bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Is the Political Class Corrupt?
Authors: Formisano Ron
Published: July 2018

Is the political class corrupt or decent and just “well dressed”? Among the public, the perception of corruption persists.
The Permanent Campaign and the Permanent Political Class
Authors: Formisano Ron
Published: July 2018

The permanent campaign “has become increasingly antithetical to governing.”
Encountering Olonkho
Authors: Harris Robin P.
Published: July 2018

This introductory chapter includes the author’s personal narrative of encounter with the songs and stories of olonkho during the years she lived in the coldest inhabited city on earth. The reader becomes acquainted with the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), its relationship to Russia, and its largest group of indigenous people, the Sakha (sometimes called “Yakut”). In addition to exploring a few of the complex translation issues for Russian-language terms in the book—Center, nation, and epic sreda—the chapter foregrounds Sakha voices as they reflect on the changes undergone by olonkho during pre-Soviet, Soviet, and post-Soviet periods and give their opinions about revitalization efforts for olonkho.
Effects of Change During the Soviet Era
Authors: Harris Robin P.
Published: July 2018

This chapter begins the historical narrative of the book, recounting Sakha descriptions of olonkho performance practice during the pre-Revolutionary years and throughout the Soviet era. This historical overview reveals constant pendulum swings in the policies of the state, from support of folklorized versions of olonkho to marginalization and even brutal suppression. The gripping accounts documented in this chapter reveal the role of orality in the lives of the early olonkhosuts, the continuing influence of one set of olonkho recordings, and the slow decline of olonkho performance until its virtual disappearance before the demise of the Soviet Union.
Ensuring Sustainability Through Transmission and Innovation
Authors: Harris Robin P.
Published: July 2018

This chapter reflects on the nature of revitalization, seeking to differentiate between highly visible but ineffective measures and more worthwhile approaches. In light of three possible paths for olonkho’s future, specific recommendations suggest ways to support tradition bearers by encouraging innovation and creating better contexts for transmission. Despite the persistence of political, cultural, and religious pendulum swings in post-Soviet Yakutia, the hope remains that Sakha efforts to revitalize olonkho will see success. For example, olonkho theater, a related genre, is already experiencing robust growth. In addition, involvement in olonkho performance by an increasing number of youth and young adults may even, over time, revive the solo-performed improvisatory genre of olonkho.
An Homage to the Past
Authors: Jones-Bamman Richard
Published: July 2018

This chapter and the one that follows (Chapter Five) draw on interviews with twenty-two banjo makers in the United States and Canada to explore the issues facing these individuals who strive to maintain their preferred connections with the old-time music community without losing sight of the artistic and personal motivations that drew them into this undertaking initially. Chapter Four is focused on those who create instruments most closely adhering to the common expectations of old-time banjo players, factors that include certain structural and design features as well as playability and tone production. What unites all of those in this chapter is the influence of the past on their own efforts, but how this is defined is quite different from one person to the next. For some, this means replicating existing instruments from a specific era or locale, and involves learning techniques that long ago passed from common practice. For others, the past is purely inspirational, providing ideas to be expanded upon and subject to new interpretation. The chapter concludes with a consideration of tone production, how this has changed in recent decades, and how banjo builders approach what is clearly a highly subjective topic. The builders profiled here include Kevin Enoch, Chuck Waldman, Wayne Sagmoen, Kevin Fore, Jason and Pharis Romero, Greg Galbreath and Brooks Masten.
An Apprentice to Ghosts
Authors: Jones-Bamman Richard
Published: July 2018

This chapter focuses on builders (Bob Thornburg, Jeff Menzies, John Bowlin, Allen Hart, Jim Hartel, George Wunderlich and Pete Ross) who have chosen exclusively to create instruments that are either inspired by or meticulously replicate the earliest examples of the banjo. These range from instruments made of gourds and other repurposed materials to banjos from the 1840s forward that evince the beginnings of industrialization in instrument manufacture. While individual motivations differ, the thread that unites these makers is a desire to draw attention to the most conflicted elements of this instrument’s history, i.e., its origins among enslaved populations and its cooptation by white entertainers involved in blackface minstrelsy. The response among old-time banjoists has been surprisingly positive, in large part because the playing technique required is very similar to what is currently favored, a fact that strengthens the historical connections between these nearly forgotten instruments and their contemporary counterparts. Yet, as all of these builders have discovered, restoring these early banjos to the old-time musical community necessitates a re-examination of the sources of much of the repertoire and an expansion of the conceptions of a shared, albeit mythical past. These topics are covered in greater detail in Chapter Six.
“Harlem Jazzing”
Authors: Lowney John
Published: July 2018

The first chapter concentrates on the fiction of Claude McKay, which explicitly locates jazz expression within intellectual debates about black internationalism. Beginning with consideration of McKay’s Marxist theorizing of black music, this chapter emphasizes the cultural politics of McKay’s first novel, Home to Harlem, which represents “Jazz Age” Harlem as a site of African diasporic interculturalism. Banjo, which had an enormous influence on the Francophone négritude movement in West Africa and the Caribbean, similarly defines Marseilles as an international site of displaced black migrant workers whose common language is the blues and jazz. As novels that reconsider the cultural politics of the Harlem Renaissance from a radical black internationalist perspective, Home to Harlem and Banjo interrogate the commercialization of black cultural expression as they explore the critical possibilities of jazz for the marginalized perspectives of black workers, including cultural workers.
“Cultural Exchange”
Authors: Lowney John
Published: July 2018

