bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Gradual ulnar lengthening in children with multiple exostoses and radial head dislocation: Results at skeletal maturity
Authors: D'Ambrosi Riccardo , Barbato Alessia , Caldarini Camilla , Biancardi Elena , Facchini Renato Mario 
Published: February 2016

Purpose Deformities of the forearm and shortening of the ulna occur in 30 % of patients with hereditary multiple exostoses (HME), leading to radial head dislocation and loss of movement. Several surgical techniques have been described for treatment, and the aim of our study was to present clinical and radiographic results at skeletal maturity in 15 children that underwent the surgical procedure of ulnar lengthening with external fixators. Methods We evaluated 15 patients with ulnar shortening and radial head dislocation that underwent external fixation procedures. Radiographic assessment included measurement of radial articular angle, carpal slip, and ulnar shortening. Clinical evaluation included range of motion, MAYO Elbow Score, assessment function of the extremity as described by Stanton, the visual analog scale (VAS) for pain, and SF-12 to evaluate quality of life. Results The average follow-up period was 77 months and took place when each patient had reached skeletal maturity. MAYO Elbow Score improved from 34.7 to 93.3 points, while the average preoperative functional assessment criteria score was 1.6 points and improved to 4.4. The preoperative average VAS ranged from 8.2 to 2.3, while the SF-12 in its physical (PCS) and mental (MCS) components resulted, respectively, as 53.3 and 54.2. Pronation and supination improved from a preoperative average value of 35.6° and 51.3° to 70° and 80.6°, respectively, at the most recent follow-up visit. Flexion and extension ranged, respectively, from 143° and 2° to 146.7° and 3°. Ulnar shortening improved from 24 mm preoperative to 3 mm, and radial articular angle varied from 37.7° preoperative to 26° at the last follow-up. Only one complication occurred in our group, and one patient completely healed from a case of nonunion of the ulna. Conclusions Ulnar lengthening is a safe and reliable procedure for the treatment of HME that provides good to excellent results and reduces radial head dislocation.
Analytical formulae for longitudinal slip lengths over unidirectional superhydrophobic surfaces with curved menisci
Authors: Crowdy Darren G. 
Published: February 2016

This paper reports new analytical formulae for the longitudinal slip lengths for simple shear over a superhydrophobic surface, or bubble mattress, comprising a periodic array of unidirectional circular menisci, or bubbles, protruding into, or out of, the fluid. The accuracy of the formulae is tested against results from full numerical simulations; they are found to give small relative errors even at large no-shear fractions. In the dilute limit the formulae reduce to an earlier result by Crowdy (Phys. Fluids, vol. 22, 2010, 121703). They also extend analytical results of Sbragaglia & Prosperetti (Phys. Fluids, vol. 19, 2007, 043603) beyond the limit of a small protrusion angle.
Conflicts in Bankruptcy and the Sequence of Debt Issues
Authors: Abraham (Avri) Ravid S. , Sverdlove Ronald , Bris Arturo , Coiculescu Gabriela 
Published: February 2016

AbstractThis paper investigates the optimal sequencing of debt issues. Our theoretical model suggests that once firms issue debt with one level of seniority, they may have an incentive to alternate seniorities, because of violations of the priced absolute priority rule (APR). When we introduce explicit costs of class conflict, the model yields cases of alternating seniorities and other cases in which firms issue only one class of debt. The implications of the model are consistent with the observed regularities in a large database of debt issues. We test several other implications of our model as well.
Strongyloides infection in rodents: immune response and immune regulation
Authors: BRELOER MINKA , ABRAHAM DAVID 
Published: February 2016

