bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Addressing the circularity problem in the Ep−Eiso correlation of gamma-ray bursts
Authors: Amati Lorenzo , D’Agostino Rocco , Luongo Orlando , Muccino Marco , Tantalo Maria
Published: April 2019

We here propose a new model-independent technique to overcome the circularity problem affecting the use of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) as distance indicators through the use of Ep−Eiso correlation. We calibrate the Ep−Eiso correlation and find the GRB distance moduli that can be used to constrain dark energy models. We use observational Hubble data to approximate the cosmic evolution through Bézier parametric curve obtained through the linear combination of Bernstein basis polynomials. In doing so, we build up a new data set consisting of 193 GRB distance moduli. We combine this sample with the supernova JLA data set to test the standard ΛCDM model and its wCDM extension. We place observational constraints on the cosmological parameters through Markov Chain Monte Carlo numerical technique. Moreover, we compare the theoretical scenarios by performing the Akaike and Deviance Information statistical criteria.the 2σ level, while for the wCDM model we obtain $\Omega _m=0.34^{+0.13}_{-0.15}$ and $w=-0.86^{+0.36}_{-0.38}$ at the 2σ level. Our analysis suggests that ΛCDM model is statistically favoured over the wCDM scenario. No evidence for extension of the ΛCDM model is found.
The extruded non-template strand determines the architecture of R-loops
Authors: Carrasco-Salas Yeraldinne , Malapert Amélie , Sulthana Shaheen , Molcrette Bastien , Chazot-Franguiadakis Léa , Bernard Pascal , Chédin Frédéric , Faivre-Moskalenko Cendrine , Vanoosthuyse Vincent
Published: April 2019

Three-stranded R-loop structures have been associated with genomic instability phenotypes. What underlies their wide-ranging effects on genome stability remains poorly understood. Here we combined biochemical and atomic force microscopy approaches with single molecule R-loop footprinting to demonstrate that R-loops formed at the model Airn locus in vitro adopt a defined set of three-dimensional conformations characterized by distinct shapes and volumes, which we call R-loop objects. Interestingly, we show that these R-loop objects impose specific physical constraints on the DNA, as revealed by the presence of stereotypical angles in the surrounding DNA. Biochemical probing and mutagenesis experiments revealed that the formation of R-loop objects at Airn is dictated by the extruded non-template strand, suggesting that R-loops possess intrinsic sequence-driven properties. Consistent with this, we show that R-loops formed at the fission yeast gene sum3 do not form detectable R-loop objects. Our results reveal that R-loops differ by their architectures and that the organization of the non-template strand is a fundamental characteristic of R-loops, which could explain that only a subset of R-loops is associated with replication-dependent DNA breaks.
Fatty acid conjugation enhances potency of antisense oligonucleotides in muscle
Authors: Prakash Thazha P , Mullick Adam E , Lee Richard G , Yu Jinghua , Yeh Steve T , Low Audrey , Chappell Alfred E , Østergaard Michael E , Murray Sue , Gaus Hans J , Swayze Eric E , Seth Punit P
Published: April 2019

Enhancing the functional uptake of antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) in the muscle will be beneficial for developing ASO therapeutics targeting genes expressed in the muscle. We hypothesized that improving albumin binding will facilitate traversal of ASO from the blood compartment to the interstitium of the muscle tissues to enhance ASO functional uptake. We synthesized structurally diverse saturated and unsaturated fatty acid conjugated ASOs with a range of hydrophobicity. The binding affinity of ASO fatty acid conjugates to plasma proteins improved with fatty acid chain length and highest binding affinity was observed with ASO conjugates containing fatty acid chain length from 16 to 22 carbons. The degree of unsaturation or conformation of double bond appears to have no influence on protein binding or activity of ASO fatty acid conjugates. Activity of fatty acid ASO conjugates correlated with the affinity to albumin and the tightest albumin binder exhibited the highest activity improvement in muscle. Palmitic acid conjugation increases ASO plasma Cmax and improved delivery of ASO to interstitial space of mouse muscle. Conjugation of palmitic acid improved potency of DMPK, Cav3, CD36 and Malat-1 ASOs (3- to 7-fold) in mouse muscle. Our approach provides a foundation for developing more effective therapeutic ASOs for muscle disorders.
Brain Physiological Response and Adaptation During Spaceflight
Authors: Marshall-Goebel Karina , Damani Rahul , Bershad Eric M
Published: April 2019

More than half of astronauts returning from long-duration missions on the International Space Station present with neuro-ocular structural and/or functional changes, including optic disc edema, optic nerve sheath distension, globe flattening, choroidal folds, or hyperopic shifts. This spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome (SANS) represents a major risk to future exploration class human spaceflight missions, including Mars missions. Although the exact pathophysiology of SANS is unknown, evidence thus far suggests that an increase in intracranial pressure (ICP) relative to the upright position on Earth, which is due to the loss of hydrostatic pressure gradients in space, may play a leading role. This review focuses on brain physiology in the spaceflight environment, specifically on how spaceflight may affect ICP and related indicators of cranial compliance, potential factors related to the development of SANS, and findings from spaceflight as well as ground-based spaceflight analog research studies.
Identification of Cigarette Brands by Soft Independent Modeling of Class Analogy of Volatile Substances
Authors: Zelinkova Zuzana , Wenzl Thomas
Published: April 2019

Introduction

This study aimed to develop a method for discriminating cigarette brands based on the profiles of volatile components extracted from the tobacco fraction of the finished cigarettes to authenticate branded cigarettes of unknown origin.