This chapter explains the political aesthetics of Langston Hughes’s adaptation of bebop and post-bop jazz in his long poems, particularly his most experimental blend of jazz and poetry, Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz (1961). Ask Your Mama dramatizes the interaction of African diasporic cultures in the Americas and in Africa, with its evocation of Afro-Caribbean as well as African American music and its movement between different sites of black revolutionary struggle. In this context, jazz plays an explicitly political role in expressing the revolutionary desire for black liberation in the U.S., Africa, and the Caribbean.Ask Your Mama is also Hughes’s most experimental blend of jazz and poetry. Through its formal and specifically sonic patterns of defamiliarization, Ask Your Mama unsettles conceptualizations of “culture”—and cultural production—that assume hierarchical oppositions of white and black, European and African, American and African American, modernist and popular, and written and vernacular.
“A New Kind of Music”
Authors: Lowney John
Published: July 2018

The concluding chapter considers the implications of jazz in Paule Marshall’s writing, specifically in her 2000 novel The Fisher King. Marshall has long been identified with her commitment to Pan-Africanism, but she is less frequently identified as a novelist who features music as a mode of affirming or restoring a consciousness of African heritage. Like Marshall’s previous novels, The Fisher King represents a Black Atlantic geography of migration through a resolutely feminist perspective. In portraying postwar Paris as a site of refuge—especially for jazz musicians like the novel’s Caribbean-American male protagonist—The Fisher King furthermore revisits the most prominent site of twentieth-century black internationalism. Interweaving narratives of African American and Caribbean migration with mythic narratives of African American expatriation and jazz history, The Fisher King invokes both the utopian desire associated with jazz improvisation and the more realist lyricism of the blues.
Colored Championship and Color Lines
Authors: Moore Louis
Published: July 2018

The color line in boxing indicated who had and did not have racial privileges. In 1882, when John L. Sullivan won the heavyweight championship, he knew enough about race, power, and privilege to proclaim that he would never fight a black man. Every white heavyweight champion followed Sullivan’s lead, until 1908, when Tommy Burns fought Jack Johnson. After Johnson beat Burns, the white press searched for a white hope to defeat Johnson. By 1912, however, without any credible white fighters save the race, white sportswriters turned Joe Jeannette and Sam Langford into “black hopes,” men that white writers believed had so-called “good black” qualities that whites could momentarily satisfy white men.
Sambos, Savages, and the Shakiness of Whiteness
Authors: Moore Louis
Published: July 2018

While fighters drew the color line, and cities and states banned interracial competition. White sportswriters did their part to by caricaturizing black boxers in a myriad of despicable ways to assuage white anxieties, and thus allowed for their continuation of their white voyeurism to see and to believe that the black body somehow represented denigration. These racial descriptions included portraying black fighters as docile Sambos, uncivilized savages, or comparing black musculature to animals. As black men kept winning in the ring, the disparaging descriptions offered protectionism to the fallacy of physical manhood as it related to racial power.
Introduction
Authors: Nguyen Phuong Tran
Published: July 2018

The introduction lays out the main theoretical and narrative elements of the book. Because of its failure during the Vietnam War, the US has a vested interest in highlighting its more virtuous role in evacuating and resettling refugees. But what about the refugees? We know far more about the causes of their exodus and the national guilt of the receiving country than how the uprooted collectively made sense of their experience after arriving in the United States. This chapter explains the cultural stakes of exile identity—which in this book goes by the term refugee nationalism, specifically who gets to interpret a nation’s past, who gets to be on the right of history, and who gets to be on the wrong side of history. Cold War politics presented an opportunity for Refugee Americans—most of whom fled communist countries—to freely teach and institutionalize their version of the national past at the local, state, and national level, placing themselves on the right side of history without fear of diplomatic reprisals. This chapter emphasizes the importance of local factors in shaping the look and feel of refugee nationalism, how the Orange County plays into it, and then proceeds with a summary of the next six chapters.
Accidental Allies
Authors: Nguyen Phuong Tran
Published: July 2018

Most accounts of the Vietnam War describe it as a war of choice, but this chapter argues that it was, in many ways, a war of necessity. Attempts to implement a purely pragmatic, minimalist Cold War strategy in Asia were doomed when the Korean War drew the United States into an unplanned but then-vital nation-building campaign with accidental allies in South Korea, Taiwan, and eventually South Vietnam. This chapter traces the origins of this moralistic component of Cold War policy and politics, particularly the Christian missionaries and their heirs, like publisher Henry Luce, who formed the China Lobby and Asia First bloc. By helping to frame the Cold War and America’s commitment to Asia as an epic struggle between good and evil, they set the stage for Indochinese refugee admissions based on moral, rather than legal, grounds, and as the very least America could do to atone for its failure to protect stalwart anti-communist allies.
From Grief to Gratitude
Authors: Nguyen Phuong Tran
Published: July 2018

