bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Fire‐disturbed landscapes induce phenotypic plasticity in lizard locomotor performance
Authors: Wild K. H. , Gienger C. M. 
Published: March 2018

AbstractPhenotypic plasticity can occur in response to environmental fluctuation and can bring about pronounced changes in behavioral, physiological, or morphological traits. Anthropogenic habitat modifications, such as prescribed fire, can provide insight on the phenotypic response of ectotherms to structural habitat change. Our objective was to quantify the effect of fire‐altered landscapes on the locomotor performance of the eastern fence lizard (Sceloporus undulatus). Lizard sprint performance was compared among three habitats with different fire histories: a control habitat, which had not experienced fire in more than 60 years, a recovering habitat that had not experienced fire in 4 years, and a recent burn habitat that burned less than 6 months prior to the study. There were significant differences in locomotor performance among lizards from the different habitats (indicative of phenotypic plasticity), and lizards in the recent burn habitat had significantly higher maximum sprint speeds than lizards in recovering and control habitats. To measure the consistency of locomotor performance within individuals, lizards were captured and raced during the field seasons of 2014 and again in 2015. Locomotor performance was significantly repeatable across years, suggesting lizard populations contain considerable individual variation, despite this trait being closely tied to fitness. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to observe individual between‐year repeatability in performance of free‐ranging S. undulatus. Lizards had similar body condition among habitats suggesting that nutritional status did not play a role in performance plasticity. Habitats differed both structurally and thermally, and less restrictive thermal regimes in recently burned habitats appear to be the underlying mechanism permitting increased lizard locomotor performance.
Unanticipated increases in hepatic steatosis among human immunodeficiency virus patients receiving mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist eplerenone for non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease
Authors: Chaudhury Chloe S. , Purdy Julia B. , Liu Chia‐Ying , Morse Caryn G. , Stanley Takara L. , Kleiner David , Hadigan Colleen 
Published: March 2018

AbstractBackground & AimsNon‐alcoholic fatty liver disease is common in human immunodeficiency virus, but there are no approved therapies. The aim of this open‐label proof‐of‐concept study was to determine the effect of the mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist eplerenone on hepatic fat in human immunodeficiency virus‐infected patients with hepatic fat ≥5% by magnetic resonance spectroscopy.MethodsFive subjects received eplerenone (25 mg daily × 1 week followed by 50 mg daily × 23 weeks). Laboratory tests were done at each visit, and the primary endpoint, change in hepatic fat content, was determined by MRI spectroscopy at baseline and week 24.ResultsThe study was stopped early after observing unexpected significant increases in hepatic fat at week 24 (mean increase 13.0 ± 7.3%, P = .02). The increases in steatosis were accompanied by a tendency for transaminase values to decrease (alanine aminotransferase mean change −14 ± 16 IU/L, P = .14). There were no consistent changes in other metabolic parameters or blood pressure. Repeat assessment of hepatic steatosis 1‐2 months after stopping study medication revealed improvements in steatosis towards baseline values.ConclusionsThe unexpected observation of increased hepatic steatosis with the administration of eplerenone led to early termination of the investigation. While limited because of the small number of participants and the open‐label design, this study provides data to suggest that mineralocorticoid receptor antagonism with eplerenone may not be an effective approach to treat hepatic steatosis in human immunodeficiency virus or the general population. Additional research is needed to determine the pathophysiological mechanism behind these unanticipated observations.
Lineage‐specific plasmid acquisition and the evolution of specialized pathogens in Bacillus thuringiensis and the Bacillus cereus group
Authors: Méric Guillaume , Mageiros Leonardos , Pascoe Ben , Woodcock Dan J. , Mourkas Evangelos , Lamble Sarah , Bowden Rory , Jolley Keith A. , Raymond Ben , Sheppard Samuel K. 
Published: March 2018

