bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The ‘Mendicant Problem’ in the Later Middle Ages
Authors: Swanson R. N.
Published: February 2016

Almost from their foundation, the mendicant orders proved problematic. Their insistence on poverty, their preaching skills, and their responsiveness to contemporary spirituality challenged the Church at many levels, providing standards against which the secular clergy might be judged and found wanting. Their dependence on papal privileges which limited episcopal oversight, and their claims to a special role as confessors and preachers, threatened the Church’s current order, especially in parishes. By undermining the parish priest’s authority — jurisdictionally by offering confession and absolution, financially by encouraging burial in their houses — the friars in fact undercut some of the aims of the early thirteenth-century reformers, most notably by disrupting the demands of Omnis utriusque sexus, the decree requiring annual confession to the ‘proprius sacerdos’, issued at the Fourth Lateran Council. The most important resolution of these ‘grass root’ problems was provided in Boniface VIII’s Super cathedram of 1300, which by 1326 applied to all four of the main mendicant orders, and formally became part of canon law when enshrined in the Clementines. Unfortunately, Super cathedram seemed incompatible with Omnis utriusque sexus, and debate on the resulting discrepancy persisted throughout the Middle Ages, despite attempts at resolution such as Vas electionis of 1321.
The Exercise of the Probate Jurisdiction of the Medieval Archbishops of York
Authors: Smith David M.
Published: February 2016

The development of testamentary jurisdiction by the English Church authorities has already received considerable attention, and it is generally held that by the close of the thirteenth century the basic probate procedures had been well established, even if some administrative practices continued to be refined. This paper aims to look at the practical evidence of the York archiepiscopal records from the thirteenth century to the Reformation from an archival and administrative viewpoint - the concern is not so much with the canon law touching wills and testaments, or with the testamentary disputes and litigation in the archiepiscopal court, the Curia Eboracensis, or indeed with the contents of the wills proved before the ecclesiastical authorities, but with the routine practicalities of the exercise of probate and intestacy administrations.
A Census of York Clergy? The Clerical Subsidy of 1523-1528
Authors: Webb C. C.
Published: February 2016

Thanks to the work of Claire Cross and others, the multiplicity of sources available for the study of early sixteenth-century clergy has been used to yield information about many facets of clerical lives and careers. One source, however, has hitherto been largely neglected. The clerical subsidy of 1523-8 has, despite some printed versions for some places having been available for many years, been overshadowed by the Valor ecclesiasticus. This essay will try to show, from evidence relating to York City, that the subsidy was an important precursor to the Valor, and that, combined with other sources, it is an invaluable repository of information about the clergy just before the medieval church was dismantled.
‘Digging and Dunging’: Some Aspects of Lay Influence in the Church in Northern Towns
Authors: Lamburn D. J.
Published: February 2016

In 1630 Robert Jenison, then a lecturer at Newcastle, wrote a treatise on the second part of the first verse of Psalm 127: ‘Except the lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.’ Drawing on the experience of his work in the city since 1614, he specifically addressed the respective roles of magistrates and ministers in creating a godly town. He chose to dedicate his tract to the Lord Mayor of London. But The cities safetie or a Fruitful Treatise (and useful for these dangerous times) had an application to the civic leaders of all towns and cities, for he called upon them to ‘promise and afford your best pains, and do your utmost endeavours, with heart tongue and hand, to seek the good, and procure the welfare of God’s church: to dig about it, and to dung it, and so to do whatsoever duty is contained under these phrases’.
A Bishop, A Patron, and some Preachers: A Problem of Presentation
Authors: O’Day Rosemary
Published: February 2016

The relations between bishops of the Church of England and lay patrons could be fraught and were certainly variable. Local circumstances and the general distribution of patronage within a given diocese combined with the personalities and concerns of the bishop and patrons involved to provide a distinctive environment for negotiation. It would be rash, therefore, to suggest that any case study of co-operation or conflict between a patron and a bishop could be typical. This said, such a case-study cannot but inform and stimulate because negotiation, amicable or otherwise, was essential for all parties wishing to exercise patronage. The co-operation between John Coke and Bishop Thomas Morton demonstrates not only the possibilities for concerted action in a given religious cause, but also the way in which the rules and regulations of the Church of England might be stretched and bent in that process. It indicates the importance for the Church of the web of connections which the bishops built up during their careers. It underlines the close interrelationship of the parochial ministry and the role of household chaplain in so many upper-gentry homes. It highlights the dependent relationship between the clerical client and his patron and the differing reactions of ministers to this situation.
‘This Sad and Deplorable Condition’: An Attempt towards Recovering an Account of the Sufferings of Northern Clergy Families in the 1640s and 1650s
Authors: Laurence Anne
Published: February 2016

THE work of Richard Baxter, Edmund Calamy, and John Walker in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and of the indefatigable A. G. Matthews and Charles Surman in the twentieth, has illuminated the history of the sufferings of the clergy ejected from their livings in the 1640s and 1650s, and of those who lost their livings at the Restoration and in its aftermath. The history of their families, however, is much less well known. This essay is concerned with the chronicling of the sufferings and with the economic and psychological plight of the families of the clergy ejected in the 1640s and 1650s.
Catholicism and the Church of England in a Northern Library: Henry Halsted and the Burnley Grammar School Library
Authors: Mews Stuart , Mullett Michael
Published: February 2016

