bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Asymmetrical 1:2 Y‐tree interconnects modelling with Kron–Branin formalism
Authors: Ravelo B. , Maurice O. , Lalléchère S. 
Published: May 2016

This research work presents an innovative tensorial analysis of network (TAN) model of asymmetrical 1:2 Y‐tree interconnects. The modelling methodology is built with Kron–Branin formalism. The analytical Z‐matrix equivalent to the assumed multi‐port system is fundamentally established from the transmission line Kron–Branin topology. Then, the equivalent S‐parameters of the two‐level Y‐tree system are established. The developed model is validated with S‐parameter simulations of microstrip Y‐tree interconnects structure from DC to 8 GHz.
Soliton mode‐locked erbium‐doped fibre laser with mechanically exfoliated molybdenum disulphide saturable absorber
Authors: Ahmed Mahmoud Hazzaa M. , Latiff Anas A. , Arof Hamzah , Ahmad Harith , Harun Sulaiman Wadi 
Published: May 2016

The authors demonstrate the generation of soliton mode‐locked pulses from an erbium‐doped fibre ring laser incorporating molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) saturable absorber (SA) with a net anomalous dispersion. The MoS2 SA is prepared by mechanically exfoliating MoS2 crystal and fixing the acquired MoS2 flakes onto the end surface of a standard FC/PC fibre connector. A self‐started mode‐locked soliton pulse is generated by fine‐tuning the rotation of the polarisation controller at the threshold pump power of 50 mW. Its solitonic behaviour is verified by the presence of Kelly sidebands in the output spectrum. The central wavelength, 3 dB bandwidth, pulsewidth, and repetition rate of the laser are 1598.94 nm, 5.4 nm, 0.83 ps, and 17.1 MHz, respectively. The maximum pulse energy is 74 nJ at pump power of 110 mW with the output power of 1.26 mW. The MoS2 SA was constructed in a simple fabrication process and has a modulation depth of 11.3% to successfully produce the stable soliton mode‐locked fibre laser.
Synthesis of carbon nanostructures from coal by chemical solid synthesis method
Authors: Vakili Fathabadi Motahare , Hashemipour Rafsanjani Hasan , Danafar Firouze 
Published: May 2016

Carbon nanofibres (CNFs) and carbon spheres (CSs) are successfully synthesised using coal particles (<44 micron) in solid phase. Coal and ferrocene as catalyst were fed to the reactor in the solid form. The reaction is carried out in a tubular reactor. The as‐synthesised samples have been characterised through Raman spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The results show CNFs formed in 25–40 nm and mono dispersed CSs in 200–300 nm are amorphous. A feasible mechanism of CNFs and CSs formation from coal described here with the help of coal structure.
Delphinidin prevents disuse muscle atrophy and reduces stress-related gene expression
Authors: Murata Motoki , Kosaka Reia , Kurihara Kana , Yamashita Shuya , Tachibana Hirofumi 
Published: May 2016

Abstract
Delphinidin is a member of the anthocyanidin class of plant pigments. We examined the effects of delphinidin on muscle atrophy. Oral administration of delphinidin suppressed the muscle weight loss induced by mechanical unloading. Microarray analysis showed that delphinidin suppresses the upregulation of oxidative stress-related gene expression, including the expression of Cbl-b. Thus, delphinidin may prevent unloading-mediated muscle atrophy.
Tumor-suppressive activity of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 against kidney cancer cells via up-regulation of FOXO3
Authors: Lee Jongsung , Park See-Hyoung 
Published: May 2016

Abstract
1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 has been known to have the tumor-suppressive activity in various kinds of tumors. However, the exact effect and working mechanism of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 on the tumor-suppressive activity in human kidney cancer cells remains poorly understood. 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 has cytotoxicity to ACHN cells and inhibited ACHN cell proliferation compared to the vehicle control. 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 increased the expression of the cleaved PARP1, active Caspase3, Bax, and Bim but decreased the expression of Bcl2 in ACHN cells. Moreover, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 down-regulated the phosphorylated Akt and Erk which might lead to apoptosis through activation of FOXO3 in ACHN cells. Transfection of siRNA against FOXO3 attenuated the pro-apoptotic BimEL expression in ACHN cells treated with 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3. These results suggest that FOXO3 is involved in the apoptosis induced by 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3.
“That British Sound”: Talk of Nationalness in Global Capitalism
Authors: Ng Kwai Hang , Skotnicki Tad 
Published: May 2016

