bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Identification of a Collagenase-Inhibiting Flavonoid from Alchemilla vulgaris Using NMR-Based Metabolomics
Authors: Mandrone Manuela , Coqueiro Aline , Poli Ferruccio , Antognoni Fabiana , Choi Young
Published: May 2018

This paper describes the use of 1H NMR profiling and chemometrics in order to facilitate the selection of medicinal plants as potential sources of collagenase inhibitors. A total of 49 plants with reported ethnobotanical uses, such as the healing of wounds and burns, treatment of skin-related diseases, rheumatism, arthritis, and bone diseases, were initially chosen as potential candidates. The in vitro collagenase inhibitory activity of hydroalcoholic extracts of these plants was tested. Moreover, their phytochemical profiles were analyzed by 1H NMR and combined with the inhibitory activity data by an orthogonal partial least squares model. The results showed a correlation between the bioactivity and the concentration of phenolics, including flavonoids, phenylpropanoids, and tannins, in the extracts. Considering the eventual false-positive effect on the bioactivity given by tannins, a tannin removal procedure was performed on the most active extracts. After this procedure, Alchemilla vulgaris was the most persistently active, proving to owe its activity to compounds other than tannins. Thus, this plant was selected as the most promising and further investigated through bioassay-guided fractionation, which resulted in the isolation of a flavonoid, quercetin-3-O-β-glucuronide, as confirmed by NMR and HRMS spectra. This compound showed not only a higher activity than other flavonoids with the same aglycone moiety, but was also higher than doxycycline (positive control), the only Federal Drug Administration-approved collagenase inhibitor. The approach employed in this study, namely the integration of metabolomics and bioactivity-guided fractionation, showed great potential as a tool for plant selection and identification of bioactive compounds in natural product research.
Are political representatives more risk-loving than the electorate? Evidence from German federal and state parliaments
Authors: Heß Moritz , von Scheve Christian , Schupp Jürgen , Wagner Aiko , Wagner Gert G.
Published: May 2018

Political representatives frequently make decisions with far-reaching implications for citizens and societies. Most of these decisions are choices in situations in which the probabilities of gains and losses are hard to estimate. Although decision-making is crucial to politics, existing research has hardly ever addressed the political representation of traits that notably influence decision-making. One such trait is risk propensity; that is, an individual’s willingness to take risk. Using a unique dataset consisting of representative samples of the German Federal Parliament, four German State Parliaments, and the general German population, the present study investigates the degree to which political representatives’ risk propensity resembles their constituents’ appetite for risk. Not only descriptive results but even after using matching techniques and controlling for several potentially confounding variables, the study shows that political representatives are significantly more risk loving than the average citizen across several domains of risk taking. The implications of this finding are twofold. First, it points at a representation gap suggesting that politicians tend towards riskier choices than their voters, which not only affects politicians themselves but the entire polity. Second, it suggests a useful ‘division of labor’ according to which risk-loving politicians are prepared to take risks in exceptional situations, which their constituents would eschew.
Impact of predator dormancy on prey-predator dynamics
Authors: Freire Joana G. , Gallas Marcia R. , Gallas Jason A. C.
Published: May 2018

The impact of predator dormancy on the population dynamics of phytoplankton-zooplankton in freshwater ecosystems is investigated using a simple model including dormancy, a strategy to avoid extinction. In addition to recently reported chaos-mediated mixed-mode oscillations, as the carrying capacity grows, we find surprisingly wide phases of nonchaos-mediated mixed-mode oscillations to be present well before the onset of chaos in the system. Nonchaos-mediated cascades display spike-adding sequences, while chaos-mediated cascades show spike-doubling. A host of braided periodic phases with exotic shapes is found embedded in a region of control parameters dominated by chaotic oscillations. We describe the organization of these complicated phases and show how they are interconnected and how their complexity unfolds as control parameters change. The novel nonchaos-mediated phases are found to be large and stable, even for low carrying capacity.
Inertial piezoelectric linear motor driven by a single-phase harmonic wave with automatic clamping mechanism
Authors: He Liangguo , Chu Yuheng , Hao Sai , Zhao Xiaoyong , Dong Yuge , Wang Yong
Published: May 2018

A novel, single-phase, harmonic-driven, inertial piezoelectric linear motor using an automatic clamping mechanism was designed, fabricated, and tested to reduce the sliding friction and simplify the drive mechanism and power supply control of the inertial motor. A piezoelectric bimorph and a flexible hinge were connected in series to form the automatic clamping mechanism. The automatic clamping mechanism was used as the driving and clamping elements. A dynamic simulation by Simulink was performed to prove the feasibility of the motor. The finite element method software COMSOL was used to design the structure of the motor. An experimental setup was built to validate the working principle and evaluate the performance of the motor. The prototype motor outputted a no-load velocity of 3.178 mm/s at a voltage of 220 Vp-p and a maximum traction force of 4.25 N under a preload force of 8 N. The minimum resolution of 1.14 μm was achieved at a driving frequency of 74 Hz, a driving voltage of 50 Vp-p, and a preload force of 0 N.
Anisotropic frictional heating and defect generation in cyclotrimethylene-trinitramine molecular crystals
Authors: Rajak Pankaj , Mishra Ankit , Sheng Chunyang , Tiwari Subodh , Kalia Rajiv K. , Nakano Aiichiro , Vashishta Priya
Published: May 2018