THE contents of what was described in 1885 as ‘the most extensive and the most interesting of the old Grammar School Libraries of Lancashire’, the Burnley Grammar School Library, shed interesting light on the state of religious controversy in the north between the late sixteenth and the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The library, which, through the generosity of Burnley Grammar School and with the kind co-operation of the Lancashire County Library, is now on permanent loan at Lancaster University, forms, as presently constituted, a collection of 875 volumes, published mainly in the seventeenth century. It owes its foundation to, and, as we shall see, reflects the religious interests, aims, and viewpoint of, the Revd Henry Halsted (1641-1728), rector of Stansfield, in Suffolk, who left the whole of his personal library to the Burnley Grammar School in 1728. Shortly after Halsted’s death, the collection was augmented by a small addition of books presented by another clergyman, the Revd Edmund Towneley of Rowley, rector of Slaidburn, Lancashire. It is, therefore, essentially a clerical and religious library and provides an interesting example of what sort of material typical, affluent English incumbents of the Augustan and early Hanoverian period considered worthy of places on their study shelves. For purposes of comparison within the region, a collection by two laymen made in another northern town and, like the Halsted-Towneley collection, charitably gifted, the Petyt Library, built up to over two thousand volumes by two brothers in the first decade of the eighteenth century, and now housed within Skipton Public Library, with its heavy emphasis on divinity, can be profitably examined. In the essay that follows we shall consider the Burnley Collection as essentially that of its principal donor, Henry Halsted, and as enshrining his aims.
St Willibrord in Recent Historiography
Authors: Honée Eugène
Published: February 2016

In contrast to his fellow-countryman Boniface, Willibrord did not leave any correspondence or other writings. As a matter of fact, the only thing known to us is a small private note, consisting of a few lines. This note was written when he was seventy years old and is part of the liturgical calendar which he carried with him on his missionary travels. Here Willibrord, speaking about himself in the third person, mentions two events from his eventful life: first, that he came across the sea to the Frankish Kingdom in 690, secondly, that he was consecrated bishop by Pope Sergius in Rome five years later. These are the only things he says about himself.
The Beliefs, Aspirations and Methods of the First Missionaries in British Hong Kong, 1841-5
Authors: Lowe Kate
Published: February 2016

The British phase of Hong Kong’s history started when Hong Kong was ceded to Britain on 20 January 1841. The negotiations were carried out by Captain Charles Elliott for the British and the commissioner Ch’i-shan for the Chinese. A small British contingent landed at what came to be known as Possession Point on the northwest of Hong Kong island on 25 January and drank the health of Queen Victoria; on the following day they signalled the taking of possession by hoisting the union flag. Hong Kong had been suggested as a possible British acquisition only on 11 January, when other more acceptable islands, such as Chusan off the northern coast, had been vetoed by the Chinese. Hong Kong was mainly known to sea captains as it had been used as a rendezvous for opium ships for a number of years, but most other people in the area had very little idea about its appearance, population, or potential as a colony.
Why Protestant Churches? The American Board and the Eastern Churches: Mission among ‘Nominal’ Christians (1820-70)
Authors: Berg H. L. Murre-Van Den
Published: February 2016

Introduction

In Palestine, Syria, the provinces of Asia Minor, Armenia, Georgia, and Persia, though Mohammedan countries, there are many thousands of Jews, and many thousands of Christians, at least in name. But the whole mingled population is in a state of deplorable ignorance and degradation, – destitute of the means of divine knowledge, and bewildered with vain imaginations and strong delusions.
Modernism and Mission: The Influence of Dutch Modern Theology on Missionary Practice in the East Indies in the Nineteenth Century
Authors: Boone Guus
Published: February 2016

Introduction

In 1866, the Dutch missionary Jan Nannes Wiersma decided it was necessary to teach the Muslim heads in the place where he was working about the life of the prophet Muhammad - rather a peculiar thing for a messenger of Christianity to do. The Board of the Nederlandsch Zendelinggenootschap [Dutch Missionary Society; DMS], who had sent him, therefore reprimanded him. Wiersma, however, defended himself by stating that if the chiefs knew more about what Islam really was, they would have reached a higher level of intellectual development, and they would be closer to conversion to Christianity. This opinion was not uncommon among adherents of the so called Modern Theology or Modernism.
The Governor a Missionary? Dutch Colonial Rule and Christianization during Idenburg’s Term of Office as Governor of Indonesiaw (1909-16)
Authors: Holtrop Pieter N.
Published: February 2016

As a reslut of forced Christianization, the motherland threatens to alienate the indigenous population of our colonies from herself.’ With this slogan a combination of left-wing political parties entered the elections for the Dutch Parliament in June 1913. This combination won the elections and in the end it was the liberal Cort van der Linden who was commissioned to form a government. The then governor-general of what was called the Dutch East Indies, the Christian statesman A. W. F. Idenburg (1861-1935), consequently considered relinquishing his post, now that a government would be formed of a political colour different from his own. On the advice of the leader of his party, the Dutch politician, journalist, and church leader Abraham Kuyper, however, he decided that his decision to stay or to resign would depend on the possibilities of co-operation with the new minister of colonial affairs. But he had no illusions about the opinion of the European press in Indonesia. ‘Against me,’ he wrote in a letter to the outgoing minister of colonial affairs, J. H. de Waal Malefijt (1852-1931), a fellow party member, ‘a devilish howling has burst out in some of the papers. They all agree that I must go.’
Re-Reading Missionary Publications: The Case of European and Malagasy Martyrologies, 1837-1937
Authors: Rakotonirina Rachel A.
Published: February 2016

