bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Fully adaptive turbulence simulations based on Lagrangian spatio-temporally varying wavelet thresholding
Authors: Nejadmalayeri Alireza , Vezolainen Alexei , De Stefano Giuliano , Vasilyev Oleg V. 
Published: May 2014

AbstractA new framework for spatio-temporally adaptive turbulence simulations is proposed. The method is based on a variable-fidelity representation that tightly integrates numerics and modelling of subgrid-scale turbulence and aims to capture the flow physics on a near-optimal adaptive mesh. The integration is achieved by combining hierarchical wavelet-based computational modelling with spatially and temporally varying wavelet threshold filtering. The proposed approach provides automatic smooth transition from directly resolving all flow physics to capturing only the energetic/coherent structures, which leads to a dynamically adaptive variable-fidelity approach. The self-regulating continuous switch between different fidelity regimes is accomplished through a two-way feedback mechanism between the modelled dissipation and the local grid resolution, which is based on spatio-temporal variation of the wavelet filtering threshold. The proposed methodology systematically accounts for and exploits the spatial and temporal intermittency of turbulence. Thus, it overcomes the major limitation of all existing wavelet-based multi-resolution techniques, namely, the use of a global thresholding criterion. The procedure consists of tracking the wavelet thresholding factor within a Lagrangian frame by exploiting a Lagrangian path-line diffusive averaging approach, based on either interpolation along characteristics or direct solution of the corresponding evolution equation. This new methodology is tested for linearly forced homogeneous turbulence at different Reynolds numbers and provides very promising results on a benchmark with time-varying prescribed level of turbulence resolution.
Soluble maize fibre affects short-term calcium absorption in adolescent boys and girls: a randomised controlled trial using dual stable isotopic tracers
Authors: Whisner Corrie M. , Martin Berdine R. , Nakatsu Cindy H. , McCabe George P. , McCabe Linda D. , Peacock Munro , Weaver Connie M. 
Published: May 2014

Soluble maize fibre (SCF) has been found to significantly improve bone mineral density and strength in growing rats compared with several other novel prebiotic fibres. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of SCF on Ca absorption and retention in pubertal children by studying the potential absorption mechanisms of the intestinal microbiota. A total of twenty-four adolescent boys and girls (12–15 years) participated in two 3-week metabolic balance studies testing 0 g/d SCF (control (CON) treatment) and 12 g/d SCF (SCF treatment) in a random order by inclusion in a low-Ca diet (600 mg/d). Fractional Ca absorption was measured at the end of the two intervention periods using a dual-stable isotope method. Diet composites and faecal and urine samples were collected daily and analysed for Ca content. Ca retention was calculated as dietary Ca intake minus Ca excretion in faeces and urine over the last 2 weeks. Microbial community composition in the faecal samples collected at the beginning and end of each session was determined by 454 pyrosequencing of the PCR-amplified 16S ribosomal RNA gene. Fractional Ca absorption was 12 % higher (41 mg/d) after the SCF treatment compared with that after the CON treatment (0·664 (sd 0·129) and 0·595 (sd 0·142), respectively; P= 0·02), but Ca retention was unaffected. The average proportion of bacteria of the phylum Bacteroidetes was significantly greater in the participants after the SCF treatment than after the CON treatment. These results suggest that moderate daily intake of SCF, a well-tolerated prebiotic fibre, increases short-term Ca absorption in adolescents consuming less than the recommended amounts of Ca.
Love Thy Neighbo(u)r? Political Attitudes, Proximity and the Mutual Perceptions of the Canadian and American Publics
Authors: Gravelle Timothy B. 
Published: May 2014

AbstractThere has been renewed interest in recent years in both the foreign perceptions of the United States as well as the foreign policy attitudes of the American public. In this light, it is interesting to observe that there is a substantial body of research on Canadian public opinion toward the United States but relatively little on American public opinion toward Canada. Further, most literature neglects the effect of spatial proximity to the other country on perceptions. This article addresses both shortcomings in the literature. It investigates the mutual perceptions of the Canadian and American publics drawing on public opinion data from both Canada and the US. The explanation of attitudes toward the other country has three main foci: the roles of political party identification and political ideology; the role of spatial proximity to the Canada–US border; and the interactive relationship between political attitudes and border proximity.
SEX RATIO AT BIRTH IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY GREECE: THE ROLE OF ETHNIC AND SOCIAL GROUPS
Authors: GAVALAS V. , RONTOS K. , NAGOPOULOS N. 
Published: May 2014

