bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The role of bite force in the evolution of head shape and head shape dimorphism in Anolis lizards
Authors: De Meyer Jens , Irschick Duncan J. , Vanhooydonck Bieke , Losos Jonathan B. , Adriaens Dominique , Herrel Anthony 
Published: August 2019

Abstract

Patterns of convergent evolution in head shape, combined with performance measures, provide ideal opportunities to understand the processes driving its evolution. Anole lizards represent an excellent subject to test this, as recurrent habitat specialists or ecomorphs evolved independently across different islands.

We show that phenotypic similarity corresponds to both phylogenetic similarity and similarity in habitat, indicating that there is convergent evolution in head shape among ecomorphs. Moreover, we show that the evolution of tall, wide heads correlate with the evolution of higher bite forces, driving head shape variation among and within ecomorphs.

In addition, the processes affecting head shape variation can differ between sexes, leading to sexual head shape dimorphism. These processes might, however, still depend on the habitat. Consequently, there could also be convergent evolution in head shape dimorphism among ecomorphs.

We found no evidence for convergent evolution in sexual head shape dimorphism. Moreover, the sexual head shape dimorphism correlates poorly with bite force, suggesting that intersexual head shape differences are related to other functions. Different processes are thus driving the evolution of head shape and head shape dimorphism.

A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
Tracking seasonal activity of the western blacklegged tick across California
Authors: MacDonald Andrew J. , O’Neill Craig , Yoshimizu Melissa H. , Padgett Kerry A. , Larsen Ashley E. 
Published: August 2019

Abstract

Understanding seasonal patterns of activity, or phenology, of vector species is fundamental to determining seasonality of disease risk and epidemics of vector‐borne disease. Spatiotemporal variation in abiotic conditions can influence variation in phenological patterns and life history events, which can dramatically influence the ecological role and human impact of a species. For arthropod vectors of human diseases such as ticks, these phenological patterns determine human exposure risk, yet how abiotic conditions interact to determine suitable conditions for host‐seeking of vector species is difficult to disentangle.

Here, we use MaxEnt to model spatial patterns and differences in host‐seeking phenology of the western blacklegged tick (Ixodes pacificus) in California using spatially and temporally refined adult tick occurrence data and similarly refined climate and environmental data. We empirically validate the model using phenological data from field studies conducted at sites across California's latitudinal gradient.

We find adult tick host‐seeking activity varies substantially throughout the year, as well as across the large latitudinal gradient in the state. Suitable conditions for host‐seeking are found earlier in fall and later in the spring in northern than in southern California. These seasonal patterns are primarily associated with monthly precipitation, minimum winter temperature, and winter precipitation, with maximum monthly temperature possibly playing a more prominent role in limiting host‐seeking activity earlier in the spring in southern than northern California.

Synthesis and applications. Modelling the seasonal activity of the western blacklegged tick, we find both a longer window for host‐feeding and more protracted risk of human exposure to this vector species in northern than southern California. We further identify key environmental factors associated with these patterns, including precipitation and temperature that are otherwise challenging to elucidate in field and laboratory studies over large spatial scales. Moreover, we illustrate how species distribution models, in combination with temporally refined species occurrence and environmental data, can be used to investigate environmental factors predictive of geographic variation in seasonality or phenology of vector species. This produces not only novel ecological insight, but key information for public health practitioners in managing vector‐borne disease transmission and targeting public outreach and interventions.
Grassland restoration characteristics influence phylogenetic and taxonomic structure of plant communities and suggest assembly mechanisms
Authors: Barber Nicholas A. , Farrell Anna K. , Blackburn Ryan C. , Bauer Jonathan T. , Groves Anna M. , Brudvig Lars A. , Jones Holly P. 
Published: August 2019

Abstract

Phylogenetic and species‐based taxonomic descriptions of community structure may provide complementary information about the mechanisms driving community assembly across different environments. Environmental filtering may have similar effects on taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity under the assumption of niche conservatism, whereas competitive exclusion could produce contrasting patterns in these diversity metrics. In grassland restorations, these diversity patterns might then reveal potential assembly mechanisms underlying the impacts of restoration and management conditions on community structure.

