bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Flows Driven by Libration, Precession, and Tides
Authors: Le Bars Michael , Cébron David , Le Gal Patrice
Published: September 2014

Because of gravitational interactions with their companions, the rotational dynamics of planets and stars involve periodic perturbations of their shape, the direction of their rotational vector, and their rotation rate. These perturbations correspond in planetary terms to tides, precession, and longitudinal libration. We review here the flows driven by those mechanical forcings on rotating spheres and ellipsoids. Special focus is placed on the associated instabilities and on the various routes toward turbulence recently studied. The key point is that mechanical forcings do not provide the energy to the excited flows: They convey part of the available rotational energy and generate intense fluid motions through the excitation of localized jets, shear layers, and resonant inertial modes. Hence, even very small forcings may have large-scale consequences. Mechanically driven flows thus play a fundamental role in planets and stars, significantly influencing their shape, their rotational dynamics, and their magnetic field.
Floating Versus Sinking
Authors: Vella Dominic
Published: September 2014

Small objects that are more dense than water may still float at the air-water interface because of surface tension. Whether this is possible depends not only on the density and size of the object, but also on its shape and surface properties, whether other objects are nearby, and how gently the object is placed at the interface. This review surveys recent work to quantify when objects can float and when they must sink. Much interest in this area has been driven by studies of the adaptations of water-walking insects to life at interfaces. I therefore discuss these results in the context of this and other applications.
Dissipation in Turbulent Flows
Authors: Vassilicos J. Christos
Published: September 2014

This article reviews evidence concerning the cornerstone dissipation scaling of turbulence theory: [Formula: see text], with Cϵ=const., ϵ the dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text] an integral length scale characterizing the energy-containing turbulent eddies. This scaling is intimately linked to the Richardson-Kolmogorov equilibrium cascade. Accumulating evidence shows that a significant nonequilibrium region exists in various turbulent flows in which the energy spectrum has Kolmogorov's −5/3 wave-number scaling over a wide wave-number range, yet Cϵ∼RemI/RenL, with m≈1≈n, ReI a global/inlet Reynolds number, and ReL a local turbulence Reynolds number.
Coalescence of Drops
Authors: Kavehpour H. Pirouz
Published: September 2014

This review examines different stages of the coalescence process of liquid drops on a planar interface under different conditions. Depending on the application, drops coalescence under the influence of applied external shear stress. The focus of this review is on the effect of the viscous stress, Marangoni stress, and electric field stress on the outcome of this process, particularly on the time of coalescence and partial coalescence. Theoretical progress and experiments of this phenomenon are examined, and a future outlook of this area of research is given.
Exploring Developmental and Physiological Functions of Fatty Acid and Lipid Variants Through Worm and Fly Genetics
Authors: Zhu Huanhu , Han Min
Published: September 2014

Lipids are more than biomolecules for energy storage and membrane structure. With ample structural variation, lipids critically participate in nearly all aspects of cellular function. Lipid homeostasis and metabolism are closely related to major human diseases and health problems. However, lipid functional studies have been significantly underdeveloped, partly because of the difficulty in applying genetics and common molecular approaches to tackle the complexity associated with lipid biosynthesis, metabolism, and function. In the past decade, a number of laboratories began to analyze the roles of lipid metabolism in development and other physiological functions using animal models and combining genetics, genomics, and biochemical approaches. These pioneering efforts have not only provided valuable insights regarding lipid functions in vivo but have also established feasible methodology for future studies. Here, we review a subset of these studies using Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster.
From Egg to Gastrula: How the Cell Cycle Is Remodeled During theDrosophilaMid-Blastula Transition
Authors: Farrell Jeffrey A. , O'Farrell Patrick H.
Published: September 2014

Many, if not most, embryos begin development with extremely short cell cycles that exhibit unusually rapid DNA replication and no gap phases. The commitment to the cell cycle in the early embryo appears to preclude many other cellular processes that only emerge as the cell cycle slows just prior to gastrulation at a major embryonic transition known as the mid-blastula transition (MBT). As reviewed here, genetic and molecular studies in Drosophila have identified changes that extend S phase and introduce a postreplicative gap phase, G2, to slow the cell cycle. Although many mysteries remain about the upstream regulators of these changes, we review the core mechanisms of the change in cell cycle regulation and discuss advances in our understanding of how these might be timed and triggered. Finally, we consider how the elements of this program may be conserved or changed in other organisms.
Vulnerabilities on the Lagging-Strand Template: Opportunities for Mobile Elements
Authors: Fricker Ashwana D. , Peters Joseph E.
Published: September 2014

