bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Rickettsiosen: Der Hautbefund führt oft zur Diagnose – Eine Übersicht
Authors: Fischer Marcellus
Published: December 2018

In Mitteleuropa haben durch Rickettsien verursachte epidemische Fleckfiebererkrankungen, die noch bis in den zweiten Weltkrieg hinein durch ihre hohe Letalität eine Bedrohung darstellten, heute glücklicherweise ihre Bedeutung verloren. Dennoch werden Rickettsiosen in der Tropen‐ und Reisemedizin in Form des afrikanischen Zeckenstichfiebers bei erkrankten Reiserückkehrern nach einem Safariaufenthalt im südlichen Afrika zunehmend diagnostiziert.

Diese durch Rickettsia africae verursachte Infektionskrankheit (African tick bite fever) geht mit charakteristischen Hautbefunden wie Eschar (tache noir) und Exanthem einher. Ähnliche Befunde finden sich auch beim durch Rickettsia conorii verursachten Mittelmeerfleckfieber (Mediterranean spotted fever). Ein Exanthem ohne Eschar mit deutlich verstärkter allgemeiner Symptomik ist kennzeichnend für das amerikanische Felsengebirgsfieber (Rocky Mountain spotted fever), das durch Rickettsia rickettsii hervorgerufen wird.

Ziel dieses CME‐Beitrages ist es, Dermatologen mit dem Krankheitsspektrum der wichtigsten humanpathogenen Rickettsiosen, ihrer Epidemiologie, Übertragung, Klinik, Diagnostik und Therapie vertraut zu machen. Das Erkennen der charakteristischen Hautbefunde und deren richtige Zuordnung ermöglichen oft eine frühzeitige Diagnose. Bei rechtzeitigem Therapiebeginn ist meist eine folgenlose Ausheilung zu erzielen.
Genetic divergence of Platycerus hongwonpyoi (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) in South Korea
Authors: Zhu Xue‐Jiao , Jang Tae‐Woong , Kim Jong‐Kuk , Kubota Kôhei
Published: December 2018

We examined the genetic divergence of Platycerus hongwonpyoi Imura & Choe, 1989 in South Korea using the nuclear wingless (Wg) gene, internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene. We found no variation in Wg or ITS. Based on COI, P. hongwonpyoi was split into four well defined and one weakly supported clades, which were inferred to have diverged 2.11–1.33 Ma. The Platycerus hongwonpyoi population size seems to have decreased during the past several tens of thousands of years. The divergence times of major clades of P. hongwonpyoi were comparable with those involved in the speciation of certain Japanese species. Frequent overlapping of different clades at the same sites suggests the occurrence of secondary gene flow following differentiation in South Korea. In conclusion, the genus Platycerus underwent strikingly different divergence patterns in South Korea compared with Japan according to the disparate topographies of these two geographical areas.
Exosomes in chronic inflammatory skin diseases and skin tumors
Authors: Wang Wen‐Ming , Wu Chao , Jin Hong‐Zhong
Published: December 2018

Exosomes are membrane vesicles of endocytic origin that can mediate communication between cells and the transport of cellular components such as microRNAs, mRNAs, proteins and DNA. Recently, exosomes have been under investigation for their significant roles in both healthy physiology and disease states. Herein, we review the role of exosomes in chronic inflammatory skin diseases and skin tumors, especially focusing on systemic lupus erythematosus, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, bullous pemphigoid and melanoma. Moreover, we emphasize the involvement of changes in exosome cargo in the regulation of these diseases.
A social recommendation system for academic collaboration in undergraduate research
Authors: Liu Yang , Yang Chen , Ma Jian , Xu Wei , Hua Zhongsheng
Published: December 2018

Academic collaboration plays an important role in undergraduate research. Current methods rely on offline social contacts for undergraduate students to collaborate with academic staff members in universities and research institutions. In big data era, it is difficult for undergraduate students to find suitable research project opportunities and supervisors to work with. This paper proposes a social recommendation system for undergraduate students to find research project opportunities and work with research project teams on an academic collaboration network. The proposed recommendation method integrates relevance, connectivity, and quality modules, where profiles of undergraduates are constructed with their self‐claimed information, research activities (e.g., studying and reading research publications and reading research projects), and social connections in the academic collaboration network. Suitable research projects are recommended based on the undergraduates' profiles. Experiments are conducted, and the results have shown that the proposed social recommendation system can facilitate undergraduates' selection of research projects.
WRITING BEYOND TIME: THE DURABILITY OF HISTORICAL TEXTS
Authors: AURELL JAUME
Published: December 2018

When we think in terms of the durability of historical texts, some works instantly come to mind: Herodotus's, Thucydides's, and Polybius's war narratives, Plutarch's comparative biographies, Eusebius's ecclesiastical history, Augustine's City of God, Jean Froissart's chronicles, Francesco Guicciardini's history of Florence, Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Jules Michelet's History of France, Leopold von Ranke's History of the Reformation, Jacob Burckhardt's The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Johan Huizinga's The Waning of the Middle Ages, Fernand Braudel's Mediterranean, and Edward Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class, among others. Historians instantly perceive them as durable texts, part of a canon of history and historiography. Surrounded as we are by the exaltation of innovation over tradition, and assuming the challenging concept of “writing as historical practice” proposed by the editor of this issue, In this article I examine the conditions that might be considered necessary for historical writing to achieve durability, propose what conditions of creation and reception enabled this longevity, justify why these and other historical texts have the potential for durability, and discuss what practical lessons we might obtain from this inquiry. I begin by making some distinctions among the three related concepts of durability, the classic, and the canon, and try to establish the specific conditions of the durability of historical texts, focusing on the effect of contemporaneity and the connections between the concepts of durability and the practical past.
HISTORY AS FORM, WITH SIMMEL IN TOW
Authors: HUNT NANCY ROSE
Published: December 2018