The 130,000 Indochinese evacuated out of Saigon and resettled in America were encouraged to become “good refugees” by forgetting past traumas in order to move forward, the same advice Americans were allegedly giving themselves. This chapter argues that the losers of the Vietnam War, both Americans and Vietnamese alike, affirmed the past not by forgetting it, but by rewriting it. Through camp newsletters and other primary sources, we get a close glimpse of the profound sense of guilt and dishonour that compelled the US to employ selective memory in the shaping of a new collective memory, so that the rescue of 130,000 refugees—rather than the war that killed millions of people—would come to define America. As a result, refugees entered a charitable sponsorship bubble that come to shape their expectations vis-à-vis a guilt-ridden American nation. Refugees were expected to be on their best behaviour—exemplified by gratitude and promises of assimilation—by a country compelled by guilt to be on its own best behaviour.
“Farewell, Saigon, I Promise I Will Return”
Authors: Nguyen Phuong Tran
Published: July 2018

This chapter’s subtitle focuses on the social work performed by artists, journalists, and activists, who, during the late 1970s, comforted grieving souls through the construction of a refugee cultural identity and community, specifically as the true patriots whose flight from communism and testimony later on revealed what really happened after 1975. Beginning with the boat people exodus in the late 1970s, worldwide public opinion, which had vilified the South Vietnamese as losers of the war and obstacles to revolution, began to view the winners of the postwar. Their willingness to risk their lives on the open sea cast doubt on Hanoi’s revolutionary promises, and, through bipartisan support for the plight of the boat people, enabled the United States and Vietnamese Americans to cast themselves on the right side of history in ways never possible during the war itself.
The Anticommunist Việt-Cộng
Authors: Nguyen Phuong Tran
Published: July 2018

This chapter resurrects the infamous history of shadowy US-based anti-communist insurgent forces modelled on Ronald Reagan’s “freedom fighters.” Often disparaged as the quintessential “bad refugee” that brought the Vietnam War to America, as evidenced by the unsolved murders of several Vietnamese journalists suspected of communist ties, the members of the “resistance movement” were actually being “good refugees” as defined by the secret Cold War policies of the Reagan Administration.
Shame and Shaming in Premodern Societies
Authors: Stearns Peter N.
Published: July 2018

This chapter stresses the ubiquity of shame and shaming in premodern societies, with illustrations ranging from philosophical considerations (Confucius, the Greeks) to social rituals like the public stocks. Specific features, like honor-based shaming or the shame attached to certain groups, are linked to this general picture. Debates include a brief review of shame in small hunter-gatherer groups, where the emotion may have been less necessary than in agricultural communities, and the important discussion of shame v. guilt in Christianity. Later sections of the chapter explore the Western and the colonial American experiences in greater detail, including the increased use of shaming in the early modern centuries.
Reconsidering Shame in Western Society
Authors: Stearns Peter N.
Published: July 2018

From the late 18th century onward the acceptability of shame declined markedly in Western societies. This chapter traces this important cultural change, including its early manifestations and the causes involved. Areas of impact are explored, from social discipline to family life to the decline of honor-based rituals. But the chapter also deals with exceptions or partial exceptions, for example in the schools, taking the review up to the mid-20th century. The common sociological notion that shame became taboo is modified, but the range and significance of a real transformation are elaborated.
The Revival of Shame
Authors: Stearns Peter N.
Published: July 2018

This chapter deals with the continuation of important efforts to reduce shame and shaming, particularly in American society over the past half century. But it also notes important and unexpected countercurrents, ranging from shame-based punishments from some American courts to the wide use of shaming in partisanship and on social media.
Afterword
Authors: Stearns Peter N.
Published: July 2018

This brief conclusion picks up on the current confusions over shame and shaming, as a result of the complex pattern of change over the past 200 years, and offers some thoughts about desirable reconsiderations.
At the Speed of Sound
Authors: Vaillant Derek W.
Published: July 2018

This chapter sketches the history of U.S–French electronic communications prior to the rise of U.S.–French radio broadcasting. Focusing primarily on France, it analyzes the anticipatory and reactive discourses to live interwar transatlantic broadcast connectivity with the United States. The period saw two contrasting, nationally inflected techno-aesthetics take shape in America and France that defined excellence in radio. In America, technological power, abundance, and high-speed execution demonstrated professional competence and efficiency. The French emphasized quality, accepted scarcity, and valued deliberate speed. More than extensions of preexisting differences in U.S. and French cultural conventions these broadcast paradigms emerged relationally and cross-nationally to shape the future of U.S.–French broadcast interaction and the character of an evolving international medium.
King of Selling
Authors: Semmes Clovis E.
Published: July 2018

S.B. Fuller was one of the most successful black entrepreneurs of the twentieth century. Early on, he primarily catered to black consumers through his Fuller Products Company, a door-to-door direct sales company featuring personal care products. Later, he surreptitiously bought the previously white-owned Boyer International Laboratories whose product line included Jean Nadal cosmetics. When southern whites discovered Fuller’s ownership of Boyer International, a subsequent boycott damaged this aspect of Fuller’s business holdings. In addition, problems associated with his ownership of Chicago’s South Center commercial complex (which included the iconic Regal Theater), led to his bankruptcy. Ironically, Fuller, during his career, publicly downplayed the importance of white racism. Yet, the racially motivated boycott of Boyer International products was the catalyst for later his commercial misfortunes.
Oprah Winfrey
Authors: Walker Juliet E. K.
Published: July 2018