Mobile genetic elements have the ability to move between positions in a genome. Some of these elements are capable of targeting one of the template strands during DNA replication. Examples found in bacteria include (a) Red recombination mediated by bacteriophage λ, (b) integration of group II mobile introns that reverse splice and reverse transcribe into DNA, (c) HUH endonuclease elements that move as single-stranded DNA, and (d) Tn7, a DNA cut-and-paste transposon that uses a target-site-selecting protein to target transposition into certain forms of DNA replication. In all of these examples, the lagging-strand template appears to be targeted using a variety of features specific to this strand. These features appear especially available in certain situations, such as when replication forks stall or collapse. In this review, we address the idea that features specific to the lagging-strand template represent vulnerabilities that are capitalized on by mobile genetic elements.
Quality Control and Infiltration of Translation by Amino Acids Outside of the Genetic Code
Authors: Bullwinkle Tammy , Lazazzera Beth , Ibba Michael
Published: September 2014

Translation of the genome into functional proteins is critical for cellular life. Accurate protein synthesis relies on proper decoding of mRNAs by the ribosome using aminoacyl-tRNAs. During aminoacyl-tRNA synthesis, stringent substrate discrimination and rigorous product proofreading ensure tRNAs are paired with the correct amino acid, as defined by the rules of the genetic code. What has remained far less clear is the extent to which amino acids that are not part of the genetic code might also threaten translational accuracy. Here, we review the broad range of nonproteinogenic, or nonprotein, amino acids that can naturally accumulate under different conditions, the ability of the translation quality control machinery to deal with such substrates, and their potential impact on the integrity of the genetic code and cellular viability.
Diverse Epigenetic Mechanisms of Human Disease
Authors: Brookes Emily , Shi Yang
Published: September 2014

Epigenetic control of gene expression programs is essential for normal organismal development and cellular function. Abrogation of epigenetic regulation is seen in many human diseases, including cancer and neuropsychiatric disorders, where it can affect disease etiology and progression. Abnormal epigenetic profiles can serve as biomarkers of disease states and predictors of disease outcomes. Therefore, epigenetics is a key area of clinical investigation in diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. In this review, we give an overarching view of epigenetic mechanisms of human disease. Genetic mutations in genes that encode chromatin regulators can cause monogenic disease or are incriminated in polygenic, multifactorial diseases. Environmental stresses can also impact directly on chromatin regulation, and these changes can increase the risk of, or directly cause, disease. Finally, emerging evidence suggests that exposure to environmental stresses in older generations may predispose subsequent generations to disease in a manner that involves the transgenerational inheritance of epigenetic information.
Language-and-Law Scholarship: An Interdisciplinary Conversation and a Post-9/11 Example
Authors: Mertz Elizabeth , Rajah Jothie
Published: September 2014

Language-and-law research is now an established field for study, with decades of development behind it. And yet the field remains fragmented, with disparate streams of scholarship that, ironically, tend to speak in different languages: linguistic anthropology, discourse studies, semiotics, literary theory and rhetoric, translation studies, sociolinguistics, legal philosophy, and more. On one hand, this broad variety speaks to the robust character of language-and-law studies as a focus for relatively diverse scholarly endeavors. And for a number of reasons, it seems likely that the separate schools of thought in this area will generally continue to pursue their often distinct paths. On the other hand, as this article argues, a careful reading of work in the area reveals the potential for a productive conversation among some very different perspectives. Such a conversation offers the promise of creating exciting bridges among law, the social sciences, and the humanities. It also draws together interest in a variety of kinds of language: spoken, gestural, written, visual. This kind of bridge, we suggest, is one of the gifts of the truly interdisciplinary space opened up by sociolegal research—it permits us to combine quite diverse kinds of knowledge in our quest to more fully understand closely related legal phenomena. In this article, we also combine two different kinds of disciplinary voices, inviting the reader to assess what insights about law arise from these voices separately and, perhaps, together.
The Law and Social Science of Stop and Frisk
Authors: Meares Tracey L.
Published: September 2014

In 1968, almost 50 years ago, the Supreme Court validated, in a case called Terry v. Ohio (1968) , a common police practice known as stop and frisk, so long as an officer could justify the action on the basis of a newly developed standard: reasonable suspicion. Today, policing agencies use stop and frisk prophylactically, stopping in some cities tens or even hundreds of thousands of people annually. These developments and the litigation around the strategy in New York City and elsewhere provide an opportunity to revisit Terry and to consider recent research in law and social science regarding stop and frisk. This review focuses on three issues: the evolution of legal doctrine pertaining to stop and frisk, arguments regarding the effectiveness of stop and frisk as a mechanism to control and reduce crime, and a delineation of the relevance of the theory of procedural justice to our understanding of the interleaving of the law and social science of stop and frisk.
Law and Courts in Authoritarian Regimes
Authors: Moustafa Tamir
Published: September 2014

