bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Describing Inner Experience?
Authors: Hurlburt Russell , Schwitzgebel Eric
Published: December 2018

A psychologist and a philosopher with opposing viewpoints discuss the extent to which it is possible to report accurately on our own conscious experience, considering both the reliability of introspection in general and the particular self-reported inner experiences of "Melanie," a subject interviewed using the Descriptive Experience Sampling method.

Can conscious experience be described accurately? Can we give reliable accounts of our sensory experiences and pains, our inner speech and imagery, our felt emotions? The question is central not only to our humanistic understanding of who we are but also to the burgeoning scientific field of consciousness studies. The two authors of Describing Inner Experience disagree on the answer: Russell Hurlburt, a psychologist, argues that improved methods of introspective reporting make accurate accounts of inner experience possible; Eric Schwitzgebel, a philosopher, believes that any introspective reporting is inevitably prone to error. In this book the two discuss to what extent it is possible to describe our inner experience accurately.

Hurlburt and Schwitzgebel recruited a subject, "Melanie," to report on her conscious experience using Hurlburt's Descriptive Experience Sampling method (in which the subject is cued by random beeps to describe her conscious experience). The heart of the book is Melanie's accounts, Hurlburt and Schwitzgebel's interviews with her, and their subsequent discussions while studying the transcripts of the interviews. In this way the authors' dispute about the general reliability of introspective reporting is steadily tempered by specific debates about the extent to which Melanie's particular reports are believable. Transcripts and audio files of the interviews will be available on the MIT Press website.

Describing Inner Experience? is not so much a debate as it is a collaboration, with each author seeking to refine his position and to replace partisanship with balanced critical judgment. The result is an illumination of major issues in the study of consciousness—from two sides at once.
Conservation Refugees
Authors: Dowie Mark
Published: December 2018

How native people—from the Miwoks of Yosemite to the Maasai of eastern Africa—have been displaced from their lands in the name of conservation.

Since 1900, more than 108,000 officially protected conservation areas have been established worldwide, largely at the urging of five international conservation organizations. About half of these areas were occupied or regularly used by indigenous peoples. Millions who had been living sustainably on their land for generations were displaced in the interests of conservation. In Conservation Refugees, Mark Dowie tells this story. This is a “good guy vs. good guy” story, Dowie writes; the indigenous peoples' movement and conservation organizations have a vital common goal—to protect biological diversity—and could work effectively and powerfully together to protect the planet and preserve biological diversity. Yet for more than a hundred years, these two forces have been at odds. The result: thousands of unmanageable protected areas and native peoples reduced to poaching and trespassing on their ancestral lands or “assimilated” but permanently indentured on the lowest rungs of the money economy. Dowie begins with the story of Yosemite National Park, which by the turn of the twentieth century established a template for bitter encounters between native peoples and conservation. He then describes the experiences of other groups, ranging from the Ogiek and Maasai of eastern Africa and the Pygmies of Central Africa to the Karen of Thailand and the Adevasis of India. He also discusses such issues as differing definitions of “nature” and “wilderness,” the influence of the “BINGOs” (Big International NGOs, including the Worldwide Fund for Nature, Conservation International, and The Nature Conservancy), the need for Western scientists to respect and honor traditional lifeways, and the need for native peoples to blend their traditional knowledge with the knowledge of modern ecology. When conservationists and native peoples acknowledge the interdependence of biodiversity conservation and cultural survival, Dowie writes, they can together create a new and much more effective paradigm for conservation.
Liberating Voices
Authors: Schuler Douglas
Published: December 2018

A new model for social change, integrating theory and practice, that shows how information and communication can be used to address urgent social and environmental problems collaboratively.

In recent decades we have witnessed the creation of a communication system that promises unparalleled connectedness. And yet the optimistic dreams of Internet-enabled engagement and empowerment have faded in the face of widespread Internet commercialization. In Liberating Voices, Douglas Schuler urges us to unleash our collective creativity—social as well as technological—and develop the communication systems that are truly needed. Inspired by the vision and framework outlined in Christopher Alexander's classic 1977 book, A Pattern Language, Schuler presents a pattern language containing 136 patterns designed to meet these challenges. Using this approach, Schuler proposes a new model of social change that integrates theory and practice by showing how information and communication (whether face-to-face, broadcast, or Internet-based) can be used to address urgent social and environmental problems collaboratively. Each of the patterns that form the pattern language (which was developed collaboratively with nearly 100 contributors) is presented consistently; each describes a problem and its context, a discussion, and a solution. The pattern language begins with the most general patterns (“Theory”) and proceeds to the most specific (“Tactics”). Each pattern is a template for research as well as action and is linked to other patterns, thus forming a single coherent whole. Readers will find Liberating Voices an intriguing and informative catalog of contemporary intellectual, social, and technological innovations, a practical manual for citizen activism, and a compelling manifesto for creating a more intelligent, sustainable, and equitable world.
The Native Mind and the Cultural Construction of Nature
Authors: Atran Scott , Medin Douglas L.
Published: December 2018

An analysis of the cognitive consequences of diminished contact with nature examines the relationship between how people think about the natural world and how they act on it, and how these are affected by cultural differences.