This chapter examines Oprah Winfrey’s emergence as one of the nation’s leading entrepreneurs in the entertainment business, as well as an American cultural icon. Beginning in 1985 with The Oprah Winfrey Show, she constructed a wide-ranging financial empire. At the close of the twentieth century Oprah Winfrey was included in the list of “Forbes 400 Richest People In America,” with a net worth in 1999 of $725 million. She is the only African American woman with joint venture ownership in a cable television station and, in addition to owning her own show, Oprah is also one of only three American women in the television and movie industry to establish and own a production studio, HARPO, based in Chicago, Illinois.
Introduction
Authors: Suarez Harrod J.
Published: July 2018

The Introduction establishes the interdisciplinary analysis and intervention that this book contributes—to the sociological study of overseas domestic workers, to the postcolonial nationalist history of the Philippines, and to the diasporic literature that enables a different and provocative understanding of the diasporic maternal. It identifies the rhetoric of revolution that has structured postcolonial nationalist politics, particularly through Ferdinand Marcos, and calls for an alternative cultural politics attending to minor, fleeting, diasporic practices. This chapter argues for an archipelagic reading practice that allows access to the underside of the nationalism and globalization that work in tandem to structure the vulnerability of different forms of maternal figures overseas.
Excessive Writing and Filipina Time
Authors: Suarez Harrod J.
Published: July 2018

Chapter One examines Nick Joaquin’s novella, The Woman Who Had Two Navels (which was published before the longer novel version with the same title) and two short stories from Mia Alvar’s In the Country in order to consider the critical role that writing plays in navigating the diasporic maternal. Joaquin’s novella mourns the failure of the Philippine revolution, which becomes metaphorized through a discussion about language. Alvar’s stories address both the prospects and limits of writing: “In the Country” depicts the lives of journalists working against the Marcos regime and the deleterious effects of subversive, embodied writing on the family. In “A Contract Overseas,” Alvar challenges us to think about what it means to imagine and creatively write about life abroad.
Filming the Dream Nevertheless
Authors: Suarez Harrod J.
Published: July 2018

Chapter Two reads Jessica Hagedorn’s Dream Jungle as a departure from Eleanor Coppola’s diary of the filming of Apocalypse Now, which is fictionalized in Hagedorn’s novel.
Coppola’s diary reveals the terms by which she understands her position in the Philippines as wife, mother, and aspiring filmmaker, which provides one of the key contexts within which Lina, the main character of Dream Jungle, articulates an alternative maternal subjectivity. Offered different forms of motherhood upon which to take inspiration, Lina, finds relief in her dreams. It is through her happiness at the end of the novel that the diasporic maternal emerges as a field of play and creativity, marking the complex and diffuse negotiations of subjects laboring under the disciplinary practices and epistemologies governing globalization.
Epilogue
Authors: Suarez Harrod J.
Published: July 2018

On December 30, 1896, José Rizal was executed by a firing squad made up of Filipinos working on behalf of Spain. He was accused of betraying Spain, especially for his allegedly seditious writings, including two novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, but also poetry and essays. Rizal’s final request was to face the firing squad—he argued that he was not a traitor, that his writings were not subversive, that he was not trying to incite revolutionary violence....
Place, Meaning, Comunity, and In-Betweenness
Authors: Bidgood Lee
Published: July 2018

The author presents bluegrass as a practice of in-betweenness, a way of dealing with authenticity, place, and genre. Scenes from a bluegrass workshop, a Prague pub jam, and an analysis of the the way musicians talk about their musical goals shows that Czech bluegrassers' projects are rooted in reality, nostalgia, imagination, and a mix of all three. The frame of musical pragmatics provides a way to consider these motivating factors, and how they play out socially. The author explains the methodology bi-musicality gained not as the disciple of a master musician, but as a student of the aesthetic, interpersonal, and transnational aspects of Czech bluegrass.
Contemporary Korean Religious Change in the East-West Religious Context
Authors: Kim Chongsuh ,   Academic Publishing
Published: July 2018

The most prominent characteristics of the religious situation in contemporary Korea can be said to be the following: first, the religious population is large and is increasing rapidly at present. Second, in a situation of multi-religious coexistence, no particular religion takes precedence over another; Western religions, however, are challenging and gradually overwhelming Eastern religions. In this paper, I argue that these two features are closely related to each other. When compared with other countries, religions are growing more rapidly in Korea and with an unusual level of enthusiasm, a situation which has emerged as a result of the unprecedented inter-religious clash that has developed between Eastern and Western religions.
Estructura dimensional de las competencias del siglo XXI en los estudiantes universitarios de educación
Authors: Almerich Gonzalo , Díaz-García Isabel , Cebrián-Cifuentes Sara , Suárez-Rodríguez Jesús
Published: July 2018

La nueva Sociedad del Conocimiento requiere nuevas competencias, que son conocidas como Competencias del siglo XXI. Estas competencias se subdividen en competencias de pensamiento y competencias de orden superior en tecnologías de información y comunicación. El objetivo de este artículo es determinar la estructura dimensional de las competencias del siglo XXI, junto con los factores personales clave en este sentido. Se trata de un estudio correlacional, basado en un diseño de encuesta, cuya muestra está constituida por estudiantes de los grados de Pedagogía y Educación Social de la Universidad de Valencia, seleccionados por muestreo no probabilístico y accidental, recogiendo la información mediante dos cuestionarios. Los resultados señalan que las competencias para el siglo XXI se componen de dos subconjuntos, las competencias del pensamiento de orden superior y las competencias TIC, que forman un todo. Además, se ha encontrado que los factores personales tienen un impacto significativo en esta estructura. Se sugiere que las políticas educativas deben abordar ambos aspectos, a fin de capacitar a los ciudadanos incluidos en la Sociedad del Conocimiento.
Victimización en la escuela, ocio digital e irritabilidad: análisis mediante ecuaciones estructurales
Authors: Chacón-Cuberos Ramón , Castro-Sánchez Manuel , González-Campos Gloria , Zurita-Ortega Félix
Published: July 2018