In 1835 the missionaries of the London Missionary Society (LMS) were ordered by the Merina government in Antananarivo to leave Madagascar, only twenty-seven years after their mission had been established. In 1837 the first Malagasy Christian was killed because of her faith. The era of persecution against the internationally isolated Malagasy Christian community began in 1835 and continued sporadically until 1861 with the death of Queen Ranavalona I, whose reign had seen the introduction of anti-Christian legislation. Estimates of the number of Christians who died as a result of refusing to denounce their faith vary between 50 and 200. The numbers who died indirectly due to suffering imprisonment, a poison ordeal, or exile are estimated at between 1,500 and 3,000. However the church which emerged from the era of suppression was said to have been numerically between four and ten times stronger than in 1835, with between three and twelve thousand members and adherents. European missions returned in 1862. From the beginning, the martyr story proved to be a popular subject for missionary publications.
‘There is so much involved…’ The Sisters of Charity of Saint Charles Borromeo in Indonesia in the Period from The Second World War
Authors: Labbeke Liesbeth
Published: February 2016

Palembang, 17 April 2603. I am here together with sister Catherinia, sister Timothée, sister Paulie, sister Rumolda and sister Theresetta. The others live in the camp of Bengkoelen. We are all happy and healthy. There is plenty of work. We help the women and the children. Life is always beautiful and worthwhile, but especially the present time is praiseworthy. There are so many causes for gratitude, if one manages to keep considering things in a transcendental way. We have no information about the sisters on Java. Yours sincerely, Sister Laurentia, women’s camp, Palembang.
John of Salisbury as classical scholar
Authors: Martin Janet
Published: February 2016

John of Salisbury long has drawn the attention of scholars as a representative of medieval humanism. Many studies have been devoted to his allusions to the literature of pagan and Christian antiquity. But these studies necessarily have remained somewhat inconclusive because of our ignorance about the nature of John’s exemplars of his authors. Assessment of such matters as his interests and tastes, his working methods, his dependence on his authorities, and his originality and independence requires precise knowlege of the nature of his exemplars.
Beryl Smalley and the Place of the Bible in Medieval Studies, 1927-84
Authors: Southern R. W.
Published: February 2016

In 1927, when Beryl Smalley began to study the Bible in the Middle Ages, I think it would be true to say that the Bible had almost no place in the minds of medieval historians. The strongly constitutional emphasis of the Oxford historical school of Stubbs and the tutors in Oxford, and the elaboration of this tradition by his pupils Tout and Tait in Manchester, was distinctly hostile to the intrusion of unsubstantial intellectual distractions into the business of the historian. It was generally understood of course that the Bible became important as a moving force in politics in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; but it could be left out of account, so it seemed, during the preceding thousand years. And this was not just an English phenomenon.
Innocent III and Vernacular Versions of Scripture
Authors: Boyle Leonard E.
Published: February 2016

Lothario dei Conti di Segni became pope as Innocent III in 1198, at the age of thirty-seven, and for the eighteen years of his pontificate he had two chief preoccupations: to regain the Holy Land for the Church and to restore the true Faith in Europe. It is with the latter that I am concerned here, and with just one moment in his endeavour to counter the heretical tendencies and movements which had been threatening the stability of the Church for a century or more by 1198. This is the problem of vernacular versions of the Scriptures, a problem which arose, seemingly for the first time ever at this level, at the very beginning of Innocent’s pontificate. It is a well-known if not celebrated moment, and has had a place in every modern discussion of the question of vernacular versions of the Bible in the Middle Ages, since the days when S. Berger first gave it prominence in his La Bible française au moyen âge (Paris, 1884).
Poverty, Preaching, and Eschatology in the Revelation Commentaries of ‘Hugh of St Cher’
Authors: Lerner Robert E.
Published: February 2016

This article is dedicated to advancing three propositions, all in elaboration of research by Beryl Smalley:

(1) that the Revelation exegesis of Hugh of St Cher, O.P. (c. 1195-1263; regent master at St Jacques, 1230-1235) can be securely located;

(2) that much of the content of this exegesis is extraordinary; and

(3) that Hugh of St Cher the great Dominican commentator on Scripture is a figment of bibliographers’ imaginations.
Networking to Orthodoxy: The Case of Durán of Huesca
Authors: Smith Damian J.
Published: February 2016