We compared plant community structure (alpha diversity, composition, and within‐site beta diversity) from both phylogenetic and taxonomic perspectives. Using surveys from 120 tallgrass prairie restorations in four regions of the Midwestern United States, we examined the effects of four potential drivers or environmental gradients: precipitation in the first year of restoration, seed mix richness, time since last prescribed fire, and restoration age, and included soil conditions as a covariate.

First‐year precipitation influenced taxonomic community structure, but had weak effects on phylogenetic diversity and composition. Similarly, greater seed mix richness increased taxonomic diversity but did not influence phylogenetic diversity. Taxonomic, but not phylogenetic, diversity generally was lower in older restorations and those with a longer time since the last prescribed fire. These drivers consistently explained more variation in taxonomic than phylogenetic diversity and composition, perhaps in part because species turnover was largely among related species, producing weak impacts on phylogenetic community measures.

An impact of precipitation on taxonomic but not phylogenetic diversity suggests that there may not be large differences in drought tolerance among clades that would cause phylogenetic patterns to arise from this environmental filter. Declining taxonomic diversity but not phylogenetic diversity is consistent with competitive exclusion as an assembly mechanism when competition is strongest between related species.

Synthesis. This research shows how studying taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity of ecosystem restorations can inform plant community ecology and help natural resource managers better predict the outcomes of restoration actions and management.
Teacher attitudes in Italy after 40 years of inclusion
Authors: Saloviita Timo , Consegnati Simone 
Published: August 2019

In 1977, Italy adopted a policy to fully include students with disabilities in mainstream classrooms. This study surveyed the attitudes of Italian teachers towards inclusive education 40 years after this reform. The data were collected from 153 basic school teachers using the Teachers' Attitudes towards Inclusion Scale (TAIS). The results indicate that the Italian teachers had a high level of commitment to inclusive education. Approximately 90% of the respondents agreed that students with special educational needs should be educated in mainstream classrooms, and only 7% felt that they should be transferred to special education classrooms instead. To improve the quality of inclusive education, the teachers most frequently mentioned the need for more in‐service training, smaller class sizes, and additional help from support teachers and therapists in the classroom.
An Adaptive, Contextual, Technology‐Aided Support (ACTS) System for Chronic Illness Self‐Management
Authors: GLASGOW RUSSELL E. , HUEBSCHMANN AMY G. , KRIST ALEX H. , DEGRUY FRANK V. 
Published: August 2019

Policy Points
Fundamental changes are needed in how complex chronic illness conditions are conceptualized and managed.
Health management plans for chronic illness need to be integrated, adaptive, contextual, technology aided, patient driven, and designed to address the multilevel social environment of patients’ lives.
Such primary care–based health management plans are feasible today but will be even more effective and sustainable if supported by systems thinking, technological advances, and policies that create and reinforce home, work, and health care collaborations.
ContextThe current health care system is failing patients with chronic illness, especially those with complex comorbid conditions and social determinants of health challenges. The current system combined with unsustainable health care costs, lack of support for primary care in the United States, and aging demographics create a frightening probable future.MethodsRecent developments, including integrated behavioral health, community resources to address social determinants, population health infrastructure, patient‐centered digital‐health self‐management support, and complexity science have the potential to help address these alarming trends. This article describes, first, the opportunity to integrate these trends and, second, a proposal for an integrated, patient‐directed, adaptive, contextual, and technology‐aided support (ACTS) system, based on a patient's life context and home/primary care/work‐setting “support triangle.”FindingsNone of these encouraging trends is a panacea, and although most have been described previously, they have not been integrated. Here we discuss an example of integration using these components and how our proposed model (termed My Own Health Report) can be applied, along with its strengths, limitations, implications, and opportunities for practice, policy, and research.ConclusionsThis ACTS system builds on and extends the current chronic illness management approaches. It is feasible today and can produce even more dramatic improvements in the future.
Sexual functioning and its correlates in premenopausal married Indian women with systemic lupus erythematosus
Authors: Pinto Benzeeta , Grover Sandeep , Dhooria Aadhaar , Rathi Manish , Sharma Aman 
Published: August 2019

