Based on inspecting Priest’s and Beall’s dialetheist theories from a special perspective, this paper contends that classical dialetheism has no natural and plausible way to assign truth values to various truth-ineliminable sentences, i.e., sentences whose truth-conditions essentially involve the property of being true. Several examples of such truth-ineliminable sentences are given in the paper, and two classical dialetheist strategies for assigning them truth values are inspected. This paper argues that none of these strategies is successful.
Film Adaptation as Political Orthodoxy and Its Dilemmas: The Case of Xia Yan in the 1950s and 1960s
Authors: Liyan QIN
Published: August 2011

Xia Yan (1900–95), a very important leftist filmmaker in the 1930s, preferred film adaptation after 1949. This paper, by reading several of Xia Yan’s films written in the 1950s and 1960s against their literary sources, explores the changes he made to the sources and the strategies he used. It also outlines the different positions he took and the cultural history glimpsed through the films and Xia Yan’s role in them. This paper then analyzes how Xia Yan acted as a conformist vanguard repeating and re-enforcing the official ideology, as is shown in his adaptations of The New Year’s Sacrifice and Revolutionary Family. He was an ambivalent critic in the adaptation of The Lin Family Shop with its petite-bourgeois protagonist and its perhaps unintentional deconstruction of the official version of history. While, he reserved his humanistic concerns incognito for Hong Kong in the adaptation of Between Smiles and Tears.
Modern Chinese Literature and the Human Geography of East Asia
Authors: Yi YANG
Published: August 2011

In recent years, research on East Asia, including the China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea and other countries and regions, is gradually valued by a group of young Chinese scholars. Eastern regions studies concentrate on how classical Chinese culture was popularized, absorbed and recreated in East Asia. The four East-Asian countries of China, Japan, South Korea and North Korea are geographical neighbors and mutually dependent upon each other. And in the past two thousand years, the neighbors, separated only by small bodies of water, have been communicating frequently with each other culturally, economically and politically by sea and by land. The Chinese characters that have been used for a long time and the thoughts, religion and literature transmitted through Chinese language constitute the so-called “Chinese Cultural Circle.”
Reflections on the Current Construction of Literary Theory as a Discipline
Authors: Liyuan ZHU
Published: August 2011

This paper analyzes the rationality and limitations of Literary Theory’s “shift to cultural studies.” According to the scholars who insist on this shift, there are some issues that damage the “legitimacy” of the discipline’s existence given the development of contemporary Literary Theory. But Literary Theory can still recognize clearly the new realities in the development of contemporary literature. And it is not enough to study new forms such as mass media, network literature, and the institutions of literature in order to solve the problems in the discipline of Literary Theory. The innovation and construction of Literary Theory need to “turn to life” and aim to study and resolve practical problems in our new literary life.
Playing with Japanese Words: A Close Reading of Cao Yin’s The Joyous Japanese Songs
Authors: Quan TANG
Published: August 2011

Taiping leshi 太平乐事 (Joy in the time of peace and prosperity) by Cao Yin 曹寅 (1658–1712), is a drama of uniqueness involving exotic subjects. Act 8, entitled The Joyous Japanese Songs, is about the King of Japan paying tribute to the Chinese emperor, and most parts of it are written in Chinese characters carrying only sounds. Cao Yin called the phonetic characters “Woyu” (the Japanese language). But what does this kind of unprecedented “Woyu” intend to convey and what is the historical background behind these “Woyu”? This paper attempts to interpret this drama based on Japanese scholarship on Chinese-Japanese vocabularies compiled in the Ming dynasty, and on research into Cao Yin’s knowledge about Japan through textual analysis.
Lewis Acid‐Catalyzed Synthesis of Hyperbranched Polymers Based on Glycerol and Diacids in Toluene
Authors: Wyatt Victor T.
Published: August 2011

Examples of monomeric glycerol‐derived hyperbranched polyesters produced in a nonpolar solvent system are reported here. The polymers were made by the Lewis acid [dibutyltin(IV) oxide]‐catalyzed polycondensation of glycerol with either succinic acid [n (aliphatic chain length) = 2], glutaric acid (n = 3), or azelaic acid (n = 7) in toluene. Poly(glycerol–diacid)s were recovered in yields as low as 65% and as high as 95%. The polyesters were characterized by gas chromatography to determine the extent of reaction and by gel permeation chromatography to determine molecular weight, polydispersity index, and degree of polymerization. None of the conditions explored gave 100% conversion but products could be recovered in greater than 97.8% purity. Gelation and low conversion were observed, respectively, for 24‐ and 10‐h polyesterifications of glutaric acid and glycerol (2:1 molar ratio) performed at 155 °C when the standard (neat) synthetic protocol was employed. Gelation was avoided and conversion improved when esterifications were performed in quasi‐melt solutions with toluene. The optimal reaction conditions to produce polymers with high conversion and high molecular weight before the onset of gelation were observed for 24‐h esterifications in toluene at 155 °C (2:1 molar ratio of glutaric acid/glycerol) and 135 °C (1:1 molar ratio of reactants). Expanding on the success of those findings, it was determined that gelation could be avoided for each of the three diacids studied. When all other conditions were held constant, in the absence of gelation, degree of polymerization increased with decreasing aliphatic chain length of the diacid.
Estimating the Effect of the One-Child Policy on the Sex Ratio Imbalance in China: Identification Based on the Difference-in-Differences
Authors: Li Hongbin , Yi Junjian , Zhang Junsen
Published: August 2011

