bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
IMPERFECT COMPETITION IN CHINA'S IMPORT MARKET OF ROUNDWOOD AND LUMBER PRODUCTS
Authors: SUN CHANGYOU , ZHOU XIAOPING 
Published: January 2018

AbstractChina has become the largest importer of roundwood and lumber products in recent years. In this study, the degree of competition among major supplying countries in China's import market is measured through the inverse residual demand elasticity over 1995–2015. Time-series properties of the data are considered through the autoregressive distributed lag model. The analysis reveals that market power exists in roundwood and lumber markets for a few supplying countries. The suppliers in the lumber import market have more market power than those in the roundwood market. Individual countries with substantial market power have more fluctuations in trading volumes.
The structure of business preferences and Eurozone crisis policies
Authors: Albertos José Fernández , Kuo Alexander 
Published: January 2018

AbstractWhat explains business views regarding policy preferences in the Eurozone crisis? Although recent literature examines the impact of the crisis on citizen views, few studies examine business preferences towards adjustment policies. We present unique data from a new representative survey of 500 high-level firm representatives from Spain to test theories about such preferences, in particular views about the euro, fiscal austerity, and wage devaluation, as well as plausible mechanisms for such preferences. We test three broad families of theories to explain such preferences, focusing on the role of structural firm characteristics, economic hardship, and political leanings of firm managers. We find that first, there is a strong conservative position regarding all of these policies. Second, we find that contra conventional approaches to explaining preferences, for the domestic policies (but not for euro views), the political leanings of firms matter much more than baseline structural characteristics. Third, we find that surprisingly economic hardship does not cause firms to demand more left-wing policies, as it might for voters; in fact, firms that have suffered are likely to be more skeptical of such measures. These findings indicate the need to better measure political orientations of firm respondents and suggest that this is a larger division among firms than previously recognized.
Pulmonary Embolism in Ischemic Stroke
Authors: Eswaradass Prasanna Venkatesan , Dey Sadanand , Singh Dilip , Hill Michael D. 
Published: January 2018

AbstractSilent pulmonary embolism (PE) may be associated with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). We identified 10 patients from 3,132 unique patients (3,431 CT scans). We retrospectively examined CT angiogram of patients with AIS to determine the frequency of concurrent PE in AIS. The period prevalence of PE was 0.32. Seven patients had concurrent PE, whereas three had PE diagnosed 2 days after their AIS presentation. We suspected paradoxical embolism via patent foramen ovale as the cause of stroke in three patients and thrombophilia in four patients. Seven patients had poor outcome including four deaths. CT angiogram stroke protocol images from aortic arch to vertex allows visualization of upper pulmonary arteries and PE detection in AIS.
Alcohols as Surface Disinfectants in Healthcare Settings
Authors: Boyce John M. 
Published: January 2018

Isopropyl alcohol and ethyl alcohol have been used as low-level disinfectants in healthcare settings for many years. Recent studies have found that ethyl alcohol inhibits protein synthesis in Escherichia coli by direct effects on ribosomes and RNA polymerase and that 60%–70% solutions have in vitro efficacy against murine norovirus, Ebola virus, and several coronaviruses. Alcohol prep pads or towelettes containing isopropyl or ethyl alcohol and water have been used primarily for disinfection of small noncritical items due to a concern regarding their rapid evaporation rates and associated short contact times. Sterile alcohol solutions are used mostly for disinfection of compounding pharmacies and controlled areas. One new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)–registered cleaner/disinfectant formulation differs from other alcohol-based disinfectants by virtue of having a 30-second contact time for multiple pathogens and a toxicity rating of category IV. Multiple disinfectants containing ethyl alcohol and/or isopropyl alcohol combined with other active agents such as quaternary ammonium or phenolic compounds are widely used for disinfecting environmental surfaces in healthcare facilities.Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2018;39:323–328
WITCHES, ODIN, AND THE ENGLISH STATE: THE LEGAL RECEPTION OF A COUNTER-CULTURAL MINORITY RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT
Authors: Wheeler G. J. 
Published: January 2018