Methods

An analytical method comprising direct thermal desorption coupled with gas chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry was developed for acquiring volatile profiles of cigarettes. About 290 samples of commercially available cigarettes were analyzed. Within this batch, 123 samples represented four popular cigarette brands. They were selected for in-depth characterization. Multivariate analysis was used to investigate the interrelations among volatile compounds of cigarettes and to identify characteristic markers for the cigarette discrimination. Supervised pattern recognition techniques were used for designing classification models.

Results

Principal component analysis covering all detected volatiles allowed the differentiation of cigarettes based on the brand. A number of 56 volatile components were identified as markers with high discrimination power. These compounds were used for establishing classification models. A method of soft independent modeling of class analogy developed for the four studied cigarette brands proved to be efficient in the classification of unknown cigarettes, with accuracy between 95.9% and 100%.

Conclusions

The data evaluation by soft independent modeling of class analogy was highly accurate in classification of unknown cigarettes with a low rate of false positives and false negatives. The developed models can be used for discrimination of genuine from non-genuine products with high level of probability.

Implications

Profiling of volatiles, which is commonly used for authentication of different food commodities, was applied for the characterization of cigarette tobacco for the purpose of authentication a cigarette brand. Volatile components with a high discrimination power were identified by means of multivariate statistical methods and used for establishing of a classification model. The classification model was able to discriminate genuine from non-genuine cigarettes with a high level of prediction accuracy. This model could be a powerful tool for tobacco control to judge the authenticity of cigarettes.
Tobacco Industry Promotions and Pricing After Tax Increases: An Analysis of Internal Industry Documents
Authors: Apollonio Dorie E , Glantz Stanton A
Published: April 2019

Background

Increasing tobacco taxes, and through them, prices, is an effective public health strategy to decrease tobacco use. The tobacco industry has developed multiple promotional strategies to undercut these effects; this study assessed promotions directed to wholesalers and retailers and manufacturer price changes that blunt the effects of tax and price increases.

Methods

We reviewed tobacco industry documents and contemporaneous research literature dated 1987 to 2016 to identify the nature, extent, and effectiveness of tobacco industry promotions and price changes used after state-level tobacco tax increases.

Results

Tobacco companies have created promotions to reduce the effectiveness of tobacco tax increases by encouraging established users to purchase tobacco in lower-tax jurisdictions and sometimes lowering manufacturer pricing to “undershift” smaller tax increases, so that tobacco prices increased by less than the amount of the tax.

Conclusions

Policymakers should address industry efforts to undercut an effective public health intervention through regulating minimum prices, limiting tobacco industry promotions, and by enacting tax increases that are large, immediate, and result in price increases.

Implications

Tobacco companies view excise tax increases on tobacco products as a critical business threat. To keep users from quitting or reducing tobacco use in response to tax increases, they have shifted manufacturer pricing and developed specific promotions that encourage customers to shop for lower-taxed products. Health authorities should address tobacco industry efforts to undercut the effects of taxes by regulating prices and promotions and passing large and immediate tax increases.
Louise Rosenblatt
Authors: Shook John R.
Published: April 2019

Louise Rosenblatt (b. 1904–d. 2005) was a highly influential thinker in literary and critical theory, reading pedagogy, and education. She was professor of education at New York University from 1948 until 1972, and she continued to teach for many years at other universities. The impact of her writings extends to aesthetics, communication and media studies, and cultural studies. Her transactional theory of reading literature earned a permanent place among methodologies applied to the study of reader comprehension and improving the teaching of reading, from preschool to college-age years. She is most widely known for her “reader response” theory of literature. The process of reading is a dynamic transaction between the reader and the text, in which meaningful ideas arise for readers from their own thoughtful and creative interpretations. Her first book, Literature as Exploration, which was published in 1938, has gone through five editions and remains in print in the early 21st century. Her last book, Making Meaning with Texts: Selected Essays, was published in 2005 and contained selected essays from each decade of her career. Rosenblatt’s view of literary experience threw down a challenge to a dominant paradigm during the 1940s and 1950s, namely the New Criticism. New Criticism held that authentic meanings of a piece of creative writing—a novel, story, drama, poem, and so on—are already within the text itself, requiring attention to that somewhat concealed yet objective truth. Rosenblatt took the pragmatist approach, starting from the aesthetics of reading. As a member of the Conference on Methods in Philosophy and the Sciences at Columbia University during the 1930s, she studied John Dewey, Charles Peirce, and William James. During this time, she married the pragmatist philosopher Sidney Ratner. Rosenblatt applied her knowledge of pragmatism to the question of understanding creative writing. For pragmatism, all experiences are creative fusions of intersecting processes, some from within and some from without. Any comprehension of a text blends the reader’s particular approach for appreciating it together with the capacity of the text to provoke a variety of stimulating ideas. The emotional and the factual are rarely found in pure forms; only a gradual range from the affective to the cognitive can characterize lived experience. Understanding the process of reading in its fundamental experiential situation has been a revolutionary philosophical position, impacting both childhood education and literary theory. Rosenblatt’s work continues to inspire fresh academic research and curricular innovations.
Antonio da Tempo and Gidino da Sommacampagna
Authors: Aresu Francesco Marco
Published: April 2019

