bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Short gradient, but distinct plant strategies: The CSR scheme applied to subtropical forests
Authors: Rosenfield Milena Fermina , Müller Sandra Cristina , Overbeck Gerhard Ernst 
Published: July 2019

AbstractQuestionsPlant communities in transitional zones between ecosystem types have potentially a large range of ecological strategies, even along short gradients. Exploring these regional differences and the drivers of variation is important to understand plant adaptations and changes in ecological processes between distinct ecosystems. Here, we ask whether distinct forest types in the subtropical region present plant communities with distinct ecological strategies and, if so, if these differences are driven by climatic variables.LocationSubtropical forests in southern Brazil.MethodsWe compiled species lists from 112 sites distributed across rainforests, seasonal forests, Araucaria forests and Pampean forests. We used Grime's CSR scheme and calculated, for each species, CSR values based on information of three leaf traits: leaf area, specific leaf area and leaf dry matter content. Species CSR values were used to calculate the mean value for each community. We selected four climatic variables related to temperate and precipitation and analyzed their influence on plant strategies by linear mixed models.ResultsOur results showed a strong CS component for all subtropical forests studied, with a small contribution from component R. We found clear differences in ecological strategies between forest types: rainforest showed the highest values of component C, and Araucaria and Pampean forests presented the highest values of component S. We found a strong influence of temperature variables on ecological strategies.ConclusionsEven along a short latitudinal gradient, we found differences in ecological strategies across forest types. Araucaria and Pampean forests were strongly associated with the stress‐tolerant strategy, as they face lower minimum temperatures and/or a larger temperature range, whereas rainforests, which face warmer temperatures and a lower range of variation, presented a strategy where competition is of higher importance. This highlights that regional environmental conditions in this transitional zone influence ecological strategies of tree communities.
Effects of Bacillus aquimaris T16 on growth, enzyme activity, and disease resistance of the Yesso scallop, Patinopecten yessoensis
Authors: Ma Yue‐Xin , Li Ming , Liu Ji‐Chen , Tao Wei , Yu Zi‐Chao , Liu Yu‐Bin 
Published: July 2019

AbstractA 49‐day rearing trial was conducted to investigate the effects of Bacillus aquimaris T16 on growth, survival, and digestive and immune‐related enzyme activities in larval and juvenile Yesso scallop, Patinopecten yessoensis. Veliger larvae (Day 2 postfertilization [d2 PF]) were split into three treatments: control (provided with a diet only of microalgae), low T16 supplementation (1 × 104 cells/mL at final concentration), and high T16 supplementation (1 × 106 cells/mL at final concentration). Results showed that specific growth rates; survivals; and pepsin, amylase, and/or cellulase activities of umbo larvae (d13 PF), crawling–pediveliger larvae (d28 PF), and juveniles (d51 PF) in the low and/or high T16 supplementation treatments were significantly higher than those in the control group. Larvae and juveniles fed diets containing low and/or high T16 supplementations had significantly increased lysozyme, superoxide dismutase, and catalase activities compared with those fed the diet of microalgae. In addition, T16 protected juveniles against challenge by Vibrio splendidus. These data suggest that the addition of T16 can improve growth, enhance digestive enzyme activity, and stimulate the innate immune system of scallop larvae and juveniles and enhance the resistance of juveniles against V. splendidus.
Extracellular vesicles: Future diagnostic and therapeutic tools for liver disease and regeneration
Authors: Balaphas Alexandre , Meyer Jeremy , Sadoul Rémy , Morel Philippe , Gonelle‐Gispert Carmen , Bühler Leo Hans 
Published: July 2019

AbstractExtracellular vesicles are membrane fragments that can be produced by all cell types. Interactions between extracellular vesicles and various liver cells constitute an emerging field in hepatology and recent evidences have established a role for extracellular vesicles in various liver diseases and physiological processes. Extracellular vesicles originating from liver cells are implicated in intercellular communication and fluctuations of specific circulating extracellular vesicles could constitute new diagnostic tools. In contrast, extracellular vesicles derived from progenitor cells interact with hepatocytes or non‐parenchymal cells, thereby protecting the liver from various injuries and promoting liver regeneration. Our review focuses on recent developments investigating the role of various types of extracellular vesicles in acute and chronic liver diseases as well as their potential use as biomarkers and therapeutic tools.
Cognitive interviewing to improve women's empowerment questions in surveys: Application to the health and nutrition and intrahousehold relationships modules for the project‐level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index
Authors: Hannan Anika , Heckert Jessica , James‐Hawkins Laurie , Yount Kathryn M. 
Published: July 2019