SUMMARYThe human pathogenic nematode Strongyloides stercoralis infects approximately 30–100 million people worldwide. Analysis of the adaptive immune response to S. stercoralis beyond descriptive studies is challenging, as no murine model for the complete infection cycle is available. However, the combined employment of different models each capable of modelling some features of S. stercoralis life cycle and pathology has advanced our understanding of the immunological mechanisms involved in host defence. Here we review: (i) studies using S. stercoralis third stage larvae implanted in diffusion chambers in the subcutaneous tissue of mice that allow analysis of the immune response to the human pathogenic Strongyloides species; (ii) studies using Strongyloides ratti and Strongyloides venezuelensis that infect mice and rats to extend the analysis to the parasites intestinal life stage and (iii) studies using S. stercoralis infected gerbils to analyse the hyperinfection syndrome, a severe complication of human strongyloidiasis that is not induced by rodent specific Strongyloides spp. We provide an overview of the information accumulated so far showing that Strongyloides spp. elicits a classical Th2 response that culminates in different, site specific, effector functions leading to either entrapment and killing of larvae in the tissues or expulsion of parasitic adults from the intestine.
Jews in Evangelical Dissent: The British Society, the Herschell Connection and the Pre-Millenarian Thread
Authors: Binfield Clyde 
Published: February 2016

I will add but one word. It is written, ‘Shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end; the words are closed up and sealed, till the time of the end’ ([Daniel] 12. 4, 9). If, then, the seal be now broken, the time of the end is at hand.(Pergamos, ‘Prophecies of the Latter Times—Letter VI’, Voice of Israel, 2. 34 (1 February 1847), p. 167.)Castle CAMPS in the twentieth century is a small, and in the nineteenth century was an entirely agricultural, village close to the borders of Cambridgeshire, Esssex, and Suffolk. It has a United Reformed church which was formerly Congregational and whose members at the close of the nineteenth century included the village shopkeeper. That was not unusual. What is less usual is that he was a Jew.
Jean Hotman’s Syllabus of Eirenical Literature
Authors: Meyjes G.H.M. Posthumus , Grayson J.C. 
Published: February 2016

If one wishes to investigate the history of the development of an idea, two approaches are possible. One is to begin at the beginning, following the development step by step until one reaches the stage at which the idea attains its fullest flowering. The other approach is precisely the reverse. One chooses a point of departure in the final phase and then works backwards to the moment at which the idea first appeared. This latter method has many practical advantages in research. One can see the phenomenon in its most mature form, and thus more easily recognise its components and their earlier relationship.When, some years ago, I decided to devote a lecture to eirenism in the sixteenth century, my preparation followed the second approach. I chose as my starting point the work of a renowned eirenist of a later generation, Hugo Grotius. Leafing through the fourth volume of the Basel edition of his Opera Theologica, my attention was drawn to an entry Via ad pacem ecclesiasticam. It proved to comprise a number of miscellaneous documents, some of them by Grotius himself, some of them his annotations on the work of others, and yet others evidently added to the dossier because they fitted into the framework of eirensim. I decided to delve more deeply into this collection, which was first published as a separate work in 1642.
The Late Renaissance and the Unfolding Reformation in Europe
Authors: Cameron Euan 
Published: February 2016

Martin Luther, conducted no doubt by a higher providence, but in discourse of reason, finding what a province he had undertaken against the bishop of Rome, and the degenerate traditions of the church, and finding his own solitude, being no ways aided by the opinions of his own time, was enforced to awake all antiquity, and to call former times to his succour, to make a party against the present time. So that the ancient authors, both in divinity, and in humanity, which had long time slept in libraries, began generally to be read and revolved. This by consequence did draw on a necessity of a more exquisite travel in the languages original, wherein those authors did write, for the better understanding of those authors, and the better advantage of pressing and applying their words. And thereof grew again a delight in their manner of style and phrase, and an admiration of that kind of writing….Francis Bacon, Of the Advancement of Learning (1605) in Works (London, 1778).
Erecting the Discipline in Provincial England: the Order of Northampton, 1571
Authors: Sheils W. J. 
Published: February 2016