Antonio da Tempo (A. d. T.) of Padua [?] (b. end of the 13th century–d. after 1339) was a judge, poet, and metricologist. He participated in Padua’s protohumanistic cultural milieu at the intersections of juridical and rhetorical Studies, French literature, and Siculo-Tuscan Poetry. He is the author of correspondence sonnets and other poems cited as example in his own treatise on metrics, the Editions: Summa artis rithimici vulgaris dictaminis, for which he is best known. The Summa is a study of Italian metrical forms (sonettus, ballata, cantio extensa, rotundellus, mandrialis, serventesius, motus confectus), with a clear prominence given to the sonnet. Translated and adapted at least three times over the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, it remained the most popular versification textbook until Pietro Bembo’s Prose della volgar lingua (1525). The biography of Petrarch and the commentary to Petrarch’s Fragmenta once attributed to him are nowadays considered the work of a homonym. The most popular vernacular rewriting of Antonio’s Summa is Gidino (or Ghidino) da Sommacampagna’s Editions: Trattato e Arte deli Rithimi Volgari. Gidino, however, never references his source. A poet, preceptor, and soothsayer at the Scaliger court, Gidino (Verona [?], b. 1320–1330–d. before 1400) planned the Trattato (completed around 1381–1384) while serving a prison sentence after falling into disrepute following the death of his patron, Cangrande II. The Trattatto, preserved in a single manuscript, expands on Antonio’s classification of meters by adding equivoci, bisticci, asticci, composizioni, and contrasti. Gidino also develops the analysis of aequivocatio and multilingual poems and provides a more detailed exemplification of sirventesi and madrigali.
Anthropology of Liberalism
Authors: Ansell Aaron
Published: April 2019

Anthropology has long had a love-hate relationship to liberalism. As the disciplinary proponents of other cultures’ dignity, anthropologists laid the groundwork for multiculturalism and affirmed a pluralist public sphere. On the other hand, ethnographic translations of other cultures are implicitly written in defiance of their readership’s liberal “commonsense,” e.g., the presumed universality of the self-maximizing individual (homo economicus). Inspired by either perspective, anthropologists constituted their field as the study of all that is illiberal “out there” in the world. When they found among their ethnographic subjects those who talked a liberal game, they probably tried to ignore them, much as they did the missionaries (or native converts) whose Christianity placed them outside the frame of “traditional culture.” Liberalism became an object of anthropological study only after the unit of ethnographic analysis shifted (during the 1980s) from that of the bounded cultural group to that of the globally intertwined locus (with the concomitant advent of “studying up” in the developed world). Around the same time, a new theoretical armature came to such studies from Michel Foucault’s later lectures on “governmentality,” in which he exposed individual freedom’s complicity with projects of rule. And there was a third influence: the sea changes of globalization associated with the diminution of Keynesian welfare states, the loosening of regulations on capital flows, and the ascendancy of market fundamentalism signaled the rebirth of an economic liberalism—“neoliberalism”—that altered many ethnographic landscapes. Indeed, it is a disciplinary irony that interest in neoliberal generally preceded interest in liberalism. And yet the irony makes sense in light of the increasingly visible contradiction between the deepening of market-driven inequalities and the continued hegemony of classical liberalism’s premises (rationality, universalism, progress, etc.). In the early 21st century, the anthropology of liberalism falls between two ideal types. Comprising one type are the relatively few inquiries for which liberalism is the central object of study, those presented under the headings “late liberalism” and “the liberal subject.” Comprising the second type are those lines of inquiry—“humanitarianism,” “secularism,” “human rights,” “civil society and the public sphere,” “citizenship,” “democracy,” “multiculturalism,” and “governmentality”—in which liberalism figures as one among other key analytics. Within these literatures, one finds more or less attention to liberalism per se. At times, it appears to be only the philosophical or historical backdrop to the ethnographic frame, while at others, liberalism’s diaspora and contradictions are named as the most salient precipitate of the social activity under description. In sum, anthropology, proceeding on a number of fronts (and not always in coordination), has begun to ambush liberalism as a belated object of study.
Children as Language Brokers
Authors: Antonini Rachele
Published: April 2019

