bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Abadiânia as a “Touristic Borderzone”
Authors: Rocha Cristina
Published: January 2017

Chapter 4 explores the relationships between locals and foreigners in the town of Abadiânia. Following Bruner (1996), the author deploys the concept of touristic borderzone, that is, the place of contact between the West and the borders of the developing world. She argues that Abadiânia has become a stage where Westerners and locals develop a creative cultural coproduction and are transformed by this encounter, although on unequal terms. Furthermore, this chapter demonstrates that global cities are not the only places profoundly transformed by globalization. Smaller towns may also participate in this process and become centers of international flows. The author contends that the economic hothousing of Abadiânia is a consequence of it being drawn into a global network of sites of pilgrimage. As a consequence, it resembles a global village, rather than a little town in central Brazil.
Flows into the Global North
Authors: Rocha Cristina
Published: January 2017

Chapter 6 examines the transnationalization of the John of God movement, focusing particularly on the ways it puts down roots in the West. It argues that, in a seeming paradox, the John of God movement is able to grow outside Brazil because there is a strong pull in the opposite direction—toward Abadiânia. Because followers come to regard the Casa as their “spiritual home,” they work on ways of keeping their transnational connection to the Casa when they are away from Brazil. To this end, the chapter analyzes their feelings of being at home in the Casa and Abadiânia, their nostalgia when they are away, and the ways in which they address this nostalgia. In brief, the author contends that it is the spiritual and community belonging they find in Abadiânia, but not where they live, which has generated the movement’s quick global growth in the past decade.
Localizing Flows
Authors: Rocha Cristina
Published: January 2017

Chapter 7 analyzes the particular ways in which the John of God movement takes root in Australia and New Zealand in order to show how the process of glocalization takes place. It investigates how white Australians and New Zealanders deploy the beliefs they acquire at the Casa in relation to their own countries’ history. The author argues that their appropriation of Spiritism fulfills a romantic yearning for a world that does not suffer the negative effects of the highly industrialized society they live in. Such romantic yearning is inflected by the dark history of the European and Indigenous encounter in these settler societies. Importantly, this chapter also argues that there is a much more complex relationship between New Agers and Aborigines, which cannot be regarded as simple “appropriation.” In sum, it demonstrates the ways in which Indigenous peoples are enmeshed in modernity and the process of globalization.
Conclusion
Authors: Rocha Cristina
Published: January 2017

In the conclusion, the author tries to think beyond her work, pointing to the broader issues this book addresses. Her multi-sited fieldwork reveals the complex ways in which the Global North engages with the Global South; the importance of globalization and transnationalism in the shaping of new ideas and spiritual practices in late modernity; the ways in which modernity is articulated with tradition, both in the West and in Brazil; the appeal and efficacy of alternative healing practices; and the ways in which the global is profoundly enmeshed in the local. Finally, she suggests future likely developments for the John of God movement, as well as for studies of spirituality and healing in an era of globalization.
A New Birth of Poverty
Authors: Hirota Hidetaka
Published: January 2017

This chapter analyzes how the problem of idle poverty provoked the expansion of immigration policy in New York and Massachusetts during the Civil War and Reconstruction. In the 1860s states faced the burgeoning presence of vagrants, who lived on streets begging despite their physical ability to work. In northeastern states, vagrancy was closely associated with immigration, as the Irish accounted for a large portion of the vagrant population. When an economic depression in the early 1870s exacerbated the already alarming state of vagrancy and pauperism in New York City, the New York legislature increased the number of officials charged with immigration control. Massachusetts also expanded state immigration policy by making immigrant vagrants deportable, just like paupers and lunatics. New York and Massachusetts officials’ uninterrupted determination to exclude and deport destitute foreigners during Reconstruction eventually triggered the introduction of national immigration legislation in the early 1880s.
Radio talk, pranks, and multilingualism
Authors: Spilioti Tereza
Published: January 2017

This chapter examines how language use in the media can reveal processes of sociolinguistic change but may also constitute sociolinguistic change in its own right. By focusing on radio pranks targeting members of the public during the Greek financial crisis, the chapter shows how language-ideological change can be tracked through shifts in the language forms and practices people laugh at. It also argues that language-ideological change is associated with processes of sociocultural (re)alignment of languages, as well as acute sociopolitical changes. More specifically, fluency in English is used as a resource for styling Greek identities and for recasting intra-national political differences that have resurged during the crisis. Such media stylizations of ‘English’ elements not only contribute to reinforcing indexical relations between linguistic forms and social meanings but also attest to increasing visibility and social awareness of new socioculturally meaningful contrasts.
Brand styling, enregisterment, and change
Authors: Kelly-Holmes Helen
Published: January 2017

