bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Models of sustainable agriculture and their implementation in Nigeria: the role of Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Authors: Kwaghe A. V. , Vakuru C. T. , Ndahi M. D. 
Published: January 2018

Abstract
Over the past five decades in Nigeria, the country's economy has dwindled due to poor adherence to agricultural policies, models and inconsistency to the approach that will lead to desirable and sustained agricultural growth. Meanwhile, the picture of budgetary allocations and actual expenditures for the period covered showed that though the government put up ambitious policies, their financial commitment and considerations have been inadequate. Diversified and focused changes have to be implemented in all ramifications in order to attain and sustain a suitable agricultural sphere. Hence, there is the need to renew models and policies on the ground to suit the current situation. Agricultural models are the blueprints for attaining sustainability in agriculture. However, these models should be flexible enough to incorporate changes (modification) where the need arises, in the course of implementation, monitoring or evaluating the outcome in a designated intervention. Most of the models discussed in this study are designed or modified to suit Nigeria or African continent at large, since our agricultural system is still in the developmental state, which makes them suitable for adoption. Basically, one of the main hurdles that will be encountered is resistance to change. The role of Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is crucial in attaining a sustainable agricultural system which is categorically stated in this study.
Intensification and semi-intensification of tef production in Ethiopia: applications of the System of Crop Intensification.
Authors: Berhe T. , Gebretsadik Z. , Uphoff N. 
Published: January 2018

Abstract

Future strategies for sustainable food security will need to get greater productivity from available land, labour, water and other resources, producing more food, as much as possible, with reduced inputs. The System of Crop Intensification (SCI) which emerged from an agroecological production strategy developed for rice in Madagascar in the 1980s has shown promise in various countries for raising the yields of diverse crops with less reliance on purchased external inputs, using less seed and needing less water because of enhanced root growth and soil improvement. Here we review the adaptation and application of SCI principles to increasing the production and availability of Ethiopia's most important indigenous grain crop, tef. National production of this staple food, which is essential for the country's food security and is also nutritionally very beneficial, has increased in recent years since the government started supporting extension of new crop management methods after the supply of and demand for tef had become quite imbalanced. Contributing to this increase are modifications of the tef cropping system: the System of Tef Intensification (STI), which is one of many SCI derivations, and a less-intensified version designated as TIRR (
Tef
with
I
mproved seed,
R
educed seed rate, and
R
ow planting). STI, which is based on transplanting tef seedlings rather than broadcasting tef seed, requires considerably more labour than farmers' current methods, and weather conditions must be conducive. However, the greater production from STI practices can more than repay the investment of additional labour if farmers are willing and able to make such expenditure, and if the timing of rains permits. TIRR is a less labour-demanding methodology based on drilling tef seed in rows with wide spacing. It is now being promoted by the government to raise national tef production. While it does not improve yield as much as STI does, it is easier for Ethiopian farmers to adopt. Both STI and TIRR modifications capitalize more effectively on the limited resources available to smallholding households which produce tef as their main staple crop for sustenance and for sale. TIRR includes the promotion of improved varieties of tef, while STI has shown improved yield with practically all varieties. These crop management methods draw on existing potentials within tef plants and in the soil systems where these plants grow.
Food-derived regulatory factors against obesity and metabolic syndrome
Authors: Kawada Teruo 
Published: January 2018

Abstract
Obesity is a key factor in metabolic syndrome. The study of metabolic syndrome focuses on the anti-weight gain properties of physiological mechanisms and food components. Abnormal energy metabolism is a major risk factor of metabolic syndrome. Chronic inflammation is a feature of obesity; cytokines from hypertrophied adipocytes cause inflammation in both adipose tissue and blood vessels, resulting in symptoms of metabolic syndrome. Tumor necrosis factor-α causes insulin resistance in adipocytes and regression of brown adipocytes, resulting in abnormal energy metabolism. Functional foods can serve as a strategy for prevention and treatment of obesity linked with metabolic processes in white and brown adipose tissues. Diet-induced thermogenesis caused by certain food components stimulates burning of stored fat within adipose tissues. A mechanistic understanding of dietary thermogenesis via the sympathetic nerve system will prove valuable for the development of precise strategies for the practical prevention of metabolic syndrome.
Dynamic viscoelasticity of protease-treated rice batters for gluten-free rice bread making
Authors: Honda Yuji , Inoue Nanami , Sugimoto Reina , Matsumoto Kenji , Koda Tomonori , Nishioka Akihiro 
Published: January 2018