As that no Commonwealth can flourish or long indure without good lawes and sharpe execution of the same, so neither can the Kirk of God be brought to purity neither yet be retained in the same without the order of Ecclesiastical Discipline… drunkenesse, excesse be it in apparel, or be it in eating and drinking, fornication, oppressing of the poore by exactions, deceiving of them in buying and selling by wrong met and measure, wanton words and licentious living tending to slander, doe openly appertaine to the Kirk of God to punish them, as God’s word commands.Such a declaration of the central role of discipline within the Reformed tradition is a commonplace to all historians of the Reformation and will be familiar to the editor of The First Book of Discipline, from which the above quotation comes.1 The head, the seventh and entitled 'Of Ecclesiastical Discipline', conformed in its procedure to the practice of estabUshed Calvinist congregations on the Continent in its austere attitude to the unrepentant sinner as in its care for the repentant individual who, on an appointed day before the whole kirk.
‘The Face of Ane Perfyt Reformed Kyrk’: St Andrews and the Early Scottish Reformation
Authors: Dawson Jane E. A. 
Published: February 2016

With supreme self-confidence the St Andrews kirk-session declared on 31 May 1564:
Seing it hes pleased the gudnes of the Eternall, our God, of his meir mercy, to deliver and reduce us furth of the bondage and yok of Antecrist, to the lycht of the Ewangell of Jesus Crist be plenteows prechyng of the same; so that the face of ane perfyt reformed kyrk hes beyn seyn wythin this cite be the space of fyve yearis, the sacramentis deuly ministrat, all thingis done in the kyrk be comly ordor establesched, disciplyn used and resavit wythowtyn contempt or ony plane contradiccione of ony person’.
An analysis of student engagement patterns in language learning facilitated by Web 2.0 technologies
Authors: Liu Chen-Chung , Wang Pin-Ching , Tai Shu-Ju Diana 
Published: February 2016

AbstractRecent research indicates that Web 2.0 applications contribute to supporting a social constructivist approach for language learning. However, students encounter different types of barrier associated with technologies and learning tasks, which can cause disengagement during different phases of learning. Thus, based on flow theory and the strategic motivation framework, this study aims to investigate students’ motivation and their engagement patterns while participating in Web 2.0 digital storytelling activities. The participants are 24 elementary school students of a suburban school in northern Taiwan. Over 19 weeks of observations on students aged 9–10 years in a third-grade classroom, data were collected through three sources: surveys, students’ digital stories, and English tests. The analysis of the data showed that motivation was a dynamic process, initially low but increasing in later phases. A dynamic pattern was also identified in the students’ flow perceptions, which included two cycles of disengagement and reengagement. Students encountered different challenges that led to disengagement phases, which highlighted the need for specific types of learning support in elementary school contexts. In addition, the participants’ vocabulary and oral fluency were found to have been enhanced by the end of the study. The implications for educational practice are discussed and the direction for future studies addressed.
Incipient UV-Induced Structural Changes in Neutrophil Granulocytes: Morphometric and Texture Analysis of Two-Dimensional Digital Images
Authors: Grbatinić Ivan , Milošević Nebojša T. 
Published: February 2016

AbstractThe aim of this study is to determine the ability and consequent significance of fractal and lacunarity analysis together with computational morphometric and gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) analysis in detecting subtle initial UVB-induced chromatin and cytosolic changes in neutrophil granulocytes. In addition, the direction and potential significance of the observed changes is speculated. Feulgen-stained neutrophils are pictured and their digitalized images are analyzed in specialized software for digital image processing and ImageJ analysis. Significant statistical difference is observed (p<0.01) between UV-treated neutrophils and controls in the vast majority of cytoplasmic morphometric parameters. Nuclear GLCM analysis was very sensitive with just GLCM homogeneity as non-significant between UV-treated cells and controls (p>0.05). For other parameters there was mostly high statistical significance (p>0.05). Significant unmatched correlations were found as sensitive markers of early morphological changes in cells exposed to UV light. In addition, the correlation between nuclear area and entropy was determined and was highly significant (p<0.001). UVB light, due to its high absorbance by DNA molecules, leads to double behavior of the cells. On one hand, cells start to rearrange but on the other UV light starts very early to immediately damage the cell. All these processes are very subtle in their intensity and GLCM analysis and computational imaging methods based on fractal geometry, i.e. fractal and morphometric analysis, in particular their combination, are very sensitive for detecting and describing these early chromatin changes.
Non-State actors’ pursuit of CBRN weapons: From motivation to potential humanitarian consequences
Authors: Meulenbelt Stephanie E. , Nieuwenhuizen Maarten S. 
Published: February 2016

