bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction of Quaternary Sedimentation in Eastern Sri Lanka: An Ichnological Study
Authors: Adikaram Madurya , Pitawala Amarasooriya , Ishiga Hiroaki , Jayawardhana Daham 
Published: January 2017

ABSTRACT
Quaternary sediment deposits are well exposed along the eastern coastal margin of Sri Lanka. Systematic trace fossil studies along with sediment characteristics have been carried out for the first time to interpret the paleoenvironment that prevailed during Quaternary sedimentation in eastern Sri Lanka. The trace fossils Thalassinoides, Skolithos and Polykladichnus have been recognized about 5m above the present mean sea level. Features of the major trace fossil, Thalassinoides, indicate that it was formed by Thalassinidean shrimp Calianassa. Isolated, vertical to steeply inclined, cylindrical to sub cylindrical tubes with thin internal wall lining and inner wall striations of Skolithos and Polykladichnus show that they were formed by polychaetes. The typical characteristic of Polykladichnus is Y-shaped branching with slight enlargement at junctions. Morphology and association of burrows as well as mineralogy, grain size and roundness of sediments indicate that the environment prevailed was marine soft grounds of the intertidal zone. Presence of preserved fine-scale features of burrows indicate that the bioturbated sandy tidal flat was suddenly exposed to the tropical environment due to sea level regression in Quaternary periods. Due to the microbial activities of wall linings, burrows were preserved and it was supported by other microbial activities that produced secondary iron bearing minerals that suffered subsequent oxidation. The bio-origination of red sediments of eastern coastal area of the present study can be used to interpret the debatable origin of the red beds found in northwestern and southeastern coastal areas of the island.
Controlled Blasting in a Limestone Mine using Electronic Detonators: A Case Study
Authors: Mishra Arvind K. , Nigam Y. K. , Singh Deepanshu R. 
Published: January 2017

ABSTRACT
Except for very deep-seated deposits, open cast mining method has been recognized as the safest and most productive mode for mining minerals. Ever growing demand in minerals and coal has compelled the mine operators to increase the size of mine, which has resulted in an increasing trend towards large capacity open cast projects. Explosives and blasting techniques play a significant role in efficient opencast mining operations. There have been constant technological developments towards safer, faster, economical and more efficient blasting systems. Further, globally increased competitiveness has necessitated to carryout blasts in such a way that the desired degree of fragmentation is achieved in the primary blast, with minimum undesired side effects such as ground vibration, air blast/noise, flyrock, generation of oversize boulders, formation of toe, and over break or back break. Hence, the ultimate objective of the blasting engineer is to ensure that the blasts are carried out in an eco-friendly manner. This paper presents a case study of limestone mine where a controlled blasting was conducted near a green structure of wagon tippler (at 2 m) being constructed for foundation work of belt conveyor as the mine management wants to double the existing production. This paper deals with controlled blast design and its implementation using electronic detonators with signature hole technique.
Age-related pharmacotherapy of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in Slovenia in children and adolescents: A population-based study
Authors: Stuhec M. , Locatelli I. 
Published: January 2017

AbstractBackgroundThere are no data on age-related pharmacotherapy for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) medication in children and adolescents in the most European countries. The main aim of this paper was to obtain that data for children and adolescents in Slovenia.MethodThe number of ADHD drug prescriptions per patient was obtained from the health claims data on prescription drugs of the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia for the study period (2003–2015). Three age groups were analyzed: 2–5 years, 6–12 years, and 13–17 years. Only immediate-release methylphenidate (IR-MPH), methylphenidate-osmotic release oral delivery system (OROS-MPH), and atomoxetine (ATX) were available and included in this study.ResultsLess than 50% of patients in Slovenia were treated with medication. The number of patients treated with MPH in the 6–12 age group remained approximately the same between 2007 and 2015 (604–729 patients). In the 13–17 age group, however that number increased 2-fold between 2003 and 2015, from 288 to 555. The number of patients treated with ATX in the 6–12 age group age group increased from 20 to 163 between 2007 and 2015. The number was similar in the 13–17 age group, increasing from 10 to 165 in the same period. In 2015, 21% of the patients from all age groups in this study were treated with ATX.ConclusionsThe number of patients treated for ADHD increased rapidly in all age groups. Patients under the age of six are prescribed medication in Slovenia, which should be avoided.
Missing link in competitive manufacturing research and practice: Customer‐responsive concurrent production
Authors: Schonberger Richard J. , Brown Karen A. 
Published: January 2017

