bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Distribution of Leguminosae tree species in different altitudinal levels along the Atlantic Rain Forest in the Brazilian coast
Authors: da Silva Edson D. , de A. Tozzi Ana M. G. , Meireles Leonardo D.
Published: January 2015

The Atlantic Forest is one of the most threatened tropical forests in the world. Leguminosae, by its great richness and dominance among arboreal stratum elements, is of major importance in the floristic composition and structure of this forest. We investigated the distribution of legume species on an altitudinal gradient to find out the altitudinal zones with higher richness of species; the altitudinal zones with greater floristic similarity; the possible presence of species that may be exclusive to certain vegetation types and the altitudinal amplitudes of those species, as well as the occurrence of species substitution along the altitudinal gradient. Therefore, thirty one studies conducted in different altitudinal levels between 5° S and 29° S were analyzed. A matrix with 142 tree species distributed in altitudinal zones (every 100 m) from sea level to 2100 m was built. The greatest species richness was observed in the Submontane Forest (50–500 m) with 92 species. The cluster analysis revealed a strong dissimilarity of the 1400–2100 m (Upper Montane) and 0–10 m zones (Restinga Forest). The Submontane and the Montane Forest share the highest number of species (38 ssp.). Forty species are unique to Submontane. Substitution of species was verified. Some species have their preferred habitat located at a specific altitudinal amplitude, as is the case of Inga laurina and I. subnuda (0–10 m), I. lanceifolia and Machaerium scleroxylon (800–1200 m). The Leguminosae, although well adapted to the first colonization and establishment of diverse environment, was poorly represented above 1500 m altitude.
What evolves in the evolution of social learning?
Authors: Leadbeater E.
Published: January 2015

Social learning is fundamental to social life across the animal kingdom, but we still know little about how natural selection has shaped social learning abilities on a proximate level. Sometimes, complex social learning phenomena can be entirely explained by Pavlovian processes that have little to do with the evolution of sociality. This implies that the ability to learn socially could be an exaptation, not an adaptation, to social life but not that social learning abilities have been left untouched by natural selection. I discuss new empirical evidence for associative learning in social information use, explain how natural selection might facilitate the associative learning process and discuss why such studies are changing the way that we think about social learning.
Cognitive consequences of cooperative breeding? A critical appraisal
Authors: Thornton A. , McAuliffe K.
Published: January 2015

The social intelligence hypothesis, which posits that the challenges of life in complex social environments drive cognitive evolution, enjoys widespread theoretical and empirical support. Recent years have seen the emergence of a novel variant of this hypothesis, suggesting that cooperative breeding is associated with the elaboration of socio‐cognitive abilities. With this cooperative breeding hypothesis (CBH) rapidly gaining currency, the time is ripe for a critical appraisal. Proponents of the CBH argue that cooperative breeding leads to increased cognitive performance, calling upon cognitive and motivational processes including spontaneous prosocial tendencies, attending to and learning from conspecifics, teaching and coordinating activities. We review the literature on the natural history and cognitive abilities of cooperative breeders and other social animals and conclude that there is no compelling evidence that these processes are either unique to cooperative breeders or particularly cognitively demanding. Thus, there is currently no reason to suppose that cooperative breeding has major cognitive consequences.
Expression of pERK and VEGFR‐2 in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma and resistance to sorafenib treatment
Authors: Negri Francesca V. , Dal Bello Barbara , Porta Camillo , Campanini Nicoletta , Rossi Sandro , Tinelli Carmine , Poggi Guido , Missale Gabriele , Fanello Silvia , Salvagni Stefania , Ardizzoni Andrea , Maria Silini Enrico
Published: January 2015

Background & Aims

The study aimed to evaluate the tissue expression of molecules involved in intracellular signalling pathways as predictors of response to sorafenib in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Methods

We considered 77 patients enrolled into three prospective trials of sorafenib treatment for whom pretreatment tumour tissue was available. The tissue expression of β‐catenin, glutamine synthetase (GS), phosphorylated extracellular signal regulated kinase (pERK), phosphorylated v‐akt murine thymoma viral oncogene homolog (pAKT) and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor‐2 (VEGFR‐2) was analysed by immunostaining. Stains were scored semiquantitatively and compared with a reference group of 56 untreated HCCs.

Results

Overall, the expression of antigens was comparable between treated and untreated patients. Shorter progression‐free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were associated with increased pERK staining (≥ 2+ scores) (PFS: 75th percentile 4.4 vs 8.4 months; P = 0.01; OS: 75th percentile 7.0 vs 15.0 months; P = 0.005) and VEGFR‐2 staining (≥ 2+ scores) (PFS: 75th percentile 3.8 vs 7.0 months; P = 0.039; OS: 75th percentile 6.3 vs 15.0 months; P = 0.004). At multivariate analysis, both pERK and VEGFR‐2 staining maintained an independent effect on OS (HR 2.09; 95% CI, 1.13–3.86, P = 0.019 and HR 2.28; 95% CI, 1.13–4.61, P = 0.021 respectively). No effect was observed for the other tested biomarkers.