Anisotropic frictional response and corresponding heating in cyclotrimethylene-trinitramine molecular crystals are studied using molecular dynamics simulations. The nature of damage and temperature rise due to frictional forces is monitored along different sliding directions on the primary slip plane, (010), and on non-slip planes, (100) and (001). Correlations between the friction coefficient, deformation, and frictional heating are established. We find that the friction coefficients on slip planes are smaller than those on non-slip planes. In response to sliding on a slip plane, the crystal deforms easily via dislocation generation and shows less heating. On non-slip planes, due to the inability of the crystal to deform via dislocation generation, a large damage zone is formed just below the contact area, accompanied by the change in the molecular ring conformation from chair to boat/half-boat. This in turn leads to a large temperature rise below the contact area.
A two-dimensional electron crystal over liquid helium in the nonlinear mode. Analysis of resonance spectra of the electron-ripplon oscillations
Authors: Syvokon V. E. , Sharapova I. V.
Published: May 2018

The spectrum of coupled electron-ripplon oscillations in a Wigner crystal was experimentally studied as a function of the amplitude of the excitation signal. It was found that an increase in the excitation voltage leads to a noticeable distortion of the spectrum and a shift in the resonance characteristics to the region of lower frequencies. Analysis of the spectra demonstrated that non-axially symmetric oscillations are excited in the cell. In view of the radial symmetry of the cell and the exciting electrode, excitation of such oscillations may be attributed to the distortion of the crystal lattice. In the analysis, it was assumed that the electron-ripplon interaction leads only to a renormalization of the effective mass of the electrons.
Pressure relaxation and diffusion of vacancies in rapidly grown helium crystals
Authors: Birchenko A. P. , Mikhin N. P. , Rudavskii E. Ya. , Smirnov S. N. , Fysun Ya. Yu.
Published: May 2018

An experimental study of the features of pressure relaxation in rapidly grown crystals of a diluted solid solution 3He–4He, at temperatures above 1.3 K, was performed. A cylindrical cell with capacitive pressure sensors at the ends was used for measurements. It was found that, when the helium crystals were grown at cooling rates ≳4 mK/s, the difference in pressure ΔP registered by the sensors at 1.3 K reached 2.4 bars. The ΔP value decreased with subsequent stepwise increase in temperature, but reached zero only after thorough annealing at the premelting temperatures. The kinetics of pressure changes at the sample ends at different temperatures was recorded. The results obtained were interpreted within the framework of the structural relaxation model based on the monovacancy diffusion mechanism. The proposed model made it possible to explain the dependence of ΔP on the time and temperature recorded in the experiment, as well as to determine the activation energy of the structural relaxation process and the diffusion coefficient of vacancies. The details of the vacancy model are described in the Appendix.
Electromagnons in ferroelectromagnetic TbMnO3 after a polarization flop
Authors: Chupis I. E.
Published: May 2018

The electromagnon spectrum arising from the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) effect in TbMnO3 after a polarization flop is analyzed phenomenologically. Applied alternating electric fields directed along and perpendicular to the spontaneous polarization Px are considered. It is shown that when the electric field is oriented parallel to the spontaneous polarization, the low-frequency electromagnons have two well defined frequencies which depend on temperature. For electric fields perpendicular to the spontaneous electric polarization, the DM mechanism does not excite low-frequency electromagnons in the terahertz range. These results are consistent with available Raman spectrum measurements.
Pressure effect on magnetic susceptibility of LaCoO3
Authors: Panfilov A. S. , Grechnev G. E. , Zhuravleva I. P. , Lyogenkaya A. A. , Pashchenko V. A. , Savenko B. N. , Novoselov D. , Prabhakaran D. , Troyanchuk I. O.
Published: May 2018

The effect of pressure on magnetic properties of LaCoO3 is studied experimentally and theoretically. The pressure dependence of magnetic susceptibility χ of LaCoO3 is obtained by precise measurements of χ as a function of the hydrostatic pressure P up to 2 kbar in the temperature range from 78 K to 300 K. A pronounced magnitude of the pressure effect is found to be negative in sign and strongly temperature dependent. The obtained experimental data are analysed by using a two-level model and DFT+U calculations of the electronic structure of LaCoO3. In particular, the fixed spin moment method was employed to obtain a volume dependence of the total energy difference Δ between the low spin and the intermediate spin states of LaCoO3. Analysis of the obtained experimental χ(P) dependence within the two-level model, as well as our DFT+U calculations, have revealed the anomalous large decrease in the energy difference Δ with increasing of the unit cell volume. This effect, taking into account a thermal expansion, can be responsible for the temperatures dependence of Δ, predicting its vanishing near room temperature.
Thermocatalytic pyrolysis of CO molecules. Structure and sorption characteristics of the carbon nanomaterial
Authors: Prokhvatilov A. I. , Dolbin A. V. , Vinnikov N. A. , Basnukaeva R. M. , Esel'son V. B. , Gavrilko V. G. , Khlistyuck M. V. , Legchenkova I. V. , Stetsenko Yu. E. , Meleshko V. V. , Koda V. Yu.
Published: May 2018

