bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Transcriptome Analysis of Adult C. elegans Cells Reveals Tissue-specific Gene and Isoform Expression
Authors: Kaletsky Rachel , Yao Vicky , Williams April , Runnels Alexi M. , King Sean B. , Tadych Alicja , Zhou Shiyi , Troyanskaya Olga G. , Murphy Coleen T. 
Published: December 2017

AbstractThe biology and behavior of adults differ substantially from those of developing animals, and cell-specific information is critical for deciphering the biology of multicellular animals. Thus, adult tissue-specific transcriptomic data are critical for understanding molecular mechanisms that control their phenotypes. We used adult cell-specific isolation to identify the transcriptomes of C. elegans’ four major tissues (or “tissue-ome”), identifying ubiquitously expressed and tissue-specific “super-enriched” genes. These data newly reveal the hypodermis’ metabolic character, suggest potential worm-human tissue orthologies, and identify tissue-specific changes in the Insulin/IGF-1 signaling pathway. Tissue-specific alternative splicing analysis identified a large set of collagen isoforms and a neuron-specific CREB isoform. Finally, we developed a machine learning-based prediction tool for 70 sub-tissue cell types, which we used to predict cellular expression differences in IIS/FOXO signaling, stage-specific TGF-b activity, and basal vs. memory-induced CREB transcription. Together, these data provide a rich resource for understanding the biology governing multicellular adult animals
A Genetic Pathway Composed of EDT1/HDG11, ERECTA, and E2Fa Loci Regulates Water Use Efficiency by Modulating Stomatal Density
Authors: Guo Xiao-Yu , Wang Yao , Xu Ping , Yu Guo-Hua , Zhang Li-Yong , Xiong Yan , Xiang Cheng-Bin 
Published: December 2017

AbstractImprovement of crop drought resistance and water use efficiency (WUE) has been a major endeavor in agriculture. ERECTA is the first identified major effector of water use efficiency. However, the underlying molecular mechanism is not well understood. Here, we report a genetic pathway, composed of EDT1/HDG11, ERECTA, and E2Fa loci, which regulates water use efficiency by modulating stomatal density. The HD-START transcription factor EDT1/HDG11 transcriptionally activates ERECTA expression by binding to an HD cis-element in the ERECTA promoter. ERECTA in turn relies on E2Fa to control the expression of cell-cycle related genes and the transition from mitosis to endocycle, which leads to increased nuclear DNA content in leaf cells, and therefore increased cell size and decreased stomatal density. The decreased stomatal density improves plant WUE. Our study demonstrates the EDT1/HDG11-ERECTA-E2Fa genetic pathway that reduces stomatal density by increasing cell size, providing a new avenue to improve WUE of crops.
Female grant applicants are equally successful when peer reviewers assess the science, but not when they assess the scientist
Authors: Witteman Holly O. , Hendricks Michael , Straus Sharon , Tannenbaum Cara 
Published: December 2017

ABSTRACTBackgroundPrevious research shows that men often receive more research funding than women, but does not provide empirical evidence as to why this occurs. In 2014, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) created a natural experiment by dividing all investigator-initiated funding into two new grant programs: one with and one without an explicit review focus on the caliber of the principal investigator.MethodsWe analyzed application success among 23,918 grant applications from 7,093 unique principal investigators in a 5-year natural experiment across all investigator-initiated CIHR grant programs in 2011-2016. We used Generalized Estimating Equations to account for multiple applications by the same applicant and an interaction term between each principal investigator’s self-reported sex and grant programs to compare success rates between male and female applicants under different review criteria.ResultsThe overall grant success rate across all competitions was 15.8%. After adjusting for age and research domain, the predicted probability of funding success in traditional programs was 0.9 percentage points higher for male than for female principal investigators (OR 0.934, 95% CI 0.854-1.022). In the new program focused on the proposed science, the gap was 0.9 percentage points in favour of male principal investigators (OR 0.998, 95% CI 0.794-1.229). In the new program with an explicit review focus on the caliber of the principal investigator, the gap was 4.0 percentage points in favour of male principal investigators (OR 0.705, 95% CI 0.519- 0.960).InterpretationThis study suggests gender gaps in grant funding are attributable to less favourable assessments of women as principal investigators, not differences in assessments of the quality of science led by women. We propose ways for funders to avoid allowing gender bias to influence research funding.FundingThis study was unfunded.
ASEAN’s flagship universities and regional integration initiatives
Authors: Sirat Morshidi 
Published: December 2017

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) flagship universities in moving the agenda of regional integration forward through academic/research collaboration and cooperation.