This essay is an engagement with forms, objects, and the nature of sly poetics in historical practice. It wonders about how historians have been practicing and theorizing craft at a time when postcolonial politics are urging for stronger attention to the vernacular, the archival, the affective, and the aesthetic. Offering a generous detour through a little‐known version of Georg Simmel, then driving idealist ideas about history and creativity, this essay draws attention to some parallel practices emerging in Global South terrains. It uses three late and refractory Simmel essays on history and form as a prism through which to consider generative concepts, fragmentary and aesthetic methods, and historical sensibilities. While history as form is an enduring, vital theme, aesthetic theorizing is inciting new experiments with archival surfaces, memory work, aesthetic learning, and historical assemblages. Formal attentiveness sharpens critique in addressing historical, contemporary, and archival problems. Simmel may expand our sensory range, our openness to subjectivity and égo‐histoire, tonality and mood, unknotting the interpretive impasse of much fashionable work in today's humanities: with its too tight pairing of the affective and the material.
TALK! AS HISTORICAL PRACTICE
Authors: KATES JOSHUA
Published: December 2018

“Talk! as Historical Practice” proposes a conception of our insertion into history, and thus the practice of historiography, by way of denying the existence of language as commonly understood: as a pregiven repository of words, signifieds, signifiers, and/or grammars regulative of communication and understanding. (To distinguish this more radical, discourse‐based conception, in part drawn from Donald Davidson's writings, from those of French discourse theory, it employs the neologism “talk!.”) In addition to sketching a version of talk!, this paper argues for its centrality for those writing history. Talk!, for one, gives a vantage point on the past and its relation to the rest of temporality, alternative to that held in common by two leading contemporary theorists, otherwise deeply opposed: Frank Ankersmit and Ethan Kleinberg. Second, it makes available new possibilities for historical practice, as here illustrated by a persusal of Henry Adams's The Education of Henry Adams, and some of his other late works. Adams's autobiography enshrines an externalist, talk!‐based view of his own past utterances and experiences; hence, he writes of himself only in the third person, as what he calls “the manikin.” In this instance and others, this approach lets Adams craft a unique kind of hyperbole, through which he presents a version of history as the medium of everything that happens and all who exist, within a modernity broken into ever more rapidly occurring epochs. Talk!, as here construed, ultimately questions modernity and all other periods and epochs, descending from “big picture” history. Adams's template, I thus argue in conclusion, may serve as a limit case for many more recent viewpoints.
IL‐37 alleviates house dust mite‐induced chronic allergic asthma by targeting TSLP through the NF‐κB and ERK1/2 signaling pathways
Authors: Meng Ping , Chen Zhuang‐Gui , Zhang Tian‐Tuo , Liang Zhuo‐Zheng , Zou Xiao‐Ling , Yang Hai‐Ling , Li Hong‐Tao
Published: December 2018

Interleukin (IL)‐37 has been described as a negative regulator of immune responses and is critical for asthma pathogenesis, but the mechanisms behind the protective role of IL‐37 against allergic asthma are less well understood. We show here that IL‐37 administered intranasally inhibited house dust mite (HDM)‐induced chronic airway eosinophilic inflammation, goblet cell hyperplasia, peribronchial collagen deposition and airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) to methacholine. In contrast to a weakened Th2 response in the lung that was characterized by the downregulation of Th2‐associated cytokines and chemokines in IL‐37‐treated mice, IL‐37 has no effect on relevant markers of systemic Th2 immune including serum immunoglobulins expression and in vitro production of Th2‐associated cytokines by splenocytes on HDM recall. We demonstrated that the production of thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) in the lung tissue was associated with IL‐37. Importantly, compared with IL‐37 alone, TSLP coadministration with IL‐37 restored HDM‐induced airway inflammation and structural alterations, increased AHR to methacholine and promoted Th2‐associated cytokine production. We further found that IL‐37 inhibited the induction of TSLP expression by the main antigen of house dust mite, Der p1, by suppressing NF‐κB and extracellular signal regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) activation in human bronchial epithelial (16‐HBE) cells in vitro. These data highlight the importance of TSLP in IL‐37‐mediated protective role in asthma. IL‐37 might represent a useful innovative and alternative therapy to control TSLP production in the airway.
Efficacy and safety of sacubitril/valsartan compared with olmesartan in Asian patients with essential hypertension: A randomized, double‐blind, 8‐week study
Authors: Huo Yong , Li Weimin , Webb Randy , Zhao Li , Wang Qian , Guo Weinong
Published: December 2018