AbstractBacterial plasmids can vary from small selfish genetic elements to large autonomous replicons that constitute a significant proportion of total cellular DNA. By conferring novel function to the cell, plasmids may facilitate evolution but their mobility may be opposed by co‐evolutionary relationships with chromosomes or encouraged via the infectious sharing of genes encoding public goods. Here, we explore these hypotheses through large‐scale examination of the association between plasmids and chromosomal DNA in the phenotypically diverse Bacillus cereus group. This complex group is rich in plasmids, many of which encode essential virulence factors (Cry toxins) that are known public goods. We characterized population genomic structure, gene content and plasmid distribution to investigate the role of mobile elements in diversification. We analysed coding sequence within the core and accessory genome of 190 B. cereus group isolates, including 23 novel sequences and genes from 410 reference plasmid genomes. While cry genes were widely distributed, those with invertebrate toxicity were predominantly associated with one sequence cluster (clade 2) and phenotypically defined Bacillus thuringiensis. Cry toxin plasmids in clade 2 showed evidence of recent horizontal transfer and variable gene content, a pattern of plasmid segregation consistent with transfer during infectious cooperation. Nevertheless, comparison between clades suggests that co‐evolutionary interactions may drive association between plasmids and chromosomes and limit wider transfer of key virulence traits. Proliferation of successful plasmid and chromosome combinations is a feature of specialized pathogens with characteristic niches (Bacillus anthracis, B. thuringiensis) and has occurred multiple times in the B. cereus group.
Tandem tyrosine phosphosites in the Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli chaperone CesT are required for differential type III effector translocation and virulence
Authors: Runte Cameron S. , Jain Umang , Getz Landon J. , Secord Sabrina , Kuwae Asaomi , Abe Akio , LeBlanc Jason J. , Stadnyk Andrew W. , Kaper James B. , Hansen Anne‐Marie , Thomas Nikhil A. 
Published: March 2018

SummaryEnteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) use a type 3 secretion system (T3SS) for injection of effectors into host cells and intestinal colonization. Here, we demonstrate that the multicargo chaperone CesT has two strictly conserved tyrosine phosphosites, Y152 and Y153 that regulate differential effector secretion in EPEC. Conservative substitution of both tyrosine residues to phenylalanine strongly attenuated EPEC type 3 effector injection into host cells, and limited Tir effector mediated intimate adherence during infection. EPEC expressing a CesT Y152F variant were deficient for NleA effector expression and exhibited significantly reduced translocation of NleA into host cells during infection. Other effectors were observed to be dependent on CesT Y152 for maximal translocation efficiency. Unexpectedly, EPEC expressing a CesT Y153F variant exhibited significantly enhanced effector translocation of many CesT‐interacting effectors, further implicating phosphosites Y152 and Y153 in CesT functionality. A mouse infection model of intestinal disease using Citrobacter rodentium revealed that CesT tyrosine substitution variants displayed delayed colonization and were more rapidly cleared from the intestine. These data demonstrate genetically separable functions for tandem tyrosine phosphosites within CesT. Therefore, CesT via its C‐terminal tyrosine phosphosites, has relevant roles beyond typical type III secretion chaperones that interact and stabilize effector proteins.
Vertigo’s Musical Gaze: Neo‐Riemannian Symmetries and Spirals
Authors: SMITH KENNETH M. 
Published: March 2018

