bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Posttranslational control of HuR function
Authors: Grammatikakis Ioannis , Abdelmohsen Kotb , Gorospe Myriam
Published: June 2016

The RNA‐binding protein HuR (human antigen R) associates with numerous transcripts, coding and noncoding, and controls their splicing, localization, stability, and translation. Through its regulation of target transcripts, HuR has been implicated in cellular events including proliferation, senescence, differentiation, apoptosis, and the stress and immune responses. In turn, HuR influences processes such as cancer and inflammation. HuR function is primarily regulated through posttranslational modifications that alter its subcellular localization and its ability to bind target RNAs; such modifications include phosphorylation, methylation, ubiquitination, NEDDylation, and proteolytic cleavage. In this review, we describe the modifications that impact upon HuR function on gene expression programs and disease states. WIREs RNA 2017, 8:e1372. doi: 10.1002/wrna.1372

This article is categorized under:

RNA Interactions with Proteins and Other Molecules > Protein–RNA Recognition

RNA Interactions with Proteins and Other Molecules > RNA–Protein Complexes
Cover Image, Volume 8, Issue 4
Authors: Chen Xin , Petranovic Dina
Published: June 2016

The cover image, by Dina Petranovic and Xin Chen, is based on the Advanced Review Role of frameshift ubiquitin B protein in Alzheimer's disease, DOI: 10.1002/wsbm.1340.

image
Interference competition between an invasive parakeet and native bird species at feeding sites
Authors: Le Louarn Marine , Couillens Bertrand , Deschamps-Cottin Magali , Clergeau Philippe
Published: June 2016

Interference competition has proved to be a factor of successful establishment of invasive species. This type of competition may have a stronger impact when native species have temporal niche overlap with the invasive species. The ring-necked parakeet Psittacula krameri has been successfully introduced in many countries and its interspecific agonistic behavior has already been reported. The purpose of this study is to analyze the territorial and preemptive interference competition between the ring-necked parakeet and native bird species in a recently colonized area. We used an empirical approach by recording video sequences in gardens equipped with bird feeders in winter. Our results showed that the ring-necked parakeet was the most frequent species at the feeders. Several native species showed temporal niche overlap with the ring-necked parakeet, the highest overlap being with the starling Sturnus vulgaris. The starling was also the species most impacted by interference competition with the parakeet. Our study suggests that, by being most frequently present at the feeders, by demonstrating the most agonistic behavior and by hindering access to food of the other species, the ring-necked parakeet is a superior competitor and may compete with native bird species.
Point-to-Point Collision-Free Trajectory Planning for Mobile Manipulators
Authors: Pajak Grzegorz , Pajak Iwona
Published: June 2016

The collision-free trajectory planning method subject to control constraints for mobile manipulators is presented. The robot task is to move from the current configuration to a given final position in the workspace. The motions are planned in order to maximise an instantaneous manipulability measure to avoid manipulator singularities. Inequality constraints on state variables i.e. collision avoidance conditions and mechanical constraints are taken into consideration. The collision avoidance is accomplished by local perturbation of the mobile manipulator motion in the obstacles neighbourhood. The fulfilment of mechanical constraints is ensured by using a penalty function approach. The proposed method guarantees satisfying control limitations resulting from capabilities of robot actuators by applying the trajectory scaling approach. Nonholonomic constraints in a Pfaffian form are explicitly incorporated into the control algorithm. A computer example involving a mobile manipulator consisting of nonholonomic platform (2,0) class and 3DOF RPR type holonomic manipulator operating in a three-dimensional task space is also presented.
An explorative investigation of functional differences in plantar center of pressure of four foot types using sample entropy method
Authors: Mei Zhanyong , Ivanov Kamen , Zhao Guoru , Li Huihui , Wang Lei
Published: June 2016

In the study of biomechanics of different foot types, temporal or spatial parameters derived from plantar pressure are often used. However, there is no comparative study of complexity and regularity of the center of pressure (CoP) during the stance phase among pes valgus, pes cavus, hallux valgus and normal foot. We aim to analyze whether CoP sample entropy characteristics differ among these four foot types. In our experiment participated 40 subjects with normal feet, 40 with pes cavus, 19 with pes valgus and 36 with hallux valgus. A Footscan® system was used to collect CoP data. We used sample entropy to quantify several parameters of the investigated four foot types. These are the displacement in medial–lateral (M/L) and anterior–posterior (A/P) directions, as well as the vertical ground reaction force of CoP during the stance phase. To fully examine the potential of the sample entropy method for quantification of CoP components, we provide results for two cases: calculating the sample entropy of normalized CoP components, as well as calculating it using the raw data of CoP components. We also explored what are the optimal values of parameters m (the matching length) and r (the tolerance range) when calculating the sample entropy of CoP data obtained during the stance phases. According to statistical results, some factors significantly influenced the sample entropy of CoP components. The sample entropies of non-normalized A/P values for the left foot, as well as for the right foot, were different between the normal foot and pes valgus, and between the normal foot and hallux valgus. The sample entropy of normalized M/L displacement of the right foot was different between the normal foot and pes cavus. The measured variable for A/P and M/L displacements could serve for the study of foot function.
Solid screw insertion for tension band plates: A surgical technique tip
Authors: Kadhim Muayad , Hammouda Ahmed I. , Herzenberg John E.
Published: June 2016

Purpose

Growth modulation with tension band plates (TBPs) and cannulated screws is the current mainstay of treatment for pediatric lower extremity angular deformities. Solid screws have been used as an alternative to cannulated screws to decrease the risk of screw failure, particularly in obese children. The downside of solid screws is the decrease in precision of placement. This study describes a surgical technique to insert solid TBP screws accurately.