In China, the male-biased sex ratio has increased significantly. Because the one-child policy applies only to the Han Chinese but not to minorities, this unique affirmative policy allows us to identify the causal effect of the one-child policy on the increase in sex ratios by using a difference-in-differences (DD) estimator. Using the 1990 census, we find that the strict enforcement of the one-child policy led to 4.4 extra boys per 100 girls in the 1980s, accounting for about 94% of the total increase in sex ratios during this period. The robust tests indicate that the estimated policy effect is not likely confounded by other omitted policy shocks or socioeconomic changes. Moreover, we conduct the DD estimation using both the 2000 census and the 2005 mini-census. Our estimates suggest that the one-child policy resulted in about 7.0 extra boys per 100 girls for the 1991–2005 birth cohorts. The effect of the one-child policy accounts for about 57% and 54% of the total increases in sex ratios for the 1991–2000 and 2001–2005 birth cohorts, respectively.
Who Receives Food Stamps During Adulthood? Analyzing Repeatable Events With Incomplete Event Histories
Authors: Grieger Lloyd D. , Danziger Sheldon H.
Published: August 2011

Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) from 1968 to 2005, we estimate the cumulative probability that young adults in the United States will receive food stamps during adulthood, and examine how that probability varies with an individual’s income and education at age 25 as well as by race and gender. We find that the probability of first food stamp receipt as an adult declines sharply with age, indicating that most adult recipients do so by age 40. Also, those receiving food stamps in early adulthood are likely to receive them again. For these reasons, and because food stamp receipt is a repeatable event, life table analyses that include individuals who are not observed until after they become exposed to the risk of food stamp receipt (whom we label “late entrants”) are likely to overstate cumulative participation during adulthood. For example, one often-cited study included individuals who enter their sample after age 20 (late entrants) and report that 50.8% of 20-year-olds are recipients by age 65. In contrast, when we exclude late entrants, we find that 39.2% of 20-year-olds and 29.7% of 25-year-olds receive benefits during adulthood.
Feeling angry and acting angry: Different effects of autonomy‐connectedness in boys and girls
Authors: Karreman Annemiek , Bekker Marrie H.J.
Published: August 2011

This study examined effects of the autonomy‐connectedness components sensitivity to others, self‐awareness and capacity for managing new situations on anger experience versus anger expression in adolescent boys and girls. One hundred thirty‐one high school students were randomly assigned to an anger‐inducing or neutral condition using the Dictator Game. Whereas after anger induction boys experienced and expressed anger independent of autonomy‐connectedness, girls’ anger experience depended on the level of sensitivity to others: girls experienced increased anger only when they scored high on sensitivity to others. However, girls’ expression of anger did not depend on the level of sensitivity to others. Effects of self‐awareness and capacity for managing new situations were found when anger was not induced. This study contributed to emotion regulation research by showing differences in anger experience and anger expression as a function of autonomy‐connectedness in boys and girls.
Individuation of female adolescents: Relations with adolescents’ perceptions of maternal behavior and with adolescent–mother discrepancies in perceptions
Authors: Sher‐Censor Efrat , Oppenheim David , Sagi‐Schwartz Abraham
Published: August 2011

The study examined how individuality and connectedness of female adolescents relate to their perceptions of maternal behavior and to adolescent‐mother discrepancies in perceptions of maternal behavior. Seventy 16.5‐year‐old daughters and their mothers participated in the study. Individuality and connectedness of the daughters were assessed from observed daughter–mother interactions. The perceptions of daughters and mothers regarding maternal behavior were assessed using a video recall procedure. Daughters’ negative perceptions of maternal behavior were associated with higher individuality. Daughter–mother discrepancies in perceptions of maternal behavior were related to lower connectedness of the daughters. Finally, daughters who showed high individuality at the expense of connectedness had more discrepancies in perceptions with their mothers compared to daughters that balanced between moderate‐to‐high individuality and connectedness. These findings underscore the importance of assessing daughters and mothers’ perceptions of their interactions at the individual as well as the dyadic levels for understanding daughters’ behavior during communication with their mothers.
AGRONOMIC AND ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF PERMANENT RAISED BEDS, NO TILLAGE AND STRAW MULCHING FOR AN IRRIGATED MAIZE-WHEAT SYSTEM IN NORTHWEST INDIA
Authors: RAM HARI , SINGH YADVINDER , SAINI K. S. , KLER D. S. , TIMSINA J. , HUMPHREYS E. J.
Published: August 2011