Conclusions

Elevated tissue expression of pERK and VEGFR‐2 was predictive of poor outcome in advanced HCC treated with sorafenib.
Inferring trackline detection probabilities, g(0), for cetaceans from apparent densities in different survey conditions
Authors: Barlow Jay
Published: January 2015

Visual line‐transect surveys are commonly used to estimate cetacean abundance. A key parameter in such studies isg(0), the probability of detecting an animal that is directly on the transect line. This is typically considered to be constant for a species across survey conditions. A method is developed to estimate the relative values ofg(0) in different survey conditions (Beaufort state) by comparing Beaufort‐specific density estimates. The approach is based on fitting generalized additive models, with the presence of a sighting on a survey segment as the dependent variable, Beaufort state as the key explanatory variable, and year, latitude, and longitude as nuisance variables to control for real differences in density over time and space. Values of relativeg(0) are estimated for 20 cetacean taxa using 175,000 km of line‐transect survey data from the eastern and central Pacific Ocean from 1986 to 2010. Results show thatg(0) decreases as Beaufort state increases, even for visually conspicuous species. This effect is greatest for the least conspicuous species (rough‐toothed dolphins, beaked whales, minke whales, and dwarf and pygmy sperm whales). Ignoring these large effects results in a nontrivial bias in cetacean abundance estimates.
Synaptic protein levels altered in vascular dementia
Authors: Sinclair Lindsey I. , Tayler Hannah M. , Love Seth
Published: January 2015

Introduction

Cerebral ischaemia is the defining pathophysiological abnormality in most forms of vascular dementia (VAD), but the pathogenesis of the dementia remains poorly understood. In Alzheimer's disease (AD), there is early loss of synaptic proteins, but these have been little studied in VAD.

Materials and Methods

We measured synaptophysin, postsynaptic density protein 95 (PSD‐95), drebrin, synaptosomal‐associated protein 25 (SNAP‐25) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assays in superior temporal cortex from 11 patients with VAD and, initially, 11 non‐dementia controls. We corrected for neuronal content by measurement of neuron‐specific enolase. A further 11 controls were subsequently used in a validation study. Simulation of post‐mortem delay found that PSD‐95 was stable at 4°C but declined slightly at RT. SNAP‐25 and drebrin showed good post‐mortem stability. Previous studies had shown good post‐mortem preservation of synaptophysin and VEGF.

Results

The VAD cases had lower synaptophysin (but P > 0.05 in initial study), significantly lower SNAP‐25 (P = 0.024) and significantly higher drebrin (P = 0.020). On comparison with the second control group, the reduction in synaptophysin was significant (P = 0.008), and the other results were confirmed.

Conclusion

There is probably a reduction in presynaptic proteins in the temporal cortex in VAD, although not as marked as in AD. In VAD, there is also an increase in drebrin, which may be a response to reduced synaptic input.
Fabry disease associated with chronic meningitis and cerebral infarction
Authors: Yanagimura Fumihiro , Fukushima Takao , Sakamaki Yuichi , Nakamura Gen , Maruyama Hiroki , Makino Kunihiko
Published: January 2015

A 48‐year‐old man receiving enzyme replacement therapy for Fabry disease was admitted to Niigata Prefectural Shibata Hospital, Shibata, Japan, for a fever, headache, dysarthria and right hemiparesis. Aseptic meningitis and lacunar infarction were diagnosed, and symptomatic therapy and antiplatelet therapy improved the symptoms. As he had had a sub‐ever and headache once a month for 1 year, and developed a fever and headache again 2 months after discharge from our hospital, chronic meningitis was diagnosed. Prednisolone was introduced, and there was no relapse of meningitis thereafter. It is hypothesized that glycosphingolipids accumulated at the leptomeninges could induce aseptic meningitis and result in a shift to chronic meningitis. Chronic meningitis is implicated as the cause of a chronic headache in Fabry disease, and steroids could be a potential effective therapy.
Intestinal gas homeostasis: disposal pathways
Authors: Mego M. , Bendezú A. , Accarino A. , Malagelada J.‐R. , Azpiroz F.
Published: January 2015

Background

Patients with functional gut disorders frequently complain of gas‐related symptoms, but the role of intestinal gas in this context is not clear, because intestinal gas homeostasis is incompletely understood. Our aim was to compare the proportion of the gas produced by colonic fermentation that is evacuated per anus and that eliminated via alternative pathways.

Methods

In 20 healthy subjects, gas evacuated per anus was collected for 4 h after a standard flatulogenic test meal. Paired studies were performed without and with high‐rate infusion of exogenous gas (24 mL/min) into the jejunum to wash‐out of the gut the endogenous gas produced by bacterial fermentation. The exogenous gas infused was labeled (5% SF6) to calculate the proportion of endogenous gas evacuated.