Methods

TBP insertion starts with the same conventional steps by inserting the guidewires into the epiphysis and metaphysis, straddling the physis. After fluoroscopic confirmation of the position of the guidewires, the cannulated drill bit is used to broach the cortex to a depth of 5 mm in the bone. A standard 4.5-mm cannulated screw from the TBP set is used to tap the screw tract over the guidewires for approximately three-quarters of the planned screw length. After removing the guidewires, the solid screws are then inserted in each hole to follow the tapped tracts.

Results

This technique was used in five patients including four with Blount disease and one with bilateral genu varum.

Conclusion

It is recommended to use solid screws with TBPs in patients with a high body mass index to avoid screw fracture. Our technique describes using a cannulated screw as a tap to create a tract to ease accurate insertion of the solid screws, and prevent the solid screw from deviating outside the desired path.
A new detection method based on CFAR and DE for OFPS
Authors: Qiu Zezheng , Zheng Tong , Qu Hongquan , Pang Liping
Published: June 2016

Optical fiber pre-warning system (OFPS) is widely utilized in pipeline transport fields. The intrusions of OFPS need to be located. In this system, the original signals consist of noises, interferences, and intrusion signals. Here, noises are background and harmless interferences possessing with high power, and the intrusion signals are the main target of detection in this system. Hence, the study stresses on extracting the intrusion signals from the total ones. The proposed method can be divided into two parts, constant false alarm rate (CFAR) and dilation and erosion (DE). The former is applied to eliminate noises, and the latter is to remove interferences. According to some researches, the feature of noise background accords with the CFAR spatial detection. Furthermore, the detection results after CFAR can be presented as a binary image of time and space. Besides, interferences are relatively disconnected. Consequently, they can be eliminated by DE which is introduced from the image processing. To sum up, this novel method is based on CFAR and DE which can eliminate noises and interferences effectively. Moreover, it performs a brilliant detection performance. A series of tests were developed in Men Tou Gou of Beijing, China, and the reliability of proposed method can be verified by these tests.
Demystifying Posterior Cranial Fossa Lesions in the Fetus
Authors: Praveen T. L. N. , Surekha P.
Published: June 2016

Posterior fossa lesions are rare. Introduction of high resolution ultrasound with 3D reconstruction and endovaginal evaluation of fetal brain through the fontanelle helps in better understanding of neuroanatomy. MRI is often used as an additional tool for evaluation in addition to ultrasound studies. Major components of posterior fossa such as cerebellar hemispheres, vermis, fourth ventricle, cisterna magna, and their normal variants and abnormalities can be demystified by ultrasound studies. Morphometry of these structures helps in the diagnoses of these abnormalities.
El capital social y la planificación adaptativa en una comunidad industrial innovadora del Perú
Authors: Ávalo Ortega José Antonio , Yagüe Blanco José Luis , Cangahuala Guillermo
Published: June 2016

El presente estudio vincula el capital social y la planificación adaptativa con la innovación y el desarrollo empresarial de una comunidad de productores vitivinícolas en el Perú. Dado lo anterior, se considera que tanto el capital social como la planificación adaptativa impactan en el aprendizaje productivo y el desarrollo de valores empresariales en ciertos escenarios donde predomina un extendido conocimiento tácito tradicional y colectivo –perdurable a través de siglos– y que se transforma en innovación. La metodología utilizada para la validación empírica fue el análisis factorial exploratorio, a través del cual se confirmó la propuesta teórica.
Sexual Health in Undergraduate Medical Education: Existing and Future Needs and Platforms
Authors: Shindel Alan W. , Baazeem Abdulaziz , Eardley Ian , Coleman Eli
Published: June 2016

Introduction

This article explores the evolution and current delivery of undergraduate medical education in human sexuality.

Aim

To make recommendations regarding future educational needs, principles of curricular development, and how the International Society for Sexual Medicine (ISSM) should address the need to enhance and promote human sexuality education around the world.

Methods

The existing literature was reviewed for sexuality education, curriculum development, learning strategies, educational formats, evaluation of programs, evaluation of students, and faculty development.

Main Outcome Measures

The prevailing theme of most publications in this vein is that sexuality education in undergraduate medical education is currently not adequate to prepare students for future practice.

