bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Microplastics alter composition of fungal communities in aquatic ecosystems
Authors: Kettner Marie Therese , Rojas‐Jimenez Keilor , Oberbeckmann Sonja , Labrenz Matthias , Grossart Hans‐Peter 
Published: August 2017

SummaryDespite increasing concerns about microplastic (MP) pollution in aquatic ecosystems, there is insufficient knowledge on how MP affect fungal communities. In this study, we explored the diversity and community composition of fungi attached to polyethylene (PE) and polystyrene (PS) particles incubated in different aquatic systems in north‐east Germany: the Baltic Sea, the River Warnow and a wastewater treatment plant. Based on next generation 18S rRNA gene sequencing, 347 different operational taxonomic units assigned to 81 fungal taxa were identified on PE and PS. The MP‐associated communities were distinct from fungal communities in the surrounding water and on the natural substrate wood. They also differed significantly among sampling locations, pointing towards a substrate and location specific fungal colonization. Members of Chytridiomycota, Cryptomycota and Ascomycota dominated the fungal assemblages, suggesting that both parasitic and saprophytic fungi thrive in MP biofilms. Thus, considering the worldwide increasing accumulation of plastic particles as well as the substantial vector potential of MP, especially these fungal taxa might benefit from MP pollution in the aquatic environment with yet unknown impacts on their worldwide distribution, as well as biodiversity and food web dynamics at large.
‘If I was King of India I would Get All the Horns Out of Cars’: A Qualitative Study of Sound in Delhi
Authors: Patsarika Maria , Schneider Tatjana , Edwards Michael 
Published: August 2017

AbstractIn this article we present an experimental sonic space—the mobile noise abatement pod (mNAP)—constructed and used over a two‐week period in Delhi, India, during December 2014. The interdisciplinary project, involving a composer, designer, carpenter, development scholar, filmmaker, graphic designer and sociologist, sought to investigate how noise, including honking (one of the most prevalent sounds in Indian cities), is perceived. The fieldwork reveals noise to be a complex contextual, spatial and personal experience that is as much about habit as it is about identity and class, intimately related to economic inequality and inherently connected to social justice. The article suggests that attempts to reduce levels of noise need to take into account its meaning and position—by whom and how narratives of noise reduction are constructed and reproduced.
Food Deserts and Real‐Estate‐Led Social Policy
Authors: Wolf‐Powers Laura 
Published: August 2017

AbstractSince the early 2000s in the United States, food deserts—neighborhoods in which households have limited geographic access to full‐service supermarkets or grocery stores— have become conceptually central in public policy research on food security. Analyzing this phenomenon from a ‘policy mobility’ perspective, this article traces the food desert's emergence in policy discourse, locating it within an entrepreneurial social policy paradigm that privileges real estate development over direct economic relief. In the context of property‐led anti‐poverty efforts, the identification and mapping of food deserts catalyzes a logic that leads to subsidy to grocery store development in low‐income areas (or ‘fresh food financing’), while at the same time officials are cutting programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps), which directly supplements household food budgets. The article contributes to widening critical discussion of the food desert paradigm and the policy interventions with which it is associated. It calls on urban researchers and practitioners to reframe discussions of food access and nutrition around the shortage of basic income and a need for higher wage floors.
Bioelectricity (electromicrobiology) and sustainability
Authors: Nealson Kenneth H. 
Published: August 2017

SummaryElectromicrobiology is the domain of those prokaryotes able to interact with charged electrodes, using them as electron donors and/or electron acceptors. This is performed via a process called extracellular electron transport, in which outer membrane cytochromes are used to oxidize and/or reduce otherwise unavailable insoluble electron acceptors. EET‐capable bacteria can thus be used for a variety of purposes, ranging from small power sources, water reclamation, to pollution remediation and electrosynthesis. Because the study of EET‐capable bacteria is in its nascent phase, the applications are mostly in developmental stages, but the potential for significant contributions to environmental quality is high and moving forward.
The Greatest Generation: Apropos of Sidney Mintz
Authors: PALERM JUAN VICENTE 
Published: August 2017