La victimización en la escuela representa un fenómeno preocupante dado las consecuencias negativas que se le asocian, como son estados de depresión o ansiedad, las cuales guardan relación con los hábitos de ocio digital. Se realizó un estudio descriptivo de tipo transversal, realizado en una muestra de 1038 escolares de tercer ciclo de Educación Primaria (M = 11,33; DT = 1,27), persigue como principal objetivo contrastar un modelo explicativo del uso de televisión y videojuegos en función de la victimización. Se emplearon como principales instrumentos la Escala de Victimización en la Escuela y el Cuestionario de Experiencias Relacionadas con Videojuegos (CERV). El modelo estructural se ajustó correctamente. Se obtuvieron relaciones positivas entre los tres tipos de victimización, la victimización física y el uso de videojuegos y televisión, y la victimización verbal con el uso de televisión. Los hábitos de ocio digital se asociaron positivamente con los niveles de irritabilidad de los escolares, lo que muestra como el acoso escolar podría actuar como factor de riesgo en el ocio digital. Las situaciones de victimización pueden constituir un factor de riesgo en el consumo patológico de ocio de pantalla y estados de irritabilidad.
Multiple inputs ensure yeast cell size homeostasis during cell cycle progression
Authors: Garmendia-Torres Cecilia , Tassy Olivier , Matifas Audrey , Molina Nacho , Charvin Gilles
Published: July 2018

Coordination of cell growth with division is essential for proper cell function. In budding yeast, although some molecular mechanisms responsible for cell size control during G1 have been elucidated, the mechanism by which cell size homeostasis is established remains to be discovered. Here, we developed a new technique based on quantification of histone levels to monitor cell cycle progression in individual cells with unprecedented accuracy. Our analysis establishes the existence of a mechanism controlling bud size in G2/M that prevents premature onset of anaphase, and controls the overall size variability. While most G1 mutants do not display impaired size homeostasis, mutants in which cyclin B-Cdk regulation is altered display large size variability. Our study thus demonstrates that size homeostasis is not controlled by a G1-specific mechanism alone but is likely to be an emergent property resulting from the integration of several mechanisms that coordinate cell and bud growth with division.
High expression level of MMP9 is associated with poor prognosis in patients with clear cell renal carcinoma
Authors: Niu Haitao , Li Feng , Wang Qingshui , Ye Zhoujie , Chen Qi , Lin Yao
Published: July 2018

Matrix metallopeptidase 9 (MMP9) was found to be associated with tumor aggressiveness. In this study, we focused on the correlation between MMP9 expression and clear cell renal carcinoma (ccRCC). Through the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and immunohistochemical (IHC) staining, we observed that compared with adjacent normal renal tissues, in ccRCC tissues the mRNA and protein levels of MMP9 were enhanced, and the mRNA levels of GTP-binding protein smg p21B(RAP1B), B rapidly accelerated fibrosarcoma (RAF), methyl ethyl ketone2 (MEK2), extracellular regulated protein kinases1 (ERK1), ERK2, v-ets avian erythroblastosis virus E26 oncogene homolog1 (ETS1) and ETS2 also increased. The Kaplan–Meier survival analysis suggested that high MMP9 expression was an unfavorable prognostic biomarker for ccRCC patients. Our results indicated that the increased expression level of MMP9 in ccRCC may be due to the activation of the Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK)/ERK signaling pathway, and MMP9 may be an attractive target for ccRCC therapy.
Preliminary study on phosphate solubilizingBacillus subtilisstrain Q3 andPaenibacillussp. strain Q6 for improving cotton growth under alkaline conditions
Authors: Ahmad Maqshoof , Ahmad Iqra , Hilger Thomas H. , Nadeem Sajid M. , Akhtar Muhammad F. , Jamil Moazzam , Hussain Azhar , Zahir Zahir A.
Published: July 2018

Background

Low phosphorus availability limits crop production in alkaline calcareous soils in semi-arid regions including Pakistan. Phosphate solubilizing bacteria may improve crop growth on alkaline calcareous soils due to their ability to enhance P availability.

Methods

Twenty rhizobacterial isolates (Q1–Q20) were isolated from rhizosphere of cotton and characterized for their growth promoting attributesin vitro. The selected phosphate solubilizing isolates were further screened for their ability to improve cotton growth under axenic conditions (jar trial). The phosphorus solubilization capacities of selected strains were quantified and these strains were identified through 16S rDNA sequencing.