This study assessed the efficacy and safety of angiotensin receptor neprilysin inhibitor sacubitril/valsartan vs olmesartan in Asian patients with mild‐to‐moderate hypertension. Patients (N = 1438; mean age, 57.7 years) with mild‐to‐moderate hypertension were randomized to receive once daily administration of sacubitril/valsartan 200 mg (n = 479), sacubitril/valsartan 400 mg (n = 473), or olmesartan 20 mg (n = 486) for 8 weeks. The primary endpoint was reduction in mean sitting systolic blood pressure (msSBP) from baseline with sacubitril/valsartan 200 mg vs olmesartan 20 mg at Week 8. Secondary endpoints included msSBP reduction with sacubitril/valsartan 400 mg, and reductions in clinic and ambulatory BP and pulse pressure (PP) vs olmesartan. In addition, changes in msBP from baseline in the Chinese subpopulation, elderly (≥65 years), and in patients with isolated systolic hypertension (ISH) were assessed. Sacubitril/valsartan 200 mg provided a significantly greater reduction in msSBP than olmesartan 20 mg at Week 8 (between‐treatment difference: −2.33 mm Hg [95% confidence interval (CI) −4.00 to −0.66 mm Hg], P < 0.05 for non‐inferiority and superiority). Greater reductions in msSBP were also observed with sacubitril/valsartan 400 mg vs olmesartan 20 mg (−3.52 [−5.19 to −1.84 mm Hg], P < 0.001 for superiority). Similarly, greater reductions in msBP were observed in the Chinese subpopulation, in elderly patients, and those with ISH. In addition, both doses of sacubitril/valsartan provided significantly greater reductions from baseline in nighttime mean ambulatory BP vs olmesartan. Treatment with sacubitril/valsartan 200 or 400 mg once daily is effective and provided superior BP reduction than olmesartan 20 mg in Asian patients with mild‐to‐moderate hypertension and is generally safe and well tolerated.
The Functions of Integration and Confrontation in Internal Dialogues
Authors: Puchalska‐Wasyl Małgorzata M.
Published: December 2018

While integrative and confrontational internal dialogues (IDs) are often treated as opposing and numerous positive functions are ascribed to the former, this paper assumes that integration and confrontation are not mutually exclusive but independent processes. When exploring IDs that simulate social relationships and are described by different configurations of integrative and confrontational characteristics, canonical correlation analysis revealed that in competitive dialogue, the strong confrontational attitude of the dialogue's author is accompanied by the weak integrative attitudes of both ID parties. The more the ID is based on a rivalry between the parties, the lower the levels of bond, support, and insight functions are and the higher the level of substitution is. In persuasive dialogue, the confrontational attitude of the dialogue's author is combined with the integrative attitudes of both parties. The more the ID is based on persuasion, the higher the intensity of substitution, insight, bond, support, and self‐guiding is. The findings suggest a synergistic effect of co‐occurring integrative and confrontational attitudes in one ID.
Food intolerance in dogs and cats
Authors: Craig J. M.
Published: December 2018

Food intolerance refers to any abnormal physiological response to a food or food additive believed not to be immunological in nature. Mechanisms include food toxicity, pharmacological reactions, metabolic reactions, dysmotility, dysbiosis, physical effects and non‐specific dietary sensitivity. Food intolerance reactions are variable, typically dose‐dependent, and can occur at any age. Signs may arise at any time, sometimes several hours or days after consumption of the offending food item, and can last for hours or days. Dietary indiscretion and non‐immunological food intolerance are probably more common in dogs than true dietary hypersensitivity. Hopefully, with a greater knowledge of the different pathophysiological mechanisms involved, we will become better at recognising, preventing and managing adverse food reactions.
Negative Binomial Autoregressive Process with Stochastic Intensity
Authors: Gouriéroux Christian , Lu Yang
Published: December 2018

We introduce negative binomial‐60 autoregressive (NBAR) processes with stochastic intensity for (univariate and bivariate) count processes. The univariate NBAR process is defined jointly with an underlying intensity process, which is autoregressive gamma. The resulting count process is Markov, with negative binomial conditional and marginal distributions. The process is then extended to the bivariate case with a Wishart autoregressive matrix intensity process. The NBAR processes are compound autoregressive, which allows for simple stationarity condition and quasi‐closed form nonlinear forecasting formulae at any horizon, as well as a computationally tractable generalized method of moment estimator. The model is applied to a pairwise analysis of weekly occurrence counts of a contagious disease between the greater Paris region and other French regions.
Correlation of plasma coagulation tests and fibrinogenClauss with rotational thromboelastometry parameters and prediction of bleeding in dogs
Authors: Enk Nathalie M. , Kutter Annette P. N. , Kuemmerle‐Fraune Claudia , Sigrist Nadja E.
Published: December 2018

Background

Correlation of plasma fibrinogen concentration (fibrinogenClauss) with rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM) parameters has not been investigated in dogs.

Objectives

To determine the correlation between plasma coagulation tests and fibrinogenClauss with ROTEM parameters and to evaluate their ability to predict bleeding in dogs.

Animals

Ninety‐seven dogs with concurrent determination of fibrinogenClauss and fibrin polymerization test (FIBTEM) analysis.

