bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Two Faces of Mental Imagery
Authors: Arcangeli Margherita 
Published: April 2019

Mental imagery has often been taken to be equivalent to “sensory imagination”, the perception‐like type of imagination at play when, for example, one visually imagines a flower when none is there, or auditorily imagines a music passage while wearing earplugs. I contend that the equation of mental imagery with sensory imagination stems from a confusion between two senses of mental imagery. In the first sense, mental imagery is used to refer to a psychological attitude, which is perception‐like in nature. In the second sense, mental imagery refers to a mental content, which can be grasped via different attitudes. I will show that failure to acknowledge the distinction between these senses of mental imagery has muddled philosophical discussion. This distinction brings much needed clarity to debates where sensory imagination and mental imagery are invoked, shedding light on issues such as the nature of imagistic mental states, and the representational powers and limits of mental imagery. I will conclude by sketching a general attitudinal account of imagination that does justice to both senses of mental imagery, outlining a promising framework for understanding imagination.
Ethics by Design: The Impact of Form of Government on Municipal Corruption
Authors: Nelson Kimberly L. , Afonso Whitney B. 
Published: April 2019

AbstractWhile trust in government at all levels is at an all‐time low, actual corruption at the municipal level has been declining. One factor often credited with this decline is the introduction of the council‐manager form of government. One of the key reasons the council‐manager form was created in the early 1900s was to act as an antidote to the corruption prevalent in the big‐city machine politics of the era. Despite this, no one has tested whether the council‐manager form has in fact influenced the decline in corruption rates. This article uses a rare events logit model to analyze corruption convictions in municipalities between 1990 and 2010 to determine which factors, including form of government, affect the probability that a corrupt act will occur. The findings indicate that municipalities with the council‐manager form are 57 percent less likely to have corruption convictions than municipalities with the mayor‐council form.
Cultural Theory's Contributions to Risk Analysis: A Thematic Review with Directions and Resources for Further Research
Authors: Johnson Branden B. , Swedlow Brendon 
Published: April 2019

AbstractCultural theory (CT) developed from grid/group analysis, which posits that different patterns of social relations—hierarchist, individualist, egalitarian, and fatalist—produce compatible cultural biases influencing assessment of which hazards pose high or low risk and how to manage them. Introduced to risk analysis (RA) in 1982 by Douglas and Wildavsky's Risk and Culture, this institutional approach to social construction of risk surprised a field hitherto focused on psychological influences on risk perceptions and behavior. We explain what CT is and how it developed; describe and evaluate its contributions to the study of risk perception and management, and its prescriptions for risk assessment and management; and identify opportunities and resources to develop its contributions to RA. We suggest how the diverse, fruitful, but scattered efforts to develop CT both inside and outside the formal discipline of RA (as exemplified by the Society for Risk Analysis) might be leveraged for greater theoretical, methodological, and applied progress in the field.
A Comprehensive Approach to Problems of Performance Measurement
Authors: Fisher N. I. 
Published: April 2019

SummaryThe paper describes a comprehensive approach to problems of performance measurement that can be used to tackle a wide range of situations, including designing monthly board and leadership reports in enterprises, assessing research quality and monitoring the efficiency and effectiveness of government programmes. It provides a review of various methods for tackling these problems and outlines some current areas of research. Although technical statistical issues are buried somewhat below the surface, statistical thinking is very much part of the main line of argument, meaning that performance measurement should be an area attracting serious attention from statisticians.
Achieving a person‐centered approach to dialysis discontinuation: An historical perspective
Authors: O'Hare Ann M. , Murphy Emma , Butler Catherine R. , Richards Claire A. 
Published: April 2019