ABSTRACTLaura Mulvey coined the term ‘male gaze’ (1975), using Lacanian theory as a ‘political weapon’ against the standard mode of viewing in which the viewing subject turns onscreen women into fantasy objects. While politically laudable, her article misconstrues Lacan's concept of ‘the gaze’, the power of which emanates from the object itself. We might better serve Lacanian theory by inverting Mulvey's reading of Alfred Hitchcock'sVertigoto suggest that Scottie (James Stewart) is himself objectified by the mystique of the ‘object’ he watches and follows: Madeleine (Kim Novak). The screen's gaze reduces spectators to objects too. From this perspective, rather than watching the film, the film can be said to be watching us.This extends to Bernard Herrmann's soundtrack, famously influenced by the yearning of Wagner'sTristan und Isolde. Developing David Schwarz's (2006) musical gaze (in which repeated pedal points of Schubert songs gaze at us), I analyseVertigo’s frequent emphasis on the pitch class D. A pedal D is often repeated in alluring yet sinister bare octaves as Scottie follows Madeleine. But at key moments in the film, the pitch becomes a sophisticated tool that captivates us in unique ways. Around this central pitch third‐relationships circle. These resonate with neo‐Riemannian theory, particularly in their hexatonic ‘poles’, which Cohn shows to be agents of the Freudian ‘uncanny’ (2004) and which here also serve as an alternative gaze to the reiterated D. Other pitch constellations, in symmetries or spirals, form similar obsessional musical ‘gazes’ that, using Lacanian theory, prompt the question about whether we are listening to the music or the music is listening to us.
From intuition to intervention: developing an intonation‐based treatment for autism
Authors: Chenausky Karen V. , Schlaug Gottfried 
Published: March 2018

AbstractAutism affects ∼1.5% of children under age 8; its core symptoms include impairment in social‐communicative functioning and repetitive behaviors/restricted interests. Music‐based interventions have been considered one modality through which to treat autism. This report discusses considerations to take into account when developing a music‐based intervention for a core symptom of autism. Treatment modality must be matched to symptom both clinically and theoretically, the behavior to be treated must be carefully defined and assessed, and outcome measures must be capable of showing improvement in that behavior over the course of the study. Fidelity assessment and rater blinding reduce experimenter bias. High inter‐rater reliability for perceptually determined outcome measures helps obtain accurate estimates of treatment response. Later stages of testing compare the experimental intervention to matched control treatments or other validated therapies, isolating the intervention's “active ingredients.” Such systematic investigation of a new music‐based intervention can provide information of different types, ranging from an assessment of whether the intervention has any effect at all to an assessment of its outcomes and risks in uncontrolled community settings. Findings ultimately compose the evidence base that clinicians and families can use to decide the most effective way of addressing symptoms of autism for particular children.
Seed‐specific RNAi in safflower generates a superhigh oleic oil with extended oxidative stability
Authors: Wood Craig C. , Okada Shoko , Taylor Matthew C. , Menon Amratha , Mathew Anu , Cullerne Darren , Stephen Stuart J. , Allen Robert S. , Zhou Xue‐Rong , Liu Qing , Oakeshott John G. , Singh Surinder P. , Green Allan G. 
Published: March 2018

SummaryVegetable oils extracted from oilseeds are an important component of foods, but are also used in a range of high value oleochemical applications. Despite being biodegradable, nontoxic and renewable current plant oils suffer from the presence of residual polyunsaturated fatty acids that are prone to free radical formation that limit their oxidative stability, and consequently shelf life and functionality. Many decades of plant breeding have been successful in raising the oleic content to ~90%, but have come at the expense of overall field performance, including poor yields. Here, we engineer superhigh oleic (SHO) safflower producing a seed oil with 93% oleic generated from seed produced in multisite field trials spanning five generations. SHO safflower oil is the result of seed‐specific hairpin‐based RNA interference of two safflower lipid biosynthetic genes, FAD2.2 and FATB, producing seed oil containing less than 1.5% polyunsaturates and only 4% saturates but with no impact on lipid profiles of leaves and roots. Transgenic SHO events were compared to non‐GM safflower in multisite trial plots with a wide range of growing season conditions, which showed no evidence of impact on seed yield. The oxidative stability of the field‐grown SHO oil produced from various sites was 50 h at 110°C compared to 13 h for conventional ~80% oleic safflower oils. SHO safflower produces a uniquely stable vegetable oil across different field conditions that can provide the scale of production that is required for meeting the global demands for high stability oils in food and the oleochemical industry.
A reciprocal, moderated mediation model of grit, engagement, and literacy achievement among dual language learners
Authors: O'Neal Colleen R. , Goldthrite Antoinette , Weston Riley Lynsey , Atapattu Ranga K. 
Published: March 2018