Abstract
Papain (cysteine protease), subtilisin (Protin SD-AY10, serine protease), and bacillolysin (Protin SD-NY10, metallo protease) increased the specific volume of gluten-free rice breads by 19–63% compared to untreated bread. In contrast, Newlase F (aspartyl protease) did not expand the volume of the rice bread. In a rheological analysis, the viscoelastic properties of the gluten-free rice batters also depended on the protease categories. Principal component analysis (PCA) analysis suggested that the storage and loss moduli (G′ and G″, respectively) at 35 °C, and the maximum values of G′ and G″, were important factors in the volume expansion. Judging from the PCA of the viscoelastic parameters of the rice batters, papain and Protin SD-AY10 improved the viscoelasticity for gluten-free rice bread making, and Protin SD-NY effectively expanded the gluten-free rice bread. The rheological properties differed between Protin SD-NY and the other protease treatments.
The Role of Metaforces in Cultural Motion
Authors: Urban Greg 
Published: January 2018

AbstractExploring interactions among the forces (inertia, entropy, interest, and metaculture) that affect the motion of culture generally, this article focuses on metapragmatic indexicals as well as denotationally explicit metapragmatic signs, whose effects Silverstein dubbed “metaforce.” Pitch raising, as a metapragmatic indexical employed in narration, builds excitement in relationship to an unfolding stretch of mythic discourse, thereby contributing to the interest in that discourse that also impels its future replication. The interest in learning something new that drives the processes of replication underlying ordinary conversation can be aided by questions, as explicit metapragmatic formulations projecting the discourse shape of the desired response, just as explicit metapragmatic statements can be used to block expected replication processes in the flow of conversation, exerting a resistance. Interest can also be channeled from one discursive arena (such as wine talk) to another (such as coffee talk) through the process Silverstein calls “emanation,” based on similarities in the discourse form and content, a kind of metapragmatic iconicity. The article concludes by suggesting that similar processes are at work in disciplinary arenas, where Silverstein’s term “metapragmatics” itself has come to shape the entire field of linguistic anthropology and to be widely replicated elsewhere.
Indexicality’s Ambivalent Ground
Authors: Nakassis Constantine V. 
Published: January 2018

AbstractThrough its theorization and elaboration in the path-breaking work of Michael Silverstein, indexicality has served as a foundational analytic category for linguistic anthropology, both in its ethnographic analyses as well as in its theoretical interventions into key issues in the philosophy of language, linguistics, and sociocultural anthropology. The working out of indexicality’s implications for the study of semiosis—and more particularly, language in culture—has and continues to produce a vital and dynamic theoretical field of scholarly activity. This vitality, I argue, emerges from a foundational ambivalence within the category of indexicality: between, on the one hand, immediacy and presence and, on the other hand, mediation and representation. Productively unresolved, this ambivalence is less a problem than an opportunity and invitation for further ethnographic and analytic refinement of our accounts of (meta)semiosis and social life. A reflexive and deconstructive turn to indexicality’s ambivalent ground, then, is implied and necessitated by the category itself, though this in no way obviates its utility for semiotic and ethnographic theory and analysis; indeed, as I argue, such a turn is critical to indexicality’s ongoing utility to both.
Indexical Disorders and Ritual (De)Centers of Semiosis
Authors: Briggs Charles L. 
Published: January 2018