Surveys show that our growing concern over protecting the environment is accompanied by a diminishing sense of human contact with nature. Many people have little commonsense knowledge about nature—are unable, for example, to identify local plants and trees or describe how these plants and animals interact. Researchers report dwindling knowledge of nature even in smaller, nonindustrialized societies. In The Native Mind and the Cultural Construction of Nature, Scott Atran and Douglas Medin trace the cognitive consequences of this loss of knowledge. Drawing on nearly two decades of cross-cultural and developmental research, they examine the relationship between how people think about the natural world and how they act on it and how these are affected by cultural differences.

These studies, which involve a series of targeted comparisons among cultural groups living in the same environment and engaged in the same activities, reveal critical universal aspects of mind as well as equally critical cultural differences. Atran and Medin find that, despite a base of universal processes, the cultural differences in understandings of nature are associated with significant differences in environmental decision making as well as intergroup conflict and stereotyping stemming from these differences. The book includes two intensive case studies, one focusing on agro-forestry among Maya Indians and Spanish speakers in Mexico and Guatemala and the other on resource conflict between Native-American and European-American fishermen in Wisconsin. The Native Mind and the Cultural Construction of Nature offers new perspectives on general theories of human categorization, reasoning, decision making, and cognitive development.

Bradford Books imprint
Pragmatic Neuroethics
Authors: Racine Eric
Published: December 2018

A survey of the emerging field of neuroethics that calls for a multidisciplinary, pragmatic approach for tackling key issues and improving patient care.

Today the measurable health burden of neurological and mental health disorders matches or even surpasses any other cluster of health conditions. At the same time, the clinical applications of recent advances in neuroscience are hardly straightforward. In Pragmatic Neuroethics, Eric Racine argues that the emerging field of neuroethics offers a way to integrate such specialties as neurology, psychiatry, and neurosurgery with the humanities and social sciences, neuroscience research, and related healthcare professions, with the goal of tackling key ethical challenges and improving patient care. Racine provides a survey of the often diverging perspectives within neuroethics, offers a theoretical framework supported by empirical data, and discusses the neuroethical implications of such issues as media coverage of neuroscience innovation and the importance of public concerns and lay opinion; nonmedical use of pharmaceuticals for performance enhancement; and the discord between intuitive notions about consciousness and behavior and the scientific understanding of them.

Racine proposes a pragmatic neuroethics that combines pluralistic approaches, bottom-up research perspectives, and a focus on practical issues (in contrast to other more theoretical and single-discipline approaches to the field). [He discusses ethical issues related to powerful neuroscience insights into the mechanisms underlying moral reasoning, cooperative behavior, and such emotional processes as empathy.] In addition, he outlines a pragmatic framework for neuroethics, based on the philosophy of emergentism, which identifies conditions for the meaningful contribution of neuroscience to ethics, and sketches new directions and strategies for meeting future challenges for neuroscience and society.

Basic Bioethics series
ThermoPoetics
Authors: Gold Barri J.
Published: December 2018

An engaging exploration of the mutually productive interaction of literature and energy science in the Victorian era, as seen in Tennyson, Dickens, Stoker, and others.

In ThermoPoetics, Barri Gold sets out to show us how analogous, intertwined, and mutually productive poetry and physics may be. Charting the simultaneous emergence of the laws of thermodynamics in literature and in physics that began in the 1830s, Gold finds that not only can science influence literature, but literature can influence science, especially in the early stages of intellectual development. Nineteenth-century physics was often conducted in words. And, Gold claims, a poet could be a genius in thermodynamics and a novelist could be a damn good engineer.

Gold's lively readings of works by Alfred Tennyson, Charles Dickens, Herbert Spencer, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, and others offer a decidedly literary introduction to such elements of thermodynamic thought as conservation and dissipation, the linguistic tension between force and energy, the quest for a grand unified theory, strategies for coping within an inexorably entropic universe, and the demonic potential of the thermodynamically savvy individual. Gold shows us that in A Tale of Two Cities, for example, Dickens produces order in spite of the universal drive to entropy; Wilde's Dorian Gray and Stoker's Dracula, on the other hand, reveal the creative potential of chaos.

Victorian literature embraced the language and ideas of energy physics to address the era's concerns about religion, evolution, race, class, empire, gender, and sexuality. Gold argues that these concerns, in turn, shaped the hopes and fears expressed about the new physics.
Crafting the Quantum
Authors: Seth Suman
Published: December 2018

An intellectual and cultural history of the birth of theoretical physics in Germany, focusing on the pedagogy and research of a leader in work on the “older” quantum theory.