AbstractIn this essay, we describe the evolution of attitudes toward dialysis discontinuation in historical context, beginning with the birth of outpatient dialysis in the 1960s and continuing through the present. From the start, attitudes toward dialysis discontinuation have reflected the clinical context in which dialysis is initiated. In the 1960s and 1970s, dialysis was only available to select patients and concerns about distributive justice weighed heavily. Because there was strong enthusiasm for new technology and dialysis was regarded as a precious resource not to be wasted, stopping treatment had negative moral connotations and was generally viewed as something to be discouraged. More recently, dialysis has become the default treatment for advanced kidney disease in the United States, leading to concerns about overtreatment and whether patients' values, goals, and preferences are sufficiently integrated into treatment decisions. Despite the developments in palliative nephrology over the past 20 years, dialysis discontinuation remains a conundrum for patients, families, and professionals. While contemporary clinical practice guidelines support a person‐centered approach toward stopping dialysis treatments, this often occurs in a crisis when all treatment options have been exhausted. Relatively little is known about the impact of dialysis discontinuation on the experiences of patients and families and there is a paucity of high‐quality person‐centered evidence to guide practice in this area. Clinicians need better insights into decision‐making, symptom burden, and other palliative outcomes that patients might expect when they discontinue dialysis treatments to better support decision‐making in this area.
Being a poor farmer in a wealthy country: A Swiss case study
Authors: Contzen Sandra , Crettaz Eric 
Published: April 2019

AbstractMany Swiss farming families face socioeconomic disadvantage despite Switzerland being a wealthy country with instruments of agricultural policy financially supporting almost all farmers. However, official poverty statistics exclude Swiss farmers and scientific knowledge is rare about how such situations are experienced. This article scrutinises the situation of Swiss farming families living in poverty or material deprivation by intertwining qualitative and quantitative methods to enrich both types of data and interpretations. By statistically comparing farmers with the self‐employed in other economic sectors, it uses a novel way of comparing the farming with the non‐farming population. The article shows that the poverty among farmers resembles that of the self‐employed with no or few employees in other economic sectors and describes the lived experiences of poverty and material deprivation. It concludes that adaptive preferences make farming families resilient to socioeconomic disadvantage, while possibly leading to a loss of their livelihood in the long run.
Discrepancies between self‐reported tick bites and evidence of tick‐borne disease exposure among nomadic Mongolian herders
Authors: Lkhagvatseren Sukhbaatar , Hogan Kathryn M. , Boldbaatar Bazartseren , von Fricken Michael E. , Anderson Benjamin D. , Pulscher Laura A. , Caddell Luke , Nymadawa Pagbajabyn , Gray Gregory C. 
Published: April 2019

AbstractTwenty‐six per cent of Mongolians live pastoral lifestyles, increasing their likelihood of exposure to ticks and placing them at a higher risk for contracting tick‐borne diseases (TBDs). Anaplasma spp. and Rickettsia spp. have been identified in ticks, livestock and humans in Mongolia, but no known qualitative research has been conducted investigating the association between nomadic herder characteristics, tick bite history and exposure to TBDs. To better understand the association between self‐reported tick bites and symptoms versus actual exposure to TBDs, this study paired serological data with 335 surveys administered to Mongolian herders, ages 12–69, from 2014 to 2015. Logistic regression results identified no significant associations between reported tick bites or symptoms with serological evidence of Anaplasma spp. and Rickettsia spp. controlling for age, gender and aimag. Among the 335 respondents who were seropositive to either Anaplasma spp. or Rickettsia spp., 32.9% self‐reported experiencing abnormal symptoms such as redness, inflammation, headache, arthritis or fever after being bitten. Alternatively, 17.3% (58/335) of individuals reported experiencing symptoms following a tick bite in instances where serological results indicated no exposure to Anaplasma spp. or Rickettsia spp. Results also identified inconsistencies in reporting and seroprevalence among different age groups, with children having the highest reporting and treatment seeking rates but low levels of exposure in comparison with other groups. While survey results showed that individuals were aware of peak tick seasons and tick species that inhabit specific areas, 58% of heads of households (49/84) were unaware that ticks can cause disease in livestock or dogs. This study suggests that herders are an at‐risk population in Mongolia with gaps in awareness of TBD risk. Increased surveillance paired with focused outreach to prevent TBDs targeted to the herder population is encouraged.
Intercellular calcium waves integrate hormonal control of glucose output in the intact liver
Authors: Gaspers Lawrence D. , Pierobon Nicola , Thomas Andrew P. 
Published: April 2019