AbstractBackgroundThis study aimed to evaluate sexual functioning and its association with disease activity, damage, marital satisfaction, fatigue and psychiatric comorbidity in married women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).MethodsOne hundred and twelve premenopausal married women with SLE were included in the study. Disease activity and damage were assessed using Safety of Estrogens in Lupus Erythematosus National Assessment Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SELENA‐SLEDAI) and Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/ American College of Rheumatology Damage Index (SDI) respectively. Female sexual function index (FSFI) and couple satisfaction index (CSI) were used to evaluate sexual function and marital satisfaction respectively. Depression, anxiety and fatigue were assessed using Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD7) and fatigue severity scale (FSS) respectively.ResultsThe mean age of the study group was 34.0 (SD 6.8) years. Mean SELENA‐SLEDAI was 3.67 (SD 4.2) and mean SDI was 0.25 (SD 0.62). Median steroid dose at the time of evaluation was 7.5 mg/d of prednisolone. Based on FSFI total score, impaired sexual functioning was found in 60.7%. However, when the cut‐off of different domains was considered, more than 90% of the participants reported problems in desire, arousal and lubrication. The mean CSI score was 130.39 ± 26.17. Eighteen patients (16.1%) had CSI lower than the cut‐off score (104.5) suggestive of marital distress. On univariate analysis sexual function showed a correlation with marital satisfaction (r = .34, P < .001), dose of steroids(r = −.26, P = .008), disease activity (r = −.21, P = .027), depression (r = −.19, P = .039) and anxiety (r = −.201, P = .034).ConclusionSexual dysfunction is highly prevalent in premenopausal married females with SLE. Higher dose of steroids, disease activity, depression,anxiety and marital satisfaction were associated with poor sexual functioning in one or more domains.
General practice registrars’ experiences of antenatal care: A cross‐sectional analysis
Authors: Pappalardo Emma , Magin Parker , Tapley Amanda , Davey Andrew , Holliday Elizabeth G. , Ball Jean , Spike Neil , FitzGerald Kristen , Morgan Simon , van Driel Mieke L. 
Published: August 2019

BackgroundGeneral practitioners play an important role in diagnosis and ongoing management of pregnancies. Some GP registrars entering GP training may have had no post‐graduate experience in obstetrics and gynaecology. GP registrars’ involvement in antenatal care is under‐researched.AimsThis study aimed to determine the prevalence and associations of Australian GP registrars’ clinical consultations involving antenatal care.Materials and MethodsA cross‐sectional analysis from the Registrar Clinical Encounters in Training (ReCEnT) cohort study. GP registrars record details of 60 consecutive consultations during each of three six‐month training terms. Associations of managing pregnancy‐related problems (compared to all other problems) were analysed using univariate and multivariable logistic regression. Independent variables included registrar, practice, patient, consultation and educational factors.ResultsAntenatal care comprised 3277 (1.1%) of registrar problems/diagnoses. Consultations involving pregnancy‐related problems were significantly associated with registrars being female, in term three, younger, and having post‐graduate qualifications in obstetrics/gynaecology. Patients were significantly more likely to be from a non‐English speaking background. Pregnancy‐related problems/diagnoses were more likely to be seen in lower socioeconomic areas. Consultation factors significantly associated with a pregnancy‐related problem/diagnosis included ordering imaging, ordering pathology, arranging referrals, and a longer duration of consultation. Registrars were less likely to prescribe medication or generate learning goals.ConclusionsGP registrars see fewer antenatal problems compared to established GPs. Male registrars, especially, have significantly less exposure to antenatal care, suggesting potential limitation of opportunity to gain skills and experience in antenatal care.
Debt‐Bonded Brick Kiln Workers and Their Intent to Return: Towards a Labour Geography of Smallholder Farming Persistence in Cambodia
Authors: Natarajan Nithya , Parsons Laurie , Brickell Katherine 
Published: August 2019

