bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Arid Climates and Desertification
Authors: Wikle Thomas A. 
Published: March 2017

Abstract
Covering nearly half of the earth's land surface, dry climates are extremely diverse in terms of temperature, patterns of precipitation, and physical appearance. A common attribute to all arid regions is low precipitation. Factors contributing to aridity include persistent high pressure, continentality, and location relative to either mountain ranges that block moisture‐laden winds or cool ocean waters that inhibit rainfall. Using Köppen's Climate Classification System, arid climates are designated as hot or cold deserts or as semiarid steppes. Arid and semiarid areas are susceptible to the impacts of drought but also to human degradation harmful to the productivity of vegetation called desertification. Although there is no consensus on its specific causes, desertification has been attributed to overgrazing, poor agricultural practices, and the indiscriminate use of fire, deforestation, and other activities that alter natural patterns of vegetation.
Biopower
Authors: Srinivasan Krithika 
Published: March 2017

Abstract
This entry discusses biopower with specific reference to the Foucauldian tradition that has inspired its popularization and wide usage as an analytical device. An overview of Foucault's initial theorization of biopower is followed by an account of the main ideas – population, governmentality, the intertwining of welfare and violence, and subjectification – encapsulated by this concept of “the power over life” and which have proven to be of much significance to geographical and social science inquiry. The entry also includes a discussion on some of the key intellectual debates around the meaning and implications of biopower and of the variety of empirical domains where it has been and continues to be productively deployed and developed.
Ancient Geography
Authors: Mathewson Kent 
Published: March 2017

Abstract

Ancient geography conventionally refers to the geographic theory and practice developed and elaborated by the Greeks and Romans during the millennium from about 500
bce
to about 500
ce
. Many notable figures of classical Antiquity including philosophers, poets, merchants, military men, and travelers contributed to the geographic arts and sciences. Recent scholarship suggests that Greek and Roman geography's antecedents can be found in earlier Afro‐Asiatic civilizations and that all pre‐civilizational cultures possess and utilize geographic knowledge and practices. The study of ancient geography and the actual geography of the classical world enjoyed a florescence in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but has been in decline since the 1920s.
Built Environments
Authors: Knox Paul L. 
Published: March 2017

Abstract
Built environments are an important expression of human geographies, reflecting cultural, economic, political, and social forces. In many subdisciplines they have been treated as an independent variable, leading to criticisms of environmental determinism. More appropriately, built environments can be seen as an important element of the sociospatial dialectic, having reciprocal and recursive relationships with cultural, economic, political, and social phenomena at scales ranging from individual buildings to the global.
Biogeomorphology
Authors: Coombes Martin A. 
Published: March 2017

Abstract
Biogeomorphology is the scientific study of interactions and feedbacks between living and nonliving parts of the landscape. Straddling the disciplines of geomorphology and ecology, biogeomorphological research is inherently interdisciplinary. Micro‐organisms, plants, and animals contribute to the development of landforms and landscapes in many different ways, both actively and passively, through processes of bioconstruction, bioweathering, bioerosion, and bioprotection. Equally, geomorphological processes create and alter habitat, and influence environmental conditions for organisms. As an overarching field of environmental study, the scope and diversity of biogeomorphological research is immense, ranging from the scale of interactions between individual mineral grains and micro‐organisms, up to global biogeochemical cycling and climate change over geological time. Not only of academic interest, biogeomorphology is proving highly useful to many applied fields, particularly environmental management and conservation.
Holocene
Authors: Borisova Olga K. 
Published: March 2017

Holocene is the most recent interval of Earth history which lasted approximately 10 300 radiocarbon years, or 11 700 calibrated (calendar) years and extends to the present day. Despite a relatively short duration of the Holocene, significant changes in climate and landscape occurred during this interglacial epoch. Multiple studies of globally distributed high‐resolution climate proxy records indicate that a rapid warming developed at the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene. A subsequent slower rise of the mean global temperature reached its maximum (the Holocene climatic optimum) approximately 6–5.5
14
C kyr
bp
, or 6000–7000 cal year ago. The early Holocene warming was followed by approximately 0.7°C cooling through the Middle to Late Holocene, culminating in the coolest temperatures of the Holocene during the Little Ice Age, between 1350 and 1850
ce
, when the lower summer insolation in the Northern Hemisphere due to orbital forcing coincided with minimum solar activity and several strong tropical volcanic eruptions.
Anarchist Geography
Authors: Springer Simon 
Published: March 2017