AbstractManufacturing management, in its evolving theory, research, and practice, is plagued by mindsets that are narrowly focused on factory efficiency, with insufficient emphasis on customer responsiveness and its dominant role in competitiveness. In our presentation of these issues we describe and advocate customer‐oriented manufacturing practices, in the realm of factory infrastructure. This approach, which we call concurrent production or CP, involves configuring, equipping, and operating factories with a primary focus on synchronization with customer demand. We call on OM researchers to consider these topics in furthering the cause of market competitiveness.
Hegel’sOffene: Apperception, Absolution and the Absolute
Authors: Wretzel Joshua 
Published: January 2017

AbstractThis paper offers a limited defence of two seemingly disparate interpretive approaches to free thought in Hegel’s JenaPhenomenology of Spirit. On the one hand, I defend the view of so-called post-Kantian Hegelians, that Kant’s synthetic unity of apperception is central to Hegel’s account of free thinking in thePhenomenology. On the other hand, I argue that the notions ofdas Offenein Heidegger’sVom Wesen der WahrheitandAb-Lösungin his 1930/31 lectures on Hegel’sPhenomenologyare no less crucial to an understanding of free thought in Hegel’s work. I show that absolution is a condition for the possibility ofdas Offene, which is a condition for the possibility of apperception in its reflexive capacity.
Dispersion Study of Propagation of Torsional Surface Wave in a Layered Structure
Authors: Gupta S. , Bhengra N. 
Published: January 2017

AbstractThis paper presents the feasibility of torsional surface wave propagation in an anisotropic layer sandwiched between two anisotropic inhomogeneous media. The anisotropy considered in the upper layer and the lower half-space is of transversely isotropic kind while the sandwiched anisotropic layer is a porous layer. The directional rigidities and density have been considered linearly and exponentially varying in the half-space and in the upper layer respectively, while it is taken as a variable in the sandwiched layer. The compact form of dispersion equation governing the propagation of the torsional surface wave has been derived by using the Whittaker function under appropriate boundary conditions. The dispersion of the torsional wave and the effects of inhomogeneity parameters, initial stress and poroelastic constant have been calculated numerically and demonstrated through graphs.
Shear Lag and Related Parameter Impact Researches for Twin-Cell Composite Box Beam Under Concentrated Loads
Authors: Yu J. , Hu S. W. , Zhang Z. G. , Wei C. J. 
Published: January 2017

AbstractAn analytical solution is launched for Twin-cell Composite Box Beam (TCCBB) considering the impact of shear lag effects of concrete slab and twin-cell steel girder. To in-depth explore its mechanical mechanism, a new warping displacement mode of wide flange is chosen to meet the essential deformation feature of this TCCBB model by authors. Combining the virtual work principle with the thin-walled beam theory, its governing equations and boundary conditions are established for the TCCBB model. Closed form solutions for longitudinal strain and its shear lag coefficients are also derived under concentrated loads. What's more, experiment investigation and related parameter impact analysis are carried out for this established TCCBB model. Through this research, it shows that the proposed method can be applied to describe and predict shear lag behaviors for this type of composite structure. That further suggests that it provides a certain reference value for engineering design and its late reinforcement and maintenance in the composite structure.
How Did the West Usurp the Rest? Origins of the Great Divergence over theLongue Durée
Authors: Anievas Alexander , Nişancioğlu Kerem 
Published: January 2017