Results

We identified components of the principles of attitudes, knowledge, and skills that should be contained in a comprehensive curriculum for undergraduate medical education in human sexuality. Management of sexual dysfunction; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender health care; sexuality across genders and lifespan; understanding of non-normative sexual practices; sexually transmitted infections and HIV, contraception; abortion; sexual coercion and violence; and legal aspects were identified as topics meriting particular attention.

Conclusion

Curricula should be integrated throughout medical school and based on principles of adult learning. Methods of teaching should be multimodal and evaluations of student performance are critical. To realize much of what needs to be done, faculty development is critical. Thus, the ISSM can play a key role in the provision and dissemination of learning opportunities and materials, it can promote educational programs around the world, and it can articulate a universal curriculum with modules that can be adopted. The ISSM can create chapters, review documents, slide decks, small group and roleplay topics, and video-recorded materials and make all this material easily available. An expert consensus conference would be needed to realize these recommendations and fulfill them.
Adsorbed oil of gas condensate fields
Authors: Mikhailov N.N. , Ermilov O.M. , Sechina L.S.
Published: June 2016

The pore space of reservoir rocks has a lot of active centers capable to form different types of bonds (from hydrogen to chemical). Therefore, almost any hydrocarbon can be adsorbed to a particular extent on the internal pore surface and form an adsorbed layer, which has a definite spatial configuration and makes contact with a certain part of the rock surface. Study of gas condensate reservoirs brings up the question of the composition of adsorbed hydrocarbons. The properties of such hydrocarbons in many giant gas condensate fields are of special interest as these compounds can serve as an additional source of resources after production of mobile-gas reserves. The performed study of gas condensate reservoirs of the Karachaganak, Astrakhan, and Yamburg fields has shown that their adsorbed hydrocarbons (adsorbed oil) have polar components with sulfur and oxygen atoms.
Physicochemical conditions of crystallization of dunites of the Nizhnii Tagil Pt-bearing massif (Middle Urals)
Authors: Simonov V.A. , Puchkov V.N. , Prikhod’ko V.S. , Stupakov S.I. , Kotlyarov A.V. , Karmanov N.S. , Stepanov A.S.
Published: June 2016

Studies of primary multiphase silicate inclusions in accessory Cr-spinels from the fine-grained dunites of the Nizhnii Tagil Pt-bearing massif reveal their similarity to melt inclusions trapped by chromite during its growth. The analyzed Cr-spinels with multiphase silicate inclusions differ in composition from ore chromites of the same massif and from chromites (with melt inclusions) from ultramafic oceanic complexes but are similar to Cr-spinels in dunites from Pt-bearing alkaline ultramafic massifs (Konder and Inagli). According to petro- and geochemical data on heated multiphase silicate inclusions, the studied Cr-spinels crystallized with the participation of subalkalic picrobasaltic melts similar to the magmas of the Konder Pt-bearing massif and having almost the same chemical composition as tylaites. The differences between the compositions of olivines formed within the multiphase silicate inclusions and of the rock-forming minerals show that the studied Cr-spinels formed from an intercumulus liquid melt in the olivine crystal interstices during the cumulate crystallization of most of the Nizhnii Tagil massif dunites in the intrusive chamber. Numerical modeling based on the compositions of heated multiphase silicate inclusions in accessory Cr-spinels demonstrates that olivines and Cr-spinels from the studied dunites crystallized at 1430 to 1310 ºC and then olivine formation continued to 1280 ºC during the evolution of melts.
Trace elements and Hf isotope composition as indicators of zircon genesis due to the evolution of alkaline-carbonatite magmatic system (Ilmeny–Vishnevogorsky complex, Urals, Russia)
Authors: Nedosekova I.L. , Belyatsky B.V. , Belousova E.A.
Published: June 2016

We present results of investigation of the trace-element (REE, HFSE) and Hf isotope compositions and U–Pb age of single zircons crystallized from alkaline-carbonatite magmas of the Ilmeny–Vishnevogorsky complex (IVC) (Urals, Russia). It has been established that the geochemical characteristics of the early zircon (U–Pb age of 430–410 Ma) from alkaline rocks and carbonatites of this complex are determined mainly by the magmatic evolution of parental fluid-saturated alkaline-carbonatite melts and are highly associated with the cocrystallization of zircon and uranium-containing rare-metal minerals (gatchettolite and pyrochlore) at the final stages of the magmatic-system activity. The early zircons have a moderately depleted Hf isotope composition (εHf from +11.3 to +4.7), confirming the mantle nature of the magma source and indicating the participation of DM-like and enriched-source (probably, lower-crust component) substances in the magma generation. The considerable variations in the initial Hf isotope composition of the early zircons testify to the multistage zircon crystallization involving new portions of melts with different isotope compositions controlled by mixing of substances at their source. Late IVC zircons (250–350 Ma) have strongly disturbed “rejuvenated” isotope systems and a geochemical composition different from that of the magmatic zircons. They formed apparently at the metamorphic stage of the IVC evolution without a significant input of additional material.
The Prevalence and Incidence of Frontotemporal Dementia: a Systematic Review
Authors: Hogan David B. , Jetté Nathalie , Fiest Kirsten M. , Roberts Jodie I. , Pearson Dawn , Smith Eric E. , Roach Pamela , Kirk Andrew , Pringsheim Tamara , Maxwell Colleen J.
Published: June 2016

Background

Population-based prevalence and incidence studies are essential for understanding the burden of frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

Methods

The MEDLINE and EMBASE databases were searched to identify population-based publications from 1985 to 2012, addressing the incidence and/or prevalence of FTD. References of included articles and prior systematic reviews were searched for additional studies. Two reviewers screened all abstracts and full-text reviews, abstracted data and performed quality assessments.