Once regarded as mere pawns of their regimes, courts in authoritarian states are now the subject of considerable attention within the field of comparative judicial politics. New research examines the ways in which law and courts are deployed as instruments of governance, how they structure state-society contention, and the circumstances in which courts are transformed into sites of active resistance. This new body of research constitutes an emergent field of inquiry, while simultaneously contributing to a number of related research agendas, including authoritarian durability and regime transition, human rights, transitional justice, law and development, and rule-of-law promotion. Moreover, this research offers important insights into the erosion of rights and liberties in “consolidated democracies.”
The Legitimacy of the US Supreme Court: Conventional Wisdoms and Recent Challenges Thereto
Authors: Gibson James L. , Nelson Michael J.
Published: September 2014

Research on the legitimacy of the US Supreme Court has blossomed of late, with scholars investigating many different hypotheses derived from legitimacy theory. As the theory has been pushed, a number of new controversies have emerged. Here, we identify four such debates: (a) whether the Court's legitimacy rests on satisfaction with its performance, (b) whether support for the Supreme Court reflects the polarization of politics in the contemporary United States, (c) whether the Court's legitimacy requires belief in the “myth of legality”, and (d) whether judicial decisions can change public opinion. Our analysis of these issues generally concludes that the Supreme Court's legitimacy is reasonably secure, in part because individual rulings have little impact on support for the institution, in part because the Court has access to powerful and influential symbols of judicial authority, and in part because the current Supreme Court issues roughly equal numbers of conservative and liberal decisions.
Law and Society in Brazil at the Crossroads: A Review
Authors: Lopes José Reinaldo de Lima , Filho Roberto Freitas
Published: September 2014

This article presents a general overview of Brazilian sociolegal studies. After presenting a short historical narrative of the field in Brazil, we argue that the early years of intense teaching of legal sociology had a politically committed approach, which gave rise to growing criticism of Brazilian legal scholarship that in turn affected the self-image of law professors. Different theoretical strands appeared in the years that followed, and some specific fields of research gained importance, particularly those concerning a sociology of the legal profession, the administration of courts, and law schools. However, we contend that as time went by, many sociolegal scholars began to neglect the critical approach to law, and today most of them fail to confront critical aspects of the gap between law on the books and law in action, especially when that gap affects lower classes or stigmatized populations.
Legal Education in the Corporate University
Authors: Thornton Margaret
Published: September 2014

State disinvestment in higher education has been a notable characteristic of neoliberalism all over the world, and the corporatization of universities has been the typical response. It has led to a proliferation of law schools with students paying high fees. Corporatization has also engendered a culture of relentless competition between universities, which manifests itself in league tables and rankings. The pursuit of prestige has compelled law schools to prioritize research over teaching, which poses a dilemma for what is taught and how it is taught. The contradictions of the corporatization thesis are graphically illustrated by the experiences of Australia, which might be described as the canary in the mine shaft. Although corporatization plays out differently in decentralized regimes with a substantial private sector, such as the United States, its impact on the legal academy in those places has been similarly profound. It is apparent that the dilemmas posed by corporatization for the legal academy require considered scholarly attention.
Disentangling Law: The Practice of Bracketing
Authors: Blomley Nicholas
Published: September 2014

Following the call to focus on law as a set of practices, I develop Michel Callon's concept of framing (which I refer to here as bracketing) in relation to law. Bracketing is the process of delimiting a sphere within which interactions take place more or less independently of a surrounding context. It temporarily rearranges the relations that constitute legal reality. A legal contract, for example, draws certain objects and relationships into sharper focus, ignoring or deliberately excluding others. I offer several examples of legal bracketing—some foundational, others highly routinized—and note several distinctive characteristics. I then use bracketing to think about legal categorization, law as effect (rather than essence), law's success, and the heterogeneity found within a legal frame.
Public Disorders: Theory and Practice
Authors: Body-Gendrot Sophie
Published: September 2014

Public disorder, interpreted as a nuisance by some, is a sign of democratic vitality and innovation for others. Depending on context, it takes many forms. Hooligans, gangs, rioters, and radical groups engage in violent rituals. A breakdown of order allows opportunistic action. Failed negotiations or broken organized social processes, themselves devoid of violence, may lead to coordinated destruction or scattered attacks. Police are an essential piece in the dramaturgy of disorder, and their responses reflect what they have been trained to do and what is institutionally sanctioned. Theories of public disorder and related hypotheses address causes (the relative deprivation theory, the broken windows hypothesis) and dynamics (mobilization of resources, the spark and tinder metaphor, the flashpoint model). The interactionist/comprehensive perspective is also relevant, as it examines how routine relations may be modified by the operation of multiple forces that, in the course of fluid and undetermined situations, come together to produce public disorder in a modified context. In sum, public disorders can make a difference and cause lasting changes; some of them, as signs of democratic vitality, benefit the environments where they occur.
The Dispute Tree and the Legal Forest
Authors: Albiston Catherine R. , Edelman Lauren B. , Milligan Joy
Published: September 2014