Key Results

In the experiments with gaseous wash‐out, 1817 ± 139 mL of endogenous gas was produced over the 4‐h study period. However, in the experiments without wash‐out (basal conditions), 376 ± 43 mL were evacuated, indicating that only 23 ± 3% of the gas produced was finally eliminated per anus, while the rest (77 ± 3%) had been previously eliminated via alternative pathways.

Conclusions & Inferences

Intestinal gas homeostasis is a highly dynamic process by which a large proportion of the gas produced by bacterial fermentation of meal residues is rapidly absorbed into the blood and/or metabolized by gas‐consuming microorganisms, and only a relatively modest proportion is eliminated per anus. These data contribute to clarify the complex dynamics of intestinal gas and may help interpret the pathophysiology of gas‐related symptoms.
Gastric emptying scintigraphy results in children are affected by age, anthropometric factors, and study duration
Authors: Wong G. K. , Shulman R. J. , Chumpitazi B. P.
Published: January 2015

Background

A standardized 4‐h adult‐based gastric emptying scintigraphy (GES) protocol is increasingly being used in children to evaluate for gastroparesis. We sought to determine the effect of age, anthropometrics, and study duration on GES results using this protocol in children.

Methods

Retrospective review of children who underwent a 4‐h solid‐meal GES study at a tertiary care center. GES results and anthropometric data (e.g., weight, stature, body surface area [BSA]) were systematically captured.

Key Results

Of 216 children, 188 (87%) were able to complete the study meal. Children unable to complete the meal were younger and smaller. In multivariate analysis, only increasing BSA was identified as being positively associated with ability to complete the meal (odds ratio: 19.7; p < 0.001). Of those completing the meal, 48 (26%) had delayed emptying (4‐h retention value >10%). These children were significantly younger and smaller than those with normal emptying. In multivariate analysis of those completing the meal, only increasing BSA (odds ratio: 0.26; p = 0.006) was identified as being negatively associated with delayed emptying. There was a progressive increase in the positive predictive value for identification of delayed gastric emptying as the duration of the study increased (0.25, 0.60, and 0.71 at 1, 2, and 3 h, respectively) using the 4‐hr value as a comparator.

Conclusions & Inferences

Young children have more difficulty completing the GES meal. Childhood gastric retention is affected by age and anthropometric factors, primarily BSA. The standardized 4‐h GES protocol may need to take these factors into account in children.
The photochemical reflectance index provides an optical indicator of spring photosynthetic activation in evergreen conifers
Authors: Wong Christopher Y. S. , Gamon John A.
Published: January 2015

In evergreens, the seasonal down‐regulation and reactivation of photosynthesis is largely invisible and difficult to assess with remote sensing. This invisible phenology may be changing as a result of climate change. To better understand the mechanism and timing of these hidden physiological transitions, we explored several assays and optical indicators of spring photosynthetic activation in conifers exposed to a boreal climate.

The photochemical reflectance index (PRI), chlorophyll fluorescence, and leaf pigments for evergreen conifer seedlings were monitored over 1 yr of a boreal climate with the addition of gas exchange during the spring.

PRI, electron transport rate, pigment levels, light‐use efficiency and photosynthesis all exhibited striking seasonal changes, with varying kinetics and strengths of correlation, which were used to evaluate the mechanisms and timing of spring activation. PRI and pigment pools were closely timed with photosynthetic reactivation measured by gas exchange.

The PRI provided a clear optical indicator of spring photosynthetic activation that was detectable at leaf and stand scales in conifers. We propose that PRI might provide a useful metric of effective growing season length amenable to remote sensing and could improve remote‐sensing‐driven models of carbon uptake in evergreen ecosystems.
Schistosome infection aggravates HCV‐related liver disease and induces changes in the regulatory T‐cell phenotype
Authors: Loffredo‐Verde E. , Abdel‐Aziz I. , Albrecht J. , El‐Guindy N. , Yacob M. , Solieman A. , Protzer U. , Busch D. H. , Layland L. E. , Prazeres da Costa C. U.
Published: January 2015

Schistosome infections are renowned for their ability to induce regulatory networks such as regulatory T cells (Treg) that control immune responses against homologous and heterologous antigens such as allergies. However, in the case of co‐infections with hepatitis C virus (HCV), schistosomes accentuate disease progression and we hypothesized that expanding schistosome‐induced Treg populations change their phenotype and could thereby suppress beneficial anti‐HCV responses. We therefore analysed effector T cells and n/iTreg subsets applying the markers Granzyme B (GrzB) and Helios in Egyptian cohorts of HCV mono‐infected (HCV), schistosome‐co‐infected (Sm/HCV) and infection‐free individuals. Interestingly, viral load and liver transaminases were significantly elevated in Sm/HCV individuals when compared to HCV patients. Moreover, overall Treg frequencies and HeliosposTreg were not elevated in Sm/HCV individuals, but frequencies of GrzB+Treg were significantly increased. Simultaneously, GrzB+ CD8+ T cells were not suppressed in co‐infected individuals. This study demonstrates that in Sm/HCV co‐infected cohorts, liver disease is aggravated with enhanced virus replication and Treg do not expand but rather change their phenotype with GrzB possibly being a more reliable marker than Helios for iTreg. Therefore, curing concurrent schistosome disease could be an important prerequisite for successful HCV treatment as co‐infected individuals respond poorly to interferon therapy.
Evaluating the relationship between education level and cognitive impairment with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test
Authors: Yancar Demir Esra , Özcan Tuba
Published: January 2015

