bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The politics of universal rights claiming: Secular and sacred rights claiming in post-revolutionary Tunisia
Authors: Borg Stefan 
Published: January 2017

AbstractThis article contributes to a theoretical understanding of rights claiming as a specific form of political practice. The article develops and defends a post-foundationalist understanding of rights discourse as a way of making a claim to social change through appealing to a universal and illustrates such an understanding with the contestation over women’s rights in post-revolutionary Tunisia. To develop this argument, the article draws on Jacques Rancière’s notion of political subjectification and Ernesto Laclau’s engagement with the relation between the universal and the particular. To examine the relevance of such conceptualisation, the article turns to the struggle over women’s rights in post-revolutionary Tunisia, where secular and sacred understandings of the universal have been invoked frequently through rights discourse. In this context it is shown that claims to the universal give rhetorical force to rights discourse, and instead of depoliticising social relations, which rights discourse is often charged with, such claims are vital for political efficacy. However, whereas Laclau’s position helps us to understand rights as a language of resistance, a more robust defence of the universal is needed to defend rights in terms of emancipatory political change. To pursue this argument, the article turns to Rancière’s defence of axiomatic equality.
Growth and biomass allocation in seedlings of rain-forest trees in New Caledonia: monodominants vs. subordinates and episodic vs. continuous regenerators
Authors: Read Jennifer , McCoy Stephane , Jaffré Tanguy , Sanson Gordon , Logan Murray 
Published: January 2017

Abstract:Some species-rich secondary forests in New Caledonia have a monodominant canopy. Here we investigate growth and biomass allocation traits that might explain single-species’ dominance of these post-disturbance stands, and their later decline in the absence of large-scale disturbance. Seedlings of 20 rain-forest trees were grown in two light treatments in a nursery house. In the sun treatment, monodominants grew faster (56.7 ± 1.4 mg g−1 wk−1) than subordinates (40.2 ± 2.6 mg g−1 wk−1). However, some episodically regenerating (ER) subordinates had high growth rates similar to those of monodominants. In the shade treatment, monodominants and subordinates had similar growth rates (33.7 ± 2.6 and 34.0 ± 1.9 mg g−1 wk−1 respectively). Notably, monodominants in both sun and shade treatments had lower root mass fraction (0.29 ± 0.02 and 0.27 ± 0.02 g g−1 respectively) than subordinates (0.39 ± 0.02 and 0.37 ± 0.02 g g−1). Fast growth in sunny conditions is probably imperative for these relatively shade-intolerant ER monodominants. In field conditions, high shoot mass fraction combined with efficient root performance may facilitate faster growth in monodominants competing with other ER species in sunlit sites. Slower growth in shade may contribute to loss of dominance over time in undisturbed forests.
Disease burden of hepatitis E in a rural population in China: a community-based survey
Authors: JIANG H. , HUANG S. , ZHAO Y. , WANG Y. , YANG C. , CAI J. , WANG Z. , ZHANG J. , ZHANG X. , JIN H. 
Published: January 2017

SUMMARYThis study aimed to estimate the disease burden of hepatitis E in a rural region in China. A total of 489 hepatitis E cases were reported according to a community-based survey in an active hepatitis surveillance system between 2008 and 2015, the questionnaire and record-review methods were constructed to evaluate the economic and health burden of hepatitis E virus infections from societal perspectives. All costs were converted to US$ in 2015. The age-standardized cumulative incidence rate was 107·9/100 000, and the median age-standardized annual incidence rate was 16·5/100 000. The median direct, indirect, and intangible cost were $1046·0, $49·1, and $77·3/patient, respectively, and the median economic burden per patient was $1836·5, which accounted for 51·2% of per capita disposable income. Moreover, the median quality-adjusted life year and visual analogue scale score were 0·7 and 70·0/case, respectively. Both economic burden and health burden of inpatients was more serious than that of outpatients (P < 0·001). Disease burden of hepatitis E is heavy on patients, their families, and society. More studies on the disease burden of hepatitis E are necessary to increase social awareness of the disease and confirm reasonable disease-control measures.
Eunuchs in Politics in the Later Roman Empire
Authors: Hopkins Keith 
Published: January 2017