Results

Isolates Q2, Q3, Q6, Q7, Q8, Q13 and Q14 were able to solubilize phosphate from insoluble sources. Most of these isolates also possessed other traits including catalase activity and ammonia production. The growth promotion assay showed that Q3 was significantly better than most of the other isolates followed by Q6. Maximum root colonization (4.34 × 106cfu g−1) was observed in case of isolate Q6 followed by Q3. The phosphorus solubilization capacities of these strains were quantified, showing a maximum phosphorus solubilization by Q3 (optical density 2.605 ± 0.06) followed by the Q6 strain. The strain Q3 was identified asBacillus subtilis(accession #KX788864) and Q6 asPaenibacillussp. (accession #KX788865) through 16S rDNA sequencing.

Discussion

The bacterial isolates varied in their abilities for different growth promoting traits. The selected PGPRBacillus subtilisstrain Q3 andPaenibacillussp. strain Q6 have multifarious growth promoting traits including ability to grow at higher EC and pH levels, and phosphorus solubilizing ability. These strains can efficiently colonize cotton roots under salt affected soils and help plants in phosphorus nutrition. It is concluded that both strains are potential candidates for promoting cotton growth under alkaline conditions, however further investigation is required to determine their potential for field application.
Assessing population changes of historically overexploited black corals (Order: Antipatharia) in Cozumel, Mexico
Authors: Gress Erika , Andradi-Brown Dominic A.
Published: July 2018

Black corals (Antipatharians) are crucial structural and ecological components of many mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs; reefs 30–150 m depth). In Mexico, black corals are harvested for the jewellery industry, which has historically led to population depletion. Harvesting began in the early 1960s and was concentrated around Cozumel Island until 1995. Since then, harvesting permits have been granted only for the mainland coast. Here we compare Cozumel populations between 1998 and 2016 for the two black coral species targeted by the jewellery industry. We found that densities ofPlumapathes pennaceain 2016 were substantially lower than in 1998. However, the 2016P. pennaceapopulation has shifted to be dominated by larger colonies, suggesting disproportionate juvenile mortality or recruitment failure. Low numbers ofAntipathes caribbeanawere recorded, and no change in population density or colony size was detected between 1998 and 2016. Despite harvesting occurring for almost 70 years in the Mexican Caribbean, no information on reproduction, recruitment and other dynamics of the targeted species is available. We advocate for harvesting permits to be based on scientific evidence, and for implementation of future restrictions to prevent total depletion of black corals in the area.
Identification of SNPs potentially related to immune responses and growth performance inLitopenaeus vannameiby RNA-seq analyses
Authors: Santos Camilla A. , Andrade Sónia C.S. , Freitas Patrícia D.
Published: July 2018

Litopenaeus vannameiis one of the most important shrimp species for worldwide aquaculture. Despite this, little genomic information is available for this penaeid and other closely related taxonomic crustaceans. Consequently, genes, proteins and their respective polymorphisms are poorly known for these species. In this work, we used the RNA sequencing technology (RNA-seq) inL. vannameishrimp evaluated for growth performance, and exposed to the White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV), in order to investigate the presence of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) within genes related to innate immunity and growth, both features of great interest for aquaculture activity. We analyzed individuals with higher and lower growth rates; and infected (unhealthy) and non-infected (healthy), after exposure to WSSV. Approximately 7,000 SNPs were detected in the samples evaluated for growth, being 3,186 and 3,978 exclusive for individuals with higher and lower growth rates, respectively. In the animals exposed to WSSV we found about 16,300 unique SNPs, in which 9,338 were specific to non-infected shrimp, and 7,008 were exclusive to individuals infected with WSSV and symptomatic. In total, we describe 4,312 unigenes containing SNPs. About 60% of these unigenes returned GO blastX hits for Biological Process, Molecular Function and Cellular Component ontologies. We identified 512 KEGG unique KOs distributed among 275 pathways, elucidating the majority of metabolism roles related to high protein metabolism, growth and immunity. These polymorphisms are all located in coding regions, and certainly can be applied in further studies involving phenotype expression of complex traits, such as growth and immunity. Overall, the set of variants raised herein enriches the genomic databases available for shrimp, given that SNPs originated from nextgen are still rare for this relevant crustacean group, despite their huge potential of use in genomic selection approaches.
Phylogeny and divergence times of suckers (Cypriniformes: Catostomidae) inferred from Bayesian total-evidence analyses of molecules, morphology, and fossils
Authors: Bagley Justin C. , Mayden Richard L. , Harris Phillip M.
Published: July 2018

Catostomidae (“suckers”) is a diverse (76 species) and broadly distributed family of Holarctic freshwater fishes with a rich fossil record and a considerable number (∼35%) of threatened and imperiled species. We integrate DNA sequences (three mitochondrial genes, three nuclear genes), morphological data, and fossil information to infer sucker phylogenetic relationships and divergence times using Bayesian “total-evidence” methods, and then test hypotheses about the temporal diversification of the group. Our analyses resolved many nodes within subfamilies and clarified Catostominae relationships to be of the form ((Thoburniini, Moxostomatini), (Erimyzonini, Catostomini)). Patterns of subfamily relationships were incongruent, but mainly supported two placements of the Myxocyprininae; distinguishing these using Bayes factors lent strongest support to a model with Myxocyprininae sister to all remaining sucker lineages. We improved our Bayesian total-evidence dating analysis by excluding problematic characters, using a clock-partitioning scheme identified by Bayesian model selection, and employing a fossilized birth-death tree prior accommodating morphological data and fossils. The resulting chronogram showed that suckers evolved since the Late Cretaceous–Eocene, and that the Catostomini and Moxostomatini clades have accumulated species diversity since the early to mid-Miocene. These results agree with the fossil record and confirm previous hypotheses about dates for the origins of Catostomide and catostomine diversification, but reject previous molecular hypotheses about the timing of divergence of ictiobines, and between Asian–North American lineages. Overall, our findings from a synthesis of multiple data types enhance understanding of the phylogenetic relationships, taxonomic classification, and temporal diversification of suckers, while also highlighting practical methods for improving Bayesian divergence dating models by coupling phylogenetic informativeness profiling with relaxed-clock partitioning.
РЕАЛИЗАЦИЯ ПРАВА ЗАКОНОДАТЕЛЬНОЙ ИНИЦИАТИВЫ В СОВРЕМЕННОЙ РОССИИ: ПРАВОВАЯ РЕГЛАМЕНТАЦИЯ, ПРОБЛЕМЫ, ПРАКТИКА, "Государство и право"
Authors: Арзамасов Ю. Г.
Published: July 2018