Child language brokering (CLB) is a widespread practice of linguistic and cultural mediation or brokering that is generally performed by the children of immigrant and minority groups and that takes place in all those domains that pertain to these families’ social and daily life. It is a very young topic of interest; hence the body of research and literature available on CLB is still limited and highly fragmented and discipline-based, and attempts at bringing together researchers with different disciplinary and methodological perspectives are quite recent. Nonetheless, the increased interest in this topic of study has contributed to make it a fully fledged and freestanding area of study. Until the mid-1970s, the study of CLB was never the primary research question, and any observation on its existence was considered a byproduct of research focusing on other topics and issues. In the 1980s, articles and essays describing this practice started appearing in a variety of journals and volumes from a wide array of disciplinary perspectives. In the mid-1990s, research on CLB gained momentum and shifted to other aspects and issues of CLB, namely, the who, what, and where of CLB and its positive and negative effects on the language brokers’ education, identity construction, and psychological well-being. These include parentification and adultification issues that emerge when children assume the role of the decision-maker in the family and that may have a significant impact on family relationships, the children’s acculturation and learning process, and their attitudes toward their native and/or second language and culture. The study of CLB in Europe was introduced in the late 1990s and was initially almost exclusively UK-based. Since the end of the 1990s, it has developed in other European countries too, by focusing on the communities that represent the largest migrant groups present in each country, like for instance Moroccan communities in Spain, North African and Italian immigrants in Germany, and a variety of immigrant groups in Italy. CLB is now a topic of research in, inter alia, anthropology, bi- and multilingualism studies, educational studies, interpreting and translation studies, sociolinguistics, and psychology.
Philip K. Dick
Authors: Gene-Rowe Francis
Published: April 2019

Philip K. Dick was a central figure of science fiction literature from the 1950s to the 1970s. His novels and short stories were greatly admired by fellow authors such as Brian Aldiss, Ursula Le Guin, and Stanisław Lem, as well as by theorists of postmodernism such as Jean Baudrillard, Fredric Jameson, and Slavoj Žižek. Dick was highly prolific, publishing over 120 short stories and authoring forty-four novels over the course of his career. In addition to his science fiction, Dick wrote several mainstream works of fiction, of which only one was published during his lifetime. Dick’s fiction has been widely adapted to cinema, both in and outside of Hollywood. Dick’s characteristic themes include Cold War paranoia, dystopia, artificial intelligence, psychopathology, drugs and the 1960s counterculture, illusion and simulation, empathy, entropy and determinism, spiritual revelation, and religious salvation.
Policy Mobilities
Authors: Theodore Nik
Published: April 2019

How do “ideas from elsewhere” shape local policy debates? Over the last decade or two, the policy mobilities approach from the emerging field of critical policy studies has taken up this question by problematizing conventional understandings of policymaking. Whereas traditional approaches to studying policy transfer tended to describe the prudent selection of proven models and policy protocols by worldly decision makers, policy mobilities research has troubled common depictions of the smooth diffusion and adoption of best practices and other “ideas that work” that have been selected from a global marketplace of policy solutions. By focusing on the global, or translocal, circulation of ideas and expertise, as well as policies, programs, plans, and problem statements and related discourses, this research has advanced a geographically sensitive approach to studying policymaking that is attentive both to the constitutive role sociospatial context plays in the development and authorization of “successful” policy solutions (as well as those policies that are deemed to have failed) and to the relationality of policymaking sites (whether as sites of emulation, implementation, or contestation). With its focus on the sociospatial embeddedness of policymaking processes, policy mobilities research is especially concerned with models (how policies, programs, and plans come to have extra-local salience), connections (how places and policy domains become interlinked through networks and epistemic communities), movement (how policies are transformed and adapted through the circulation of expertise, ideas, and models, as well as the reasons some policies fail to generate a wider audience of learners and emulators), institutions and actors (including local and national governments; diverse institutional arrangements in sites of policy implementation; international organizations, such as the World Bank and OECD; various cross-border networks, such as those involved in global health policymaking; and consultancies and other policy entrepreneurs); and techniques for learning (such as study tours, conferences, best practices reports, and evaluation science). But the policy mobilities approach offers far more than just a set of categories for describing aspects of the policymaking process; through the study of these aspects of policymaking, the policy mobilities approach seeks to be attentive to the ways in which decision-making is laden with power relations. In this sense, the policy mobilities approach offers a critical lens through which the translocal dynamics of policymaking can be investigated.
To Experience or to Be Informed? Classical Conditioning Induces Nocebo Hyperalgesia even when Placebo Analgesia Is Verbally Suggested—Results of a Preliminary Study
Authors: Bajcar Elżbieta A , Wiercioch-Kuzianik Karolina , Adamczyk Wacław M , Bąbel Przemysław
Published: April 2019

Objective

To investigate whether direct experience (i.e., classical conditioning) or verbal suggestion is more important in inducing nocebo hyperalgesia, five groups (total sample size, N = 99) were studied: conditioning, congruent conditioning, incongruent conditioning, verbal suggestion, and control.