ABSTRACTSidney Mintz's passing on December 27, 2015, obliges us to recall and acknowledge the outstanding cohort of anthropologists who studied alongside him at Columbia University in the years immediately following World War II. Together, they transformed the discipline. They include, among other luminaries, Stanley Diamond, Morton Fried, Marvin Harris, Marshall Sahlins, Elman Service, and Eric Wolf. Armed with new research questions and theoretical interests, they freed anthropology from its Boasian moorings and pushed it in new and exciting directions. The cohort's collective and individual anthropological oeuvre from the 1950s to the 1980s reconfigured the practice of anthropology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. [history of anthropology, Columbia University, Marxism, modes of production, capitalism, world‐systems, Sidney Mintz]El reciente fallecimiento de Sidney Mintz (27 diciembre de 2015) suscita recordar y reconocer a ese grupo extraordinario de antropólogos que estudió con él en la Universidad de Columbia, Nueva York, al finalizar la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Juntos transformaron la disciplina. Entre otros ilustrados se encuentran Stanley Diamond, Morton Fried, Marvin Harris, Marshall Sahlins, Elman Service y Eric Wolf. Armados con nuevas preguntas de investigación e inquietudes teóricas, libraron a la antropología de su arraigo boasiano y la impulsaron hacia nuevos y más interesantes horizontes. Su obra colectiva e individual, producida entre las décadas de los 50 a los 80, reconfiguró la práctica antropológica durante el siglo veinte y principios del vigésimo primero. [historia de la antropología, Universidad de Columbia, marxismo, modos de producción, capitalismo, sistema mundial, Sidney Mintz]
Caribbean free villages: Toward an anthropology of blackness, place, and freedom
Authors: SLOCUM KARLA 
Published: August 2017

ABSTRACTIn the 1950s, Sidney Mintz carried out a short study of Caribbean settlements known as free villages. These communities were designed by Baptists as postemancipation social and economic living spaces for formerly enslaved Afro‐descendant peoples. Mintz was ultimately interested in establishing a village typology, describing how the church shaped villagers’ social and moral lives and gauging the communities’ capacity as a site of Afro‐Caribbean peasant resistance to plantations. This work influenced later studies of creolization, land, and the peasantry in free villages, as well as inquiries into the contemporary political‐economic and historical context of Afro‐Caribbean villages generally. Mintz's analysis can also be helpful for thinking through questions about social processes of rural place‐making and investments in freedom among people of African descent. [peasantries,land,place,community,freedom,Sidney Mintz,Caribbean]
Keeping God's distance: Sacrifice, possession, and the problem of religious mediation
Authors: ROBBINS JOEL 
Published: August 2017

ABSTRACTMuch contemporary work in the anthropology of religion explores how human experience of the divine is mediated. One question rarely asked, however, is why people distance the divine from themselves in the first place, such that complex practices of mediation are necessary to make it present. An answer to this question is provided by Henri Hubert and Marcel Mauss in their book Sacrifice, which I read as a key precursor to current work on religious mediation. Hubert and Mauss focus on how religious mediations model and shape social mediations. I demonstrate the usefulness of an approach to mediation that draws on their work by examining a shift from sacrifice to possession as forms of mediation among Pentecostal converts in Papua New Guinea. I also show that this approach can help us further develop broader anthropological theories of mediation and social life. [religion, mediation, sacrifice, possession, Pentecostalism, Papua New Guinea]Planti ol saveman husat i stadi ol kainkain lotu, ol i tok olsem: long olgeta kain lotu ol bilipman i save ting ol god na tewel samting i stap longwe liklik. Tasol dispela lain saveman ol i no save askim: bilong wanem ol god save stap longwe na ol bilipman i mas hatwok long i stap klostu na toktok wantaim ol god? Long tingting bilong mi, wanpela buk bilong Henri Hubert na Marcel Mauss, ol i kolim Sacrifice, em inap long helpim yumi bekim dispela askim. Hubert na Mauss tok olsem, wei bilong wokim koneksen wantaim god, em i save sanap olsem wanpela piksa i soim wei bilong wokim koneksen namel long ol manmeri. Sapos yumi bihainim dispela tingting bilong Hubert na Mauss, dispela em inap long helpim yumi kisim save long wei bilong lotu bilong ol Pentekostal, na long wanem as planti ol i save lusim wok bilong givim ol ofa i go long god na ol i save go insait long wok bilong kisim spirit (ol i kolim ‘possession’ taim spirit i kisim ol). Na tu, mi ting olsem dispela luksave long koneksen wantaim ol god samtink inap em helpim yumi tingting gut long ol kainkain koneksen i stap namel long ol manmeri. [ol kainkain lotu, koneksen wantaim god, wok bilong givim ol ofa i go long god, wok bilong kisim spirit, ol Pentekostal Kristen, Papua Niugini]
Beyond cultural intimacy: The tensions that make truth for India's Ahmadi Muslims
Authors: EVANS NICHOLAS H. A. 
Published: August 2017