Results

Twenty-six studies were included. Methodological limitations led to wide ranges in the estimates for prevalence (point prevalence 0.01-4.6 per 1000 persons; period prevalence 0.16-31.04 per 1000 persons) and incidence (0.0-0.3 per 1000 person-years). FTD accounted for an average of 2.7% (range 0-9.1%) of all dementia cases among prevalence studies that included subjects 65 and older compared to 10.2% (range 2.8-15.7%) in studies restricted to those aged less than 65. The cumulative numbers of male (373 [52.5%]) and female (338 [47.5%]) cases from studies reporting this information were nearly equal (p=0.18). The behavioural variant FTD (bvFTD) was almost four times as common as the primary progressive aphasias.

Conclusions

Population-based estimates for the epidemiology of FTD varied widely in the included studies. Refinements in the diagnostic process, possibly by the use of validated biomarkers or limiting case ascertainment to specialty services, are needed to obtain more precise estimates of the prevalence and incidence of FTD.
Foucault, Discourse, and the Birth of British Public Relations
Authors: HELLER MICHAEL
Published: June 2016

This article analyzes the emergence of public relations among corporations in interwar Britain. It adopts a discursive approach and applies the philosophy of Michel Foucault. It argues that public relations was a result of state propaganda during World War I, the emergence of a mass-media society, and criticism from a range of groups toward corporations during the period. It acted as an emergent institutional text, which taught corporations how to create corporate identities so as to garner public good will and institutional legitimacy. This was achieved by a range of strategies, including social programs and the creation of corporate narratives.
Fugitive Leverage: Commercial Banks, Sovereign Debt, and Cold War Crisis in Poland, 1980–1982
Authors: BARTEL FRITZ
Published: June 2016

This article examines a familiar Cold War event, the Polish Crisis of the early 1980s, but from an unfamiliar perspective: international financial history. Historians have yet to examine how the growing international activity of Western commercial banks and the Eastern Bloc’s heavy borrowing on international capital markets during the 1970s influenced the course of the late Cold War. This article covers the history of the Eastern Bloc’s largest borrower—Poland—and its road to sovereign default in 1981. It examines how financial diplomacy among banks, communist countries, and the U.S. government catalyzed the formation of the labor unionSolidarność(Solidarity). Ultimately, this article speaks to an important theme in the history of U.S. capitalism since World War II; namely, how the construction of global finance influenced U.S. foreign policy. The end of the Cold War in the fall of 1989 was the result not only of communism’s loss of legitimacy among the peoples of Eastern Europe, but also its loss of creditworthiness on global financial markets.
Pair interaction of catalytically active colloids: from assembly to escape
Authors: Sharifi-Mood Nima , Mozaffari Ali , Córdova-Figueroa Ubaldo M.
Published: June 2016

The dynamics and pair trajectories of two self-propelled (active) colloids in a quiescent fluid for both axisymmetric and asymmetric cases are reported. The autonomous motions of the colloids are due to a catalytic chemical reaction taking place asymmetrically on their surfaces that generates a concentration gradient of interactive solutes around the particles and actuates particle propulsion. A combined analytical–numerical technique was developed to solve the coupled mass conservation equation for the solute and the hydrodynamics between the colloids in the Stokes flow regime. For axisymmetric motions, the translational swimming velocities of the particles in the near field can be enhanced or weakened (compared to their motions when they are far apart) depending on the relative orientations of their active sections. Moreover, it can be shown that different surface activities of two symmetric particles, e.g. an inert versus a catalytic particle or two catalytic particles, can also lead to a propulsion where the far-field swimming velocity for the inert and the catalytic particle attenuate as${\sim}1/{\it\Delta}^{2}$and${\sim}1/{\it\Delta}^{5}$respectively,${\it\Delta}$is the non-dimensional centre-to-centre distance. For asymmetric motions, our analysis indicates two possible scenarios for pair trajectories of catalytically active particles: either the particles approach, come into contact and assemble or they interact and move away from each other (escape). It is found that the direction of particle rotations is the key factor in determining the escape or assembly scenario due to an interplay between both hydrodynamic and phoretic effects. Based on the analysis, a phase diagram is sketched for the pair trajectory of the catalytically active particles as a function of reacting surface coverages and their initial relative orientations with respect to each other. We believe this study has important implications in elucidation of collective behaviours of autophoretically self-propelled colloids and would be certainly a guide for experimentalists to design and control active systems.
A comparative study of changes in the Lambert Glacier/Amery Ice Shelf system, East Antarctica, during 2004–2008 using gravity and surface elevation observations
Authors: XIE HUAN , LI RONGXING , TONG XIAOHUA , JU XIAOLEI , LIU JUN , SHEN YUNZHONG , CHEN LEI , LIU SHIJIE , SUN BO , CUI XIANGBIN , TIAN YIXIANG , YE WENKAI
Published: June 2016