SummaryThe number of male per 100 female live births (defined as the sex ratio at birth, SRB) has been shown to be consistently stable in human populations irrespective of time and geographical location. All over the globe approximately 105 boys are born for every 100 girls and any significant deviation from this ‘global average’ is considered to be unnatural and is attributed to sex-selective under-reporting of births, sex-selective abortion, sex-selective infanticide or other man-made factors. The present paper uses data on civil registration from 2004–2011 to investigate the sex ratio at birth in modern Greece. It was found that the SRB is extremely masculine when the parents originate from the Indian sub-continent and China. The SRB is also unnaturally high (more than 113 boys per 100 girls) in the case of legitimate births born to Greek mothers who are illiterate. These findings are strong evidence that sex-selective abortions are taking place in Greece within population groups with a certain ethnic and social profile. Other parameters, such as age of mother at birth, birth order, legal status of birth and geographical location, were also investigated and they were found to play a role in the variation of SRB, but not to the extent education and ethnic group do.
No association between obesity and post-tonsillectomy haemorrhage
Authors: Riechelmann H , Blassnigg E C , Profanter C , Greier K , Kral F , Bender B 
Published: May 2014

AbstractBackground:The prevalence of overweight and obesity is increasing worldwide. The impact of overweight on post-tonsillectomy haemorrhage rates in children and adults is unclear.Methods:Body mass index and post-tonsillectomy haemorrhage were evaluated in all patients treated with tonsillectomy within one year in a tertiary referral centre. Bleeding episodes were categorised according to the Austrian Tonsil Study.Results:Between June 2011 and June 2012, 300 adults and children underwent tonsillectomy. Post-tonsillectomy haemorrhage occurred in 55 patients. Of those, 29 were type A (history of blood in saliva only, no active bleeding), 15 were type B (active bleeding, treatment under local anaesthesia) and 11 were type C (active bleeding, treatment under general anaesthesia). The return to operating theatre rate was 3.7 per cent. Post-tonsillectomy haemorrhage was more frequent in adolescents and adults than in children. Overweight or obesity was positively correlated with age. Post-tonsillectomy bleeding was recorded in 11.1 per cent of underweight patients, 18.9 per cent of normal weight patients and 18.7 per cent of overweight patients (p = 0.7). Data stratification (according to age and weight) did not alter the post-tonsillectomy bleeding risk (p = 0.8).Conclusion:Overweight or obesity did not increase the risk of post-tonsillectomy haemorrhage in either children or adults.
Zinc deficiency in patients with recurrent aphthous stomatitis: a pilot study
Authors: Özler G S 
Published: May 2014

AbstractObjective:Recurrent aphthous stomatitis is a common disease of the oral mucosa, affecting 20 per cent of the general population.1However, the aetiology of this disease is unknown. This is the first controlled study to compare zinc levels in recurrent aphthous stomatitis patients with those of a well-matched, healthy, control population.Methods:Twenty-five patients with a history of recurrent aphthous stomatitis and 25 healthy people (control group) took part in the study. Patients aged between 20 and 40 years with recurrent oral aphthous ulcers less than 1 cm in diameter were included. Exclusion criteria were pregnancy and lactation, systemic disease (ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, Behçet's disease), any current medication (topical or systemic), dental surgery during the previous month and deficiencies in iron, folic acid or vitamin B1, B2, B6 or B12. Serum zinc levels were compared between patient and control groups.Results:Zinc deficiency was detected in 28 per cent of recurrent aphthous stomatitis patients and in 4 per cent of controls. The mean serum zinc level in the patient group was significantly lower than in the control group.Conclusion:These results suggest an association between zinc deficiency and recurrent aphthous stomatitis.
Refining the latent structure of neuropsychological performance in schizophrenia
Authors: Lam M. , Collinson S. L. , Eng G. K. , Rapisarda A. , Kraus M. , Lee J. , Chong S. A. , Keefe R. S. E. 
Published: May 2014