While the Franciscan and Dominican Orders were greatly to influence the spiritual and intellectual life of the later Middle Ages and beyond, the religious community of the contemporary of Saints Francis and Dominic, Durán of Huesca, quickly disappeared from the scene. Yet at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Roman Curia had spent a great deal of time in dealings with Durán and his followers, the Catholic Poor. The papal chancery spilt a fair amount of ink writing to or about Durán, at a time when the affairs of Francis, Dominic and their followers bothered it very little. For Rome, the Catholic Poor were a very exciting prospect. For they had been Christians who had (from the papal viewpoint) slipped into heresy as followers of Valdes, but had then decided to return to the fold. In an age when western Europe was overwhelmingly Catholic, but the perceived threat of heresy was enormous, Durán and the Catholic Poor were great news for the church. That they managed to re-establish themselves within the church was very much a matter of Durán's successful use of international religious networks. That it was the friars who were ultimately to flourish but not the Catholic Poor was in significant measure due to the former’s ability and the latter’s inability to combine the effective use of international networks with an equally positive approach towards the local networks they needed in order to succeed.
Networks of Ideas, Networks of Men: Clerical Reform, Parisian Theologians and the Movement to Reform Prostitutes in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century France
Authors: Nowacka Keiko
Published: February 2016

In the first decades of the twelfth century, a wandering preacher was reported to have ‘advised’ the young men of Le Mans to marry the prostitutes of the town in order to save these ‘unchaste women’ (feminae quae minus caste vixeruni) from their lives of sin: ‘On his advice many of the young men married the unchaste women for whom he bought clothes to the value of four solidi, just enough to cover their nakedness.’ At the end of the same century, something very similar occurred in Paris, where another preacher was praised for encouraging the scholars and burghers either to marry prostitutes or to donate towards their dowry fund:
Almost all the public prostitutes, no matter where the athlete of Christ went, abandoned their brothels and flocked to him. He himself led most of these women to marriage.Others, however, who were unable to remain chaste on account of fear of weakness, he gave a not insubstantial sum of money as dowries and reformed them with legal marriage. To this goal the Parisian students collected two hundred and fifty silver pounds and the burghers over a thousand.
John Knox’s International Network
Authors: Ryrie Alec
Published: February 2016

In the early twentieth century, the city of Geneva added to its existing tourist attractions with one of the most peculiar items of civic commemoration in Europe. The Reformation Wall is a queasy monument to Geneva’s glorious past, in which the tensions and prejudices of a very particular view of the sixteenth century are frozen into stone. As one moves towards the centre of the monument, one draws closer to the Genevan fount of Reformed Christian truth. Luther and Zwingli are commemorated, tersely, at the wall’s outermost extremes. Further in, a series of friezes celebrate the deeds of Reformed Protestants in France, the Netherlands, Scotland and England. The monument’s centre, however, is the set of four larger-than-life statues, fixing the viewer with their stern gazes. Three of the figures are obvious. John Calvin himself, of course, stands to the fore. The wall is at heart a memorial to him, to the man who wished to be buried in an unmarked grave, and it was begun on the quatercentenary of his birth. He is joined by Guillaume Farel, the Frenchman who first established the Reformed Church in Geneva and persuaded Calvin to join him in his ministry there; and by Theodore de Béze, Calvin’s successor, biographer and systematizer.
Revivalism, Emigration and Religious Networks in Nineteenth-Century Norway
Authors: Thorkildsen Dag
Published: February 2016

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, state, society and church were almost identical units in Norway, and with the exception of guilds, minor rural fellowships and small groups influenced by Moravian piety, there was no civil society, in the sense of a sphere between family, market and public affairs.
A Female Force despite Mockery and Contempt: Women’s Mission Groups
in Norway as Social, Religious and International Network Builders
Authors: Jørgensen Torstein
Published: February 2016

In this essay we will turn our attention to a rather distinctive phenomenon of Norwegian history; the rise and activity of the network of so-called women’s mission groups. From its outset in the first half of the nineteenth century, this movement was part of the international call for female participation in the new cause of propagating the Christian message overseas. But in Norway the movement underwent a self-development that gave it a distinctive role, not only in the missionary movement but also in the sociopolitical formation of modern Norwegian society as a whole and in the creation of international links.
The International Religious Network of Yun Chi-ho (1865–1965: Mission or Dialogue?
Authors: Ahn Shin
Published: February 2016

For five hundred years (1392–1910, Neo-Confucianism had been the state religion in Korea before Christianity was transmitted by Western missionaries. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, French Catholic missionaries taught the Christian message without permission, resulting in severe persecution by the Korean rulers. But during the late nineteenth century American Protestant missionaries secured permission from the Korean king and started educational and medical missionary work, rather than engaging in direct evangelical activity.
The Ecumenical Network, 1920–48
Authors: Thompson David M.
Published: February 2016

Ecumenical networks are largely taken for granted by those whom they involve. The longer one is active in church life, particularly at national or international level, the more significant they become. The different layers of responsibility and the timespan involved in personal friendships are both integral to any understanding of them. Recent discussion within the WCC about the ‘reconfiguration of the ecumenical movement’ has raised once again the basis of representation in the council, a topic which goes back to some of the earliest discussions about its structure in the mid 1930s. The key issue is the tension between a relatively informal grouping, based on networks of people who already know one another, and a formal structure, based on the official representatives of the churches – which also assumes that its members will be churches rather than Christian associations of various kinds. It is a commonplace of ecumenical historiography that the formation of the WCC depended heavily on a pre-existing network of personal friends. But very often there is relatively little analysis of its nature. In fact, it is inherently difficult to analyse, because the official records give next to no information about it; better sources are letters and memoirs, notwithstanding any personal bias. Such bias may actually be key evidence. This paper uses the discussions about a future WCC in the 1930s as a focus for analysing the networks involved. The issue is well summed up in a letter from Henry van Dusen to William Temple in July 1938 about whether the proposed World Council should be exclusively composed of official church representatives. Van Dusen, who clearly felt personally threatened by this, pleaded for the inclusion of co-opted members, since without them ‘elements of vital importance for the Church’ would never find their way into the Council. The issue of how to secure sufficient women, young prople and the non-ordained has never gone away.
New Methods Measure How Vertical Land Motion Affects Sea Level
Authors: Strelich Lily
Published: February 2016

