bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Phenotypic and community consequences of captive propagation in mosquitofish
Authors: Wood Zachary T. , Fryxell David C. , Robinson Rebecca R. , Palkovacs Eric P. , Kinnison Michael T. 
Published: March 2019

Abstract

Captive propagation can lead to phenotypic change in fish populations, but the broader community‐level consequences of captive phenotypes remain largely unknown.

We investigate the degree to which captive propagation alters the phenotypes and ecological roles of fish stocked into wild communities. We focus on captive propagation of western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) for biocontrol, which represents one of the largest scale production efforts for any fish released into the wild.

Captive propagation in mosquitofish consistently generated novel mixtures of morphological and behavioural traits that deviate from those of wild populations.

A mesocosm experiment showed that mosquitofish from captive propagation facilities differ from wild fish in their effects on aquatic community structure by shifting their consumption to less‐mobile, benthic prey.

Synthesis and applications. Captive‐propagated and translocated wild fish stocks not only differ in phenotype, but can have substantially different ecological effects on the communities into which they are introduced. Therefore, captive propagation programmes involving continual release should expand their concerns beyond altered phenotypes and fitness to include whether propagated fish actually provide the intended ecological roles and services associated with their wild counterparts. Infusions of wild alleles and captive environments that mimic wild conditions are recommended strategies to retain the desired ecological role of captive‐propagated fish.
Metagenomic and metatranscriptomic responses of natural oil degrading bacteria in the presence of dispersants
Authors: Tremblay Julien , Fortin Nathalie , Elias Miria , Wasserscheid Jessica , King Thomas L. , Lee Kenneth , Greer Charles W. 
Published: March 2019

SummaryOil biodegradation has been extensively studied in the wake of the deepwater horizon spill, but the application of dispersant to oil spills in marine environments remains controversial. Here, we report metagenomic (MG) and metatranscriptomic (MT) data mining from microcosm experiments investigating the oil degrading potential of Canadian west and east coasts to estimate the gene abundance and activity of oil degrading bacteria in the presence of dispersant. We found that the addition of dispersant to crude oil mainly favours the abundance of Thalassolituus in the summer and Oleispira in the winter, two key natural oil degrading bacteria. We found a high abundance of genes related not only to n‐alkane and aromatics degradation but also associated with transporters, two‐component systems, bacterial motility, secretion systems and bacterial chemotaxis.
From Merkel to Kramp‐Karrenbauer: Can German Christian Democracy Reinvent Itself?
Authors: Dostal Jörg Michael 
Published: March 2019

AbstractGermany's Christian Democrats have started preparing for the time after Angela Merkel. After ten years as German chancellor facing a weak opposition, Merkel unexpectedly split the country in late 2015 and early 2016 because of her ‘open border’ policies that allowed more than 1 million refugees and migrants to rapidly enter Germany. Her management of the subsequent crisis was largely considered a failure and her party suffered a series of dramatic election defeats. Reacting to the negative electoral feedback, and in particular the breakthrough of the rightist and anti‐immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), the Christian Democratic Union organised an intra‐party contest to replace Merkel as party leader. Three candidates with different political profiles, Annegret Kramp‐Karrenbauer, Friedrich Merz and Jens Spahn, contested the election. By voting for Kramp‐Karrenbauer, the CDU membership voiced support for maintaining a large‐scale political coalition based on efforts to find compromises between different party wings and social and cultural interests.
Bias correction of estimated proportions using inverse binomial group testing
Authors: Hepworth Graham 
Published: March 2019