ABSTRACTHow should anthropologists write about the public self‐presentation of minority groups? In the Indian town of Qadian, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community—a marginal group with a long history of persecution in South Asia—uses visual media to counter hostility and produce images of its members as exemplary Muslims. That such images are artificially produced is an intimate secret shared by the town's residents. Understanding this secret without undermining the political struggle that Ahmadi Muslims are engaged in means moving beyond the idea that truth must be located in either the everyday or the public. For Ahmadis in Qadian, the disjuncture between these realms is a space of possibility that reveals truth. [cultural intimacy, visual media, exemplarity, self‐representation, Ahmadiyya, Islam, India]
Social impact without social justice: Film and politics in the neoliberal landscape
Authors: ORTNER SHERRY B. 
Published: August 2017

ABSTRACTMany filmmakers and producers hope to create some kind of social or political impact with their films. This is the case with a Los Angeles–based production company that seeks to bring about social change through its films and related “social action” campaigns. Despite its good intentions, however, its efforts often fail. In this respect, the company resembles other kinds of entities that seek to “do good,” such as development NGOs, humanitarian organizations, and philanthropic foundations, which anthropologists have critiqued. The problem of social enterprises like this one is exacerbated under various conditions of the world reordered under neoliberalism. [social impact, social justice, social enterprise, film, politics, neoliberalism, United States]
Penile neurovascular structure revisited: immunohistochemical studies with three‐dimensional reconstruction
Authors: Yin G. N. , Park S.‐H. , Choi M.‐J. , Limanjaya A. , Ghatak K. , Minh N. N. , Ock J. , Song K.‐M. , Ryu J.‐K. , Suh J.‐K. 
Published: August 2017

SummaryPenile erection is a neurovascular phenomenon that requires well coordinated and functional interaction between penile vascular and nervous systems. In order to provide a useful tool to examine pathologic changes in the erectile tissue, mainly focusing on penile neurovascular dysfunction, we established the technique to determine the differential distribution of endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, pericytes, and nerve fibers in the mouse penis using immunohistochemical staining with three‐dimensional reconstruction. Immunofluorescent staining of penile tissue was performed with antibodies against CD31 (an endothelial cell marker), smooth muscle α ‐actin (SMA, a smooth muscle cell marker), NG2 (a pericyte marker), or βIII‐tubulin (a neuronal marker). We reconstructed three‐dimensional images of penile vascular or neurovascular system from stacks of two‐dimensional images, which allows volume rendering and provides reliable anatomic information. CD31‐positive endothelial cells, SMA‐positive smooth muscle cells, and NG2‐positive pericytes were evenly distributed and composed sinusoidal or venous wall. However, the endothelial layer of the cavernous artery or dorsal artery was mainly covered with smooth muscle cells and rarely associated with pericytes. The reconstructed three‐dimensional images clearly visualized typical wavy appearance of nerve fibers that evenly innervate to cavernous sinusoids, cavernous artery, dorsal vein, and dorsal artery. We observed a significant decrease in CD31‐positive endothelial cells, NG2‐positive pericytes, and βIII‐tubulin‐positive nerve fibers in the penis of diabetic mice compared with those in normal condition. Our protocol for immunofluorescent staining with three‐dimensional reconstruction will allow a better understanding of the penile neurovascular anatomy and may constitute a standard technique to determine the efficacy of candidate therapeutics targeting therapeutic angiogenesis or neural regeneration.
Onion (Allium cepa L.) peel extract (OPE) regulates human sperm motility via protein kinase C‐mediated activation of the human voltage‐gated proton channel
Authors: Chae M. R. , Kang S. J. , Lee K. P. , Choi B. R. , Kim H. K. , Park J. K. , Kim C. Y. , Lee S. W. 
Published: August 2017

