bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Test−Retest Reliability and Convergent Validity of Three Manual Dexterity Measures in Persons With Chronic Stroke
Authors: Ekstrand Elisabeth , Lexell Jan , Brogårdh Christina 
Published: March 2016

AbstractBackgroundDecreased manual dexterity is common in persons after stroke. Different measures are used to assess manual dexterity, but a lack of knowledge exists about their reliability and how they are related.ObjectiveTo evaluate the test−retest reliability and convergent validity of 3 manual dexterity measures after stroke.DesignA test−retest design.SettingUniversity Hospital.ParticipantsForty‐five persons (mean age 65 years) with mild‐to‐moderate impairments in the upper extremity at least 6 months after stroke.Main Outcome MeasuresManual dexterity was assessed on 2 occasions, 1 week apart using the Box and Block Test (BBT), the Nine‐Hole Peg Test (NHPT), and the modified Sollerman Hand Function Test (mSHFT). The reliability of the BBT and NHPT was evaluated with the intraclass correlation coefficient together with systematic and random measurement errors. Reliability of the mSHFT was evaluated with the Kappa coefficient and the Svensson rank‐invariant method (percent agreement and systematic and random disagreements). Convergent validity of the total scores was evaluated with the Spearman rank correlation coefficients (rho).ResultsThe intraclass correlation coefficient for the BBT and the NHPT ranged from 0.83 to 0.99. Significant systematic measurement errors were found for both tests and hands. The Kappa coefficient for the total sum score of the mSHFT was 0.95 for the more affected hand and 0.59 for the less affected hand. One of the 3 items showed systematic disagreements for both hands. The convergent validity (rho) for the more affected hand ranged from 0.41 (BBT versus mSHFT) to −0.68 (NHPT versus mSHFT).ConclusionThe test−retest reliability of the BBT, NHPT and mSHFT was high but all measures showed learning effects. The relationships between the 3 measures indicate that they partly complement one another. The BBT may be preferred for persons with moderate impairments of the upper extremity and the NHPT and the mSHFT for persons with milder impairments. As the mSHFT has the advantage of reflecting activities in daily life it may be a suitable alternative to the NHPT.Level of EvidenceIII
Excess pay and deficient performance
Authors: Carter Mary Ellen , Li Lei , Marcus Alan J. , Tehranian Hassan 
Published: March 2016

AbstractWe investigate the link between abnormal CEO compensation and firm performance, asking whether high unexplained compensation relative to several benchmarks is a sign of hard‐to‐measure but desirable executive attributes or is instead a symptom of unsolved agency problems. We find that abnormally high CEO pay predicts worse future firm performance. Abnormally high compensation that is performance‐contingent is a less ominous signal about the future success of the firm. But abnormal levels of even performance‐contingent compensation predict worse future performance. We conclude that abnormally high CEO pay can be useful as an independent indicator of agency problems.
Fascist Yogis: Martial Bodies and Imperial Impotence
Authors: Imy Kate 
Published: March 2016

AbstractBetween the First and Second World Wars, two retired British military officers, Francis Yeats-Brown and J. F. C. Fuller, embraced fascism and yoga. In their publications and lecture tours, they used their past experiences as soldiers in India to encourage strength, discipline, and virility. While Fuller believed that yoga could teach men to be strong and powerful leaders, Yeats-Brown celebrated yoga as a part of “Aryan” racial inheritance. This article examines both Fuller's and Yeats-Brown's published accounts and archival trails in order to understand the development of global masculinities within individual British lives. It reveals that their engagement with yoga was a defensive effort to appropriate the “regeneration” of martial masculinity encouraged by Indian nationalists. Claiming yoga for “great men” and “Aryan” audiences became a way to rewrite their own histories of service to the British Empire. They erased the weakness and fragility of imperial life, and replaced it with idealized bodies that were strong, disciplined, and virile. In so doing, they attempted to save imperial soldiers from political and cultural irrelevance. This reimagining used imperial hierarchies of gender and racial difference to encourage a “universal” model of martial masculinity that could restore the power of the British Empire.
Rumor and “Common Fame”: The Impeachment of the Duke of Buckingham and Public Opinion in Early Stuart England
Authors: Coast David 
Published: March 2016