Methods

Signalment, pretreatment, clinical signs of bleeding, fibrinogenClauss, plasma coagulation test results, hematocrit, platelet count, FIBTEM, extrinsic (EXTEM) and intrinsic (INTEM) activated ROTEM assays were retrieved retrospectively. Correlations between fibrinogenClauss and FIBTEM maximum clot firmness (MCFFIBTEM) and between prothrombin time (PT) or activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) and ROTEM parameters were determined. Dogs were further assigned to groups with or without clinical signs of bleeding. The prognostic significance of significantly different parameters to predict bleeding was evaluated.

Results

FibrinogenClauss showed strong correlation with MCFFIBTEM (r = 0.860, n = 97, P < .001). PT showed strong correlation with EXTEM clotting time (CTEXTEM) (r = 0.839, n = 53, P < .001), and aPTT was strongly correlated with INTEM CT (CTINTEM) (r = 0.664, n = 31, P < .001). Platelet count, PT/aPTT, EXTEM clot formation time (CFTEXTEM), MCFEXTEM, EXTEM maximum clot elasticity (MCEEXTEM), and CTINTEM were significantly different between groups. A CTINTEM >149 seconds was 100% sensitive to detect bleeding.

Conclusions and Clinical Importance

The MCFFIBTEM can be used to evaluate the effect of fibrinogen on hemostasis as an alternative to determination of fibrinogenClauss. In addition, CTEXTEM and CTINTEM are strongly correlated with PT and aPTT, respectively.
Concurrent pituitary and adrenocortical lesions on computed tomography imaging in dogs with spontaneous hypercortisolism
Authors: van Bokhorst Kirsten L. , Kooistra Hans S. , Boroffka Susanne A.E.B. , Galac Sara
Published: December 2018

Background

Spontaneous hypercortisolism or Cushing's syndrome in dogs is either pituitary or adrenal dependent, but concurrent pituitary and adrenal hypercortisolism also has been reported.

Objective

To determine how often concurrent pituitary and adrenal lesions are present in dogs with spontaneous hypercortisolism.

Animals

Two hundred one client‐owned dogs with spontaneous hypercortisolism.

Methods

Retrospective study. Pre‐ and post‐contrast computed tomography (CT) scans of the pituitary and adrenal glands were performed in dogs with confirmed hypercortisolism.

Results

In dogs with dexamethasone‐suppressible hypercortisolism (122/201), 78 dogs (64%) had an enlarged pituitary gland (median pituitary height/brain area [P/B], 0.43×10−2mm−1; range, 0.32‐1.21×10−2mm−1). Two of these 78 dogs had concurrent adrenal lesions. In the remaining dogs (44/122; 36%), the pituitary gland was not enlarged. In the dexamethasone‐resistant group (79/201), the pituitary gland was enlarged in 47 dogs (59%; median P/B, 0.57×10−2; range, 0.32‐1.50×10−2mm−1). Eight of these 47 dogs (17%) had concurrent adrenal lesions. In the remaining 32 dexamethasone‐resistant dogs (41%), the pituitary gland was not enlarged. Among them, 27 dogs had adrenal lesions and suppressed ACTH concentrations consistent with adrenal‐dependent hypercortisolism and 5 dogs were diagnosed with pituitary‐dependent hypercortisolism.

Conclusions and Clinical Importance

Concurrent pituitary and adrenal lesions were present in 5% of all dogs with hypercortisolism and in 10% of the dexamethasone‐resistant dogs. Diagnostic imaging of both pituitary and adrenal glands should be included in the diagnostic evaluation of every dog with spontaneous hypercortisolism to obtain information needed for estimation of prognosis and choosing the optimal treatment.
Cultural Values and Decision to Work of Immigrant Women in Italy
Authors: Scoppa Vincenzo , Stranges Manuela
Published: December 2018

We investigate the role of culture in explaining economic outcomes at individual level analyzing how cultural values from the home country affect the decision to work of immigrants in Italy. Following the ‘epidemiological approach’, we relate the probability of being in the labor force in Italy for immigrant women with the female labor force participation (LFP) in their country of origin, taken as a proxy of cultural heritage and gender role model, finding a strong positive impact. We show that this relationship cannot be attributed to human capital quality or discrimination and it is stronger for immigrants that maintained more intense ties with their origin countries.
Incipient devitrification of impact melt particles at Bosumtwi crater, Ghana: Implications for suevite cooling history and melt dispersion
Authors: Välja Rudolf , Kirsimäe Kalle , Koeberl Christian , Boamah Daniel , Kirs Juho
Published: December 2018

The petrographic, mineralogical, and geochemical compositions of the incipient devitrification products in impact melt fragments found in outer suevites at the Bosumtwi impact crater were studied to reconstruct the postimpact environmental constraints on the suevite formation and to refine its cooling history. Our study shows that devitrified melt/particles contain numerous microlitic crystals and crystal aggregates of different shapes derived from rapid cooling. The matrix of melt/particles in Bosumtwi suevites contains abundant Mg‐hercynite (pleonaste)‐type spinels with sizes rarely exceeding a few micrometers. High nucleation density of microlites suggests rapid crystallization under strong undercooling in the presence of abundant volatiles. Although the Bosumtwi impact event took place in a continental environment, the possible sources for elevated fluid/volatile content could have been the groundwater in the deeply weathered and fractured‐jointed Birimian basement, dewatering of abundant hydrous phases in weathered crust or hydrothermally altered basement, and the shale/phyllite–greywacke lithologies in the target rocks. Our results show that enough volatiles were present in the target rocks at the time of impact for the effective impact melt dispersion observed in Bosumtwi impactites.
Design Considerations for Conducting Large‐Scale Learning Research Using Innovative Technologies in Schools
Authors: Uncapher Melina R.
Published: December 2018