Background

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is defined as ‘a cognitive decline greater than that expected for an individual's age and education level but that does not interfere notably with activities of daily life’. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a screening test for MCI.

Methods

We investigated the performance of the Turkish version of the MoCA in detecting MCI among elderly persons in a rural area, the majority of whom have a low level of education. We evaluated 50 consecutive men referred from an outpatient clinic. Educational level was divided into three categories: group 1, less than primary (<5 years); group 2, primary (5 years); group 3, more than primary (>5 years). We evaluated the effect of education on MoCA scores and compared subjects' test performance among the different categories of education level.

Results

A total of 50 male patients with MCI (mean age: 70.74 ± 7.87) met the inclusion criteria. There were no differences in the total scores based on education or in the subscores for visuospatial/executive function, naming, attention, abstraction and delayed recall. Language was the only domain that showed significant differences between the groups. In post‐hoc analysis, differences were found between groups 1 and 3 and between groups 1 and 2. Group 1 had significantly lower scores for language. The repeat subscore for language was significantly lower in group 1 than in group 2. In fluency, there were significant differences between groups 2 and 3 and between group 1 and 3.

Conclusion

To our knowledge, this is the first study to analyze the applicability of the Turkish version of MoCA in populations with little education. Our results emphasize the need to adapt the language sections of this test, so it can be easily used in populations with low education levels.
Vernacular translation in Renaissance France, Spain, Portugal and Britain: a comparative survey
Authors: Wilkinson Alexander S.
Published: January 2015

Vernacular translations have, largely, failed to feature in our geography of the Renaissance book. This is a consequence both of our inclination towards a teleological approach to understanding past cultures as well as the priority we have placed on national narratives. Yet, if cultural communities experienced their own particular histories and developments, they were also interconnected. Within the book world, Latin allowed ideas to cross virtually all linguistic boundaries, while vernacular multilingualism was by no means uncommon. Printed vernacular translations, too, played a fundamental part in the complex and vibrant pattern of intellectual exchange. Reconstructing with any accuracy the importation of Latin or non‐indigenous vernacular texts into any given region is problematic beyond small snapshots of individual collections or booksellers' inventories. Vernacular translations, on the other hand, have left a far more robust record, offering our best opportunity to understand both the depth and nature of interest in other cultures, as well as how ideas were adapted and absorbed. Exploiting recent bibliographical resources, this article examines this surviving record by looking broadly at patterns of vernacular translation in three regions: the Iberian Peninsula, France, and the British Isles. It demonstrates an extraordinary communicative vitality – vernacular translations were highly visible in the early modern marketplace of print. Yet, beyond a common impulse to translate, it is clear that each region exhibited its own very particular tastes and appetites.
Translating the Classics into the vernacular in sixteenth‐century Italy
Authors: Merisalo Outi
Published: January 2015

Whilst early‐ and mid‐fifteenth‐century Italian humanism had concentrated on ambitious new translations from Greek into Latin, rather neglecting the vernacular, the sixteenth century is characterized by a proliferation of vernacular works in all fields and, especially from the 1530s on, intense activity in translating classical works into Italian. This article discusses some material features of the original and translated publications under consideration, but especially explores linguistic choices and translation techniques used by three translators in a variety of classical texts: Antonio Brucioli (1487–1566), who translated among other things the texts discussed here, the Rhetorica ad Herennium, believed to be by Cicero (Rhetorica di Marco Tullio Cicerone, tradotta di latino in lingua thoscana, per Antonio Brucioli (Venice, 1538)), and Pliny's Naturalis historia (Historia naturale di C. Plinio Secondo. Nuovamente tradotta di latino in vulgare toscano per Antonio Brucioli (Venice, 1548)); Giovanni Andrea dell'Anguillara (1517–72), who earned lasting fame for his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, entitled De le Metamorfosi d'Ovidio libri III di Giovanni Andrea dell'Anguillara (Venice, 1553); and Francesco Baldelli (d. after 1587), who translated all of Caesar's histories in I commentari di C. Giulio Cesare da M. Francesco Baldelli nuouamente di lingua latina tradotti in Thoscana (Venice, 1554). These translations are considered in terms of their cultural and political context, linguistic and pragmatic characteristics, dissemination in the sixteenth century, and contribution to the ongoing development of the vernacular.
Coding continental: information design in sixteenth‐century English vernacular language manuals and translations
Authors: Armstrong Guyda
Published: January 2015