AbstractThis article reexamines the parliamentary impeachment of the Duke of Buckingham, the royal favorite of King Charles I, by placing this event in the broader contexts of political culture and social change in early Stuart England. Buckingham's enemies based the impeachment on “common fame,” claiming that his faults were a matter of public knowledge. Charles, however, believed that the charges were based on seditious rumors. The impeachment undercut an important element of elite rhetoric that associated rumor with the rebellious multitude, revealing ideological divisions over the nature of grievances and the legitimacy of popular speech. The article contextualizes the impeachment within 1620s underground literature that purported to present the views of the common people, arguing that there was a wider tendency to ventriloquize public opinion. When Buckingham's allies produced their own tracts featuring the persona of the “honest ploughman,” appeals to the authority of public opinion were clearly gaining in strength. By explaining this development in political culture with reference to the growth of a more politically reliable “middling sort,” the article contributes to debates about the relationship between social change and political conflict in early Stuart England.
Distributed modeling of ablation (1996–2011) and climate sensitivity on the glaciers of Taylor Valley, Antarctica
Authors: HOFFMAN MATTHEW J. , FOUNTAIN ANDREW G. , LISTON GLEN E. 
Published: March 2016

ABSTRACTThe McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica host the coldest and driest ecosystem on Earth, which is acutely sensitive to the availability of water coming from glacial runoff. We modeled the spatial variability in ablation and assessed climate sensitivity of the glacier ablation zones using 16 years of meteorological and surface mass-balance observations collected in Taylor Valley. Sublimation was the primary form of mass loss over much of the ablation zones, except for near the termini where melt, primarily below the surface, dominated. Microclimates in ~10 m scale topographic basins generated melt rates up to ten times higher than over smooth glacier surfaces. In contrast, the vertical terminal cliffs on the glaciers can have higher or lower melt rates than the horizontal surfaces due to differences in incoming solar radiation. The model systematically underpredicted ablation for the final 5 years studied, possibly due to an increase of windblown sediment. Surface mass-balance sensitivity to temperature was ~−0.02 m w.e. K−1, which is among the smallest magnitudes observed globally. We also identified a high sensitivity to ice albedo, with a decrease of 0.02 having similar effects as a 1 K increase in temperature, and a complex sensitivity to wind speed.
Plastic bed beneath Hofsjökull Ice Cap, central Iceland, and the sensitivity of ice flow to surface meltwater flux
Authors: MINCHEW BRENT , SIMONS MARK , BJÖRNSSON HELGI , PÁLSSON FINNUR , MORLIGHEM MATHIEU , SEROUSSI HELENE , LAROUR ERIC , HENSLEY SCOTT 
Published: March 2016

AbstractThe mechanical properties of glacier beds play a fundamental role in regulating the sensitivity of glaciers to environmental forcing across a wide range of timescales. Glaciers are commonly underlain by deformable till whose mechanical properties and influence on ice flow are not well understood but are critical for reliable projections of future glacier states. Using synoptic-scale observations of glacier motion in different seasons to constrain numerical ice flow models, we study the mechanics of the bed beneath Hofsjökull, a land-terminating ice cap in central Iceland. Our results indicate that the bed deforms plastically and weakens following incipient summertime surface melt. Combining the inferred basal shear traction fields with a Coulomb-plastic bed model, we estimate the spatially distributed effective basal water pressure and show that changes in basal water pressure and glacier accelerations are non-local and non-linear. These results motivate an idealized physical model relating mean basal water pressure and basal slip rate wherein the sensitivity of glacier flow to changes in basal water pressure is inversely related to the ice surface slope.
Pointcatcher software: analysis of glacial time-lapse photography and integration with multitemporal digital elevation models
Authors: JAMES MIKE R. , HOW PENELOPE , WYNN PETER M. 
Published: March 2016