AbstractThis paper discusses non-State actors’ motivation and capacity to develop and use chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) improvised weapons in attacks, as well as the possible consequences of such use. Six types of groups have been identified as potential CBRN weapons users that may increasingly be able to acquire relevant CBRN weapons-related knowledge, skills and possibly materials. As technical barriers still form a gap between the theoretical possibility and the operational reality, any potential future CBRN attacks would most likely be crude, low-level attacks, including chemical or radiological materials. CBRN attacks carried out by non-State actors in the future are likely to be more disruptive than destructive.
Human oocyte developmental potential is predicted by mechanical properties within hours after fertilization
Authors: Yanez Livia Z. , Han Jinnuo , Behr Barry B. , Pera Renee A. Reijo , Camarillo David B. 
Published: February 2016

AbstractThe causes of embryonic arrest during pre-implantation development are poorly understood. Attempts to correlate patterns of oocyte gene expression with successful embryo development have been hampered by the lack of reliable and nondestructive predictors of viability at such an early stage. Here we report that zygote viscoelastic properties can predict blastocyst formation in humans and mice within hours after fertilization, with >90% precision, 95% specificity and 75% sensitivity. We demonstrate that there are significant differences between the transcriptomes of viable and non-viable zygotes, especially in expression of genes important for oocyte maturation. In addition, we show that low-quality oocytes may undergo insufficient cortical granule release and zona-hardening, causing altered mechanics after fertilization. Our results suggest that embryo potential is largely determined by the quality and maturation of the oocyte before fertilization, and can be predicted through a minimally invasive mechanical measurement at the zygote stage.
Structural hot spots for the solubility of globular proteins
Authors: Ganesan Ashok , Siekierska Aleksandra , Beerten Jacinte , Brams Marijke , Van Durme Joost , De Baets Greet , Van der Kant Rob , Gallardo Rodrigo , Ramakers Meine , Langenberg Tobias , Wilkinson Hannah , De Smet Frederik , Ulens Chris , Rousseau Frederic , Schymkowitz Joost 
Published: February 2016

AbstractNatural selection shapes protein solubility to physiological requirements and recombinant applications that require higher protein concentrations are often problematic. This raises the question whether the solubility of natural protein sequences can be improved. We here show an anti-correlation between the number of aggregation prone regions (APRs) in a protein sequence and its solubility, suggesting that mutational suppression of APRs provides a simple strategy to increase protein solubility. We show that mutations at specific positions within a protein structure can act as APR suppressors without affecting protein stability. These hot spots for protein solubility are both structure and sequence dependent but can be computationally predicted. We demonstrate this by reducing the aggregation of human α-galactosidase and protective antigen of Bacillus anthracis through mutation. Our results indicate that many proteins possess hot spots allowing to adapt protein solubility independently of structure and function.
Ferroelasticity and domain physics in two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers
Authors: Li Wenbin , Li Ju 
Published: February 2016

AbstractMonolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides can exist in several structural polymorphs, including 2H, 1T and 1T′. The low-symmetry 1T′ phase has three orientation variants, resulting from the three equivalent directions of Peierls distortion in the parental 1T phase. Using first-principles calculations, we predict that mechanical strain can switch the relative thermodynamic stability between the orientation variants of the 1T′ phase. We find that such strain-induced variant switching only requires a few percent elastic strain, which is eminently achievable experimentally with transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers. Calculations indicate that the transformation barrier associated with such variant switching is small (<0.2 eV per chemical formula unit), suggesting that strain-induced variant switching can happen under laboratory conditions. Monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides with 1T′ structure therefore have the potential to be ferroelastic and shape memory materials with interesting domain physics.
Central nervous system uptake of intranasal glutathione in Parkinson’s disease
Authors: Mischley Laurie K , Conley Kevin E , Shankland Eric G , Kavanagh Terrance J , Rosenfeld Michael E , Duda John E , White Collin C , Wilbur Timothy K , De La Torre Prysilla U , Padowski Jeannie M 
Published: February 2016