This article explores the late‐sixteenth‐century Italian‐English translated book via an investigation of its visual, textual, and paratextual expression on the page. Drawing on approaches from textual and material history, bibliography, and translation studies, I unpack the constituent elements of the page to draw new conclusions about the functions of the forms of these specific book‐objects. Using a selection of texts of Italian origin, printed in London in a variety of publishing genres in the latter part of the sixteenth century (mostly, but not exclusively the 1580s and 1590s), I approach these books as much in terms of their visual design as their Italian content. Target editions discussed include three translations from Boccaccio, landmark print productions of other authors such as Ariosto, Castiglione, and Tasso, as well as parallel‐text bilingual or polyglot language‐learning books. How far do the visual codes and organization of the book‐object create its status as a translation, and can these be differentiated from those of the non‐translated book? In answering this question, I ‘translate’ key terminology from the discipline of translation studies more usually applied to linguistic transfer (such as ‘equivalence’, ‘domestication’; ‘foreignization’), and newer approaches such as multi‐modal theory, to the information design of the early modern page.
Form[e]s of transnationhood: the case of John Wolfe's trilingual Courtier
Authors: Coldiron A. E. B.
Published: January 2015

This article treats the importance of printing and translation, and of printing as a kind of translation, in John Wolfe's 1588 trilingual edition of the Courtier. At a signal moment in England's international relations, this book brings not a new word to English readers: the included Hoby, Chappuys, and Castiglione versions were widely available in England (previous editions in English and Latin, and the bilingual French editions on which Wolfe probably based the concept of this work, are noted here). But Wolfe's mise‐en‐page establishes and encourages a newly internationalized English courtiership, and his choices of previous paratexts are also strategic and significant in the new moment. The edition does much more than multiply by three Hoby's appropriative impulses. Wolfe's page strategies, together with his selected paratexts, inculcate an engagement with alterity that offers a new answer to England's old predicament of wanting – and not wanting – what the continent had to offer.
Miracles in translation: Lipsius, Our Lady of Halle and two Dutch translations
Authors: Hermans Theo
Published: January 2015

In 1604 the Flemish humanist Justus Lipsius (1547–1606) published a Latin treatise on miracles said to have happened on account of the intercession of the Virgin Mary in Halle, a small town near Brussels. There are two Dutch translations of Lipsius' book, one by Albert van Oosterwijck, published in Delft in 1605, the other by Philips Numan, published in Brussels in 1607. The translations are very similar but they are very differently framed. As a result, they are worlds apart, and indeed they were written and printed almost within sight, but on opposite sides, of a shifting military front line dividing the emergent, Calvinist‐dominated Dutch Republic in the north from the Catholic Spanish Netherlands in the south. This article considers the propaganda value of pilgrim sites like Halle and Scherpenheuvel, and explores the two contrasting translations of Lipsius' treatise against the background of the ideological war of words between Reformation and Counter‐Reformation apologists.
Translating as a way of writing history: Father du Creux's Historiæ Canadensis and the Relations jésuites of New France
Authors: Hamel Amélie
Published: January 2015

The Historiæ Canadensis, seu Nouæ‐Franciæ libri decem, ad annum vusque Christi MDCLVI is a translation commissioned by the Society of Jesus in France in order to disseminate information concerning its evangelical activities in New France in the first decades of the seventeenth century. The source text is a series of reports written by the Jesuit missionaries in simple, unadorned French prose and printed hastily and cheaply. The form is that of a travel narrative and the tone is often grim. In 1664, Father François du Creux, a Jesuit, rewrote some of these texts, producing what might be called a three‐dimensional ‘translation’ effecting their form, language, and material features. This article explores the ways in which he restructured and reorganized the individual missionary adventures into a historical, narrative framework and turned the French text into Latin, enriching it and elevating the tone as he did so. It also discusses the manner in which expensive engravings illustrating the narratives synthesized them by providing a context and an edifying dimension. Our study demonstrates how these features transform the Relations by combining to give the translation a certain ‘gravitas’, thus widening its appeal and extending its message to a new, larger, and more varied readership.
Translating time: chronicle, prognostication, prophecy
Authors: Green Jonathan
Published: January 2015

The early modern period knew two kinds of writing about time: writing the past, and writing the future. Chronicles, as exemplified by the Nuremburg Chronicle of Hartmann Schedel and his associates printed in 1493, might entail mobilizing the intellectual talents of a city's patrician elite in order to import Italian humanist historiography north of the Alps, and then from Latin into the vernacular. Astrological prognostications, of which thirty or more editions might be published in a given year, represent the meeting of scientific and popular discourse, while prophetic pamphlets belonged firmly to the popular realm. In this article, I demonstrate how, in each of these genres, translation was a creative rather than a derivative activity, one that drove development in the genre and brought forth printed works of new kinds. For the chronicle, translation created a history writing that was aware of its own print media context; for prognostications, translation created the characteristic form of the printed booklet still known as the Practica teüsch long after Latin prognostications were all but unknown; and for prophecies in print, translation was a constitutive part of their origin and transmission as texts: to become a prophecy, a text had to be translated from one medium, one era, one context, or one language into another.
Variable Selection for Support Vector Machines in Moderately High Dimensions
Authors: Zhang Xiang , Wu Yichao , Wang Lan , Li Runze
Published: January 2015

