bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Categorical Perception of Mandarin Chinese Tones 1–2 and Tones 1–4: Effects of Aging and Signal Duration
Authors: Wang Yuxia , Yang Xiaohu , Liu Chang 
Published: November 2017

Purpose
The purpose of this study was to investigate the aging effect on the categorical perception of Mandarin Chinese tones with varied fundamental frequency (F0) contours and signal duration.

Method
Both younger and older native Chinese listeners with normal hearing were recruited in 2 experiments: tone identification and tone discrimination on a series of stimuli with the F0 contour systematically varying from the flat tone to the rising–falling tones. Apart from F0 contour, tone duration was manipulated at 3 levels: 100, 200, and 400 ms.

Results
Results suggested that, compared with younger listeners, older listeners performed with shallower slope in the identification function and smaller peakedness in the discrimination function, particularly for Tones 1 and 2, whereas for Tones 1 and 4, comparable categorical perception was found between younger and older listeners.

Conclusions
The current study suggested that longer duration facilitated categorical perception in the flat–rising tones for the older listeners. Such an aging effect was not found with the flat–falling tones, suggesting that the aging-related deficit in categorical perception might relate to different tone types. Aging resulted in less categoricality of Mandarin tone perception for the flat–rising tones with short duration like 100 ms, possibly due to the aging-related decline in temporal processing.
Modified Eaton-Littler's Reconstruction for Traumatic Thumb Carpometacarpal Joint Instability: Operative Technique and Clinical Outcomes
Authors: Iyengar Karthikeyan , Loh William , Matar Hosam 
Published: November 2017

Background Injuries to thumb carpometacarpal joint ligaments lead to instability. Eaton-Littler's ligament reconstruction traditionally uses a strip of flexor carpi radialis to stabilize the CMC joint.
Study Description We have modified this technique to reproduce the direction of active action of the anterior oblique ligament by reconstructing both the volar and dorsoradial ligaments. In this prospective study, we evaluated patients with confirmed traumatic thumb CMC joint instability who underwent modified Eaton-Littler's reconstruction. Strength analysis, Michigan Hand Outcome Questionnaire, QuickDASH, and subjective outcome measures were collected pre- and postoperatively with minimum 3 years of follow-up. Eleven patients were included in the final analysis, with mean age of 29 years (range: 16–52) and average follow-up of 6.2 years (range: 3–11). There was a statistically significant improvement in all outcome measures.
Clinical Relevance Our modified technique helps to simultaneously address both volar and dorsal ligaments and yields satisfactory clinical outcomes at medium term follow-up.
Level of Evidence Level IV, case series.
A New Era of Minimally Invasive Surgery: Progress and Development of Major Technical Innovations in General Surgery Over the Last Decade
Authors: Siddaiah-Subramanya Manjunath , Tiang Kor , Nyandowe Masimba 
Published: November 2017

AbstractMinimally invasive surgery (MIS) continues to play an important role in general surgery as an alternative to traditional open surgery as well as traditional laparoscopic techniques. Since the 1980s, technological advancement and innovation have seen surgical techniques in MIS rapidly grow as it is viewed as more desirable. MIS, which includes natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) and single-incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS), is less invasive and has better cosmetic results. The technological growth and adoption of NOTES and SILS by clinicians in the last decade has however not been uniform. We look at the differences in new developments and advancement in the different techniques in the last 10 years. We also aim to explain these differences as well as the implications in general surgery for the future.
New Results on Brain Stimulation in Chronic Pain
Authors: Antal Andrea , Paulus Walter , Rohde Veit 
Published: November 2017

AbstractPain that has become chronic has lost its warning function and is associated with dysfunction of the so-called pain network. Systematic brain stimulation aims to normalize this network by modulating neuronal activities. Non-invasive DC stimulation (tDCS) or repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) are considered effective in pain treatment. Here, the stimulation of the primary motor cortex (M1) plays a central role. If the pain is not adequately controlled by tDCS and rTMS, invasive procedures such as motor cortex stimulation (MCS) or deep brain stimulation are available as a last resort.
Strain-hardening characteristics of ferrite layers in pearlite microstructure
Authors: Yasuda Y. , Ohashi T. , Shimokawa T. , Niiyama T. 
Published: November 2017

Strain hardening of ferrite layers in pearlite microstructures plays a crucial role in the stability of elasto-plastic deformation of pearlite. The effects of layer thickness, crystal orientation relationship and loading direction on the strain-hardening characteristics of the ferrite layers were studied by crystal plasticity analysis. The results show that the strain-hardening rate increases in the ferrite layers with small thickness, whereas at the same thickness, the strain-hardening rate varies depending on the loading direction and crystal orientation relationship. When the Schmid factors and mean-free paths of the activated systems are small and short, the strain-hardening rate tends to be high. The ferrite layer exhibits a remarkably high strain-hardening rate when slip systems are sequentially activated with the increase of deformation. This is part of a thematic issue on Pearlitic Steel Wires.
Higher education regionalism in Europe and Southeast Asia: Comparing policy ideas
Authors: Chou Meng-Hsuan , Ravinet Pauline 
Published: November 2017