Abstract

Anarchism is a perennially misunderstood idea. Far from representing violence and chaos, anarchism is a form of praxis centered on nonhierarchical organization and the practice of mutual aid, implemented through the everyday politics of direct action, voluntary association, and self‐management. Although they are often misrepresented as an ideology solely concerned with the destruction of the state, the power of anarchist geographies resides in their integrality, which refuses to assign priority to any one of the multiple dominating apparatuses that constrain our lives, as all are seen as irreducible to one another. Anarchism is the struggle against
all
forms of oppression and exploitation, a protean and multivariate process that is decidedly geographical.
Actor‐Network Theory
Authors: Greenhough Beth J. 
Published: March 2017

Abstract
Actor‐network theory (ANT) is an approach to research developed within the interdisciplinary field of science and technology studies (STS). ANT is a constructivist approach, and asserts that phenomena should be understood as emerging from and sustained by networks of relations between heterogeneous human and nonhuman actors. Within geography ANT has been influential in: (i) advocating a “flat ontology,” which refuses to divide the world up hierarchically into different spatial scales (e.g., local, global) and instead focuses on relations, connections, and associations across space; and (ii) its insistence on the role of nonhuman agency in shaping nature‐society relations.
Alien and Native Species
Authors: Warren Charles R. 
Published: March 2017

AbstractThe native/alien distinction is central to nature conservation, but both the distinction itself and policies based on it are contested. Because the terms “native” and “alien” do not describe biological characteristics but dispersal history, definitions rest on spatiotemporal boundaries which are socially constructed. Invasive alien species have severe ecological and economic impacts, and so conservationists defend the distinction and anti‐alien policies. However, opposition to all alien species in principle has been critiqued on numerous grounds, most controversially because of the parallels with racism but also because it often clashes with cultural values. Some call for the native/alien framework to be abandoned, yet it is being reinforced worldwide in conservation policy.
Agricultural Geography
Authors: Robinson Guy M. 
Published: March 2017

Abstract
Agricultural geography has been transformed since the 1980s through the adoption of new approaches and the development of new foci. A focus on mapping agricultural distributions and using simple economic models was replaced in the 1980s by ideas from the political economy tradition acknowledging farms as part of wider global agri‐food chains. This has introduced new concepts, prompting greater consideration of the politics underpinning agricultural policies and cultural drivers of food production and consumption. New concerns have included the sustainability of the industrial model of production, the continuing divide between areas with plentiful food supplies and those facing hunger and starvation, food security at different scales, management of land‐use competition, and the continuing duality between production systems across the developing world. A recurrent theme has been the tensions between biotechnical advances in production versus greater reliance on “environmentally friendly” farming systems.
Air Transport
Authors: Bowen John T. 
Published: March 2017

AbstractAir transportation is among the most important elements in the global circulatory system. The diffusion of aviation and its increased significance have enlarged the scale and accelerated the pace of everyday life across much of the world. Technological advances, economic development, and deregulation have fueled rapid air traffic growth. Particularly in recent decades, the emergence of many new low‐cost carriers has been catalytic in democratizing air travel. The airline industry's dominant players, however, are still mainly full‐service network carriers. Through alliances, the largest carriers have extended the reach of their networks to the global scale. That reach is vital because, while developed countries dominate air traffic flows, growth is concentrated in emerging markets. The potential for further aviation growth is vast, but containing the externalities associated with air transportation – especially its role in global climate change – will be a key challenge in the twenty‐first century.
Biotechnology
Authors: McManus Phil 
Published: March 2017

Abstract
Biotechnology is the application of technology to modify the genetic characteristics of living organisms. This modification is intended to result in “improved” products but it is not always successful, and it can have unintended consequences. This, argue proponents of biotechnology, is an extension of activities conducted over thousands of years to create new products, or emphasize particular characteristics within existing life forms. Geographers have a longstanding interest in nature and environmental concerns, and are often interested in how biotechnology modifies physical properties and our understanding of the world. Biotechnology is increasingly challenging not only how we understand the world outside of us but what it means to be human. Proponents of biotechnology see the challenges for the future as being how to create new products, improved manipulation processes and new applications for biotechnology. For geographers, and others, not directly involved in the development and application of biotechnology, the main interest is in contested discourses surrounding biotechnology and the multiple and sometimes overlapping ethical concerns associated with biotechnology.
Behavioral Geography
Authors: Argent Neil 
Published: March 2017