A carbon nanocondensate containing multiwalled carbon nanotubes has been produced by dissociation of CO molecules on an iron-nickel catalyst at temperatures of 400–500 °C. X-ray diffraction is used to show that this condensate contains two phases with different densities and degrees of ordering. Elevated synthesis temperatures lead to a higher density and smaller differences in the phases, which are related to increased freedom from defects in the carbon layers and a greater number of layers in the multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Studies of the sorption and subsequent desorption kinetics of hydrogen by the synthesized samples at temperatures of 7–120 K showed that when the temperature is lowered from 120 to 65 K, an increased sorption time for H2, which is typical of thermally activated diffusion, was observed in all the samples. At temperatures below 65 K the characteristic hydrogen sorption times depended weakly on temperature; this can be explained by a predominance of tunnel diffusion over thermally activated diffusion. At temperatures of 7–20 K, the temperature dependence of the characteristic times had features that appear to be related to the formation of a monolayer of H2 molecules on the inner surface of the nanotube cavities. The dependence of the hydrogen diffusion activation energy on the temperature at which the samples were synthesized correlates well with x-ray spectroscopy data: n rise in the activation energy is observed as the relative amount of the highly ordered carbon phase increases.
Bootstrapping a way to a more stable fusion reactor
Authors: Wolverton Mark
Published: May 2018

Tokamaks with high bootstrap current can improve energy confinement by suppressing turbulence.
Prey selectivity by feral cats at central Australian rock-wallaby colonies
Authors: Read J. L. , Dagg E. , Moseby K. E.
Published: May 2018

Threatened warru, or black-footed rock-wallaby (Petrogale lateralis MacDonnell Ranges race), populations in northern South Australia continued to decline despite baiting for foxes (Vulpes vulpes), which improved their short-term conservation status elsewhere. To investigate whether feral cats (Felis catus) also represent a risk to warru we compared frequencies of prey occurrence in 103 feral cat and 14 fox stomachs shot near warru colonies in northern South Australia during 2001–17 with measures of prey abundance from pitfall trapping and opportunistic searches. We hypothesise that one fresh adult warru kill and the presence of warru remains in four other cats suggests predation by cats on adult and juvenile warru. Small reptiles and invertebrates were the most frequently recorded prey of cats in summer, whereas rodents and small dasyurids were the most frequent prey items in winter. Small mammals, small snakes and pygopodid lizards were over-represented in the diet of cats compared with estimated encounter frequencies, whereas fast-running dragons, knob-tailed geckoes (Nephrurus) and echidnas (Tachyglossus aculeatus) were not recorded from cat stomachs despite being relatively abundant. Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), rodents and fruits were the most frequently recorded items in fox stomachs. This study reinforces that targeted management of feral cat populations should be considered in concert with control of canids in sustainable recovery programs for warru and other cat-vulnerable species.
Could current fertility control methods be effective for landscape-scale management of populations of wild horses (Equus caballus) in Australia?
Authors: Hobbs Rebecca J. , Hinds Lyn A.
Published: May 2018

Context
Fertility control is seen as an attractive alternative to lethal methods for control of population size and genetic diversity in managed animal populations. Immunocontraceptive vaccines have emerged as the most promising agents for inducing long-term infertility in individual animals. However, after over 20 years of scientific testing of immunocontraceptive vaccines in the horse, the scientific consensus is that their application as a sole management approach for reducing population size is not an effective strategy.

Aims
The purpose of this review is to evaluate currently available non-lethal fertility-control methods that have been tested for their contraceptive efficacy in Equidae, and to assess their suitability for effective management of wild (feral) horses in an Australian setting.

Key results
(1) Fertility-control agents, particularly injectable immunocontraceptive vaccines based on porcine zona pellucida (PZP) or gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH), can induce multi-year infertility (up to 3 years) in the horse. Some formulations require annual or biennial booster treatments. Remote dart delivery (on foot) to horses is possible, although the efficacy of this approach when applied to large numbers of animals is yet to be determined. (2) The proportion of females that must be treated with a fertility-control agent, as well as the frequency of treatment required to achieve defined management outcomes (i.e. halting population growth in the short term and reducing population size in the long term) is likely to be >50% per annum. In national parks, treatment of a large number of wild horses over such a broad area would be challenging and impractical. (3) Fertility control for wild horses could be beneficial, but only if employed in conjunction with other broad-scale population-control practices to achieve population reduction and to minimise environmental impacts.