Since the advent of computers, scientists who study how people learn have been utilizing technology to uncover the cognitive and neural mechanisms of learning. Recent technological advances have allowed learning scientists to move their research out of the lab and into the wild, to investigate how students learn in real‐world environments. However, the move from the lab to the classroom involves a significant shift in strategy, requiring consideration of factors varying from the design of mobile (vs. lab‐based) technology to the recruitment of participants, as well as the contextual variables to account for in the less‐controlled environment of schools. Here I discuss the learnings our group has gleaned from a research program involving over a thousand elementary and middle school students in a longitudinal, multi‐year design that involves technologies for assessment and improving learning in schools.
Unexpected bird–feather mite associations revealed by DNA metabarcoding uncovers a dynamic ecoevolutionary scenario
Authors: Doña Jorge , Serrano David , Mironov Sergey , Montesinos‐Navarro Alicia , Jovani Roger
Published: December 2018

The high relevance of host‐switching for the diversification of highly host‐specific symbionts (i.e., those commonly inhabiting a single host species) demands a better understanding of host‐switching dynamics at an ecological scale. Here, we used DNA metabarcoding to study feather mites on passerine birds in Spain, sequencing mtDNA (COI) for 25,540 individual mites (representing 64 species) from 1,130 birds (representing 71 species). Surprisingly, 1,228 (4.8%) mites from 84 (7.4%) birds were found on host species that were not the expected to be a host according to a recent bird–feather mite associations catalog. Unexpected associations were widespread across studied mite (40.6%) and bird (43.7%) species and showed smaller average infrapopulation sizes than typical associations. Unexpected mite species colonized hosts being distantly related to the set of their usual hosts, but with similar body size. The network of bird–mite associations was modular (i.e., some groups of bird and mite species tended to be more associated with each other than with the others), with 75.9% of the unexpected associations appearing within the module of the typical hosts of the mite species. Lastly, 68.4% of mite species found on unexpected hosts showed signatures of genetic differentiation, and we found evidence for reproduction or the potential for it in many of the unexpected associations. Results show host colonization as a common phenomenon even for these putatively highly host‐specific symbionts. Thus, host‐switching by feather mites, rather than a rare phenomenon, appears as a relatively frequent phenomenon shaped by ecological filters such as host morphology and is revealed as a fundamental component for a dynamic coevolutionary and codiversification scenario.
Bioengineering nisin to overcome the nisin resistance protein
Authors: Field Des , Blake Tony , Mathur Harsh , O' Connor Paula M. , Cotter Paul D. , Paul Ross R. , Hill Colin
Published: December 2018

The emergence and dissemination of antibiotic resistant bacteria is a major medical challenge. Lantibiotics are highly modified bacterially produced antimicrobial peptides that have attracted considerable interest as alternatives or adjuncts to existing antibiotics. Nisin, the most widely studied and commercially exploited lantibiotic, exhibits high efficacy against many pathogens. However, some clinically relevant bacteria express highly specific membrane‐associated nisin resistance proteins. One notable example is the nisin resistance protein that acts by cleaving the peptide bond between ring E and the adjacent serine 29, resulting in a truncated peptide with significantly less activity. We utilised a complete bank of bioengineered nisin (nisin A) producers in which the serine 29 residue has been replaced with every alternative amino acid. The nisin A S29P derivative was found to be as active as nisin A against a variety of bacterial targets but, crucially, exhibited a 20‐fold increase in specific activity against a strain expressing the nisin resistance protein. Another derivative, nisin PV, exhibited similar properties but was much less prone to oxidation. This version of nisin with enhanced resistance to specific resistance mechanisms could prove useful in the fight against antibiotic resistant pathogens.
The partitioning of gross primary production for young Eucalyptus tereticornis trees under experimental warming and altered water availability
Authors: Drake John E. , Tjoelker Mark G. , Aspinwall Michael J. , Reich Peter B. , Pfautsch Sebastian , Barton Craig V. M.
Published: December 2018

The allocation of carbon (C) is an important component of tree physiology that influences growth and ecosystem C storage. Allocation is challenging to measure, and its sensitivity to environmental changes such as warming and altered water availability is uncertain.

We exposed young Eucalyptus tereticornis trees to +3°C warming and elimination of summer precipitation in the field using whole‐tree chambers. We calculated C allocation terms using detailed measurements of growth and continuous whole‐crown CO2 and water exchange measurements.

Trees grew from small saplings to nearly 9 m height during this 15‐month experiment. Warming accelerated growth and leaf area development, and it increased the partitioning of gross primary production (GPP) to aboveground respiration and growth while decreasing partitioning below ground. Eliminating summer precipitation reduced C gain and growth but did not impact GPP partitioning. Trees utilized deep soil water and avoided strongly negative water potentials.