Design/methodology/approach
Flagship universities are leading universities in the national higher education systems of countries that make up the ASEAN. This study on the ASEAN’s flagship universities is based on a three-pronged strategy, namely, a literature review, analysis of websites contents, and citation of supporting pieces of evidence from other relevant studies to support arguments. Using the QS top universities in Asia 2016 listing, top 70 public universities in ASEAN were selected for investigation. In instances where public universities in a particular ASEAN country were not listed in the QS listing, a premier public university of that country was then selected for investigation.

Findings
There is a tendency for ASEAN’s flagship universities to look beyond ASEAN, primarily to establish vertical collaboration, which is important to their efforts in creating their image and enhancing their reputation. As a result, academic/research collaboration among flagship universities and collaboration between these universities and other universities in ASEAN is glaringly on the low side. Interestingly, to move the regional integration agenda in ASEAN, other intermediary agencies outside of ASEAN, such as in the European Union, are very active in providing a platform for both flagship and non-flagship universities to collaborate.

Originality/value
While regional collaboration and cooperation within ASEAN and East Asia have been discussed elsewhere, this paper has utilised and expanded Douglass’ (2016) idea of flagship universities to include regional relevance for the purpose of regional integration of ASEAN.
Online traceability for halal product information: perceptions of Muslim consumers in Indonesia
Authors: Sayogo Djoko Sigit 
Published: December 2017

PurposeThis paper aims to provide a preliminary understanding of factors that contribute to consumer perceptions of value and usefulness regarding online traceability for product compliance to halal principles.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 160 usable questionnaires were obtained from a large Muslim University in Indonesia through a survey. The data were tested using a multivariate regression analysis.FindingsThe current study suggests that Muslim consumers in Indonesia perceive the ability to trace a product’s compliance to halal principles as useful and important. The Muslim consumer’s perception of online traceability as useful is influenced by three main factors: the consumer’s disposition to trust, a healthy lifestyle and the reputation of the company, as well as the certification bodies.Social implicationsThe findings suggest that information and communication technologies play an instrumental role in facilitating smart food safety policies by fostering positive changes in consumer behavior, specifically in supporting halal and healthy consumption.Originality/valueOnline traceability for halal product is a novel issue that is yet to be examined empirically in the context of Indonesia. This research should be of value to those who have an interest in assessing the importance of online traceability to enhance assessment of product information, particularly in developing countries.
Being John Harper: Using evolutionary ideas to improve understanding of global patterns in plant traits
Authors: Moles Angela T. 
Published: December 2017

Abstract

This review summarizes current understanding of five key plant traits: seed mass, plant height, wood density, leaf mass per unit area and leaf size, emphasizing ways in which our understanding of large‐scale patterns in plant traits have improved over the last two decades.

Notable advances include: (1) large‐seeded species have greater seed dispersal distances than do small‐seeded species, (2) leaf mass per unit area is not strongly or consistently related to plant traits outside the leaf economics spectrum, or to broad gradients in environmental conditions, and (3) fleshy fruit could not have first evolved for seed dispersal, as the first fleshy fruit appeared millions of years before the first potential seed dispersers.

While quantifying large‐scale patterns in plant traits has yielded many important discoveries, it is clear that the next major leap in understanding will not come from simply including ever more variables in our analyses. I suggest that we build upon Harper's “Darwinian approach to plant ecology” and apply evolutionary ideas to large‐scale trait ecology. For example, quantifying trait impacts on lifetime fitness rather than on particular stages of plant regeneration can allow us to understand the coordination between seemingly disparate traits. I use this approach to bring seed mass and plant height together as integrated parts of a species’ life‐history spectrum. I then point out problems associated with the implicit assumption that selection acts on species’ mean trait values and show how considering the way selection acts can improve our understanding of the effects of climate on plant traits. A goal for the future is to quantify the full suite of biotic and abiotic factors that shape plant strategy in complex, real‐world situations.

Synthesis. Enormous data availability and ever more powerful computational and statistical tools have given ecologists unprecedented power to quantify large‐scale patterns in plant ecology. However, there is a limit to how far big data alone can take us. The time is ripe for a new generation of hypotheses and ecological theory built on strong evolutionary foundations. Let the creativity begin!
Simultaneous synergist, antagonistic and additive interactions between multiple local stressors all degrade algal turf communities on coral reefs
Authors: Fong Caitlin R. , Bittick Sarah J. , Fong Peggy 
Published: December 2017

Abstract

Ecological communities are subjected to multiple anthropogenic stressors at both global and local scales that are increasing in number and magnitude. Stressors can interact in complex ways and are classified as additive, synergistic or antagonistic; the nature of the interaction is key to predicting changes and understanding community resilience. Coral reefs are among the most impacted communities and have shifted from coral‐ to algal‐dominated states, and overfishing, nutrient enrichment and sedimentation are local stressors that often co‐occur and may support degraded algal states. Short algal turfs are abundant benthic space holders on healthy reefs that may be pushed by local stressors to long algal turfs, a more degraded state that may prevent recovery to coral dominance.