The support vector machine (SVM) is a powerful binary classification tool with high accuracy and great flexibility. It has achieved great success, but its performance can be seriously impaired if many redundant covariates are included. Some efforts have been devoted to studying variable selection for SVMs, but asymptotic properties, such as variable selection consistency, are largely unknown when the number of predictors diverges to ∞. We establish a unified theory for a general class of non-convex penalized SVMs. We first prove that, in ultrahigh dimensions, there is one local minimizer to the objective function of non-convex penalized SVMs having the desired oracle property. We further address the problem of non-unique local minimizers by showing that the local linear approximation algorithm is guaranteed to converge to the oracle estimator even in the ultrahigh dimensional setting if an appropriate initial estimator is available. This condition on the initial estimator is verified to be automatically valid as long as the dimensions are moderately high. Numerical examples provide supportive evidence.
The Use, Functions, and Spread of German in Eighteenth‐Century Russia
Authors: DAHMEN KRISTINE
Published: January 2015

In the eighteenth century, Russians who wanted to be successful in politics, administration, business or science had to learn the German language. For several decades German was the most studied foreign language in Russia. How can we explain this fact? In the course of the modernization of Russia initiated by Peter the Great, thousands of German specialists came to St Petersburg, Moscow and other major Russian cities. Important areas such as politics, life at the royal court, administration, military matters, trade and especially science and the education system therefore became bilingual. In order to illustrate the importance of German in eighteenth‐century Russia this article shows in which social domains German was used and makes clear who found it useful or even essential to learn German and why. Particular attention will be paid to the domain of science, learning and education, where German probably had its most lasting impact. As for the use of German as a spoken language, its role as a medium of instruction in educational institutions will be examined. The article will also deal with German as a subject of study in Russian schools. It will consider how many pupils learned German – or French or Latin – and why they chose a specific foreign language. Numerous primary sources such as curricula, time‐tables, school reports, teachers' and learners' assessments, school enrolment figures and teachers' registers and textbooks are used in order to provide a statistical basis for conclusions about the position of foreign languages at specific Russian educational institutions.
English—A Serious Challenge to French in the Reign of Alexander I?
Authors: CROSS ANTHONY
Published: January 2015

After a brief survey of the relative position of foreign languages in the first six decades of the eighteenth century attention is turned to the fortunes of English during the reign of Catherine II, when Anglophilia was evident in the upper echelons of Russian society, inspired by the empress herself, and manifesting itself in an enthusiasm for things British but not necessarily for the English language. Opportunities to acquire a knowledge of the English language by visits, often prolonged, to Britain, intermarriage, the presence of an influential British community in the capital, the services of English tutors are examined. The reign of Alexander I is often said to be marked by Anglomania, an extreme form of worship of Britain still most often expressed in French, but the cult of British literature with Byron and Scott in the van, although most often perceived through translation, led to serious study of the English language, particularly among writers and intellectuals.
Glavlit, Ideological Censorship, and Russian‐Language Book Publishing, 1922–38
Authors: KASSOF BRIAN
Published: January 2015

This article discusses the development of censorship practices in the years 1922 to 1938, the period when party leaders debated and defined the role of the censor, and more generally, the role of censorship in Soviet book production. It focuses on the work of the Main Directorate of Literature and Publishing Houses (Glavlit) and the censors under its authority. Using a range of archival and published sources, it contextualizes censorship as part of a comprehensive system of print regulation, in order to see how it was meant to work in conjunction with other types of control and influence, and in doing so, to understand the logic and limitations of ideological censorship. Censorship was meant to function as part of a system designed both to facilitate the creation of works seen as useful by the Bolsheviks as well as to repress printed material viewed as ‘undesirable’ or dangerous. Approaching the topic in this manner illuminates Soviet methods of regulating cultural production and suggests a broader definition for ideology in the Soviet context. The article's first section examines the relationship between Glavlit and private publishers during the 1920s, revealing the logic that underpinned Glavlit's work and how censorship practices were designed with the private sector in mind. Glavlit exercised a range of proscriptive and prescriptive powers over private publishers, in order to limit the ideological threat they presented and to channel their work into those subjects designated by the Party. The next section considers Glavlit's relationship to the state publishing sector, explaining what its powers were and why they were much weaker than those exercised over private publishers. The third section of the article examines debates about the role of censorship in the state sector that occurred between 1925 and 1928. It explains why censorship powers were expanded in some respects, but not in others. It also examines claims by Glavlit's head, Pavel Lebedev‐Polianskii, that Glavlit could address a series of growing ideological and material challenges facing the Soviet publishing industry, and why these claims were eventually rejected by party leaders. The final section considers the party leadership's decision to relegate Glavlit and censorship to a secondary role in print regulation during the decade after 1928. It considers both the limits placed on censors during this period, and also the role of editors and other outside bodies, such as the Central Committee's cultural apparatus, in realizing the party's positive and negative agendas in book publishing.
The Return: Postwar Masculinity and the Domestic Space in Stalinist Visual Culture, 1945–53
Authors: McCALLUM CLAIRE E.
Published: January 2015