No-tillage and raised beds are widely used for different crops in developed countries. A field experiment was conducted on an irrigated maize-wheat system to study the effect of field layout, tillage and straw mulch on crop performance, water use efficiency and economics for five years (2003–2008) in northwest India. Straw mulch reduced the maximum soil temperature at seed depth by about 3 °C compared to the no mulch. During the wheat emergence, raised beds recorded 1.3 °C higher soil temperature compared to the flat treatments. Both maize and wheat yields were similar under different treatments during all the years. Maize and wheat planted on raised beds recorded about 7.8% and 22.7% higher water use efficiency than under flat layout, respectively. Straw mulch showed no effect on water use and water use efficiency in maize. The net returns from the maize-wheat system were more in no tillage and permanent raised beds than with conventional tillage. Bulk density and cumulative infiltration were more in no tillage compared with conventional tillage.
On MHD stability of gravitating electrically conducting fluids with field-aligned flows
Authors: TASSO H. , THROUMOULOPOULOS G. N.
Published: August 2011

A previous stability condition (see Throumoulopoulos and Tasso, Phys. Plasmas 14, 122104 (2007)) for incompressible plasmas with field-aligned flows is extended to gravitating plasmas, including self-gravitation. It turns out that the stability condition is affected by gravitation through the equilibrium values only.
Compound stress in Nigerian English
Authors: Sunday Adesina B.
Published: August 2011

Of all the levels of linguistic analysis, it is at the phonological level that differences in the dialects of a language are more easily noticed (Ogu, 1992: 82). The phonology of a language can be investigated at two sub-levels: segmental and suprasegmental. Investigating the segmental micro-level entails looking at phonemes – the vowels and the consonants. Suprasegmentals are linguistically significant elements that go beyond individual segments, and include syllable, tone, stress, rhythm and intonation.
The shape-bias in Spanish-speaking children and its relationship to vocabulary
Authors: HAHN ERIN R. , CANTRELL LISA
Published: August 2011

Considerable research has demonstrated that English-speaking children extend nouns on the basis of shape. Here we asked whether the development of this bias is influenced by the structure of a child's primary language. We tested English- and Spanish-speaking children between the ages of 1 ; 10 and 3 ; 4 in a novel noun generalization task. Results showed that English learners demonstrated a robust shape-bias, whereas Spanish learners did not. Further, English-speaking children produced more shape-based nouns outside the laboratory than Spanish-speaking children, despite similar productive vocabulary sizes. We interpret the results as evidence that attentional biases arise from the specifics of the language environment.
Factors contributing to child scrambling: evidence from Ukrainian
Authors: MYKHAYLYK ROKSOLANA
Published: August 2011

This study examines the word order phenomenon of optional scrambling in Ukrainian. It aims to test factors such as semantic features and object type that have been shown to affect scrambling in other languages. Forty-one children between 2 ; 7 and 6 ; 0, and twenty adult speakers participated in an elicited production experiment. The picture description task was used to set appropriate semantic contexts to prompt the production of scrambled structures. The results demonstrate that the children scrambled at higher rates in definite/partitive contexts than in indefinite/non-specific contexts. This suggests that children are susceptible to the same semantic features that are associated with NP scrambling in adult production. However, they differ from adults in pronominal scrambling and approximate adult scrambling behaviour only around four to five years. These findings underline the complex nature of syntax/semantics/phonology correlation in scrambling, and contribute to our understanding of the issue of optionality in child and adult grammar.
Reduced spillover transmission ofMycobacterium bovisto feral pigs (Sus scofa) following population control of brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula)
Authors: NUGENT G. , WHITFORD J. , YOCKNEY I. J. , CROSS M. L.
Published: August 2011

In New Zealand, bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is present in domestic cattle and deer herds primarily as the result of on-going disease transmission from the primary wildlife host, the brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula). However, bTB is also present in other introduced free-ranging mammalian species. Between 1996 and 2007, we conducted a series of studies to determine whether poison control of possum populations would have any effect on the prevalence ofMycobacterium bovisinfection in sympatric feral pigs (Sus scrofa). We compared trends in the prevalence of bTB infection in feral pigs in six study areas: possum numbers were reduced in three areas, but not in the other three, effectively providing a thrice-replicated before-after-control-intervention design. Before possum control, the overall prevalence of culture-confirmedM. bovisinfection in feral pigs was 16·7–94·4%, depending on area. Infection prevalence varied little between genders but did vary with age, increasing during the first 2–3 years of life but then declining in older pigs. In the areas in which possum control was applied,M. bovisprevalence in feral pigs fell to near zero within 2–3 years, provided control was applied successfully at the whole-landscape scale. In contrast, prevalence changed much less or not at all in the areas with no possum control. We conclude that feral pigs in New Zealand acquireM. bovisinfection mainly by inter-species transmission from possums, but then rarely pass the disease on to other pigs and are end hosts. This is in contrast to the purported role of pigs as bTB maintenance hosts in other countries, and we suggest the difference in host status may reflect differences in the relative importance of the oral route of infection in different environments. Despite harbouringM. bovisinfection for a number of years, pigs in New Zealand do not sustain bTB independently, but are good sentinels for disease prevalence in possum populations.
Analysing lexical richness in French learner language: what frequency lists and teacher judgements can tell us about basic and advanced words
Authors: TIDBALL FRANÇOISE , TREFFERS-DALLER JEANINE
Published: August 2011