AbstractThis article proposes the concept of “nationalness” to account for the persistent circulation of national labels as a tool of distinction. We argue that the concept expands on the traditional conception of nation as country of origin to include cultural notions of sensuous and aesthetic qualities that are semiotically tied to national “essence.” Nationalness connects products to nations not only through indexicality but also iconicity. It is made possible through “rhematization,” the process of appropriating signs whose interpretants are taken to be iconic. Talk of nationalness enables consumers to make sense of national labels in today’s world where the both ends of capitalism—manufacturing and consumption—are thoroughly global. Instead of confining our analytical focus to top-down national branding projects, we examine how consumers invoke the idea of a nation to describe their uses of industrial products. Our case study is the popular concept of “British sound” circulated among audiophiles. Drawing on online discussions of an internet community, the article shows that audiophiles refer to Britishness as a key mechanism to distinguish their consumption experiences from mass market consumption. We further show how the label “British sound” can be used to describe the experiences of consumer products that are no longer manufactured in Britain.
On Not Being a Sign: Gold’s Semiotic Claims
Authors: Ferry Elizabeth 
Published: May 2016

AbstractIn this essay I examine gold’s semiotic claims in the context of perceptions of gold in global financial markets, beginning with an intriguing parallel drawn by my informants between gold and Bitcoin. I make several interrelated arguments: (1) that in a variety of cultural contexts, gold has become a site for a very particular semiotic claim—that of not signifying at all; (2) that in the contemporary instance of physical gold in relation to other assets based on gold, this is expressed in an attention to gold’s material, tactile qualities (represented both iconically and indexically), and its extrasocial character; (3) that similar claims are made for Bitcoin, often drawing on a “digital metallism,” and idiom of gold; and (4) that the self-reflexive semiotic properties of gold have a long and diverse cultural history. In concluding, I speculate on how gold’s particular semiotic stance reflects one possible articulation of nature and convention as sources of meaning.
Discourses, Legitimization, and the Construction of Acadianité
Authors: LeBlanc Mélanie , Boudreau Annette 
Published: May 2016

AbstractThis article examines how a discourse of nationhood has developed and evolved in Acadie since the nineteenth century. It describes the important role played by language ideologies in the construction of competing discourses in the Francophone world. The discursive changes that have occurred since the 1960s in relation to the distribution of material and symbolic resources will be explored, with a specific focus on the resemioticization of French vernaculars in artistic creation and tourism. Finally, the authors will illustrate how the Acadians have transformed a discourse of stigmatization into a discourse of differentiation by rejecting the standard language ideology that has traditionally defined the Franco-Canadian community. The examples of artistic production and tourism will be used to illustrate how Acadians have profited from the adoption of this discourse in national and international markets.
The Late-Night Infomercial as an Electronic Site of Ritual Self-Transformation: The Case of “Personal Power”
Authors: Glick Douglas J. 
Published: May 2016

AbstractThis article argues that a late-night television infomercial displays the structure of a ritual rite of passage. It tracks how the infomercial creates a state of ideological liminality that is redressed by a series of poetic (linguistic) parallelisms. This culminates in a trope of incorporation that transforms the social identity of the viewer from “unsuccessful” to “successful.” Ritual in form yet electronic in medium, the conclusion relates the ritual merging of consumer and new product type in processes of commodification to the ways in which cultural analogy, ideological and otherwise, moves certain kinds of social meanings into new arenas of practice.
The Offline and Online Mediatization of Psychoanalysis in Buenos Aires
Authors: Marsilli-Vargas Xochitl 
Published: May 2016

AbstractThis article explores the mediatized nature of the circulation of psychoanalysis in Buenos Aires, Argentina, by focusing on psychoanalytic talk and listening practices, inside and outside the clinical setting. It shows that mediatization processes, which link institutional practices to processes of communication and commoditization (Agha 2011a), are key for understanding how psychoanalytic knowledge (including its lexical register) and its therapeutic practice get reproduced in fractionally congruent forms within everyday interactions across Buenos Aires. Specific emphasis is placed on the many uptake formulations of psychoanalytic practice that are observed today, on the scale-changing effects of mediatization, and on changes in the propinquity of interactants in psychoanalytic encounters.
Zika virus infection as an unexpected finding in a Leptospirosis patient
Authors: Biron Antoine , Cazorla Cécile , Amar Julien , Pfannstiel Anne , Dupont-Rouzeyrol Myrielle , Goarant Cyrille 
Published: May 2016

Introduction:
Areas where leptospirosis and arboviruses are endemic largely overlap in the tropics. However, the number of arbovirus infections is usually much higher. The initial clinical presentation can be highly confusing; therefore, laboratory confirmation is key to an accurate diagnosis.

Case Presentation:
A 19–year–old man presented to a peripheral health centre with an acute febrile illness. Dengue was initially suspected, but the patient deteriorated to a shock syndrome. Leptospirosis as well as a co-infection with Zika virus were both confirmed in the laboratory, the latter being clinically masked in this dual infection.