Warming increased growth respiration, but maintenance respiration acclimated homeostatically. The increasing growth in the warmed treatment resulted in higher rates of respiration, even with complete acclimation of maintenance respiration. Warming‐induced stimulations of tree growth likely involve increased C allocation above ground, particularly to leaf area development, whereas reduced water availability may not stimulate allocation to roots.
Counselling for young people and young adults in the voluntary and community sector: An overview of the demographic profile of clients and outcomes
Authors: Duncan Charlie , Rayment Barbara , Kenrick James , Cooper Mick
Published: December 2018

Objectives

To determine the demographic profile of clients accessing voluntary and community sector (VCS) counselling services for young people and young adults, and to undertake the first systematic evaluation of outcomes.

Design

Naturalistic, non‐experimental study design.

Methods

A total of 2,144 clients were recruited from nine services in England. Data on gender, age, ethnicity, number of sessions, problem descriptions, and initial levels of psychological distress were collected from clients. Calculations of reliable and clinically significant change, repeated measures t‐tests, effect size estimates, and moderation analyses were undertaken to determine whether pre–post change, over an average of 5.1 (SD = 5.3) sessions, was significant and which variables predicted outcomes. Levels of service satisfaction were also recorded.

Results

The demographic profile of clients accessing VCS services was distinct to those accessing statutory and school‐based counselling services, with a greater representation of females, ‘older’ clients, and clients from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups. Clients accessing VCS counselling services presented with multiple and complex needs. Statistically significant reductions in psychological distress were observed with effect sizes ranging from .64 to .80. High levels of service satisfaction were expressed by clients.

Conclusions

This study establishes that clinical outcomes in the VCS are comparable to those reported in school‐based and statutory mental health services in the United Kingdom. VCS services were perceived as being highly accessible and appear able to reach marginalized groups who may not be accessing other services.

Practitioner points

VCS services in the United Kingdom may be more accessible to young people from marginalized groups, such as those from BME backgrounds, compared to statutory and school‐based counselling services.

Counselling in VCS services is associated with significant short‐term reductions in psychological distress, at a level comparable with the statutory and educational sectors.

Clients accessing counselling in VCS services report relatively high levels of service satisfaction.
Achieving consensus on the undergraduate curriculum of public health nursing in Turkey
Authors: Kadioglu Hasibe , Albayrak Sevil , Ergun Ayse , Yurt Seher , Gur Kamer , Mert Kader , Erol Saime , Esin Melek Nihal
Published: December 2018

Objective

The aim of this study was to construct a consensus on the undergraduate learning objectives and topics for public health nursing (PHN) in Turkey.

Design

A three‐round e‐mail‐based Delphi study was conducted between May and July 2015 with a national sample.

Sample

Ninety‐one academics from 54 universities were invited as experts to participate by e‐mail. Fifty‐nine academics from 43 universities participated in the study.

Measurements

Data were analyzed by computing the median, quartiles one and three, and the interquartile range for each learning outcome and topic. Consensus was considered as less than the interquartile range of 1.2.

Results

Experts who participated in the study added 70 learning outcomes, eight main topics, and 278 sub‐topics during the first round. Round I generated 170 learning outcomes, 28 main topics, and 385 sub‐topics. At the end of Round II, consensus was reached on 126 learning outcomes, 22 main topics and 168 sub‐topics. At the end of Round III, consensus was achieved for 126 learning outcomes, 22 main topics, and 169 sub‐topics.

Conclusion

The learning outcomes and topics that were decided upon through a consensus process will contribute to the standardization and development of PHN education.
Ethynylpyrene Linked Benzocrown Ethers as Fluorescent Sensors for Metal Ions
Authors: Maeda Hajime , Tanaka Kazuhiro , Aratani Mona , Segi Masahito
Published: December 2018

Substances containing ethynylpyrenes linked to either one or four benzocrown ethers were synthesized, and their absorption and fluorescence spectroscopic responses to metal ions were assessed. Addition of metal perchlorates to solutions of these substances promotes short wavelength shifts in their absorption and fluorescence maxima and increases in their fluorescence intensities. The magnitudes of the fluorescence intensity increases are dependent on the ring size and number of the crown ether and the nature of the metal cation. Association constants for complex formation were calculated using fluorescence intensity versus concentration data. Analysis using Job's plots showed that the substances containing one benzocrown ether moiety form 1:1 complexes with metal ions. Results of experiments employing repeated addition and removal of Mg(ClO4)2 demonstrate that the ON‐OFF fluorescence response can be repeated at least three times. Results of molecular orbital calculations show that complexation with metal ions lowers the energies of both the π and π* levels of the ethynylpyrene moiety and that in some cases the vacant orbital on the metal becomes the LUMO of the complex. An explanation of the spectroscopic changes promoted by metal ions is proposed in terms of electrostatic repulsion and structural regulation.
Does acclimation in cavitation resistance due to mechanical perturbation support the pit area or conduit reinforcement hypotheses in Phaseolus vulgaris?
Authors: Matzner Steven L. , Ronning Natalie , Hawkinson Jonathan , Cummiskey Tara , Buchanan Jackson , Miller Emma , Carlisle Grady
Published: December 2018