AbstractIn 2015, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, which include fostering gender equality and women's empowerment and ending hunger and malnutrition. To monitor progress and evaluate programmes that aim to achieve these goals, survey instruments are needed that can accurately assess related indicators. The project‐level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro‐WEAI) is being developed to address the need for an instrument that is sensitive to changes in empowerment over the duration of an intervention. The pro‐WEAI includes new modules with previously untested survey questions, including a health and nutrition module (focused on women's agency in this area) and an intrahousehold relationships module. This study uses cognitive interviewing to identify how new survey questions might be misinterpreted and to understand what experiences women are referencing when they respond to these questions. This was undertaken with the goal of informing revision to the modules. The study was conducted in Bangladesh with women from nuclear, extended, and migrant‐sending households and from two regions of the country to identify difficulties with interpretation and response formulation across these groups. Findings revealed that questions were generally understood, but participants occasionally responded to the wrong part of the question, did not understand key phrases, or were uncomfortable with questions. The findings also suggested ways to revise the modules and strengthen the pro‐WEAI. The revised pro‐WEAI health and nutrition and intrahousehold relationships modules will advance the ability to measure changes in these domains and their relationship with the health and nutritional status of women and their children.
Quantifying Community Resilience Using Hierarchical Bayesian Kernel Methods: A Case Study on Recovery from Power Outages
Authors: Yu Jin‐Zhu , Baroud Hiba 
Published: July 2019

AbstractThe ability to accurately measure recovery rate of infrastructure systems and communities impacted by disasters is vital to ensure effective response and resource allocation before, during, and after a disruption. However, a challenge in quantifying such measures resides in the lack of data as community recovery information is seldom recorded. To provide accurate community recovery measures, a hierarchical Bayesian kernel model (HBKM) is developed to predict the recovery rate of communities experiencing power outages during storms. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated using cross‐validation and compared with two models, the hierarchical Bayesian regression model and the Poisson generalized linear model. A case study focusing on the recovery of communities in Shelby County, Tennessee after severe storms between 2007 and 2017 is presented to illustrate the proposed approach. The predictive accuracy of the models is evaluated using the log‐likelihood and root mean squared error. The HBKM yields on average the highest out‐of‐sample predictive accuracy. This approach can help assess the recoverability of a community when data are scarce and inform decision making in the aftermath of a disaster. An illustrative example is presented demonstrating how accurate measures of community resilience can help reduce the cost of infrastructure restoration.
Cachexia/Protein energy wasting syndrome in CKD: Causation and treatment
Authors: Oliveira Eduardo A. , Zheng Ronghao , Carter Caitlin E. , Mak Robert H. 
Published: July 2019

AbstractCachexia is a multifactorial syndrome defined by significant body weight loss, fat and muscle mass reduction, and increased protein catabolism. Protein energy wasting (PEW) is characterized as a syndrome of adverse changes in nutrition and body composition being highly prevalent in patients with CKD, especially in those undergoing dialysis, and it is associated with high morbidity and mortality in this population. Multiple mechanisms are involved in the genesis of these adverse nutritional changes in CKD patients. There is no obvious distinction between PEW and cachexia from a pathophysiologic standpoint and should be considered as part of the spectrum of the same nutritional disorder in CKD with similar management approaches for prevention and treatment based on current understanding. A plethora of factors can affect the nutritional status of CKD patients requiring a combination of therapeutic approaches to prevent or reverse protein and energy depletion. At present, there is no effective pharmacologic intervention that prevents or attenuates muscle atrophy in catabolic conditions like CKD. Prevention and treatment of uremic muscle wasting involve optimal nutritional support, correction of acidosis, and physical exercise. There has been emerging consistent evidence that active treatment, perhaps by combining nutritional interventions and resistance exercise, may be able to improve but not totally reverse or prevent the supervening muscle wasting and weakness. Active research into more direct pharmacological treatment based on basic mechanistic research is much needed for this unmet medical need in patients with CKD.
World Englishes in professional communication
Authors: Bhatia Vijay K. 
Published: July 2019

AbstractCommunication in international professional contexts, whether in spoken, written, or digital form, often involves participants from a variety of contexts in terms of variations in their use of language and cultural norms, discourse strategies, and expectations of participating members of specific professional communities, and as such, invariably reflects a multi‐norm rather than a mono‐norm native model of language use. However, very little attention has been paid either in world Englishes (WE) or discourse analytical studies to communication in professional practice, in particular with a focus on text‐external contextual factors. The major emphasis has so far been on the analysis of textualisation of discourse. Drawing on recent insights from critical genre analysis (Bhatia, 2017), I would like to argue that discursive data from professional practice provides additional support and convincing argument in favour of Kachru's (1985, p. 30) call for multi‐norm standards in international communication and for a need to consider ‘new paradigms and perspectives for linguistics and pedagogical research’ in national as well as international contexts.
Language and thought disorder in multilingual schizophrenia
Authors: Bhatia Tej K. 
Published: July 2019