We conducted a fully crossed three‐factor field experiment on short algal turf communities manipulating herbivory pressure (+/−cages), nutrients (+/−fertilizer) and sediments (natural accumulation/removal). We applied stressors for 16 days, removed them and monitored turf height during and after manipulations.

We found that significant pair‐wise interactions between all stressors pushed the community towards a degraded state with longer algal turfs. All three types of interactions (additive, synergistic and antagonistic) were common and occurred in equal frequency, suggesting more investigations into all types are needed to accurately predict community responses to multiple stressors. For example, when herbivores were present, nutrients and sediments interacted additively, while in the absence of herbivores, nutrients and sediments interacted synergistically. All interactions broke down following termination of experimental manipulations and all effects were undetectable after 49 days, indicating that this reef may be resilient, at least when stressors are applied on a short time‐scale.

Synthesis. Because management of local stressors is often more tractable than global stressors, local management has been proposed as a means to offset global stressors. However, ecological communities often experience multiple local stressors simultaneously, and interactions between stressors, including synergisms and antagonisms, may be the source of nonlinear shifts in communities or “ecological surprises.” The majority of interactions in our study were both strong and nonlinear, and we suggest that, if pervasive across systems, nonlinear interactions may drive the recent global increase in “ecological surprises.”
Mitochondrial donation, patient engagement and narratives of hope
Authors: Herbrand Cathy , Dimond Rebecca 
Published: December 2017

AbstractThis article develops the sociology of hope and patient engagement by exploring how patients’ perceptions and actions are shaped by narratives of hope surrounding the clinical introduction of novel reproductive techniques. In 2015, after extensive public debates, the UK became the first country to legalise a mitochondrial donation technique aimed at preventing the transmission of inherited disorders. The article draws on the accounts of twenty‐two women of reproductive age who are at risk of having a child with mitochondrial disease and would be the potential target of the technique. We explore the extent to which our participants engaged with the public debates and how they accounted for their support of mitochondrial donation. We show that while the majority of our participants were in favour of legalisation, they did not necessarily wish to use the technique themselves. We found that hope was multi‐faceted, involving hope for self, hope for family and hope for society. We conclude by considering the implications of hope narratives for patients and families and the important but potentially limited role that patients can play as advocates for technology.
Operating (on) the self: transforming agency through obesity surgery and treatment
Authors: Vogel Else 
Published: December 2017

AbstractIn this article, I describe the processes through which patients diagnosed with ‘morbid obesity’ become active subjects through undergoing obesity surgery and an empowerment lifestyle programme in a Dutch obesity clinic. Following work in actor‐network theory and material semiotics that complicates the distinction between active and passive subjects, I trace how agency is configured and re‐distributed throughout the treatment trajectory. In the clinic's elaborate care assemblage – consisting of dieticians, exercise coaches and psychologists – the person is not only actively involved in his/her own change, the subject of intervention is the self as ‘actor’: his/her material constitution, inclinations and feelings. The empirical examples reveal that a self becomes capable of self‐care only after a costly and laborious conditioning through which patients are completely transformed. In this work, the changed body, implying a new, potentially disruptive reality that patients must learn to cope with, is pivotal to what the patient can do and become. Rather than striving to be disembodied, self‐contained liberal subjects that make sensible decisions for their body, patients become empowered through submission and attachment and by arranging support.
Low‐temperature chemotaxis, halotaxis and chemohalotaxis by the psychrophilic marine bacterium Colwellia psychrerythraea 34H
Authors: Showalter G. M. , Deming J. W. 
Published: December 2017

SummaryA variety of ecologically important processes are driven by bacterial motility and taxis, yet these basic bacterial behaviours remain understudied in cold habitats. Here, we present a series of experiments designed to test the chemotactic ability of the model marine psychrophilic bacterium Colwellia psychrerythraea 34H, when grown at optimal temperature and salinity (8°C, 35 ppt) or its original isolation conditions (–1°C, 35 ppt), towards serine and mannose at temperatures from −8°C to 27°C (above its upper growth temperature of 18°C), and at salinities of 15, 35 and 55 ppt (at 8°C and −1°C). Results indicate that C. psychrerythraea 34H is capable of chemotaxis at all temperatures tested, with strongest chemotaxis at the temperature at which it was first grown, whether 8°C or −1°C. This model marine psychrophile also showed significant halotaxis towards 15 and 55 ppt solutions, as well as strong substrate‐specific chemohalotaxis. We suggest that such patterns of taxis may enable bacteria to colonize sea ice, position themselves optimally within its extremely cold, hypersaline and temporally fluctuating microenvironments, and respond to various chemical signals therein.
How do goannas find sea turtle nests?
Authors: Lei Juan , Booth David T. 
Published: December 2017