Following the end of the Great Patriotic War, an estimated twenty‐five million people were left homeless and countless more were left dealing with the realities of single‐parenthood, fatherlessness and bereavement. This article will chart the attempts to both articulate and obfuscate the impact of this loss on the family in contemporary visual culture, focussing primarily on the conceptualisation of the Soviet soldier as a father. It will argue that the War represented a fundamental shift in the imagining and portrayal of fatherhood: the use of the family as a motivational tool in fighting against the Fascists had intrinsically tied masculinity to paternity and patriotism, and this new focus on the Soviet man as a family man would be carried into the post‐war period. Running parallel to the increased emphasis on the Soviet male in the domestic space, it will also be shown that the demographic reality of the post‐war family was articulated in numerous works of the period, through the representation of the single mother with her children and the introduction into the home of the ultimate surrogate father, Stalin himself. The degree of control which the Soviet state exercised over cultural production–particularly during the years of Stalinism–is well‐known and this has led to an acceptance that Soviet culture therefore offered a monochrome and uniform vision of Soviet identity and experience. The representation of the domestic space in the aftermath of the Great Patriotic War challenges this perception. As the material for this research has been gathered from images found in the popular press, the fact that these works were not only being created but were then being circulated to a mass audience requires us to reconsider our totalising perceptions of Soviet cultural production, and demands a far more nuanced analysis than seeing Socialist Realism, even under Stalin, as being completely devoid of social reality.
Should we educate care staff to improve the oral health and oral hygiene of people with intellectual disability in residential care? Real world lessons from a randomized controlled trial
Authors: Mac Giolla Phadraig Caoimhin , Guerin Suzanne , Nunn June
Published: January 2015

This study assessed the impact of a multitiered oral health educational program on the oral health and oral hygiene of people with intellectual disabilities (ID). In a controlled pretest, posttest trial, with cluster randomization, a pyramidal training program was delivered to residential staff who cared for a randomly allocated, purposively stratified intervention group of people with ID living in community care homes. A control group lived in centers where staff received no training. Clinical measures were carried out pre‐ and posttest. Difference in Modified Gingival Index (MGI) and Plaque Index (PI) was measured posttest using ANCOVA. Seventy‐six participants took part, representing 49.0% of the invited sample (n = 155). Fourteen did not receive clinical examination. There was one dropout 6–9 months later. A 10.5% and 8.5% reduction in mean MGI and PI was evident at posttest but did not show statistically significant difference, when controlling for baseline covariates (p > 0.05, ANCOVA). Mean MGI and PI scores were not significantly different among people with ID whose care staff had and had not received oral health training. Limitations are discussed. The results indicate that this program failed to significantly improve oral health or oral hygiene, despite the intervention being “educationally” successful. More research is needed.
Middle Childhood Feelings Toward Mothers: Predictions From Maternal Directiveness at the Age of Two and Respect for Autonomy Currently
Authors: Ispa Jean M. , Carlo Gustavo , Palermo Francisco , Su‐Russell Chang , Harmeyer Erin , Streit Cara
Published: January 2015

The goals of this study were to examine (1) stability of maternal directiveness during interactions with their children from toddlerhood to late middle childhood, (2) direct and mediated relations between mothers' directiveness when children were two years old, mothers' respect for autonomy and children's positivity and negativity toward their mothers when children were in late middle childhood, and (3) differences in these paths by ethnoracial group. Participants included 876 European‐American, 789 African‐American, and 411 Mexican‐American mothers and their children from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project. Maternal respect for autonomy at Time 2 partially mediated an association between Time 1 directiveness and observed child positivity toward mothers at Time 2. There was also a direct inverse link between Time 1 maternal directiveness and children's observed positivity toward mothers at Time 2. Relations were similar across ethnoracial groups and for boys and girls. The discussion focuses on heterotypic stability in directive parenting and its implications for children's feelings toward their mothers.
Mathematics and Science Teachers' Use of and Confidence in Empirical Reasoning: Implications for STEM Teacher Preparation
Authors: Wasserman Nicholas H. , Rossi Dara
Published: January 2015