Marketing and advertising texts are important sites for signaling and also contributing to sociolinguistic change. For example, advertising language can maintain, challenge, or create new linguistic norms as well as document usage and practices. Linguistic fetish and styling in advertisements both rely on and contribute to enregisterment processes. This chapter explores one particular example of brand styling using ‘fake French’ and the French linguistic fetish in advertising, namely an advertisement for a cider produced by European lager brand Stella Artois. The analysis highlights how the brand is in fact making use of a metaparodic frame, simultaneously asserting and parodying its stylized ‘fake French’ style, and how the consumer is complicit in co-constructing this metaparody.
Poverty Trends in Pakistan
Authors: Whitney Edward , Nazli Hina , Mahrt Kristi
Published: January 2017

The official estimates of poverty in Pakistan have shown a remarkable and consistent decline in the poverty headcount during the previous decade. This chapter examines trends in poverty between 2001 and 2011 using the official food energy intake and the cost of basic needs approaches, both of which are modified to allow poverty lines to vary over time and space. The first method is the basis for the official government methodology for estimating poverty; the latter method provides utility-consistent poverty lines through the imposition of revealed preference conditions in maximum-entropy adjustments. Evidence from both methods suggests that poverty incidence increased rather than declined as indicated in the official estimates.
Multidimensional Assessment of Child Welfare for Tanzania
Authors: Arndt Channing , Leyaro Vincent , Mahrt Kristi , Tarp Finn
Published: January 2017

Identifying trends in living standards in Tanzania has been a subject of considerable interest. Analysis of a household budget survey conducted in 2007 revealed consumption poverty rates approximately similar to the rates calculated from a comparable survey conducted in 2001. This stagnation in consumption poverty occurred despite relatively high published rates of economic growth over the same period and little change in measured inequality. Price inflation over the same period as measured by the household budget survey also differed drastically from inflation rates derived from the published consumer price index (CPI) and the GDP deflator. The growth–poverty–inequality conundrum alongside the wide divergences in measured inflation provoked a great deal of analysis. More recently in 2015, the World Bank published a poverty assessment based on a household budget survey conducted in 2011/12 and found a reduction in consumption poverty of about six percentage points.
Keep It Real
Authors: Beck Ulrik
Published: January 2017

The chapter investigates how two effects drive wedges between nominal and real inequality estimates. The effects are caused by (1) differences in the composition of consumption over the income distribution coupled with differential inflation of consumption items; and (2) quantity discounting effects for the non-poor. Household-specific deflators are estimated using fifteen surveys collected in six countries in the period 1999–2011. In some countries (Mozambique, Tanzania, Malawi, and Pakistan), nominal inequality is lower than real inequality, as it is defined in this chapter. In other countries (Ethiopia and Madagascar), no differences are found. Finally, the chapter argues that poverty estimation based on national accounts consumption means and estimates of inequality from consumption surveys should employ real, rather than nominal, inequality estimates.
Random Tensors
Authors: Gurău Răzvan Gheorghe
Published: January 2017

This book presents a self-contained, ab initio introduction to random tensors. The book is divided into two parts. The first part introduces the general framework and the main results on random tensors. The second part presents in detail specific examples of random tensors models. The book presents both asymptotic results (or perturbative, in the physics literature) and constructive (non perturbative) results in full detail. The book is suitable for readers unfamiliar with the field. The material presented is divided into three broad categories of results. The first category connects random tensors to topological spaces, Euclidean dynamical triangulations and random geometry. The second category consists of perturbative results on random tensors. It contains the 1/N expansion, the enumeration of graphs of fixed degree, the continuum limit, the double scaling limit as well as the study of phase transitions and symmetry breaking in tensor models. The results in the third category are non perturbative: the proof of the universality of Gaussian tensor measures and the construction of quartically perturbed Gaussian measure. These results are obtained using methods from enumerative combinatorics, probability theory and constructive field theory. Random tensors generalize random matrices and provide a framework for the study of random geometries in any dimension relevant for conformal field theory, statistical physics and quantum gravity.
The perturbative expansion of tensor models
Authors: Gurau Razvan
Published: January 2017

This chapter presents the perturbative expansion of invariant tensor measures in terms of Feynman graphs. It is shown that, assuming that the perturbation and the Gaussian part scale at the same rate with N, the moments of such measures admit (as formal power series in the coupling constants) a 1/N expansion indexed by the degree and that (still in the perturbative sense) all such measures are properly uniformly bounded. In the second part of the chapter the continuum limit of random tensor models and their Schwinger–Dyson equations are discussed.
Symmetry breaking
Authors: Gurau Razvan
Published: January 2017

For the quartic tensor models, the critical point at which the continuum limit is reached corresponds to a phase transition accompanied by a symmetry breaking. This chapter analyzes a simplified quartic tensor model for which the vacuum state in the broken phase can be identified. For this simplified model a genuinely new geometric phase in double scaling is obtained. The phase transition is a phase transition between a phase of planar surfaces and a phase of planar nodal surfaces. The emergent geometry obtained (in double scaling) is not yet genuinely D-dimensional, but, very likely, it is a Brownian sphere. However, this is a first step in the quest for a genuinely new random geometry in higher dimensions: for the first time a non-branched polymer state of higher dimensional random geometry is found in a scaling regime of tensor models.
A Sectional Immigration Policy
Authors: Kang S. Deborah
Published: January 2017