Researchers demonstrate the value of combining GPS and satellite data on vertical motion of the Earth's surface with tide gauge measurements to track rising sea levels.
Specifically modified Env immunogens activate B-cell precursors of broadly neutralizing HIV-1 antibodies in transgenic mice
Authors: McGuire Andrew T. , Gray Matthew D. , Dosenovic Pia , Gitlin Alexander D. , Freund Natalia T. , Petersen John , Correnti Colin , Johnsen William , Kegel Robert , Stuart Andrew B. , Glenn Jolene , Seaman Michael S. , Schief William R. , Strong Roland K. , Nussenzweig Michel C. , Stamatatos Leonidas
Published: February 2016

VRC01-class broadly neutralizing HIV-1 antibodies protect animals from experimental infection and could contribute to an effective vaccine response. Their predicted germline forms (gl) bind Env inefficiently, which may explain why they are not elicited by HIV-1 Env-immunization. Here we show that an optimized Env immunogen can engage multiple glVRC01-class antibodies. Furthermore, this immunogen activates naive B cells expressing the human germline heavy chain of 3BNC60, paired with endogenous mouse light chains in vivo. To address whether it activates B cells expressing the fully humanized gl3BNC60 B-cell receptor (BCR), we immunized mice carrying both the heavy and light chains of gl3BNC60. B cells expressing this BCR display an autoreactive phenotype and fail to respond efficiently to soluble forms of the optimized immunogen, unless it is highly multimerized. Thus, specifically designed Env immunogens can activate naive B cells expressing human BCRs corresponding to precursors of broadly neutralizing HIV-1 antibodies even when the B cells display an autoreactive phenotype.
Observation of Zeeman effect in topological surface state with distinct material dependence
Authors: Fu Ying-Shuang , Hanaguri T. , Igarashi K. , Kawamura M. , Bahramy M. S. , Sasagawa T.
Published: February 2016

Manipulating the spins of the topological surface states represents an essential step towards exploring the exotic quantum states emerging from the time reversal symmetry breaking via magnetic doping or external magnetic fields. The latter case relies on the Zeeman effect and thereby we need to estimate the g-factor of the topological surface state precisely. Here, we report the direct observations of the Zeeman effect at the surfaces of Bi2Se3 and Sb2Te2Se by spectroscopic-imaging scanning tunnelling microscopy. The Zeeman shift of the zero mode Landau level is identified unambiguously by appropriately excluding the extrinsic effects arising from the nonlinearity in the band dispersion of the topological surface state and the spatially varying potential. Surprisingly, the g-factors of the topological surface states in Bi2Se3 and Sb2Te2Se are very different (+18 and −6, respectively). Such remarkable material dependence opens up a new route to control the spins of the topological surface states.
Exceptional performance of photoelectrochemical water oxidation of single-crystal rutile TiO2 nanorods dependent on the hole trapping of modified chloride
Authors: Zhang Xuliang , Cui Haiqin , Humayun Muhammad , Qu Yang , Fan Naiying , Sun Xiaojun , Jing Liqiang
Published: February 2016

It is highly desired to effectively trap photogenerated holes for efficient photoelectrochemical (PEC) water oxidation to evolve O2 on oxide semiconductors. Herein, it is found for the first time mainly based on the time-resolved- and atmosphere-controlled- surface photovoltage responses that the modified chloride would effectively trap photogenerated holes so as to prolong the charge lifetime and hence promote charge separation of single-crystal rutile TiO2 nanorods. Its strong capacity to trap holes, comparable to the widely-used methanol and Co(II) phosphate, is well responsible for the exceptional photoactivities for PEC water oxidation to evolve O2 on rutile nanorods with a proper amount of chloride modified, about 2.5-time high as that on the resulting anatase nanoparticles, even 10-time if the surface area is considered. Moreover, it is suggested that the hole trapping role of chemically-adsorbed chloride is related to its lonely-pair electrons, and to the subsequently-produced intermediate Cl atoms with proper electronegativity for evolving O2. Interestingly, this finding is also applicable to the chloride-modified anatase TiO2. This work will provide a feasible strategy to design high-activity nanostructured semiconductor photoanodes for PEC water oxidation, even for overall water splitting.
Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Humanized Mice Infected with HIV-1
Authors: Nusbaum Rebecca J. , Calderon Veronica E. , Huante Matthew B. , Sutjita Putri , Vijayakumar Sudhamathi , Lancaster Katrina L. , Hunter Robert L. , Actor Jeffrey K. , Cirillo Jeffrey D. , Aronson Judith , Gelman Benjamin B. , Lisinicchia Joshua G. , Valbuena Gustavo , Endsley Janice J.
Published: February 2016

