bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Environmental determinants of activity variation of an overlooked burrowing rodent: the Indian crested porcupine
Authors: Mukherjee Aditi , Kumara Honnavalli Nagaraj , Bhupathy Subramanian 
Published: February 2018

Abstract
A study of the activity patterns, time allocation for each activity and variations in activities due to environmental alterations are necessary for understanding the biology of any species. This study investigates the relationship of micro-habitat and environmental conditions with seasonal and temporal activities of Indian crested porcupines (ICP) around their burrows in Keoladeo National Park (KNP), India. This species is considered as a problem species, often ignoring its ecological importance as an ecosystem engineer. Of the 39 sampled burrows, 58.97%, 38.46% and 83.78% were occupied in winter, summer and monsoon, respectively. The estimated porcupine density was 3.21±1.32SD individuals/km2, accounting for a population size of 65.89±27.15SD individuals. A seasonal shift in rate of emergence was observed in monsoon and winter, when ICP emerged earlier, significantly correlating with the sunset timings. The daily activity records of adult ICP outside burrow significantly peaked in January–February when they prepare the burrows for the gestation period of 90–112 days, followed by rearing of the offspring. The temporal activity significantly reduced in the full moon nights, perhaps to avoid predators. The study affirms that environmental determinants including the timings of sunrise, sunset and lunar phase significantly affect the variations in temporal activity and burrow use patterns of ICP.
Recent advances in B–H functionalization of icosahedral carboranes and boranes by transition metal catalysis
Authors: Duttwyler Simon 
Published: February 2018

Abstract
Significant progress in the functionalization of icosahedral boron clusters has been made in the past years, leading to an increasing number of applications in various fields of research. The direct conversion of B–H bonds to substituted vertices constitutes an attractive strategy to synthesize cage compounds with desired properties. In this report, recent advances in the transition metal-catalyzed B–H activation of neutral and anionic boron clusters are presented.
The EU polycrisis and hard populism in East -Central Europe: From the Copenhagen dilemma to the Juncker paradox
Authors: Ágh Attila 
Published: February 2018

AbstractAnalyses of populism in East -Central Europe (ECE) necessarily depart from the general crisis of representative democracy in the EU and describe the ECE as a specifi c regional case reflecting the failure of the catch -up process. The first part of this article adopts this “classical” approach and considers the backsliding of ECE democracy alongside the rise of populist identity politics in the global context. In the second part, I turn to the historical trajectory of ECE populism as a “nested” or two -level game in the EU context of ECE developments. The third part of this article outlines the main contradictions in this process that has led to what I call the Juncker paradox. To understand this paradox, we need to return to what the Commission noted in the early 2010s as the Copenhagen dilemma: aft er the EU accession of ECE states, the EU had no means to control rule -of -law violations and, in fact, supported autocratic populist ECE regimes through European transfers. This article explains the worsening of this situation in the late 2010s as the EU polycrisis caused Juncker’s Commission to focus on Core -based priorities and marginalise rule -of -law violations in ECE. This inaction and neglect have produced a special case of negative externalities - the Juncker paradox - that has largely been counterproductive and further strengthened anti -EU populism in all ECE countries, especially Hungary and Poland. Despite this situation, I conclude that Juncker’s 2017 State of the Union address should be a turning point in the EU’s policy towards ECE; in particular, it should promote a better understanding of the regional situation and more effective enforcement of the rule of law.
Analyzing Malaise and Mobilization: The Effects of Media on Political Support and European Identity in Old and New Member States
Authors: Ejaz Waqas 
Published: February 2018

AbstractThe recent financial crisis and the way it was handled by European Union (EU) received a great deal of media coverage, and since the media has a tendency to alter public opinion, it is safe to assume that it has affected some Europeans’ attitudes towards the EU. In order to test that assumption, a model was built around the theoretical framework of “media malaise,” and »political support«. It was found that the media certainly affected and shaped public opinion; however, study revealed that consuming media has not made people more cynical towards the EU. Based on secondary data analysis of Eurobarometer the study reveals positive relationship of media mobilization effect with European’s political attitudes and identity.
Additive varying-coefficient model for nonlinear gene-environment interactions
Authors: Wu Cen , Zhong Ping-Shou , Cui Yuehua 
Published: February 2018