We present results of a regional comparative study of surface mass changes from 2004 to 2008 based on Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), The Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) and CHINARE observations over the Lambert Glacier/Amery Ice Shelf system (LAS). Estimation of the ICESat mass change rates benefitted from the density measurements along the CHINARE traverse and a spatial density adjustment method for reducing the effect of spatial density variations. In the high-elevation inland region, a positive trend was estimated from both ICESat and GRACE data, which is in line with the CHINARE accumulation measurements. In the coastal region, there were areas with high level accumulations in both ICESat and GRACE trend maps. In many high flow-speed glacier areas, negative mass change rates may be caused by dynamic ice flow discharges that have surpassed the snow accumulation. Overall, the mass change rate estimate in the LAS of 2004–2008 from the GRACE, ICESat and CHINARE data is 5.41 ± 4.59 Gt a−1, indicating a balanced to slightly positive mass trend. Along with other published results, this suggests that a longer-term positive mass trend in the LAS may have slowed in recent years.
BMI and healthy life expectancy in old and very old women
Authors: Leigh L. , Byles J. E. , Jagger C.
Published: June 2016

There is conflicting evidence for the effect of BMI on mortality at older ages, and little information on its effect on healthy life expectancy (HLE). Longitudinal data were from the 1921–1926 cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (n 11 119), over 18 years of follow-up. Self-rated health status was measured at each survey, and BMI was measured at baseline. Multi-state models were fitted to estimate the effect of BMI on total life expectancy (TLE) and HLE. Compared with women of normal weight, overweight women at the age of 75 years had similar TLE but fewer years healthy (−0·79; 95 % CI −1·21, −0·37) and more years unhealthy (0·99; 95 % CI 0·56, 1·42). Obese women at the age of 75 years lived fewer years in total than normal-weight women (−1·09; 95 % CI −1·77, −0·41), and had more unhealthy years (1·46; 95 % CI 0·97, 1·95 years). Underweight women had the lowest TLE and the fewest years of healthy life. Women should aim to enter old age at a normal weight and in good health, as the slight benefit on mortality of being overweight is offset by spending fewer years healthy. All outcomes were better for those who began in good health. The relationship between weight and HLE has important implications for nutrition for older people, particularly maintenance of lean body mass and prevention of obesity. The benefit of weight loss in obese older women remains unclear, but we support the recommendation that weight-loss advice be individualised, as any benefits may not outweigh the risks in healthy obese older adults.
Proximity shapes similarity in epiphytic composition of Neotropical ant gardens
Authors: Paolucci Lucas N. , Solar Ricardo R.C. , Leal Laura C.
Published: June 2016

Ant gardens (AGs) are specialized ant-plant associations where arboreal ants build their carton nests in association with epiphytes that use the carton as a substrate. Most of the epiphytes are planted by ants; therefore, seed selection by ants is a key driver of the epiphyte composition of AGs. However, deterministic post-dispersal factors, such as the surrounding environmental conditions and plant succession, may also influence epiphyte composition. Here we ask whether epiphyte composition on a local scale is associated with dispersal constraints, local environmental conditions (light availability, number of branches and nest height) or AG successional stage. We sampled all epiphyte species in 18 AGs formed by Camponotus femoratus and Crematogaster levior in Central Amazon, Brazil. AGs were located within a range of 1 km and at a maximum of 20 m from the edges of a dirt road within a primary forest. Epiphytic composition showed strong spatial structure, decreasing in similarity with increasing distance. Environmental conditions and AG successional stage were not related to AG floristic composition, suggesting a key role of stochastic processes related to seed dispersal. A combination of seed abundance and attractiveness in neighbouring AGs seems to drive the higher similarity in epiphyte composition among closer AGs.
Quantitative anomalous powder diffraction analysis of cation disorder in kesterite semiconductors
Authors: Többens Daniel M. , Gunder Rene , Gurieva Galina , Marquardt Julien , Neldner Kai , Valle-Rios Laura E. , Zander Stefan , Schorr Susan
Published: June 2016

Kesterite-type compound semiconductors, containing copper and zinc, have photovoltaic properties depending on cation distribution in the crystal structure. Anomalous diffraction allows discrimination of isoelectronic cations, in principle allowing a straightforward determination of site occupation factors from data collected at multiple energies close to the X-ray absorption edges of copper and zinc. However, extremely strong correlation between structural parameters precludes this. We present a recipe based on the direct dependency between refined occupation factors and atomic scattering power, which allows to lift the correlations and to detect issues of individual diffraction patterns or assumptions in the model, thereby allowing for reliable quantitative analysis of the Cu/Zn distribution.
On Academic Production and the Politics of Inclusion
Authors: KENDALL SARA
Published: June 2016

