bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Average Spectral Properties of Type Ia Supernova Host Galaxies
Authors: Uddin Syed A , Mould Jeremy , Wang Lifan
Published: November 2017

We construct the average spectra of host galaxies of slower, faster, bluer, and redder Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) from the SDSS-II supernova survey. The average spectrum of slower declining (broader light curve width or higher stretch) SN Ia hosts shows stronger emission lines compared to the average spectrum of faster declining (narrower light curve width or lower stretch) SN Ia hosts. Using pPXF, we find that hosts of slower declining SNe Ia have metallicities that are, on average, 0.24 dex lower than average metallicities of faster declining SN Ia hosts. Similarly, redder SN Ia hosts have slightly higher metallicities than bluer SN Ia hosts. Lick index analysis of metallic lines and Balmer lines shows that faster declining SN Ia hosts have relatively higher metal content and have relatively older stellar populations compared with slower declining SN Ia hosts. We calculate average

star formation rate (SFR), stellar mass, and the specific SFR (sSFR) of host galaxies in these subgroups of SNe Ia. We find that slower declining SN Ia hosts have significantly higher (

) sSFR than faster declining SN Ia hosts. A Kolmogorov–Smirnov test shows that these two types of hosts originate from different parent distributions. Our results, when compared with the models of Childress et al., indicate that slower declining SNe Ia, being hosted in actively star-forming galaxies, are young (prompt) SNe Ia, originating from similar progenitor age groups.
The Lopsidedness of Satellite Galaxy Systems in ΛCDM Simulations
Authors: Pawlowski Marcel S. , Ibata Rodrigo A. , Bullock James S.
Published: November 2017

The spatial distribution of satellite galaxies around pairs of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) have been found to bulge significantly toward the respective partner. Highly anisotropic, planar distributions of satellite galaxies are in conflict with expectations derived from cosmological simulations. Does the lopsided distribution of satellite systems around host galaxy pairs constitute a similar challenge to the standard model of cosmology? We investigate whether such satellite distributions are present around stacked pairs of hosts extracted from the ΛCDM simulations Millennium-I, Millennium-II, Exploring the Local Volume in Simulations, and Illustris-1. By utilizing this set of simulations covering different volumes, resolutions, and physics, we implicitly test whether a lopsided signal exists for different ranges of satellite galaxy masses, and whether the inclusion of hydrodynamical effects produces significantly different results. All simulations display a lopsidedness similar to the observed situation. The signal is highly significant for simulations containing a sufficient number of hosts and resolved satellite galaxies (up to

for Millennium-II). We find a projected signal that is up to twice as strong as that reported for the SDSS systems for certain opening angles (∼16% more satellites in the direction between the pair than expected for uniform distributions). Considering that the SDSS signal is a lower limit owing to likely back- and foreground contamination, the ΛCDM simulations appear to be consistent with this particular empirical property of galaxy pairs.
Analytic Scattering and Refraction Models for Exoplanet Transit Spectra
Authors: Robinson Tyler D. , Fortney Jonathan J. , Hubbard William B.
Published: November 2017

Observations of exoplanet transit spectra are essential to understanding the physics and chemistry of distant worlds. The effects of opacity sources and many physical processes combine to set the shape of a transit spectrum. Two such key processes—refraction and cloud and/or haze forward-scattering—have seen substantial recent study. However, models of these processes are typically complex, which prevents their incorporation into observational analyses and standard transit spectrum tools. In this work, we develop analytic expressions that allow for the efficient parameterization of forward-scattering and refraction effects in transit spectra. We derive an effective slant optical depth that includes a correction for forward-scattered light, and present an analytic form of this correction. We validate our correction against a full-physics transit spectrum model that includes scattering, and we explore the extent to which the omission of forward-scattering effects may bias models. Also, we verify a common analytic expression for the location of a refractive boundary, which we express in terms of the maximum pressure probed in a transit spectrum. This expression is designed to be easily incorporated into existing tools, and we discuss how the detection of a refractive boundary could help indicate the background atmospheric composition by constraining the bulk refractivity of the atmosphere. Finally, we show that opacity from Rayleigh scattering and collision-induced absorption will outweigh the effects of refraction for Jupiter-like atmospheres whose equilibrium temperatures are above 400–500 K.
AGILE Observations of the Gravitational-wave Source GW170817: Constraining Gamma-Ray Emission from an NS–NS Coalescence
Authors: Verrecchia F. , Tavani M. , Donnarumma I. , Bulgarelli A. , Evangelista Y. , Pacciani L. , Ursi A. , Piano G. , Pilia M. , Cardillo M. , Parmiggiani N. , Giuliani A. , Pittori C. , Longo F. , Lucarelli F. , Minervini G. , Feroci M. , Argan A. , Fuschino F. , Labanti C. , Marisaldi M. , Fioretti V. , Trois A. , Monte E. Del , Antonelli L. A. , Barbiellini G. , Caraveo P. , Cattaneo P. W. , Colafrancesco S. , Costa E. , D’Amico F. , Ferrari A. , Giommi P. , Morselli A. , Paoletti F. , Pellizzoni A. , Picozza P. , Rappoldi A. , Soffitta P. , Vercellone S. , Baroncelli L. , Zollino G.
Published: November 2017