AbstractThis short‐term longitudinal study asked (a) how and for whom socioemotional factors like grit and emotional engagement predict later literacy achievement; and (b) if there are reciprocal effects between literacy and these socioemotional factors. An autoregressive cross‐lagged (ARCR) design included 3 time points over 4 months with an ethnic minority, dual language learner sample (n = 142; 54% female; 75% Latina/o; M = 9.47 years old). The procedure at each time point included teacher‐reported student emotional engagement and adapted grit questionnaires in addition to a student literacy achievement performance task. A reciprocal model (i.e., socioemotional factors and literacy affect each other) was compared to direct (i.e., socioemotional factors impact literacy) and reverse (i.e., literacy impacts socioemotional factors) models. Results suggested that the reciprocal model fit better than the direct and reverse models. Within the reciprocal ARCR model, grit had a significant impact on later literacy achievement via the mediator of engagement and moderated by age. Findings hold implications for education discourse on reciprocal and indirect effects of grit on achievement among older elementary‐aged dual language learners.
Electronic tool helps anaesthesia trainee handovers
Authors: Lee Susan C , Atkinson Megan E , Minard Charles G , O'Brien Alice 
Published: March 2018

SummaryBackgroundHandovers in patient care are increasingly common occurrences in medicine and are highly susceptible to communication failures. Intraoperative anaesthesiology handovers are especially challenging because of concurrent management of the patient. Our goal was to develop and use an electronic handover checklist as an educational tool to teach anaesthesiology trainees a standardised method of handing over a case intraoperatively. We hypothesised that the use of the checklist would systematically enhance the transfer of accurate and complete information.
MethodsThirty‐four anaesthesia trainees were observed giving an intraoperative handover without the checklist, and then again with the checklist at a later time. An observational handover assessment tool was used by investigators to mark each item as either spontaneously relayed by the giver, elicited by the receiver, not discussed or not applicable to the case. After the use of the checklist, each handover giver filled out a survey related to his or her perceptions of the checklist.ResultsThe proportion of items spontaneously relayed increased from 54% without the checklist to 98% when using the checklist (p < 0.0001). More than 90% of participants felt that the checklist increased handover efficiency and communication skills. All participants stated that the handovers were more thorough with the checklist and that they would incorporate it into their daily practice.Intraoperative anaesthesiology handovers are especially challenging because of concurrent management of the patientDiscussionWith the intervention of the checklist, our results show that the use of a standardised intraoperative checklist improved the transfer of important patient information among anaesthesia trainees.
A geospatial case‐based reasoning model for oil–gas reservoir evaluation
Authors: Chen Jianhua , Wang Weihong , Li Junwen 
Published: March 2018

AbstractDelineating the distribution of oil and natural gas resources is a prerequisite of exploitation. The delineation methods usually include conventional techniques of reservoir evaluation and mathematical models. The conventional reservoir evaluation results generally depend on the experts' knowledge and experience in the field. The mathematical methods mostly require accurate models to be proposed. Considering spatial relationships and characteristics of geological reservoir problems, including nonlinearity, complexity and uncertainty, a novel model called geospatial case‐based reasoning for oil–gas reservoir evaluation was proposed in this article. The key components of the new model, including: (1) the joint representation of spatial relationship and attribute features; (2) the model of spatial relationship and attribute similarity joint reasoning; and (3) the methods of establishing weights for the spatial relationship and attribute features, are completely constructed. A case study of the proposed model for gas reservoir evaluation was carried out. Compared with the backpropagation artificial neural network (BP‐ANN) and the geological empirical evaluation (GEE) methods, the model presented in this article performs 6.38% and 46.81% better than BP‐ANN and GEE, respectively. Furthermore, its execution is simpler, more convenient, and importantly, its utilization hardly requires any professional knowledge of the field.
Towards a systematic approach for (de)implementation of patient blood management strategies
Authors: Voorn V. M. A. , van Bodegom‐Vos L. , So‐Osman C. 
Published: March 2018