Abstract
Gene-environment (G×E) interaction plays a pivotal role in understanding the genetic basis of complex disease. When environmental factors are measured continuously, one can assess the genetic sensitivity over different environmental conditions on a disease trait. Motivated by the increasing awareness of gene set based association analysis over single variant based approaches, we proposed an additive varying-coefficient model to jointly model variants in a genetic system. The model allows us to examine how variants in a gene set are moderated by an environment factor to affect a disease phenotype. We approached the problem from a variable selection perspective. In particular, we select variants with varying, constant and zero coefficients, which correspond to cases of G×E interaction, no G×E interaction and no genetic effect, respectively. The procedure was implemented through a two-stage iterative estimation algorithm via the smoothly clipped absolute deviation penalty function. Under certain regularity conditions, we established the consistency property in variable selection as well as effect separation of the two stage iterative estimators, and showed the optimal convergence rates of the estimates for varying effects. In addition, we showed that the estimate of non-zero constant coefficients enjoy the oracle property. The utility of our procedure was demonstrated through simulation studies and real data analysis.
Surgical treatment of vaginal vault prolapse using different prosthetic mesh implants: a finite element analysis
Authors: Bhattarai Aroj , Jabbari Medisa , Anding Ralf , Staat Manfred 
Published: February 2018

Abstract
Particularly multiparous elderly women may suffer from vaginal vault prolapse after hysterectomy due to weak support from lax apical ligaments. A decreased amount of estrogen and progesterone in older age is assumed to remodel the collagen thereby reducing tissue stiffness. Sacrocolpopexy is either performed as open or laparoscopic surgery using prosthetic mesh implants to substitute lax ligaments. Y-shaped mesh models (DynaMesh, Gynemesh, and Ultrapro) are implanted in a 3D female pelvic floor finite element model in the extraperitoneal space from the vaginal cuff to the first sacral (S1) bone below promontory. Numerical simulations are conducted during Valsalva maneuver with weakened tissues modeled by reduced tissue stiffness. Tissues are modeled as incompressible, isotropic hyperelastic materials whereas the meshes are modeled either as orthotropic linear elastic or as isotropic hyperlastic materials. The positions of the vaginal cuff and the bladder base are calculated from the pubococcygeal line for female pelvic floor at rest, for prolapse and after repair using the three meshes. Due to mesh mechanics and mesh pore deformation along the loaded direction, the DynaMesh with regular rectangular mesh pores is found to provide better mechanical support to the organs than the Gynemesh and the Ultrapro with irregular hexagonal mesh pores.
Monitoring the Prescribed and Experienced Heart Rate–Derived Training Loads in Elite Field Hockey Players
Authors: Perrotta Andrew S. , Taunton Jack E. , Koehle Michael S. , White Matthew D. , Warburton Darren E.R. 
Published: February 2018

Abstract
Perrotta, AS, Taunton, JE, Koehle, MS, White, MD, and Warburton, DER. Monitoring the prescribed and experienced heart rate–derived training loads in elite field hockey players. J Strength Cond Res 33(5): 1394–1399, 2019—This study examined the congruence between the prescribed and experienced heart rate–derived training loads over a 5-week periodized mesocycle. Twenty-four elite female field hockey players training as part of a national team were monitored before an (FIH) Hockey World League tournament. Three on-field training sessions per week were prospectively designed focusing on technical, tactical, and physiologically oriented hockey drills. A training load value, modeling the periodized weekly loading scheme, was prescribed for each training session and was calculated using normative training load responses from performing on-field hockey drills. Magnitude-based inferences focusing on the effect size (ES) and a Pearson correlation coefficient (r) were used to examine the degree of difference and the strength of correlation between the prescribed and experienced training loads. A significant correlation was observed between the experienced and prescribed training loads over the 5-week mesocycle (r = 0.92, 90% confidence limit [CL] [0.84–0.96]). The percentage difference and the ES between the achieved and prescribed training loads were as follows: week 1 demonstrated a 2.0% difference (ES = 0.10, 90% CL [−0.22–0.41]), week 2 a −5.4% difference (ES = −0.41, 90% CL [−0.75 to −0.07]), week 3 a −1.5% difference (ES = −0.09, 90% CL [−0.37 to 0.20]), week 4 a 7.1% difference (ES = 0.46, 90% CL [0.14–0.78]), and week 5 a 3.5% difference (ES = 0.18, 90% CL [−0.17 to 0.53]). This investigation demonstrates the efficacy for coaches to prospectively design on-field training sessions using normative training load data to enhance the congruence between the prescribed and experienced training loads over a periodized mesocycle.
Cytosolic ATP Relieves Voltage-Dependent Inactivation of T-Type Calcium Channels and Facilitates Excitability of Neurons in the Rat Central Medial Thalamus
Authors: Stamenic Tamara Timic , Todorovic Slobodan M. 
Published: February 2018