Methods

Participants in groups with conditioning experienced more intensive pain stimuli after presentation of a white circle. In the congruent conditioning group, suggestion that the circle would precede more intensive pain stimuli was additionally provided, whereas in the incongruent conditioning group, the opposite suggestion was used. Control and verbal suggestion groups received pain stimuli of one intensity; however, the latter received suggestion that a circle would precede pain stimuli of higher intensity.

Results

The nocebo effect was observed in all conditioning groups, regardless of the verbal suggestions used. Moreover, the experience of hyperalgesia was able to nullify the effect of the verbal suggestion of analgesia. Incongruence between verbal suggestion and pain experience produced expectancies that affected nocebo hyperalgesia.

Conclusions

The results of this preliminary study suggest that direct experience seems to be more important than verbal suggestion in inducing nocebo hyperalgesia.
Short-range and tensor correlations in $^{4}$He and $^{8}$Be studied with the antisymmetrized quasi-cluster model
Authors: Itagaki N , Matsuno H , Kanada-En’yo Y
Published: April 2019

We apply the tensor version of the antisymmetrized quasi-cluster model (AQCM-T) to $^4\textrm{He}$ and $^8\textrm{Be}$ while focusing on the $NN$ correlations in $\alpha$ clusters. We adopt the $NN$ interactions including realistic ones containing a repulsive core for the central part in addition to the tensor part. In $^4\textrm{He}$, the $pn$ pair in the $^3D$ channel has been known to play a decisive role in the tensor correlation and the framework is capable of treating not only this channel but also the $NN$ correlations in the $^1S$ and $^3S$ channels. In $^8\textrm{Be}$, when two $\alpha$ clusters approach, the $^3D$ pair is suppressed because of the Pauli blocking effect, which also induces a decrease in the $^3S$ component through the $^3S$–$^3D$ coupling. These coherent effects result in the reduction of the attractive effect of the central-even interaction in the middle-range region and keep the distance between two $\alpha$ clusters.
Head to head comparison between neurology residents and a mobile medical application for diagnostic accuracy in cognitive neurology
Authors: Vinny P W , Gupta A , Modi M , Srivastava M V P , Lal V , Sylaja P N , Narasimhan L , Dwivedi S N , Nair P P , Iype T , Vishnu V Y
Published: April 2019

Background

A novel Mobile Medical Application (App) App was created on iOS platform (Neurology Dx®) to deduce Differential Diagnoses (DDx) from a set of user selected Symptoms, Signs, Imaging data and Lab findings. The DDx generated by the App was compared for diagnostic accuracy with differentials reasoned by participating neurology residents when presented with same clinical vignettes.

Methods

Hundred neurology residents in seven leading Neurology centers across India participated in this study. A panel of experts created 60 clinical vignettes of varying levels of difficulty related to Cognitive neurology. Each neurology resident was instructed to formulate DDx from a set of 15 cognitive neurology vignettes. Experts in Cognitive Neurology made the gold standard DDx answers to all 60 clinical vignettes. The differentials generated by the App and neurology residents were then compared with the Gold standard.

Results

Sixty clinical vignettes were tested on 100 neurology residents (15 vignettes each) and also on the App (60 vignettes). The frequency of gold standard high likely answers accurately documented by the residents was 25% compared with 65% by the App (95% CI 33.1–46.3), P < 0.0001. Residents correctly identified the first high likely gold standard answer as their first high likely answer in 35% (95% CI 30.7–36.6) compared with 62% (95% CI 14.1–38.5), P < 0.0001.

Conclusion

An App with adequate knowledge-base and appropriate algorithm can augment and complement human diagnostic reasoning in drawing a comprehensive list of DDx in the field of Cognitive Neurology (CTRI/2017/06/008838).
Infrequent Occurrence of Peach Skin Streaking and the Role of Rainwater Attributes on Symptom Development
Authors: Schmitz L. T. , Schnabel G.
Published: April 2019