AbstractDespite the increasing preponderance of non‐farm work in Cambodia, labour migrants across a range of working conditions remain linked to their rural homesteads through durable financial and social arrangements. This article explores this phenomenon through the case of debt‐bonded brick kiln workers in Phnom Penh, formerly smallholder farmers in villages. Drawing on the field of labour geography, the article first examines the process by which labourers became debt‐bonded, thus situating them within the country’s broader agrarian transition and recasting peasants as rural labour. It then explores workers’ perceptions of rural life, suggesting that the unfreedom of kiln work, contrasted with the fixedness and potential for mobility in rural life, makes workers aspire to return to their land. The article ultimately highlights how the persistence of smallholder farmers can be understood as an issue of poor work under neoliberalism in Cambodia, and draws light on the agency of labour in understanding this.
At Once the Saviours and the Saved: “Diaspora Girls”, Dangerous Places, and Smart Power
Authors: Wilson Kalpana 
Published: August 2019

AbstractThis article explores how racially marked young women and girls are sought to be discursively and materially incorporated into markets and imperial economic and geopolitical strategies in spatially differentiated ways, through an examination of a series of media productions which portray the engagement of young racialised British citizens with their countries of heritage. I propose the term “diaspora girls” to refer to the protagonists of these media productions, who are understood as embodying “British” post‐feminist gender values and heroically carrying them to “dangerous” spaces of gender oppression and violence. In the context of current constructions of diasporas as agents of development, alongside the framing of migration as a “security threat” to the global North, these British citizens are viewed as ideally positioned to further the contemporary imperialist project. Their perceived empowerment is understood to be fragile and contingent, however, because of their affective connection with these spaces. Further, for those who are Muslim in particular, their perceived Britishness is understood as requiring continual reaffirmation and proof, thus reinforcing racialised structures of citizenship, and legitimising a border regime which reinscribes permanent North–South inequality.
γ‐Secretase inhibition affects viability, apoptosis, and the stem cell phenotype of endometriotic cells
Authors: Ramirez Williams Laura , Brüggemann Kathrin , Hubert Marina , Achmad Nurjannah , Kiesel Ludwig , Schäfer Sebastian D. , Greve Burkhard , Götte Martin 
Published: August 2019

AbstractIntroductionStem cells mediate cyclic regeneration of the endometrium. The upregulated expression of receptors and modulators of the notch signaling pathway in endometriosis suggests an involvement in the pathogenetic process. Here, we investigated the effects of notch pathway inhibition by a γ‐secretase inhibitor (GSI) on stemness‐associated properties of the epithelial endometriotic cell line 12Z and of primary endometriotic stroma cells.Material and methods12Z cells and primary endometriotic stroma cells of 7 patients were treated with or without GSI, and analyzed for changes in gene expression by TaqMan low‐density arrays, quantitative PCR, and flow cytometry. The functional impact of GSI treatment was studied by MTT assay, cell cycle analysis, colony formation assay, annexin V apoptosis assay, and aldehyde dehydrogenase activity assays.ResultsIn 12Z cells, GSI treatment reduced aldehyde dehydrogenase activity and colony formation, and induced a shift to the G2/M phase of the cell cycle. Cell viability was decreased and apoptosis was increased in both cell models. GSI further induced transcriptional downregulation of the stemness‐associated factors leukemia inhibitory factor receptor (LIFR), sex‐determining region Y (SRY)‐ box 2, interferon‐induced transmembrane protein 1, and hes‐related family bHLH transcription factor with YRPW motif 1, in 12Z cells and in primary cell cultures. Downregulation of LIFR expression by GSI was confirmed at the protein level by flow cytometry.ConclusionsOur in vitro data suggest that application of GSI may be a worthwhile approach in the treatment of endometriosis that warrants further investigation.
Urokinase‐type plasminogen activator contributes to amiloride‐sensitive sodium retention in nephrotic range glomerular proteinuria in mice
Authors: Hinrichs Gitte R. , Weyer Kathrin , Friis Ulla G. , Svenningsen Per , Lund Ida K. , Nielsen Rikke , Mollet Géraldine , Antignac Corinne , Bistrup Claus , Jensen Boye L. , Birn Henrik 
Published: August 2019