AbstractThis article looks at the ways in which the legal system of a modern European jurisdiction has engaged with a counter-cultural minority religious movement. The jurisdiction in question is England and Wales, and the religious movement is revived modern Paganism. The article seeks to cast light on the question of what a post-Christian secular state does in practice when its commitment to pluralistic values encounters a group whose self-understanding challenges the norms of both Christianity and secularity. In more general terms, it allows us to look at how the law of England and Wales has attempted to move beyond its historic confessional Protestant premises; and how this attempt has not been without its anomalies and shortcomings.
Dispersion and Attenuation of Love-Type Waves Due to a Point Source in Magneto-Viscoelastic Layer
Authors: Alam P. , Kundu S. , Gupta S. 
Published: January 2018

AbstractThis paper intends to study the dispersion and attenuation characteristics of Love-type wave propagation due to a disturbance point source in a hydrostatic stressed magneto-viscoelastic layer, lying over a heterogeneous fibre-reinforced elastic half-space. The shear elastic moduli and mass density of half-space are the functions of depth and heterogeneity parameters. The coupled field equations are solved with the aid of Green's function technique and Fourier transform. The dispersion and damping equations have been obtained for the wave. The deduced equations coincide with the classical Love-wave condition for the uniform homogeneous isotropic structure. Numerical computations are carried out for involved parameters and demonstrated with the help of graphs. The effects of hydrostatic stress, magnetic coupling parameter, dissipation factor, attenuation coefficient, reinforcement parameters, heterogeneity parameters and order of the depth variation on the dispersion and damping curves are highlighted.
PLANNING CLONAL SELECTION PROGRAMMES FOR PERENNIAL CROPS
Authors: OWUSU-ANSAH FRANK , CURNOW ROBERT N. 
Published: January 2018

SUMMARYA formula is developed for calculating the expected gain when a first-order autoregressive repeated measures model for the plot errors is assumed. Using examples from our earlier papers, the similarities of the conclusions about the best selection programme from using simulation of an unstructured model and from using the autoregressive formula for expected gain are presented. The autoregressive formula is then used to derive optimal programmes when the number of plots or plot years is fixed for a range of values for the variance of the interactions of clone effects with years relative to the variance of the clone effects and for the variances and covariances between years of the plot residuals. In general, there are advantages in studying many clones at low replication rather than fewer clones at high replication.
ON SMOOTHNESS OF MINIMAL MODELS OF QUOTIENT SINGULARITIES BY FINITE SUBGROUPS OF SLn(ℂ)
Authors: YAMAGISHI RYO 
Published: January 2018

AbstractWe prove that a quotient singularity ℂn/G by a finite subgroup G ⊂ SLn(ℂ) has a crepant resolution only if G is generated by junior elements. This is a generalization of the result of Verbitsky (Asian J. Math.4(3) (2000), 553–563). We also give a procedure to compute the Cox ring of a minimal model of a given ℂn/G explicitly from information of G. As an application, we investigate the smoothness of minimal models of some quotient singularities. Together with work of Bellamy and Schedler, this completes the classification of symplectically imprimitive quotient singularities that admit projective symplectic resolutions.
WEAK CAYLEY TABLE GROUPS OF SOME CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC GROUPS
Authors: HUMPHRIES STEPHEN P. , PAULSEN REBECA A. 
Published: January 2018

AbstractFor a group G, a weak Cayley table isomorphism is a bijection f : G → G such that f(g1g2) is conjugate to f(g1)f(g2) for all g1, g2 ∈ G. The set of all weak Cayley table isomorphisms forms a group (G) that is the group of symmetries of the weak Cayley table of G. We determine (G) for each of the 17 wallpaper groups G, and for some other crystallographic groups.
VANISHING THEOREMS FOR HYPERSURFACES IN THE UNIT SPHERE
Authors: LIN HEZI 
Published: January 2018

AbstractLet Mn, n ≥ 3, be a complete hypersurface in $\mathbb{S}$n+1. When Mn is compact, we show that Mn is a homology sphere if the squared norm of its traceless second fundamental form is less than $\frac{2(n-1)}{n}$. When Mn is non-compact, we show that there are no non-trivial L2 harmonic p-forms, 1 ≤ p ≤ n − 1, on Mn under pointwise condition. We also show the non-existence of L2 harmonic 1-forms on Mn provided that Mn is minimal and $\frac{n-1}{n}$-stable. This implies that Mn has only one end. Finally, we prove that there exists an explicit positive constant C such that if the total curvature of Mn is less than C, then there are no non-trivial L2 harmonic p-forms on Mn for all 1 ≤ p ≤ n − 1.
FREE ACTION OF FINITE GROUPS ON SPACES OF COHOMOLOGY TYPE (0, b)
Authors: SINGH K. SOMORJIT , SINGH HEMANT KUMAR , SINGH TEJ BAHADUR 
Published: January 2018