AbstractGlutathione (GSH) is depleted early in the course of Parkinson’s disease (PD), and deficiency has been shown to perpetuate oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, impaired autophagy, and cell death. GSH repletion has been proposed as a therapeutic intervention. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether intranasally administered reduced GSH, (in)GSH, is capable of augmenting central nervous system GSH concentrations, as determined by magnetic resonance spectroscopy in 15 participants with mid-stage PD. After baseline GSH measurement, 200 mg (in)GSH was self-administered inside the scanner without repositioning, then serial GSH levels were obtained over ~1 h. Statistical significance was determined by one-way repeated measures analysis of variance. Overall, (in)GSH increased brain GSH relative to baseline (P<0.001). There was no increase in GSH 8 min after administration, although it was significantly higher than baseline at all of the remaining time points (P<0.01). This study is the first to demonstrate that intranasal administration of GSH elevates brain GSH levels. This increase persists at least 1 h in subjects with PD. Further dose–response and steady-state administration studies will be required to optimize the dosing schedule for future trials to evaluate therapeutic efficacy.
Insights into the mechanism of human papillomavirus E2-induced procaspase-8 activation and cell death
Authors: Singh Nitu , Senapati Sanjib , Bose Kakoli 
Published: February 2016

AbstractHigh-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) E2 protein, the master regulator of viral life cycle, induces apoptosis of host cell that is independent of its virus-associated regulatory functions. E2 protein of HR-HPV18 has been found to be involved in novel FADD-independent activation of caspase-8, however, the molecular basis of this unique non-death-fold E2-mediated apoptosis is poorly understood. Here, with an interdisciplinary approach that involves in silico, mutational, biochemical and biophysical probes, we dissected and characterized the E2-procasapse-8 binding interface. Our data demonstrate direct non-homotypic interaction of HPV18 E2 transactivation domain (TAD) with α2/α5 helices of procaspase-8 death effector domain-B (DED-B). The observed interaction mimics the homotypic DED-DED complexes, wherein the conserved hydrophobic motif of procaspase-8 DED-B (F122/L123) occupies a groove between α2/α3 helices of E2 TAD. This interaction possibly drives DED oligomerization leading to caspase-8 activation and subsequent cell death. Furthermore, our data establish a model for E2-induced apoptosis in HR-HPV types and provide important clues for designing E2 analogs that might modulate procaspase-8 activation and hence apoptosis.
Evidence of limited carbon sequestration in soils under no-tillage systems in the Cerrado of Brazil
Authors: Corbeels Marc , Marchão Robelio Leandro , Neto Marcos Siqueira , Ferreira Eliann Garcia , Madari Beata Emöke , Scopel Eric , Brito Osmar Rodrigues 
Published: February 2016

AbstractThe Brazilian government aims at augmenting the area cropped under no-tillage (NT) from 32 to 40 million ha by 2020 as a means to mitigate CO2 emissions. We estimated soil carbon (C) sequestration under continuous NT systems in two municipalities in the Goiás state that are representative of the Cerrado. A chronosequence of NT fields of different age since conversion from conventional tillage (CT) was sampled in 2003 and 2011. Soil C levels of native Cerrado and pasture were measured for comparison. After about 11 to 14 years, soil C stocks under NT were highest and at the levels of those under natural Cerrado. Average annual rates of soil C sequestration estimated using the chronosequence approach were respectively 1.61 and 1.48 Mg C ha−1 yr−1 for the 2003 and 2011 sampling and were higher than those observed using repeated sampling after eight years. The diachronic sampling revealed that the younger NT fields tended to show higher increases in soil C stocks than the older fields. Converting an extra 8 million ha of cropland from CT to NT represents an estimated soil C storage of about 8 Tg C yr−1 during 10 to 15 years.