AbstractThe central medial nucleus (CeM) is a part of the intralaminar thalamus, which is involved in the control of arousal and sensory processing. However, ionic conductances and mechanisms that regulate the activity of the CeM are not well studied. Here, we usedin vitroelectrophysiology in acute brain slices from adolescent rats to demonstrate that T-type calcium currents (T-currents) are prominent in the majority of the studied CeM neurons and are critical determinants of low-threshold calcium spikes (LTSs), which in turn regulate excitability of these neurons. Using an ATP-free internal solution decreased T-current density and induced a profound hyperpolarizing shift in steady-state inactivation curves while voltage-dependent activation kinetics were spared. Furthermore, selective pharmacological blockade of T-channels or use of an ATP-free solution reduced both tonic action potential (AP) frequency and rebound burst firing in CeM neurons. Our results indicate that T-channels are critical regulators of a thalamocortical circuit output and suggest that cytosolic ATP could be an endogenous regulatory mechanism in which T-channels may functionally gate sensory transmission and arousalin vivo.
Human Sensorimotor Cortex Control of Directly Measured Vocal Tract Movements during Vowel Production
Authors: Conant David F. , Bouchard Kristofer E. , Leonard Matthew K. , Chang Edward F. 
Published: February 2018

During speech production, we make vocal tract movements with remarkable precision and speed. Our understanding of how the human brain achieves such proficient control is limited, in part due to the challenge of simultaneously acquiring high-resolution neural recordings and detailed vocal tract measurements. To overcome this challenge, we combined ultrasound and video monitoring of the supralaryngeal articulators (lips, jaw, and tongue) with electrocorticographic recordings from the cortical surface of 4 subjects (3 female, 1 male) to investigate how neural activity in the ventral sensory-motor cortex (vSMC) relates to measured articulator movement kinematics (position, speed, velocity, acceleration) during the production of English vowels. We found that high-gamma activity at many individual vSMC electrodes strongly encoded the kinematics of one or more articulators, but less so for vowel formants and vowel identity. Neural population decoding methods further revealed the structure of kinematic features that distinguish vowels. Encoding of articulator kinematics was sparsely distributed across time and primarily occurred during the time of vowel onset and offset. In contrast, encoding was low during the steady-state portion of the vowel, despite sustained neural activity at some electrodes. Significant representations were found for all kinematic parameters, but speed was the most robust. These findings enabled by direct vocal tract monitoring demonstrate novel insights into the representation of articulatory kinematic parameters encoded in the vSMC during speech production.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTSpeaking requires precise control and coordination of the vocal tract articulators (lips, jaw, and tongue). Despite the impressive proficiency with which humans move these articulators during speech production, our understanding of how the brain achieves such control is rudimentary, in part because the movements themselves are difficult to observe. By simultaneously measuring speech movements and the neural activity that gives rise to them, we demonstrate how neural activity in sensorimotor cortex produces complex, coordinated movements of the vocal tract.
Induction and Relief of Curiosity Elicit Parietal and Frontal Activity
Authors: van Lieshout Lieke L.F. , Vandenbroucke Annelinde R.E. , Müller Nils C.J. , Cools Roshan , de Lange Floris P. 
Published: February 2018