The LIGO–Virgo Collaboration (LVC) detected, on 2017 August 17, an exceptional gravitational-wave (GW) event temporally consistent within

with the GRB 1708117A observed by Fermi-GBM and INTEGRAL. The event turns out to be compatible with a neutron star–neutron star (NS–NS) coalescence that subsequently produced a radio/optical/X-ray transient detected at later times. We report the main results of the observations by the AGILE satellite of the GW170817 localization region (LR) and its electromagnetic (EM) counterpart. At the LVC detection time T
0, the GW170817 LR was occulted by the Earth. The AGILE instrument collected useful data before and after the GW/GRB event because in its spinning observation mode it can scan a given source many times per hour. The earliest exposure of the GW170817 LR by the gamma-ray imaging detector started about 935 s after T
0. No significant X-ray or gamma-ray emission was detected from the LR that was repeatedly exposed over timescales of minutes, hours, and days before and after GW170817, also considering Mini-calorimeter and Super-AGILE data. Our measurements are among the earliest ones obtained by space satellites on GW170817 and provide useful constraints on the precursor and delayed emission properties of the NS–NS coalescence event. We can exclude with high confidence the existence of an X-ray/gamma-ray emitting magnetar-like object with a large magnetic field of

. Our data are particularly significant during the early stage of evolution of the EM remnant.
Professor in Residence: An Innovative Academic-Practice Partnership
Authors: Hinic Katherine , Kowalski Mildred Ortu , Silverstein Wendy
Published: November 2017

This article describes an academic-practice partnership between an American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet
®
-designated hospital and an academic nurse educator that has increased the hospital's capacity for research, evidence-based practice, and support for nurses continuing their education. Through close collaboration with the full-time nurse researcher and members of the nursing education department, the professor in residence consults with clinical staff to support completion of research and evidence-based practice projects. The collaboration also has resulted in the development of a formal year-long mentoring program for clinical nurses in the area of evidence-based practice. Individual support and academic consults are offered to nurses enrolled in school to promote advancement of nurses' educational level. This collaboration has been beneficial for both the hospital and the university, increasing the capacity for scholarly activities for nurses in the hospital and serving as a forum for ongoing faculty practice and scholarship.

J Contin Educ Nurs.
2017;48(12):552–556.
Evaluación del comportamiento electroquímico del extracto de nopal (Opuntia Ficus-Indica) como posible inhibidor de corrosión
Authors: Mandujano-Ruíz Araceli , Morales-Hernández Jorge , Herrera-Hernández Héctor , Corona-Almazán Luis E. , Juárez García José M.
Published: November 2017

La corrosión es uno de los principales problemas del deterioro en componentes, herramentales, equipos e inclusive a nivel estructural, ejemplo de esto son los aceros al carbono. En el presente trabajo se estudió la capacidad de inhibición a la corrosión de un extracto orgánico biodegradable proveniente de la planta del Nopal (Opuntia ficus-indica) para la protección del acero al carbono tipo AISI 1018, al agregar el 50% v/v del extracto de Nopal (EN) en una solución de H2SO4 (0,6 mol.l-1). Se utilizaron las técnicas de Resistencia a la Polarización (LPR) y Espectroscopía de Impedancia Electroquímica (EIS) para determinar la eficiencia de inhibición (IE) a temperatura ambiente durante 24 h y obtener las velocidades de corrosión (Vcorr), posteriormente se llevó a cabo la evaluación metalográfica para registrar el daño superficial. Los resultados mostraron una reducción de la Vcorr con una IE máxima del 84% al adicionar el inhibidor orgánico EN.
Agent-Oriented Requirement Engineering for Mobile Application Development
Authors: WaiShiang Cheah , Shafreena bt Ahmad Puad Aida , Chin Hong Puah , Abdul Halin Alfian
Published: November 2017

Mobile application development is receiving much attention nowadays. With the enhancement of mobile application tools like an Android studio, etc. and kinds of online support, the development of the mobile application is getting easier. Indeed, mobile application development is not a trivial task. When given a particular problem, a novice mobile programmer will commonly sketch the mobile interface followed by coding. The rapid prototyping technique and trial from errors have led to issues such as poor domain understanding. We argue that a complete understanding of the domain is needed for mobile application development. Hence, requirements engineering is an important phase. This paper introduces a technique to assist mobile application development through Agent-Oriented Requirements Engineering (AORE). AORE consists of goal modelling to analyse and understand a mobile-based project. With goal modelling, AORE allows a modeller to identify and analyse the functionalities and non-functionalities of the system and present a holistic view of the proposed system. It showcases the services, operations and constraints of the proposed system. AORE is a useful part of the development phase and can complement current steps in mobile application development lifecycle.
The Effect of Using an Electronic Instructional Game in Improving English Language Vocabulary for Third Graders in Irbid City
Authors: Alsharafat W. , Alrashdan Wesam Kurdi , Bani Younes Mohammad
Published: November 2017