Arnold Sommerfeld (1868–1951) was among the most significant contributors to the birth of modern theoretical physics. At the University of Munich, beginning in 1906, he trained two generations of theoretical physicists. Eight of his students (among them Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli, and Hans Bethe) went on to win the Nobel Prize. In Crafting the Quantum, Suman Seth offers the first English-language book-length study of Sommerfeld's work, presenting an intellectual and cultural history of theoretical physics in Germany viewed through the lens of Sommerfeld's research and pedagogy.

Seth examines the practical origins of many of the problems undertaken by Sommerfeld and his school, a number of which carried over from his years of teaching at an engineering school. Some of this research was later applied by his students during World War I to such problems as the stability of aircraft wings and the functioning and directional operation of antennas. Seth describes in detail Sommerfeld's pedagogical practice, including his characteristic amalgamation of research and teaching. He relates the history of the “older” quantum theory and Sommerfeld's engagement with the work of Max Planck and Niels Bohr and compares Sommerfeld's “physics of problems” to Planck's and Bohr's more abstract “physics of principles.” To illuminate the nature of Sommerfeld's work, Seth offers detailed descriptions of the contrasting work of other theorists. Seth's innovative account challenges idealist depictions of the nature of theoretical work in physics, describing not only modes of practice but also the multiple areas of intellectual, political, and social life from which science draws resources and to which it contributes.
Sustainable Urban Metabolism
Authors: Ferrão Paulo , Fernández John E.
Published: December 2018

A unified framework for analyzing urban sustainability in terms of cities' inflows and outflows of matter and energy.

Urbanization and globalization have shaped the last hundred years. These two dominant trends are mutually reinforcing: globalization links countries through the networked communications of urban hubs. The urban population now generates more than eighty percent of global GDP. Cities account for enormous flows of energy and materials—inflows of goods and services and outflows of waste. Thus urban environmental management critically affects global sustainability. In this book, Paulo Ferrão and John Fernández offer a metabolic perspective on urban sustainability, viewing the city as a metabolism, in terms of its exchanges of matter and energy. Their book provides a roadmap to the strategies and tools needed for a scientifically based framework for analyzing and promoting the sustainability of urban systems.

Using the concept of urban metabolism as a unifying framework, Ferrão and Fernandez describe a systems-oriented approach that establishes useful linkages among environmental, economic, social, and technical infrastructure issues. These linkages lead to an integrated information-intensive platform that enables ecologically informed urban planning. After establishing the theoretical background and describing the diversity of contributing disciplines, the authors sample sustainability approaches and tools, offer an extended study of the urban metabolism of Lisbon, and outline the challenges and opportunities in approaching urban sustainability in both developed and developing countries.
Native Listening
Authors: Cutler Anne
Published: December 2018

An argument that the way we listen to speech is shaped by our experience with our native language.

Understanding speech in our native tongue seems natural and effortless; listening to speech in a nonnative language is a different experience. In this book, Anne Cutler argues that listening to speech is a process of native listening because so much of it is exquisitely tailored to the requirements of the native language. Her cross-linguistic study (drawing on experimental work in languages that range from English and Dutch to Chinese and Japanese) documents what is universal and what is language specific in the way we listen to spoken language.

Cutler describes the formidable range of mental tasks we carry out, all at once, with astonishing speed and accuracy, when we listen. These include evaluating probabilities arising from the structure of the native vocabulary, tracking information to locate the boundaries between words, paying attention to the way the words are pronounced, and assessing not only the sounds of speech but prosodic information that spans sequences of sounds. She describes infant speech perception, the consequences of language-specific specialization for listening to other languages, the flexibility and adaptability of listening (to our native languages), and how language-specificity and universality fit together in our language processing system.

Drawing on her four decades of work as a psycholinguist, Cutler documents the recent growth in our knowledge about how spoken-word recognition works and the role of language structure in this process. Her book is a significant contribution to a vibrant and rapidly developing field.
Technologies of Choice?
Authors: Kleine Dorothea
Published: December 2018

A new framework for assessing the role of information and communication technologies in development that draws on Amartya Sen's capabilities approach.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs)—especially the Internet and the mobile phone—have changed the lives of people all over the world. These changes affect not just the affluent populations of income-rich countries but also disadvantaged people in both global North and South, who may use free Internet access in telecenters and public libraries, chat in cybercafes with distant family members, and receive information by text message or email on their mobile phones. Drawing on Amartya Sen's capabilities approach to development—which shifts the focus from economic growth to a more holistic, freedom-based idea of human development—Dorothea Kleine in Technologies of Choice? examines the relationship between ICTs, choice, and development.

