bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Comparing the birth rate of stellar black holes in binary black hole mergers and long gamma-ray bursts
Authors: Atteia J.-L. , Dezalay J.-P. , Godet O. , Klotz A. , Turpin D. , Bernardini M. G. 
Published: December 2017

Context. Gravitational wave interferometers have proven the existence of a new class of binary black hole (BBH) weighing tens of solar masses, and have provided the first reliable measurement of the rate of coalescing black holes (BHs) in the local Universe. Furthermore, long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected with gamma-ray satellites are believed to be associated with the birth of stellar-mass BHs, providing a measure of the rate of these events across the history of the Universe, thanks to the measure of their cosmological redshift. These two types of sources, which are subject to different detection biases and involve BHs born in different environments with potentially different characteristics, provide complementary information on the birth rate of stellar BHs.
Aims. We compare the birth rates of BHs found in BBH mergers and in long GRBs.
Methods. We construct a simple model that makes reasonable assumptions on the history of GRB formation, and takes into account some major uncertainties, like the beaming angle of GRBs or the delay between the formation of BBHs and their coalescence. We use this model to evaluate the ratio of the number of stellar mass BHs formed in BBH mergers to those formed in GRBs.
Results. We find that in our reference model the birth rate of stellar BHs in BBH mergers represents a significant fraction of the rate of long GRBs and that comparable birth rates are favored by models with moderate beaming angles. These numbers, however, do not consider subluminous GRBs, which may represent another population of sources associated with the birth of stellar mass BHs. We briefly discuss this result in view of our understanding of the progenitors of GRBs and BBH mergers, and we emphasize that this ratio, which will be better constrained in the coming years, can be directly compared with the prediction of stellar evolution models if a single model is used to produce GRBs and BBH mergers with the same assumptions.
A 2-Year-Old Child with Bilateral Ectopis Lentis and a Novel FBN1 Gene Variant Cys129Ser
Authors: Mohammad Ahmed , Atwal Paldeep 
Published: December 2017

AbstractMarfan syndrome and dominant ectopia lentis are part of type 1 fibrillinopathies that are caused by FBN1 pathogenic variants. Making a diagnosis could be challenging due to the clinical overlap between these disorders. The revised Ghent criteria used for Marfan syndrome diagnosis helped in resolving some of the confusion, especially in younger children. We report on a case of bilateral ectopia lentis in a 2-year-old child with a normal echocardiogram. FBN1 sequencing revealed a novel likely pathogenic variant described as c.385T > A (p.Cys129Ser). The patient's father also has a history of bilateral ectopia lentis and his genetic analysis detected the same FBN1 variant as the proband.
“If indeed this is the will of the Ekiti people”
Authors: Adedara Ayodeji A. 
Published: December 2017

Abstract
Based on the idea that the quality of a democracy may be measured against the quality of its public communication, this paper deploys Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to investigate a Nigerian gubernatorial concession speech in discursive terms. It argues that as an uncommon genre in political discourse in an emerging democracy this hybridised speech both indexes a growing culture of ‘fair competition’ in Nigeria’s eighteen-year-old civilian rule and presents the incumbent as a deft political actor who strategically claims political capital. The paper examines the text’s generic structure, the political and other actors mentioned or implied in it, its manipulation of pronominal references for rhetorical effect, as well as the epistemic uncertainty implied by a query-concession sequence noticed in it. Drawing on the concession speech literature, the paper charts a course for studying the concession speech as an emerging genre in a neonatal democracy like Nigeria.
Problematizing mirativity
Authors: Peterson Tyler 
Published: December 2017