Статья посвящена рассмотрению нормативной основы и реализации конституционного права законодательной инициативы в современной России. Исследуются проблемы понимания права законодательной инициативы, приводится официальная позиция по этому вопросу, выраженная в ст. 107 Регламента Государственной Думы. Отмечается, что в российском законодательном процессе данное право корреспондируется законодательной обязанностью Государственной Думы рассмотреть данный законопроект, представленные с ним документы и принять соответствующее решение. Сделан вывод, что право законодательной инициативы осуществляется неоднородно, поскольку Государственная Дума принимает разные по юридической силе законы. Дискутируется вопрос, с какого момента начинается стадия законодательной инициативы. При этом приводятся точки зрения как отечественных, так и зарубежных авторов. Делается вывод, что реальный объем полномочий субъектов, обладающих в России правом законодательной инициативы, не одинаков, так как зависит от политического и юридического статуса субъектов конституционных правоотношений. Дискутируется проблема субъектного состава лиц, обладающих правом законодательной инициативы, который определен ст. 104 Конституции России. Автор приходит к выводу о расширении субъектного состава лиц, обладающих правом законодательной инициативы в современной России, в который кроме Генерального прокурора следует внести Уполномоченного по правам человека и гражданина, а также положительно зарекомендовавшие себя крупные общественные организации. Отмечается, что лучшей формой, в которой будут закреплены нормы, регламентирующие право законодательной инициативы, является Федеральный закон “О нормативных правовых актах в Российской Федерации”.
РОЛЬ МЕТОДОЛОГИЧЕСКОЙ КОНЦЕПЦИИ И.А. ИЛЬИНА В ЮРИДИЧЕСКОМ ПОЗНАНИИ, "Государство и право"
Authors: Поскачина М. Н.
Published: July 2018

В настоящей статье рассматривается методологическая концепция И.А.?Ильина и раскрывается ее общетеоретический характер, направленный на обоснование разных способов изучения права.
CCL2 and CXCL10 are associated with poor outcome after intracerebral hemorrhage
Authors: Landreneau Margaret J. , Mullen Michael T. , Messé Steven R. , Cucchiara Brett , Sheth Kevin N. , McCullough Louise D. , Kasner Scott E. , Sansing Lauren H. ,   the Serum Markers After Spontaneous Cerebral Hemorrhage (SMASCH) Investigators
Published: July 2018

Objective

Intracerebral hemorrhage carries a high mortality and survivors are frequently left with significant disability. Immunological mechanisms may play an important role in hemorrhage‐induced brain injury, however, research linking these mechanisms with clinical outcome remains limited. We aim to identify serum inflammatory mediators that are associated with outcome after intracerebral hemorrhage in order to translate data from experimental models to a patient cohort and identify potential targets worthy of reverse translation.

Methods

A prospective cohort study at two comprehensive stroke centers enrolled patients with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage. Peripheral blood was collected at 6, 24, and 72 h from onset. Functional outcome was assessed at 90 days using the modified Rankin Scale (mRS). Serum inflammatory mediators were measured using multiplex ELISA. Multivariable modeling identified serum biomarkers independently associated with functional outcome at 90 days.

Results

115 patients completed the study. At 6 h after onset, patients with elevated CCL2 had worse mRS score at day 90 (OR 4.07, 95% CI 1.27–13.10, P = 0.02) after adjusting for age, gender, ICH volume, IVH, infratentorial location and NIHSS score. At 24 and 72 h after onset, elevation in CXCL10 was independently associated with worse 90 days mRS score (24 h: OR 8.08, 95% CI 2.69–24.30, P < 0.001; 72 h: OR 3.89, 95% CI 1.12–13.49, P = 0.03).