Since the Civil Litigation Research Project in the 1980s, sociolegal researchers have referenced the metaphor of the dispute pyramid to understand dispute resolution. The pyramid focuses on formal legal dispute resolution and represents disputes as a linear process of attrition in which only a small proportion of perceived injuries proceed to adjudication. Although a fertile metaphor, the dispute pyramid approach left important processes undertheorized and understudied. We propose a new metaphor: the dispute tree. The dispute tree has many branches, both legal and nonlegal, through which grievances may be resolved. Grievances may move along several branches simultaneously, and dispute resolution may be a nonlinear process. Branches represent the evolving nature of disputes as living organisms that may bear flowers and fruit or may wither and die. Not only dispute trees but also their forests are subjects for study. Dispute trees exist in social environments that may foster or inhibit healthy growth; they may grow within public or privately governed forests. We argue that the dispute tree metaphor better represents decades of research on disputing, which has identified myriad disputing channels outside of courts, as well as both individual and collective mobilization. We also believe that this new metaphor for disputes and the dispute process will open new avenues of inquiry.
Judicial Independence as an Organizing Principle
Authors: Geyh Charles Gardner
Published: September 2014

The term judicial independence has a range of meanings and applications. It is variously employed in normative and descriptive ways; in absolute and relative terms; as a theoretical construct and a practical safeguard; in regard to judges individually and collectively; as an end in itself and a means to other ends; as a matter of hard law and soft norm; and in relation to the political branches of government, the media, the electorate, litigants, interest groups, and judges themselves. This article creates a structure within which to situate the judicial independence literature, to the end of positioning judicial independence as a useful, if polymorphous, organizing principle that delineates a foundational component of the judicial role.
Legal Indicators: The Power of Quantitative Measures of Law
Authors: Davis Kevin E.
Published: September 2014

Legal indicators, sometimes known as rule of law indicators, governance indicators, or indicators of public service performance, are quantitative measures of the performance of legal systems. They are used both as sources of knowledge about societies and as means of governing them (technologies of governance). As a result, these indicators have begun to attract considerable attention from scholars, policy makers, and other actors. Key issues include the following: When, why, and by whom are various kinds of legal indicators produced? Are they reliable and valid? How influential are they? Given their influence, should they be regulated, and if so, how? This article reviews recent efforts to answer these questions. The overarching theme is that all of these questions are related to one another.
Interviewing Children
Authors: Lyon Thomas D
Published: September 2014

This article reviews best practice for interviewing child witnesses. In most officially recognized abuse cases, the child previously disclosed abuse, making it possible to elicit disclosures without asking closed-ended questions. Interviewers nevertheless overuse closed-ended questions, which lead to short unelaborated responses, privilege the limited perspective of the interviewer, maximize the potential for linguistic difficulties, increase children's tendency to guess, and risk response biases. Interviewers can avoid closed-ended questions through narrative practice, in which interviewers ask children to narrate a recent innocuous event before introducing the abuse topic; cued invitations, in which interviewers repeat details reported by children and ask for elaboration; open-ended wh- questions; and interview instructions, including asking children to promise to tell the truth. A remaining challenge is how to elicit disclosures from reluctant children. Better understanding of the dynamics of abuse disclosure and optimal interviewing strategies can assist the legal system in assessing the veracity of children's reports.
Critical Race Theory Meets Social Science
Authors: Carbado Devon W. , Roithmayr Daria
Published: September 2014

Social science research offers critical race theory (CRT) scholars a useful methodology to advance core CRT claims. Among other things, social science can provide CRT with data and theoretical frameworks to support key empirical claims. Social psychology and sociology in particular can help to explain how race constructs key aspects of social experience—for example, the role of race in suspicion of African Americans as potentially criminal and the use of excessive force by law enforcement. At the same time, a collaboration between CRT and social science risks undermining CRT critiques of objectivity and neutrality and potentially limits the theory's ability to combat structural forms of racial inequality. CRT scholars can mitigate these risks by choosing social science methods carefully and by recognizing that social science is only one among several modes of knowledge production.
Human Trafficking and the New Slavery
Authors: McCarthy Lauren A.
Published: September 2014

Human trafficking is an issue that has grabbed the attention of the world over the past 15 years. But meaningful progress and research are still held back by a number of debates between academics, policy makers, and activists. Agreeing upon a consistent definition and methods of measuring trafficking presents a challenge, as does the continued focus on the sex trafficking of women into prostitution to the exclusion of other types of trafficking and genders. Debates over what type of crime trafficking is and what drives it (organized crime, human rights, migration policies) have also had important impacts on the way that the phenomenon is conceptualized and dealt with at the national and international levels. This article outlines these debates and suggests directions for future research that can reveal the complexities of the phenomenon but also clarify our understandings of the lived experiences of people involved and the processes that drive it.
Taking the Laboratory into the Field
Authors: Whalen D.H. , McDonough Joyce
Published: September 2014