AbstractThere are many excellent descriptions of mirativity in various language grammars, and more recently there has been a flurry of research refining mirativity to include how languages linguistically realize surprise and related concepts such as ‘unexpectedness’ and ‘new information’. However, there is currently no commonly accepted set of independently motivated diagnostics for testing mirativity that utilizes the best practices and first principles of semantic and pragmatic investigation. As such, the goal of this paper is to go back to basics and examine mirativity from the point of view of a field linguist who has been given the task of discovering and documenting how a speaker of a language linguistically expresses her surprise. This approach rests on two premises: first, mirativity is about surprise in the psychological sense. The second premise is that we take seriously that mirativity involves a kind of meaning, and that all languages have the linguistic resources for communicating mirative (surprise) meaning. The outcome is a set of tests that can be used to probe mirative meanings in any language.
Degrees of mirativity
Authors: Sahoo Kalyanamalini , Lemmens Maarten 
Published: December 2017

AbstractThis paper studies degrees of mirativity as grammaticalised in the Indo-Aryan language Odia by four light verb constructions, asymmetric complex predicates combining a lexical verb with a (partially) bleached light verb. As such, these light verb constructions can be considered non-parasitic expressions of mirativity. The present paper adds a number of important new insights to the discussion of mirativity. Firstly, we show that mirativity is a complex category which, next to the prototypical notion of surprise, also comprises the notion of “unsupposedness”. Secondly, we demonstrate that the four constructions vary in the degree of mirativity they express. These differences can be related to features of transitivity, such as volitionality or control and affectedness (as contextually realised by the process size, impact, force, or scope). This hypothesis is confirmed by two corpus studies: a collostructional analysis (based on verb types) and a comparison of contexts for constructional minimal pairs.
La sceneggiatura teatrale inedita di “La Virtù di Checchina”
Authors: Killander Cariboni Carla 
Published: December 2017

Sommario
This article deals with a comparison between Matilde Serao’s short story “Checchina’s Virtue” (1884) and the homonymous unpublished theatrical script written by Massimo Franciosa (1995), of which a summary is provided. The comparison between the source text and the adaptation draws on the debate about the narrativity of drama in which many scholars have engaged in the last decades: Richardson (1987), Chatman (1990), Jahn (2001), Fludernik (2008) and Nünning & Sommer (2008). The analysis focuses on two forms of diegetic narrativity that appear in the short story, i. e. free indirect discourse and the iterative mode, in order to see how the theatrical script deals with them. The analysis shows that the script preserves the narrative contents of the source text and highlights how diegetic and mimetic narrativity collaborate to the reworking and redistribution of those contents.
Certification systems for verifying carbon trading from forestry and other land uses and their effectiveness to deliver non-carbon benefits.
Authors: Savilaakso S. , Petrokofsky G. 
Published: December 2017

Abstract
We review seven certification systems for verifying carbon trading from forestry and other land uses, and evaluate evidence of their effectiveness in generating social and environmental co-benefits. Published research on non-carbon co-benefits was located by searching the three principal bibliographic databases in this area of science: CABI, ISI Web of Science Core Collection and SCOPUS. We included studies published in English from 2000 to 2016. Our searches yielded 679 studies after duplicates were removed. Of these 11 studies presented relevant results from projects that had been certified by one of the carbon certification standards. Although there is some evidence of positive impacts related to land use governance, local livelihoods and non-carbon ecosystem services, there were studies reporting negative aspects of carbon certification. Overall the evidence-base is very limited and there is a real need for more research on the social and environmental impacts of carbon certification standards.
Outlier detection for improved differential splicing quantification from RNA-Seq experiments with replicates
Authors: Norton Scott S , Vaquero-Garcia Jorge , Lahens Nicholas F , Grant Gregory R , Barash Yoseph 
Published: December 2017

Abstract

Motivation
A key component in many RNA-Seq-based studies is contrasting multiple replicates from different experimental conditions. In this setup, replicates play a key role as they allow to capture underlying biological variability inherent to the compared conditions, as well as experimental variability. However, what constitutes a ‘bad’ replicate is not necessarily well defined. Consequently, researchers might discard valuable data or downstream analysis may be hampered by failed experiments.