This study aims to investigate the effect of using an educational computer game on the improvement of learning English language vocabulary in the city of Irbid. To achieve this aim was programmed a computer game to teach third graders English language vocabulary. The sample of the study consisted of 97 male and female students. They deliberately selected from Kofor Awaan Girls School and Abu Isam Primary Boys School, they were distributed over two groups: One of them is an experimental group of 52 students (male, female) taught English language vocabulary through a computer game strategy, and the other a control group of 47 students (male, female). The findings of the study showed that there are statistical significant differences at the level of (α=0.05) between the experimental group and the control group in favour of the experimental group, and that there are statistical significant differences at the level of (α=0.05) related to gender in favour of female, and that there are statistical significant differences at the level of (α=0.05) of the interaction between the teaching strategy and gender.
Context-aware Cloud-based Mobile Application for Assessment and Training of Visual Cognitive Abilities
Authors: Elazhary Hanan
Published: November 2017

Context-aware mobile applications can adapt to diﬀerent mobile, user and application contexts. Mobile cloud computing has been integrated with those applications to beneﬁt from the cloud resources and make up for the limited mobile resources. This paper proposes such an application for the assessment and training of student visual cognitive abilities and skills that constitute an integral part of student intelligence such as the visualization ability of recognizing rotated objects. The need to ubiquitously and continuously deliver exercises relevant to a speciﬁc visual cognitive ability or skill according to the student proﬁciency and context has stimulated proposing the context-aware cloud-based MObile application for assessment and training of visual Cognitive Abilities (MOCA) presented in this paper. Integrating cloud computing with MOCA allows creating an extendible repository on the cloud and saving the relatively limited mobile resources that would be consumed by visual material. MOCA can be used in applications that are based on such cognitive abilities such as teaching visual science concepts and the visual classiﬁcation and diagnosis of medical images. Two prototype mobile applications have been developed based on MOCA for visualization ability and for visual classiﬁcation of science concepts. Empirical evaluation has shown the eﬀectiveness of MOCA in training the students and the satisfaction of the students and teachers with its capabilities. MOCA is also a framework for building systems for other types of cognitive abilities.
Storytelling and Social Networking as Tools for Digital and Mobile Marketing of Luxury Fashion Brands
Authors: González Romo Zahaira Fabiola , García-Medina Irene , Plaza Romero Noemí
Published: November 2017

This research intends to discover what the current strategies in digital marketing that are being carried out by brands in the luxury fashion sector are. It is intended to identify the most relevant aspects in the interaction of brands with their audiences in a digital and mobile environment, for which qualitative techniques have been used, through content analysis and in-depth interviews. We have found that, among others, the principle of "storytelling" is one of the key strategies in digital marketing, this principle is found in video marketing strategies, social media, events and exhibitions open to the public, which seek to interact with public and show its history.
Digital Characters in Cultural Heritage Applications
Authors: Vosinakis Spyros
Published: November 2017

Digital characters are software entities that look and act like real or imaginary creatures in a computer-generated environment. They are considered an important element of cultural heritage applications that can increase user motivation and engagement in various ways. This paper presents a review of the use of digital characters for communicating and disseminating cultural heritage. It explores the wide range of applications that make use of digital characters, and attempts to identify how the characters are used, what are their main features, and how are they contributing to the overall experience. The aim of this review is to inform about the range of possible features and use cases to consider, and to identify the positive aspects, drawbacks and critical issues of using digital characters. The paper presents an overview of current state of the art in digital character design and implementation approaches, the usage of characters in cultural heritage applications arranged in a set of dimensions, and a discussion about prospects and pitfalls of digital character technology.
Ontological Issues in Architectural Digital Heritage Interdisciplinary World
Authors: Brusaporci Stefano
Published: November 2017

The growing of digital tools – often of ease and affordable use –, the rise of ICT, the diffusion of digital devices, have brought to the spread of 3-D models, computer-based visualization, and the rise of advanced applications and of new scientific methodologies. The common practice with digital heritage, its affordances, and the interoperable use of digital instruments favour interdisciplinary works and collaborations between scholars and professionals. According to this context, aim of the paper is to offer a critical reflection on characteristics of architectural heritage and how digital heritage has influenced the discipline, to define references on which root interdisciplinary collaboration, underline peculiar aspects and suggest critical approaches for a wise use of digital tools, foster the study of experiences made in different fields, and support a useful collaboration between researchers of different fields.
On the Possibility of Coalbed Methane Extraction as a Source of Energy under the Hydrodynamic Impact on the Outburst Coal Seam
Authors: Agaiev Ruslan , Vlasenko Vasyl , Dudlia Kateryna , Kyrychenko Maryna , Prytula Dmytro
Published: November 2017