In the early twentieth century, the Bureau of Immigration adopted a lax approach to the enforcement of the federal immigration laws along the US-Mexico border. Yet the Mexican Revolution and World War I transformed the nation’s orientation toward the southern line, raising concerns about the entry of alien enemies and unwanted immigrants. In response, the federal government drew upon the Immigration Act of 1917 and the Passport Act of 1918 to strengthen its border enforcement capacities. The efforts of local Bureau of Immigration officials to enforce the letter of these new laws met with fierce resistance from border residents who had grown accustomed to crossing and recrossing the border at will. So as to satisfy locals’ demands, southwestern immigration officials created a series of legal innovations that diluted the restrictive impact of the immigration and passport laws, and sustained the transnational economy and society of the border region.
Making the Local National
Authors: Kang S. Deborah
Published: January 2017

Chapter 5 recounts how one local immigration official, Grover C. Wilmoth, El Paso district director of the INS, played a pivotal role in defining and advancing the enforcement priorities of the INS among politicians and policymakers in Washington, DC. In an effort to create a semblance of order out of the disorder of the Bracero Program, Wilmoth lobbied Congress for legislation that would bolster the agency’s ability to pursue and apprehend undocumented immigrants in public and private spaces far north of the border. In addition, he was an active participant in President Truman’s Commission on Migratory Labor. Best known as an expose of the humanitarian crises facing migrant workers in the United States, the commission, thanks to Wilmoth’s contributions, also presented one of the first national expositions of a strong immigration enforcement policy for the US–Mexico border.
Influence of mineral composition on spectral induced polarization in sediments
Authors: Chuprinko Daniil , Titov Konstantin
Published: January 2017

We discuss a membrane polarization effect that can occur when the walls of two sequential pores are built of different minerals, with different interface properties (the zeta potential and the partition coefficient). The differences in the interface properties lead to a difference in the ion transport numbers (even if the two aforementioned pores are of the same radius) and, therefore, to a membrane polarization when an electrical field is applied. Based on published data, we discuss differences in the interface properties of common minerals: silicates, carbonates, clay minerals, organic material, etc. Based on the theory presented by Marshall and Madden and recently extended by Bücker and Hördt we semi-analytically model the membrane polarization effect for a system that consists of two pores of equal radius. We calculate maximum values of the phase shift as a function of the pore radius. We also calculate values of the peak frequency (the frequency corresponding to the phase-shift peak) as a function of the pores’ lengths. The modelling results show that the phase shift can assume values of up to 80 mrad for pores with radii of about 0.1 μm. The peak frequency values are within the typical frequency range of spectral induced polarization measurements and, therefore, the effect can be detected. Based on the modelling data, we hypothesize that the effect of differences in interface properties of the minerals constituting the walls of sequential pores can be superimposed on the polarization effect of the Stern layer coating the mineral grains and the classical membrane polarization effect.
Detecting binarity of GW150914-like lenses in gravitational microlensing events
Authors: Eilbott Daniel H. , Riley Alexander H. , Cohn Jonathan H. , Kesden Michael , King Lindsay J.
Published: January 2017

The recent discovery of gravitational waves (GWs) from stellar-mass binary black holes (BBHs) provided direct evidence of the existence of these systems. BBH lenses would have gravitational microlensing signatures that are distinct from single-lens signals. We apply Bayesian statistics to examine the distinguishability of BBH microlensing events from single-lens events under ideal observing conditions, using the photometric capabilities of the Korean Microlensing Telescope Network. Given one year of observations, a source star at the Galactic Centre, a GW150914-like BBH lens (total mass 65 M⊙, mass ratio 0.8) at half that distance and an impact parameter of 0.4 Einstein radii, we find that binarity is detectable for BBHs with separations down to 0.0250 Einstein radii, which is nearly 3.5 times greater than the maximum separation for which such BBHs would merge within the age of the Universe. Microlensing searches are thus sensitive to more widely separated BBHs than GW searches, perhaps allowing the discovery of BBH populations produced in different channels of binary formation.
Treatment of Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis With the Modified Dunn Procedure: A Multicenter Study
Authors: Masquijo Julio Javier , Allende Victoria , D’Elia Martín , Miranda Gabriela , Fernández Claudio A.
Published: January 2017

Introduction:

Treatment of moderate to severe slipped capital femoral epiphysis (SCFE) is controversial. Over the last years, 3 institutions in Argentina adopted the modified Dunn procedure for capital realignment in selected cases of SCFE. Our aim in this study was to evaluate the clinical outcome and the rate of complications of patients who had undergone surgical hip dislocation and capital realignment.