ABSTRACTTerrestrial time-lapse photography offers insight into glacial processes through high spatial and temporal resolution imagery. However, oblique camera views complicate measurement in geographic coordinates, and lead to reliance on specific imaging geometries or simplifying assumptions for calculating parameters such as ice velocity. We develop a novel approach that integrates time-lapse imagery with multitemporal DEMs to derive full three-dimensional coordinates for natural features tracked throughout a monoscopic image sequence. This enables daily independent measurement of horizontal (ice flow) and vertical (ice melt) velocities. By combining two terrestrial laser scanner surveys with a 73 days sequence from Sólheimajökull, Iceland, variations in horizontal ice velocity of ~10% were identified over timescales of ~25 days. An overall decrease of ~3.0 m surface elevation showed asynchronous rate changes with the horizontal velocity variations, demonstrating a temporal disconnect between the processes of ice surface lowering and mechanisms of glacier movement. Our software, ‘Pointcatcher’, is freely available for user-friendly interactive processing of general time-lapse sequences and includes Monte Carlo error analysis and uncertainty in projection onto DEM surfaces. It is particularly suited for analysis of challenging oblique glacial imagery, and we discuss good features to track, both for correction of camera motion and for deriving ice velocities.
Mineralogical and morphological properties of individual dust particles in ice cores from the Tibetan Plateau
Authors: WU GUANGJIAN , ZHANG XUELEI , ZHANG CHENGLONG , XU TIANLI 
Published: March 2016

ABSTRACTUsing a field emission scanning electron microscope and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (FESEM−EDS), individual insoluble dust particles in ice cores recovered from the northern (Dunde), western (Muztagata) and south-eastern (Palong-Zangbo) Tibetan Plateau were analysed in order to reveal the mineralogical and morphological characteristics of the analogue of long-range transported Asian dust. The results reveal that the dust particles are mainly composed of quartz (17–36%, number abundance), clay (37–48%) and feldspar (12–18%). Illite and chlorite are the dominant clay species, while kaolinite is rarely observed. For the three sites, regional differences in the mineral assemblages are significant, in particular the abundance of quartz, chlorite and muscovite species, reflecting the regional provenance of these dust particles and the climatic regime in their source areas. Oxide ratios in clays indicate different weathering strengths of the particles in their source regions, with a higher K2O/(SiO2 + Al2O3) in the western and northern Tibetan Plateau. The individual particles have modes of 1.48 and 1.53 in the aspect ratio and circularity distribution respectively. No significant relationship between aspect ratio and circularity was found. Quartz and feldspar particles have a narrow aspect ratio distribution. Muscovite particles have the coarsest grain size, while chlorite particles have the finest.
Metabolic syndrome in people with a psychotic illness: is cannabis protective?
Authors: Waterreus A. , Di Prinzio P. , Watts G. F. , Castle D. , Galletly C. , Morgan V. A. 
Published: March 2016

BackgroundRates of the metabolic syndrome in people with psychotic illness are high. Emerging evidence suggests that cannabis use may have a positive impact on cardiometabolic risk factors in the general population, but little is known about its impact for people with psychotic illness. Our aim was to investigate whether the rate of the metabolic syndrome in people with psychotic illness was associated with frequency of cannabis use.MethodThe 2010 Australian psychosis survey used a two-phase design to randomly select a nationally representative sample of 1825 adults with psychotic illness for interview and physical assessment. This study is based on 1813 participants who provided data on cannabis use. Multiple logistic regression was used to model the influence of frequency of cannabis use on the metabolic syndrome, adjusting for potential covariates including antipsychotic medication use, smoking, alcohol use and cognitive function.ResultsOne-third (33.0%) of participants had used cannabis in the past year. The proportion of non-users, occasional users and frequent users with the metabolic syndrome was 63.0, 51.7 and 43.5%, respectively (p< 0.001). In unadjusted analyses, both occasional use and frequent cannabis use were associated with significantly lower odds of the metabolic syndrome. In the adjusted analyses, the association between the metabolic syndrome and frequent cannabis use remained significant [odds ratio = 0.56, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.39–0.80], but not the association with occasional use (odds ratio = 0.75, 95% CI 0.49–1.13).ConclusionsWhile cannabis use may be detrimental for mental health, these data suggest that it may also have a cardiometabolic protective effect. Further investigation is required to understand the mechanism underlying this paradoxical finding.
Parents and their children's variable language: Is it acquisition or more?
Authors: HABIB RANIA 
Published: March 2016