AbstractFocusing on Michael Silverstein’s account of relationships between “microcontexts of interaction” and the “macrosociological,” this article takes up his suggestion that news reporting provides particularly clear examples of such links. Examining a mundane ABC World News report on changing recommendations for vitamin intake, it analyzes how leading physician-journalist Richard Besser constructs a ritual center of medical semiosis, projects it as inaccessible to laypersons, and models a circulatory process that requires highly constrained forms of communication. Ethnography in newsrooms, clinical spaces, public health offices, and elsewhere suggests how notions of (1) a ritual center that produces medical knowledge, (2) a primordial space of doctor-patient interaction that affords limited, highly regulated access to laypersons, and (3) what are construed as processes of communication require the continual making of communicable models that attempt to separate projected first and second indexical orders and, just as importantly, generate indexical disorders that create anxiety and seem to require assistance from physician-journalist guides.
On the Pragmatic Poetry of Pose: Gesture, Parallelism, Politics
Authors: Lempert Michael 
Published: January 2018

AbstractPoetics matters in gestural pragmatics. The recurrent returns of cospeech manual gesture, which appear as “repetitions” and “parallelisms” of handshape and movement pattern, deserve close attention for their pragmatic potential. To appreciate how poetically dimensionalized gestures can contribute to everything from cohesion to speech-act performativity, we need a turn akin to what Michael Silverstein once called a “pragmatic-poetic turn” for discursive interaction. In domains of sociocultural life where persuasion is self-consciously instrumentalized, the poetics of manual gesture can assume additional significance. In the mass mediatized debates and speeches of presidential campaign politics, poetically dimensionalized manual gesture is not only pronounced but has become a basis for enregisterment, for constituting political gesture as a distinct mode of persuasive, embodied communication: the “political” in political gesture is constituted in part by a reflexive, aesthetico-pragmatic sourcing of poetics as a (if not the) measure of rhetorical “effectiveness” and “eloquence.”
Spatial and Temporal Variation in the Value of the Women, Infants, and Children Program's Fruit and Vegetable Voucher
Authors: Çakır Metin , Beatty Timothy K.M. , Boland Michael A. , Park Timothy A. , Snyder Samantha , Wang Yanghao 
Published: January 2018

AbstractIncreasing the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables among children and low‐income households is a public health policy priority in the United States. We investigate temporal and spatial price patterns for fresh fruits and vegetables to evaluate the extent to which the value of the fruit and vegetable Cash‐Value‐Voucher (CVV) of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) may be affected by unequal price levels and changes in price levels across the United States. Our findings show that price differences over space and time have real and consequential impacts on the purchasing power of the CVV. A WIC Program participant in the highest‐cost Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) can buy significantly fewer fruits and vegetables than a participant who receives the same benefit in the lowest‐cost MSA. Further, we find that the value of the CVV has substantially declined across all MSAs since 2009. We discuss the nutritional implications of the variation in the value of the CVV and evaluate potential mechanisms that could be implemented to maintain equal CVV benefits across time and space.
Measuring Potential Rents in the North Sea Herring Fishery
Authors: Arnason Ragnar , Bjørndal Trond , Gordon Daniel V. , Bezabih Mintewab 
Published: January 2018

AbstractThis paper assesses the potential for rent generation in the North Sea herring fishery. The assessment distinguishes between rents and intra‐marginal profits—the sum of which constitutes variable profits in the fishery. A bioeconomic model combining fish population dynamics and the economics of the fishery is constructed to allow the computation of these different components of profits. In order to assess the dynamics of both rents and intra‐marginal profits, the model is computed under various assumptions with regard to price, costs, and discount rates. Potential total profits are measured at £88 to £89 million annually, of which rents make up about £87 million with intra‐marginal profits measured in the order of only £2 million. The study further shows that, in this fishery, rent is dissipated mainly due to excess effort but also due to suboptimal stock size.
TOXsIgN: a cross-species repository for toxicogenomic signatures
Authors: Darde Thomas A , Gaudriault Pierre , Beranger Rémi , Lancien Clément , Caillarec-Joly Annaëlle , Sallou Olivier , Bonvallot Nathalie , Chevrier Cécile , Mazaud-Guittot Séverine , Jégou Bernard , Collin Olivier , Becker Emmanuelle , Rolland Antoine D , Chalmel Frédéric 
Published: January 2018

Abstract

Motivation
At the same time that toxicologists express increasing concern about reproducibility in this field, the development of dedicated databases has already smoothed the path toward improving the storage and exchange of raw toxicogenomic data. Nevertheless, none provides access to analyzed and interpreted data as originally reported in scientific publications. Given the increasing demand for access to this information, we developed TOXsIgN, a repository for TOXicogenomic sIgNatures.