Interpretation

Acute and subacute elevations in specific immune factors are associated with poor outcome, highlighting potential pathways that may contribute to ongoing brain injury in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage.
Delivery Strategies for Immune Checkpoint Blockade
Authors: Chen Qian , Wang Chao , Chen Guojun , Hu Quanyin , Gu Zhen
Published: July 2018

Immune checkpoint blockade, which blocks the regulatory pathways that express on immune cells to improve antitumor immunological responses, is becoming one of the most promising approaches for antitumor therapy. This therapy has achieved important clinical advancement and provided a new opportunity against a variety of cancers. However, limitations of checkpoint inhibitors application, including the risk of autoimmune disease, low objective response rates, and high cost, still largely affect their broad applications in patients. Therefore, it is desirable to seek effective delivery methods to further enhance the therapeutic efficacy and reduce drawbacks of immune checkpoint blockade. This brief review summarizes strategies to increase the antitumor immunity, including the local and targeted delivery of checkpoint inhibitors, and a combination of different checkpoint inhibitors or with other therapeutic treatments.
Enhancing the Matrix Addressing of Flexible Sensory Arrays by a Highly Nonlinear Threshold Switch
Authors: Wang Ming , Wang Wei , Leow Wan Ru , Wan Changjin , Chen Geng , Zeng Yi , Yu Jiancan , Liu Yaqing , Cai Pingqiang , Wang Hong , Ielmini Daniele , Chen Xiaodong
Published: July 2018

The increasing need for smart systems in healthcare, wearable, and soft robotics is creating demand for low‐power sensory circuits that can detect pressure, temperature, strain, and other local variables. Among the most critical requirements, the matrix circuitry to address the individual sensor device must be sensitive, immune to disturbances, and flexible within a high‐density sensory array. Here, a strategy is reported to enhance the matrix addressing of a fully integrated flexible sensory array with an improvement of 108 fold in the maximum readout value of impedance by a bidirectional threshold switch. The threshold switch shows high flexibility (bendable to a radius of about 1 mm) and a high nonlinearity of ≈1010 by using a nanocontact structure strategy, which is revealed and validated by molecular dynamics simulations and experiments at variable mechanical stress. Such a flexible electronic switch enables a new generation of large‐scale flexible and stretchable electronic and optoelectronic systems.
Synthesis of Indenopyridine Derivatives via MgI2‐Promoted [2+4] Cycloaddition Reaction of In‐situ Generated 2‐Styrylmalonate from Donor‐Acceptor Cyclopropanes and Chalconimines
Authors: Verma Kamal , Banerjee Prabal
Published: July 2018

An unexpected MgI2‐promoted [2+4] cycloaddition reaction of in‐situ generated 2‐styrylmalonate from donor‐acceptor cyclopropanes with chalconimines to synthesize highly substituted indenopyridine derivatives under the mild reaction conditions have been developed. Additionally, these derivatives were utilized for the synthesis of highly substituted 9‐membered lactam by oxidative C=C bond cleavage and spiro[oxoindane‐pyrrolidine] derivative via Meinwald type rearrangement.

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Kunststoffe der Zukunft? Der Einfluss von bioabbaubaren Polymeren auf Umwelt und Gesellschaft
Authors: Haider Tobias P. , Völker Carolin , Kramm Johanna , Landfester Katharina , Wurm Frederik R.
Published: July 2018

In den letzten Jahren sind die Vermüllung durch Kunststoffe und deren Persistenz in der Umwelt zu einem Schwerpunkt in Forschung und Nachrichten geworden. Bioabbaubare Polymere wie Polymilchsäure gelten als geeignete Alternativen zu Standardkunststoffen. Polymilchsäure ist jedoch im Meerwasser grundsätzlich nur schlecht abbaubar. In ähnlicher Weise hängt die Abbaurate von anderen bioabbaubaren Polymeren auch entscheidend von der Umgebung ab, in der sie enden. Dieser Kurzaufsatz zeigt, dass Abbautests unter Laborbedingungen nicht auf reale Bedingungen übertragbar sind und daher ökologisch authentische und relevante Feldtestbedingungen erforderlich sind. Zudem werden ökotoxikologische Folgen von bioabbaubaren Polymeren erwogen. Auch soziale Aspekte werden betrachtet, und die Frage wird gestellt, wie bioabbaubare Polymere das Konsumverhalten und die kommunale Abfallwirtschaft beeinflussen. Dies soll einen Beitrag zur Bewertung des Potenzials bioabbaubarer Polymere als alternative Materialien zu Standardkunststoffen leisten.
Synthesis and characterization of a Ni nanoparticle stabilized on Ionic liquid‐functionalized magnetic Silica nanoparticles for tandem oxidative reaction of primary alcohols
Authors: Hosseinzadeh‐Khanmiri Rahim , Kamel Yaser , Keshvari Zahra , Mobaraki Ahmad , Shahverdizadeh Gholam Hossein , Vessally Esmail , Babazadeh Mirzaagha
Published: July 2018

In this research, preparation of the magnetic nanoparticle, coating by a silica shell using (3‐aminopropyl) triethoxysilane and synthesis of a novel sulfonic acid‐substituted imidazolium‐based ionic liquid onto the surface of these particles via a multi‐component reaction, is described. The functionalized nanoparticles was loaded by Ni nanoparticles and characterized by means of techniques such as XRD, FTIR, SEM, EDX, TEM, TGA and ICP‐OES. The nanostructures have spherical shapes that ranged in size from 80 to 100 nm. The catalytic activity of these nanoparticles was tested in aerobic oxidation of primary alcohols that showed good performance in the wide range of primary alcohols in water at mild reaction conditions. As a second step of this work, the tandem oxidative synthesis of alkylacrylonitriles and bisindolylmethanes were investigated using primary alcohols under oxidation conditions. This catalyst system can be recovered using external magnet and reused for five consecutive cycles without significantly less of its activity.