Co-infection with HIV increases the morbidity and mortality associated with tuberculosis due to multiple factors including a poorly understood microbial synergy. We developed a novel small animal model of co-infection in the humanized mouse to investigate how HIV infection disrupts pulmonary containment of Mtb. Following dual infection, HIV-infected cells were localized to sites of Mtb-driven inflammation and mycobacterial replication in the lung. Consistent with disease in human subjects, we observed increased mycobacterial burden, loss of granuloma structure and increased progression of TB disease, due to HIV co-infection. Importantly, we observed an HIV-dependent pro-inflammatory cytokine signature (IL-1β, IL-6, TNFα and IL-8), neutrophil accumulation and greater lung pathology in the Mtb-co-infected lung. These results suggest that in the early stages of acute co-infection in the humanized mouse, infection with HIV exacerbates the pro-inflammatory response to pulmonary Mtb, leading to poorly formed granulomas, more severe lung pathology and increased mycobacterial burden and dissemination.
Metabolic prediction of important agronomic traits in hybrid rice (Oryza sativa L.)
Authors: Dan Zhiwu , Hu Jun , Zhou Wei , Yao Guoxin , Zhu Renshan , Zhu Yingguo , Huang Wenchao
Published: February 2016

Hybrid crops have contributed greatly to improvements in global food and fodder production over the past several decades. Nevertheless, the growing population and changing climate have produced food crises and energy shortages. Breeding new elite hybrid varieties is currently an urgent task, but present breeding procedures are time-consuming and labour-intensive. In this study, parental metabolic information was utilized to predict three polygenic traits in hybrid rice. A complete diallel cross population consisting of eighteen rice inbred lines was constructed and the hybrids’ plant height, heading date and grain yield per plant were predicted using 525 metabolites. Metabolic prediction models were built using the partial least square regression method, with predictive abilities ranging from 0.858 to 0.977 for the hybrid phenotypes, relative heterosis and specific combining ability. Only slight changes in predictive ability were observed between hybrid populations and nearly no changes were detected between reciprocal hybrids. The outcomes of prediction of the three highly polygenic traits demonstrated that metabolic prediction was an accurate (high predictive abilities) and efficient (unaffected by population genetic structures) strategy for screening promising superior hybrid rice. Exploitation of this pre-hybridization strategy may contribute to rice production improvement and accelerate breeding programs.
Unique antitumor property of the Mg-Ca-Sr alloys with addition of Zn
Authors: Wu Yuanhao , He Guanping , Zhang Yu , Liu Yang , Li Mei , Wang Xiaolan , Li Nan , Li Kang , Zheng Guan , Zheng Yufeng , Yin Qingshui
Published: February 2016

In clinical practice, tumor recurrence and metastasis after orthopedic prosthesis implantation is an intensely troublesome matter. Therefore, to develop implant materials with antitumor property is extremely necessary and meaningful. Magnesium (Mg) alloys possess superb biocompatibility, mechanical property and biodegradability in orthopedic applications. However, whether they possess antitumor property had seldom been reported. In recent years, it showed that zinc (Zn) not only promote the osteogenic activity but also exhibit good antitumor property. In our present study, Zn was selected as an alloying element for the Mg-1Ca-0.5Sr alloy to develop a multifunctional material with antitumor property. We investigated the influence of the Mg-1Ca-0.5Sr-xZn (x = 0, 2, 4, 6 wt%) alloys extracts on the proliferation rate, cell apoptosis, migration and invasion of the U2OS cell line. Our results show that Zn containing Mg alloys extracts inhibit the cell proliferation by alteration the cell cycle and inducing cell apoptosis via the activation of the mitochondria pathway. The cell migration and invasion property were also suppressed by the activation of MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) pathway. Our work suggests that the Mg-1Ca-0.5Sr-6Zn alloy is expected to be a promising orthopedic implant in osteosarcoma limb-salvage surgery for avoiding tumor recurrence and metastasis.
Exploring miniature insect brains using micro-CT scanning techniques
Authors: Smith Dylan B. , Bernhardt Galina , Raine Nigel E. , Abel Richard L. , Sykes Dan , Ahmed Farah , Pedroso Inti , Gill Richard J.
Published: February 2016

The capacity to explore soft tissue structures in detail is important in understanding animal physiology and how this determines features such as movement, behaviour and the impact of trauma on regular function. Here we use advances in micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) technology to explore the brain of an important insect pollinator and model organism, the bumblebee (Bombus terrestris). Here we present a method for accurate imaging and exploration of insect brains that keeps brain tissue free from trauma and in its natural stereo-geometry and showcase our 3D reconstructions and analyses of 19 individual brains at high resolution. Development of this protocol allows relatively rapid and cost effective brain reconstructions, making it an accessible methodology to the wider scientific community. The protocol describes the necessary steps for sample preparation, tissue staining, micro-CT scanning and 3D reconstruction, followed by a method for image analysis using the freeware SPIERS. These image analysis methods describe how to virtually extract key composite structures from the insect brain and we demonstrate the application and precision of this method by calculating structural volumes and investigating the allometric relationships between bumblebee brain structures.
Elastic, magnetic and electronic properties of iridium phosphide Ir2P
Authors: Wang Pei , Wang Yonggang , Wang Liping , Zhang Xinyu , Yu Xiaohui , Zhu Jinlong , Wang Shanmin , Qin Jiaqian , Leinenweber Kurt , Chen Haihua , He Duanwei , Zhao Yusheng
Published: February 2016