In this article the possibility of methane gas extraction in coal deposits exploitation is considered. Experimental data on the application of hydrodynamic impact on a gas-saturated outburst coal seam prior to its baring in order to reduce gasdynamic activity due to an intensification of methane emission are presented. Also a structural and technological scheme of degassing pipelines that includes emergency protection and monitoring of coal mine methane parameters in real-time mode to ensure a safe, trouble-free process of its transportation to the cogeneration plant for further utilization is proposed.
Oxide Scale Behavior and its Effect on Oxidation Resistance in Al Alloys Containing Alkaline Earth Metal Elements
Authors: Ha Seong Ho , Yoon Young Ok , Kim Nam Seok , Lim Sung Hwan , Kim Shae K.
Published: November 2017

Oxide scale behaviors by surface segregation of Mg, Ca and Be in Al and their effects on oxidation resistance at melt temperature were investigated. With the addition of Ca and Be in Al-7.5mass%Mg alloy, the samples showed a suppressed weight gain. However, in the initial oxidation, Ca added samples exhibited improved oxidation resistance. As a result of oxide layer observation by microscopy, Ca added Al-7.5mass%Mg alloy exhibited the region overlapped by constituent elements, indicating multi-element oxide is formed on the surface. In the oxidation of Al-Mg-Be system, BeO is formed as primary oxide and mixed layer with MgO, while Ca addition in Al-Mg system causes no change in the primary and secondary oxides, but formation of CaMg2Al16O27. BeO and BeAl2O4may contribute to balanced layer by combination between constituent oxides in the Al-Mg-Be system. In the case of Ca addition, CaMg2Al16O27acts as a filler of the cracks in MgO layer.
The Influence of Temperature and Alloy Composition on Austenitic Stainless Steel Oxidation Resistance
Authors: Graham Jordan , Malinov Savko , Douglas Roy , Stalker Rose Mary
Published: November 2017

Stainless steels can form a protective oxide layer when exposed to a high temperature oxidising environment, this protective layer forms a diffusion barrier and slows the oxidation of the alloys in harsh environments. This characteristic has made stainless steels one of the most commonly used alloys for high temperature industrial applications. In this work, a systematic testing procedure has been used to investigate the high temperature oxidation of two commonly used grades of stainless steel, 316 and 310. Samples of each alloy have undergone isothermal testing in air at 1050°C, 1150°C and 1250°C for a range of time periods up to 8h. The oxidation kinetics were also investigated using thermo-gravimetric analysis in air at the same temperatures for 8h. The oxide layers formed on the samples were characterised using X-Ray diffraction, Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. Information derived from oxide layer characterisation was used to explain any differences between the two alloys in terms of oxidation rate and overall alloy performance in the high temperature environment.
Carbon Dioxide Hydrogenation to Methanol over Cu/ZnO-SBA-15 Catalyst: Effect of Metal Loading
Authors: Tasfy Sara Faiz Hanna , Mohd Zabidi Noor Asmawati , Shaharun Maizatul Shima , Subbarao Duvvria , Elbagir Ahmed
Published: November 2017

Utilization of CO2 as a carbon source to produce valuable chemicals is one of the important ways to reduce the global warming caused by increasing CO2 in the atmosphere. Supported metal catalysts are crucial to produce clean and renewable fuels and chemicals from the stable CO2 molecules. The catalytic conversion of CO2 into methanol is recently under increased scrutiny as an opportunity to be used as a low-cost carbon source. Therefore, a series of the bimetallic Cu/ZnO-based catalyst supported by SBA-15 were synthesized via an impregnation technique with different total metal loading and tested in the catalytic hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol. The morphological and textural properties of the synthesized catalysts were determined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), temperature programmed desorption, reduction, oxidation and pulse chemisorption (TPDRO), and N2-adsorption. The CO2 hydrogenation reaction was performed in a microactivity fixed-bed system at 250oC, 2.25 MPa, and H2/CO2 ratio of 3. Experimental results showed that the catalytic structure and performance were strongly affected by the loading of the active site. Where, the catalytic activity, the methanol selectivity as well as the space-time yield increased with increasing the metal loading until it reaches the maximum values at a metal loading of 15 wt% while further addition of metal inhibits the catalytic performance. The higher catalytic activity of 14% and methanol selectivity of 92% was obtained over a Cu/ZnO-SBA-15 catalyst with a total bimetallic loading of 15 wt%. The excellent performance of 15 wt% Cu/ZnO-SBA-15 catalyst is attributed to the presence of well dispersed active sites with small particle size, higher Cu surface area, and lower catalytic reducibility.
The Association of Various Approaches to the Monitoring of Lining Condition in the Blast Furnace Hearth
Authors: Zolotykh M.O. , Dmitriev Andrey N. , Vitkina G.Yu.
Published: November 2017

The problem of an assessment of the monitoring of lining condition in the Blast Furnace hearth during its campaign today has no unambiguous solution. Various techniques for the diagnostics have their own merits and demerits [1]. In this paper, characteristics of the diagnostic methods based on the measurements of temperatures in the lining, heat transfer of the cooling system and acoustic effects are considered. Various techniques can be combined and formulated into a uniform package of the strongest measures.
Applying Isothermal Injection Moulding Process in the Manufacturing of Polymer Composite Reinforced with NiTi Shape Memory Alloy
Authors: Araújo Mota C.A. , Araújo C.J. , Barbosa de Lima A.G. , Freire de Andrade Tony Herbert , Silveira Lira D.
Published: November 2017