The recent trend to unite mathematically related disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) under the broader umbrella of STEM education has advantages. In this new educational context of integration, however, STEM teachers need to be able to distinguish between sufficient proof and reasoning across different disciplines, particularly between the status of inductive and deductive modes of reasoning in mathematics. Through a specific set of mathematical conjectures, researchers explored differences between mathematics (n = 24) and science (n = 23) teachers' reasoning schemes, as well as the confidence they had in their justifications. Results from the study indicate differences between the two groups in terms of their levels of mathematical proof, as well as correlational trends that inform their confidence across these levels. Implications particularly for teacher training and preparation within the context of an integrated STEM education model are discussed.
Effect of mixing soil saprophytic fungi with organic residues on the response of Solanum lycopersicum to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
Authors: Almonacid L. , Fuentes A. , Ortiz J. , Salas C. , Garcia‐Romera I. , Ocampo J. , Arriagada C.
Published: January 2015

The effect of the dual inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and saprophytic fungi and a combination of wheat straw and sewage sludge residues were studied by determining their effect on dry weight of tomato and on chemical and biochemical properties of soil. Incubation of organic residue (sewage sludge combined with wheat straw) with saprophytic fungi and plant inoculation with mycorrhizal fungi was essential to study plant growth promotion. Soil application of organic residues increased the dry weight of tomato inoculated with Rhizophagus irregularis. The greatest shoot dry mass was obtained when the organic residues were incubated with Trichoderma harzianum and applied to AM plants. However, the greatest percentage of root length colonized with AM in the presence of the organic residues was obtained with inoculation with Coriolopsis rigida. The relative chlorophyll was greatest in mycorrhizal plants regardless of the presence of either saprophytic fungus. The presence of the saprophytic fungi increased soil pH as the incubation time increased. Soil nitrogen and phosphorus contents and acid phosphatase were stimulated by the addition of organic residues, and contents of N and P. Total N and P content in soil increased when the organic residue was incubated with saprobe fungi, but this effect decreased as the incubation period of the residue with saprobe fungi increased. The same trend was observed for soil β‐glucosidase and fluorescein diacetate activities. The application of organic residues in the presence of AM and saprophytic fungi seems to be an interesting option as a biofertilizer to improve plant growth and biochemical parameters of soils.
A Two-Dimensional Hydroelastoplasticity Method of a Container Ship in Extreme Waves
Authors: Liu Weiqin , Suzuki Katsuyuki , Shibanuma Kazuki
Published: January 2015

Extreme waves have led to many accidents and losses of ships at sea. In this paper, a two-dimensional (2D) hydroelastoplasticity method is proposed as a means of studying the nonlinear dynamic response of a container ship when traversing extreme waves, while considering the ultimate strength of the ship. On one hand, traditional ultimate strength evaluations are undertaken by making a quasi-static assumption and the dynamic wave effect is not considered. On the other hand, the dynamic response of a ship as induced by a wave is studied on the basis of the hydroelasticity theory so that the nonlinear structural response of the ship cannot be obtained for large waves. Therefore, a 2D hydroelastoplasticity method, which takes the coupling between time-domain waves and the nonlinear ship beam into account, is proposed. This method is based on an hydroelasticity method and a simplified progressive collapse method that combines the wave load and the structural nonlinearity. A simplified progressive collapse method, which considers the plastic nonlinearity and buckling effect of stiffened, is used to calculate the ultimate strength and nonlinear relationship between the bending moment and curvature, so that the nonlinear relationship between the rigidity and curvature is also obtained. A dynamic reduction in rigidity related to deformation could influence the strength and curvature of a ship's beam; therefore, it is input into a dynamic hydrodynamic formula rather than being regarded as a constant structural rigidity in a hydroelastic equation. A number of numerical extreme wave models are selected for computing the hydroelastoplasticity, such that large deformations occur and nonlinear dynamic vertical bending moment (VBM) is generated when the ship traverses these extreme waves. As the height and Froude number of these extreme waves are increased, a number of hydroelastoplasticity results including VBM and deformational curvature are computed and compared with results obtained with the hydroelasticity method, and then, some differences are observed and conclusions are drawn.
Investigation on Frictional Vibration Behavior of Tribological Pairs Under Different Wear States
Authors: Sun Di , Li Guobin , Wei Haijun , Liao Haifeng , Liu Ting
Published: January 2015

In this paper, the frictional vibration behavior under different wear states was investigated by the friction and wear experiments of the piston ring against the cylinder liner of marine diesel engine on CFT-I tester. The time-frequency features of frictional vibration were analyzed by harmonic wavelet packet transform (HWPT) and the variation of frictional vibration from running-in wear to steady wear and violent wear states was studied by defining characteristics parameter K using singular value decomposition (SVD). The result shows that the time-frequency features of frictional vibration vary with the wear time and can reflect the wear states of tribological pairs. The variation of characteristic parameter K of the frictional vibration is accordingly consistent with that of the friction coefficient and indicates that the wear progress of the tribological pair goes through various stages, namely, running-in wear, steady wear, and violent wear. Therefore, the frictional vibration can be used to predict the wear process and identify the wear states of tribological pairs.