We review the development of methodologies and technologies of empirical linguistic work done outside traditional academic laboratories. The integration of such results with contemporary language documentation and linguistic theory is an increasingly important component of language analysis. Taking linguistic inquiry out of the lab and away from well-described and familiar data brings challenges in logistics, ethics, and the definition of variability within language use. In an era when rapidly developing technologies offer new potential for collecting linguistic data, the role of empirical or experimental work in theoretical discussions continues to increase. Collecting linguistic data on understudied languages raises issues about its aim vis-à-vis the academy and the language communities, and about its integration into linguistic theory.
Variation in Information Structure with Special Reference to Africa
Authors: Güldemann Tom , Zerbian Sabine , Zimmermann Malte
Published: September 2014

Information structure has been one of the central topics of recent linguistic research. This review discusses a wide range of current approaches with particular reference to African languages, as these have been playing a crucial role in advancing our knowledge about the diversity of and recurring patterns in both meaning and form of information structural notions. We focus on cross-linguistic functional frameworks, the investigation of prosody, formal syntactic theories, and relevant effects of semantic interpretation. Information structure is a thriving research domain that promises to yield important advances in our general understanding of human language.
Mussels as a Model System for Integrative Ecomechanics
Authors: Carrington Emily , Waite J. Herbert , Sarà Gianluca , Sebens Kenneth P.
Published: September 2014

Mussels form dense aggregations that dominate temperate rocky shores, and they are key aquaculture species worldwide. Coastal environments are dynamic across a broad range of spatial and temporal scales, and their changing abiotic conditions affect mussel populations in a variety of ways, including altering their investments in structures, physiological processes, growth, and reproduction. Here, we describe four categories of ecomechanical models (biochemical, mechanical, energetic, and population) that we have developed to describe specific aspects of mussel biology, ranging from byssal attachment to energetics, population growth, and fitness. This review highlights how recent advances in these mechanistic models now allow us to link them together across molecular, material, organismal, and population scales of organization. This integrated ecomechanical approach provides explicit and sometimes novel predictions about how natural and farmed mussel populations will fare in changing climatic conditions.
Molecular Mechanisms by Which Marine Phytoplankton Respond to Their Dynamic Chemical Environment
Authors: Palenik Brian
Published: September 2014

Marine scientists have long been interested in the interactions of marine phytoplankton with their chemical environments. Nutrient availability clearly controls carbon fixation on a global scale, but the interactions between phytoplankton and nutrients are complex and include both short-term responses (seconds to minutes) and longer-term evolutionary adaptations. This review outlines how genomics and functional genomics approaches are providing a better understanding of these complex interactions, especially for cyanobacteria and diatoms, for which the genome sequences of multiple model organisms are available. Transporters and related genes are emerging as the most likely candidates for biomarkers in stress-specific studies, but other genes are also possible candidates. One surprise has been the important role of horizontal gene transfer in mediating chemical-biological interactions.
Candidate Drug Targets for Prevention or Modification of Epilepsy
Authors: Varvel Nicholas H. , Jiang Jianxiong , Dingledine Raymond
Published: September 2014

Epilepsy is a prevalent neurological disorder afflicting nearly 50 million people worldwide. The disorder is characterized clinically by recurrent spontaneous seizures attributed to abnormal synchrony of brain neurons. Despite advances in the treatment of epilepsy, nearly one-third of patients are resistant to current therapies, and the underlying mechanisms whereby a healthy brain becomes epileptic remain unresolved. Therefore, researchers have a major impetus to identify and exploit new drug targets. Here we distinguish between epileptic effectors, or proteins that set the seizure threshold, and epileptogenic mediators, which control the expression or functional state of the effector proteins. Under this framework, we then discuss attempts to regulate the mediators to control epilepsy. Further insights into the complex processes that render the brain susceptible to seizures and the identification of novel mediators of these processes will lead the way to the development of drugs to modify disease outcome and, potentially, to prevent epileptogenesis.
Global Health and Development in Early Childhood
Authors: Aboud Frances E. , Yousafzai Aisha K.
Published: September 2014

Health and nutritional risks co-occur in the lives of children under the age of 2 years who live in developing countries. We review evidence showing how these risks, in addition to inadequate psychosocial stimulation, prevent children from developing expected cognitive and language abilities. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 21 interventions aimed at enhancing stimulation and 18 interventions that provided better nutrition—all conducted since 2000—revealed that stimulation had a medium effect size of 0.42 and 0.47 on cognitive and language development, respectively, whereas nutrition by itself had a small effect size of 0.09. The implementation processes of these interventions are described and compared. A number of unresolved issues are outlined and discussed, including ways to maximize parental health behavior change, assess mediators that account for intervention effects, and expand the assessment of young children's brain functions that underlie language and cognition and are affected by nutrition and stimulation.
Social Attributions from Faces: Determinants, Consequences, Accuracy, and Functional Significance
Authors: Todorov Alexander , Olivola Christopher Y. , Dotsch Ron , Mende-Siedlecki Peter
Published: September 2014