SMART materials have gained several applications in industries, especially aeronautical and biomedical. Therefore, the fabrication process of these materials must present quality in the completion and dimensioning, in addition to well established mechanical properties. In this sense, the Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) process is presented as an alternative to the manufacture of such products. This process presents advantages compared to other methods, such as, product quality and low cost. Thus, this work aims to model and simulate numerically the manufacturing process of polymer composite reinforced with NiTi shape memory alloy by RTM using the Ansys CFX commercial software. Results of pressure, velocity and volume fractions fields of the phases are presented and discussed. It was verified that the process parameters, like injection pressure and resin inlet and air outlet positions influenced the total time of the process and final product quality.
Growth Kinetics and Mechanical Characterization of a Hard Boron Coating on a Tool Steel
Authors: Sánchez Huerta D. , López Perrusquia N. , Hilerio Cruz I. , Doñu Ruiz M.A. , García Bustos E.D. , Flores Martínez M.
Published: November 2017

The mechanical characteristics are determined to a FeB/Fe2B coating applied in AISI L6 steel tool and blades make to cut paper. The thermochemical treatment was applied at temperatures of 1173, 1223 and 1273 K with permanence time of 0.5, 2 and 3 h for each temperature. The diffusion coefficient and activation energy for each phase is obtained for this boron coating on an AISI L6 steel. HRC test were made to establish the type of adherence (qualitative) and comparing with the VDI 3198 standard and the results were obtaining optimal classification of HF1-HF2 in condition for 3h of the three temperatures. The result by nanoidentation show hardness of 1000 - 2000 HV as well as the Young's modulus for each present phase of the coating. Through micrographs (SEM) are showing thicknesses up to 79.52 ± 18.82 μm for FeB and 97.80 ± 20.01μm for Fe2B, a morphology sawn ́s type is evidence. Through EDS and x-ray diffraction are used to show the chemical elements formed.
Structure of Partly Vacuum Extracted MgH2 Samples
Authors: Lushnikov Stepan Alexandrovich , Filippova Tatyana Victorovna , Bobrikov Ivan Anatolievich
Published: November 2017

The structure of partly desorbed and quenched samples of MgH2 has been investigated by the neutron diffraction method. In ambient conditions a partly desorbed sample demonstrates high stability, while the same sample quenched at low temperature decomposed into Mg after several days. Obtained neutron data showed that all studied samples contain coexisting Mg and MgH2 phases. Hydrogen distribution for both quenched and non-quenched samples is similar. Hydrogen atoms occupied sites predominantly in the MgH2 lattice, whereas Mg lattice is free of the hydrogen.
Drying of Industrial Hollow Ceramic Brick: Analysis of the Moisture Content and Temperature Parameters
Authors: Araújo Morgana Vasconcellos , Santos R.S. , da Silva R. Moura , Barbosa de Lima A.G.
Published: November 2017

The study of ceramic drying is theme of several researches today. In most case, this research is realized experimentally, making possible measurements errors that reverberating in data slightly out of the expected, or erroneous. Numerical simulation emerges like a tool that allows the reproduction of experiments using computers and suitable software’s. The use of numerical simulation enables fast changes in boundary conditions and help in the improvement of an unit operation. This paper aims to predict the drying process of an industrial hollow ceramic brick using the liquid diffusion model to describe the behavior of the temperature and moisture content inside the brick and drying kinetics along time, with the help of the Ansys® CFX commercial package. Predicted results of the average moisture content and temperature of the brick were compared with experimental results, and good agreements were obtained. It was verified that regions with smaller thickness dry and heat faster than the others.
Transient Heat Transfer in a Packed-Bed Elliptic Cylindrical Reactor: A Finite-Volume Approach
Authors: da Silva R. Moura , Barbosa de Lima A.G. , de Oliveira L. Gomes , Araújo Morgana Vasconcellos , Santos R.S.
Published: November 2017

This work aims to develop a transient three-dimensional mathematical model using the elliptic cylindrical coordinate system, to predict heat transfer in a elliptic cylindrical packed fixed bed reactor. The model considers variable thermo physical properties and a parabolic temperature profile at the fluid inlet. The governing equation is solved using the finite volume method. Results of temperature profile along the reactor are presented and discussed at different moments.It was verified that the maximum heat transfer rate inside the reactor occurs near the extreme region close to minor semi-axis of the ellipse; the higher temperatures at the reactor surface are also in this region, along the entire height of the bed; the steady-state regime is reached at t = 4.5 s of process, presenting after this time interval,small axial temperature gradients and high radial gradients along of the reactor bed; the parabolic temperature profile give to the bed a predominance of radial temperature gradients, and the radial porosity profile favours a higher heat transfer rate at reactor surface.
The IFN Response in Bats Displays Distinctive IFN-Stimulated Gene Expression Kinetics with Atypical RNASEL Induction
Authors: De La Cruz-Rivera Pamela C. , Kanchwala Mohammed , Liang Hanquan , Kumar Ashwani , Wang Lin-Fa , Xing Chao , Schoggins John W.
Published: November 2017