Why Eunuchs? Primarily because they were important. No-one who has waded through the church histories of the fourth and fifth centuries or the numerous later Byzantine chronicles, or those lives of the saints which touch upon court life, can have failed to be struck by die frequent imputation that, in the Eastern Empire especially, the real power lay in the hands not of the emperor nor of his aristocrats, but of his chief eunuch; or alternatively that the corps of eunuchs as a group wielded considerable if not predominant power at court. Yet the eunuchs were barbarians by birth and slaves into the bargain. The purpose of this paper is to explain why eunuchs held so much power in the imperial and aristocratic society of Eastern Rome, to put this power in the context of the socio-political developments of the later Empire, and to analyse some of the social functions of this power.Yet here, right at the beginning, the objection might be raised that we are faced with nothing but a problem in historiography. Eunuchs might have been to Byzantine historians nothing more than women and gods were to Herodotus, convenient personal pegs to hang historical causes on.
EQUIVALENCES FOR TRUTH PREDICATES
Authors: NICOLAI CARLO 
Published: January 2017

AbstractOne way to study and understand the notion of truth is to examine principles that we are willing to associate with truth, often because they conform to a pre-theoretical or to a semi-formal characterization of this concept. In comparing different collections of such principles, one requires formally precise notions of inter-theoretic reduction that are also adequate to compare these conceptual aspects. In this work I study possible ways to make precise the relation of conceptual equivalence between notions of truth associated with collections of principles of truth. In doing so, I will consider refinements and strengthenings of the notion of relative truth-definability proposed by Fujimoto (2010): in particular I employ suitable variants of notions of equivalence of theories considered in Visser (2006) and Friedman & Visser (2014) to show that there are better candidates than mutual truth-definability for the role of sufficient condition for conceptual equivalence between the semantic notions associated with the theories. In the concluding part of the paper, I extend the techniques introduced in the first and show that there is a precise sense in which ramified truth (either disquotational or compositional) does not correspond to iterations of comprehension.
H19/let-7/LIN28 reciprocal negative regulatory circuit promotes breast cancer stem cell maintenance
Authors: Peng Fei , Li Ting-Ting , Wang Kai-Li , Xiao Guo-Qing , Wang Ju-Hong , Zhao Hai-Dong , Kang Zhi-Jie , Fan Wen-Jun , Zhu Li-Li , Li Mei , Cui Bai , Zheng Fei-Meng , Wang Hong-Jiang , Lam Eric W-F , Wang Bo , Xu Jie , Liu Quentin 
Published: January 2017

AbstractLong noncoding RNA-H19 (H19), an imprinted oncofetal gene, has a central role in carcinogenesis. Hitherto, the mechanism by which H19 regulates cancer stem cells, remains elusive. Here we show that breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) express high levels of H19, and ectopic overexpression of H19 significantly promotes breast cancer cell clonogenicity, migration and mammosphere-forming ability. Conversely, silencing of H19 represses these BCSC properties. In concordance, knockdown of H19 markedly inhibits tumor growth and suppresses tumorigenesis in nude mice. Mechanistically, we found that H19 functions as a competing endogenous RNA to sponge miRNA let-7, leading to an increase in expression of a let-7 target, the core pluripotency factor LIN28, which is enriched in BCSC populations and breast patient samples. Intriguingly, this gain of LIN28 expression can also feedback to reverse the H19 loss-mediated suppression of BCSC properties. Our data also reveal that LIN28 blocks mature let-7 production and, thereby, de-represses H19 expression in breast cancer cells. Appropriately, H19 and LIN28 expression exhibits strong correlations in primary breast carcinomas. Collectively, these findings reveal that lncRNA H19, miRNA let-7 and transcriptional factor LIN28 form a double-negative feedback loop, which has a critical role in the maintenance of BCSCs. Consequently, disrupting this pathway provides a novel therapeutic strategy for breast cancer.
Curcumin represses mouse 3T3-L1 cell adipogenic differentiation via inhibiting miR-17-5p and stimulating the Wnt signalling pathway effector Tcf7l2
Authors: Tian Lili , Song Zhuolun , Shao Weijuan , Du William W , Zhao Lisa R , Zeng Kejing , Yang Burton B , Jin Tianru 
Published: January 2017