Cubic (space group: Fm"Equation missing"m) iridium phosphide, Ir2P, has been synthesized at high pressure and high temperature. Angle-dispersive synchrotron X-ray diffraction measurements on Ir2P powder using a diamond-anvil cell at room temperature and high pressures (up to 40.6 GPa) yielded a bulk modulus of B0 = 306(6) GPa and its pressure derivative B0′ = 6.4(5). Such a high bulk modulus attributed to the short and strongly covalent Ir-P bonds as revealed by first – principles calculations and three-dimensionally distributed [IrP4] tetrahedron network. Indentation testing on a well–sintered polycrystalline sample yielded the hardness of 11.8(4) GPa. Relatively low shear modulus of ~64 GPa from theoretical calculations suggests a complicated overall bonding in Ir2P with metallic, ionic and covalent characteristics. In addition, a spin glass behavior is indicated by magnetic susceptibility measurements.
In-situ measurement of the heat transport in defect- engineered free-standing single-layer graphene
Authors: Wang Haidong , Kurata Kosaku , Fukunaga Takanobu , Takamatsu Hiroshi , Zhang Xing , Ikuta Tatsuya , Takahashi Koji , Nishiyama Takashi , Ago Hiroki , Takata Yasuyuki
Published: February 2016

Utilizing nanomachining technologies, it is possible to manipulate the heat transport in graphene by introducing different defects. However, due to the difficulty in suspending large-area single-layer graphene (SLG) and limited temperature sensitivity of the present probing methods, the correlation between the defects and thermal conductivity of SLG is still unclear. In this work, we developed a new method for fabricating micro-sized suspended SLG. Subsequently, a focused ion beam (FIB) was used to create nanohole defects in SLG and tune the heat transport. The thermal conductivity of the same SLG before and after FIB radiation was measured using a novel T-type sensor method on site in a dual-beam system. The nanohole defects decreased the thermal conductivity by about 42%. It was found that the smaller width and edge scrolling also had significant restriction on the thermal conductivity of SLG. Based on the calculation results through a lattice dynamics theory, the increase of edge roughness and stronger scattering on long-wavelength acoustic phonons are the main reasons for the reduction in thermal conductivity. This work provides reliable data for understanding the heat transport in a defective SLG membrane, which could help on the future design of graphene-based electrothermal devices.
Precise estimation of soil organic carbon stocks in the northeast Tibetan Plateau
Authors: Yang Ren-Min , Zhang Gan-Lin , Yang Fei , Zhi Jun-Jun , Yang Fan , Liu Feng , Zhao Yu-Guo , Li De-Cheng
Published: February 2016

There is a need for accurate estimate of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks for understanding the role of alpine soils in the global carbon cycle. We tested a method for mapping digitally the continuous distribution of the SOC stock in three dimensions in the northeast of the Tibetan Plateau. The approach integrated the spatial distribution of the mattic epipedon which is a special surface horizon widespread and rich in organic matter in Tibetan grasslands. Prediction models resulted in high prediction accuracy. An average SOC stock in the mattic epipedon was estimated to be 4.99 kg m−2 in a mean depth of 14 cm. The amounts of SOC in the mattic epipedon, the upper 30 cm and 50 cm accounted for about 21%, 80% and 89%, respectively, of the total SOC stock in the upper 1 m depth. Compared with previous estimates, our approach resulted in more reliable predictions. The mattic epipedon was proven to be an important factor for modelling the realistic distribution of the SOC stock in Tibetan grasslands. Vegetation-related covariates have the most important influence on the distribution of the mattic epipedon and the SOC stock in the alpine grassland soils of northeast Tibetan Plateau.
Cucurbitacin B inhibits the stemness and metastatic abilities of NSCLC via downregulation of canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling axis
Authors: Shukla Samriddhi , Sinha Sonam , Khan Sajid , Kumar Sudhir , Singh Kavita , Mitra Kalyan , Maurya Rakesh , Meeran Syed Musthapa
Published: February 2016

Lack of effective anti-metastatic drugs creates a major hurdle for metastatic lung cancer therapy. For successful lung cancer treatment, there is a strong need of newer therapeutics with metastasis-inhibitory potential. In the present study, we determined the anti-metastatic and anti-angiogenic potential of a natural plant triterpenoid, Cucurbitacin B (CuB) against non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) both in vitro and in vivo. CuB demonstrated a strong anti-migratory and anti-invasive ability against metastatic NSCLC at nanomolar concentrations. CuB also showed significant tumor angiogenesis-inhibitory effects as evidenced by the inhibition of migratory, invasive and tube-forming capacities of human umbilical vein endothelial cells. CuB-mediated inhibition of angiogenesis was validated by the inhibition of pre-existing vasculature in chick embryo chorio-allantoic membrane and matrigel plugs. Similarly, CuB inhibited the migratory behavior of TGF-β1-induced experimental EMT model. The CuB-mediated inhibition of metastasis and angiogenesis was attributable to the downregulation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling axis, validated by siRNA-knockdown of Wnt3 and Wnt3a. The CuB-mediated downregulation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling was also validated using 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK)-induced lung tumorigenesis model in vivo. Collectively, our findings suggest that CuB inhibited the metastatic abilities of NSCLC through the inhibition of Wnt/β-catenin signaling axis.
Active Sampling Device for Determining Pollutants in Surface and Pore Water – the In Situ Sampler for Biphasic Water Monitoring
Authors: Supowit Samuel D. , Roll Isaac B. , Dang Viet D. , Kroll Kevin J. , Denslow Nancy D. , Halden Rolf U.
Published: February 2016