In this paper we study different aspects of lexical richness in narratives of British learners of French. In particular we focus on different ways of measuring lexical sophistication. We compare the power of three different operationalisations of the Advanced Guiraud (AG) (Daller, van Hout and Treffers-Daller, 2003): one based on teacher judgement, one on ‘le français fondamental 1er degré’ and one on frequency of lexical items. The results show that teacher judgement is a highly reliable tool for assessing lexical sophistication. The AG based on teacher judgements is better able to discriminate between the groups than the other operationalisations. It also works better than Vocabprofil (the French version of Laufer and Nation's (1995) Lexical Frequency Profile).
On the Distribution of Three-Term Arithmetic Progressions in Sparse Subsets of Fpn
Authors: NGUYEN HOI H.
Published: August 2011

We give a short proof of the following result on the distribution of three-term arithmetic progressions in sparse subsets of Fpn. For every α > 0 there exists a constant C = C(α) such that the following holds for all r ≥ Cpn/2 and for almost all sets R of size r of Fpn. Let A be any subset of R of size at least αr; then A contains a non-trivial three-term arithmetic progression. This is an analogue of a hard theorem by Kohayakawa, Łuczak and Rödl. The proof uses a version of Green's regularity lemma for subsets of a typical random set, which is of interest in its own right.
Daisies and Other Turán Problems
Authors: BOLLOBÁS BÉLA , LEADER IMRE , MALVENUTO CLAUDIA
Published: August 2011

Our aim in this note is to make some conjectures about extremal densities of daisy-free families, where a ‘daisy’ is a certain hypergraph. These questions turn out to be related to some Turán problems in the hypercube, but they are also natural in their own right. We start by giving the daisy conjectures, and some related problems, and shall then go on to describe the connection with vertex-Turán problems in the hypercube.
Semantic composition of AT-LOCATION relation with other relations
Authors: CANKAYA HAKKI C. , BLANCO EDUARDO , MOLDOVAN DAN
Published: August 2011

This paper presents a method for the composition of at-location with other semantic relations. The method is based on inference axioms that combine two semantic relations yielding another relation that otherwise is not expressed. An experimental study conducted on PropBank, WordNet, and eXtended WordNet shows that inferences have high accuracy. The method is applicable to combining other semantic relations and it is beneficial to many semantically intense applications.
The effects of corruption control, political stability and economic growth on deforestation-induced carbon dioxide emissions
Authors: Galinato Gregmar I. , Galinato Suzette P.
Published: August 2011

This article formulates an empirical model that measures the short- and long-run effects of political stability, corruption control and economic growth on CO2 emissions from deforestation. Political stability and corruption have significant effects on forest cover in the short run and have lingering long-run effects. We derive a U-shaped forest–income curve where forest cover initially declines as per capita income increases, but starts to rise after an income turning point. Political stability and corruption control do not significantly affect the income turning point but both variables shift the forest–income curve up or down. The resulting CO2 emission–income curve is downward sloping and is based on changes in the levels of variables affecting forest cover. Increased political stability flattens the CO2 emissions–income curve, leading to smaller changes of CO2 emissions per unit change in income.
TURFs and clubs: empirical evidence of the effect of self-governance on profitability in South Korea's inshore (maul) fisheries
Authors: Uchida Emi , Uchida Hirotsugu , Lee Jung-Sam , Ryu Jeong-Gon , Kim Dae-Young
Published: August 2011

Self-governance of natural resources has started to gain increasing attention as an alternative to command-and-control and market-based tools. However, a fundamental question remains: is self-governance economically beneficial, allowing it to serve as an alternative management tool? This paper uses a unique set of survey data from a territorial-user-right-based South Korean inshore (maul) fishery and applies an empirical strategy to provide some of the first quantitative evidence that self-governance benefitsmaulfishermen. We find that members of the self-governance group perceive the management system as having had a positive impact on four out of the eight criteria we tested: stock recovery, curtailed fishing effort, reduced disputes among fishermen and declining incidents of illegal fishing. Considering that these groups have been in existence on average for less than seven years, these results indicate that the management scheme has made good progress overall.
Carbon leakage: the role of sequential policy setting
Authors: Sikdar Shiva , Lapan Harvey E.
Published: August 2011

We analyze non-cooperative environmental policy when the only strategic interaction between countries is through bilateral transboundary pollution, i.e., countries are closed or small open economies. Under simultaneous moves, there is no carbon leakage. However, in the sequential-move game, carbon leakage occurs; the leader sets its pollution tax lower than that in the simultaneous-move game and lower than the marginal damage from own pollution, while the follower sets its tax higher than that in the simultaneous-move game. The only motive behind the leader's underregulation of own pollution is to reduce the incidence of transboundary pollution from the follower. If pollution is a pure global public bad, aggregate pollution is higher in the sequential-move game than in the simultaneous-move game. The leader (follower) obtains higher (lower) welfare than that under simultaneous moves. Hence, if countries can choose to be leaders or followers, they choose to move first to set environmental taxes.
Persönliche Ziele und Schule-Freizeit-Konflikte bei Jugendlichen
Authors: Hofer Manfred , Kilian Britta , Kuhnle Claudia , Hellmann Katharina , Barth Dominik
Published: August 2011