Key points
Sympathetic outflow and circulating glucogenic hormones both regulate liver function by increasing cytosolic calcium, although how these calcium signals are integrated at the tissue level is currently unknown.
We show that stimulation of hepatic nerve fibres or perfusing the liver with physiological concentrations of vasopressin only will evoke localized cytosolic calcium oscillations and modest increases in hepatic glucose production.
The combination of these stimuli acted synergistically to convert localized and asynchronous calcium responses into co‐ordinated intercellular calcium waves that spread throughout the liver lobule and elicited a synergistic increase in hepatic glucose production.
The results obtained in the present study demonstrate that subthreshold levels of one hormone can create an excitable medium across the liver lobule, which allows global propagation of calcium signals in response to local sympathetic innervation and integration of metabolic regulation by multiple hormones. This enables the liver lobules to respond as functional units to produce full‐strength metabolic output at physiological levels of hormone.
AbstractGlucogenic hormones, including catecholamines and vasopressin, induce frequency‐modulated cytosolic Ca2+ oscillations in hepatocytes, and these propagate as intercellular Ca2+ waves via gap junctions in the intact liver. We investigated the role of co‐ordinated Ca2+ waves as a mechanism for integrating multiple endocrine and neuroendocrine inputs to control hepatic glucose production in perfused rat liver. Sympathetic nerve stimulation elicited localized Ca2+ increases that were restricted to hepatocytes in the periportal zone. During perfusion with subthreshold vasopressin, sympathetic stimulation converted asynchronous Ca2+ signals in a limited number of hepatocytes into co‐ordinated intercellular Ca2+ waves that propagated across entire lobules. A similar synergism was observed between physiological concentrations of glucagon and vasopressin, where glucagon also facilitated the recruitment of hepatocytes into a Ca2+ wave. Hepatic glucose production was significantly higher with intralobular Ca2+ waves. We propose that inositol 1,4,5‐trisphosphate (IP3)‐dependent Ca2+ signalling gives rise to an excitable medium across the functional syncytium of the hepatic lobule, co‐ordinating and amplifying the metabolic responses to multiple hormonal inputs.
Catch the Feeling of Flying: Guided Walks Through a Trampoline Olympic Development Environment
Authors: Seanor Michelle , Schinke Robert J. , Stambulova Natalia B. , Henriksen Kristoffer , Ross Dave , Giffin Cole 
Published: April 2019

Olympic-medal performances represent peak accomplishments in athlete development. Seanor, Schinke, Stambulova, Ross, and Kpazai identified environmental factors in a high-performance Canadian trampoline sport environment that developed decorated Olympic medalists. The current intrinsic case study was authored to further highlight the idiosyncrasies of a high-performance trampoline environment (re)presenting stories garnered from this localized Canadian sport environment. Through guided walks, a mobile method of conversational interviews, three contextual experts who are engaged in the development of Olympic athletes provided tours of their sport environment. Each contextual expert’s guided walk played out uniquely in relation to his or her ascribed role (i.e., Olympic coach, assistant coach, and Olympic champion). Three main themes were identified through interpretive thematic analysis: creating lift (subthemes: facility design, sport-culture paragons), providing a tailwind (subthemes: establishing athlete–coach partnerships, team interactions), and soaring onto the Olympic podium (subthemes: preparing athletes to be untethered, competitive collaboration). Each theme is presented through three portrait vignettes, with discrete vantages derived from each contextual expert to illuminate the context from idiosyncratic ascribed roles within the environment. These stories create a rich (re)presentation of a high-performance sport environment through the interplay of the contextual experts’ narratives, their surrounding context, and their Olympic-podium accomplishments.
Dietary supplementation with inulin-propionate ester or inulin improves insulin sensitivity in adults with overweight and obesity with distinct effects on the gut microbiota, plasma metabolome and systemic inflammatory responses: a randomised cross-over trial
Authors: Chambers Edward S , Byrne Claire S , Morrison Douglas J , Murphy Kevin G , Preston Tom , Tedford Catriona , Garcia-Perez Isabel , Fountana Sofia , Serrano-Contreras Jose Ivan , Holmes Elaine , Reynolds Catherine J , Roberts Jordie F , Boyton Rosemary J , Altmann Daniel M , McDonald Julie A K , Marchesi Julian R , Akbar Arne N , Riddell Natalie E , Wallis Gareth A , Frost Gary S 
Published: April 2019