Bats host a large number of zoonotic viruses, including several viruses that are highly pathogenic to other mammals. The mechanisms underlying this rich viral diversity are unknown, but they may be linked to unique immunological features that allow bats to act as asymptomatic viral reservoirs. Vertebrates respond to viral infection by inducing IFNs, which trigger antiviral defenses through IFN-stimulated gene (ISG) expression. Although the IFN system of several bats is characterized at the genomic level, less is known about bat IFN-mediated transcriptional responses. In this article, we show that IFN signaling in bat cells from the black flying fox (Pteropus alecto) consists of conserved and unique ISG expression profiles. In IFN-stimulated cells, bat ISGs comprise two unique temporal subclusters with similar early induction kinetics but distinct late-phase declines. In contrast, human ISGs lack this decline phase and remained elevated for longer periods. Notably, in unstimulated cells, bat ISGs were expressed more highly than their human counterparts. We also found that the antiviral effector 2-5A–dependent endoribonuclease, which is not an ISG in humans, is highly IFN inducible in black flying fox cells and contributes to cell-intrinsic control of viral infection. These studies reveal distinctive innate immune features that may underlie a unique virus–host relationship in bats.
Die lewe en werk van Philipp Melanchthon (1497–1560): ’n Leksikografiese bydrae tot Reformasie 500
Authors: Van Wyk Ignatius W.C.
Published: November 2017

This article is a contribution to a research project of the Department of Church History and Church Polity at the University of Pretoria on the biography and work of the Reformers of the sixteenth century and their followers. The life and work of Philipp Melanchthon receives attention in the article. Melanchthon’s contribution to Reformation theology as well as his contributions to church-life, are described. Melanchthon was the man next to Luther and he therefore has to receive attention in this year of celebration and commemoration.
Of poetics and possibility: Richard Kearney’s post-metaphysical God
Authors: Steenkamp Yolande
Published: November 2017

This article provides an overview of Richard Kearney’s attempt at re-imagining God post-metaphysically. In the context of a continental dialogue on the topic, Kearney has responded to onto-theology with a hermeneutic and phenomenologically informed attempt to rethink God post-metaphysically. This eschatological understanding of God is expounded in the article and is placed in relation to Kearney’s more recent concept of Anatheism. The article closes with a few remarks on what may be gained by Kearney’s work, as well as outlining a few critical questions.
Trans-disciplinary research on religious formations in urban Africa: Towards liberative methodological approaches
Authors: De Beer Stephan F. , Smith R. Drew , Manyaka Jacob
Published: November 2017

In this article, we are exploring a methodological approach to research on faith and religious expressions in urban Africa. We are committed to trans-disciplinary work that pursues research methods mutually liberating for researchers, co-researchers and community participants and that results in long-term benefits and strengthened agency on the part of the host communities. Our reflections in this article are based on a collaborative research project1 in two regions of Pretoria, Tshwane2 – Pretoria Central and Mamelodi East – in which we explore how religious innovation and competition in and amongst churches contribute to the healing or perpetuation of urban fractures.
Conceptual considerations for studying churches’ engagement with urban fractures and vulnerabilities
Authors: Van Wyngaard George J.
Published: November 2017

This article provides an overview of conceptual considerations underpinning the design of a research project on religious innovation and competition amidst urban social change. The conceptual work developed out of the planning of the research methods, questions and questionnaires, and provides the background on which particular methodological choices and research foci were built. In six sections, the following will be discussed: the tension between a liberation theology commitment and ethnographic description of local congregations’ response to social change; the motivation for a particular understanding of ‘church’ used in identifying communities for the mapping process and focus groups; assumptions on the relation between church or theology and society; introduction to the key notions ‘urban fractures’ and ‘vulnerabilities’ used in the study; and our understanding of ‘innovation’.
Approach to acute kidney injury in HIV-infected patients in South Africa
Authors: Boswell Michael T. , Rossouw Theresa M.
Published: November 2017

Background: HIV-infected patients have an increased risk of renal disease. Current first-line antiretroviral therapy contains tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), which has nephrotoxic potential, characterised by proximal tubular cell injury. This may result in acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease or partial or complete Fanconi syndrome.Objectives: We reviewed the existing literature on acute kidney injury and TDF-associated nephrotoxicity with the aim of providing an approach to diagnosis and management, which is relevant to a general medical practitioner.Methods: We performed a broad literature search of biomedical databases including PubMed and ScienceDirect. Our search terms included, but were not limited to, ‘tenofovir’, ‘nephrotoxicity’, ‘HIV’, ‘acute kidney injury’ and ‘renal tubular acidosis’.Our aim was not to generate a systematic literature review with weighted evidence, but rather to provide a review of best practice from a variety of sources. Where published studies were not available from the above databases, we relied on relevant textbooks and professional guidelines.Results: Potential nephrotoxicity is not an impediment to the widespread use of TDF in treating HIV infection, because most patients will tolerate the medication well. However, patients with advanced disease, low body weight, advanced age, pre-existing kidney disease and concomitant use of other nephrotoxic medications are at increased risk of adverse renal events and may develop severe complications if not appropriately managed. These risk factors are unfortunately common in patients initiating antiretroviral therapy in South Africa.Conclusion: Prevention of renal damage by means of careful screening and monitoring of high-risk patients is of paramount importance. Increased awareness of this problem and knowledge of how to manage kidney disease should be emphasised for general medical practitioners who work with HIV-infected patients.
Is there any hope for ‘truth’ and ‘progress’ in theological thinking today?
Authors: Van Huyssteen J. Wentzel
Published: November 2017