Methods:

A multicenter retrospective cohort study of patients who received the modified Dunn procedure from January 2009 to 2013 was performed. Data concerning clinical features, surgical technique, intraoperative findings, and postoperative complications were obtained from all available medical records. The operative results were evaluated on clinical and radiographic criteria.

Results:

Twenty patients (21 hips) with a mean of 40.4 months (range, 12 to 84 mo) of follow-up were evaluated. The average Harris Hip score was 76.3 points (range, 40 to 100 points). Seven patients had excellent results, 6 good, 2 fair, and 5 poor. Mean slip angle improved from a preoperative value of 59.1±11.2 degrees to 5.4±2.5 degrees (P=0.001). The mean postoperative alpha angle and neck-shaft angle were 40.8±2 degrees and 131±9.9 degrees, respectively. One patient had a superficial infection that was resolved with oral antibiotics. Six patients had complete osteonecrosis with severe involvement and 4 partial femoral head necrosis with minimal deformity. No patients developed chondrolysis, infection, deep venous thrombosis, heterotopic ossification, nonunion, or nerve palsies.

Discussion:

Modified Dunn procedure for treating hip SCFE is a technically demanding surgery with wide variations in the reported outcomes. Although in this series 65% of patients had good or excellent functional results, a high rate of complications was observed. This may be related, among other factors, to the learning curve of the procedure.

Level of Evidence:

Level IV—therapeutic study.
Adenoid cystic carcinoma evaluation and management: progress with optimism!
Authors: Bradley Patrick J.
Published: January 2017

Purpose of review

Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) when diagnosed presents several diagnostic and treatment challenges. The standard treatment of surgery and postoperative radiotherapy has remained the standard of care for the past 3 decades. The purpose of this review is to update what's been reported and what's new since the last review in 2004.

Recent findings

As accurate a histological diagnosis and staging of disease should be achieved prior to commencing any treatment. Patients’ prognosis, in the long term, is determined by the finding of any solid tumour component in the examined excised specimen. The continued treatment of patients with ACC by surgery and postoperative radiotherapy has not changed in the long-term tumour-free outcome of patients. The majority of patients die because of loco-regional failure and/or distant metastases. Optimism is being generated by the findings at the molecular and genetic level of ACC giving hope that nonsurgical treatment can be complemented by novel treatments that will improve patients’ disease cure and improved long-term survival.

The histological grading determined by optical methods has not advanced our selection of treatment and new recent research findings on molecular and genetic factors give new hopes to changing the ACC classification, determining differing treatments and thus influencing an improved and prolonged tumour-free survival for more patients.
Nephropathic cystinosis: an update
Authors: Veys Koenraad R. , Elmonem Mohamed A. , Arcolino Fanny O. , van den Heuvel Lambertus , Levtchenko Elena
Published: January 2017

Purpose of review

Over the past few decades, cystinosis, a rare lysosomal storage disorder, has evolved into a treatable metabolic disease. The increasing understanding of its pathophysiology has made cystinosis a prototype disease, delivering new insights into several fundamental biochemical and cellular processes.

Recent findings

In this review, we aim to provide an overview of the latest advances in the pathogenetic, clinical, and therapeutic aspects of cystinosis.

The development of alternative therapeutic monitoring strategies and new systemic and ocular cysteamine formulations might improve outcome of cystinosis patients in the near future. With the dawn of stem cell based therapy and new emerging gene-editing technologies, novel tools have become available in the search for a cure for cystinosis.
Environment, susceptibility windows, development, and child health
Authors: Wright Robert O.
Published: January 2017

Purpose of review

To illustrate the role of the exposome in child health while highlighting unique aspects of this research pertinent to children, such as the time dependency of environmental exposures on fetal programming, as well as the time-dependent nature of child behavior, diet, and motor function, which alter the probability of exposure to different compounds. Future environmental health research will be more hypothesis generating but will also need to heed lessons learned from other ‘omic’ sciences. The NIH Child Health Environmental Analysis Resource (CHEAR) is a major step toward providing the infrastructure needed to study the exposome and child health.

Recent findings

Environmental exposures have overlapping mechanisms such as endocrine disruption and oxidative stress, among others. The nature of the long-term health impact of an exposure is dependent not only on dose, but also on the timing of exposure. Advances in exposure science, toxicology, and biostatistics will create new opportunities to identify and better define windows of susceptibility to environmental exposures.