Conclusion:
This case highlights the importance of not only considering the differential diagnosis of acute febrile syndromes, but also to consider the possibility of dual infections in the context of global spread of arboviruses. The specific context of travellers returning from endemic areas and pregnant women is also highlighted and discussed.
Utilizing Social Media and Video Games to Control #DIY Microscopes
Authors: Leblanc-Latour Maxime , Bryan Craig , Pelling Andrew 
Published: May 2016

ABSTRACTOpen-source lab equipment is becoming more widespread with the popularization of fabrication tools such as 3d-printers, laser cutters, CNC machines, open source microcontrollers and open source software. Although many pieces of common laboratory equipment have been developed, software control of these items is sometimes lacking. Specifically, control software that can be easily implemented and enable user-input and control over multiple platforms (PC, smartphone, web, etc.). The aim of this proof-of-principle study was to develop and implement software for the control of a low-cost, 3d-printed microscope. Here, we present two approaches, which enable microscope control by exploiting the functionality of the social media platform Twitter or player actions inside of the videogame Minecraft. The microscope was constructed from a modified web-camera and implemented on a Raspberry Pi computer. Four aspects of microscope control were tested, including single image capture, focus control and time-lapse imaging. The Twitter-embodiment enabled users to send “tweets” directly to the microscope. Image data acquired by the microscope was then returned to the user through a Twitter reply and stored permanently on the photo-sharing platform Flickr, along with any relevant metadata. Local control of the microscope was also implemented by utilizing the video game Minecraft, in situations where Internet connectivity is not present or stable. A virtual laboratory was constructed inside the Minecraft world and player actions inside the laboratory were linked to specific microscope functions. Here, we present the methodology and results of these experiments and discuss possible limitations and future extensions of this work.
Figure-ground organization in visual cortex for natural scenes
Authors: Williford Jonathan R. , von der Heydt Rüdiger 
Published: May 2016

AbstractFigure-ground organization and border-ownership assignment are essential for understanding natural scenes. It has been shown that many neurons in the macaque visual cortex signal border-ownership in displays of simple geometric shapes such as squares, but how well these neurons resolve border-ownership in natural scenes is not known. We studied area V2 neurons in behaving macaques with static images of complex natural scenes. We found that about half of the neurons were border-ownership selective for contours in natural scenes and this selectivity originated from the image context. The border-ownership signals emerged within 70 ms after stimulus onset, only~30 ms after response onset. A substantial fraction of neurons were highly consistent across scenes. Thus, the cortical mechanisms of figure-ground organization are fast and efficient even in images of complex natural scenes. Understanding how the brain performs this task so fast remains a challenge.Significance StatementHere we show, for the first time, that neurons in primate visual area V2 signal border-ownership for objects in complex natural scenes. Surprisingly, these signals appear as early as the border-ownership signals for simple figure displays. In fact, they emerge well before object selective activity appears in infero-temporal cortex, which rules out feedback from that region as an explanation. Thus, “objectness” is detected by extremely fast mechanisms that do not depend on feedback from the known object-recognition centers.
Stable host gene expression in the gut of adultDrosophila melanogasterwith different bacterial mono-associations
Authors: Elya Carolyn , Zhang Vivian , Ludington Will , Eisen Michael B 
Published: May 2016

AbstractThere is growing evidence that the microbes found in the digestive tracts of animals influence host biology, but we still do not understand how this comes about. Here, we evaluated how different microbial species commonly associated with laboratory-rearedDrosophila melanogasterimpact host biology at the level of gene expression in the dissected adult gut or the entire adult organism. We observed that guts from gnotobiotic animals associated from the embryonic stage with either zero, one or three bacterial species demonstrated indistinguishable transcriptional profiles. Additionally, we found that the gut transcriptional profiles of animals reared in the presence of the yeastSaccharomyces cerevisiaealone or in combination with bacteria could recapitulate those of conventionally-reared animals. In contrast, we found whole body transcriptional profiles of conventionally-reared animals were distinct from all of the gnotobiotic treatments tested. Our data suggest that adult flies are insensitive to the ingestion of different bacterial species but that prior to adulthood, different microbes impact the host in ways that lead to global transcriptional differences observable across the whole adult body.
Advances in the integration of transcriptional regulatory information into genome-scale metabolic models
Authors: Vivek-Ananth R.P. , Samal Areejit 
Published: May 2016