Before the 2015 annual meeting of the European Society of International Law, participants were notified of a ‘women in international law’ happy hour for exchanging ideas on ‘the improvement of representation of women’. At the convivial and well-attended event in Oslo, organizers thanked the men who were present, remarking that their support was not only welcomed but also necessary. This theme of inclusion resurfaced in side conversations about past conference panels on gender that noted the supportive role of senior male academics in audiences comprised primarily of women. Gender was mainly discussed along a single axis of male/female rather than intersectionally. Other categories of identity, such as ethnicity and nationality, remained on the sidelines of this event, which focused on the role of women within the field.
Genetic relatedness of selected clinical Vibrio cholerae O139 isolates from the southern coastal area of China over a 20-year period
Authors: LI B. S. , XIAO Y. , WANG D. C. , TAN H. L. , KE B. X. , HE D. M. , KE C. W. , ZHANG Y. H.
Published: June 2016

Vibrio cholerae O139 emerged as a causative agent of epidemic cholera in 1992 in India and Bangladesh, and was subsequently reported in China in 1993. The genetic relatedness and molecular characteristics of V. cholerae O139 in Guangdong Province, located in the southern coastal area of China, remains undetermined. In this study, we investigated 136 clinical V. cholerae O139 isolates from 1993 to 2013 in Guangdong. By conventional PCR, 123 (90·4%) isolates were positive for ctxB, ace and zot. Sequencing of the positive amplicons indicated 113 (91·7%) isolates possessed the El Tor allele of ctxB (genotype 3); seven carried the classical ctxB type (genotype 1) and three harboured a novel ctxB type (genotype 5). With respect to tcpA, 123 (90·4%) isolates were positive for the El Tor allele. In addition, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (with NotI digestion) differentiated the isolates into clusters A and B. Cluster A contained seven of the non-toxigenic isolates from 1998 to 2000; another six non-toxigenic isolates (from 1998 and 2007) and all of the toxigenic isolates formed cluster B. Our results suggest that over a 20-year period, the predominant O139 clinical isolates have maintained a relatively tight clonal structure, although some genetic variance and shift has occurred. Our data highlight the persistence of toxigenic V. cholerae O139 in clinical settings in the southern coastal area of China.
Duration of spermatogenesis and daily sperm production in the rodentProechimys guyannensis
Authors: Lara Nathália L.M. , Santos Ivan C. , Costa Guilherme M.J. , Cordeiro-Junior Dirceu A. , Almeida Antônio C. G. , Madureira Ana P. , Zanini Marcos S. , França Luiz R.
Published: June 2016

The spiny rat (Proechimys guyannensis) is a neotropical rodent that is used in biomedical research, particularly research related to chronic resistance to epilepsy and infectious diseases. To our knowledge, there are few reports concerning the reproductive biology of this species. Therefore, besides providing basic biometric and morphometric data, in the present study we investigated testis function and spermatogenesis in adult spiny rats. The mean testis weight and gonadosomatic index obtained were 1.63 ± 0.2 g and 1.15 ± 0.1% respectively. Based on the development of the acrosomic system, 12 stages of the seminiferous epithelium cycle were characterized. Stages VI and VII presented the highest frequencies (~17–19%), whilst stages II to V showed the lowest frequencies (~2–4%). The most advanced germ cell types labelled at 1 h or 20 days after BrdU injections were respectively preleptotene/leptotene spermatocytes at stage VII and elongated spermatids at stage III. The mean duration of one cycle was 7.5 ± 0.01 days and the entire spermatogenic process lasted 33.7 ± 0.06 days (~4.5 cycles). The seminiferous tubules (ST) occupied ~96 ± 1% of the testis parenchyma, whereas Leydig cells comprised only 1.5 ± 0.4%. The number of Sertoli cells (SC) per testis gram and the SC efficiency (spermatids/SC) were respectively 78 × 106± 11 × 106and 7.9 ± 1. The daily sperm production per testis gram (spermatogenic efficiency; daily sperm production (DSP)/g/testis) was 78 × 106± 8 × 106. To our knowledge, this spermatogenic efficiency is among the highest found for mammals investigated to date and is probably related to the very short duration of spermatogenesis and the very high ST percentage and SC number obtained for this species.
Effect of a diet intervention during pregnancy on dietary behavior in the randomized controlled Norwegian Fit for Delivery study
Authors: Hillesund E. R. , Bere E. , Sagedal L. R. , Vistad I. , Øverby N. C.
Published: June 2016