Results
Here we develop a probability model to weigh a given RNA-Seq sample as a representative of an experimental condition when performing alternative splicing analysis. We demonstrate that this model detects outlier samples which are consistently and significantly different compared with other samples from the same condition. Moreover, we show that instead of discarding such samples the proposed weighting scheme can be used to downweight samples and specific splicing variations suspected as outliers, gaining statistical power. These weights can then be used for differential splicing (DS) analysis, where the resulting algorithm offers a generalization of the MAJIQ algorithm. Using both synthetic and real-life data, we perform an extensive evaluation of the improved MAJIQ algorithm in different scenarios involving perturbed samples, mislabeled samples, same condition groups, and different levels of coverage, showing it compares favorably to other tools. Overall, this work offers an outlier detection algorithm that can be combined with any splicing pipeline, a generalized and improved version of MAJIQ for DS detection, and evaluation metrics with matching code and data for DS algorithms.

Availability and implementation
Software and data are accessible via majiq.biociphers.org/norton_et_al_2017/.

Supplementary information
Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Gender Differences in the Association Between Leisure Activity in Adulthood and Cognitive Function in Old Age: A Prospective Longitudinal Population-Based Study
Authors: Hassing Linda B 
Published: December 2017

Abstract

Objectives
To examine the long-term association between leisure activities in adulthood and cognitive function in old age while recognizing gender differences in activity profiles.

Methods
The sample included 340 cognitively healthy twins enrolled in the OCTO-Twin Study, a longitudinal study on cognitive aging. Leisure activity was measured in midlife and cognitive function in old age (mean age 83). Leisure activities covered the domains of domestic, intellectual–cultural, and self-improvement activities. The cognitive assessments comprised 5 measurement occasions (2-year intervals) covering verbal ability, spatial ability, memory, and speed. The association between leisure activity and cognitive function was estimated separately for the genders using growth curve models, adjusting for age and education.

Results
Men and women had the same level of total leisure activity but differed in activity profiles and in the associations between activity and cognitive function. Higher engagement in self-improvement among men was related to higher level of cognitive functioning. Among women, intellectual–cultural activity was related to better verbal ability and memory. Concerning trajectories of cognitive function, domestic activity among men was related to less decline in speed, whereas for women it was related to steeper decline in spatial ability and memory. Further, higher intellectual–cultural activity among women was related to steeper decline in memory.

Discussion
Cognitively stimulating activities (i.e., self-improvement and intellectual–cultural), might increase cognitive reserve whereas less cognitively stimulating activities (i.e., domestic) do not. Gender differences should be considered when examining lifestyle factors in relation to cognitive aging.
Ambient Lipschitz Equivalence of Real Surface Singularities
Authors: Birbrair Lev , Gabrielov Andrei 
Published: December 2017

Abstract
We present a series of examples of pairs of singular semialgebraic surfaces (germs of real semialgebraic sets of dimension two) in ${\mathbb R}^{3}$ and ${\mathbb R}^{4}$ which are bi-Lipschitz equivalent with respect to the outer metric, ambient topologically equivalent, but not ambient Lipschitz equivalent. For each singular semialgebraic surface $S\subset{\mathbb R}^{4}$, we construct infinitely many semialgebraic surfaces which are bi-Lipschitz equivalent with respect to the outer metric, ambient topologically equivalent to S, but pairwise ambient Lipschitz nonequivalent.
What Is the Safety and Efficacy of Chemical Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis Following Vestibular Schwannoma Surgery?
Authors: Casazza Geoffrey C. , Bowers Christian A. , MacDonald Joel D. , Couldwell William T. , Shelton Clough , Gurgel Richard K. 
Published: December 2017

Objective:
The benefit of routine chemical prophylaxis use for venous thromboembolism (VTE) prevention in skull base surgery is controversial. Chemical prophylaxis can prevent undue morbidity and mortality, however there are risks for hemorrhagic complications.

Study Design:
Retrospective case-control.