AbstractUnderstanding mechanisms underlying adipogenic differentiation may lead to the discovery of novel therapeutic targets for obesity. Wnt signalling pathway activation leads to repressed adipogenic differentiation while certain microRNAs may regulate pre-adipocyte proliferation and differentiation. We show here that in mouse white adipose tissue, miR-17-5p level is elevated after high fat diet consumption. miR-17-5p upregulates adipogenic differentiation, as its over-expression increased while its inhibition repressed 3T3-L1 differentiation. The Tcf7l2 gene encodes a key Wnt signalling pathway effector, and its human homologue TCF7L2 is a highly regarded diabetes risk gene. We found that Tcf7l2 is an miR-17-5p target and confirmed the repressive effect of Tcf7l2 on 3T3-L1 adipogenic differentiation. The natural plant polyphenol compound curcumin possesses the body weight lowering effect. We observed that curcumin attenuated miR-17-5p expression and stimulated Tcf7l2 expression in 3T3-L1 cells. These, along with the elevation of miR-17-5p expression in mouse epididymal fat tissue in response to high fat diet consumption, allowed us to suggest that miR-17-5p is among central switches of adipogenic differentiation. It activates adipogenesis via repressing the Wnt signalling pathway effector Tcf7l2, and its own expression is likely nutritionally regulated in health and disease.
α3 Chains of type V collagen regulate breast tumour growth via glypican-1
Authors: Huang Guorui , Ge Gaoxiang , Izzi Valerio , Greenspan Daniel S. 
Published: January 2017

AbstractPericellular α3(V) collagen can affect the functioning of cells, such as adipocytes and pancreatic β cells. Here we show that α3(V) chains are an abundant product of normal mammary gland basal cells, and that α3(V) ablation in a mouse mammary tumour model inhibits mammary tumour progression by reducing the proliferative potential of tumour cells. These effects are shown to be primarily cell autonomous, from loss of α3(V) chains normally produced by tumour cells, in which they affect growth by enhancing the ability of cell surface proteoglycan glypican-1 to act as a co-receptor for FGF2. Thus, a mechanism is presented for microenvironmental influence on tumour growth. α3(V) chains are produced in both basal-like and luminal human breast tumours, and its expression levels are tightly coupled with those of glypican-1 across breast cancer types. Evidence indicates α3(V) chains as potential targets for inhibiting tumour growth and as markers of oncogenic transformation.
Logarithmic sensing in Bacillus subtilis aerotaxis
Authors: Menolascina Filippo , Rusconi Roberto , Fernandez Vicente I , Smriga Steven , Aminzare Zahra , Sontag Eduardo D , Stocker Roman 
Published: January 2017

AbstractAerotaxis, the directed migration along oxygen gradients, allows many microorganisms to locate favorable oxygen concentrations. Despite oxygen’s fundamental role for life, even key aspects of aerotaxis remain poorly understood. In Bacillus subtilis, for example, there is conflicting evidence of whether migration occurs to the maximal oxygen concentration available or to an optimal intermediate one, and how aerotaxis can be maintained over a broad range of conditions. Using precisely controlled oxygen gradients in a microfluidic device, spanning the full spectrum of conditions from quasi-anoxic to oxic (60 n mol/l–1 m mol/l), we resolved B. subtilis’ ‘oxygen preference conundrum’ by demonstrating consistent migration towards maximum oxygen concentrations (‘monotonic aerotaxis’). Surprisingly, the strength of aerotaxis was largely unchanged over three decades in oxygen concentration (131 n mol/l–196 μ mol/l). We discovered that in this range B. subtilis responds to the logarithm of the oxygen concentration gradient, a rescaling strategy called ‘log-sensing’ that affords organisms high sensitivity over a wide range of conditions. In these experiments, high-throughput single-cell imaging yielded the best signal-to-noise ratio of any microbial taxis study to date, enabling the robust identification of the first mathematical model for aerotaxis among a broad class of alternative models. The model passed the stringent test of predicting the transient aerotactic response despite being developed on steady-state data, and quantitatively captures both monotonic aerotaxis and log-sensing. Taken together, these results shed new light on the oxygen-seeking capabilities of B. subtilis and provide a blueprint for the quantitative investigation of the many other forms of microbial taxis.
Experimental verification of the ab initio phase transition sequence in SrZrO3 and comparisons with SrHfO3 and SrSnO
3
Authors: Kumar Ashok , Kumari Shalini , Borkar Hitesh , Katiyar Ram S , Scott James Floyd 
Published: January 2017