Conclusions
In Australia, most populations of wild horses are large, dispersed over varied and difficult-to-access terrain, are timid to approach and open to immigration and introductions. These factors make accessing and effectively managing animals logistically difficult. If application of fertility control could be achieved in more than 50% of the females, it could be used to slow the rate of increase in a population to zero (2–5 years), but it will take more than 10–20 years before population size will begin to decline without further intervention. Thus, use of fertility control as the sole technique for halting population growth is not feasible in Australia.
Maturation of polycistronic mRNAs by the endoribonuclease RNase Y and its associated Y-complex inBacillus subtilis
Authors: DeLoughery Aaron , Lalanne Jean-Benoît , Losick Richard , Li Gene-Wei
Published: May 2018

Significance

Bacterial operons must solve a fundamental problem: how to produce discordant amounts of proteins from cotranscribed genes. Here, we used a genome-wide approach to map operon mRNA isoforms with nucleotide resolution inBacillus subtilisand to quantify their abundances in different genetic backgrounds. These results revealed RNA endonucleolytic cleavages located in between cotranscribed genes that lead to differential transcript stability and abundance. The RNA endonuclease’s activity toward operon mRNA maturation requires a three-protein Y-complex. Interestingly, the Y-complex has few effects on other targets of the RNA endonuclease. The dichotomy of targets suggests that the Y-complex acts as a specificity factor for the general endonuclease, a role that could be broadly conserved in other Firmicutes, including the human pathogenStaphylococcus aureus.
Process and joint quality of ultrasonic vibration enhanced friction stir lap welding
Authors: Gao S. , Wu C. S. , Padhy G. K.
Published: May 2018

In order to improve the process effectiveness and joint quality, ultrasonic vibrations were integrated with friction stir lap welding. Effect of ultrasonic exertion on the process and joint quality of AA 6061-T6 were investigated. Upon ultrasonic exertion, joints owned larger effective lap width, shorter hooks and improved strength. Weld fracture mode changed from a ductile–brittle mixed mode to a more ductile mode while the fracture path shifted from lap interface to beyond the stir zone. Material flow and interface defects were characterised using lap welded dissimilar aluminium alloy joints. Ultrasonic vibration improved the material flow and reduced the interfacial defects. Variations in failure load of joints were found in accordance with the variations in material flow and interfacial defects.
Distinct, IgG1-driven antibody response landscapes demarcate individuals with broadly HIV-1 neutralizing activity
Authors: Kadelka Claus , Liechti Thomas , Ebner Hanna , Schanz Merle , Rusert Peter , Friedrich Nikolas , Stiegeler Emanuel , Braun Dominique L. , Huber Michael , Scherrer Alexandra U. , Weber Jacqueline , Uhr Therese , Kuster Herbert , Misselwitz Benjamin , Cavassini Matthias , Bernasconi Enos , Hoffmann Matthias , Calmy Alexandra , Battegay Manuel , Rauch Andri , Yerly Sabine , Aubert Vincent , Klimkait Thomas , Böni Jürg , Kouyos Roger D. , Günthard Huldrych F. , Trkola Alexandra ,   the Swiss HIV Cohort Study
Published: May 2018

Understanding pathways that promote HIV-1 broadly neutralizing antibody (bnAb) induction is crucial to advance bnAb-based vaccines. We recently demarcated host, viral, and disease parameters associated with bnAb development in a large HIV-1 cohort screen. By establishing comprehensive antibody signatures based on IgG1, IgG2, and IgG3 activity to 13 HIV-1 antigens in 4,281 individuals in the same cohort, we now show that the same four parameters that are significantly linked with neutralization breadth, namely viral load, infection length, viral diversity, and ethnicity, also strongly influence HIV-1–binding antibody responses. However, the effects proved selective, shaping binding antibody responses in an antigen and IgG subclass–dependent manner. IgG response landscapes in bnAb inducers indicated a differentially regulated, IgG1-driven HIV-1 antigen response, and IgG1 binding of the BG505 SOSIP trimer proved the best predictor of HIV-1 neutralization breadth in plasma. Our findings emphasize the need to unravel immune modulators that underlie the differentially regulated IgG response in bnAb inducers to guide vaccine development.
The high-affinity calcium sensor synaptotagmin-7 serves multiple roles in regulated exocytosis
Authors: MacDougall Daniel D. , Lin Zesen , Chon Nara L. , Jackman Skyler L. , Lin Hai , Knight Jefferson D. , Anantharam Arun
Published: May 2018

Synaptotagmin (Syt) proteins comprise a 17-member family, many of which trigger exocytosis in response to calcium. Historically, most studies have focused on the isoform Syt-1, which serves as the primary calcium sensor in synchronous neurotransmitter release. Recently, Syt-7 has become a topic of broad interest because of its extreme calcium sensitivity and diversity of roles in a wide range of cell types. Here, we review the known and emerging roles of Syt-7 in various contexts and stress the importance of its actions. Unique functions of Syt-7 are discussed in light of recent imaging, electrophysiological, and computational studies. Particular emphasis is placed on Syt-7–dependent regulation of synaptic transmission and neuroendocrine cell secretion. Finally, based on biochemical and structural data, we propose a mechanism to link Syt-7’s role in membrane fusion with its role in subsequent fusion pore expansion via strong calcium-dependent phospholipid binding.
Effects Sprayed Solution of Salicylic Acid to Prevent of Wilt Disease Caused by Fussarium oxysporium
Authors: Yousif Dina. Y. M.
Published: May 2018