Kleine proposes a conceptual framework, the Choice Framework, that can be used to analyze the role of technologies in development processes. She applies the Choice Framework to a case study of microentrepreneurs in a rural community in Chile. Kleine combines ethnographic research at the local level with interviews with national policy makers, to contrast the high ambitions of Chile's pioneering ICT policies with the country's complex social and economic realities. She examines three key policies of Chile's groundbreaking Agenda Digital: public access, digital literacy, and an online procurement system. The policy lesson we can learn from Chile's experience, Kleine concludes, is the necessity of measuring ICT policies against a people-centered understanding of development that has individual and collective choice at its heart.
Discovering the Human Connectome
Authors: Sporns Olaf
Published: December 2018

A pioneer in the field outlines new empirical and computational approaches to mapping the neural connections of the human brain.

Crucial to understanding how the brain works is connectivity, and the centerpiece of brain connectivity is the connectome, a comprehensive description of how neurons and brain regions are connected. In this book, Olaf Sporns surveys current efforts to chart these connections—to map the human connectome. He argues that the nascent field of connectomics has already begun to influence the way many neuroscientists collect, analyze, and think about their data. Moreover, the idea of mapping the connections of the human brain in their entirety has captured the imaginations of researchers across several disciplines including human cognition, brain and mental disorders, and complex systems and networks. Discovering the Human Connectome offers the first comprehensive overview of current empirical and computational approaches in this rapidly developing field.
Evolution in Four Dimensions
Authors: Jablonka Eva , Lamb Marion J. , Zeligowski Anna
Published: December 2018

A pioneering proposal for a pluralistic extension of evolutionary theory, now updated to reflect the most recent research.

This new edition of the widely read Evolution in Four Dimensions has been revised to reflect the spate of new discoveries in biology since the book was first published in 2005, offering corrections, an updated bibliography, and a substantial new chapter. Eva Jablonka and Marion Lamb's pioneering argument proposes that there is more to heredity than genes. They describe four “dimensions” in heredity—four inheritance systems that play a role in evolution: genetic, epigenetic (or non-DNA cellular transmission of traits), behavioral, and symbolic (transmission through language and other forms of symbolic communication). These systems, they argue, can all provide variations on which natural selection can act.

Jablonka and Lamb present a richer, more complex view of evolution than that offered by the gene-based Modern Synthesis, arguing that induced and acquired changes also play a role. Their lucid and accessible text is accompanied by artist-physician Anna Zeligowski's lively drawings, which humorously and effectively illustrate the authors' points. Each chapter ends with a dialogue in which the authors refine their arguments against the vigorous skepticism of the fictional “I.M.” (for Ipcha Mistabra—Aramaic for “the opposite conjecture”). The extensive new chapter, presented engagingly as a dialogue with I.M., updates the information on each of the four dimensions—with special attention to the epigenetic, where there has been an explosion of new research.

Praise for the first edition

“With courage and verve, and in a style accessible to general readers, Jablonka and Lamb lay out some of the exciting new pathways of Darwinian evolution that have been uncovered by contemporary research.”

—Evelyn Fox Keller, MIT, author of Making Sense of Life: Explaining Biological Development with Models, Metaphors, and Machines

“In their beautifully written and impressively argued new book, Jablonka and Lamb show that the evidence from more than fifty years of molecular, behavioral and linguistic studies forces us to reevaluate our inherited understanding of evolution.”

—Oren Harman, The New Republic

“It is not only an enjoyable read, replete with ideas and facts of interest but it does the most valuable thing a book can do—it makes you think and reexamine your premises and long-held conclusions.”

—Adam Wilkins, BioEssays

Bradford Books imprint
Who's Asking?
Authors: Medin Douglas L. , Bang Megan
Published: December 2018

Analysis and case studies show that including different orientations toward the natural world makes for more effective scientific practice and science education.

The answers to scientific questions depend on who's asking, because the questions asked and the answers sought reflect the cultural values and orientations of the questioner. These values and orientations are most often those of Western science. In Who's Asking?, Douglas Medin and Megan Bang argue that despite the widely held view that science is objective, value-neutral, and acultural, scientists do not shed their cultures at the laboratory or classroom door; their practices reflect their values, belief systems, and worldviews. Medin and Bang argue further that scientist diversity—the participation of researchers and educators with different cultural orientations—provides new perspectives and leads to more effective science and better science education.

Medin and Bang compare Native American and European American orientations toward the natural world and apply these findings to science education. The European American model, they find, sees humans as separated from nature; the Native American model sees humans as part of a natural ecosystem. Medin and Bang then report on the development of ecologically oriented and community-based science education programs on the Menominee reservation in Wisconsin and at the American Indian Center of Chicago. Medin and Bang's novel argument for scientist diversity also has important implications for questions of minority underrepresentation in science.
The War on Learning
Authors: Losh Elizabeth
Published: December 2018

An examination of technology-based education initiatives—from MOOCs to virtual worlds—that argues against treating education as a product rather than a process.