Abstract
Regional cooperation in the higher education policy sector has been on the rise throughout the last decades. In this article, we compare and analyse two instances of higher education regionalisms (i.e. political projects of higher education region creation) in Europe and South-East Asia from an ideational perspective. In so doing, we engage with and challenge the diffusion argument common in both European higher education studies (‘Bologna Process export thesis’) and new comparative regionalism. Using publicly accessible documents from regional bodies active in higher education policy coordination, and 53 semi-structured interviews with key policy actors involved in these developments, we identify the policy ideas of European and South-East Asian higher education regionalisms, and consider whether the extant models of regional cooperation and the knowledge discourse affected their evolution. Our findings indicate that the ‘Bologna Process export thesis’ and the diffusion assumptions of comparative regionalism are too simplistic and misleading. We conclude with suggestions for scholars interested in new comparative regionalism.
Policy learning and policy networks in theory and practice: the role of policy brokers in the Indonesian biodiesel policy network
Authors: Howlett Michael , Mukherjee Ishani , Koppenjan Joop 
Published: November 2017

AbstractThis paper examines how learning has been treated, generally, in policy network theories and what questions have been posed, and answered, about this phenomenon to date. We examine to what extent network characteristics and especially the presence of various types of brokers impede or facilitate policy learning. Next, a case study of the policy network surrounding the sustainability of palm oil biodiesel in Indonesia over the past two decades is presented using social network analysis. This case study focuses on sustainability-oriented policy learning in the Indonesian biodiesel governance network and illustrates how network features and especially forms of brokerage influence learning.
Learning in the bath-tub: the micro and macro dimensions of the causal relationship between learning and policy change
Authors: Dunlop Claire A , Radaelli Claudio M 
Published: November 2017

AbstractWhilst the literature classifies policy learning in terms of types or ontological approaches (reflexive and social constructivist learning versus rational up-dating of priors), we offer a three-dimensional approach to explore the relationships between individual learning, learning in groups and the macro-dimension. Our contribution maps most (although not all) lively debates in the field on a multi-dimensional space and explores the logic of causality from micro to macro. To achieve these two aims, we draw on Coleman’s ‘bath-tub’. We map learning in the bath-tub by considering prominent studies on learning but also, in some cases, by exploring and drawing lessons from political science and behavioural sciences. By integrating findings in an eclectic way, we explain the logic of learning using a single template and suggest methods for empirical analysis. This is not a literature review but an original attempt to capture the causal architecture of the field, contributing to learning theory with findings from mainstream political and behavioural sciences.
Changing public service delivery: learning in co-creation
Authors: Voorberg William , Bekkers Victor , Timeus Krista , Tonurist Piret , Tummers Lars 
Published: November 2017

AbstractCo-creation – where citizens and public organizations work together to deal with societal issues – is increasingly considered as a fertile solution for various public service delivery problems. During co-creation, citizens are not mere consumers, but are actively engaged in building resilient societies. In this study, we analyze if and how state and governance traditions influence learning and policy change within a context of co-creation. We combine insights from the co-creation and learning literature. The empirical strategy is a comparative case study of co-creation examples within the welfare domain in childcare (Estonia), education (Germany) and community work (the Netherlands). We show that state and governance traditions may form an explanation for whether co-creation, learning and policy change occurs. Our paper suggests that this seems to be related to whether there is a tradition of working together with citizens and a focus on rule following or not.
What is so wicked about wicked problems? A conceptual analysis and a research program
Authors: Peters B Guy 
Published: November 2017

AbstractThe concept of wicked problems has become a fad in contemporary policy analysis, with any number of problems being labeled as “wicked”. However, if many of these problems are analyzed using a strict definition of the concept they do not meet the criteria. Building on this analysis, I have developed a research program to investigate the extent to which even those problems usually thought to be wicked are actually that difficult.
Wicked problem definition and gradual institutional change: federalism and immigration in Canada and Australia
Authors: Paquet Mireille 
Published: November 2017