SummaryGroup testing, in which individuals are pooled together and tested as a group, can be combined with inverse sampling to estimate the prevalence of a disease. Alternatives to the MLE are desirable because of its severe bias. We propose an estimator based on the bias correction method of Firth (1993), which is almost unbiased across the range of prevalences consistent with the group testing design. For equal group sizes, this estimator is shown to be equivalent to that derived by applying the correction method of Burrows (1987), and better than existing methods. For unequal group sizes, the problem has some intractable elements, but under some circumstances our proposed estimator can be found, and we show it to be almost unbiased. Calculation of the bias requires computer‐intensive approximation because of the infinite number of possible outcomes.
A comparative study of robot‐assisted and open radical prostatectomy in 10 790 men treated by highly trained surgeons for both procedures
Authors: Haese Alexander , Knipper Sophie , Isbarn Hendrik , Heinzer Hans , Tilki Derya , Salomon Georg , Michl Uwe , Steuber Thomas , Budäus Lars , Maurer Tobias , Tennstedt Pierre , Huland Hartwig , Graefen Markus 
Published: March 2019

ObjectiveTo compare oncological, functional and surgical outcomes of open retropubic radical prostatectomy (ORP) vs robot‐assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RARP).Patients and methodsWe identified 10 790 consecutive treated patients within our prospective database (2008–2016) who underwent either ORP (7007 patients) or RARP (3783). All procedures were performed by seven highly trained surgeons performing both surgical approaches regularly. Oncological (48‐month biochemical recurrence [BCR] rate), functional (urinary continence, erectile function), and surgical outcomes (rate of nerve‐sparing [NS] procedures, lymph node yield, surgical margin [SM] status, length of hospital stay [LOS], operation time, blood loss, transfusion rate, time to catheter removal) were assessed. Kaplan–Meier, multivariable Cox and logistic regression models were used to test for BCR and functional outcome differences.ResultsNo statistically significant difference regarding oncological outcome distinguished between ORP vs RARP. For functional outcomes, the 1‐week continence rates were higher in the ORP group (25.8% vs 21.8%, P < 0.001). At 3 months, no statistically significant differences were observed. At 12 months, continence rates were modestly higher in the RARP group (90.3% vs 88.8%, P = 0.01). This effect was no longer observed after stratification for age‐groups. The 12‐month potency rates were similar in ORP vs RARP (80.3% vs 83.6%, P = 0.33). For surgical outcomes, there was no significant difference in the rates of NS procedures, lymph node yield, SM status, and LOS. Conversely, operation time was shorter in ORP, and blood loss, transfusion rates and time to catheter removal were significantly lower in RARP.ConclusionsBoth surgical approaches, performed in a high‐volume centre by the same surgeons, achieve excellent, comparable oncological and functional outcomes. However, a modest advantage for RARP for surgical outcomes was observed, most likely attributable to its minimally invasive nature, and better teaching capabilities. Consequently, more than the surgical approach itself, the well‐trained surgeon remains the most important factor to achieve satisfactory outcomes.
The impact of post‐transplant diabetes mellitus on liver transplant outcomes
Authors: Lieber Sarah R. , Lee Ruth‐Ann , Jiang Yue , Reuter Claire , Watkins Randall , Szempruch Kristen , Gerber David A. , Desai Chirag S. , DeCherney G. Stephen , Barritt A. Sidney 
Published: March 2019

AbstractBackgroundPost‐transplant diabetes mellitus (PTDM) is common after liver transplantation (LT). Yet, how PTDM relates to graft outcomes and survival needs elucidation as more individuals are transplanted for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).MethodsThis single‐center, retrospective study of adult LT recipients (2003‐2016) identified PTDM incidence and associations with graft steatosis, rejection, and post‐LT patient survival. Multivariable analysis investigated predictors of PTDM. Kaplan‐Meier curves depicted patient survival 5 years post‐LT.ResultsAmong 415 adult LT recipients, 23% had pre‐LT DM and 13% were transplanted for NAFLD. PTDM incidence was 34.7%, 46.9%, and 56.2% and overall survival was 90%, 80.9%, and 71.7% at 1, 3, and 5 years, respectively. Over a third of non‐NAFLD patients developed PTDM. Half of PTDM cases developed by 6 months and 75% by 12 months. The PTDM group had more rejection episodes compared to no PTDM (31.9% vs 21.8%, P = 0.055), with trends toward worse patient survival 5 years post‐LT (log‐rank test P = 0.254). Age was the only significant predictor of PTDM.ConclusionsPost‐transplant diabetes mellitus occurs rapidly in the post‐LT period and is a significant problem for both NAFLD and non‐NAFLD LT recipients. Age is a significant risk factor for PTDM. Outcomes trended toward increased rejection and worse survival among PTDM individuals, suggesting the benefit of early strategies targeting glucose control.
Reproductive fitness consequences of progenesis: Sex‐specific pay‐offs in safe and risky environments
Authors: Denoël Mathieu , Drapeau Laura , Winandy Laurane 
Published: March 2019