AbstractLet G be a finite group acting freely on a finitistic space X having cohomology type (0, b) (for example, $\mathbb S$n × $\mathbb S$2n is a space of type (0, 1) and the one-point union $\mathbb S$n ∨ $\mathbb S$2n ∨ $\mathbb S$3n is a space of type (0, 0)). It is known that a finite group G that contains ℤp ⊕ ℤp ⊕ ℤp, p a prime, cannot act freely on $\mathbb S$n × $\mathbb S$2n. In this paper, we show that if a finite group G acts freely on a space of type (0, 1), where n is odd, then G cannot contain ℤp ⊕ ℤp, p an odd prime. For spaces of cohomology type (0, 0), we show that every p-subgroup of G is either cyclic or a generalized quaternion group. Moreover, for n even, it is shown that ℤ2 is the only group that can act freely on X.
GENERALIZED HARDY–CESÀRO OPERATORS BETWEEN WEIGHTED SPACES
Authors: PEDERSEN THOMAS VILS 
Published: January 2018

AbstractWe characterize those non-negative, measurable functions ψ on [0, 1] and positive, continuous functions ω1 and ω2 on ℝ+ for which the generalized Hardy–Cesàro operator
$$\begin{equation*}(U_{\psi}f)(x)=\int_0^1 f(tx)\psi(t)\,dt\end{equation*}$$

defines a bounded operator Uψ: L1(ω1) → L1(ω2) This generalizes a result of Xiao [7] to weighted spaces. Furthermore, we extend Uψ to a bounded operator on M(ω1) with range in L1(ω2) ⊕ ℂδ0, where M(ω1) is the weighted space of locally finite, complex Borel measures on ℝ+. Finally, we show that the zero operator is the only weakly compact generalized Hardy–Cesàro operator from L1(ω1) to L1(ω2).
Long-term efficacy of standardised specific subcutaneous immunotherapy in children with persistent allergic rhinitis due to multiple allergens including house dust mites
Authors: Song Y , Long J , Wang T , Xie J , Wang M , Tan G 
Published: January 2018

AbstractObjectives:To observe the five-year efficacy of standardised specific subcutaneous immunotherapy for house dust mite allergy in monosensitised and polysensitised children with persistent allergic rhinitis.Methods:From January 2007 to August 2009, 236 children with persistent allergic rhinitis were divided into 2 groups: 1 group received standardised specific subcutaneous immunotherapy using house dust mite extract; the other received pharmacotherapy with intranasal corticosteroids and oral antihistamines. A total of 193 patients (106 in the immunotherapy group and 87 in the pharmacotherapy group) completed treatment. Scores for symptoms, total medication and quality of life were evaluated.Results:The subcutaneous immunotherapy group demonstrated a significant reduction in visual analogue scale scores, Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire scores and total medication scores (p < 0.05) compared with the pharmacotherapy group. No significant differences in the visual analogue scale and Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire scores were found between the polysensitised and monosensitised subgroups (p > 0.05). No serious adverse events occurred.Conclusion:Standardised subcutaneous immunotherapy has long-term efficacy for children with persistent allergic rhinitis. Single-allergen subcutaneous immunotherapy was appropriate for allergic rhinitis caused by multiple allergens, including house dust mites, in the paediatric population.
Bees are supplementary pollinators of self-compatible chiropterophilous durian
Authors: Wayo Kanuengnit , Phankaew Chama , Stewart Alyssa B. , Bumrungsri Sara 
Published: January 2018