Behind the lectern stands the professor, deploying course management systems, online quizzes, wireless clickers, PowerPoint slides, podcasts, and plagiarism-detection software. In the seats are the students, armed with smartphones, laptops, tablets, music players, and social networking. Although these two forces seem poised to do battle with each other, they are really both taking part in a war on learning itself. In this book, Elizabeth Losh examines current efforts to “reform” higher education by applying technological solutions to problems in teaching and learning. She finds that many of these initiatives fail because they treat education as a product rather than a process. Highly touted schemes—video games for the classroom, for example, or the distribution of iPads—let students down because they promote consumption rather than intellectual development.

Losh analyzes recent trends in postsecondary education and the rhetoric around them, often drawing on first-person accounts. In an effort to identify educational technologies that might actually work, she looks at strategies including MOOCs (massive open online courses), the gamification of subject matter, remix pedagogy, video lectures (from Randy Pausch to “the Baked Professor”), and educational virtual worlds. Finally, Losh outlines six basic principles of digital learning and describes several successful university-based initiatives. Her book will be essential reading for campus decision makers—and for anyone who cares about education and technology.
Broadcasting Buildings
Authors: Yusaf Shundana
Published: December 2018

How the BBC shaped popular perceptions of architecture and placed them at the heart of debates over participatory democracy.

In the years between the world wars, millions of people heard the world through a box on the dresser. In Britain, radio listeners relied on the British Broadcasting Corporation for information on everything from interior decoration to Hitler's rise to power. One subject covered regularly on the wireless was architecture and the built environment. Between 1927 and 1945, the BBC aired more than six hundred programs on this topic, published a similar number of articles in its magazine, The Listener, and sponsored several traveling exhibitions. In this book, Shundana Yusaf examines the ways that broadcasting placed architecture at the heart of debates on democracy.

Undaunted by the challenge of talking about space and place in disembodied voices over a nonvisual medium, designers and critics turned the wireless into an arena for debates about the definitions of the architect and architecture, the difficulties of town and country planning after the breakup of large country estates, the financing of the luxury market, the expansion of local governing power, and tourism. Yusaf argues that while broadcast technology made a decisive break with the Victorian world, these broadcasts reflected the BBC's desire to continue the legacy of Victorian institutions dedicated to the production of a cultivated polity. Under the leadership of John Reith, the BBC introduced listeners to the higher pleasures of life hoping to deepen their respect for tradition, the authority of the state, and national interests. These ambitions influenced the way architecture was portrayed on the air. Yusaf finds that the wireless evoked historic architecture only in travelogues and contemporary design mainly in shopping advice. The BBC's architectural programming, she argues, offered a paradoxical interface between the placelessness of radio and the situatedness of architecture, between the mechanical or nonhumanistic impulses of technology and the humanist conception of architecture.
Free Will
Authors: Balaguer Mark
Published: December 2018

A philosopher considers whether the scientific and philosophical arguments against free will are reason enough to give up our belief in it.

In our daily life, it really seems as though we have free will, that what we do from moment to moment is determined by conscious decisions that we freely make. You get up from the couch, you go for a walk, you eat chocolate ice cream. It seems that we're in control of actions like these; if we are, then we have free will. But in recent years, some have argued that free will is an illusion. The neuroscientist (and best-selling author) Sam Harris and the late Harvard psychologist Daniel Wegner, for example, claim that certain scientific findings disprove free will. In this engaging and accessible volume in the Essential Knowledge series, the philosopher Mark Balaguer examines the various arguments and experiments that have been cited to support the claim that human beings don't have free will. He finds them to be overstated and misguided.

Balaguer discusses determinism, the view that every physical event is predetermined, or completely caused by prior events. He describes several philosophical and scientific arguments against free will, including one based on Benjamin Libet's famous neuroscientific experiments, which allegedly show that our conscious decisions are caused by neural events that occur before we choose. He considers various religious and philosophical views, including the philosophical pro-free-will view known as compatibilism. Balaguer concludes that the anti-free-will arguments put forward by philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists simply don't work. They don't provide any good reason to doubt the existence of free will. But, he cautions, this doesn't necessarily mean that we have free will. The question of whether we have free will remains an open one; we simply don't know enough about the brain to answer it definitively.
Tuning of delta-protocadherin adhesion through combinatorial diversity
Authors: Bisogni Adam J , Ghazanfar Shila , Williams Eric O , Marsh Heather M , Yang Jean YH , Lin David M
Published: December 2018