SummaryOnion (Allium cepa L.) and quercetin protect against oxidative damage and have positive effects on multiple functional parameters of spermatozoa, including viability and motility. However, the associated underlying mechanisms of action have not yet been identified. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of onion peel extract (OPE) on voltage‐gated proton (Hv1) channels, which play a critical role in rapid proton extrusion. This process underlies a wide range of physiological processes, particularly male fertility. The whole‐cell patch‐clamp technique was used to record the changes in Hv1 currents in HEK293 cells transiently transfected with human Hv1 (HVCN1). The effects of OPE on human sperm motility were also analyzed. OPE significantly activated the outward‐rectifying proton currents in a concentration‐dependent manner, with an EC50 value of 30 μg/mL. This effect was largely reversible upon washout. Moreover, OPE induced an increase in the proton current amplitude and decreased the time constant of activation at 0 mV from 4.9 ± 1.7 to 0.6 ± 0.1 sec (n = 6). In the presence of OPE, the half‐activation voltage (V1/2) shifted in the negative direction, from 20.1 ± 5.8 to 5.2 ± 8.7 mV (n = 6), but the slope was not significantly altered. The OPE‐induced current was profoundly inhibited by 10 μm Zn2+, the most potent Hv1 channel inhibitor, and was also inhibited by treatment with GF109203X, a specific protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor. Furthermore, sperm motility was significantly increased in the OPE‐treated groups. OPE exhibits protective effects on sperm motility, at least partially via regulation of the proton channel. Moreover, similar effects were exerted by quercetin, the major flavonoid in OPE. These results suggest OPE, which is rich in the potent Hv1 channel activator quercetin, as a possible new candidate treatment for human infertility.
Retracted: Effects of (−)‐hydroxycitric acid on lipid droplet accumulation in chicken embryos
Authors: Peng Mengling , Li Longlong , Yu Lei , Ge Chongyang , Ma Haitian 
Published: August 2017

AbstractThis study was conducted to determine the impact of (−)‐hydroxycitric acid ((−)‐HCA) on biochemical indices and lipid metabolism parameters in chicken embryos. Two hundred and forty fertilized eggs were divided into six groups and injected with (−)‐HCA at concentrations of 0, 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, 10.0 and 50 mg/kg (n = 40). After 19 days of incubation, serum and liver were collected for analysis of biochemical indices and lipid metabolism parameters. Results showed no significant differences on serum biochemical indices: 1–50 mg/kg (−)‐HCA significantly increased serum glucose and hepatic glycogen contents (P < 0.05). Oil Red O staining analysis showed total area, counts of lipid droplets and hepatic triglyceride content were significantly decreased (P < 0.01), meanwhile hepatic lipase and lipoprotein lipase activity were significantly increased (P < 0.05). ACLY, ME1, SREBP‐1c messenger RNA (mRNA) levels in 0.5–10 mg/kg groups and FAS mRNA level in 1–10 mg/kg groups were significantly decreased (P < 0.05), while PPARα mRNA level, serum adiponectin content and AdipoR1 mRNA level were significantly increased in 0.5–50 mg/kg groups (P < 0.05). These results indicated (−)‐HCA treatment inhibited triglyceride synthesis via decreasing lipogenesis‐related factors, mRNA expression level and accelerated lipolysis by enhancing lipoprotein lipase and hepatic lipase activity, which finally reduced lipid droplet accumulation, and this action may be associated with activating the adiponectin signaling pathway.
Childhood Maltreatment and Early Developmental Vulnerabilities at Age 5 Years
Authors: Green Melissa J. , Tzoumakis Stacy , McIntyre Brooke , Kariuki Maina , Laurens Kristin R. , Dean Kimberlie , Chilvers Marilyn , Harris Felicity , Butler Merran , Brinkman Sally A. , Carr Vaughan J. 
Published: August 2017