Abstract:Nocturnally foraging insects may be supplementary pollinators to chiropterophilous plant species when bats are scarce. Given that insects are much smaller than bats, they may be more effective at transferring pollen for plant species with similar stamen and pistil lengths, such as the ‘Monthong’ durian cultivar. The present study clarifies the role of insects in pollinating the ‘Monthong’ cultivar by examining the floral biology, conducting pollination treatments on 19 trees and observing floral visitors in southern Thailand. Stigmas were receptive by 17h00, and over 50% of ‘Monthong’ anthers had dehisced by 17h30. Several bee species began foraging on flowers during the late afternoon, and the giant honey bee (Apis dorsata) continued to visit throughout the night. Our results show that at 4 wk after pollination, the highest fruit set occurred from hand-crossed pollination (13.5%), followed by open pollination (5.5%), insect pollination (3.3%) and automatic autogamy (2.0%), indicating that this cultivar is highly self-incompatible. Moreover, insects appear to be important pollinators of ‘Monthong’ durian in areas where nectar bats visit infrequently. One bee species in particular,Apis dorsata, commonly foraged on flowers at dusk and appears to be the most effective insect pollinator of durian. Our findings highlight that nocturnally foraging bees are capable of securing pollination for night-blooming plant taxa, even those typically considered to be bat-pollinated.
Teaching Critical Understandings of Realism through Historical War Simulations
Authors: Mendenhall Elizabeth , Tutunji Tarek 
Published: January 2018

ABSTRACTThis article presents a simple modular simulation for teaching the advantages and limitations of Realist theory in an introductory international relations course. The advantages of this simulation include low preparation time, minimal resource requirements, and ease of integration with existing curricula. The game design is built around Kenneth Waltz’s “three-image” framework for analyzing international politics, in a way that increases scenario complexity but not game difficulty. The article describes the full simulation process, from game design and implementation through debriefing and assessment. Two historical simulations were conducted: the first helped students to understand Realism and the second helped them to see its limitations. The article concludes with a discussion of the results of a voluntary, anonymous postgame survey that is intended to assess achievement of our learning objective.
Language as Power: Literary Interpretations of the Qur'an in Early Islam
Authors: THAVER TEHSEEN 
Published: January 2018

AbstractHow did pre-modern Muslim exegetes view the mediating role of language in accessing the Qur'an's meaning? What conception of language undergirded their arguments? And what sources of normative authority informed their interpretive canvas? By pursuing this cluster of questions, this essay aims to sketch a picture of the relationship between language and revelation in pre-modern traditions of Qur'an exegesis. More specifically, I conduct a close reading of the Qur'an commentary authored by the prominent Twelver Shi‘i theologian, poet, and historian, al-Sharif al-Radi (d.1015ce). Al-Radi's commentary is a literary exegesis of the Qur'an; in it he presents his concern with ambiguity in the Qur'an and presents language as the hermeneutical key to resolving it. I argue that al-Radi's invocation of varied grammatical rules and his construction of literary arguments were embedded in a particular epistemological and theological conception of the normative relationship between language and revelation. Further, I also interrogate the historically specific conditions and the variety of intellectual currents and vectors (other than sectarian affiliation) that informed al-Radi's hermeneutical choices. By paying close attention to describing the multivalent interpretive traditions that informed al-Radi's Qur'an hermeneutic, this article highlights the conceptual problems attached to the very category of a “Shi‘i Qur'an hermeneutic,” a category that stands authorised through the unsound assumption that sectarian identity and hermeneutical horizons readily correspond in a predictable and seamless fashion. It is precisely this assumption of neat correspondence between sectarian identity and hermeneutical temperament that this essay seeks to challenge and disrupt.
Some notes on approaches to regulatory capital assessment for insurance firms
Authors: Turnbull C. 
Published: January 2018

AbstractThe intellectual climate around financial solvency regulation has changed markedly since the global financial crisis, especially with regard to the usefulness of market prices, the desirability of principle-based solvency assessment, the feasibility of a probabilistic approach to produce accurate capital estimates, and indeed whether solvency assessment should be risk-sensitive at all. This short paper provides some reflective notes on approaches to solvency capital assessment for insurance firms in this context.
Nepal’s Health Facility Operation and Management Committees: exploring community participation and influence in the Dang district’s primary care clinics
Authors: Gurung Gagan , Derrett Sarah , Hill Philip C. , Gauld Robin 
Published: January 2018