The current search aimed to detective the effect of sprayed solution of salicylic acid on plant and leaves of sweet green pepper (Capsicum annuum) for control the pathogen Fussarium oxysporium compering with control plant and leaves. Results indicated that, the spray of salicylic acid at concentration 0.5 g/L is effecting the fungal infection through prevent transport fungus F. oxysporum to the neighboring green pepper plant. The number of dead green pepper plant after sprayed with solution of salicylic acid and only water they were (4, 6, and 3) (8, 9, and 10) respectively. While the experimental infection of green pepper leaves after inoculated the fungus as local spot by scorching small spots of these leaves with the aid of hot nail. These spots were then exposed to the 0.5 g/L aqueous solution salicylic acid before and after the inoculation of the fungus. The spray of salicylic acid before 24 and 48 hour prevent the development of disease and make a good protection of the mention leaves from infection with this fungus, the diameter of leaves lesion (1,1.5 cm) respectively. while the ability of fungus to grow after 24 and 48 hour from salicylic acid treatment was markedly reduce as compared with control, such treatment show slow growth of pathogen infect.
American Naval History: A Very Short Introduction
Authors: Symonds Craig L.
Published: May 2018

American Naval History: A Very Short Introduction charts the history of the United States Navy from its birth during the American Revolution, through its emergence as a global power amid the world wars of the twentieth century, and to its current role as a superpower in the twenty-first century. It highlights iconic moments of great drama pivotal to the nation’s fortunes: John Paul Jones’ attacks on the British during the Revolution, the Barbary Wars, and the arduous conquest of Iwo Jima. It also illuminates the technological, institutional, and functional changes of the U.S. Navy and captures its evolving culture and the debates between policymakers about what role the institution should play in world affairs.
Outcomes of Acellular Dermal Matrix for Immediate Tissue Expander Reconstruction with Radiotherapy: A Retrospective Cohort Study
Authors: Craig Elizabeth S , Clemens Mark W , Koshy John C , Wren James , Hong Zhang , Butler Charles E , Garvey Patrick B , Selber Jesse C , Kronowitz Steven J
Published: May 2018

Background

Despite increasing literature support for the use of acellular dermal matrix (ADM) in expander-based breast reconstruction, the effect of ADM on clinical outcomes in the presence of post-mastectomy radiation therapy (PMRT) has not been well described.

Objectives

To analyze the impact ADM plays on clinical outcomes on immediate tissue expander (ITE) reconstruction undergoing PMRT.

Methods

We retrospectively reviewed patients who underwent ITE breast reconstruction from 2004 to 2014 at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Patients were categorized into four cohorts: ADM, ADM with PMRT, non-ADM, and non-ADM with PMRT. Outcomes and complications were compared among cohorts.

Results

Over 10 years, 957 patients underwent ITE reconstruction (683 non-ADM, 113 non-ADM with PMRT, 486 ADM, and 88 ADM with PMRT) with 1370 reconstructions. Overall complication rates for the ADM and non-ADM cohorts were 39.0% and 16.7%, respectively (P < 0.001). Within both cohorts, mastectomy skin flap necrosis (MSFN) was the most common complication, followed by infection. ADM use was associated with a significantly higher rate of infections and seromas in both radiated and non-radiated groups; however, when comparing radiated cohorts, the incidence of explantation was significantly lower with the use of ADM.

Conclusions

The decision to use ADM for expander-based breast reconstruction should be performed with caution, given higher overall rates of complications, including infections and seromas. There may, however, be a role for ADM in cases requiring PMRT, as the overall incidence of implant failure is lower than non-ADM cases.

Level of Evidence: 3
Pathway-structured predictive modeling for multi-level drug response in multiple myeloma
Authors: Zhang Xinyan , Li Bingzong , Han Huiying , Song Sha , Xu Hongxia , Yi Zixuan , Hong Yating , Zhuang Wenzhuo , Yi Nengjun
Published: May 2018

Motivation

Molecular analyses suggest that myeloma is composed of distinct sub-types that have different molecular pathologies and various response rates to certain treatments. Drug responses in multiple myeloma (MM) are usually recorded as a multi-level ordinal outcome. One of the goals of drug response studies is to predict which response category any patients belong to with high probability based on their clinical and molecular features. However, as most of genes have small effects, gene-based models may provide limited predictive accuracy. In that case, methods for predicting multi-level ordinal drug responses by incorporating biological pathways are desired but have not been developed yet.