AbstractTraditional explanations of the “rise of the West” have located the sources of Western supremacy in structural or long-term developmental factors internal to Europe. By contrast, revisionist accounts have emphasized the conjunctural and contingent aspects of Europe's ascendancy, while highlighting intersocietal conditions that shaped this trajectory to global dominance. While sharing the revisionist focus on the non-Western sources of European development, we challenge their conjunctural explanation, which denies differences between “West” and “East” and within Europe. We do so by deploying the idea of uneven and combined development (UCD), which redresses the shortcomings found on both sides of the debate: the traditional Eurocentric focus on the structural and immanent characteristics of European development and the revisionists’ emphasis on contingency and the homogeneity of Eurasian societies. UCD resolves these problems by integrating structural and contingent factors into a unified explanation: unevenness makes sense of the sociological differences that revisionists miss, while combination captures the aleatory processes of interactive and multilinear development overlooked by Eurocentric approaches. From this perspective, the article examines the sociologically generative interactions between European and Asian societies’ development over thelongue duréeand traces how the breakdown of feudalism and the rise of capitalism in Europe were fundamentally rooted in and conditioned by extra-European structures and agents. This then sets up our conjunctural analysis of a central yet underappreciated factor explaining Europe rise to global dominance: the disintegration of the Mughal Empire and Britain's colonization of India.
Insights into the velocity-dependent geometry and internal strain in accretionary wedges from analogue models
Authors: DENG BIN , JIANG LEI , ZHAO GAOPING , HUANG RUI , WANG YUANBO , LIU SHUGEN 
Published: January 2017

AbstractAlthough the brittle material in analogue models is characterized by a linear Navier-Coulomb behaviour and rate-independent deformation, the geometry and style of deformation in accretionary wedges is sensitive to shortening velocity. In this study we have constructed a series of analogue models with various shortening velocities in order to study the influence of shortening velocity on the geometry and kinematics of accretionary wedges. Model results illustrate how shortening velocity has an important influence on the geometry and kinematics of the resulting wedge. In general, for models having similar bulk shortening, the accretionary wedges with higher velocities of shortening are roughly steeper, higher and longer, as well as having larger critical wedge angles and height. It accommodates a number of foreland-vergent thrusts, larger fault spacing and displacement rates than those of low- to medium-velocity shortening, which indicates a weak velocity-dependence in geometry of the wedge. Moreover, models with a high velocity of shortening undergo larger amounts of volumetric strain and total layer-parallel shortening than models with low- to medium-velocity shortening. The former accommodate a greater development of back thrusts and asymmetric structures; a backwards-to-forwards style of wedge growth therefore occurs in the frontal zone under high-velocity shortening.
Earth’s changing global atmospheric energy cycle in response to climate change
Authors: Pan Yefeng , Li Liming , Jiang Xun , Li Gan , Zhang Wentao , Wang Xinyue , Ingersoll Andrew P. 
Published: January 2017

AbstractThe Lorenz energy cycle is widely used to investigate atmospheres and climates on planets. However, the long-term temporal variations of such an energy cycle have not yet been explored. Here we use three independent meteorological data sets from the modern satellite era, to examine the temporal characteristics of the Lorenz energy cycle of Earth’s global atmosphere in response to climate change. The total mechanical energy of the global atmosphere basically remains constant with time, but the global-average eddy energies show significant positive trends. The spatial investigations suggest that these positive trends are concentrated in the Southern Hemisphere. Significant positive trends are also found in the conversion, generation and dissipation rates of energies. The positive trends in the dissipation rates of kinetic energies suggest that the efficiency of the global atmosphere as a heat engine increased during the modern satellite era.
Differential expression of microRNAs during fiber development between fuzzless-lintless mutant and its wild-type allotetraploid cotton
Authors: Sun Runrun , Li Chengqi , Zhang Jinbao , Li Fei , Ma Liang , Tan Yangguang , Wang Qinglian , Zhang Baohong 
Published: January 2017