Since the early twentieth century, psychologists have known that there is consensus in attributing social and personality characteristics from facial appearance. Recent studies have shown that surprisingly little time and effort are needed to arrive at this consensus. Here we review recent research on social attributions from faces. Section I outlines data-driven methods capable of identifying the perceptual basis of consensus in social attributions from faces (e.g., What makes a face look threatening?). Section II describes nonperceptual determinants of social attributions (e.g., person knowledge and incidental associations). Section III discusses evidence that attributions from faces predict important social outcomes in diverse domains (e.g., investment decisions and leader selection). In Section IV, we argue that the diagnostic validity of these attributions has been greatly overstated in the literature. In the final section, we offer an account of the functional significance of these attributions.
Orangutan Night-Time Long Call Behavior: Sleep Quality Costs Associated with Vocalizations in Captive Pongo
Authors: Samson David R. , Hurst Del , Shumaker Robert W.
Published: September 2014

Researchers have suggested that the ability of male primates to emit long-distance vocalizations is energetically costly and potentially incurring important adaptive consequences upon the calling individuals. Here, we present the first preliminary data on captive orangutan (Pongo spp.) nocturnal long calls, generated at the Indianapolis Zoo. We used videography to characterize long calls with observed behavioral contexts for 48 nights (816 observed hours totaling 83 long calls). We generated somnographic data for a subset of the long calls. Overall measures of sleep quality generated by infrared videography were then compared to the somnographic, nocturnal long call data. We tested hypotheses related to the proximate mechanisms involved in the initialization of vocalization and the potential costs of emitting long calls to overall sleep quality. We found that (1) performed long calls were conscious and premeditated in nature and (2) greater number of night-time long calls shared a positive relationship with arousability and sleep fragmentation and a negative relationship with total sleep time and sleep quality. These findings strongly suggest that only several minutes of total time invested in long calls throughout the night disproportionately cost the caller by negatively impacting overall sleep quality.
Functional Popliteal Artery Entrapment Syndrome: Poorly Understood and Frequently Missed? A Review of Clinical Features, Appropriate Investigations, and Treatment Options
Authors: Hislop Matthew , Kennedy Dominic , Cramp Brendan , Dhupelia Sanjay
Published: September 2014

Functional popliteal artery entrapment syndrome (PAES) is an important and possibly underrecognized cause of exertional leg pain (ELP). As it is poorly understood, it is at risk of misdiagnosis and mismanagement. The features indicative of PAES are outlined, as it can share features with other causes of ELP. Investigating functional PAES is also fraught with potential problems and if it is performed incorrectly, it can result in false negative and false positive findings. A review of the current vascular investigations is provided, highlighting some of the limitations standard tests have in determining functional PAES. Once a clinical suspicion for PAES is satisfied, it is necessary to further distinguish the subcategories of anatomical and functional entrapment and the group of asymptomatic occluders. When definitive entrapment is confirmed, it is important to identify the level of entrapment so that precise intervention can be performed. Treatment strategies for functional PAES are discussed, including the possibility of a new, less invasive intervention of guided Botulinum toxin injection at the level of entrapment as an alternative to vascular surgery.
Neutralization of Virus Infectivity by Antibodies: Old Problems in New Perspectives
Authors: Klasse P. J.
Published: September 2014

Neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) can be both sufficient and necessary for protection against viral infections, although they sometimes act in concert with cellular immunity. Successful vaccines against viruses induce NAbs but vaccine candidates against some major viral pathogens, including HIV-1, have failed to induce potent and effective such responses. Theories of how antibodies neutralize virus infectivity have been formulated and experimentally tested since the 1930s; and controversies about the mechanistic and quantitative bases for neutralization have continually arisen. Soluble versions of native oligomeric viral proteins that mimic the functional targets of neutralizing antibodies now allow the measurement of the relevant affinities of NAbs. Thereby the neutralizing occupancies on virions can be estimated and related to the potency of the NAbs. Furthermore, the kinetics and stoichiometry of NAb binding can be compared with neutralizing efficacy. Recently, the fundamental discovery that the intracellular factor TRIM21 determines the degree of neutralization of adenovirus has provided new mechanistic and quantitative insights. Since TRIM21 resides in the cytoplasm, it would not affect the neutralization of enveloped viruses, but its range of activity against naked viruses will be important to uncover. These developments bring together the old problems of virus neutralization—mechanism, stoichiometry, kinetics, and efficacy—from surprising new angles.
Isolation, Identification, and Characterization of Cadmium Resistant Pseudomonas sp. M3 from Industrial Wastewater
Authors: Abbas Syed Zaghum , Rafatullah Mohd , Ismail Norli , Lalung Japareng
Published: September 2014