AbstractThe main goal of this article is fourfold: (1) to give an overview of the Multilingual Schizophrenia Project (MSP) together with the salient features of the language organization in the multilingual brain/mind; (2) to document and identify the speech traits of a female schizophrenic multilingual patient afflicted with a sub‐type of auditory schizophrenia in which the patient hears body‐internal voices; (3) to compare and contrast schizophrenic speech patterns with normal multilingual verbal behavior; and (4) to use language organization in the multilingual brain/mind as a source of evidence to decode language and thinking disturbance in schizophrenic subjects. This paper is a first‐of‐its kind analysis, exploring and documenting the linguistic nature of multilingual schizophrenia in Indian English, Hindi and Urdu. Although the analysis presented here is based on a single in‐depth case study, the generalizations drawn may be valid for other schizophrenic subjects.
Braj B. Kachru's scholarly publications: A bibliography
Authors: Bolton Kingsley , Davis Daniel R. , Sridhar S. N. 
Published: July 2019

AbstractAlthough best known for his work on world Englishes, Braj Kachru was a truly original thinker, whose academic writings included influential publications on English linguistics, Indian languages, but much else besides, including applied linguistics, bilingualism and multilingualism, code‐mixing and switching, cross‐cultural communication, language policy, linguistic variation, literary creativity, sociolinguistics, and the politics of language. Braj B. Kachru was a renaissance scholar of immense stature, whose work brought together Indian and English linguistics with the cultural perspectives of both Asia and the West, and inspired scholars worldwide to adopt fresh perspectives on so many language issues.
In vivokinetic study of materno‐fetal fatty acid transfer in obese and normal weight pregnant women
Authors: Gázquez Antonio , Prieto‐Sánchez María T. , Blanco‐Carnero José E. , van Harskamp Dewi , Perazzolo Simone , Oosterink J. Efraim , Demmelmair Hans , Schierbeek Henk , Sengers Bram G , Lewis Rohan M , van Goudoever Johannes B. , Koletzko Berthold , Larqué Elvira 
Published: July 2019

Key pointsPlacental structure and function can be modified as a result of maternal obesity affecting materno‐fetal fatty acids (FA) transport.We report for the first time, in humans andin vivo, the kinetics of placental FA transfer in normo‐weight and in normolipemic obese pregnant women using stable isotopes.The administration of different tracer FA with similar behaviour to the mother at different time points allows the collection of kinetic information on materno‐fetal transfer of FA despite only one sample of placenta and cord can be collected per subject.Computational modelling showed a good fit to the data when considering all maternal plasma lipid classes but not when based only on non‐esterified FA.The novel approach using multiple tracer FA administration combined with computational modelling shows a consistent time course of placental tracer FA and predicted total FA accumulation.AbstractWe analyse for the first time thein vivomaterno‐fetal kinetic transfer of fatty acids (FA) labelled with stable isotopes in control and obese (OB) pregnant women. Labelled FA with a similar metabolism (stearic acid:13C‐SA; palmitic acid:13C‐PA; oleic acid:13C‐OA) were orally administered at −4 h, −8 h and −12 h, respectively prior to elective caesarean section to 10 pregnant women with a body mass index >30 (OB) and 10 with a body mass index in the range 20–25 (NW). Placenta, venous and arterial cord blood were collected obtaining a wide range of FA enrichments. A combined experimental and computational modelling analysis was applied. FA fractional synthesis rate (FSR) in placenta was 11–12% h–1. No differences were observed between NW and normo‐lipidemic OB. It was not possible to estimate FA FSR in cord blood with this oral bolus dose approach. Computational modelling demonstrated a good fit to the data when all maternal plasma lipid classes were included but not with modelling based only on the non‐esterified FA fraction. The estimated materno‐fetal13C‐FA transfer was ∼1%. In conclusion, our approach using multiple13C‐FA tracers allowed us to estimated FSR in placental/maternal plasma but not in fetal/maternal compartments. Computational modelling showed a consistent time course of placental13C‐FA transfer and predicted total fetal FA accumulation during the experiment. We conclude that, in addition to non‐esterified FA fraction in the maternal circulation, maternal plasma very low‐density lipoprotein and other lipoproteins are important contributors to placental FA transfer to the fetus.
Efficient Robust Design for Thermoacoustic Instability Analysis: A Gaussian Process Approach
Authors: Guo Shuai , Silva Camilo F. , Polifke Wolfgang 
Published: July 2019