AbstractThis study compares the use of the variable (q), which is realized as rural [q] and urban [ʔ], in the speech of twenty-two parents and their twenty-one children from the village of Oyoun Al-Wadi in Syria. The study shows that children acquire the general gendered linguistic pattern of the community but do not replicate the linguistic frequencies that exist in their immediate environment. Boys and girls exhibit different linguistic behavior. Boys deviate from the non-local caregivers' proportions and approach men's local linguistic behavior, although their local variant proportions remain lower; girls, even those with local mothers, approach the women's supralocal variant proportions. The study shows that sociolinguistic variation is not acquired from adults from a very early age; it is acquired later in life after accepting and ascertaining the gendered linguistic differences and appropriateness norms.
A LOGNORMAL MODEL FOR DEMAND FORECASTING IN THE NATIONAL ELECTRICITY MARKET
Authors: MAISANO J. , RADCHIK A. , LING T. 
Published: March 2016

Many electricity market participants have a requirement to calculate the probabilistic risk measures, such as earnings at risk (EaR) and value at risk (VaR), for compliance reporting purposes. This requirement is currently hindered by the lack of analytical representations for forecasts of demand (load) and price curves; this motivates numerical simulation and models that need extensive calibration. In this paper, we derive an analytical representation of a state demand forecast which is the aggregated usage of all electricity consumers in a particular region (such as New South Wales or Victoria). We have used two probabilistic benchmarks from the Australian energy market operator as input, which are expressed as forecasted probability of exceedance.Due to a number of considerations, including asymmetry of these quantiles with respect to the median, we have selected a series of truncated lognormal distributions with two parameters. The procedure of finding these parameters has been reduced to solving (for every half-hour) a single nonlinear equation. As a result, the two-year half-hourly forecast (expected curve) and demand volatility are found by explicit integration with the set of derived distributions. We have also tested an alternative method based on simplifying assumptions; using a nontruncated lognormal distribution, we found that under the test conditions this method produces an identical forward load and volatility curve.
Is Compliance the Name of the Effectiveness Game? Goal-Shifting and the Dynamics of Judicial Effectiveness at the WTO
Authors: AGON SIVAN SHLOMO 
Published: March 2016

AbstractIn line with current research on the effectiveness of international law and institutions, much of the literature on the effectiveness of the WTO dispute settlement system (DSS) has settled on compliance as its primary effectiveness benchmark. This article challenges this trend. It argues that common models gauging the DSS effectiveness through the narrow lens of compliance disregard many other institutional goals pursued by the system, and the conflicts latent among them. Furthermore, existing models are also static in nature—predicated on problematic assumptions regarding the constant supremacy of the DSS compliance objective—what leads them to overlook important shifts amidst the multiple and conflicting goals of the DSS that take place over time and across disputes. Building on the goal-based approach developed in the social sciences, the article introduces a multidimensional framework for analyzing the DSS effectiveness, using the multiple, conflicting and shifting goals set for the system by WTO Members as key effectiveness benchmarks. The article then turns to closely examine the novel concept of ‘goal-shifting’ – essential for effectiveness assessment – and through interview-based analysis of different categories of WTO disputes shows how the DSS goals change with time and context, as a consequence of the changing modalities in which the system operates.
Genetic variation in sorghum as revealed by phenotypic and SSR markers: implications for combining ability and heterosis for grain yield
Authors: Amelework Beyene , Shimelis Hussien , Laing Mark 
Published: March 2016