AbstractCotton is one of the most important textile crops but little is known how microRNAs regulate cotton fiber development. Using a well-studied cotton fiberless mutant Xu-142-fl, we compared 54 miRNAs for their expression between fiberless mutant and its wildtype. In wildtype Xu-142, 26 miRNAs are involved in cotton fiber initiation and 48 miRNAs are related to primary wall synthesis and secondary wall thickening. Thirty three miRNAs showed different expression in fiber initiation between Xu-142 and Xu-142-fl. These miRNAs potentially target 723 protein-coding genes, including transcription factors, such as MYB, ARF, and LRR. ARF18 was newly predicted targets of miR160a, and miR160a was expressed at higher level in −2DPA of Xu-142-fl compared with Xu-142. Furthermore, the result of Gene Ontology-based term classification (GO), EuKaryotic Orthologous Groups (KOG) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis shows that miRNA targets were classified to 222 biological processes, 64 cellular component and 42 molecular functions, enriched in 22 KOG groups, and classified into 28 pathways. Together, our study provides evidence for better understanding of miRNA regulatory roles in the process of fiber development, which is helpful to increase fiber yield and improve fiber quality.
Selection of suitable reference genes for quantitative real-time PCR gene expression analysis in Salix matsudana under different abiotic stresses
Authors: Zhang Yunxing , Han Xiaojiao , Chen Shuangshuang , Zheng Liu , He Xuelian , Liu Mingying , Qiao Guirong , Wang Yang , Zhuo Renying 
Published: January 2017

AbstractSalix matsudanais a deciduous, rapidly growing willow species commonly cultivated in China, which can tolerate drought, salt, and heavy metal stress conditions. Selection of suitable reference genes for quantitative real-time PCR is important for normalizing the expression of the key genes associated with various stresses. To validate suitable reference genes, we selected 11 candidate reference genes (five traditional housekeeping genes and six novel genes) and analyzed their expression stability in various samples, including different tissues and under different abiotic stress treatments. The expression of these genes was determined using five programs—geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper, ΔCt, and RefFinder. The results showed thatα-TUB2(alpha-tubulin 2) andDnaJ(chaperone protein DnaJ 49) were the most stable reference genes across all the tested samples. We measured the expression profiles of the defense response geneSmCAT(catalase) using the two most stable and one least stable reference genes in all samples ofS. matsudana. The relative quantification ofSmCATvaried greatly according to the different reference genes. We propose thatα-TUB2andDnaJshould be the preferred reference genes for normalization and quantification of transcript levels in future gene expression studies in willow species under various abiotic stress conditions.
Intracellular degradation of functionalized carbon nanotube/iron oxide hybrids is modulated by iron via Nrf2 pathway
Authors: Elgrabli Dan , Dachraoui Walid , Marmier Hélène de , Ménard-Moyon Cécilia , Bégin Dominique , Bégin-Colin Sylvie , Bianco Alberto , Alloyeau Damien , Gazeau Florence 
Published: January 2017

AbstractThe in vivo fate and biodegradability of carbon nanotubes is still a matter of debate despite tremendous applications. In this paper we describe a molecular pathway by which macrophages degrade functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) designed for biomedical applications and containing, or not, iron oxide nanoparticles in their inner cavity. Electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy show that intracellularly-induced structural damages appear more rapidly for iron-free CNTs in comparison to iron-loaded ones, suggesting a role of iron in the degradation mechanism. By comparing the molecular responses of macrophages derived from THP1 monocytes to both types of CNTs, we highlight a molecular mechanism regulated by Nrf2/Bach1 signaling pathways to induce CNT degradation via NOX2 complex activation and O2•−, H2O2 and OH• production. CNT exposure activates an oxidative stress-dependent production of iron via Nrf2 nuclear translocation, Ferritin H and Heme oxygenase 1 translation. Conversely, Bach1 was translocated to the nucleus of cells exposed to iron-loaded CNTs to recycle embedded iron. Our results provide new information on the role of oxidative stress, iron metabolism and Nrf2-mediated host defence for regulating CNT fate in macrophages.
Listeners can extract meaning from non-linguistic infant vocalisations cross-culturally
Authors: Kersken Verena , Zuberbühler Klaus , Gomez Juan-Carlos 
Published: January 2017