The delta-protocadherins (δ-Pcdhs) play key roles in neural development, and expression studies suggest they are expressed in combination within neurons. The extent of this combinatorial diversity, and how these combinations influence cell adhesion, is poorly understood. We show that individual mouse olfactory sensory neurons express 0–7 δ-Pcdhs. Despite this apparent combinatorial complexity, K562 cell aggregation assays revealed simple principles that mediate tuning of δ-Pcdh adhesion. Cells can vary the number of δ-Pcdhs expressed, the level of surface expression, and which δ-Pcdhs are expressed, as different members possess distinct apparent adhesive affinities. These principles contrast with those identified previously for the clustered protocadherins (cPcdhs), where the particular combination of cPcdhs expressed does not appear to be a critical factor. Despite these differences, we show δ-Pcdhs can modify cPcdh adhesion. Our studies show how intra- and interfamily interactions can greatly amplify the impact of this small subfamily on neuronal function.
Genetic analysis reveals functions of atypical polyubiquitin chains
Authors: Meza Gutierrez Fernando , Simsek Deniz , Mizrak Arda , Deutschbauer Adam , Braberg Hannes , Johnson Jeffrey , Xu Jiewei , Shales Michael , Nguyen Michelle , Tamse-Kuehn Raquel , Palm Curt , Steinmetz Lars M , Krogan Nevan J , Toczyski David P
Published: December 2018

Although polyubiquitin chains linked through all lysines of ubiquitin exist, specific functions are well-established only for lysine-48 and lysine-63 linkages in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. To uncover pathways regulated by distinct linkages, genetic interactions between a gene deletion library and a panel of lysine-to-arginine ubiquitin mutants were systematically identified. The K11R mutant had strong genetic interactions with threonine biosynthetic genes. Consistently, we found that K11R mutants import threonine poorly. The K11R mutant also exhibited a strong genetic interaction with a subunit of the anaphase-promoting complex (APC), suggesting a role in cell cycle regulation. K11-linkages are important for vertebrate APC function, but this was not previously described in yeast. We show that the yeast APC also modifies substrates with K11-linkages in vitro, and that those chains contribute to normal APC-substrate turnover in vivo. This study reveals comprehensive genetic interactomes of polyubiquitin chains and characterizes the role of K11-chains in two biological pathways.
Exploring the mechanistic link between corticosterone and insulin-like growth factor-1 in a wild passerine bird
Authors: Tóth Zsófia , Ouyang Jenny Q. , Lendvai Ádám Z.
Published: December 2018

Background

Physiological regulators of life history trade-offs need to be responsive to sudden changes of resource availability. When homeostasis is challenged by unpredictable stressors, vertebrates respond through a set of physiological reactions, which can promote organismal survival. Glucocorticoids have been traditionally recognized as one of the main regulators of the physiological stress response, but the role of an evolutionarily more conserved pathway, the hypothalamic-pituitary-somatotropic (HPS) axis producing insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) has received much less attention. Although IGF-1 is known to affect several life history traits, little is known about its role in the physiological stress response and it has never been studied directly in adult wild animals.

Methods

In this study, we combined field observations with a controlled experiment to investigate how circulating levels of IGF-1 change in response to stress and whether this change is due to concomitant change in glucocorticoids in a free-living songbird, the bearded reedling Panurus biarmicus. We used a standard capture-restraint protocol in field observation, in which we took first and second (stress induced: 15 minutes later) samples. In a follow-up experiment, we used a minimally invasive oral corticosterone manipulation.

Results

We showed that corticosterone levels significantly increased while IGF-1 levels significantly decreased during capture and handling stress. However, change in corticosterone levels were not related to change in IGF-1 levels. We found that experimentally elevated corticosterone levels did not affect IGF-1 levels.

Discussion

Our results are the first to highlight that circulating IGF-1 levels are responsive to stress independently from glucocorticoids and suggest that the HPS axis is an autonomous physiological pathway that may play an important role as regulator of life-history decisions.
Interlanguage
Authors: Tarone Elaine
Published: December 2018

At a time when no systematic research was being conducted on second language acquisition, Selinker proposed that a linguistic system (interlanguage, or IL) underlies the learner language produced by adults when they attempt meaningful communication using a language they are in the process of learning (target language). He called for research to compare the structure of that learner language with the structure of the learner's native language and the target language, and to identify the psycholinguistic processes that shape interlanguage over time. This call initiated a flood of research studies and the establishment of the field of second language acquisition (SLA). This entry defines the essential elements of the interlanguage hypothesis as proposed in 1972, including the five psycholinguistic processes Selinker hypothesized as possibly influential: native language transfer, overgeneralization, transfer of training, strategies of communication, and strategies of learning; Selinker's controversial proposals that all interlanguages fossilize; and the claim that the relevant data for the study of interlanguage should be restricted to learner language produced during meaningful communication. The entry reviews the evolution of the interlanguage hypothesis in relation to several themes: the expansion of the hypothesis to apply to learners of all ages and to view IL as a natural language that obeys principles of universal grammar, and the exploration of the impact of social context and agency on IL psycholinguistic processes (including processes of fossilization and crosslinguistic influence). The basic assumption that interlanguage is systematic continues to underlie data collection and data analysis across the field of SLA.
Polyelemental Nanolithography via Plasma Ion Bombardment: From Fabrication to Superior H2 Sensing Application
Authors: Jung Woo‐Bin , Cho Soo‐Yeon , Suh Bong Lim , Yoo Hae‐Wook , Jeon Hwan‐Jin , Kim Jihan , Jung Hee‐Tae
Published: December 2018