AbstractProgenesis is considered to have an important role in evolution because it allows the retention of both a larval body size and shape in an adult morphology. However, the cost caused by the adoption of a progenetic process in both males and females remains to be explored to explain the success of progenesis and particularly its biased prevalence across the sexes and environments. Here, through an experimental approach, we used a facultative progenetic species, the palmate newt (Lissotriton helveticus) that can either mature at a small size and retain gills or mature after metamorphosis, to test three hypotheses for sex‐specific pay‐offs of progenesis in safe versus risky habitats. Goldfish were used because they caused a higher decline in progenetic than metamorphic newts. We determined that progenetic newts have a lower reproductive fitness than metamorphic newts. We also found that, when compared to metamorphs, progenetic males have lower reproductive activity than progenetic females and that predatory risk affects more progenetic than metamorphic newts. By identifying ultimate causes of the female‐biased sex ratios found in nature, these results support the male escape hypothesis, that is the higher metamorphosis rate of progenetic males. They also highlight that although progenesis is advantageous in advancing the age at first reproduction, it also brings an immediate fitness cost and this, particularly, in hostile predatory environments. This means that whereas some environmental constraints could favour facultative progenesis, some others, such as predation, can ultimately counter‐select progenesis. Altogether, these results improve our understanding of how developmental processes can affect the sexes differently and how species invasions can impair the success of alternative developmental phenotypes.
Grading bunch tightness for grape by multiperspective imaging approach coupled with multivariate classification methods
Authors: Feng Shang‐kun , Yuan Lei‐ming , Ye Hua 
Published: March 2019

AbstractBunch's tightness is a significant trait in determining tablegrape and wine quality. But standard determination of tightness needs the trained technicians and complex manual measurements. This study is to validate the feasibility of multiperspective imaging analysis combined with multivariate modeling methods to grade the grape bunch compactness in a rapid, automatic, and objective approach. The detection system was developed by multiperspective projection imaging structure, where mono‐camera was used to simultaneously capture the whole surface of grape bunch by two mirrors' reflections. Through series of image processes, 23 features that described bunch regions, contours, the cluster density, and so forth, were digitalized and normalized for linear projections by principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least square (PLS), respectively. Then the projected latent components were obtained and were taken as input of the developed classifiers, to qualitatively assess the bunch's tightness. Results indicated these components compressed more information from PLS than PCA projection, and PLS‐support vector machine classifier outperformed best with 88.33% accuracy rate. It was concluded that the multiperspective simultaneously imaging approach coupled with image process and pattern recognition technology could be applied to evaluate the external tightness of grape bunch. Moreover, it has the potential to be a good reference for rapid grade of berry cluster.Practical applicationsThe proven performance of machine vision coupled with pattern recognition could be implemented in automatic measurement system to rapidly and objectively classify the tightness of postharvest grape bunch or other berry‐clustered fruit. This work could be a useful application for the specific consumptions to distinguish the tight from the loose on account of that the tightness plays a significant role in determining table grape and wine quality.
Capital Share Risk in U.S. Asset Pricing
Authors: LETTAU MARTIN , LUDVIGSON SYDNEY C. , MA SAI 
Published: March 2019