AimTo describe community representation in Nepal’s Health Facility Operation and Management Committees (HFMCs) and the degree of influence of community representatives in the HFMC decision-making processes.BackgroundCommunity participation has been recognised as one of the key components for the successful implementation of primary health care (PHC) strategies, following the 1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), HFMCs are now widely considered as a mechanism to increase community participation in health through community representation. There is some research examining the implementation process, impact and factors affecting the effectiveness of HFMCs. Despite the documented evidence of the importance of factors such as adequate representation, links with wider community, and decision-making power, there is limited evidence about the nature of community representation and degree of decision making within HFMCs in the PHC setting, particularly in LMICs.MethodsQualitative interviews with 39 key informants were held to explore different aspects of community representation in HFMCs, and the influence of the HFMC on health facility decision-making processes. In addition, a facility audit at 22 facilities and review of HFMC meeting minutes at six health facilities were conducted.FindingsThere were Dalit (a marginalised caste) and Janajati (an ethnic group) representations in 77% and 100% of the committees, respectively. Likewise, there were at least two female members in each committee. However, the HFMC member selection process and decision making within the committees were influenced by powerful elites. The degree of participation through HFMCs appeared to be at the ‘Manipulation’ and ‘Informing’ stage of Arnstein’s ladder of participation. In conclusion, despite representation of the community on HFMCs, the depth of participation seems low. There is a need to ensure a democratic selection process of committee members; and to expand the depth of participation.
Modeling and analysis of metamaterial lenses based on lumped circuits by using a wave concept iterative method
Authors: Elbellili Taieb , Azizi Mohamed Karim , Latrach Lassaad , Trabelsi Hichem , Baudrand Henri 
Published: January 2018

AbstractIn this paper, a developed theory of a novel approach of the wave concept iterative process (WCIP) method is presented. This method is well used to demonstrate many attractive properties of metamaterials and to analyze metamaterial-based negative refractive index lenses by easy and speedy computation of the electromagnetic field distribution. These metamaterial-based circuits are established by using periodicL–CandC–Lnetworks. The results of simulation using the proposed method are justified theoretically.
Design of compact frequency agile filter-antenna using reconfigurable ring resonator bandpass filter for future cognitive radios
Authors: Atallah Hany A. , Abdel-Rahman Adel B. , Yoshitomi Kuniaki , Pokharel Ramesh K. 
Published: January 2018

AbstractIn this paper, a new miniaturized frequency agile filter-antenna with a wide reconfigurable frequency band is proposed for interweave cognitive radios (CRs). A tunable bandpass filter (BPF) composed of a symmetrical ring resonator is cascaded to the feed line of an ultra-wideband planar antenna. The structure of the proposed ring resonator BPF is simple and compact so that the total size of the proposed filter-antenna is smaller than that of a conventional system made of a separate antenna and BPF. The reconfigurability of the proposed filter-antenna is achieved by changing the operating frequency of the BPF by loading the ring resonator with a single varactor diode at its center. The fabricated prototype has successfully achieved a wide operational bandwidth of 1.43 GHz which covers continuous narrow bands from 4.65 to 6.08 GHz. Moreover, the operating tunable narrow bands have stable radiation characteristics. Good agreement between measurement and simulation results is demonstrated.
Metabolomics profiling reveals differential adaptation of major energy metabolism pathways associated with autophagy upon oxygen and glucose reduction
Authors: Weckmann Katja , Diefenthäler Philip , Baeken Marius W. , Yusifli Kamran , Turck Christoph W. , Asara John M. , Behl Christian , Hajieva Parvana 
Published: January 2018

AbstractThe ability of cells to rearrange their metabolism plays an important role in compensating the energy shortage and may provide cell survival. Our study focuses on identifing the important adaptational changes under the conditions of oxygen and glucose reduction. Employing mass spectrometry-based metabolomics in combination with biochemistry and microscopy techniques we identified metabolites, proteins and biomolecular pathways alterations in primary human IMR90 fibroblasts upon energy deficits. Multivariate statistical analyses revealed significant treatment-specific metabolite level and ratio alterations as well as major energy metabolism pathways like ‘glycolysis’, ‘pentose phosphate pathway’, ‘mitochondrial electron transport chain’ and ‘protein biosynthesis (amino acids)’ indicating an activation of catabolism and reduction of anabolism as important mechanisms of adaptation towards a bioenergetic demand. A treatment-specific induction of the autophagic and mitophagic degradation activity upon oxygen reduction, glucose reduction as well as oxygen-glucose reduction further supports our results. Therefore, we suggest that the observed alterations represent an adaptive response in order to compensate for the cells’ bioenergetics needs that ultimately provide cell survival.