The present study deals with the isolation, identification, and characterization of the cadmium resistant bacteria from wastewater collected from industrial area of Penang, Malaysia. The isolate was selected based on high level of the cadmium and antibiotic resistances. On the basis of morphological, biochemical characteristics, 16S rDNA gene sequencing and phylogeny analysis revealed that the strain RZCd1 was authentically identified as Pseudomonas sp. M3. The industrial isolate showed more than 70% of the cadmium removal in log phase. The cadmium removal capacity of strain RZCd1 was affected by temperature and pH. At pH 7.0 and 35°C, strain RZCd1 showed maximum cadmium removal capacity. The minimal inhibitory concentration of strain RZCd1 against the cadmium was 550 µg/mL. The resistance against the cadmium was associated with resistance to multiple antibiotics: amoxicillin, penicillin, cephalexin, erythromycin, and streptomycin. The strain RZCd1 also gave thick bands of proteins in front of 25 kDa in cadmium stress condition after 3 h of incubation. So the identified cadmium resistant bacteria may be useful for the bioremediation of cadmium contaminated industrial wastewater.
Robust Fuzzy Logic Stabilization with Disturbance Elimination
Authors: Danapalasingam Kumeresan A.
Published: September 2014

A robust fuzzy logic controller is proposed for stabilization and disturbance rejection in nonlinear control systems of a particular type. The dynamic feedback controller is designed as a combination of a control law that compensates for nonlinear terms in a control system and a dynamic fuzzy logic controller that addresses unknown model uncertainties and an unmeasured disturbance. Since it is challenging to derive a highly accurate mathematical model, the proposed controller requires only nominal functions of a control system. In this paper, a mathematical derivation is carried out to prove that the controller is able to achieve asymptotic stability by processing state measurements. Robustness here refers to the ability of the controller to asymptotically steer the state vector towards the origin in the presence of model uncertainties and a disturbance input. Simulation results of the robust fuzzy logic controller application in a magnetic levitation system demonstrate the feasibility of the control design.
Resolution of Sterile Inflammation: Role for Vitamin C
Authors: Mohammed Bassem M. , Fisher Bernard J. , Huynh Quoc K. , Wijesinghe Dayanjan S. , Chalfant Charles E. , Brophy Donald F. , Fowler III Alpha A. , Natarajan Ramesh
Published: September 2014

Introduction. Macrophage reprogramming is vital for resolution of acute inflammation. Parenteral vitamin C (VitC) attenuates proinflammatory states in murine and human sepsis. However information about the mechanism by which VitC regulates resolution of inflammation is limited.Methods. To examine whether physiological levels of VitC modulate resolution of inflammation, we used transgenic mice lacking L-gulono-γ-lactone oxidase. VitC sufficient/deficient mice were subjected to a thioglycollate-elicited peritonitis model of sterile inflammation. Some VitC deficient mice received daily parenteral VitC (200 mg/kg) for 3 or 5 days following thioglycollate infusion. Peritoneal macrophages harvested on day 3 or day 5 were examined for intracellular VitC levels, pro- and anti-inflammatory protein and lipid mediators, mitochondrial function, and response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The THP-1 cell line was used to determine the modulatory activities of VitC in activated human macrophages.Results. VitC deficiency significantly delayed resolution of inflammation and generated an exaggerated proinflammatory response toin vitroLPS stimulation. VitC sufficiency andin vivoVitC supplementation restored macrophage phenotype and function in VitC deficient mice. VitC loading of THP-1 macrophages attenuated LPS-induced proinflammatory responses.Conclusion. VitC sufficiency favorably modulates macrophage function.In vivoorin vitroVitC supplementation restores macrophage phenotype and function leading to timely resolution of inflammation.
The Inhibitory Effect of PIK-75 on Inflammatory Mediator Response Induced by Hydrogen Peroxide in Feline Esophageal Epithelial Cells
Authors: Jeong Jun Yeong , Lee Yeon Joo , Han Jeong Hoon , Park Sun Young , Hwang Kwang Woo , Sohn Uy Dong
Published: September 2014

Isoform-selective inhibitors of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) activation have an anti-inflammatory effect by reducing proinflammatory cytokines. Cultured feline esophageal epithelial cells (EEC) of passages 3~4 were treated with hydrogen peroxide and PIK-75. The cell viability was measured by a MTT incorporation assay. The distribution of PI3K isoforms, p-Akt, IL-1β, and IL-8 was inferred from Western blots. The release of IL-6 was determined by ELISA. The cell morphology was not considerably different from nontreated cells if the cells were pretreated with PIK-75 and treated with 300 μM hydrogen peroxide. The density of p110α of PI3K was increased, but that of other types was not affected after the treatment with hydrogen peroxide. The density of p-Akt, when the cells were exposed to PIK-75 and hydrogen peroxide, was diminished dose dependently more than that of hydrogen peroxide treatment only. The decrease of p-Akt showed an inhibition of PI3K by PIK-75. PIK-75 dose dependently reduced the expression of IL-1β, IL-8, and the level of IL-6 compared with hydrogen peroxide treatment only. These results suggest evidence that p110α mediates esophageal inflammation and that PIK-75 has an anti-inflammatory effect by reducing proinflammatory cytokines on feline esophageal epithelial cultured cells.
Insights into the Prevalence of Software Project Defects
Authors: Alfonso-Cendón Javier , Castejón Limas Manuel , Ordieres Meré Joaquín B. , Pavón Juan
Published: September 2014