Zusammenfassung. In einer idiografisch-nomothetischen Erhebung wurden die persönlichen Ziele von 348 Schüler/-innen aus 16 zehnten Gymnasialklassen erhoben, die jeweils einen kürzlich erlebten Konflikt zwischen einer schulischen und einer Freizeittätigkeit schilderten. Die Schüler gaben auch Auskunft über den Zusammenhang zwischen den in dem Konflikt beschriebenen Optionen und ihren Zielen und über die erlebte motivationale Interferenz bei der Ausführung der gewählten Handlung. Die beiden Optionen hingen deutlich mit schulischen und Freizeitzielen zusammen. Die Entscheidung für eine Option ließ sich mit hoher Genauigkeit klassifizieren auf der Basis der Mittel-Ziel-Zusammenhänge für die Handlung und für die Alternative. Bei Schülern/innen, die sich für die schulische Option entschieden hatten, hingen die Wichtigkeit der Ziele und die Mittel-Ziel-Verbindung für die Alternative mit der motivationalen Interferenz während der ausgeübten (Lern-)Handlung zusammen, nicht jedoch bei der Ausübung der Freizeithandlung.
Emotionsregulationsprobleme im Jugendalter
Authors: Neumann Anna , Koot Hans M.
Published: August 2011

Zusammenfassung. Fragestellung: Untersucht werden Zusammenhänge zwischen wahrgenommenem Erziehungsstil und der Qualität der Mutter-Kind-Beziehung und Emotionsregulationsproblemen bei Jugendlichen sowie eine mögliche moderierende Rolle des Geschlechts der Jugendlichen. Methodik: Jugendliche füllten Fragebögen bezüglich des wahrgenommen Erziehungsstils oder der Beziehung zur Mutter aus; ebenso einen Fragebogen zu Emotionsregulationsproblemen. Ergebnisse: Wahrgenommene Kontrolle durch die Mutter (im Besonderen psychologische Kontrolle) und die Qualität der Mutter-Kind-Beziehung zeigten einen signifikanten Zusammenhang mit Emotionsregulationsproblemen. Diese Zusammenhänge waren im Allgemeinen stärker für Mädchen als für Jungen. Schlussfolgerungen: Erziehungsstile und die Qualität der Mutter-Kind-Beziehung sind auch im Jugendalter mit Emotionsregulation verbunden. Studien zur Emotionsregulation im sozialen Kontext sollten eine mögliche Rolle der Geschlechtszugehörigkeit beachten.
Deutsch als Zweitsprache
Authors: Caspar Ulrike , Leyendecker Birgit
Published: August 2011

Zusammenfassung. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht die Entwicklung von Deutsch als Zweitsprache bei vier- bis fünfjährigen türkischstämmigen Vorschulkindern (n = 88). Als Referenzgruppe dienen deutsche Vorschulkinder derselben Altersstufe (n = 95). Die Mütter wurden interviewt, mit den Kindern wurde während des zweiten Kindergartenjahres der SETK 3-5 ( Grimm, 2001 ) durchgeführt. Türkische Kinder erreichten geringere SETK-Werte als deutsche Kinder. Sowohl in der türkischen als auch in der deutschen Stichprobe erwies sich der Fernsehkonsum des Kindes als substanzieller Prädiktor: Geringerer Fernsehkonsum des Kindes ging einher mit besserer Sprachkompetenz des Kindes. In der deutschen Stichprobe gingen neben Fernsehkonsum des Kindes auch Geschwisterposition (Erstgeborene/Einzelkinder) und höheres Bildungsniveau der Mutter einher mit besserer Sprachkompetenz des Kindes. In beiden Gruppen hatten institutionelle Betreuungsdauer der Kinder, väterliches Bildungsniveau und Vorlesehäufigkeit keinen direkten Einfluss. Beim Zweitspracherwerb der türkischen Stichprobe hatte weder in Deutschland erworbene Schulbildung der Eltern noch Sprachpräferenz von Eltern und Kindern eine sprachfördernde Wirkung.
Particle dynamics in high‐Alpine proglacial reservoirs modified by pumped‐storage operation
Authors: Bonalumi Matteo , Anselmetti Flavio S. , Kaegi Ralf , Wüest Alfred
Published: August 2011