Abstract
Behavioral geography encompasses a broad field of human geography that became influential during the 1960s and 1970s. It emerged in reaction to the “quantitative turn” associated with the spatial sciences paradigm of the 1950s and 1960s. A fundamental goal of behavioral geography is to understand how and why people perceive environments in the way they do, and how these perceptions influence actual spatial behavior. Behavioral geography, which was largely responsible for introducing behavioralism to human geography, is best thought of as an approach rather than as a separate subdiscipline, given the breadth of philosophical perspectives, research foci, and methodologies that it fostered. Behavioral approaches in human geography were applied to a range of topics, including natural hazards, urban and rural residents' cognition of their built and natural environments, and people's affective belonging to place. Although segments of the approach were criticized for their, inter alia, positivism, lack of scientific rigor, and failure to challenge the status quo of society, the behavioral approach to human geography facilitated a greater engagement with philosophical and epistemological issues, forged productive interactions and relationships with cognate disciplines, and helped lay the conceptual and methodological groundwork for human geographers to engage with contemporary social, environmental, and political issues of public policy relevance.
Albuminuria in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Associations With Rheumatoid Arthritis Characteristics and Subclinical Atherosclerosis
Authors: Sammut Amanda , Shea Steven , Blumenthal Roger S. , Szklo Moyses , Bathon Joan M. , Polak Joseph F. , Tracy Russell , Giles Jon T. 
Published: March 2017

ObjectiveAlbuminuria is a marker for subclinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the general population. It is uncertain whether this association is present in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a population with increased atherosclerosis and CVD events.MethodsUrine albumin from a spot morning collection was measured, and the urine albumin‐to‐creatinine ratio (uACR) was calculated for RA patients and a population‐based sample of demographically matched non‐RA controls. Associations of elevated uACR (≥25 mg/gm for women and ≥17 mg/gm for men) with CVD risk factors and measures of atherosclerosis (coronary artery calcification, ultrasound‐determined maximal intima‐media thickness of the common carotid artery and internal carotid artery [ICA], and the presence of focal plaque in the ICA) were compared cross‐sectionally according to RA status.ResultsWe compared 196 RA patients with 271 non‐RA controls. Elevated uACR was found in 18% of the RA patients compared with 17% of the controls (P = 0.89). After adjustment, RA was associated with 57% lower odds of elevated uACR (P = 0.016). Higher serum creatinine levels and hypertension were both strongly and significantly associated with elevated uACR in the control group but not in the RA group (both P for interaction < 0.05). Among RA characteristics, the adjusted prevalence of elevated uACR among those treated with tumor necrosis factor inhibitors was less than half that among those not so treated (9% versus 20%, respectively; P = 0.047).ConclusionThere was no association in the RA group of elevated uACR with measures of atherosclerosis or with several key cardiometabolic risk factors, which suggests a lower usefulness of elevated uACR as an indicator of subclinical CVD in RA.
Recursive Bayesian estimation of autoregressive model with uniform noise using approximation by parallelotopes
Authors: Pavelková Lenka , Jirsa Ladislav 
Published: March 2017

SummaryThis paper proposes a recursive algorithm for the estimation of a stochastic autoregressive model with an external input. The noise of the involved model is described by a uniform distribution. The model parameters are estimated using the Bayesian approach. Without an approximation, the support of the posterior distribution is a complex multidimensional polytope whose number of faces increases with time. We propose an approximation of this polytope in each time step by a parallelotope with a constant number of faces. The behaviour of the proposed algorithm is illustrated by simulations and compared with other methods.
Fractional adaptive systems in the presence of bounded disturbances and parameter variations
Authors: Duarte‐Mermoud Manuel Armando , Aguila‐Camacho Norelys 
Published: March 2017

SummaryThis paper presents the analysis of fractional adaptive systems in the presence of bounded disturbances and parameter variations. Fractional adaptive systems are analyzed using the error model approach, to give generality to the results. Modified fractional adaptive laws are proposed to make the adaptive systems robust against bounded disturbances and parameter variations. The boundedness of the signals is analytically proved using Lyapunov functions. A simulation example is included to show the effectiveness of the proposed solutions.
Pubertal testis volume, age at pubertal onset, and adolescent blood pressure: Evidence from Hong Kong's “Children of 1997” birth cohort
Authors: Kwok Man Ki , Leung Gabriel M. , Schooling C. Mary 
Published: March 2017

AbstractObjectivesA warning from Health Canada suggests that testosterone increases blood pressure (BP). No evidence from large randomized controlled trials is available, and observational studies are confounded by ill‐health lowering serum testosterone. To address the evidence gap, we assessed the association of pubertal testicular volume, as a reflection of testosterone production, with BP.MethodsWe examined whether testicular volume was associated with sex‐, age‐, and height‐standardized BP z‐score at ∼13 years in a population‐representative Chinese birth cohort (n = 5195, 63% follow‐up). We used age at pubertal onset, determined as the earliest age when Tanner stage II for genitalia, breast, or pubic hair, or testicular volume of 4 mL occurred, as control exposures. These exposures were expected to produce findings different from testicular volume because they are not direct measures of testosterone. They were used to ascertain specificity of exposure and to detect residual confounding.ResultsGreater testicular volume was associated with higher systolic BP by 0.03 z‐score, which is equivalent to 1.40 mm Hg per standard deviation of testicular volume (95% CI 0.02–0.04), adjusted for infant characteristics, socioeconomic position, and childhood body mass index. Similarly adjusted, earlier pubertal onset was not associated with higher systolic BP z‐score in boys or girls.ConclusionsGreater pubertal testicular volume is related to higher BP, consistent with a potential role of androgens in the higher BP in boys than girls that emerges during puberty. Our finding provides preliminary evidence supportive of more definitive studies to clarify the warning on testosterone from Health Canada.
Polydimethylsiloxane/postmodified MIL‐53 composite layer coated on asymmetric hollow fiber membrane for improving gas separation performance
Authors: Zhu Haitao , Jie Xingming , Wang Lina , Liu Dandan , Cao Yiming 
Published: March 2017