AbstractThis article examines the impacts of problem definition, defined as a social mechanism, in bringing about gradual institutional change. Focusing on a similar process of gradual institutional change in Canada and Australia, it shows that problem definition is one pathway by which actors’ interests and behaviors are redefined inside an institutional regime. By tracing the process of federalization of Canada and Australia’s immigration regime since the 1990, it demonstrates that problem definition contributed to the rise of subnational governments as legitimate actors in the management of immigration. In these two countries, the specificities of the operation of this mechanism, including the actors mobilized for change, and the content of the policy problem being put forward generated different processes of federalization that nonetheless resulted in inclusive immigration federalism. In dialogue with historical institutionalism, this points to the potential of the mechanismic approach for theory building regarding the consequences of the dynamics of problem definition.
Implementing pay-for-performance in primary health care: the role of institutional entrepreneurs
Authors: Smith Verna , Cumming Jackie 
Published: November 2017

AbstractInstitutional entrepreneurs are vital for facilitating non-incremental health policy change in complex institutional settings where established traditions and practices carry considerable weight. This paper describes a comparative case study of health policy-making which shows that Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework for non-incremental policy change requires enhancement to explain results in policy-making in two Westminster unitary majoritarian jurisdictions. The most similar systems comparative study found that historical, rational choice, organisational and discursive institutionalist approaches explained the policy change and variation observed better than agency-based approaches did. However, institutional entrepreneurs were important in both cases. Differences in coordinative discourse help to explain the differences in degree of change achieved in each case study and highlight the importance of discursive institutionalist approaches in bridging institutional and agency-based approaches.
Entrepreneurial failure in the transition to electric vehicles: a case study of support for sustainability policy in Israel
Authors: Cohen Nissim , Naor Michael 
Published: November 2017

AbstractWhy do entrepreneurs who gained initial remarkable government support for sustainability policy lose it rapidly and what may be learned from such failure? In May 2013, a national attempt for transition of transportation industry from internal combustion engine to electric vehicle by building country-wide infrastructure in Israel went bankrupt. Only short period before, the company, Better Place, seemed to be successful both in recruiting $850 million from investors and gaining institutional and political support via successful policy entrepreneurship from top governmental echelons to cut dependence on oil. The case study investigates what caused policy entrepreneur to lose political support and why the government did not provide a bailout plan for the company. Based on in-depth interviews over a period of several years with company employees and government officials in Israel and use of secondary data sources, the study concludes that, in the wake of national demonstrations for social justice in 2011, politicians shifted their agenda from national security concerns to welfare issues. This case fills a gap in the literature which tends to focus on successful ventures, by deriving insights from a case of entrepreneurial failure, as much can be learned from failure too. The practical lesson learned as the global movement for social justice spread is that initial success of policy entrepreneurship, which exploits a political window of opportunity, does not guarantee long-term governmental support for sustainability policy.
Autocorrelation Structure in the Macaque Dorsolateral, But not Orbital or Polar, Prefrontal Cortex Predicts Response-Coding Strength in a Visually Cued Strategy Task
Authors: Fascianelli Valeria , Tsujimoto Satoshi , Marcos Encarni , Genovesio Aldo 
Published: November 2017

Abstract
In previous work, we studied the activity of neurons in the dorsolateral (PFdl), orbital (PFo), and polar (PFp) prefrontal cortex while monkeys performed a strategy task with 2 spatial goals. A cue instructed 1 of 2 strategies in each trial: stay with the previous goal or shift to the alternative goal. Each trial started with a fixation period, followed by a cue. Subsequently, a delay period was followed by a “go” signal that instructed the monkeys to choose one goal. After each choice, feedback was provided. In this study, we focused on the temporal receptive fields of the neurons, as measured by the decay in autocorrelation (time constant) during the fixation period, and examined the relationship with response and strategy coding. The temporal receptive field in PFdl correlated with the response-related but not with the strategy-related modulation in the delay and the feedback periods: neurons with longer time constants in PFdl tended to show stronger and more prolonged response coding. No such correlation was found in PFp or PFo. These findings demonstrate that the temporal specialization of neurons for temporally extended computations is predictive of response coding, and neurons in PFdl, but not PFp or PFo, develop such predictive properties.
Local production of tenascin-C acts as a trigger for monocyte/macrophage recruitment that provokes cardiac dysfunction
Authors: Abbadi Dounia , Laroumanie Fanny , Bizou Mathilde , Pozzo Joffrey , Daviaud Danièle , Delage Christine , Calise Denis , Gaits-Iacovoni Fréderique , Dutaur Marianne , Tortosa Florence , Renaud-Gabardos Edith , Douin-Echinard Victorine , Prats Anne-Catherine , Roncalli Jerome , Parini Angelo , Pizzinat Nathalie 
Published: November 2017

Abstract

Aims
Tenascin-C (TNC) is an endogenous danger signal molecule strongly associated with inflammatory diseases and with poor outcome in patients with cardiomyopathies. Its function within pathological cardiac tissue during pressure overload remains poorly understood.