AbstractWe present detailed Raman studies of SrZrO3 (SZO) that show three anomalies in Raman modes: One has a small jump in frequency ω, one has its intensity vanish, and a third has a sharp change in temperature derivative dω(T)/dT from flat below T = 600 K to a Curie–Weiss dependence above 600 K with extrapolation to zero frequency at the known transition temperature T = 970 K, thereby proving the latter to be displacive. In addition, the P4mm ferroelectric phase predicted at high stresses has preliminary support from polarization-voltage experiments. The inference of a new transition in the temperature region 600–650 K is in disagreement with neutron studies. Comparisons are given for family member SrSnO3 and SrHfO3, and we discuss the different conclusions of Kennedy and Knight. We show that a known transition in SrHfO3 is also displacive with a well-behaved soft mode.
Precision Military Medicine: Conducting a multi-site clinical utility study of genomic and lifestyle risk factors in the United States Air Force
Authors: Delaney Susan K. , Brenner Ruth , Schmidlen Tara J. , Dempsey Michael P. , London Kim E. , Gordon Erynn S. , Bellafante Mark , Nasuti Ashley , Scheinfeldt Laura B. , Rajula Kaveri D. , Jose Leo , Jarvis Joseph P. , Gerry Norman P. , Christman Michael F. 
Published: January 2017

AbstractFollowing several years enrolling disease-specific and otherwise healthy cohorts into the Coriell Personalized Medicine Collaborative, a prospective study aimed at evaluating the clinical utility of personal genomic information for common complex disease and pharmacogenomics, the Coriell Personalized Medicine Collaborative expanded to create a military cohort, specifically, the United States Air Force. Initial recruitment focused on Air Force Medical Service personnel and later expanded to include all Active Duty Air Force members and beneficiaries. Now in its 6th year, the study has produced a wide variety of insights, including optimal study design for military-sponsored genomic research, and discussion on genetic information sharing between and amongst Air Force study participants, civilian and military researchers, and the United States Department of Defense. Over the longer term, analyses will further contribute to the development of policies and processes relevant to clinical decision support and data sharing within the US military, and on-going work with the Air Force Medical Service sub-cohort will generate critical insights into how best to deploy useful genomic information in clinical care. Here we discuss challenges faced and critical success factors for military-civilian collaborations around genomic research.
Demonstration of the Protein Involvement in Cell Electropermeabilization using Confocal Raman Microspectroscopy
Authors: Azan Antoine , Untereiner Valérie , Gobinet Cyril , Sockalingum Ganesh D. , Breton Marie , Piot Olivier , Mir Lluis M. 
Published: January 2017

AbstractConfocal Raman microspectroscopy was used to study the interaction between pulsed electric fields and live cells from a molecular point of view in a non-invasive and label-free manner. Raman signatures of live human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells exposed or not to pulsed electric fields (8 pulses, 1 000 V/cm, 100 μs, 1 Hz) were acquired at two cellular locations (nucleus and cytoplasm) and two spectral bands (600–1 800 cm−1 and 2 800–3 100 cm−1). Vibrational modes of proteins (phenylalanine and amide I) and lipids were found to be modified by the electropermeabilization process with a statistically significant difference. The relative magnitude of four phenylalanine peaks decreased in the spectra of the pulsed group. On the contrary, the relative magnitude of the amide I band at 1658 cm−1 increased by 40% when comparing pulsed and control group. No difference was found between the control and the pulsed group in the high wavenumber spectral band. Our results reveal the modification of proteins in living cells exposed to pulsed electric fields by means of confocal Raman microspectroscopy.
Individualised multiplexed circulating tumour DNA assays for monitoring of tumour presence in patients after colorectal cancer surgery
Authors: Ng Sarah B. , Chua Clarinda , Ng Matthew , Gan Anna , Poon Polly SY , Teo Melissa , Fu Cherylin , Leow Wei Qiang , Lim Kiat Hon , Chung Alexander , Koo Si-Lin , Choo Su Pin , Ho Danliang , Rozen Steve , Tan Patrick , Wong Mark , Burkholder William F. , Tan Iain Beehuat 
Published: January 2017