Two Phaseolus vulgaris L. cultivars were exposed to reduced water and stem mechanical perturbation treatments (flexing) to determine if acclimation to these treatments induced hydraulic changes, altered cavitation resistance and changed stem mechanical properties. Additionally, this study sought to determine if changes in cavitation resistance would support the pit area or conduit reinforcement hypotheses. Flexing reduced biomass, leaf area, xylem vessel area and hydraulic conductivity. One cultivar had greater measures of stem strength and cavitation resistance. Flexing increased cavitation resistance (P50) but did not increase Young's modulus, rigidity or flexural strength on dried stems. Stem rigidity and basal diameter were correlated with leaf mass. The ratio of conduit wall thickness to span [(t/b)h2] increased under high water and flexing treatments while rigidity decreased for one cultivar exposed to both flexing and lower water suggesting an inability to compensate for two simultaneous stresses. Although P50 was not correlated with measures of mechanical strength, P50 was correlated with vessel diameter, consistent with the pit area hypothesis. This study confirmed that mechanical perturbation can impact xylem structural properties and result in altered plant water flow characteristics and cavitation resistance. Long‐term hydraulic acclimation in these herbaceous annuals was constrained by similar tradeoffs that constrain hydraulic properties across species.
Metabolic and physiological responses of Mediterranean high‐mountain and alpine plants to combined abiotic stresses
Authors: Magaña Ugarte Rosina , Escudero Adrián , Gavilán Rosario G.
Published: December 2018

High‐mountain areas provide excellent opportunities to study the effects of combined abiotic stresses on plant physiology given their variety of steep ecological gradients, low anthropogenic disturbance and remarkable levels of taxonomic diversity. Efficient photoprotective and antioxidant scavenging mechanisms are vital for survival in high‐mountain plants, having its altitudinal and seasonal variations determined by environmental or ontogenetic factors such as the decrease in mean temperatures and water availability. A number of stress indicators have been described in order to rapidly assess plant fitness in high‐mountain environments. For instance, carbon isotope (δ13C) and proline content as drought and temperature stress indicators, because of their link to water‐use efficiency and osmotic adjustment; photosynthetic pigments, related to phenology, nutrient status, light and temperature stress; and non‐structural carbohydrate accumulation in response to mild or brief drought conditions. The present review unveils the wide research opportunities available for the study of adaptive responses in high‐mountain plants via stress indicators, and calls attention to the substantial knowledge gap existing between alpine zones and other mountainous regions, such as Mediterranean high‐mountains. The aim is to grant a more holistic understanding of the physiological mechanisms driving plant life in high altitudes and improve the predictions of the effects of changing environments in these species and across ecological scales.
Empyema: A debilitating condition that warrants further research
Authors: Lee Pyng
Published: December 2018

See related Article
International migration, foreign direct investment, and development stage in developing economies
Authors: Phyo Ei Ei , Goto Hideaki , Kakinaka Makoto
Published: December 2018

The existing empirical results on the relationship between FDI and migration are rather mixed. This study reevaluates, both theoretically and empirically, how inward FDI relates to emigration in developing countries. Our model illustrates that the relationship between inward FDI and emigration flows depends on the development stage of a developing country, that is, there is a positive association between inward FDI and emigration flows for relatively less‐developed countries but a negative association between these two variables for relatively developed countries. We confirm the empirical validity of our model prediction using the panel data of 21 OECD and 51 non‐OECD countries during the period from 2003 to 2012. Our results argue that as economic development proceeds in a developing country, the home effect of inward FDI associated with intensified labor demand would dominate the linkage effect that induces the brain drain problem through enhancing the socioeconomic ties with migrant networks.
The Weight of Ethnic Collectivism: Youth, Identifications, and Boundaries in Post‐conflict Bosnia Herzegovina
Authors: Piacentini Arianna
Published: December 2018

In Bosnia and Herzegovina ethnic collective identities have been manipulated and politicized, becoming fixed labels inferred by kinship and ethno‐religious origins. The war has been the testing ground for a new collective order, which then moved to the next level with the green light of Dayton, and ethnopolitics is widely used to promote ethnonational identification while preventing and challenging a civic, non‐ethnic one. By relying on empirical material collected through semi‐structured interviews conducted in Sarajevo, this work focuses on the ‘sons of war’, the generation born during the 1992–95 conflict, and it explores their modalities of dealing and coping with deep ethnically based socio‐political divisions. The research results show how, although trying to move beyond the boundaries of ethnonational belonging, Bosnian youth sometimes do end up maintaining and going along with a despised status quo by virtue of ‘the weight of ethnic collectivism’ – perceived as unchangeable and without alternatives.
Thomas White on the Metaphysics of Transubstantiation
Authors: Connolly Patrick J.
Published: December 2018

This article explores a previously neglected manuscript essay in which Thomas White offers an account of the metaphysics underpinning transubstantiation. White’s views are of particular interest because his explanation employs a broadly mechanist framework, rather than the hylomorphism traditionally associated with Roman Catholic discussions of the Eucharist. The manuscript helps to shed light on a number of topics of importance to early modern philosophy including the reception of Descartes’s views, the relationship between theology and natural philosophy, and mechanist accounts of identity and individuation.
The Extended Mind: State of the Question
Authors: Gallagher Shaun
Published: December 2018