Streaks lacking pigmentation have impacted red blush cultivars of peaches in many East Coast production areas, but the underlying cause is still unclear. Some evidence suggests that streaking may be caused by reactive agents in rainwater. Peach skin streaking was monitored over two consecutive years at a commercial farm with a history of streaking problems located near Ridge Spring, SC. Six cultivars (two early season, two midseason, and two late season) were evaluated, each in two locations (LocA and LocB). Among those 12 experimental block cultivars, streaking occurred only in 2017 in cv. Scarletprince of LocA with an incidence of 6%. That same year two nearby nonexperimental blocks with ‘Scarletprince’ revealed 11 and 25% streaking. Streaking was also monitored at the Musser Fruit Research Center (MFRC) in Seneca, SC. At that location, a high incidence of streaking was observed, with 50 and 64% in ‘Julyprince’ (2017) and ‘Carored’ (2018), respectively. Rainwater pH taken from each of the 12 experimental blocks ranged from 3.03 to 7.4, ozone (O3) levels ranged from <0.02 to 0.37 mg/liter, and chlorine (Cl2) and chlorine dioxide (ClO2) levels were either just above or under the detection limit of 0.01 mg/liter and 0.02 mg/liter, respectively. Although the electrical conductivity (EC) was below 100 µS/cm on average, we did measure EC values as high as 1,500 µS/cm. For all samples, the oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) ranged from 90 to 302 mV, indicating oxidizing conditions. Fruit harvested 1 or 2 weeks prior to commercial maturity and treated with solutions of high (10) or low (3) pH, ozone >0.37 mg/liter, and EC values of up to 3,000 µS/cm did not produce symptoms. However, streaking was reproduced with collected rainwater, but the remaining sample volume did not allow further analyses. Using 0.05% ClO2 to induce streaking, we show that fruit of different cultivars varied in susceptibility when treated 1 week prior to commercial maturity, with ‘Juneflame’ being the most susceptible and ‘August Lady’ being the least susceptible. Our study shows that multiple factors determine the occurrence of streaking in peach orchards, including cultivar susceptibility, ripening stage, and the presence of rainwater with sufficient amounts of a yet unknown reactive agent or agent combination.
First Report on Quinone Outside Inhibitor Resistance of Alternaria alternata Causing Alternaria Brown Spot in Tangerines in São Paulo, Brazil
Authors: Chitolina Gabriel M. , Silva-Junior Geraldo J. , Feichtenberger Eduardo , Pereira Rosana G. , Amorim Lilian
Published: April 2019

Field resistance to quinone outside inhibitor (QoI) fungicides in Alternaria alternata causing Alternaria brown spot of mandarins was reported by growers in Brazil in 2017. Conidial germination tests were performed, and isolates showed effective concentration to inhibit 50% of conidia germination (EC50) to be over 100 ppm. This is the first report of QoI resistance in A. alternata causing Alternaria brown spot in the state of São Paulo, Brazil.
Co-reviewing and ghostwriting by early career researchers in the peer review of manuscripts
Authors: McDowell Gary S. , Knutsen John , Graham June , Oelker Sarah K. , Lijek Rebeccah S.
Published: April 2019

The goal of this study is to shed light on the involvement of early career researchers (ECRs) during peer review of manuscripts for publication in journals. In particular, we sought to better understand how commonly ECRs contribute ideas and/or text to peer review reports when they are not the invited reviewer (“co-review”), and how commonly ECRs do not receive named credit to the journal editorial staff for these scholarly efforts (“ghostwrite”). First, we evaluated 1,952 publications in the peer-reviewed literature generated by exhaustive search terms that combined synonyms of “early career researcher” and “peer review” and found no previous studies about ECRs ghostwriting peer review reports. We then surveyed 498 researchers about their experiences with, and opinions about, co-reviewing and ghostwriting as ECRs. Three quarters of those surveyed have co-reviewed and most find it to be a beneficial (95% agree) and ethical (73% agree) form of training in peer review. Co-reviewing is the second most commonly reported form of training in peer review besides receiving reviews on one’s own papers. Half of survey respondents have ghostwritten a peer review report, despite the 4/5ths majority opinion that ghostwriting is unethical. Survey respondents report that the three major barriers to including co-reviewer names on peer review reports are: a lack of communication between PIs and ECRs; a false belief that co-authorship is for manuscripts but not peer review reports; and prohibitive journal policies that are out of alignment with current practice and opinions about best practice. We therefore propose recommendations for changing this status quo, to discourage unethical ghostwriting of peer review reports and encourage quality co-reviewing experiences as normal training in peer review.
Effect of inbreeding on type 2 diabetes-related metabolites in a Dutch genetic isolate
Authors: Demirkan Ayşe , Liu Jun , Amin Najaf , van Dijk Ko Willems , van Duijn Cornelia M.
Published: April 2019