AbstractWe present empirical evidence showing that the acoustic properties of non-linguistic vocalisations produced by human infants in different cultures can be used cross-culturally by listeners to make inferences about the infant’s current behaviour. We recorded natural infant vocalisations in Scotland and Uganda in five social contexts; declarative pointing, giving an object, requesting an action, protesting, and requesting food. Using a playback paradigm, we tested parents and non-parents, who either had regular or no experience with young children, from Scotland and Uganda in their ability to match infant vocalisations of both cultures to their respective production contexts. All participants performed above chance, regardless of prior experience with infants or cultural background, with only minor differences between participant groups. Results suggest that acoustic variations in non-linguistic infant vocalisations transmit broad classes of information to listeners, even in the absence of additional cues from gesture or context, and that these cues may reflect universal properties similar to the ‘referential’ information discovered in non-human primate vocalisations.
Decoding the role of the nuclear receptor SHP in regulating hepatic stellate cells and liver fibrogenesis
Authors: Cipriani Sabrina , Carino Adriana , Masullo Dario , Zampella Angela , Distrutti Eleonora , Fiorucci Stefano 
Published: January 2017

AbstractThe small heterodimer partner (SHP) is an orphan nuclear receptor that lacks the DNA binding domain while conserves a putative ligand-binding site, thought that endogenous ligands for this receptor are unknown. Previous studies have determined that SHP activation protects against development of liver fibrosis a process driven by trans-differentiation and activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), a miofibroblast like cell type, involved in extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition. To dissect signals involved in this activity we generated SHP-overexpressing human and rat HSCs. Forced expression of SHP in HSC-T6 altered the expression of 574 genes. By pathway and functional enrichment analyses we detected a cluster of 46 differentially expressed genes involved in HSCs trans-differentiation. Using a isoxazole scaffold we designed and synthesized a series of SHP agonists. The most potent member of this group, ISO-COOH (EC50: 9 μM), attenuated HSCs trans-differentiation and ECM deposition in vitro, while in mice rendered cirrhotic by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) or α-naphthyl-isothiocyanate (ANIT), protected against development of liver fibrosis as measured by morphometric analysis and expression of α-SMA and α1-collagen mRNAs. In aggregate, present results identify SHP as a counter-regulatory signal for HSCs transactivation and describe a novel class of SHP agonists endowed with anti-fibrotic activity.
Comparative molecular dynamics studies of heterozygous open reading frames of DNA polymerase eta (η) in pathogenic yeast Candida albicans
Authors: Satpati Suresh , Manohar Kodavati , Acharya Narottam , Dixit Anshuman 
Published: January 2017

AbstractGenomic instability in Candida albicans is believed to play a crucial role in fungal pathogenesis. DNA polymerases contribute significantly to stability of any genome. Although Candida Genome database predicts presence of S. cerevisiae DNA polymerase orthologs; functional and structural characterizations of Candida DNA polymerases are still unexplored. DNA polymerase eta (Polη) is unique as it promotes efficient bypass of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers. Interestingly, C. albicans is heterozygous in carrying two Polη genes and the nucleotide substitutions were found only in the ORFs. As allelic differences often result in functional differences of the encoded proteins, comparative analyses of structural models and molecular dynamic simulations were performed to characterize these orthologs of DNA Polη. Overall structures of both the ORFs remain conserved except subtle differences in the palm and PAD domains. The complementation analysis showed that both the ORFs equally suppressed UV sensitivity of yeast rad30 deletion strain. Our study has predicted two novel molecular interactions, a highly conserved molecular tetrad of salt bridges and a series of π–π interactions spanning from thumb to PAD. This study suggests these ORFs as the homologues of yeast Polη, and due to its heterogeneity in C. albicans they may play a significant role in pathogenicity.