As exposure science matures, we will better understand the role of environment on health. Linking the exposome with genomics will unlock the root origins of multiple complex diseases.
Predicting evolution in response to climate change: the example of sprouting probability in three dormancy-prone orchid species
Authors: Shefferson Richard P. , Mizuta Ryo , Hutchings Michael J.
Published: January 2017

Although many ecological properties of species respond to climate change, their evolutionary responses are poorly understood. Here, we use data from long-term demographic studies to predict evolutionary responses of three herbaceous perennial orchid species,
Cypripedium parviflorum
,
C. candidum
and
Ophrys sphegodes
, to predicted climate changes in the habitats they occupy. We focus on the evolution of sprouting probability, because all three species exhibit long-term vegetative dormancy, i.e. individual plants may not emerge above-ground, potentially for several consecutive years. The drivers of all major vital rates for populations of the species were analysed with general linear mixed models (GLMMs). High-dimensionality function-based matrix projection models were then developed to serve as core elements of deterministic and stochastic adaptive dynamics models used to analyse the adaptive context of sprouting in all populations. We then used regional climate forecasts, derived from high-resolution general atmospheric circulation models, of increased mean annual temperatures and spring precipitation at the occupied sites, to predict evolutionary trends in sprouting. The models predicted that
C. parviflorum
and
O. sphegodes
will evolve higher and lower probabilities of sprouting, respectively, by the end of the twenty-first century, whereas, after considerable variation, the probability of sprouting in
C. candidum
will return to its current level. These trends appear to be driven by relationships between mortality and size: in
C. parviflorum
and
C. candidum
, mortality is negatively related to size in the current year but positively related to growth since the previous year, whereas in
O. sphegodes
, mortality is positively related to size.
Brain reorganization in anticipation of predictable words
Authors: Skipper Jeremy I , Zevin Jason D
Published: January 2017

How is speech understood despite the lack of a deterministic relationship between the sounds reaching auditory cortex and what we perceive? One possibility is that unheard words that are unconsciously activated in association with listening context are used to constrain interpretation. We hypothesized that a mechanism for doing so involves reusing the ability of the brain to predict the sensory effects of speaking associated words. Predictions are then compared to signals arriving in auditory cortex, resulting in reduced processing demands when accurate. Indeed, we show that sensorimotor brain regions are more active prior to words predictable from listening context. This activity resembles lexical and speech production related processes and, specifically, subsequent but still unpresented words. When those words occur, auditory cortex activity is reduced, through feedback connectivity. In less predictive contexts, activity patterns and connectivity for the same words are markedly different. Results suggest that the brain reorganizes to actively use knowledge about context to construct the speech we hear, enabling rapid and accurate comprehension despite acoustic variability.
Evolution of Reduced Co-Activator Dependence Led to Target Expansion of a Starvation Response Pathway
Authors: He Bin Z. , Zhou Xu , O’Shea Erin K.
Published: January 2017

InS. cerevisiae, the phosphate starvation (PHO) responsive transcription factors Pho4 and Pho2 are jointly required for induction of phosphate response genes and survival in phosphate starvation conditions. In the related human commensal and pathogenC. glabrata, Pho4 is required but Pho2 is dispensable for survival in phosphate-limited conditions and is only partially required for inducing the phosphate response genes. This reduced dependence on Pho2 evolved inC. glabrataand closely related species. Pho4 orthologs that are less dependent on Pho2 induce more genes when introduced into theS. cerevisiaebackground, and Pho4 inC. glabrataboth binds to more sites and induces more genes with expanded functional roles compared to Pho4 inS. cerevisiae. Our work reveals an evolutionary mechanism for rapidly expanding the targets of a transcription factor by changing its dependence on a co-activator, potentially refining the physiological response it regulates.
Non-viral induction of transient cell reprogramming in skeletal muscle to enhance tissue regeneration
Authors: de Lázaro Irene , Yilmazer Acelya , Nam Yein , Qubisi Sarah , Maizatul Abdul Razak Fazilah , Cossu Giulio , Kostarelos Kostas
Published: January 2017

Somatic cells can be reprogrammed to pluripotencyin vivoby overexpression of defined transcription factors. While their sustained expression triggers tumorigenesis, transient reprogramming induces pluripotency-like features and proliferation only temporarily, without teratoma formation. We sought to achieve transient reprogramming within mouse skeletal muscle with a localized injection of plasmid DNA (pDNA) and hypothesized that this would enhance regeneration after severe injury. Intramuscular administration of reprogramming pDNA rapidly upregulated pluripotency (Nanog,Ecat1,Rex1) and early myogenesis genes (Pax3) in the healthy gastrocnemius of various mouse strains. Mononucleated cells expressing such markers appeared promptly in clusters among myofibers, but proliferated only transiently and did not lead to the generation of teratomas.Nanogwas also upregulated in the gastrocnemius when reprogramming factors were administered 7 days after laceration of its medial head. Enhanced tissue regeneration after reprogramming was manifested by the accelerated appearance of centro-nucleated myofibers and reduced fibrosis. These results suggest thatin vivotransient reprogramming may constitute a novel strategy towards the acceleration of regeneration following muscle injury, based on the induction of transiently-proliferative, pluripotent-like cellsin situ. Further research to achieve clinically meaningful functional regeneration is warranted.
Uniform resolution of compact identifiers for biomedical data
Authors: Wimalaratne Sarala M. , Juty Nick , Kunze John , Janée Greg , McMurry Julie A. , Beard Niall , Jimenez Rafael , Grethe Jeffrey S. , Hermjakob Henning , Martone Maryann E. , Clark Tim
Published: January 2017

Most biomedical data repositories issue locally-unique accessions numbers, but do not provide globally unique, machine-resolvable, persistent identifiers for their datasets, as required by publishers wishing to implement data citation in accordance with widely accepted principles. Local accessions may however be prefixed with a namespace identifier, providing global uniqueness. Such “compact identifiers” have been widely used in biomedical informatics to support global resource identification with local identifier assignment.