Curiosity is a basic biological drive, but little is known about its behavioral and neural mechanisms. We can be curious about several types of information. On the one hand, curiosity is a function of the expected value of information, serving primarily to help us maximize reward. On the other hand, curiosity can be a function of the uncertainty of information, helping us to update what we know. In the current studies, we aimed to disentangle the contribution of information uncertainty and expected value of rewards to curiosity in humans. To this end, we designed a lottery task in which uncertainty and expected value of trial outcomes were manipulated independently and examined how neural activity and behavioral measures of curiosity were modulated by these factors. Curiosity increased linearly with increased outcome uncertainty, both when curiosity was explicitly probed as well as when it was implicitly tested by people's willingness to wait. Increased expected value, however, did not strongly relate to these curiosity measures. Neuroimaging results showed greater BOLD response with increasing outcome uncertainty in parietal cortex at the time of curiosity induction. Outcome updating when curiosity was relieved resulted in an increased signal in the insula, orbitofrontal cortex, and parietal cortex. Furthermore, the insula showed a linear increase corresponding to the size of the information update. These results suggest that curiosity is monotonically related to the uncertainty about one's current world model, the induction and relief of which are associated with activity in parietal and insular cortices, respectively.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTHumans are curious by nature. When you hear your phone beep, you probably feel the urge to check the message right away, even though the message itself likely does not give you a direct reward. In this study, we demonstrated that curiosity can be driven by outcome uncertainty, over and above of reward. The induction of curiosity was accompanied by increased activity in the parietal cortex, whereas the information update at the time of curiosity relief was associated with activity in insular cortex. These findings advance our understanding of the behavioral and neural constituents of curiosity, which lies at the core of human information seeking and serves to optimize the individual's current world model.
Contesting Civil Religion: Religious Responses to American Patriotic Nationalism, 1919-1929
Authors: Lienesch Michael 
Published: February 2018

AbstractSince the publication fifty years ago of Robert N. Bellah's classic article “Civil Religion in America,” the concept of civil religion has provoked continuing debates among scholars who study religion and American culture. This essay is a contribution to these debates and an attempt to move beyond them. It considers American civil religion as theory and as practice, examining its meaning through an investigation of how it functioned at an important and too little studied point in its past. Arguing that civil religion is both a cultural and a political construct, it shows how at the close of World War I, a loosely linked network of civic, military, and patriotic groups came together to create a sacralized form of patriotic nationalism and incorporate it into the American civil religious tradition. Contending that the relationships between civil religion and more conventional forms of organized religion are often close and at times contentious, it examines how religious bodies of the time were instrumental in supporting this process and intractable in resisting it. Proposing that civil religion can come in a variety of sometimes competing versions, it discusses the conflicts over civil religious practices that ensued within American churches during the next decade, relying on reports from the time to describe how these conflicts divided church leaders, denominations, and congregations. Finally, working from the premise that civil religious beliefs, symbols, and rituals are invariably involved in the political process, it examines how they became increasingly used for partisan purposes over the course of the decade, raising issues about the relationship between church and state. In closing, it comments on the enduring character of civil religion, and speculates on its continuing importance for American religion and politics.
Genome-Wide Association and Genomic Selection for Resistance to Amoebic Gill Disease in Atlantic Salmon
Authors: Robledo Diego , Matika Oswald , Hamilton Alastair , Houston Ross D 
Published: February 2018