We designed and evaluated an active sampling device, using as analytical targets a family of pesticides purported to contribute to honeybee colony collapse disorder. Simultaneous sampling of bulk water and pore water was accomplished using a low-flow, multi-channel pump to deliver water to an array of solid-phase extraction cartridges. Analytes were separated using either liquid or gas chromatography, and analysis was performed using tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). Achieved recoveries of fipronil and degradates in water spiked to nominal concentrations of 0.1, 1, and 10 ng/L ranged from 77 ± 12 to 110 ± 18%. Method detection limits (MDLs) were as low as 0.040–0.8 ng/L. Extraction and quantitation of total fiproles at a wastewater-receiving wetland yielded concentrations in surface water and pore water ranging from 9.9 ± 4.6 to 18.1 ± 4.6 ng/L and 9.1 ± 3.0 to 12.6 ± 2.1 ng/L, respectively. Detected concentrations were statistically indistinguishable from those determined by conventional, more laborious techniques (p > 0.2 for the three most abundant fiproles). Aside from offering time-averaged sampling capabilities for two phases simultaneously with picogram-per-liter MDLs, the novel methodology eliminates the need for water and sediment transport via in situ solid phase extraction.
β-aminoisobutyric acid attenuates hepatic endoplasmic reticulum stress and glucose/lipid metabolic disturbance in mice with type 2 diabetes
Authors: Shi Chang-Xiang , Zhao Ming-Xia , Shu Xiao-Dong , Xiong Xiao-Qing , Wang Jue-Jin , Gao Xing-Ya , Chen Qi , Li Yue-Hua , Kang Yu-Ming , Zhu Guo-Qing
Published: February 2016

β-aminoisobutyric acid (BAIBA) is a nature thymine catabolite and contributes to exercise-induced protection from metabolic diseases. Here we show the therapeutical effects of BAIBA on hepatic endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and glucose/lipid metabolic disturbance in diabetes. Type 2 diabetes was induced by combined streptozotocin (STZ) and high-fat diet (HFD) in mice. Oral administration of BAIBA for 4 weeks reduced blood glucose and lipids levels, hepatic key enzymes of gluconeogenesis and lipogenesis expressions, attenuated hepatic insulin resistance and lipid accumulation and improved insulin signaling in type 2 diabetic mice. BAIBA reduced hepatic ER stress and apoptosis in type 2 diabetic mice. Furthermore, BAIBA alleviated ER stress in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells with glucosamine-induced insulin resistance. Hepatic AMPK phosphorylation was reduced in STZ/HFD mice and glucosamine-treated HepG2 cells, which were restored by BAIBA treatment. The suppressive effects of BAIBA on glucosamine-induced ER stress were reversed by knockdown of AMPK with siRNA. In addition, BAIBA prevented thapsigargin- or tunicamycin-induced ER stress and tunicamycin–induced apoptosis in HepG2 cells. These results indicate that BAIBA attenuates hepatic ER stress, apoptosis and glucose/lipid metabolic disturbance in mice with type 2 diabetes. AMPK signaling is involved to the role of BAIBA in attenuating ER stress.
Intermediate tree cover can maximize groundwater recharge in the seasonally dry tropics
Authors: Ilstedt U. , Bargués Tobella A. , Bazié H. R. , Bayala J. , Verbeeten E. , Nyberg G. , Sanou J. , Benegas L. , Murdiyarso D. , Laudon H. , Sheil D. , Malmer A.
Published: February 2016

Water scarcity contributes to the poverty of around one-third of the world’s people. Despite many benefits, tree planting in dry regions is often discouraged by concerns that trees reduce water availability. Yet relevant studies from the tropics are scarce and the impacts of intermediate tree cover remain unexplored. We developed and tested an optimum tree cover theory in which groundwater recharge is maximized at an intermediate tree density. Below this optimal tree density the benefits from any additional trees on water percolation exceed their extra water use, leading to increased groundwater recharge, while above the optimum the opposite occurs. Our results, based on groundwater budgets calibrated with measurements of drainage and transpiration in a cultivated woodland in West Africa, demonstrate that groundwater recharge was maximised at intermediate tree densities. In contrast to the prevailing view, we therefore find that moderate tree cover can increase groundwater recharge and that tree planting and various tree management options can improve groundwater resources. We evaluate the necessary conditions for these results to hold and suggest that they are likely to be common in the seasonally dry tropics, offering potential for widespread tree establishment and increased benefits for hundreds of millions of people.