ABSTRACTA single macroeconomic factor based on growth in the capital share of aggregate income exhibits significant explanatory power for expected returns across a range of equity characteristic portfolios and nonequity asset classes, with risk price estimates that are of the same sign and similar in magnitude. Positive exposure to capital share risk earns a positive risk premium, commensurate with recent asset pricing models in which redistributive shocks shift the share of income between the wealthy, who finance consumption primarily out of asset ownership, and workers, who finance consumption primarily out of wages and salaries.
Capital Share Dynamics When Firms Insure Workers
Authors: HARTMAN‐GLASER BARNEY , LUSTIG HANNO , XIAOLAN MINDY Z. 
Published: March 2019

ABSTRACTAlthough the aggregate capital share of U.S. firms has increased, capital share at the firm‐level has decreased. This divergence is due to mega‐firms that produce a larger output share without a proportionate increase in labor compensation. We develop a model in which firms insure workers against firm‐specific shocks, with more productive firms allocating more rents to shareholders, while less productive firms endogenously exit. Increasing firm‐level risk delays exit and increases the measure of mega‐firms, raising (lowering) the aggregate (average) capital share. An increase in the level of rents magnifies this effect. We present evidence that supports this mechanism.
Tourism, amenities, and welfare in an urban setting
Authors: Lanzara Gianandrea , Minerva G. Alfredo 
Published: March 2019

AbstractUsing data on Italian cities, we document that over the period of 2001–2011, the number of establishments and employment in some key service industries are positively related to the inflow of tourists. We then build a general equilibrium model of small open cities encompassing these empirical features to study the impact of tourism on endogenous consumption amenities, factors’ allocation across sectors, prices, and welfare. We also study the interplay of exogenous historical amenities, tourism, and residents welfare in a system of two cities. When residents are immobile, they are unambiguously better off when they live in a city with richer historical amenities, and thus more tourists, than the other city. When residents are mobile and their welfare is equalized between cities, the strength of consumption amenities becomes crucial to determine whether they are better off living in an urban system where cities are heterogeneous or similar in terms of historical amenities.
Sexual dichromatism does not translate into sex‐based difference in morphology or diet for the African boomslang
Authors: Smith C. C. D. , Layloo I. , Maritz R. A. , Maritz B. 
Published: March 2019

AbstractSelection for sexual dichromatism is thought to arise mainly from intersexual niche divergence or sexual selection, including mate‐choice and intrasexual competition. However, overt sexual dichromatism is rare in snakes, limiting inference regarding its origin and maintenance in these animals. We thus aimed to assess whether boomslang (Dispholidus typus) – a species of overtly sexually dichromatic African snake – exhibits evidence for intersexual niche divergence based on three ecologically relevant morphological variables (snout‐vent length, tail length and head length) and one ecological variable (diet). We measured morphological variables on 203 museum specimens, and characterized diets for male and female snakes on the basis of dissected specimen gut contents, supplemented with literature reports of feeding, as well as online photographs. Male and female boomslang show broadly similar gross morphology and do not differ in mean snout‐vent, relative tail length or head length. Moreover, male and female snakes do not differ in the frequency with which they consume different prey classes. Similarly, diets of adult and juvenile snakes did not differ significantly. The abundance of chameleons and bird chicks (36% and 54% of prey items respectively) in the diet of boomslang suggests dietary restriction due to arboreality rather than dietary specialization per se. Despite examining a range of morphological and ecological variables, we fail to detect evidence for intersexual niche differentiation. Rather, our results suggest that juvenile coloration is likely a result of selection for camouflage from visually oriented predators, and that the overt sexual dichromatism of adults following maturation represents a shift toward either intersexual mate‐choice or intrasexual competition. We therefore recommend that boomslang visual acuity and colour differentiation be directly examined in the future.
Ultrastructural and metabolic disorders induced by short‐term cadmium exposure in Avicennia schaueriana plants and its excretion through leaf salt glands
Authors: Mizushima M. Y. B. , Ferreira B. G. , França M. G. C. , Almeida A.‐A. F. , Cortez P. A. , Silva J. V. S. , Jesus R. M. , Prasad M. N. V. , Mangabeira P. A. O. 
Published: March 2019