ObjectiveTo investigate the underlying mechanisms behind changes in glucose homeostasis with delivery of propionate to the human colon by comprehensive and coordinated analysis of gut bacterial composition, plasma metabolome and immune responses.DesignTwelve non-diabetic adults with overweight and obesity received 20 g/day of inulin-propionate ester (IPE), designed to selectively deliver propionate to the colon, a high-fermentable fibre control (inulin) and a low-fermentable fibre control (cellulose) in a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over design. Outcome measurements of metabolic responses, inflammatory markers and gut bacterial composition were analysed at the end of each 42-day supplementation period.ResultsBoth IPE and inulin supplementation improved insulin resistance compared with cellulose supplementation, measured by homeostatic model assessment 2 (mean±SEM 1.23±0.17 IPE vs 1.59±0.17 cellulose, p=0.001; 1.17±0.15 inulin vs 1.59±0.17 cellulose, p=0.009), with no differences between IPE and inulin (p=0.272). Fasting insulin was only associated positively with plasma tyrosine and negatively with plasma glycine following inulin supplementation. IPE supplementation decreased proinflammatory interleukin-8 levels compared with cellulose, while inulin had no impact on the systemic inflammatory markers studied. Inulin promoted changes in gut bacterial populations at the class level (increased Actinobacteria and decreased Clostridia) and order level (decreased Clostridiales) compared with cellulose, with small differences at the species level observed between IPE and cellulose.ConclusionThese data demonstrate a distinctive physiological impact of raising colonic propionate delivery in humans, as improvements in insulin sensitivity promoted by IPE and inulin were accompanied with different effects on the plasma metabolome, gut bacterial populations and markers of systemic inflammation.
On the Entropy Loss and Gap of Condensers
Authors: Aviv Nir , Ta-Shma Amnon 
Published: April 2019

Many algorithms are proven to work under the assumption that they have access to a source of random, uniformly distributed bits. However, in practice, sources of randomness are often imperfect, giving
n
random bits that have only
k
<
n
min-entropy. The value
n
−
k
is called the
entropy gap
of the source.
Randomness condensers
are hash functions that hash any such source to a shorter source with reduced entropy gap
g
. The goal is to lose as little entropy as possible in this process. Condensers also have an error parameter ε and use a small
seed
of uniformly distributed bits whose length we desire to minimize as well.

In this work, we study the exact dependencies between the different parameters of seeded randomness condensers. We obtain a non-explicit upper bound, showing the existence of condensers with entropy loss log (1+log 1/ε /
g
) +
O
(1) and seed length log (
n
−
k
/ ε
g
) +
O
(1). In particular, this implies the existence of condensers with
O
(log 1 / ε) entropy gap and constant entropy loss. This extends (with slightly improved parameters) the non-explicit upper bound for condensers presented in the work of Dodis et al. (2014), which gives condensers with entropy loss at least log log 1 / ε. We also give a non-explicit upper bound for
lossless
condensers, which have entropy gap
g
≥ log 1 / ε / ε +
O
(1) and seed length log (
n
−
k
/ ε
2
g
) +
O
(1).

Furthermore, we address an open question raised in (Dodis et al. 2014), where Dodis et al. showed an
explicit
construction of condensers with constant gap and
O
(log log 1/ ε) loss, using seed length
O
(
n
log 1 / ε). In the same article they improve the seed length to
O
(
k
log
k
) and ask whether it can be further improved. In this work, we reduce the seed length of their construction to
O
(log (
n
/ ε)log (
k
/ &epsiv)) by a simple concatenation.