Abstract
In the preliminary phase of analyzing the thermoacoustic characteristics of a gas turbine combustor, implementing robust design principles is essential to minimize detrimental variations of its thermoacoustic performance under various sources of uncertainties. In this study, we systematically explore different aspects of robust design in thermoacoustic instability analysis, including risk analysis, control design, and inverse tolerance design. We simultaneously take into account multiple thermoacoustic modes and uncertainty sources from both the flame and acoustic boundary parameters. In addition, we introduce the concept of a “risk diagram” based on specific statistical descriptions of the underlying uncertain parameters, which allows practitioners to conveniently visualize the distribution of the modal instability risk over the entire parameter space. Throughout this study, a machine learning method called “Gaussian process” (GP) modeling approach is employed to efficiently tackle the challenge posed by the large parameter variational ranges, various statistical descriptions of the parameters, as well as the multifaceted nature of robust design analysis. For each of the investigated robust design tasks, we propose an efficient solution strategy and benchmark the accuracy of the results delivered by GP models. We demonstrate that GP models can be flexibly adjusted to various tasks while only requiring one-time training. Their adaptability and efficiency make this modeling approach very appealing for industrial practices.
Outcome of peripheral iridotomy in subjects with uveitis
Authors: Betts Thomas David , Sims Joanne L , Bennett Sonya L , Niederer Rachael L 
Published: July 2019

Background/aimsPeripheral iridotomy (PI) may be required in subjects with uveitis to manage iris bombe, seclusio pupillae and primary angle closure glaucoma. The aim of this study was to identify risk factors for failure of both laser and surgical PIs in patients with uveitis and determine survival durations.MethodsRetrospective study of subjects with a history of uveitis undergoing yttrium-aluminium-garnet (YAG) laser or surgical PI at Auckland District Health Board over an 11-year period. Failure of PI was defined as loss of patency or recurrence of iris bombe. A mixed effects shared frailty model was constructed with PI nested within eyes nested within patients, to examine time to failure.Results131 PIs were performed in 52 eyes of 39 subjects during the study period (111 YAG PIs and 20 surgical PIs). Median age at time of PI was 46.6 years and 60.5% of subjects were female. HLAB27 positive uveitis was the most common diagnosis (25.6% of subjects). Median survival time was 70 days for YAG PI and 11.0 years for surgical PI. On multivariate analysis, younger age at time of PI (HR 0.933, p<0.001) and iris bombe (HR 2.180, p=0.046) were associated with risk of failure. Surgical PI was associated with a lower risk of failure (HR 0.151, p<0.001) compared with YAG PI. Glaucoma developed in 19 eyes (36.5%), of which 13 required glaucoma surgery.ConclusionSurgical PI had longer survival than YAG PI, and should be considered in subjects presenting with iris bombe and in young subjects with uveitis.
The global scale and implications of delivering multiple interventions through integrated child health events
Authors: Kamatsuchi Mahoko , Gheorghe Adrian , Balabanova Dina 
Published: July 2019

IntroductionDelivering child health services through integrated child health events (ICHEs) has been a useful and popular strategy implemented in many in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) to accelerate the reduction of child mortality. The study aims to portray the scope of ICHEs and examine the association between the number of child health-nutrition interventions and types of ICHE packages delivered through these campaigns with vitamin A supplementation (VAS) and measles vaccination.MethodsSecondary data analysis was conducted using Unicef global campaign database (1999–2010), where 597 ICHEs from 76 countries were analysed. Panel random effects regression models were used to explore the association between the number of interventions and coverage for VAS and measles vaccination, and non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test to explore the association between different intervention packages and VAS coverage.ResultsAn average of 100 ICHEs were conducted per year between 2005 and 2010, highest in sub-Saharan Africa (60%). By 2010, 40 ICHEs out of 66 (60%) across 24 countries delivered 5 or more interventions during 1 ICHE. No statistically significant effect of the number of ICHE interventions on VAS coverage was found (−0·76, p=0·185). There was a small significant effect on measles coverage (−1·81, p=0·057), which was not robust to model specifications removing outlier observations with measles coverage lower than 40%. The Kruskal-Wallis test did not suggest a significant association between different intervention packages and VAS coverage at 5% significance level (p=0·07).ConclusionICHEs were found to be a widely used strategy to deliver essential child health-nutrition interventions in LMICs. ICHEs appear to represent a commonly used platform with the capacity to incorporate multiple interventions without compromising coverage of some key interventions as VAS and measles vaccination. More research is required to better understand what operational factors may affect the coverage outcomes delivered together through ICHEs.