AbstractA major goal of systems biology is to build predictive computational models of cellular metabolism. Availability of complete genome sequences and wealth of legacy biochemical information has led to the reconstruction of genome-scale metabolic networks in the last 15 years for several organisms across the three domains of life. Due to paucity of information on kinetic parameters associated with metabolic reactions, the constraint-based modelling approach, flux balance analysis (FBA), has proved to be a vital alternative to investigate the capabilities of reconstructed metabolic networks. In parallel, advent of high-throughput technologies has led to the generation of massive amounts ofomicsdata on transcriptional regulation comprising mRNA transcript levels and genome-wide binding profile of transcriptional regulators. A frontier area in metabolic systems biology has been the development of methods to integrate the available transcriptional regulatory information into constraint-based models of reconstructed metabolic networks in order to increase the predictive capabilities of computational models and understand the regulation of cellular metabolism. Here, we review the existing methods to integrate transcriptional regulatory information into constraint-based models of metabolic networks.
Using reasoned imagination to learn about cascading hazards: a pilot study
Authors: Mignan Arnaud , Scolobig Anna , Sauron Anne 
Published: May 2016

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a pilot study involving high school teachers in natural sciences. The aim was to foster critical thinking about cascading hazards via the use of reasoned imagination. Cascading phenomena can lead to extreme catastrophes and are thus a challenge for disaster prevention and management.

Design/methodology/approach
– Following a presentation listing some known cascading phenomena, the participants completed a questionnaire consisting of a blank hazard correlation matrix (HCM) and some open-ended questions. The HCM qualitatively described possible interactions between 16 different perils selected from a large spectrum of natural, technological and socio-economic hazards.

Findings
– Most participants were able to describe cascading phenomena within the HCM by reducing them into sets of one-to-one interactions. Based on their experience and imagination, the participants foresaw additional interactions that were not discussed, never observed but are scientifically plausible. The majority of the respondents reported that they learnt something new and wanted to learn more about cascading hazards.

Originality/value
– The HCM is especially effective in translating complex hazard scenarios into basic interactions and vice versa. Being imaginative (here via the use of reasoned imagination) and accessible, the HCM could be used as basis for transformative learning in the education of the public and of practitioners on the role of cascading hazards in catastrophes.
Competence-based system development for post-disaster project management
Authors: von Meding Jason , Wong Joel , Kanjanabootra Sittimont , Taheri Tafti Mojgan 
Published: May 2016

Purpose– One of the key elements contributing to successful post-disaster project teams is individual competence. Each project participant brings his or her own knowledge, experience and ideas to the collective. The kind of chaotic and fragmented environment that is common in post-disaster scenarios presents specific barriers to the success of projects, which can be mitigated by ensuring that staff members possess competencies appropriate for their deployment to particular contexts. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach– The study utilizes a mixed-methods approach, incorporating unstructured interviews to extract key factors of competence, project barriers and strategy, and a subsequent questionnaire survey, designed to quantify the various elements. Interviews were undertaken and analysed using a cognitive mapping procedure, while survey data were processed using SPSS. The data were then utilized in the development of a software prototype using Design Science Research methodology, capable of modelling the deployment of staff under various disaster scenarios.Findings– Analysis of the survey and cognitive mapping data, in conjunction with relevant established frameworks, has allowed the classification of relevant competency elements. These elements have subsequently been measured and modelled into the competency-based tool and developed into a working prototype.Originality/value– The developed system offers novel disaster competency assessment criteria. The system contains a variety of real-life scenarios derived from extensive data collection. These multi-hazard scenarios are embedded with knowledge and competency valuation criteria that can facilitate actors to assess their team’s knowledge based on selective scenarios. In disaster response, time is a critical element, and this tool assists decision makers. It can enable disaster response actors to evaluate and assemble the appropriate personnel to deploy into disaster areas and into specific types of disaster environment.
A communications intervention to motivate disaster risk reduction
Authors: Sanquini Anne M. , Thapaliya Sundar M. , Wood Michele M. 
Published: May 2016

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to apply social theory to the creation of a mass-media communications intervention designed to encourage earthquake-resistant construction in Nepal.Design/methodology/approach– A three-step process was employed in this study: first, a narrative literature review was completed regarding the motivation of protective action. Second, key informant elicitation interviews with 15 community members at five public schools who supported making their buildings earthquake-resistant informed the script for a documentary film. Finally, the film was reviewed with stakeholders, plus 16 community members associated with a school in need of seismic work. Sociograms were used to determine relative closeness of the study participants to the film role models.Findings– Motivating factors identified in the literature synthesis were included in the film, which focussed on effective actions taken by role models, and avoided the use of fear-based appeals. Key informant interviews yielded role-modeling details for the film script, including triggers and obstacles faced by the community members, and outcomes of their actions. Sociogram outcomes guided film editing and increased relative screen time for those community members with whom the study participants felt greater closeness. A pretest-posttest cluster randomized trial (details reported elsewhere) showed greater gains in knowledge, perceived outcome effectiveness, and intended behaviors among intervention film viewers than control participants.Originality/value– This three-step process yielded the information required by a practitioner to develop a theory-based, culturally appropriate mass-media intervention designed to motivate reduction of disaster risk.