Methods:
A retrospective chart review of patients who underwent surgery for vestibular schwannoma from 2011 to 2016 was performed. Patients were divided by receipt of chemical VTE prophylaxis. Number of VTEs and hemorrhagic complications (intracranial hemorrhage, abdominal hematoma, and postauricular hematoma) were recorded.

Results:
One hundred twenty-six patients were identified, 55 received chemical prophylaxis, and 71 did not. All the patients received mechanical prophylaxis. Two patients developed a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and one patient developed a pulmonary embolism (PE). All patients who developed a DVT or PE received chemical prophylaxis. There was no difference in DVT (p = 0.1886) or PE (p = 0.4365) between those who received chemical prophylaxis and those who did not. Five patients developed a hemorrhagic complication, two intracranial hemorrhage, three abdominal hematoma, and zero postauricular hematoma. All five patients with a complication received chemical prophylaxis (p = 0.00142). The relative risk of a hemorrhagic complication was 14.14 (95% CI = 0.7987–250.4307; p = 0.0778).

Conclusion:
There was a significant difference between the number of hemorrhagic complications but not between numbers of DVT or PE. Mechanical and chemical prophylaxis may lower the risk of VTE but in our series, hemorrhagic complications were observed. These measures should be used selectively in conjunction with early ambulation.
Transcanal Transpromontorial Acoustic Neuroma Surgery: Results and Facial Nerve Outcomes
Authors: Marchioni Daniele , Soloperto Davide , Masotto Barbara , Fabbris Cristoforo , De Rossi Stefano , Villari Domenico , Presutti Livio 
Published: December 2017

Background:
Recently, the transcanal approach for the removal of acoustic neuromas has been introduced. Facial nerve (FN) preservation is one of the main challenges of this kind of surgery.

Objective:
To describe our experience in the surgical treatment of acoustic neuromas, focusing on the functional results of FN preservation after a transcanal approach.

Methods:
A retrospective chart review was carried out on clinical data and videos from operations on 49 patients who underwent surgery with a totally transcanal exclusive endoscopic approach for Koos stage I–II lesions, or an enlarged transcanal transpromontorial approach for Koos stage II–III tumors, between March 2012 and February 2017. Patients and tumor characteristics, clinical manifestations, radiologic features, audiological results, FN outcomes (according to the House–Brackmann [HB] grading system) and complications were evaluated. Tumors were classified according to the Koos grading system.

Results:
The age of the patients (34 females and 15 males) ranged from 27 to 77 years (mean age: 54.9 yr). Preoperative diagnosis was “vestibular schwannoma” in all patients. At the last follow-up (range 1–60 mo, mean 13.9 mo), 42 of 49 showed grade I HB FN function, 5 of 49 grade II HB, and 2 of 49 grade III HB. Overall, in 95.9%, FN function was preserved (grade I–II HB) with stable results at follow-up; in 4.1% of cases, FN function was reduced, but not worse than grade III.

Conclusion:
The transcanal approach represents a feasible, minimally invasive, and conservative technique for the management of acoustic neuromas of the internal auditory canal.
An Unusual Presentation of Pituitary Gland Apoplexy With Noninfectious Meningitis
Authors: LaPorte Margaret , Pollock Jenna , Ward Michael , Fulcher James 
Published: December 2017

Abstract
Pituitary adenomas make up 10% of intracranial tumors, but because of their location, they may go undetected for long periods. In this article, we report the case of a 68-year-old white man found deceased in his residence, who died of acute pituitary tumor apoplexy. He was known to have severe symptoms including acute headache, vision loss, and altered behavior. When found, his home was in extreme disarray, mimicking a possible assault. At autopsy, the decedent had multiple superficial abrasions about the upper and lower extremities, as well as a 2.5 × 3-cm pituitary adenoma compressing the carotid arteries and optic nerves. Initial coroner and police investigators were strongly considering homicide with robbery as a motive, given the disarray present at the scene. This case highlights the importance of postmortem examination of the pituitary gland in all cases where neurological symptoms are reported prior to death.
Big Data Analytical Approaches to the NACC Dataset
Authors: Lin Ming , Gong Pinghua , Yang Tao , Ye Jieping , Albin Roger L. , Dodge Hiroko H. 
Published: December 2017

Background:
Clinical trials increasingly aim to retard disease progression during presymptomatic phases of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and thus recruiting study participants at high risk for developing MCI is critical for cost-effective prevention trials. However, accurately identifying those who are destined to develop MCI is difficult. Collecting biomarkers is often expensive.