Results

We propose a pathway-structured method for predicting multi-level ordinal responses using a two-stage approach. We first develop hierarchical ordinal logistic models and an efficient quasi-Newton algorithm for jointly analyzing numerous correlated variables. Our two-stage approach first obtains the linear predictor (called the pathway score) for each pathway by fitting all predictors within each pathway using the hierarchical ordinal logistic approach, and then combines the pathway scores as new predictors to build a predictive model. We applied the proposed method to two publicly available datasets for predicting multi-level ordinal drug responses in MM using large-scale gene expression data and pathway information. Our results show that our approach not only significantly improved the predictive performance compared with the corresponding gene-based model but also allowed us to identify biologically relevant pathways.

Availability and implementation

The proposed approach has been implemented in our R package BhGLM, which is freely available from the public GitHub repository https://github.com/abbyyan3/BhGLM.
Temporally dependent accelerated failure time model for capturing the impact of events that alter survival in disease mapping
Authors: Carroll Rachel , Lawson Andrew B , Zhao Shanshan
Published: May 2018

The introduction of spatial and temporal frailty parameters in survival models furnishes a way to represent unmeasured confounding in the outcome of interest. Using a Bayesian accelerated failure time model, we are able to flexibly explore a wide range of spatial and temporal options for structuring frailties as well as examine the benefits of using these different structures in certain settings. A setting of particular interest for this work involved using temporal frailties to capture the impact of events of interest on breast cancer survival. Our results suggest that it is important to include these temporal frailties when there is a true temporal structure to the outcome and including them when a true temporal structure is absent does not sacrifice model fit. Additionally, the frailties are able to correctly recover the truth imposed on simulated data without affecting the fixed effect estimates. In the case study involving Louisiana breast cancer-specific mortality, the temporal frailty played an important role in representing the unmeasured confounding related to improvements in knowledge, education, and disease screenings as well as the impacts of Hurricane Katrina and the passing of the Affordable Care Act. In conclusion, the incorporation of temporal, in addition to spatial, frailties in survival analysis can lead to better fitting models and improved inference by representing both spatially and temporally varying unmeasured risk factors and confounding that could impact survival. Specifically, we successfully estimated changes in survival around the time of events of interest.
The origin of filamentary star forming clouds in magnetized galaxies
Authors: Körtgen Bastian , Banerjee Robi , Pudritz Ralph E , Schmidt Wolfram
Published: May 2018

Observations show that galaxies and their interstellar media are pervaded by strong magnetic fields with energies in the diffuse component being at least comparable to the thermal and even as large or larger than the turbulent energy. Such strong magnetic fields prevent the formation of stars because patches of the interstellar medium are magnetically subcritical. Here we present the results from global numerical simulations of strongly magnetized and self-gravitating galactic discs, which show that the buoyancy of the magnetic field due to the Parker instability leads at first to the formation of giant filamentary regions. These filamentary structures become gravitationally unstable and fragment into ${\sim }10^5 \,\mathrm{M}_{\odot }$ clouds that attract kpc long coherent filamentary flows that build them into giant molecular clouds (GMCs). Our results thus provide a solution to the long-standing problem of how the transition from sub- to supercritical regions in the interstellar medium proceeds.
Cesare Borgia
Authors: Fletcher Stella
Published: May 2018

Cesare Borgia (b. 1475–d. 1507) came to prominence when his father, Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, was elected Pope Alexander VI in 1492. A year later Alexander raised the teenage Cesare to the cardinalate, only for the young man to renounce his clerical career in 1498 and devote himself to the military unification of the Papal States. This meant playing off the competing interests of France and Spain in the early phases of the Italian Wars, in the course of which Cesare gained a French bride and a French title, duke of Valentinois (hence “Valentino” in Italian). Even as a cleric his name was linked with the murder of his brother Juan, duke of Gandia, in 1497; as a soldier and duke of the Romagna he gained a reputation for strong and ruthless leadership. The vicars who generally ruled their portions of the Papal States without interference from Rome were picked off one by one, until many of them and their fellow condottieri plotted against Cesare at Magione and were efficiently captured and killed by him in a coup at Senigallia (Sinigaglia), an episode that particularly impressed the Florentine envoy Niccolò Machiavelli. A few months later, in August 1503, Fortune’s wheel turned when Pope Alexander died and Cesare found himself at the mercy of his numerous enemies. The final portion of his life was spent fighting for his brother-in-law the king of Navarre, dying as violently as he had lived. Such a varied career means that Cesare can be found in a particularly wide variety of Reference Works. The drama of his life means that Biographies of him tend to be aimed at the general market. The serious student would be well advised to get the measure of these books and then set them aside, relying instead on Primary Sources and the assessments of the scholars whose works are featured here under the heading of Contexts. Some detailed material is available via Journals, but Collections of Papers are a mixed bag, ranging from academic conference proceedings to the most superficial of exhibition catalogues. Students looking for essay or dissertation material could mine all these sources in order to assess Cesare’s military significance. An alternative would be to focus on his reputation as Machiavelli’s Muse, a theme for which a good balance of primary and secondary sources is available. The same could even be said for the literary afterlife of Cesare and his closest relatives, though tutors might take some convincing of the academic rigor involved in tracing his progress From Fact to Fiction.
Musician, Wrestling (1935–1946)
Authors: Schiff David
Published: May 2018