Methods and results
We showed that TNC accumulates after 1 week of transverse aortic constriction (TAC) in the heart of 12-week-old male mice. By cross bone marrow transplantation experiments, we determined that TNC deposition relied on cardiac cells and not on haematopoietic cells. The expression of TNC induced by TAC, or by administration of a recombinant lentivector coding for TNC, triggered a pro-inflammatory cardiac microenvironment, monocyte/macrophage (MO/MΦ) accumulation, and systolic dysfunction. TNC modified macrophage polarization towards the pro-inflammatory phenotype and stimulated RhoA/Rho-associated protein kinase (ROCK) pathways to promote mesenchymal to amoeboid transition that enhanced macrophage migration into fibrillar collagen matrices. The amplification of inflammation and MO/MΦ recruitment by TNC was abrogated by genetic invalidation of TNC in knockout mice. These mice showed less ventricular remodelling and an improved cardiac function after TAC as compared with wild-type mice.

Conclusions
By promoting a pro-inflammatory microenvironment and macrophage migration, TNC appears to be a key factor to enable the MO/MΦ accumulation within fibrotic hearts leading to cardiac dysfunction. As TNC is highly expressed during inflammation and sparsely during the steady state, its inhibition could be a promising therapeutic strategy to control inflammation and immune cell infiltration in heart disease.
Reconciling the clk-1 and aging paradox and categorizing lifespan curves by taking individual specificity into account
Authors: Ren Yaguang , Zhang Congjie , Guo Wenxuan , Zhang Chao 
Published: November 2017

AbstractThe clk-1 gene encodes the demethoxyubiquinone (DMQ) hydroxylase that is required for biosynthesis of ubiquinone (coenzyme Q). Deletion of clk-1 was lethal in mice, and its mutation in C. elegans mildly extended lifespan, slowed physiological rate and led to sickness. We found that if growth retardation was taken into account the average lifespan of clk-1 mutants would not be prolonged or would be shortened. In addition, recent study showed that knocking down of clk-1 shortened lifespan. Although the extension of lifespan in clk-1 mutants was mild and was not observed sometimes, some progenies indeed had prolonged maximum lifespan even if retardation of growth was taking into account. These paradoxes implicate the existence of individual specificity in the aging process even in the same cohort, just like a drug is beneficial for some people while for others it is detrimental. We further categorized lifespan curves into five kinds of patterns according to the lifespan alternations observed in organisms: N (normal); L (long-lived); S (short-lived); F (flattened); ST (steepened), and found that the curve of clk-1 mutants fit into the F pattern. The reasons behind the individual specificity and its implications in aging process deserves further investigations.
A localist’s critique of Hong Kong’s political development
Authors: Chi Loo Jeff Hai 
Published: November 2017

Purpose
This paper intends to explore the localist perspectives concerning Hong Kong’s political development. The persistent growth of localists in the polity of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has not only challenged the current political order but also aroused Beijing’s national security considerations. The oath-taking controversies of 2016 demonstrated the strife that now exists between Beijing and the localists in Hong Kong. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the localists’ perceptions of the political decay, legitimacy crisis and reverse democratization in HKSAR to illuminate further their perceptions of Hong Kong’s political development.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses the theoretical discussion of the relations between political decay, legitimacy, the legitimacy crisis and reverse democratization as the key analytical framework to understand the localists’ perspective concerning Hong Kong’s political development. Based on an analysis of the localists’ discourse, the implication for the HKSAR regime’s legitimacy and for reverse democratization will be discussed.

Findings
The emergence of the new localists leads to the belief that Hong Kong’s political development is experiencing the reverse of democratization as the government cannot fully absorb the demands made by the general public. The reverse democratization is directly impacting the regime’s legitimacy, but in the HKSAR’s case, the new localists see the root of the problem as stemming from Beijing, that is that the Chinese Communist Party’s legitimacy problem is due to its underdevelopment in the legal, political and cultural spheres. This underdevelopment has weakened the legitimacy of the HKSAR’s administration, especially with regard to political reform, the legal interpretation of the Basic Law, and the influx of immigrants and tourists from the Mainland into the Hong Kong’s society. The China factor, from the Localists’ viewpoint, is at the root of the political decay and the legitimacy crisis in Hong Kong. More significantly, the localists regard the involvement of Beijing in Hong Kong’s affairs as its way to disrupt the autonomous status of the HKSAR. As a result, public discontent has further intensified and created the legitimacy crisis for the HKSAR Government.

Originality/value
This paper is the first academic paper to provide a critical analysis of Hong Kong’s localists’ views regarding Hong Kong’s political development since becoming the HKSAR. In contrast with the existing literature about Hong Kong’s democratization and political development, this paper introduces localists’ views and advocates the idea of “reverse democratization” to explain their perceptions concerning Hong Kong’s political development.