AbstractHybrid breeding relies on selection of genetically unrelated and complementary parents for key traits. The objective of this study was to examine genetic variation and identify unique sorghum genotypes using phenotypic and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers and to determine their relationships with combining ability and heterosis for grain yield. A total of 32 landraces and four cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) lines were phenotyped using 25 agro-morphological traits and genotyped with 30 polymorphic SSR markers. The landraces were crossed with four CMS lines using a line × tester mating design. The 128 hybrids, 36 parentals and four check varieties were field-evaluated using a 12 × 14 alpha lattice design with three replications. General combining ability (GCA), specific combining ability (SCA) and heterosis for grain yield were determined. Genetic distance estimates ranged from 0.39 to 0.60 and 0.50 to 0.79, based on phenotypic and SSR markers, respectively. Landraces 72572, 75454, 200654, 239175, 239208, 244735A and 242039B and CMS lines ICSA 743 and ICSA 756 displayed positive and significant GCA effects for grain yield. Based on the SCA effects of yield, lines were classified into three heterotic groups aligned to the different cytoplasmic systems of testers. Lines with high GCA effects rendered hybrids with highly significant SCA effects with high mid-parent heterosis (MPH) for grain yield. Both marker systems were effective in demarcating sorghum genotypes that provided desirable cross-combinations with high combining ability effects and MPH for grain yield. The selected genotypes are recommended as potential parents for sorghum hybrid breeding in moisture stress environments.
Lenalidomide treatment and prognostic markers in relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia: data from the prospective, multicenter phase-II CLL-009 trial
Authors: Bühler A , Wendtner C-M , Kipps T J , Rassenti L , Fraser G A M , Michallet A-S , Hillmen P , Dürig J , Gregory S A , Kalaycio M , Aurran-Schleinitz T , Trentin L , Gribben J G , Chanan-Khan A , Purse B , Zhang J , De Bedout S , Mei J , Hallek M , Stilgenbauer S 
Published: March 2016

AbstractEfficacy of lenalidomide was investigated in 103 patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) treated on the prospective, multicenter randomized phase-II CLL-009 trial. Interphase cytogenetic and mutational analyses identified TP53 mutations, unmutated IGHV, or del(17p) in 36/96 (37.5%), 68/88 (77.3%) or 22/92 (23.9%) patients. The overall response rate (ORR) was 40.4% (42/104). ORRs were similar irrespective of TP53 mutation (36.1% (13/36) vs 43.3% (26/60) for patients with vs without mutation) or IGHV mutation status (45.0% (9/20) vs 39.1% (27/68)); however, patients with del(17p) had lower ORRs than those without del(17p) (21.7% (5/22) vs 47.1% (33/70); P=0.049). No significant differences in progression-free survival and overall survival (OS) were observed when comparing subgroups defined by the presence or absence of high-risk genetic characteristics. In multivariate analyses, only multiple prior therapies (⩾3 lines) significantly impacted outcomes (median OS: 21.2 months vs not reached; P=0.019). This analysis indicates that lenalidomide is active in patients with relapsed/refractory CLL with unfavorable genetic profiles, including TP53 inactivation or unmutated IGHV. (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00963105).
IL-15-dependent balance between Foxp3 and RORγt expression impacts inflammatory bowel disease
Authors: Tosiek Milena J. , Fiette Laurence , El Daker Sary , Eberl Gérard , Freitas Antonio A. 
Published: March 2016

AbstractThe ability of CD4+ T cells to change their phenotype and to specialize into different functional subsets may enhance the risk of autoimmune diseases. Here we investigate how a pleiotropic cytokine interleukin (IL)-15 may modify the functional commitment of CD4+ T cells expressing the lineage-associated transcription factors: forkhead box P3 (Foxp3; Treg) and RORγt (Th17) in the context of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We demonstrate in mice that impaired delivery of IL-15 to CD4+ T cells in the colon downmodulates Foxp3 expression (diminishing STAT5 phosphorylation) and enhances RORγt expression (by upregulating the expression of Runx1). In consequence, CD4+ T cells deprived of IL-15 rapidly trigger IBD characterized by enhanced production of pro-inflammatory cytokines (interferon-γ, IL-6) and accumulation of Th1/Th17 cells. Overall, our findings indicate a potentially beneficial role of IL-15 in IBD by fine-tuning the balance between Treg and Th17 cells and controlling intestinal inflammation.