Abstract

Environmental cadmium (Cd) sources have increased in mangrove sediments in recent decades, inducing cellular damage to many plants. Avicennia schaueriana is abundant in mangrove sites and has been subject to Cd contamination. The possible effects of Cd toxicity and the structural and physiological disturbances to this plant were studied. Can this plant express early cellular tolerance mechanisms to such metal contamination?

Seedlings of A. schaueriana were collected from sites of their natural occurrence, placed in plastic pots containing nutrient solution for 60 days, and subsequently exposed to increasing Cd concentrations for 5 days under experimental conditions. The anatomical, ultrastructural and physiological changes induced by Cd were analysed.

Cd accumulated mainly in the root system and in pneumatophores, stems and leaves, induced differential accumulation of mineral nutrients, but did not induce necrosis or changes in leaf anatomy. However, there was a decrease in starch grains and an increase in deposited electron‐dense material in the cortex and vascular bundles. Cd induced both increases in calcium (Ca) content in shoots and Ca oxalate crystal precipitation in leaf mesophyll and was detected in crystals and in the secretion of salt glands.

Our observations and experimental results provide evidence of Cd tolerance in A. schaueriana. As a new feature, despite the clear cellular physiological disorders, this plant is able to eliminate Cd through leaf salt glands and immobilise it in Ca crystals, representing fast mechanisms for Cd exclusion and complexation in leaves in heavy metal coastal polluted marine ecosystems.
Cognitive reappraisal during unpleasant picture processing: Subjective self‐report and peripheral physiology
Authors: Fuentes‐Sánchez Nieves , Jaén Irene , Escrig Miguel A. , Lucas Ignacio , Pastor M. Carmen 
Published: March 2019

AbstractIncreased attention among the research community in exploring underlying mechanisms of emotion regulation has prompted a growth of experimental works in this field. Empirical studies have mainly focused on self‐reports, brain imaging, and electrophysiological measures, with only a few works exploring peripheral physiology. Additionally, most of such studies have not considered the specific stimuli content, even though prior literature has shown relevant differences in psychophysiological and subjective responses depending on picture categories. The current study assessed several peripheral correlates (startle amplitude, electrodermal changes, heart rate) of emotion regulation processes in a sample of 122 healthy participants. The task consisted of voluntary reappraisal of negative emotions prompted by unpleasant pictures (threat to others and victims), compared to a nonregulation control condition (looking at exemplars of the same categories and household objects). Results showed an effect of emotion regulation instructions in all psychophysiological and subjective measures. In peripheral physiology, greater responses were observed specifically when increasing negative emotions, concurring with previous research. Regarding specific content, our findings evidence a similar emotion regulation pattern, independently of the unpleasant category, suggesting a plausible effect of cognitive variables (such as cognitive effort) during voluntary reappraisal for both categories.
Drugging transcription in heart failure
Authors: Padmanabhan Arun , Haldar Saptarsi M. 
Published: March 2019

AbstractAdvances in our understanding of the basic biology and biochemistry of chromatin structure and function at genome scales has led to tremendous growth in the fields of epigenomics and transcriptional biology. While it has long been appreciated that transcriptional pathways are dysregulated in failing hearts, only recently has the idea of disrupting altered transcription by targeting chromatin‐associated proteins been explored. Here, we provide a brief overview of efforts to drug transcription in the context of heart failure, focusing on the bromo‐ and extra‐terminal domain (BET) family of chromatin co‐activator proteins.
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