To provide the historical-theological background to his own intellectual pursuit of interdisciplinary theology, Wentzel van Huyssteen tells his story that was prompted in his student days at Stellenbosch by the then young, newly appointed lecturer Johan Heyns. It sprung from the basic understanding and confrontation with the question: How is theology to be understood as a science? The very question became Van Huyssteen’s most basic research question for his academic career, guided by the deep conviction that Heyns adamantly proclaimed, namely that the content and methodology of theology could never be deduced from ‘the truth of revelation’ itself, but would in fact always be shaped by ‘a general theory of science’. For Van Huyssteen, this conviction pointed directly to the tentative and hypothetical nature of all theology. It helped him to put into words what would eventually become the defining character of his own theology, namely seeing the intellectual context of theology as a deeply cultural and contextual venture in which the sciences, politics and philosophy would play a defining role. This role is explicated in the article by focusing firstly on the structure of theological solutions, secondly on interdisciplinarity as challenge, subsequently on continuity and change, and lastly on problem-solving within a post-foundationalist theology.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: A post-foundational approach argues for the interdisciplinary character of theology as science. The approach transcends traditional boundaries of theological, philosophical and social reflection, establishing an intellectual context of theology as a deeply cultural and contextual venture.
Bijan
Authors: Aboukazemi Vahideh
Published: November 2017

‘Bijan’ is a representation of personal experiences from the days of the Iranian Revolution and my involvement in student political activism; an interpretation of ‘a moment of crisis’ and ‘abjection’. Abjection, as developed by Julia Kristeva, ‘is what disturbs identity, system, order’. Recalling past events and people from a time of living through utter abjection, causes narrative to disrupt and shatter around the theme of suffering, making my narrative representations fragmented, ambiguous and discontinuous.
Ghosting Politics: Speechwriters, Speechmakers and the (Re)crafting of Identity
Authors: Richardson Michael
Published: November 2017

Despite public awareness of their role, speechwriters occupy an anxiously liminal position within the political process. As the ongoing dispute between former Australian prime minister Paul Keating and Don Watson over the Redfern Speech suggests, the authorship and ownership of speeches can be a fraught proposition, no matter the professional codes. Crafting and re-crafting identity places speechwriter and speechmaker in a relation of intense intimacy, one in which neither party may be comfortable and from which both may well emerge changed. Having written speeches for Jack Layton, former leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, I know just how complex, uncertain and productive that relation can be. This article conceives of identity as transindividual, formed in the intensity and flux of encounter, and weaves together the personal and the critical to examine politics’ speechwriting ghost.
Blood Call and ‘Natural Flutters’: Xavier Herbert’s Racialised Quartet of Heteronormativity
Authors: Conor Liz
Published: November 2017

National belonging for Xavier Herbert was intimately tied to interracial sexuality. ‘Euraustralians’ (‘half-castes’) were for Herbert a redemptive motif that could assuage the ‘awful loneliness of the colonial born’ by which he hinted at the land claim of settler-colonials as spurious. Herbert’s exposure of the spectrum of interracial sex—from companionate marriage to casual prostitution to endemic sexual assault—in his novels Capricornia (1938) and Poor Fellow My Country (1975) was unprecedented and potentially game-changing in the administration of Aboriginal women’s sexuality under the assimilation era. But his deeply fraught masculinity was expressed through a picaresque frontier manhood that expressed itself through this spectrum of relations with Aboriginal women. For all his radical assertions of a ‘Euraustralian’ or hybrid nation, Herbert was myopic and dismissive of the women attached to the ‘lean loins’ he hoped it would spring from. He was also vitriolic about the white women, including wives, who interfered with white men’s access to Aboriginal women’s bodies. In this article I examine how Herbert’s utopian racial destinies depended on the unexamined sexual contract of monogamy and the asymmetrical pact to which it consigned white men and white women, and the class of sexually available Indigenous women, or ‘black velvet’, it rested on in colonial scenarios of sex.
Xavier Herbert. Requiem for Genius
Authors: McDougall Russell
Published: November 2017