SUMMARYDespite the increasing availability of evidence in transfusion medicine literature, this evidence does not automatically find its way into practice. This is also applicable to patient blood management (PBM). It may concern the lack of implementation of effective new techniques or treatments, or it may apply to the (over)use of techniques and treatments (e.g. inappropriate transfusions) that have proven to be of limited benefit for patients (low‐value care) and could be abandoned (de‐implementation).In PBM literature, the implementation of restrictive transfusion thresholds and the de‐implementation of inappropriate transfusions are described. However, most implementation strategies were not preceded by the identification of relevant barriers, and the used strategies were not often supported by literature on behavioural changes.In this article, we describe implementation vs de‐implementation, highlight the current situation of (de)implementation in PBM and describe a systematic approach for (de)implementation illustrated by an example of a PBM de‐implementation study regarding ‘(cost‐) effective patient blood management in total hip and knee arthroplasty’. The systematic approach used for (de)implementation is based on the implementation model of Grol, which consists of the following five steps: the detection of improvement goals, a problem analysis, the selection of (de)implementation strategies, the execution of the (de)implementation strategy and an evaluation.Based on the description of the current situation and the experiences in our de‐implementation study, we can conclude that de‐implementation may be more difficult than expected as other factors may play a role in effective de‐implementation compared to implementation.
Development of an anaesthetized‐rat model of exercise hyperpnoea: an integrative model of respiratory control using an equilibrium diagram
Authors: Miyamoto Tadayoshi , Manabe Kou , Ueda Shinya , Nakahara Hidehiro 
Published: March 2018

New Findings
What is the central question of this study?
The lack of useful small‐animal models for studying exercise hyperpnoea makes it difficult to investigate the underlying mechanisms of exercise‐induced ventilatory abnormalities in various disease states.

What is the main finding and its importance?
We developed an anaesthetized‐rat model for studying exercise hyperpnoea, using a respiratory equilibrium diagram for quantitative characterization of the respiratory chemoreflex feedback system. This experimental model will provide an opportunity to clarify the major determinant mechanisms of exercise hyperpnoea, and will be useful for understanding the mechanisms responsible for abnormal ventilatory responses to exercise in disease models.

AbstractExercise‐induced ventilatory abnormalities in various disease states seem to arise from pathological changes of respiratory regulation. Although experimental studies in small animals are essential to investigate the pathophysiological basis of various disease models, the lack of an integrated framework for quantitatively characterizing respiratory regulation during exercise prevents us from resolving these problems. The purpose of this study was to develop an anaesthetized‐rat model for studying exercise hyperpnoea for quantitative characterization of the respiratory chemoreflex feedback system. In 24 anaesthetized rats, we induced muscle contraction by stimulating bilateral distal sciatic nerves at low and high voltage to mimic exercise. We recorded breath‐by‐breath respiratory gas analysis data and cardiorespiratory responses while running two protocols to characterize the controller and plant of the respiratory chemoreflex. The controller was characterized by determining the linear relationship between end‐tidal CO2 pressure () and minute ventilation (), and the plant by the hyperbolic relationship between and . During exercise, the controller curve shifted upward without change in controller gain, accompanying increased oxygen uptake. The hyperbolic plant curve shifted rightward and downward depending on exercise intensity as predicted by increased metabolism. Exercise intensity‐dependent changes in operating points ( and ) were estimated by integrating the controller and plant curves in a respiratory equilibrium diagram. In conclusion, we developed an anaesthetized‐rat model for studying exercise hyperpnoea, using systems analysis for quantitative characterization of the respiratory system. This novel experimental model will be useful for understanding the mechanisms responsible for abnormal ventilatory responses to exercise in disease models.