Temperature and suspended particle distribution were surveyed and modeled in two high‐Alpine reservoirs in Switzerland, connected by pumped‐storage operations for ∼30 years. Due to different glacier coverage of the catchments, the two reservoirs exhibit different particle concentrations and temperatures. After ice‐breakup, the lower reservoir with a higher glacier cover in its catchment experiences a higher particle input becoming more turbid than the upper reservoir, which in contrast becomes warmer and thermally more stratified. The pumped‐storage operations, which replace the basin volumes annually at least 6 (larger lower basin) to 10 (smaller upper basin) times, modify the physical characteristics of the two reservoirs. This is especially so in winter, when they are ice‐covered, without riverine input and at low water level. Our reservoir investigations between 2007 and 2009 and the subsequent particle‐balance model show that the upper and lower basins have become more and less turbid, respectively. Pumped‐storage operations modify the stratification and particle distribution in both reservoirs and therefore alter the particle outflow and sedimentation. However, on the basis of particle concentrations and reservoir volumes, it is evident that the annually integrated particle release to downstream (∼40% of total) and to overall sedimentation (∼60%) have hardly changed. The budget model was useful in the prediction of particle distribution and sedimentation dynamics in the pumped‐storage system. It implies that this approach can be useful for further employment during planning stages of power plants in order to modify and mitigate downstream particle loads in reservoir operations.
Impact of abrupt climate change in the tropical southeast Atlantic during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3
Authors: Hessler Ines , Steinke Stephan , Groeneveld Jeroen , Dupont Lydie , Wefer Gerold
Published: August 2011

High resolution planktonic foraminifera Mg/Ca paleotemperatures and oxygen isotopes of seawater of Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1078 (off Angola) have been reconstructed and reveal insights into the seasonal thermal evolution of the Angola Current (AC), the Angola‐Benguela Front (ABF), and the Benguela Current (BC) during the last glacial (50–23.5 ka BP). Special emphasis is put on time intervals possibly associated with the North Atlantic Heinrich Stadials (HS), which are thought to lead to an accumulation of heat in the South Atlantic due to a reduction of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Within dating uncertainties, Globigerinoides ruber (pink) Mg/Ca‐based sea surface temperature (SST) estimates that represent southern hemisphere summer surface conditions show several warming episodes that coincide with North Atlantic HS, thus supporting the concept of the bipolar thermal seesaw. In contrast, the Mg/Ca‐based temperatures of Globigerina bulloides, representing the SST of the ABF/BC system during southern hemisphere winter, show no obvious response to the North Atlantic HS in the study area. We suggest that surface water cooling during the winter season is due to enhanced upwelling or upwelling of colder water masses which has most likely mitigated a warming of the ABF/BC system during HS. We further speculate that the seasonal asymmetry in our SST record results from seasonal differences in the dominance of atmospheric and oceanic teleconnections during periods of northern high latitude cooling.
Defining seasonal marine microbial community dynamics
Authors: Gilbert Jack A , Steele Joshua A , Caporaso J Gregory , Steinbrück Lars , Reeder Jens , Temperton Ben , Huse Susan , McHardy Alice C , Knight Rob , Joint Ian , Somerfield Paul , Fuhrman Jed A , Field Dawn
Published: August 2011

Here we describe, the longest microbial time-series analyzed to date using high-resolution 16S rRNA tag pyrosequencing of samples taken monthly over 6 years at a temperate marine coastal site off Plymouth, UK. Data treatment effected the estimation of community richness over a 6-year period, whereby 8794 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were identified using single-linkage preclustering and 21 130 OTUs were identified by denoising the data. The Alphaproteobacteria were the most abundant Class, and the most frequently recorded OTUs were members of the Rickettsiales (SAR 11) and Rhodobacteriales. This near-surface ocean bacterial community showed strong repeatable seasonal patterns, which were defined by winter peaks in diversity across all years. Environmental variables explained far more variation in seasonally predictable bacteria than did data on protists or metazoan biomass. Change in day length alone explains >65% of the variance in community diversity. The results suggested that seasonal changes in environmental variables are more important than trophic interactions. Interestingly, microbial association network analysis showed that correlations in abundance were stronger within bacterial taxa rather than between bacteria and eukaryotes, or between bacteria and environmental variables.
Structural segregation of gut microbiota between colorectal cancer patients and healthy volunteers
Authors: Wang Tingting , Cai Guoxiang , Qiu Yunping , Fei Na , Zhang Menghui , Pang Xiaoyan , Jia Wei , Cai Sanjun , Zhao Liping
Published: August 2011

Despite a long-suspected role in the development of human colorectal cancer (CRC), the composition of gut microbiota in CRC patients has not been adequately described. In this study, fecal bacterial diversity in CRC patients (n=46) and healthy volunteers (n=56) were profiled by 454 pyrosequencing of the V3 region of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene. Both principal component analysis and UniFrac analysis showed structural segregation between the two populations. Forty-eight operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were identified by redundancy analysis as key variables significantly associated with the structural difference. One OTU closely related to Bacteroides fragilis was enriched in the gut microbiota of CRC patients, whereas three OTUs related to Bacteroides vulgatus and Bacteroides uniformis were enriched in that of healthy volunteers. A total of 11 OTUs belonging to the genera Enterococcus, Escherichia/Shigella, Klebsiella, Streptococcus and Peptostreptococcus were significantly more abundant in the gut microbiota of CRC patients, and 5 OTUs belonging to the genus Roseburia and other butyrate-producing bacteria of the family Lachnospiraceae were less abundant. Real-time quantitative PCR further validated the significant reduction of butyrate-producing bacteria in the gut microbiota of CRC patients by measuring the copy numbers of butyryl-coenzyme A CoA transferase genes (Mann–Whitney test, P<0.01). Reduction of butyrate producers and increase of opportunistic pathogens may constitute a major structural imbalance of gut microbiota in CRC patients.
A Short Review on Ammonia-based Lignocellulosic Biomass Pretreatment
Authors: Balan Venkatesh , Bals Bryan , da Costa Sousa Leonardo , Garlock Rebecca , Dale Bruce E.
Published: August 2011