AbstractCirculating tumour DNA (ctDNA) has the potential to be a specific biomarker for the monitoring of tumours in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). Here, our aim was to develop a personalised surveillance strategy to monitor the clinical course of CRC after surgery. We developed patient-specific ctDNA assays based on multiplexed detection of somatic mutations identified from patient primary tumours, and applied them to detect ctDNA in 44 CRC patients, analysing a total of 260 plasma samples. We found that ctDNA detection correlated with clinical events – it is detectable in pre-operative but not post-operative plasma, and also in patients with recurrent CRC. We also detected ctDNA in 11 out of 15 cases at or before clinical or radiological recurrence of CRC, indicating the potential of our assay for early detection of metastasis. We further present data from a patient with multiple primary cancers to demonstrate the specificity of our assays to distinguish between CRC recurrence and a second primary cancer. Our approach can complement current methods for surveillance of CRC by adding an individualised biological component, allowing us not only to point to the presence of residual or recurrent disease, but also attribute it to the original cancer.
Novel Bio-functional Magnesium Coating on Porous Ti6Al4V Orthopaedic Implants: In vitro and In vivo Study
Authors: Li Xiaokang , Gao Peng , Wan Peng , Pei Yifeng , Shi Lei , Fan Bo , Shen Chao , Xiao Xin , Yang Ke , Guo Zheng 
Published: January 2017

AbstractTitanium and its alloys with various porous structures are one of the most important metals used in orthopaedic implants due to favourable properties as replacement for hard tissues. However, surface modification is critical to improve the osteointegration of titanium and its alloys. In this study, a bioactive magnesium coating was successfully fabricated on porous Ti6Al4V by means of arc ion plating, which was proved with fine grain size and high film/substrate adhesion. The surface composition and morphology were characterized by X-ray diffraction and SEM equipped with energy dispersive spectroscopy. Furthermore, the in vitro study of cytotoxicity and proliferation of MC3T3-E1 cells showed that magnesium coated porous Ti6Al4V had suitable degradation and biocompatibility. Moreover, the in vivo studies including fluorescent labelling, micro-computed tomography analysis scan and Van-Gieson staining of histological sections indicated that magnesium coated porous Ti6Al4V could significantly promote bone regeneration in rabbit femoral condylar defects after implantation for 4 and 8 weeks, and has better osteogenesis and osteointegration than the bare porous Ti6Al4V. Therefore, it is expected that this bioactive magnesium coating on porous Ti6Al4V scaffolds with improved osteointegration and osteogenesis functions can be used for orthopedic applications.
Non-Destructive Study of Bulk Crystallinity and Elemental Composition of Natural Gold Single Crystal Samples by Energy-Resolved Neutron Imaging
Authors: Tremsin Anton S. , Rakovan John , Shinohara Takenao , Kockelmann Winfried , Losko Adrian S. , Vogel Sven C. 
Published: January 2017

AbstractEnergy-resolved neutron imaging enables non-destructive analyses of bulk structure and elemental composition, which can be resolved with high spatial resolution at bright pulsed spallation neutron sources due to recent developments and improvements of neutron counting detectors. This technique, suitable for many applications, is demonstrated here with a specific study of ~5–10 mm thick natural gold samples. Through the analysis of neutron absorption resonances the spatial distribution of palladium (with average elemental concentration of ~0.4 atom% and ~5 atom%) is mapped within the gold samples. At the same time, the analysis of coherent neutron scattering in the thermal and cold energy regimes reveals which samples have a single-crystalline bulk structure through the entire sample volume. A spatially resolved analysis is possible because neutron transmission spectra are measured simultaneously on each detector pixel in the epithermal, thermal and cold energy ranges. With a pixel size of 55 μm and a detector-area of 512 by 512 pixels, a total of 262,144 neutron transmission spectra are measured concurrently. The results of our experiments indicate that high resolution energy-resolved neutron imaging is a very attractive analytical technique in cases where other conventional non-destructive methods are ineffective due to sample opacity.