We report here on our project to provide robust support for machine-resolvable, persistent compact identifiers in biomedical data citation, by harmonizing the Identifiers.org and N2T.net (Name-To-Thing) meta-resolvers and extending their capabilities. Identifiers.org services hosted at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory – European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), and N2T.net services hosted at the California Digital Library (CDL), can now resolve any given identifier from over 600 source databases to its original source on the Web, using a common registry of prefix-based redirection rules.

We believe these services will be of significant help to publishers and others implementing persistent, machine-resolvable citation of research data.
Predicted sensory consequences of voluntary actions modulate amplitude and temporal dynamics of preceding readiness potentials
Authors: Reznik Daniel , Simon Shiri , Mukamel Roy
Published: January 2017

Self-generated, voluntary actions, are preceded by a slow negativity in the scalp electroencephalography (EEG) signal recorded from frontal regions (termed ‘readiness potential’; RP). This signal, and its lateralized subcomponent (LRP), is mainly regarded as preparatory motor activity associated with the forthcoming motor act. However, it is not clear whether this neural signature is associated with preparatory motor activity, expectation of its associated sensory consequences, or both. Here we recorded EEG data from 12 healthy subjects while they performed self-paced button presses with their right index and middle fingers. In one condition (motor+sound) these button-presses triggered a sound while in another (motor-only) they did not. Additionally, subjects passively listened to sounds delivered in expected timings (sound-only). We found that the RP amplitude (locked to time of button press) was significantly more negative in the motor+sound compared with motor-only conditions starting ~1.4 seconds prior to button press. Importantly, no signal negativity was observed prior to expected sound delivery in the sound-only condition. Thus, the differences in RP amplitude between motor+sound and motor-only conditions are beyond differences in mere expectation of a forthcoming auditory sound. No significant differences between the two conditions were obtained in the LRP component. Our results suggest that expected auditory consequences are encoded in the early phase of the RP preceding the voluntary actions that generate them.
Superbubbles, Ultrabubbles and Cacti
Authors: Paten Benedict , Novak Adam M , Garrison Erik , Hickey Glenn
Published: January 2017

A superbubble is a type of directed acyclic subgraph with single distinct source and sink vertices. In genome assembly and genetics, the possible paths through a superbubble can be considered to represent the set of possible sequences at a location in a genome. Bidirected and biedged graphs are a generalization of digraphs that are increasingly being used to more fully represent genome assembly and variation problems. Here we define snarls and ultrabubbles, generalizations of superbubbles for bidirected and biedged graphs, and give an efficient algorithm for the detection of these more general structures. Key to this algorithm is the cactus graph, which we show encodes the nested decomposition of a graph into snarls and ultrabubbles within its structure. We propose and demonstrate empirically that this decomposition on bidirected and biedged graphs solves a fundamental problem by defining genetic sites for any collection of genomic variations, including complex structural variations, without need for any single reference genome coordinate system. Furthermore, the nesting of the decomposition gives a natural way to describe and model variations contained within large variations, a case not currently dealt with by existing formats, e.g. VCF.
Homogeneous self-standing curved monocrystals, obtained using sandblasting, to be used as manipulators of hard X-rays and charged particle beams
Authors: Camattari Riccardo , Paternò Gianfranco , Romagnoni Marco , Bellucci Valerio , Mazzolari Andrea , Guidi Vincenzo
Published: January 2017

A technique to obtain self-standing curved crystals has been developed. The method is based on a sandblasting process capable of producing an amorphized layer on the substrate. It is demonstrated that the amorphized layer behaves as a thin compressive film, causing the curvature of the substrate. This procedure permits the fabrication of homogeneously curved crystals in a fast and economical way. It is shown that a sandblasted crystal can be used as an X-ray optical element for astrophysical or medical applications. A sandblasted bent crystal can also be used as an optical element for steering charged particles in accelerator beamlines. Several samples were manufactured and bent using the sandblasting method at the Sensor and Semiconductor Laboratory of Ferrara, Italy. Their curvature was verified using interferometric profilometry, showing a deformation in agreement with the Stoney formalism. The curvature of the machined samples was also tested using γ-ray diffraction at the Institut Laue–Langevin (ILL), Grenoble, France. A good agreement with the dynamical theory of diffraction was observed. In particular, the experiment showed that the crystalline quality of the bulk was preserved. Moreover, the method allowed curved samples to be obtained free of any additional material. Finally, a crystalline undulator was produced using sandblasting and tested using γ-ray diffraction at the ILL. The crystal showed a precise undulating pattern, so it will be suitable for hard X-ray production.
CBED Tools for semi-automatic measurement of crystal thicknesses
Authors: Honglong Shi , Minting Luo , Wenzhong Wang
Published: January 2017