This study examined associations between maltreatment and early developmental vulnerabilities in a population sample of 68,459 children (Mage = 5.62 years, SD = .37) drawn from the Australian state of New South Wales, using linked administrative data for the children and their parents (collected 2001–2009). Associations were estimated between (a) any maltreatment, (b) the number of maltreatment types, and (c) the timing of first reported maltreatment and vulnerability and risk status on multiple developmental domains (i.e., physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and communication). Pervasive associations were revealed between maltreatment and all developmental domains; children exposed to two or more maltreatment types, and with first maltreatment reported after 3 years of age, showed greater likelihood of vulnerability on multiple domains, relative to nonmaltreated children.
Ternary Sparse Matrix Representation for Volumetric Mesh Subdivision and Processing on GPUs
Authors: Mueller‐Roemer J. S. , Altenhofen C. , Stork A. 
Published: August 2017

AbstractIn this paper, we present a novel volumetric mesh representation suited for parallel computing on modern GPU architectures. The data structure is based on a compact, ternary sparse matrix storage of boundary operators. Boundary operators correspond to the first‐order top‐down relations of k‐faces to their (k − 1)‐face facets. The compact, ternary matrix storage format is based on compressed sparse row matrices with signed indices and allows for efficient parallel computation of indirect and bottom‐up relations. This representation is then used in the implementation of several parallel volumetric mesh algorithms including Laplacian smoothing and volumetric Catmull‐Clark subdivision. We compare these algorithms with their counterparts based on OpenVolumeMesh and achieve speedups from 3× to 531×, for sufficiently large meshes, while reducing memory consumption by up to 36%.
Evaluating Hex‐mesh Quality Metrics via Correlation Analysis
Authors: Gao Xifeng , Huang Jin , Xu Kaoji , Pan Zherong , Deng Zhigang , Chen Guoning 
Published: August 2017

AbstractHexahedral (hex‐) meshes are important for solving partial differential equations (PDEs) in applications of scientific computing and mechanical engineering. Many methods have been proposed aiming to generate hex‐meshes with high scaled Jacobians. While it is well established that a hex‐mesh should be inversion‐free (i.e. have a positive Jacobian measured at every corner of its hexahedron), it is not well‐studied that whether the scaled Jacobian is the most effective indicator of the quality of simulations performed on inversion‐free hex‐meshes given the existing dozens of quality metrics for hex‐meshes. Due to the challenge of precisely defining the relations among metrics, studying the correlations among different quality metrics and their correlations with the stability and accuracy of the simulations is a first and effective approach to address the above question. In this work, we propose a correlation analysis framework to systematically study these correlations. Specifically, given a large hex‐mesh dataset, we classify the existing quality metrics into groups based on their correlations, which characterizes their similarity in measuring the quality of hex‐elements. In addition, we rank the individual metrics based on their correlations with the accuracy and stability metrics for simulations that solve a number of elliptic PDE problems. Our preliminary experiments suggest that metrics that assess the conditioning of the elements are more correlated to the quality of solving elliptic PDEs than the others. Furthermore, an inversion‐free hex‐mesh with higher average quality (measured by any quality metrics) usually leads to a more accurate and stable computation of elliptic PDEs. To support our correlation study and address the lack of a publicly available large hex‐mesh dataset with sufficiently varying quality metric values, we also propose a two‐level perturbation strategy to generate the desired dataset from a small number of meshes to exclude the influences of element numbers, vertex connectivity, and volume sizes to our study.
Spectral Affine‐Kernel Embeddings
Authors: Budninskiy Max , Liu Beibei , Tong Yiying , Desbrun Mathieu 
Published: August 2017

AbstractIn this paper, we propose a controllable embedding method for high‐ and low‐dimensional geometry processing through sparse matrix eigenanalysis. Our approach is equally suitable to perform non‐linear dimensionality reduction on big data, or to offer non‐linear shape editing of 3D meshes and pointsets. At the core of our approach is the construction of a multi‐Laplacian quadratic form that is assembled from local operators whose kernels only contain locally‐affine functions. Minimizing this quadratic form provides an embedding that best preserves all relative coordinates of points within their local neighborhoods. We demonstrate the improvements that our approach brings over existing nonlinear dimensionality reduction methods on a number of datasets, and formulate the first eigen‐based as‐rigid‐as‐possible shape deformation technique by applying our affine‐kernel embedding approach to 3D data augmented with user‐imposed constraints on select vertices.