Autozygosity, meaning inheritance of an ancestral allele in the homozygous state is known to lead bi-allelic mutations that manifest their effects through the autosomal recessive inheritance pattern. Autosomal recessive mutations are known to be the underlying cause of several Mendelian metabolic diseases, especially among the offspring of related individuals. In line with this, inbreeding coefficient of an individual as a measure of cryptic autozygosity among the general population is known to lead adverse metabolic outcomes including type 2 diabetes (T2DM), a multifactorial metabolic disease for which the recessive genetic causes remain unknown. In order to unravel such effects for multiple metabolic facades of the disease, we investigated the relationship between the excess of homozygosity and the metabolic signature of T2DM. We included a set of heritable 143 circulating markers associated with fasting glucose in a Dutch genetic isolate Erasmus Rucphen Family (ERF) of up to 2,580 individuals. We calculated individual whole genome-based, exome-based and pedigree-based inbreeding coefficients and tested their influence on the T2DM-related metabolites as well as T2DM risk factors. We also performed model supervised genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) for the metabolites which significantly correlate with inbreeding values. Inbreeding value of the population significantly and positively correlated with associated with risk factors of T2DM: body-mass index (BMI), glucose, insulin resistance, fasting insulin and waist-hip ratio. We found that inbreeding influenced 32.9% of the T2DM-related metabolites, clustering among chemical groups of lipoproteins, amino-acids and phosphatidylcholines, whereas 80 % of these significant associations were independent of the BMI. The most remarkable effect of inbreeding is observed for S-HDL-ApoA1, for which we show evidence of the novelDISP1genetic region discovered by model supervised GWAS, in the ERF population. In conclusion, we show that inbreeding effects human metabolism and genetic models other than the globally used additive model is worth considering for study of metabolic phenotypes.
The continuing impact of an ancient polyploidy on the genomes of teleosts
Authors: Conant Gavin C.
Published: April 2019

The ancestor of most teleost fishes underwent a whole-genome duplication event three hundred million years ago. Despite its antiquity, the effects of this event are evident both in the structure of teleost genomes and in how those genes still operate to drive form and function. I describe the inference of a set of shared syntenic regions that survive from the teleost genome duplication (TGD) using eight teleost genomes and the outgroup gar genome (which lacks the TGD). I phylogenetically modeled the resolution of the TGD via shared and independent gene losses, concluding that it was likely an allopolyploidy event due to the biased pattern of these gene losses. Duplicate genes surviving from this duplication in zebrafish are less likely to function in early embryo development than are genes that have returned to single copy. As a result, surviving ohnologs function later in development, and the pattern of which tissues these ohnologs are expressed in and their functions lend support to recent suggestions that the TGD was the source of a morphological innovation in the structure of the teleost retina. Surviving duplicates also appear less likely to be essential than singletons, despite the fact that their single-copy orthologs in mouse are no less essential than other genes. Nonetheless, the surviving duplicates occupy central positions in the zebrafish metabolic network.
Cellular properties of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells during postnatal development
Authors: Lucas Jasmine A. , Schmidt Tiffany M.
Published: April 2019

Background

Melanopsin-expressing, intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) respond directly to light and have been shown to mediate a broad variety of visual behaviors in adult animals. ipRGCs are also the first light sensitive cells in the developing retina, and have been implicated in a number of retinal developmental processes such as pruning of retinal vasculature and refinement of retinofugal projections. However, little is currently known about the properties of the six ipRGC subtypes during development, and how these cells act to influence retinal development. We therefore sought to characterize the structure, physiology, and birthdate of the most abundant ipRGC subtypes, M1, M2, and M4, at discrete postnatal developmental timepoints.

Methods

We utilized whole cell patch clamp to measure the electrophysiological and morphological properties of ipRGC subtypes through postnatal development. We also used EdU labeling to determine the embryonic timepoints at which ipRGC subtypes terminally differentiate.

Results

Our data show that ipRGC subtypes are distinguishable from each other early in postnatal development. Additionally, we find that while ipRGC subtypes terminally differentiate at similar embryonic stages, the subtypes reach adult-like morphology and physiology at different developmental timepoints.

Conclusions

This work provides a broad assessment of ipRGC morphological and physiological properties during the postnatal stages at which they are most influential in modulating retinal development, and lays the groundwork for further understanding of the specific role of each ipRGC subtype in influencing retinal and visual system development.
Stability of Aβ-fibril fragments in the presence of fatty acids
Authors: Xi Wenhui , Vanderford Elliott K. , Liao Qinxin , Hansmann Ulrich H. E.
Published: April 2019

We consider the effect of lauric acid on the stability of various fibril-like assemblies of Aβ peptides. For this purpose, we have performed molecular dynamics simulations of these assemblies either in complex with lauric acid or without presence of the ligand. While we do not observe a stabilizing effect on Aβ40-fibrils we find that addition of lauric acid strengthen the stability of fibrils built from the more toxic triple-stranded S-shaped Aβ42-peptides. Or results may help to understand how specifics of the brain-environment modulate amyloid formation and propagation.
Crystal structures of the amino-terminal domain of LpoA from Escherichia coli and Haemophilus influenzae
Authors: Kelley Aaron , Vijayalakshmi J. , Saper Mark A.
Published: April 2019