After his return from Paris, Carter embarked on a composing career, writing a variety of pieces, most of which he soon discarded. Carter’s remaining early works (“pre-Carter”) reflect the opposed influences of Walter Piston (objectivity, craftsmanship) and the poet Hart Crane (experimentation, rebellion). These contravening tendencies appear in the short choral works of the period, most of them written for college choruses, and more ambitious works like the score for the ballet, Pocahontas, and the Symphony no. 1. Balancing craft and expression proved difficult and Carter was often dismayed to find that works which he had intended to be accessible to performers or audiences were deemed too difficult. The Piano Sonata, completed in 1946, finally showed that Carter could bring together the demands of formal clarity and emotional intensity in a personal way and on a large scale.
Multi-vehicle Accidents
Authors: Schiff David
Published: May 2018

In the 1990s Carter produced his two longest works: Symphonia: sum fluxae pretium spei; and the one-act opera What Next? to a libretto by Paul Griffiths. The action of the opera begins with a car crash from which its six characters slowly emerge. The Symphonia similarly grew from three independent commissions and its movements have been performed both independently and as a triptych. The “accidental” nature of both works announces Carter’s late life willingness to compose in a more casual, informal manner, even on a large scale.
Carter vs. Poets (Round 2)
Authors: Schiff David
Published: May 2018

Alongside the lucid, transparent instrumental works of his last years, Carter composed seven works for voice and ensemble that set poetry by the founding generation of American literary modernism: William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, Marianne Moore, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot and e.e. cummings. Though contemporaries, these poets differed widely in their aesthetic and political stances. Carter’s settings connect with each of them in different ways. Some of these works revive the darker, more troubling explorations of Carter’s middle years. Taken as a whole though, they can be heard as a legacy project, a monument to and critique of the aesthetic ideas Carter first encountered in his teens.
Scattering Seeds in Las Orquideas
Authors: Rae-Espinoza Heather
Published: May 2018

Globalization and mobility reconfigure families with historical continuities and modern innovations. In Guayaquil, Ecuador, parental emigration reveals the impact of historical rural-to-urban and international migration on current parental ethnotheories. This chapter discusses life in this global city through the description of a focal family that stays, the Mendozas. Their neighborhood, Las Orquideas, is a microcosm of family structure variations, egregious class disparity, the intransigence of aspirations, and the complexity of urban life. These factors influence the decisions to migrate and to stay that dually redefine families in Guayaquil. As parents emigrated and children stayed, the experience of dispersing and maintaining ties led to different developmental consequences. These qualitative representations encourage analyses of families in their kin networks, neighborhoods, and dynamic sociocultural settings while also building systematic connections between the cases for understanding parenting at a distance.
Unlimited Replays
Authors: Gibbons William
Published: May 2018

This book explores the intersections of values and meanings in two types of replay: where video games meet classical music, and vice versa. From the bleeps and bloops of 1980s arcades to the world’s most prestigious concert halls, classical music and video games have a long history together. Medieval chant, classical symphonies, postminimalist film scores, and everything in between fill the soundtracks of many video games, while world-renowned orchestras frequently perform concerts of game music to sold-out audiences. Yet combining video games and classical music also presents a challenge to traditional cultural values around these media products. Classical music is frequently understood as high art, insulated from the whims of popular culture; video games, by contrast, are often regarded as pure entertainment, fundamentally incapable of crossing over into art. By delving into the shifting and often contradictory cultural meanings that emerge when classical music meets video games, Unlimited Replays offers a new perspective on the possibilities and challenges of art in contemporary society.
Remixed Metaphors
Authors: Gibbons William
Published: May 2018

This chapter investigates games in which classical music is remixed with popular styles, a juxtaposition that challenges traditional concepts of highbrow and lowbrow musical styles. The chapter provides readings of several games including the arcade classic Gyruss, the indie game Fez, the downloadable music game Boom Boom Rocket, and the bizarre shooter series Parodius, which has been released only in Japan. In a discussion of the concept of “carnival” developed by the cultural theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, the chapter explores how games can create spaces in which even the most serious of classical works can become humorous or even surreal.
Love in Thousand Monstrous Forms
Authors: Gibbons William
Published: May 2018

Borrowing Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the grotesque, this chapter explores how the use of remixed classical works contributes to the game Catherine’s pervasive focus on opposing dualities. The chapter describes in detail how, for example, music comments on the real world and horrific dreamworld experienced within the game by the main character, Vincent, who is in the midst of a major life crisis. It explores how the careful selection of musical works in Catherine, along with the irreconcilable combination of high and low arts, mirrors dualistic structures found throughout the game, from the mixing of unlikely gameplay genres to its narrative details.
National and Historical Variations in Innovation Performance
Authors: Chiu Chi-yue , Kwan Letty Y.-Y.
Published: May 2018