The development of complex nanostructures containing a homo‐ and heteromixture of two or more metals is a considerable challenge in nanotechnology. However, previous approaches are considerably limited to the number of combinations of metals depending on the compatibility of elements, and to the complex shape control of the nanostructure. In this study, a significant step is taken toward resolving these limitations via the utilization of a low‐energy argon‐ion bombardment. The multilayer films are etched and re‐sputtered on the sidewall of the pre‐pattern, which is a secondary sputtering phenomenon. In contrast to the precursor mixing method, most metallic combinations can be fabricated. The degree of mixing is tuned by the control of the sequence and thickness of multilayers. In addition, the feature shape and dimensions are controlled by changing the pre‐pattern or by controlling the ion‐beam angle. Using this method, the shortest response time (2 s to 1% H2) in comparison with those of Pd‐based H2 sensors reported previously and a limit of detection below 1 parts per million (ppm) for Pd/Au and Pd/Pt bimetallic line arrays are achieved. This study is expected to realize a family of polyelements that can be used in various applications.
A Highly Active Star Decahedron Cu Nanocatalyst for Hydrocarbon Production at Low Overpotentials
Authors: Choi Chungseok , Cheng Tao , Flores Espinosa Michelle , Fei Huilong , Duan Xiangfeng , Goddard William A. , Huang Yu
Published: December 2018

The electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) presents a viable approach to recycle CO2 gas into low carbon fuels. Thus, the development of highly active catalysts at low overpotential is desired for this reaction. Herein, a high‐yield synthesis of unique star decahedron Cu nanoparticles (SD‐Cu NPs) electrocatalysts, displaying twin boundaries (TBs) and multiple stacking faults, which lead to low overpotentials for methane (CH4) and high efficiency for ethylene (C2H4) production, is reported. Particularly, SD‐Cu NPs show an onset potential for CH4 production lower by 0.149 V than commercial Cu NPs. More impressively, SD‐Cu NPs demonstrate a faradaic efficiency of 52.43% ± 2.72% for C2H4 production at −0.993 ± 0.0129 V. The results demonstrate that the surface stacking faults and twin defects increase CO binding energy, leading to the enhanced CO2RR performance on SD‐Cu NPs.
Wafer‐Scale Fabrication of High‐Performance n‐Type Polymer Monolayer Transistors Using a Multi‐Level Self‐Assembly Strategy
Authors: Yao Ze‐Fan , Zheng Yu‐Qing , Li Qi‐Yi , Lei Ting , Zhang Song , Zou Lin , Liu Han‐Yu , Dou Jin‐Hu , Lu Yang , Wang Jie‐Yu , Gu Xiaodan , Pei Jian
Published: December 2018

Wafer‐scale fabrication of high‐performance uniform organic electronic materials is of great challenge and has rarely been realized before. Previous large‐scale fabrication methods always lead to different layer thickness and thereby poor film and device uniformity. Herein, the first demonstration of 4 in. wafer‐scale, uniform, and high‐performance n‐type polymer monolayer films is reported, enabled by controlling the multi‐level self‐assembly process of conjugated polymers in solution. Since the self‐assembly process happened in solution, the uniform 2D polymer monolayers can be facilely deposited on various substrates, and theoretically without size limitations. Polymer monolayer transistors exhibit high electron mobilities of up to 1.88 cm2 V−1 s−1, which is among the highest in n‐type monolayer organic transistors. This method allows to easily fabricate n‐type conjugated polymers with wafer‐scale, high uniformity, low contact resistance, and excellent transistor performance (better than the traditional spin‐coating method). This work provides an effective strategy to prepare large‐scale and uniform 2D polymer monolayers, which could enable the application of conjugated polymers for wafer‐scale sophisticated electronics.
High risk of spontaneous preterm birth among infants with gastroschisis
Authors: Baer Rebecca J. , Chambers Christina D. , Ryckman Kelli K. , Oltman Scott P. , Rand Larry , Jelliffe‐Pawlowski Laura L.
Published: December 2018