The bacterial periplasmic protein LpoA is an outer membrane lipoprotein and an activator for the cross-linking activity of PBP1A, a bifunctional peptidoglycan synthase. Previous structures of the amino-terminal (N) domain of LpoA showed it to consist entirely of helices and loops, with at least four tetratricopeptide-like repeats. Although the previously determined orthorhombic crystal structure of the N domain of Haemophilus influenzae LpoA showed a typical curved structure with a concave groove, an NMR structure of the same domain from Escherichia coli was relatively flat. Here, a crystal structure of the N domain of E. coli LpoA was determined to a resolution of 2.1 Å and was found to be more similar to the H. influenzae crystal structure than to the E. coli NMR structure. To provide a quantitative description for these comparisons, the various structures were superimposed pairwise by fitting the first half of each structure to its pairwise partner and then calculating the rotation axis that would optimally superimpose the second half. Differences in both the magnitude of the rotation and the direction of the rotation axis were observed between different pairs of structures. A 1.35 Å resolution structure of a monoclinic crystal form of the N domain of H. influenzae LpoA was also determined. In this structure, the subdomains rotate 10° relative to those in the original orthorhombic H. influenzae crystal structure to further narrow the groove between the subdomains. To accommodate this, a bound chloride ion (in place of sulfate) allowed the closer approach of a helix that forms one side of the groove.
A systematic review of the literature on industrial divestment
Authors: Silva Pedro , Moreira Antonio Carrizo
Published: April 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review the existing research on industrial divestment in order to identify the reasons for it, the process whereby it is achieved, and the outcomes of industrial sell-offs and closures. The study reports the main findings that have gained acceptance in the literature, gaps in the research and potential directions for future research.

Design/methodology/approach

A three stage systematic literature review protocol was used to conduct this review. The results are organized according to an “Antecedents – Process – Outcomes” framework.

Findings

The traditional accounts of industrial divestment have been framed in terms of firms’ weak performance and over-diversification as antecedents to divestment, leading to corporate governance issues. However, the list of antecedents of industrial divestment is more extensive. There is no consensus over the impact of some factors on divestments, as is the case of firm and unit size. The results are not conclusive as to whether firm performance improves after divesting.

Research limitations/implications

Future research should analyze the relationship between the antecedents of investment and divestment. The divestment process is not well studied and more studies that engage in theory building are needed, namely, on primary data and examining the short-term and long-term impacts of divestment on performance.

Practical implications

This review offers a comprehensive synthesis of the antecedents, the process and outcomes of divestment through sell-offs and closures. Factors such as environmental conditions and the entry mode strategy are important in determining the divestment of subsidiaries. Divestments may be positively or negatively regarded by shareholders, depending on the context of the firm. Promoting managerial changes facilitates divestment.

Originality/value

This paper synthesizes knowledge of the main reasons as to why firms completely dispose of their assets, contributing to this under-researched field.
Hotel’s online reviews and ratings: a cross-cultural approach
Authors: Leon Ramona Diana
Published: April 2019

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the impact of cultural specificity on hotel’s online reviews and ratings.

Design/methodology/approach

Using Hofstede’s scale of cultural differences, it analyzes 1,821 comments about the Catalonia Sagrada Familia Hotel across 77 countries. Logistic regression is used for data analysis.

Findings

It is found that detailed reviews tend to be provided by the guests who belong to a low-power distance culture, are collectivistic, are masculine, have a low uncertainty avoidance, are long-term orientated or are indulgent. On the other hand, the customers who tend to deviate from the prior average ratings come from high-power distance societies, are individualists, are feminists, belong to a high uncertainty avoidance culture, are long-term oriented or are indulgent.

Originality/value

These findings extend the hospitality management literature and potentially help the hotel managers to better understand their customers’ behavior in a web-based environment.
Strategic partner evaluation criteria for logistics service provider networks
Authors: Abidi Hella , Dullaert Wout , De Leeuw Sander , Lysko Darek , Klumpp Matthias
Published: April 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to establish criteria for evaluating strategic partners in a network of logistics service providers (LSPs) to show how analytical network process (ANP) can be used to identify the weights of these criteria on a case-specific basis, and to investigate whether the ANP model can be used as a starting point to evaluate strategic partners for other LSP networks.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a literature review of vertical cooperation, the authors develop an overview of criteria for the evaluation of partners in a network of LSPs. The authors then apply ANP at LSP1 to validate the criteria, identify weights for these criteria and to validate model outcomes. Furthermore, the authors investigate whether the ANP model developed for LSP1 can be applied to another LSP with similar characteristics (LSP2). In-depth interviews are used to draw conclusions on the modeling approach and the model outcomes.

Findings

The research shows that evaluation criteria for partners in vertical partnerships between shippers and LSPs are applicable to LSP partners in horizontal partnership networks. The ANP model with criteria weights provides a good starting point for LSPs to customize the evaluation framework according to their specific needs or operating environments.

Originality/value

Limited research is available on evaluating LSP partners in horizontal partnerships. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to bring forward horizontal LSP partner evaluation criteria to develop an ANP model for LSP partner evaluation and to apply this to two cases, and to provide a starting point for evaluating partners in similar horizontal LSP networks.