In today’s global celebrity culture it’s hard to imagine a word more over-used and abused than ‘genius’. It is a slippery word with a long and contradictory conceptual history. Yet, in the Land of the Tall Poppy, self-confessions of genius invariably have paved a broad road to public ridicule and denigration. Xavier Herbert’s notion of genius was not static. It changed throughout his life and it evolved through his writing. He agreed with Carlyle that the first condition of genius must always be a ‘transcendent capacity of taking trouble’ and on this foundation he built his own concept of genius, as the unending ‘capacity for loving’. This article explores what genius meant to Xavier Herbert and how it translated into his fiction, before considering how our sense of genius today influences the way we respond to his most challenging fictions of love and hate, 'Capricornia' and 'Poor Fellow My Country'.
Stuart Hall and Cultural Studies, circa 1983
Authors: Curthoys Ann , Docker John
Published: November 2017

Stuart Hall sought to internationalise theoretical debates and to create Cultural Studies as interdisciplinary. We chart his theoretical journey through a detailed examination of a series of lectures delivered in 1983 and now published for the first time. In these lectures, he discusses theorists such as E.P. Thompson, Raymond Williams, Louis Althusser, Levi Strauss and Antonio Gramsci, and explores the relationship between ideas and social structure, the specificities of class and race, and the legacies of slavery. We note his turn towards metaphors of divergence and dispersal and highlight how autobiographical and deeply personal Hall is in these lectures, especially in his ego histoire moment of traumatic memory recovery.
Beyond the Neoliberal University: Hopeful Critique
Authors: Sturm Sean
Published: November 2017

Review of Ruth Barcan. 2013 (hb), 2016 (pb), 'Academic Life and Labour in the New University: Hope and Other Choices', London: Routledge and Richard Hil. 2015, 'Selling Students Short: Why You Won’t Get the University Education You Deserve', Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Analysis of lightning outliers in the EUCLID network
Authors: Poelman Dieter R. , Schulz Wolfgang , Kaltenboeck Rudolf , Delobbe Laurent
Published: November 2017

Abstract. Lightning data as observed by the European Cooperation for Lightning Detection (EUCLID) network are used in combination with radar data to retrieve the temporal and spatial behavior of lightning outliers, i.e., discharges located in a wrong place, over a 5-year period from 2011 to 2016. Cloud-to-ground (CG) stroke and intracloud (IC) pulse data are superimposed on corresponding 5 min radar precipitation fields in two topographically different areas, Belgium and Austria, in order to extract lightning outliers based on the distance between each lightning event and the nearest precipitation. It is shown that the percentage of outliers is sensitive to changes in the network and to the location algorithm itself. The total percentage of outliers for both regions varies over the years between 0.8 and 1.7 % for a distance to the nearest precipitation of 2 km, with an average of approximately 1.2 % in Belgium and Austria. Outside the European summer thunderstorm season, the percentage of outliers tends to increase somewhat. The majority of all the outliers are low peak current events with absolute values falling between 0 and 10 kA. More specifically, positive cloud-to-ground strokes are more likely to be classified as outliers compared to all other types of discharges. Furthermore, it turns out that the number of sensors participating in locating a lightning discharge is different for outliers versus correctly located events, with outliers having the lowest amount of sensors participating. In addition, it is shown that in most cases the semi-major axis (SMA) assigned to a lightning discharge as a confidence indicator in the location accuracy (LA) is smaller for correctly located events compared to the semi-major axis of outliers.
Gap-filling a spatially-explicit plant trait database: comparing
imputation methods and different levels of ecological information
Authors: Poyatos Rafael , Sus Oliver , Badiella Llorenç , Mencuccini Maurizio , Martínez-Vilalta Jordi
Published: November 2017

Abstract. The ubiquity of missing data in plant trait databases may hinder trait-based analyses of ecological patterns and processes. Spatially-explicit datasets with information on intraspecific trait variability are rare but offer great promise in improving our understanding of functional biogeography. At the same time, they offer specific challenges in terms of data imputation. Here we compare statistical imputation approaches, using varying levels of ecological information, for five plant traits (leaf biomass to sapwood area ratio, leaf nitrogen content, maximum tree height, leaf mass per area and wood density) in a spatially-explicit plant trait dataset of temperate and Mediterranean tree species (Catalonia, north-east Iberian Peninsula, 31900 km2). We simulated gaps at different missingness levels (10 %–80 %) in a complete trait matrix, and we used overall trait means, species means, k-nearest neighbours (kNN), ordinary and regression kriging and multivariate imputation using chained equations (MICE) to impute missing trait values. We assessed these methods in terms of their accuracy and of their ability to preserve trait distributions, multi-trait correlation structure and bivariate trait relationships. The relatively good performance of mean and species mean imputations in terms of accuracy masked a poor representation of trait distributions and multivariate trait structure. Species identity improved MICE imputations for all traits, whereas forest structure and topography improved imputations for some traits. No method performed best consistently for the five studied traits, but, considering all traits and performance metrics, MICE informed by relevant ecological variables produced globally more plausible datasets. However, at higher missingness (> 30 %) species mean imputations and regression kriging tended to outperform MICE for some traits. Spatial patterns of the studied traits in Catalan forests (5495 plots) were largely similar when using species means, regression kriging or the best-performing MICE application. Our results highlight the need to assess imputation quality beyond just imputation accuracy, and show that including ecological information in statistical imputation approaches yields more plausible imputations in spatially-explicit plant trait datasets.