Innovation performance differs across nations. Within the same nation, innovation performance also varies across time. In the first part of this chapter, we discuss some cultural, political, and institutional factors that explain historical variations in a country’s innovation performance. In the second part of this chapter, using the multinational data from the Global Innovation Index (GII), we focus on the extent to which people in a country rely on financial institutions to mitigate risks in daily life as a proximal predictor of innovation performance at the national level. We argue that the tendency to rely on formal institutions to mitigate risks in everyday life reflects the level of institutional trust, which is a factor that contributes to both cross-national and historical variations in innovation performance. We further argue that institutional trust plays a particularly important role in promoting innovation in countries that lack strong institutional support for innovation.
Cultural Differences in Creative Professional Domains
Authors: Glăveanu Vlad Petre , Lubart Todd
Published: May 2018

This chapter offers a new conceptualization of culture, focusing on domains of professional activity. Culture is understood as a dynamic system integrating material, symbolic, and social elements and describing the context of human action. From this perspective, culture exists not only between nations but also within nations, at the level of different groups and communities. Professional groups are cultural units, which bring together people who share a number of norms and values, work within a given set of material constraints, and co-construct a common identity. Artists, scientists, and designers represent distinctive professional groups associated with recognized forms of creative activity. Research is presented concerning (a) the factors involved in creative expression in art, science, and design, and (b) the creative processes specific for different stages of creative work within each of these domains. The findings are interpreted in terms of cultural and contextual influences.
Innovation in Cultural and Creative Industries
Authors: Liou Shyhnan , Yang Chia Han
Published: May 2018

This chapter proposes a dual-mechanism model of innovation to understand the development of cultural and creative industries (CCIs) by bringing insights from culture and creativity research. First, we introduce the development and evolution of various countries’ CCIs, together with the challenges they currently encounter for future development. Second, drawing upon frontier research on culture and creativity and successful cases of CCIs, we introduce a dual-mechanism framework that pertains to the processes underlying the reciprocal relationship between culture and creativity and multicultural convergence to gain a more nuanced understanding of how CCIs develop. Lastly, we derive from this framework major propositions for overcoming the challenges faced by CCIs, and we propose future directions for further developments. This chapter demonstrates promising ways of applying culture and creativity research to industries.
Time To Be Innovative, Hong Kong
Authors: Dowejko Marta K. , Au Kevin , Xiao Yingzhao
Published: May 2018

Based on the general argument that culture plays a key role in linking creativity to innovation, this chapter provides a cultural explanation toward the innovation paradox in Hong Kong—high in creativity but low in innovation. Specifically, we explore how time orientation, as a less explored cultural dimension, could affect Hong Kong’s social norms and collective behaviors in translating creative potentials into viable innovations for business. Through an in-depth indigenous study on its entrepreneurial activities and ecosystem, we explicate the consequences of time orientation on the situation of crouching innovation in Hong Kong. This chapter concludes with suggestions to turn the vicious cycle of innovation into a virtuous cycle by igniting the self-propelling innovation process in the society.
How Would a Benevolent Ruler Combat a Recession?
Authors: Seidman Laurence
Published: May 2018

Before the book turns to stimulus without debt for our actual institutions, this chapter sets the stage by considering how a benevolent ruler with complete power, who takes the place of the Federal Reserve, Congress, and the Treasury, could combat a recession without increasing government debt. The policy that is implemented by a benevolent ruler will serve as useful guide for designing a stimulus without debt policy that is implemented by the Federal Reserve, Congress, and the Treasury. In response to a recession, to increase aggregate demand for goods and services, the ruler deposits a specific amount of paper notes in the bank account of each household. But how does the benevolent ruler obtain the paper notes? Instead of borrowing notes from the public, the ruler orders the printing of the notes, thereby stimulating demand for goods and services without incurring any government debt.
What about Other Kinds of Fiscal Stimulus?
Authors: Seidman Laurence
Published: May 2018

This chapter considers other fiscal stimulus programs that might be included with tax rebates in a fiscal stimulus package. The chapter begins with several fiscal stimulus programs that are recommended for inclusion. Then the chapter examines several other fiscal stimulus programs and explains why they are not recommended. Next it reviews and comments on components of the fiscal stimulus enacted in early 2009 and implemented in 2009 and 2010—the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The chapter explains a common mistake made by many economists that leads them to multiplier estimates of fiscal stimulus programs that are too low. Finally, the chapter reports on and evaluates several empirical studies of fiscal stimulus programs utilized in the Great Recession.
Can Stimulus without Debt Be Used by Other Countries?
Authors: Seidman Laurence
Published: May 2018

Stimulus without debt for any economically advanced country with its own central bank is the same as for the United States. In the eurozone there is one central bank, the European Central Bank (ECB), but many member countries, each with its own national government and legislature for setting government spending, tax rates, and fiscal stimulus. This chapter proposes that under a stimulus-without-debt plan for the eurozone, the ECB would use a formula to determine the transfer it would give to the treasury of each national government in a recession, just as the US Congress has used a formula to determine the federal transfer it gives to the treasury of each state government in a recession and also for nonrecession programs.