Since the beginning of the 21st century, we have observed a dramatic increase in the price of crude oil, passing the $100/barrel barrier to reach a historical maximum of $134.44/barrel in July of 2008. With this in mind, fuels made using lignocellulosic biomass are poised to become an important source of renewable energy. Liquid biofuels are made by pretreating lignocellulosic biomass, followed by enzymatic hydrolysis and the subsequent fermentation of the sugars to alcohols or other fuels. Ammonia Fiber Expansion (AFEX) is considered one of the leading alkaline pretreatment processes. This technology incorporates many innovative features, including operation at relatively low temperatures and short residence times, showing extremely good results for enzymatic hydrolysis yields from grasses, and the ability to conduct fermentation without additional detoxification or nutrient supplementation. However, little is known about the important chemical reactions that occur during AFEX pretreatment and the relationship between structural changes in the biomass and its degradability. These issues will be discussed in this review.
Bioinspired Catalysts for Biofuels: Challenges and Future Directions
Authors: AMUNDSEN TED J. , Katz Alexander
Published: August 2011

Bioinspired catalysts have been developed for several reactions relevant to biofuels production: acyl transfer, ester and glycosidic bond hydrolysis, aldol condensations, ketonization, dehydration, and lignin depolymerization. Amongst these disparate reactions, however, exist general conceptual approaches for recreating the remarkable catalytic prowess of enzymes. A hallmark feature of bioinspired catalyst design is the desire to emulate the intricate multifunctional environments suspected to be of critical importance in enzymatic catalysis. Two of the main challenges in doing so, however, are the difficulties associated with satisfying the stringent spatial requirements of successful bifunctional catalysts and maintaining the ability to function in water, which is typically present in significant amounts in bio-based feedstocks. The latter has been dealt with by designing catalysts such as cyclodextrins which consist of a hydrophobic binding pocket to exclude water from the active site. However, even in water in the absence of a hydrophobic binding site, some intramolecular systems have proven to exhibit remarkable activity simply by virtue of having exactly the correct active site configuration. The key to bifunctional catalysis is therefore in having the correct distances between the substrate and the appropriate catalytically active functionalities. The current challenge is to translate the demonstrated hydrolysis activity of the intramolecular systems, which function at mild pH, to catalysts capable of acting intermolecularly. Combinatorial approaches such as catalytic antibodies and molecularly imprinted polymers have been successful, to varying degrees, in this application because they produce a multitude of active sites. This increases the probability that some of the sites will have the correct positioning, obviating the practically prohibitive requirement of synthesizing every aspect of the bifunctional catalyst with the precision required for success. Another promising perspective on the combinatorial approach is to provide a continuum of distances between reactive groups so that at least one is bound to be effective. This has been illustrated both with proof-of-concept systems employing one-dimensional organic polymers and two-dimensional inorganic oxide surfaces, which are shown to be versatile bifunctional catalysts.
Xylan and Xylan Derivatives – Basis of Functional Polymers for the Future
Authors: Heinze Thomas , Daus Stephan
Published: August 2011

This review highlights xylan and xylan derivatives. It depicts the occurrence and structural diversity of the biopolymer, followed by a presentation of different ways of isolation from biomass. The determination of characteristics, i.e., molecular weight, interaction with other polysaccharides, thermal behaviour, and the biological activity of xylan are reviewed. The application potential arising from the structural features of the unmodified xylan is pointed out. Special attention is concentrated on the possibilities of the modification of functional properties by chemical functionalization of the biopolymers in order to design advanced materials. Within this review recent results in the field are accompanied with selected results of our own work.
Starch and its Derived Products: Biotechnological and Biomedical Applications
Authors: Kennedy John F. , Knill Charles J. , Liu Liu , Panesar Parmjit S.
Published: August 2011

Starches are one of the most abundant renewable natural resources available to us, however their potential as a biomass feedstock for the production of a vast range of commercially viable chemicals/components for application in many areas of industrial, food and biomedical sciences is currently under-exploited. This review begins by presenting an overview of starch sources, composition and structure, and physicochemical characteristics. Specific topics discussed include amylose and amylopectin structure, their location in the amorphous and crystalline regions of starch granules, granule morphology, gelatinisation and pasting characteristics. The remainder of the review then focuses upon the biotechnological production of starch hydrolysis products, such as maltodextrins, glucose and fructose syrups, and cyclodextrins, and the chemical modification of starch, namely, oxidation, stabilisation (esterification and etherification), and cross-linking. Finally some specific examples of the development of starch-derived biomaterials for application in areas such as orthopaedics, bone cements, tissue engineering, and hydrogels are presented.
Gum Arabic and other Exudate Gums
Authors: Phillips Glyn O. , Phillips Aled O.
Published: August 2011