AbstractSquamate reptiles rely heavily on visual and chemical cues to detect their prey, so we expected yellow‐spotted goannas (Varanus panoptes) which are predators of sea turtle nests on mainland beaches in northern Australia would use these cues to find sea turtle nests. Ghost crabs (Ocypode ceratophthalmus and Ocypode cordimanus) are also common on Australian sea turtle nesting beaches and frequently burrow into sea turtle nests. However, the potential for ghost crab burrowing activity at sea turtle nests to signal the location of a nest to goannas has not been investigated. Here, we used camera traps and presence of tracks at nests to record goanna activity around selected nests during the incubation period and 10 days after hatchling turtles emerged from their nests. We also recorded the number of ghost crab burrows around nests to evaluate ghost crab activity. Our results indicated that nest discovery by goannas was independent of nest age, but that the nest visitation rate of goannas and crabs increased significantly after a nest had been opened by a goanna or after hatchlings had emerged from the nest. There was no apparent connection between ghost crab burrows into a nest and the likelihood of that nest being predated by goannas.
Bumetanide blocks the acquisition of conditioned fear in adult rats
Authors: Ko Meng‐Chang , Lee Ming‐Chung , Tang Tso‐Hao , Amstislavskaya Tamara G , Tikhonova Maria A , Yang Yi‐Ling , Lu Kwok‐Tung 
Published: December 2017

Background and PurposeBumetanide has anxiolytic effects in rat models of conditioned fear. As a loop diuretic, bumetanide blocks cation–chloride co‐transport and this property may allow bumetanide to act as an anxiolytic by modulating GABAergic synaptic transmission in the CNS. Its potential for the treatment of anxiety disorders deserves further investigation. In this study, we evaluated the possible involvement of the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala in the anxiolytic effect of bumetanide.Experimental ApproachBrain slices were prepared from Wistar rats. extracellular recording, stereotaxic surgery, fear‐potentiated startle response, locomotor activity monitoring and Western blotting were applied in this study.Key ResultsSystemic administration of bumetanide (15.2 mg·kg−1, i.v.), 30 min prior to fear conditioning, significantly inhibited the acquisition of the fear‐potentiated startle response. Phosphorylation of ERK in the basolateral nucleus of amygdala was reduced after bumetanide administration. In addition, suprafusion of bumetanide (5 or 10 μM) attenuated long‐term potentiation in the amygdala in a dose‐dependent manner. Intra‐amygdala infusion of bumetanide, 15 min prior to fear conditioning, also blocked the acquisition of the fear‐potentiated startle response. Finally, the possible off‐target effect of bumetanide on conditioned fear was excluded by side‐by‐side control experiments.Conclusions and ImplicationsThese results suggest the basolateral nucleus of amygdala plays a critical role in the anxiolytic effects of bumetanide.
Chile Crece Contigo: Implementation, results, and scaling‐up lessons
Authors: Torres A. , Lopez Boo F. , Parra V. , Vazquez C. , Segura‐Pérez S. , Cetin Z. , Pérez‐Escamilla R. 
Published: December 2017

AbstractBackgroundChile Crece Contigo (ChCC) is defined as a comprehensive, intersectoral, and multicomponent policy that aims to help all children reach their full potential for development, regardless of their socio‐economic status.MethodsThis case study was developed on the basis of grey literature review and key informants' interviews.ResultsChCC behaves as a complex adaptive system that combines universal and targeted benefits for the more vulnerable starting since gestation and until the children are 4 years old. Three key ministries are involved in ChCC management: health, education, and social development. Studies show adequate programme implementation and positive effects of ChCC on child development. In addition, it was found that the more families use ChCC benefits and the longer the subsystem has been operating in the commune, the greater the positive effects.ConclusionsStrong political support based on principles of equity and child rights combined with strong evidence and funding commitment from government has been central to emergence, scaling up, and sustainability of ChCC. Further sustainability of ChCC will rely on firmly establishing a well‐trained and compensated cadre of early child development professionals and paraprofessionals as well as an improved management and evaluation decentralized system.