Methods:
We used only noninvasive clinical variables collected in the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC) Uniform Data Sets version 2.0 and applied machine learning techniques to build a low-cost and accurate Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) conversion prediction calculator. Cross-validation and bootstrap were used to select as few variables as possible accurately predicting MCI conversion within 4 years.

Results:
A total of 31,872 unique subjects, 748 clinical variables, and additional 128 derived variables in NACC data sets were used. About 15 noninvasive clinical variables are identified for predicting MCI/aMCI/naMCI converters, respectively. Over 75% Receiver Operating Characteristic Area Under the Curves (ROC AUC) was achieved. By bootstrap we created a simple spreadsheet calculator which estimates the probability of developing MCI within 4 years with a 95% confidence interval.

Conclusions:
We achieved reasonably high prediction accuracy using only clinical variables. The approach used here could be useful for study enrichment in preclinical trials where enrolling participants at risk of cognitive decline is critical for proving study efficacy, and also for developing a shorter assessment battery.
Neuronal morphology and projection analysis by multispectral tracing in densely labeled mouse brain
Authors: Roossien Douglas H. , Webb John M. , Sadis Benjamin V. , Yan Yan , Min Lia Y. , Dizaji Aslan S. , Bogart Luke J. , Mazuski Cristina , Huth Robert S. , Stecher Johanna S. , Akula Sriakhila , Lichtman Jeff W. , Hensch Takao K. , Herzog Erik D. , Cai Dawen 
Published: December 2017

AbstractAccurate and complete neuronal wiring diagrams are necessary for understanding brain function at many scales from long-range interregional projections to microcircuits. Traditionally, light microscopy-based anatomical reconstructions use monochromatic labeling and therefore necessitate sparse labeling to eliminate tracing ambiguity between intermingled neurons. Consequently, our knowledge of neuronal morphology has largely been based on averaged estimations across many samples. Recently developed second-generation Brainbow tools promise to circumvent this limitation by revealing fine anatomical details of many unambiguously identifiable neurons in densely labeled samples. Yet, a means to quantify and analyze the information is currently lacking. Therefore, we developed nTracer, an ImageJ plugin capable of rapidly and accurately reconstructing whole-cell morphology of large neuronal populations in densely labeled brains.
Putting focus on transcranial direct current stimulation in language production studies
Authors: Klaus Jana , Schutter Dennis J.L.G. 
Published: December 2017

ObjectivePrevious language production studies targeting the inferior frontal and superior temporal gyrus using anodal tDCS have provided mixed results. Part of this heterogeneity may be explained by limited target region focality of conventionally used electrode montages. We examined the focality of conventionally and alternative electrode montages.MethodsElectrical field distributions of anodal tDCS targeting IFG and pSTG were simulated in conventional setups (anodal electrode over IFG/pSTG, reference electrode over right supraorbital region) and an alternative electrode montage in four different brains.ResultsConventional montages showed maximum field strengths outside of the target regions. Results from alternative electrode montages showed that focality of tDCS could be improved by adjustments in electrode size and placement.ConclusionsHeterogeneity of findings of language production studies deploying conventional tDCS montages may in part be explained by diffuse electrical field distributions. Alternative montages may improve focality and provide more unequivocal results.SignificanceReliability of tDCS in language production research, both in basic and applied fields, can be improved by adopting different electrode montages which target the region of interest in a more direct way.