A mother’s diet during pregnancy has the potential to influence both her own and her child’s short- and long-term health. This paper reports the effects of a randomized controlled diet intervention during pregnancy on dietary behavior post-intervention as reported in late pregnancy. The diet intervention was part of a lifestyle intervention targeting both diet and physical activity behaviors among nulliparous women participating in the randomized controlled Norwegian Fit for Delivery study (NFFD). Eligible women were enrolled in early pregnancy from eight healthcare clinics in southern Norway between 2009 and 2013. The diet intervention was based on 10 dietary recommendations that were conveyed during two counseling sessions by phone and in a pamphlet describing the recommendations and their simplified rationale. A diet score was constructed from a 43-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and used to assess intervention effect on dietary behavior (score range 0–10). Between-group dietary differences post-intervention were estimated with analysis of covariance, with adjustment for baseline diet. A total of 508 women completed the FFQ both at baseline and post-intervention. There were no between-group differences in diet score and subscales at baseline. Post-intervention, the intervention group had higher overall diet score (control: 4.61, intervention: 5.04, P=0.013) and favorable dietary behavior in seven of the 10 dietary domains: ‘consumption of water relative to total beverage consumption’ (P=0.002), ‘having vegetables with dinner’ (P=0.027), ‘choosing fruits and vegetables for between-meal snacks’ (P=0.023), ‘buying small portion sizes of unhealthy foods’ (P=0.010), ‘limiting sugar intake’ (P=0.005), ‘avoiding eating beyond satiety’ (P=0.009) and ‘reading food labels’ (P=0.011). The NFFD diet intervention improved dietary behavior. Potential long-term clinical influence in mother and child will be investigated in further studies.
Doubting John?
Authors: Andrews Frances
Published: June 2016

This essay focuses on the figure of John the Baptist in prison and the question he sent his disciples to ask Christ: was he ‘the one who is to come’ (Matthew 11: 2–3)? Having observed how the Fathers strove to distance John from the perils of doubt in their readings of this passage, it traces the way their arguments were picked up by twelfth- and thirteenth-century biblical exegetes and then by authors of anti-heretical dispute texts in urban Italy, where the Baptist was a popular patron saint. So as to give force to their own counter-arguments, learned polemicists, clerical and lay, made much of heretics’ hostility to John, powerfully ventriloquizing a doubting, sceptical standpoint. One counter-argument was to assign any doubts to John's disciples, for whose benefit he therefore sent to ask for confirmation of the means of Christ's return, neatly moving doubt from questions of faith to epistemology. Such ideas may have seeped beyond the bounds of a university-trained elite, as is perhaps visible in a fourteenth-century fresco representing John in prison engaging with anxious disciples. But place, audience and genre determined where doubt was energetically debated and where it was more usually avoided, as in sermons for the laity on the feast of a popular saint.
‘The extirpation of Athanasianism’: The Considerable Doubts of Francis Stone (1738–1813)
Authors: Haydon Colin
Published: June 2016

This essay examines the doubts of Francis Stone, rector of Cold Norton, Essex – doubts which brought him notoriety and ruin. In 1806, Stone preached a sermon, four editions of which appeared by 1809, expressing doubts about Anglican doctrine and the Thirty-Nine Articles. He maintained that Christ, though God's ‘great messenger’, was merely human, and that the Virgin Birth was a myth. Moreover, he also doubted the ‘Athanasian trinity in unity’ and the doctrine of the atonement. Stone's doubts were far from new. He had expressed various concerns forcibly in print and had played a major part in the raising of the anti-subscription Feathers Tavern petition. He was determined to teach only ‘that, which . . . [might] be concluded and proved by the Scripture’. But the storm provoked by the sermon was terrible. In 1808, Stone was arraigned before the bishop of London's consistory court. There he declared that the Church of England had no authority to override his conscience. Nevertheless, the court rejected his arguments and deprived him of his living; when he appealed to the Court of Arches, it upheld the sentence. Stone's doubts produced an important test case and a powerful warning for Anglican clerics holding heterodox opinions (and, indeed, liberal churchmen wanting just ‘free’ and ‘candid' theological debate) in the conservative 1800s. Moreover, the issues Stone raised foreshadowed controversies which erupted long after his death.
Christian Doubt and Hope in Early Socialism
Authors: Lockley Philip
Published: June 2016

The diverse forms of socialism which emerged in the nineteenth century had a complex relationship with both Christian beliefs and the Churches. Socialist movements are commonly remembered as anti-religious and anti-clerical. Doubt, forged in the familiar nineteenth-century ‘crisis of faith’, shaped not only Marxism, but also Owenism, the earlier social theories of Robert Owen. Church historians have long pointed to another narrative of socialism and religion in the Victorian era: the rise of Christian Socialism after 1848, led by F. D. Maurice, J. M. Ludlow, Charles Kingsley and others. Here, they recall a response to doubt with faith, and an answer to anti-clericalism with a new vision for the Churches’ social role. Yet socialism before 1848 had a more contested interaction with Christianity than this history assumes. By exploring the specific nature of Christian doubt among early Owenite socialists, then following how this doubt was answered by contemporary Christian supporters of Owen, this essay uncovers an alternative, noteworthy response to doubting Christianity – the nature of Christian hope in early socialism.
‘Isaiah's Call to England': Doubts about Prophecy in Nineteenth-Century Britain
Authors: Atkins Gareth
Published: June 2016