Convergent-beam electron diffraction (CBED) is one of the most popular techniques to measure crystal thickness. The traditional measurement involves linear fitting of several fringes across the CBED disc, but for a thin crystal with fewer than three fringes the usefulness of this method will be limited. CBED Tools, a free plugin for the DigitalMicrograph software, provides a fast (∼1–2 min) and accurate algorithm to measure the crystal thickness on the basis of the linear fitting method, but it is also capable of determining the crystal thickness when it is very thin and only one fringe or part of the first fringe is recorded. CBED Tools can also be utilized to handle the severely distorted CBED pattern obtained when the zero-order Laue zone Kikuchi lines overlap with the fringes.
Crystal structure of the N-terminal anticodon-binding domain of the nondiscriminating aspartyl-tRNA synthetase fromHelicobacter pylori
Authors: Songsiriritthigul Chomphunuch , Suebka Suwimon , Chen Chun-Jung , Fuengfuloy Pitchayada , Chuawong Pitak
Published: January 2017

The N-terminal anticodon-binding domain of the nondiscriminating aspartyl-tRNA synthetase (ND-AspRS) plays a crucial role in the recognition of both tRNAAspand tRNAAsn. Here, the first X-ray crystal structure of the N-terminal domain of this enzyme (ND-AspRS1–104) from the human-pathogenic bacteriumHelicobacter pyloriis reported at 2.0 Å resolution. The apo form ofH. pyloriND-AspRS1–104shares high structural similarity with the N-terminal anticodon-binding domains of the discriminating aspartyl-tRNA synthetase (D-AspRS) fromEscherichia coliand ND-AspRS fromPseudomonas aeruginosa, allowing recognition elements to be proposed for tRNAAspand tRNAAsn. It is proposed that a long loop (Arg77–Lys90) in thisH. pyloridomain influences its relaxed tRNA specificity, such that it is classified as nondiscriminating. A structural comparison between D-AspRS fromE. coliand ND-AspRS fromP. aeruginosasuggests that turns E and F (78GAGL81and83NPKL86) inH. pyloriND-AspRS play a crucial role in anticodon recognition. Accordingly, the conserved Pro84 in turn F facilitates the recognition of the anticodons of tRNAAsp(34GUC36) and tRNAAsn(34GUU36). The absence of the amide H atom allows both C and U bases to be accommodated in the tRNA-recognition site.
Crystallization and X-ray analysis ofD-threonine aldolase fromChlamydomonas reinhardtii
Authors: Hirato Yuki , Goto Masaru , Tokuhisa Mayumi , Tanigawa Minoru , Nishimura Katsushi
Published: January 2017

D-Threonine aldolase from the green algaChlamydomonas reinhardtii(CrDTA) catalyzes the interconversion of several β-hydroxy-D-amino acids (e.g.D-threonine) and glycine plus the corresponding aldehydes. Recombinant CrDTA was overexpressed inEscherichia coliand purified to homogeneity; it was subsequently crystallized using the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method at 295 K. Data were collected and processed at 1.85 Å resolution. Analysis of the diffraction pattern showed that the crystal belonged to space groupP1, with unit-cell parametersa= 64.79,b= 74.10,c= 89.94 Å, α = 77.07, β = 69.34, γ = 71.93°. The asymmetric unit contained four molecules of CrDTA. The Matthews coefficient was calculated to be 2.12 Å3 Da−1and the solvent content was 41.9%.
Market reactions to corporate name changes: evidence from the Toronto Stock Exchange
Authors: Biktimirov Ernest N. , Durrani Farooq
Published: January 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine stock price and trading volume reactions to name changes of the Toronto Stock Exchange listed companies. Previous studies present conflicting evidence on reactions to corporate name changes in US and other capital markets.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses the event study methodology to calculate abnormal returns and trading volume around the announcement, approval, and effective dates of corporate name changes. It also contrasts abnormal returns between major and minor name changes, signaling focused and diversified strategies, accompanied with a ticker symbol change and without a ticker change, structural and pure name changes, as well as brand adoption and radical name changes.

Findings

Companies tend to experience a significant run-up in stock price in the period preceding the announcement of a name change. The stocks also show a significant positive abnormal return around the effective date. In addition, corporate name changes are associated with significant increases in trading volume for several days starting from the approval date. Most importantly, the type of a name change matters, as reflected in significance levels of abnormal return and trading volume reactions to various types of corporate name changes.

Research limitations/implications

The limitation of this study comes from the difficulty to precisely identify the date when the market learns about a possible corporate name change.