ABSTRACTComposite layer containing postmodified MIL‐53 (P‐MIL‐53) was exploited to be coated on as‐fabricated asymmetric hollow fiber membrane for improving gas separation performance. The morphology and pore size distribution of P‐MIL‐53 particles were characterized by SEM and N2 adsorption isotherm. The EDX mapping and FTIR spectra were performed to confirm the presence of P‐MIL‐53 deposited on the outer surface of hollow fiber membranes. The results of pure gas permeation measurement indicated that incorporation of P‐MIL‐53 particles in coating layer could improve permeation properties of hollow fiber membranes. By varying coating times and P‐MIL‐53 content, the membrane coated with PDMS/15%P‐MIL‐53 composite by three times achieved best performance. Compared to pure PDMS coated membrane, CO2 permeance was enhanced from 29.96 GPU to 40.24 GPU and ideal selectivity of CO2/N2 and CO2/CH4 also increased from 23.28 and 26.95 to 28.08 and 32.03, respectively. The gas transport through composite membrane was governed by solution‐diffusion mechanism and CO2 preferential adsorption of P‐MIL‐53 contributed to considerable increase of CO2 solubility resulting in accelerated permeation rate. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 44999.
Understanding the relation between structural and mechanical properties of electrospun fiber mesh through uniaxial tensile testing
Authors: Kumar Prasoon , Vasita Rajesh 
Published: March 2017

ABSTRACTPolymeric electrospun fibers have the potential to be utilized for a variety of applications such as tissue engineering, filtration, and textiles, owing to their high surface area per unit mass. However, these applications have some form of dependency on the mechanical properties of fiber meshes. Therefore, the current study is aimed at understanding the mechanical behavior of electrospun fiber systems at different length scales in order to establish a correlation between their structure and mechanical properties. Micro‐/nano‐fiber meshes of polystyrene were fabricated by the process of electrospinning and were subjected to uniaxial tensile testing. High‐resolution imaging during tensile testing revealed the macroscopic and microscopic structural evolution of these fibers. Further, the dependence of tensile strength, % elongation, and toughness of fiber meshes on the orientation of the fibers were also experimentally observed. The continuum mechanics simulation studies of fiber meshes with different orientations corroborated well with these experimental studies. Comprehensively, these studies demonstrated the changes in mechanical behavior of electrospun fiber meshes owing to the reorientation and alignment of fibers in meshes at microscopic and macroscopic length scale during tensile testing. Such study can be extrapolate for the design and fabrication of load‐bearing tissues scaffolds, and filtration devices. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 45012.
Lifelong neurogenesis in the cerebral ganglion of the Chinese mud snail,Cipangopaludina chinensis
Authors: Swart Charles C. , Wattenberger Amelia , Hackett Amy , Isaman Danielle 
Published: March 2017

AbstractIntroductionA small group of Gastropods possessing giant neurons have long been used to study a wide variety of fundamental neurophysiological phenomena. However, the majority of gastropods do not have large neurons but instead have large numbers of small neurons and remain largely unstudied. We explored neuron size and rate of increase in neuron numbers in the Chinese mud snail,Cipangopaludina chinensis.MethodsUsing histological sections and whole mounts of the cerebral ganglia, we collected cross‐sectional data on neuron number and size across the lifespan of this animal. Neurogenesis was verified using Click‐it EdU staining.ResultsWe found that total neuron number in the cerebral ganglia increases throughout the lifespan of this species at a constant rate. New neurons arise primarily near the nerve roots. Females live longer (up to 7 years) than males (up to 5 years) and thus achieve larger numbers of neurons in the cerebral ganglion. Neuron size is consistently small (<10 μm) in the cerebral ganglia at all ages, however, cells in the posterior section of the cerebral ganglia are modestly but significantly larger than cells at the anterior.ConclusionsThese features suggest thatC. chinensisand similar species of Caenogastropoda are good candidates for studying gastropod neurogenesis, senescence, and sex differences in the nervous system.