Prophetic thought in nineteenth-century Britain has often been presented as divided between those mostly evangelical constituencies who ‘believed' in its literal fulfilment in the past, present or future and those who ‘doubted' such interpretations. This essay seeks to question that division by tracking the uses of one set of prophetic passages, those concerning the ‘Ships of Tarshish’ mentioned in Isaiah 60: 9 and elsewhere. It examines their appropriation from the late eighteenth century onwards by those seeking prophetic-providential justification for the British maritime empire. Next it shows how such such ideas fuelled missionary expansion in the years after 1815, suggesting that by mid-century that there was a growing spectrum of ways in which such passages were used by religious commentators. The final section shows how biblical critics seeking to bolster the integrity of the Bible as a text reconstructed the geographical and economic settings for these passages, establishing their historical veracity as they did so but in the process undermining their supernaturally predictive status. Thus one way of bolstering ‘faith’ – the study of prophetic fulfilments – was rendered doubtful by another. By the end of our period Tyre and Tarshish retained much of their homiletic punch as metaphors for the sin brought by trade and luxury, but those who saw them as literal proxies for Britain were in the minority.
Carolingian Doubt?
Authors: Nelson Jinty
Published: June 2016

This essay seeks to refute the idea that doubt is an essentially modern phenomenon and to show that doubt was also a feature of earlier medieval existence. It argues that in the Carolingian period, for both individuals and groups, debate, disturbance and religious doubt coexisted uneasily with religious faith and cultic community. Religious experience is examined at the level of individuals, groups, and larger social organizations. Three case studies focus on the noblewoman Dhuoda, unique in having left a detailed record of a spiritual life lived out within a family and in social and political relationships at once collaborative and conflictual; the heretic Gottschalk, whose voluminous works reveal something of his spirituality and much about the religious and political pressures that taxed his faith; and Archbishop Elipand of Toledo, a Church leader living under Muslim rule, and accused of heresy by Christian scholars themselves uncertain of their ground. Two further sections discuss particular contexts in which doubts were harboured: conversion from paganism, in a world of Christian mission; and local cults of relics which depended on the establishing of authenticity where there had been doubt, and then the forming of believer-solidarities. Finally the figure of Doubting Thomas is considered in a period when faith and cult sustained individual identities in dyadic relationships founded on oaths of fidelity and mutual trust but also on collective solidarities.
Lachrymose Holiness and the Problem of Doubt in Thirteenth- and Fourteenth-Century Hagiographies
Authors: Knight Kimberley-Joy
Published: June 2016

By the thirteenth century, tears were a ubiquitous feature of accounts of saints’ lives. Despite the widespread acceptance of tears as an expression of holiness, they could, however, present a special challenge for interpretation and female tears were often the subject of doubt. Divinely bestowed tears might be subject to criticism and uncertainty over whether they could be read as an authentic sign of devotion and the presence of God. This essay argues that doubt over the sincerity of tears was a topos in the narrative of saintly struggle – something a saint must endure as a test of faith and sanctity – and was a corollary to achieving certainty in thirteenth-century female saints’ lives. As the century came to a close, however, tears began to be more openly questioned. The essay assesses the evolving doubt surrounding lachrymose expressions of devotion in the fourteenth century and accounts for changing attitudes by drawing on both saints’ lives and theological sources. It is argued that this doubt was a reflection of broader changes in the acceptance of physical and emotional expressions of sanctity and was part of the ‘gradual criminalization’ of the female body in the fourteenth century.
Expression of μ-protocadherin is negatively regulated by the activation of the β-catenin signaling pathway in normal and cancer colorectal enterocytes
Authors: Montorsi L , Parenti S , Losi L , Ferrarini F , Gemelli C , Rossi A , Manco G , Ferrari S , Calabretta B , Tagliafico E , Zanocco-Marani T , Grande A
Published: June 2016

Mu-protocadherin (MUCDHL) is an adhesion molecule predominantly expressed by colorectal epithelial cells which is markedly downregulated upon malignant transformation. Notably, treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC) cells with mesalazine lead to increased expression of MUCDHL, and is associated with sequestration ofβ-catenin on the plasma membrane and inhibition of its transcriptional activity. To better characterize the causal relationship betweenβ-catenin and MUCDHL expression, we performed various experiments in which CRC cell lines and normal colonic organoids were subjected to culture conditions inhibiting (FH535 treatment, transcription factor 7-like 2 siRNA inactivation, Wnt withdrawal) or stimulating (LiCl treatment)β-catenin activity. We show here that expression of MUCDHL is negatively regulated by functional activation of theβ-catenin signaling pathway. This finding was observed in cell culture systems representing conditions of physiological stimulation and upon constitutive activation of β-catenin in CRC. The ability of MUCDHL to sequester and inhibitβ-catenin appears to provide a positive feedback enforcing the effect ofβ-catenin inhibitors rather than serving as the primary mechanism responsible forβ-catenin inhibition. Moreover, MUCDHL might have a role as biomarker in the development of CRC chemoprevention drugs endowed withβ-catenin inhibitory activity.