Originality/value

This study is the first to examine market reactions to name changes of Toronto Stock Exchange listed companies. Most importantly, whereas previous studies focus on the announcement day, this paper also considers the approval and effective days. It also contrasts responses between name changes accompanied with a new ticker and name changes without a ticker change.
Internet gambling stock returns: empirical evidence from the UK
Authors: Perez Liston Daniel
Published: January 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to quantify beta for an online gambling portfolio in the UK and investigates whether it is time-varying. It also examines the dynamic correlations of the online gambling portfolio with both the market and socially responsible portfolios. In addition, this paper documents the effect of important UK gambling legislation on the betas and correlations of the online gambling portfolio.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses static and time-varying models (e.g. rolling regressions, multivariate GARCH models) to estimate betas and correlations for a portfolio of UK online gambling stocks.

Findings

This study finds that beta for the online gambling portfolio is less than 1, indicative of defensiveness toward the market, a result that is consistent with prior literature for sin stocks. In addition, the conditional correlation between the market and online gambling portfolio is small when compared to the correlation of the market and socially responsible portfolios. Findings suggest that the adoption of the Gambling Act 2005 increases the conditional correlation between the market and online gambling portfolio and it also increases the conditional betas for the online gambling portfolio.

Research limitations/implications

This paper serves as a starting point for future research on online gambling stocks. Going forward, studies can focus on the financial performance or accounting performance of online gambling stocks.

Originality/value

This empirical investigation provides insight into the risk characteristics of publicly listed online gambling companies in the UK.
Revisiting the price-volume relationship: a cross-currency evidence
Authors: Kumar Satish
Published: January 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the contemporaneous and causal relationship between returns (volatility) and trading volume in the Indian currency futures market for selected currency pairs; USD-INR, EUR-INR, GBP-INR and JPY-INR, from August 2008 to December 2014.

Design/methodology/approach

The data for all the currency futures series has been taken from National Stock Exchange of India Limited which represents the daily settlement prices along with trading volume. The contemporaneous returns-volume relation is tested using the generalized method of moments, and Granger-causality framework impulse response function is used to test the predictive ability of returns (volatility) and volume for each other.

Findings

The author reports a positive contemporaneous relationship between futures returns and trading volume which persists even after controlling for heteroskedasticity providing support to mixture of distribution hypothesis. The results show a unidirectional Granger causality from futures returns to volume. However, there is a significant bidirectional Granger causality between returns volatility and volume lending support to sequential arrival of information hypothesis. Next, the results for cross-currencies show significant influence of US dollar on the volume and returns of all other currencies. Overall, the author suggests that the short- to medium-term movements in the currency markets are dominated by market microstructure and not by fundamentals.

Practical implications

The findings of this paper are very important for the participants in the market and regulators. The participants in the market require alternatives to diversify their risk. The significant relationship between futures returns (volatility) and trading volume implies that the current trading volume help predict the futures prices and should lead to creation of more reliable hedging strategies for investment purposes. Further, it may interest the regulators who need to decide upon the appropriateness of their policies in the currency futures market. Based on returns-volume relation, they need to set forth market restrictions such as daily price movement and position limits.

Originality/value

To the best of the knowledge, no study has yet investigated the forecast ability of trading volume to price changes and their volatility in the Indian currency futures market. Given that currency futures market is one of the largest markets in the world, and Indian rupee has seen wide fluctuations in the recent years, it seems exciting to explore the price-volume relationship in the Indian currency futures market.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Alcohol Use Disorder: A Critical Review of Pharmacologic Treatments
Authors: Petrakis Ismene L. , Simpson Tracy L.
Published: January 2017

Treatment of alcohol use disorder (AUD) is complicated by the presence of psychiatric comorbidity including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This is a critical review of the literature to date on pharmacotherapy treatments of AUD and PTSD. A systematic literature search using PubMed MESH terms for alcohol and substance use disorders, PTSD, and treatment was undertaken to identify relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The studies were independently evaluated (ILP and TLS) and those that evaluated the efficacy of a pharmacotherapy for individuals diagnosed with AUD and PTSD and were RCTs were selected. Studies were grouped in 3 categories: (i) those that evaluated first‐line treatments for PTSD, (ii) those that evaluated medications to target AUD, and (iii) those that evaluated medications hypothesized to be effective in targeting alcohol consumption as well as PTSD symptoms. Nine RCTs were identified; 3 focused on medications to treat PTSD, 4 focused on AUD, and 3 to target both. One study included both a medication to treat PTSD and 1 to treat AUD so was discussed twice. All but 1 of the studies found that PTSD symptoms and drinking outcomes improved significantly over time. There is not 1 agent with clear evidence of efficacy in this comorbid group. The results for medications to treat PTSD are inconclusive because of contradictory results. There was weak evidence to support the use of medications to treat AUD among those with comorbidity with PTSD. Findings for medications that were hypothesized to treat both disorders were also contradictory. Most studies provided a combination of interventions to treat both disorders. Despite the contradictory results, this review suggests that individuals with AUD and comorbid PTSD can safely be prescribed medications used in noncomorbid populations and patients improve with treatment.