Results
The TOXsIgN repository provides a flexible environment that facilitates online submission, storage and retrieval of toxicogenomic signatures by the scientific community. It currently hosts 754 projects that describe more than 450 distinct chemicals and their 8491 associated signatures. It also provides users with a working environment containing a powerful search engine as well as bioinformatics/biostatistics modules that enable signature comparisons or enrichment analyses.

Availability and implementation
The TOXsIgN repository is freely accessible at http://toxsign.genouest.org. Website implemented in Python, JavaScript and MongoDB, with all major browsers supported.

Supplementary information
Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Accurity: accurate tumor purity and ploidy inference from tumor-normal WGS data by jointly modelling somatic copy number alterations and heterozygous germline single-nucleotide-variants
Authors: Luo Zhihui , Fan Xinping , Su Yao , Huang Yu S 
Published: January 2018

Abstract

Motivation
Tumor purity and ploidy have a substantial impact on next-gen sequence analyses of tumor samples and may alter the biological and clinical interpretation of results. Despite the existence of several computational methods that are dedicated to estimate tumor purity and/or ploidy from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) tumor-normal whole-genome-sequencing (WGS) data, an accurate, fast and fully-automated method that works in a wide range of sequencing coverage, level of tumor purity and level of intra-tumor heterogeneity, is still missing.

Results
We describe a computational method called Accurity that infers tumor purity, tumor cell ploidy and absolute allelic copy numbers for somatic copy number alterations (SCNAs) from tumor-normal WGS data by jointly modelling SCNAs and heterozygous germline single-nucleotide-variants (HGSNVs). Results from both in silico and real sequencing data demonstrated that Accurity is highly accurate and robust, even in low-purity, high-ploidy and low-coverage settings in which several existing methods perform poorly. Accounting for tumor purity and ploidy, Accurity significantly increased signal/noise gaps between different copy numbers. We are hopeful that Accurity is of clinical use for identifying cancer diagnostic biomarkers.

Availability and implementation
Accurity is implemented in C++/Rust, available at http://www.yfish.org/software/.

Supplementary information
Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Cytoskeletal Associated Filamin A and RhoA Affect Neural Progenitor Specification During Mitosis
Authors: Lian Gewei , Wong Timothy , Lu Jie , Hu Jianjun , Zhang Jingping , Sheen Volney 
Published: January 2018

AbstractNeural progenitor proliferation and cell fate decision from self-renewal to differentiation are crucial factors in determining brain size and morphology. The cytoskeletal dependent regulation of these processes is not entirely known. The actin-binding filamin A (FlnA) was shown to regulate proliferation of progenitors by directing changes in cell cycles proteins such as Cdk1 during G2/M phase. Here we report that functional loss of FlnA not only affects the rate of proliferation by altering cell cycle length but also causes a defect in early differentiation through changes in cell fate specification. FlnA interacts with Rho GTPase RhoA, and FlnA loss impairs RhoA activation. Disruption of either of these cytoskeletal associated proteins delays neurogenesis and promotes neural progenitors to remain in proliferative states. Aurora kinase B (Aurkb) has been implicated in cytokinesis, and peaks in expression during the G2/M phase. Inhibition of FlnA or RhoA impairs Aurkb degradation and alters its localization during mitosis. Overexpression of Aurkb replicates the same delay in neurogenesis seen with loss of FlnA or RhoA. Our findings suggest that shared cytoskeletal processes can direct neural progenitor proliferation by regulating the expression and localization of proteins that are implicated in the cell cycle progression and cell fate specification.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depression, Anxiety, and Stress in Caregivers of Dementia Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Authors: Hopkinson Michael D , Reavell James , Lane Deirdre A , Mallikarjun Pavan 
Published: January 2018