AbstractAimActivation of sodium reabsorption by urinary proteases has been implicated in sodium retention associated with nephrotic syndrome. The study was designed to test the hypothesis that nephrotic proteinuria in mice after conditional deletion of podocin leads to urokinase‐dependent, amiloride‐sensitive plasmin‐mediated sodium and water retention.MethodsTen days after podocin knockout, urine and faeces were collected for 10 days in metabolic cages and analysed for electrolytes, plasminogen, protease activity and ability to activate γENaC by patch clamp and western blot. Mice were treated with amiloride (2.5 mg kg−1 for 2 days and 10 mg kg−1 for 2 days) or an anti‐urokinase‐type plasminogen activator (uPA) targeting antibody (120 mg kg−1/24 h) and compared to controls.ResultsTwelve days after deletion, podocin‐deficient mice developed significant protein and albuminuria associated with increased body wt, ascites, sodium accumulation and suppressed plasma renin. This was associated with increased urinary excretion of plasmin and plasminogen that correlated with albumin excretion, urine protease activity co‐migrating with active plasmin, and the ability of urine to induce an amiloride‐sensitive inward current in M1 cells in vitro. Amiloride treatment in podocin‐deficient mice resulted in weight loss, increased sodium excretion, normalization of sodium balance and prevention of the activation of plasminogen to plasmin in urine in a reversible way. Administration of uPA targeting antibody abolished urine activation of plasminogen, attenuated sodium accumulation and prevented cleavage of γENaC.ConclusionsNephrotic range glomerular proteinuria leads to urokinase‐dependent intratubular plasminogen activation and γENaC cleavage which contribute to sodium accumulation.
Postnatal cranial ontogeny of the Greater Bulldog Bat Noctilio leporinus (Chiroptera: Noctilionidae)
Authors: Monrroy Ginna A. , Reyes‐Amaya Nicolás , Jerez Adriana 
Published: August 2019

AbstractWe studied the postnatal development of the skull of Noctilio leporinus, examining the relationship between ectocranial elements, including shape changes and sutures closure and fusion. Most shape changes and structure development were observed at subadults and adults; zygomatic arch, sagittal crest, occipital process and mandibular processes developed noticeably up to the adult stage. Cranial sutures closure and fusion sequences of N. leporinus agree with that of hystricomorph rodents, artiodactyls, primates, sirenians and carnivores, beginning with the cranial vault followed by the basicranium, supporting a conserved pattern for mammalia. Detailed comparisons exhibit a complete cranial sutures fusion reached earlier at Desmodus rotundus regarding N. leporinus and Pteropus sp., and an early fusion for the sutura coronalis plus late fusion for the sutura sagittalis at N. leporinus regarding Desmodus rotundus. The drastic shape changes of cranial elements, as well as sutures closure and fusion in N. leporinus at subadults and adults, seem to be closely related to the acquisition of morphological specializations during stages of development when the fisher bat begins to feed independently.
Inequality and antibiotic resistance: A contractualist perspective
Authors: Millar Michael 
Published: August 2019

AbstractThere are substantial inequalities associated with antibiotics and the determinants of their effectiveness, including the risk of exposure to antibiotic‐resistant microbes, access to relevant treatment advice, diagnostic facilities, risk of life‐threatening infectious disease, and access to antibiotics. Current arrangements (social, political, economic) allow inequalities in the distribution of antibiotic benefits and burdens. This article focuses on the justification of relevant inequalities from a contractualist perspective.