This paper analyses the effect of the effort distribution along the software development lifecycle on the prevalence of software defects. This analysis is based on data that was collected by the International Software Benchmarking Standards Group (ISBSG) on the development of 4,106 software projects. Data mining techniques have been applied to gain a better understanding of the behaviour of the project activities and to identify a link between the effort distribution and the prevalence of software defects. This analysis has been complemented with the use of a hierarchical clustering algorithm with a dissimilarity based on the likelihood ratio statistic, for exploratory purposes. As a result, different behaviours have been identified for this collection of software development projects, allowing for the definition of risk control strategies to diminish the number and impact of the software defects. It is expected that the use of similar estimations might greatly improve the awareness of project managers on the risks at hand.
Study of Baryon Spectroscopy Using a New Potential Form
Authors: Abou-Salem L. I.
Published: September 2014

In the present work, the nonrelativistic quark model is applied to study baryon systems, where the constituent quarks are bound by a suitable hyper central potential. We proposed a new phenomenological form of the interaction potential, digamma-type potential. Using the Jacobi coordinates, the three-body wave equation is solved numerically to calculate the resonance states of theN, Δ, Λ, andΣbaryon systems. The present model contains only two adjustable parameters in addition to the quark masses. Our theoretical calculations are compared to the available experimental data and Cornell potential results. The description of the spectrum shows that the ground states of the considered light and strange baryon spectra are in general well reproduced.
Effects of the Combined PDL/Nd:YAG Laser on Surgical Scars: Vascularity and Collagen Changes Evaluated byIn VivoConfocal Microscopy
Authors: Vas Krisztina , Gaál Magdolna , Varga Erika , Kovács Réka , Bende Balázs , Kocsis Ádám , Kemény Lajos
Published: September 2014

The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of the sequential combined 585 nm PDL and the 1064 nm neodymium:yttrium-aluminium-garnet laser (PDL/Nd:YAG) in the treatment of surgical scars and to evaluate the short-term effects byin vivoconfocal microscopy (RCM) and the long-term effects by clinical assessment of the scars. Twenty-five patients were enrolled with 39 postoperative linear scars; each scar was divided into two fields. One half was treated with the combined PDL/Nd:YAG laser, whereas the other half remained untreated. Each scar was treated three times at monthly intervals. Scars were evaluated by an independent examiner, using the Vancouver Scar Scale. The combined PDL/Nd:YAG laser significantly improved the appearance of the scars. In order to study the short-term effects of combined laser treatment, six additional patients were enrolled with 7 postoperative linear scars. One half of scars was treated once with the combined PDL/Nd:YAG laser. One week after this laser treatment, both the treated and the nontreated parts of the scars were examined by dermoscopy and RCM. The dermoscopic pictures revealed improvements even in treated areas. In conclusion, the combined PDL/Nd:YAG laser was found to be effective in improving the quality and appearance of the surgical scars.
A Network Meta-Analysis on Randomized Trials Focusing on the Preventive Effect of Statins on Contrast-Induced Nephropathy
Authors: Peruzzi Mariangela , De Luca Leonardo , Thomsen Henrik S. , Romagnoli Enrico , D’Ascenzo Fabrizio , Mancone Massimo , Sardella Gennaro , Lucisano Luigi , Abbate Antonio , Frati Giacomo , Biondi-Zoccai Giuseppe
Published: September 2014

Contrast-induced nephropathy is a common complication of iodinated contrast administration. Statins may reduce the risk of contrast-induced nephropathy, but data remain inconclusive. We summarized the evidence based on statins for the prevention of contrast-induced nephropathy with a network meta-analysis. Randomized trials focusing on statins were searched and pooled with random-effect odds ratios. A total of 14 trials (6,160 patients) were included, focusing on atorvastatin (high/low dose), rosuvastatin (high dose), simvastatin (high/low dose), and placebo or no statin therapy before contrast administration. The risk of contrast-induced nephropathy was reduced by atorvastatin high dose and rosuvastatin high dose, with no difference between these two agents. Results for atorvastatin low dose and simvastatin (high/low dose) in comparison to placebo were inconclusive. Atorvastatin and rosuvastatin administered at high doses and before iodinated contrast administration have a consistent and beneficial preventive effect on contrast-induced nephropathy and may actually halve its incidence.