AbstractBackground and ObjectivesThere is limited evidence for the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in managing psychological morbidities in caregivers of dementia patients. To evaluate changes in dementia caregivers’ depression, anxiety, and stress following CBT. Also to assess quality of life, intervention adherence/satisfaction and therapy effectiveness using different formats, frequencies, and delivery methods.Research Design and MethodsStudies were identified through electronic bibliographic searches (MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and the Cochrane Library) and from gray literature (Conference Proceedings Citation Index and clinicaltrials.gov). Data were pooled for meta-analysis.ResultsTwenty-five studies were included. Depression (standardized mean difference [SMD] = −0.34; 95% confidence interval [CI] −0.47 to −0.21; p < .001) and stress (SMD = −0.36; 95% CI: −0.52 to −0.20; p < .001) were significantly reduced after CBT, relative to comparator groups, while anxiety was not (SMD = 0.10; 95% CI: −0.18 to 0.39; p = .47). A subgroup analysis demonstrated that statistically significant reductions in depression and stress were limited to group, but not individual, formats. An additional subgroup analysis revealed that eight CBT sessions or fewer were equally effective as more than eight sessions at significantly reducing depression and stress, relative to comparator groups. Furthermore, analysis with independent samples t-tests demonstrated no statistically significant differences between mean changes in depression (MD = 0.79; 95% CI: −0.45 to 2.03; p = .21) and stress (MD = 0.21; 95% CI: −1.43 to 1.85; p = .80) when directly comparing CBT groups of ≤8 and >8 sessions.Discussion and ImplicationsGroup CBT provides small but significant benefits to caregivers’ depression and stress. Therapy cost-effectiveness may be improved by limiting therapy to group formats and eight sessions.
Otolith increments in European plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) reveal temperature and density-dependent effects on growth
Authors: van der Sleen Peter , Stransky Christoph , Morrongiello John R , Haslob Holger , Peharda Melita , Black Bryan A 
Published: January 2018

Abstract
European plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) is a commercially important flatfish species in the North Sea. Yet, the environmental factors that affect the growth of plaice remain unresolved. Here we examine the drivers of plaice growth variation by using a large archive of otoliths from female plaice collected in the northeastern part of the North Sea from 1993 to 2015, providing growth data over the period 1985–2014. We developed a series of increasingly complex mixed-effect models to explore intrinsic (within individual) and extrinsic (environmental factors: bottom temperature and plaice density) sources of growth variation. We analysed juvenile (0 and 1 year) and (sub)adult (≥2 years) growth separately due to different habitat utilization across life stages. Juvenile growth was positively correlated with bottom temperature, whereas growth of adults was negatively correlated with bottom temperature. Correlations for both were strongest during autumn (September to October). For juveniles, the temperature–growth relationship likely reflects a response to growing season length while for adults it could reflect temperature-dependent changes to metabolic rate or food availability. For both juveniles and adults, we also found inverse relationship between population density and growth. We suggest that the approach used in this study can find a much wider application in European waters.
Flatness-based longitudinal vehicle control with embedded torque constraint
Authors: Mounier Hugues , Niculescu Silviu-Iulian , Cela Arben , Stefan Geamanu Marcel 
Published: January 2018

Abstract
This paper aims at establishing a simple yet efficient solution to the problem of trajectory tracking with input constraint of a non-linear longitudinal vehicle model. We make use of differential flatness by embedding the constraint into the reference trajectory design.
On Restriction Estimates for Discrete Quadratic Surfaces
Authors: Henriot Kevin , Hughes Kevin 
Published: January 2018

AbstractWe obtain truncated restriction estimates of an unexpected form for discrete surfaces $$\begin{align*}S_N = \{\, ( n_1 , \dots , n_d , R( n_1 , \dots, n_d ) ) \,,\, n_i \in [-N,N] \cap {\mathbb{Z}} \,\},\end{align*}$$ where $R$ is an indefinite quadratic form with integer matrix.