Abstract
Amoebic gill disease (AGD) is one of the largest threats to salmon aquaculture, causing serious economic and animal welfare burden. Treatments can be expensive and environmentally damaging, hence the need for alternative strategies. Breeding for disease resistance can contribute to prevention and control of AGD, providing long-term cumulative benefits in selected stocks. The use of genomic selection can expedite selection for disease resistance due to improved accuracy compared to pedigree-based approaches. The aim of this work was to quantify and characterize genetic variation in AGD resistance in salmon, the genetic architecture of the trait, and the potential of genomic selection to contribute to disease control. An AGD challenge was performed in ∼1,500 Atlantic salmon, using gill damage and amoebic load as indicator traits for host resistance. Both traits are heritable (h2 ∼0.25-0.30) and show high positive correlation, indicating they may be good measurements of host resistance to AGD. While the genetic architecture of resistance appeared to be largely polygenic in nature, two regions on chromosome 18 showed suggestive association with both AGD resistance traits. Using a cross-validation approach, genomic prediction accuracy was up to 18% higher than that obtained using pedigree, and a reduction in marker density to ∼2,000 SNPs was sufficient to obtain accuracies similar to those obtained using the whole dataset. This study indicates that resistance to AGD is a suitable trait for genomic selection, and the addition of this trait to Atlantic salmon breeding programs can lead to more resistant stocks.
Hastane Gemilerinin Birinci Dünya Savaşı'nda Savaşan Taraflar Arasında Soruna Dönüşmesi
Authors: UYANIKER Ahmet 
Published: February 2018

Savaş esnasında
orduların ikmal ve lojistik bakımdan desteklenmelerinin yanında önemli bir konu
da yaralı ve hasta askerlerin güvenli bölgelere nakledilmesidir. Gelişen silah teknolojisine bağlı olarak
savaşlarda yaralıların çok oluşu ve bu yaralanmaların niteliği muhariplerin
yaralılarını hastaneye nakletmekte Sedye Taşıyıcılar ve Seyyar Hastaneler gibi
yeni yöntemler oluşturmalarına neden olmuştur. Yaralı naklinde hayata geçirilen
seyyar hastanelerden birisi de bir geminin hastane şeklinde tasarlanmasıyla
oluşturulan hastane gemileridir. Hastane gemilerin
temel görevi savaş, doğal afet vb. durumlarda sağlık hizmeti vermek, özellikle
savaş bölgelerine yakın sularda hasta ve yaralı taşımak ve bunları tedavi
etmektir. Hastane gemilerin savaş esnasında harekât tarzları, yaralı ve hasta
taşımada dikkat edecekleri esaslar, renkleri, üzerlerinde taşıyacakları
işaretlerle birlikte güvenli bir şekilde seyahat etmeleri Lahey (1907)
sözleşmesi ile düzenlenmiştir. Birinci Dünya Savaşı’nda fazlaca kullanılan bu
gemiler harekât tarzları ve kullanım şekilleri bakımından diplomatik sorunlara
neden olmuşlardır. Savaşın başlarında Alman hastane gemisi
Ophelia, İngiliz Kraliyet Donanması tarafından, "casus gemi" olma
iddiasıyla ele geçirilmiştir. Ophelia, Almanya ile İngiltere arasında büyük bir
krize neden olmuştur. Alman Hükümeti savaş esnasında İngiliz hastane
gemilerinin Lahey sözleşmesini ihlal ettiğini söyleyerek kuzey denizinin güney
bölümünde belli bir deniz sahasını ve İngiliz kanalını hastane gemilerine
kapattığını, böylece bu bölgede görülen gemilere savaş gemisi muamelesi
yapılacağını ve saldırılacağını beyan etmiştir. Gemi sorunu zamanla iki
devletin müttefiklerine de yansıyacak uluslararası bir soruna dönüşmüştür. Öte yandan,
Osmanlı Devleti Jeopolitik konumu ve toprakları üzerindeki cephelere bağlı
olarak savaş esnasında hastane gemilerin kullanımıyla ilgili en fazla
muhataplardan biri olmuştur. Devletin denizlere olan konumu kendi gemilerinin
kullanımın yanında müttefik ve rakip devletlerin hastane gemi kullanımına
yönelik talepleri Osmanlıyı yoğun bir gemi diplomasisi ile uğraşmak zorunda
bırakmıştır. Bu çalışmada
Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi hariciye belgeleri ışığında hastane gemilerin
Birinci Dünya Savaşı’nda devletlerarasında oynadığı askeri ve diplomatik sorunlar
üzerinde durulacaktır.