Natural exudate gums such as gum acacia, tragacanth and karaya have been used in food, pharmaceutical and medicine, mainly as bulking agents, adhesives and for emulsifying oily preparations and beverages. Recently, the structural properties responsible for these functionalities have been elucidated, enabling a more extensive and quantitative application. These natural products have, in the past, been used without detailed chemical and physical characterisation. Now the regulatory requirements have become more stringent and are described in the paper.
Chitin and Chitosan: Sources, Production and Medical Applications
Authors: Kean Thomas , Thanou Maya
Published: August 2011

Chitin is a biopolymer of N-acetyl glucosamine. Chitin's deacetylation produces chitosan which is a co-polymer of N-acetyl glucosamine and glucosamine. Chitosan shows better aqueous solubility compared to chitin and has found application in a wide variety of areas. Chitosan has attracted a lot of interest in the biomedical field as it is generally regarded as a biocompatible, biodegradable and versatile polymer. Chitosan has been used extensively in the field of drug and gene delivery. This is due to chitosan's physicochemical properties, and biofunctionality. In gene delivery it forms polyelectrolyte complexes (polyplexes) with nucleic acids which protects them from nuclease degradation. It has also been used to enhance drug, peptide and protein delivery across mucosal membranes due to its bioadhesive and permeation enhancing properties.
β-Glucans
Authors: Cui Steve W. , Wang Qi , Zhang Mei
Published: August 2011

β-Glucans occur widely in plants, fungi and bacteria as structural components. The current chapter focused on β-glucans from cereals, mushrooms and some microorganism-produced β-glucans, such as curdlan, in terms of their sources, structural features, conformational and physicochemical properties, bioactivity and related health benefits. The effects of structure, molecular weight and conformation on the functionality of these β-glucans were discussed and their structure–function relationships were elucidated.
Glycoproteins and Adhesion Ligands: Properties and Biomedical Applications
Authors: Mann B.K. , Turner S.D.
Published: August 2011

Glycoproteins are a class of multifunctional proteins in the extracellular matrix (ECM) of tissues that serve to link cells to the ECM, link proteins to one another, and mediate cell behavior. Structural glycoproteins, in particular, have found uses in biomaterial and tissue engineering applications. This chapter outlines two representative glycoproteins, fibronectin and laminin, adhesion peptide sequences derived from them, and their use in biomaterial applications. In general, the proteins and peptides have been adsorbed or covalently attached to biomaterial surfaces, as well as incorporated in tissue engineering scaffolds. These modifications promote cell attachment and may help to direct specific desired cell responses.
Structural stabilization of protein 4.1R FERM domain upon binding to apo-calmodulin: novel insights into the biological significance of the calcium-independent binding of calmodulin to protein 4.1R
Authors: Nunomura Wataru , Sasakura Daisuke , Shiba Kohei , Nakamura Shigeyoshi , Kidokoro Shun-ichi , Takakuwa Yuichi
Published: August 2011

In erythrocytes, 4.1R80 (80 kDa isoform of protein 4.1R) binds to the cytoplasmic tail of the transmembrane proteins band 3 and GPC (glycophorin C), and to the membrane-associated protein p55 through the N- (N-terminal), α- (α-helix-rich) and C- (C-terminal) lobes of R30 [N-terminal 30 kDa FERM (4.1/ezrin/radixin/moesin) domain of protein 4.1R] respectively. We have shown previously that R30 binds to CaM (calmodulin) in a Ca2+-independent manner, the equilibrium dissociation constant (Kd) for R30–CaM binding being very similar (in the submicromolar range) in the presence or absence of Ca2+. In the present study, we investigated the consequences of CaM binding on R30's structural stability using resonant mirror detection and FTIR (Fourier-transform IR) spectroscopy. After a 30 min incubation above 40°C, R30 could no longer bind to band 3 or to GPC. In contrast, R30 binding to p55, which could be detected at a temperature as low as 34°C, was maintained up to 44°C in the presence of apo-CaM. Dynamic light scattering measurements indicated that R30, either alone or complexed with apo-CaM, did not aggregate up to 40°C. FTIR spectroscopy revealed that the dramatic variations in the structure of the β-sheet structure of R30 observed at various temperatures were minimized in the presence of apo-CaM. On the basis of Kd values calculated at various temperatures, ΔCp and ΔG° for R30 binding to apo-CaM were determined as −10 kJ·K−1·mol−1 and ~−38 kJ·mol−1 at 37°C (310.15 K) respectively. These data support the notion that apo-CaM stabilizes R30 through interaction with its β-strand-rich C-lobe and provide a novel function for CaM, i.e. structural stabilization of 4.1R80.