In the analysis, we use and prove a tight equivalence between condensers and extractors with multiplicative error. We note that a similar, but non-tight, equivalence was already proven by Dodis et al. (Dodis et al. 2014) using a weaker variant of extractors called
unpredictability extractors
. We also remark that this equivalence underlies the work of Ben-Aroya et al. (Ben-Aroya et al. 2016) and later work on explicit two-source extractors, and we believe it is interesting in its own right.
Pure tones modulate the representation of orientation and direction in the primary visual cortex
Authors: McClure John P. , Polack Pierre-Olivier 
Published: April 2019

Multimodal sensory integration facilitates the generation of a unified and coherent perception of the environment. It is now well established that unimodal sensory perceptions, such as vision, are improved in multisensory contexts. Whereas multimodal integration is primarily performed by dedicated multisensory brain regions such as the association cortices or the superior colliculus, recent studies have shown that multisensory interactions also occur in primary sensory cortices. In particular, sounds were shown to modulate the responses of neurons located in layers 2/3 (L2/3) of the mouse primary visual cortex (V1). Yet, the net effect of sound modulation at the V1 population level remained unclear. In the present study, we performed two-photon calcium imaging in awake mice to compare the representation of the orientation and the direction of drifting gratings by V1 L2/3 neurons in unimodal (visual only) or multimodal (audiovisual) conditions. We found that sound modulation depended on the tuning properties (orientation and direction selectivity) and response amplitudes of V1 L2/3 neurons. Sounds potentiated the responses of neurons that were highly tuned to the cue’s orientation and direction but weakly active in the unimodal context, following the principle of inverse effectiveness of multimodal integration. Moreover, sound suppressed the responses of neurons untuned for the orientation and/or the direction of the visual cue. Altogether, sound modulation improved the representation of the orientation and direction of the visual stimulus in V1 L2/3. Namely, visual stimuli presented with auditory stimuli recruited a neuronal population better tuned to the visual stimulus orientation and direction than when presented alone. NEW & NOTEWORTHY The primary visual cortex (V1) receives direct inputs from the primary auditory cortex. Yet, the impact of sounds on visual processing in V1 remains controverted. We show that the modulation by pure tones of V1 visual responses depends on the orientation selectivity, direction selectivity, and response amplitudes of V1 neurons. Hence, audiovisual stimuli recruit a population of V1 neurons better tuned to the orientation and direction of the visual stimulus than unimodal visual stimuli.
Thalamocortical dysrhythmia in intraoperative recordings of focal epilepsy
Authors: Martire Daniel J. , Wong Simeon , Mikhail Mirriam , Ochi Ayako , Otsubo Hiroshi , Snead O. Carter , Donner Elizabeth , Ibrahim George M. 
Published: April 2019

Resonant interactions between the thalamus and cortex subserve a critical role for maintenance of consciousness as well as cognitive functions. In states of abnormal thalamic inhibition, thalamocortical dysrhythmia (TCD) has been described. The characteristics of TCD include a slowing of resting oscillations, ectopic high-frequency activity, and increased cross-frequency coupling. Here, we demonstrate the presence of TCD in four patients who underwent resective epilepsy surgery with chronically implanted electrodes under anesthesia, continuously recording activity from brain regions at the periphery of the epileptogenic zone before and after resection. Following resection, we report an acceleration of the large-scale network resting frequency coincident with decreases in cross-frequency phase-amplitude coupling. Interregional functional connectivity in the surrounding cortex was also increased following resection of the epileptogenic focus. These findings provide evidence for the presence of TCD in focal epilepsy and highlight the importance of reciprocal thalamocortical oscillatory interactions in defining novel biomarkers for resective surgeries.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Thalamocortical dysrhythmia (TCD) occurs in the context of thalamic dysfacilitation and is characterized by slowing of resting oscillations, ectopic high-frequency activity, and cross-frequency coupling. We provide evidence for TCD in focal epilepsy by studying electrophysiological changes occurring at the periphery of the resection margin. We report acceleration of resting activity coincident with decreased cross-frequency coupling and increased functional connectivity. The study of TCD in epilepsy has implications as a biomarker and therapeutic target.