We examined the association between gastroschisis and preterm birth (PTB, <37 weeks) by subtype. The sample was drawn from singleton live births in California from 2007 to 2012 contained in a birth cohort file maintained by the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (n = 2,891,965; 1,421 with gastroschisis). Relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated for PTB by gestational age (<34, 34–36, and any <37 weeks) and by type (spontaneous labor with intact membranes, preterm premature rupture of the membranes [PPROM], provider initiated) and were adjusted for maternal characteristics. Over 44.5% of infants with gastroschisis were born preterm because of spontaneous etiologies; notably, 8.4% of infants with gastroschisis were born <34 weeks because of spontaneous etiologies (adjusted RRs 9.1–12.2). Overall, 53.7% of infants with gastroschisis were born preterm compared with only 6.9% of infants without gastroschisis (adjusted RR 15.2, 95% CI 13.6–19.5) and are at particularly high risk of spontaneous PTB. Nearly 9% of infants with gastroschisis delivered <34 weeks, regardless of preterm etiology, indicating that these infants are at great risk for PTB morbidities in addition to the complications from gastroschisis.
DNA damage signatures in peripheral blood cells as biomarkers in prodromal huntington disease
Authors: Castaldo Imma , De Rosa Mariarosaria , Romano Antonella , Zuchegna Candida , Squitieri Ferdinando , Mechelli Rosella , Peluso Silvio , Borrelli Cristiana , Del Mondo Angelo , Salvatore Elena , Vescovi Luigi Angelo , Migliore Simone , De Michele Giuseppe , Ristori Giovanni , Romano Silvia , Avvedimento Enrico Vittorio , Porcellini Antonio
Published: December 2018

Easily accessible biomarkers in Huntington disease (HD) are actively searched. We investigated telomere length and DNA double‐strand breaks (histone variant pγ‐H2AX) as predictive disease biomarkers in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 25 premanifest subjects, 58 HD patients with similar CAG expansion in the huntingtin gene (HTT), and 44 healthy controls (HC). PBMC from the pre‐HD and HD groups showed shorter telomeres (p < 0.0001) and a significant increase of pγ‐H2AX compared to the controls (p < 0.0001). The levels of pγ‐H2AX correlated robustly with the presence of the mutated gene in pre‐HD and HD. The availability of a potentially reversible biomarker (pγ‐H2AX) in the premanifest stage of HD, negligible in HC, provides a novel tool to monitor premanifest subjects and find patient‐specific drugs. Ann Neurol 2018;00:1–6 ANN NEUROL 2019;85:296–301.
A facile on‐bead method for fully symmetric tetra‐substituted DOTA derivatizations using peptoid moieties
Authors: Rustagi Vineeta , Gomika Udugamasooriya D.
Published: December 2018

The metal‐chelated 1,4,7,10‐tetraazacyclododecane‐1,4,7,10‐tetraacetic acid (DOTA) has made a significant impact on the field of diagnostic imaging. This imaging mechanism is largely dependent on the four side arm functionalities around the DOTA scaffold. We previously demonstrated the effect of peptoid residue modification on these DOTA side arms, thereby conferring diverse physiochemical properties to the imaging mechanism. We generated two on‐bead Eu(III)‐DOTA libraries with three side arm modifications, where the remaining arm was used to attach DOTA onto the resin. However, having an on‐bead fully symmetric tetra‐substituted DOTA synthesis route can greatly improve the fields of diagnostic, therapeutic, and theragnostic agent development. Here, we report an efficient method for the synthesis of symmetric tetra‐substituted DOTA derivatives by modification with peptoid moieties on all four arms using a conceptually unique solid‐phase synthesis approach. Resins with different loading capacities were examined for synthesis feasibility and high loading resins were most effective. The reaction yields were also studied by varying the number of peptoid residues and incorporating different linkers. We have tested the binding ability of the tetra‐substituted derivative with its previously tested tri‐substituted analogs as model applications. Our protocol provides an efficient and facile on‐bead synthesis route for fully symmetric tetra‐substituted DOTA derivatizations.
Quantification and pharmacokinetic study of entrectinib in rat plasma using ultra‐performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry
Authors: Wang Qiong , Fang Ping , Zheng Lulu , Ye Lei
Published: December 2018

To characterize the preclinical plasma pharmacokinetics of entrectinib, a reproducible and precise assay is necessary. In this study, we developed and validated a simple ultra‐performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS/MS) method for the measurement of entrectinib using carbamazepine as the internal standard in rat plasma. Sample preparation was a simple protein precipitation with acetonitrile, then entrectinib was eluted on an Acquity UPLC BEH C18 column (2.1 × 50 mm, 1.7 μm) using a gradient elution with a mobile phase composed of acetonitrile (A) and 0.1% formic acid in water (B). Detection was achieved using multiple‐reaction monitoring in positive ion electrospray ionization mode. The method showed good linearity over the concentration range of 1–250 ng/mL (r2 > 0.9951). The intra‐ and inter‐day precision was determined with the values of 6.3–12.9 and 2.6–6.9%, respectively, and accuracy values of 0.5–11.6%. Matrix effect, extraction recovery, and stability data all met the acceptance criteria of US Food and Drug Administration guidelines for bioanalytical method validation. The method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study. In this study, we developed the complete validated method for the quantification of entrectinib in rat plasma.