It has been twenty years since Clark and Chalmers published “The Extended Mind.” In the present article I review the development of the extended mind hypothesis across what some proponents have defined as three theoretical “waves.” From first‐wave extended mind theory, based on the parity principle, to second‐wave complementarity, to the third wave, characterized as an uneasy integration of predictive processing and enactivist dynamics, extended mind theorists have faced and solved a number of problems along the way. The fact that the hypothesis continues to spark debate and to generate both new insights and new objections suggests that it continues to play a productive role in contemporary philosophy of mind.
Characterization of the novel HLA‐DRB1*13:191 allele by sequencing‐based typing
Authors: Elsermans Vincent , Visentin Jonathan , Top Isabelle , Labalette Myriam , Varlet Pauline
Published: December 2018

HLA‐DRB1*13:191 differs from HLA‐DRB1*13:159 by two nucleotide substitutions at codon 86 in exon 2.
Analytical validation of a conventional cardiac troponin I assay for dogs and cats
Authors: Langhorn Rebecca , Yrfelt Jacob D. , Stjernegaard Claus S. , Christiansen Liselotte B. , Olsen Lisbeth H. , Nielsen Lise N.
Published: December 2018

Background

Cardiac troponins are gold‐standard biomarkers of myocardial injury. There is a need for validation of assays with higher availability and lower costs in veterinary medicine.

Objectives

The primary aim of the present study was to perform an analytical validation of the IMMULITE 2000 TnI assay for use in dogs and cats. A secondary aim was to evaluate its agreement with the previously validated and sensitive Siemens ADVIA Centaur TnI‐Ultra assay.

Methods

Intra‐ and inter‐assay variation, detection limits, the linearity under dilution, and a sample addition study (modified spike‐and‐recovery analysis) were investigated to assess analytical performance in 15 canine and 15 feline serum samples. Agreement between the assays was evaluated by correlation and Bland‐Altman analyses including an additional 99 canine serum samples.

Results

Intra‐assay variation of cTnI in canine and feline serum was 3.71% and 4.68%, while inter‐assay variation was 5.88% and 6.54%, respectively. The assay performed with acceptable linearity within a clinically relevant range of serum cTnI concentrations. The sample addition study revealed insufficient recovery in the range of 71.9%‐81.4% for dogs and 62.6%‐75.7% for cats. This was considered to be due to a negative matrix effect. A significant correlation between the assays was found, and the Bland‐Altman analysis showed acceptable agreement for a wide range of concentrations, but revealed a proportional error, with the IMMULITE TnI assay consistently measuring a higher concentration than the Centaur TnI‐Ultra assay. This was relevant only at high serum cTnI concentrations.

Conclusions

The IMMULITE TnI assay is considered acceptable for clinical use in dogs and cats.
Postprandial augmentation index is reduced in adults with prediabetes following continuous and interval exercise training
Authors: Eichner Natalie Z. M. , Gaitán Julian M. , Gilbertson Nicole M. , Khurshid Mahnoor , Weltman Arthur , Malin Steven K.
Published: December 2018

New Findings

What is the central question of this study?

We compared high‐intensity interval versus continuous training on fasting and postprandial arterial stiffness in people with prediabetes.

What is the main finding and its importance?

We show, for the first time, that exercise improves the augmentation index during the postprandial state, but not the fasted state, in adults with prediabetes. However, the fasted augmentation index improved in relationship to exercise dose, as assessed by kilocalories per session. Collectively, these findings suggest that short‐term exercise can improve arterial compliance in adults with prediabetes. Therefore, lifestyle interventions designed to reduce arterial stiffness could have considerable clinical impact.

People with prediabetes have elevated risk for cardiovascular disease, in part, owing to arterial stiffness mediated by low insulin sensitivity. However, the effect the intensity and/or amount (i.e. kilocalories per session) of short‐term exercise training on fasting and postprandial arterial stiffness is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that increased intensity and dose (i.e. amount) of exercise would be correlated with reduced fasting and postprandial arterial stiffness in obese adults with prediabetes. After randomization, 31 adults (age 61.4 ± 8.3 years, body mass index 32.1 ± 5.4 kg m−2) with prediabetes performed supervised continuous (CONT; n = 17; 70% of peak heart rate) or interval (INT; n = 14; 3 min at 50% of peak heart rate and 3 min at 90% of peak heart rate) cycling training for 60 min day−1 over 2 weeks. The amount of exercise was calculated using regression equations derived from oxygen uptake () and heart rate. Arterial stiffness [augmentation index (AI) and cartoid–femoral pulse wave velocity], insulin and glucose were determined during a 180 min 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and analysed by the total area under the curve (tAUC) pre‐ versus post‐training. The simple index of insulin sensitivity, (SIIS)OGTT, was calculated; aerobic fitness (peak ) and body mass were also assessed. Short‐term training had no effect on weight but did improve peak (P = 0.003), glucose tAUC180min (P = 0.01) and insulin sensitivity (P = 0.002), independent of intensity. The CONT and INT exercise significantly reduced AI 2 h postprandial (P = 0.008) and tAUC180min (P = 0.03). Reductions in fasted AI were related to exercise dose (trend: r = −0.37, P = 0.055). Increased peak was linked to reduced fasted (r = −0.47, P = 0.01) and tAUC180min AI (r = −0.39, P = 0.05). Decreased AI tAUC180min was correlated with increased insulin sensitivity (r = −0.50, P = 0.009). Short‐term CONT and INT training reduced postprandial arterial stiffness comparably in adults with prediabetes.