Background.Elucidating the cognitive architecture of schizophrenia promises to advance understanding of the clinical and biological substrates of the illness. Traditional cross-sectional neuropsychological approaches differentiate impaired from normal cognitive abilities but are limited in their ability to determine latent substructure. The current study examined the latent architecture of abnormal cognition in schizophrenia via a systematic approach.Method.Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were carried out on a large neuropsychological dataset including the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia, Continuous Performance Test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Benton Judgment of Line Orientation Test, and Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence matrix reasoning derived from 1012 English-speaking ethnic Chinese healthy controls and 707 schizophrenia cases recruited from in- and out-patient clinics.Results.An initial six-factor model fit cognitive data in healthy and schizophrenia subjects. Further modeling, which accounted for methodological variance between tests, resulted in a three-factor model of executive functioning, vigilance/speed of processing and memory that appeared to best discriminate schizophrenia cases from controls. Factor analytic-derivedgestimands and conventionally calculatedgshowed similar case–control discrimination. However, agreement analysis suggested systematic differences between bothgindices.Conclusions.Factor structures derived in the current study were broadly similar to those reported previously. However, factor structures between schizophrenia subjects and healthy controls were different. Roles of factor analytic-derivedgestimands and conventional composite scoregwere further discussed. Cognitive structures underlying cognitive deficits in schizophrenia may prove useful for interrogating biological substrates and enriching effect sizes for subsequent work.
When did the consonantal skeleton of the Quran reach closure? Part I
Authors: Sinai Nicolai 
Published: May 2014

AbstractThe Islamic tradition credits the promulgation of a uniform consonantal skeleton (rasm) of the Quran to the third caliph ʿUthmān (r. 644–656). However, in recent years various scholars have espoused a conjectural dating of the Quran's codification to the time of ʿAbd al-Malik, or have at least maintained that the Islamic scripture was open to significant revision up untilc. 700ce. This two-part article proposes to undertake a systematic assessment of this hypothesis. The first instalment assesses the evidence adduced in favour of a late seventh-century closure of the Quranic text, including the interest which ʿAbd al-Malik's governor al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf reportedly took in the text. It is argued that neither the epigraphic nor the literary evidence examined is incompatible with the conventional dating of the Quranic text.
When did the consonantal skeleton of the Quran reach closure? Part II
Authors: Sinai Nicolai 
Published: May 2014

AbstractThe Islamic tradition credits the promulgation of a uniform consonantal skeleton (rasm) of the Quran to the third caliph ʿUthmān (r. 644–656). However, in recent years various scholars have espoused a conjectural dating of the Quran's codification to the time of ʿAbd al-Malik, or have at least taken the view that the Islamic scripture was open to significant revision up untilc. 700ce. The second instalment of this two-part article surveys arguments against this hypothesis. It concludes that as long as no Quranic passages with a distinct stylistic and terminological profile have been compellingly placed in a late seventh-century context, the traditional dating of the standardrasm(excepting certain orthographical features) to 650 or earlier ought to be our default view.
On transferability and contexts when using simulated grasp databases
Authors: Rytz Jimmy A. , Ellekilde Lars-Peter , Kraft Dirk , Petersen Henrik G. , Krüger Norbert 
Published: May 2014

SUMMARYIt has become a common practice to use simulation to generate large databases of good grasps for grasp planning in robotics research. However, the existence of a generic simulation context that enables the generation of high quality grasps that can be used in several different contexts such as bin-picking or picking objects from a table, has to our knowledge not yet been discussed in the literature.In this paper, we investigate how well the quality of grasps simulated in a commonly used “generic” context transfers to a specific context, both, in simulation and in the real world.We generate a large database of grasp hypotheses for several objects and grippers, which we then evaluate in different dynamic simulation contexts e.g., free floating (no gravity, no obstacles), standing on a table and lying on a table.We present a comparison on the intersection of the grasp outcome space across the different contexts and quantitatively show that to generate reliable grasp databases, it is important to use context specific simulation.We furthermore evaluate how well a state of the art grasp database transfers from two simulated contexts to a real world context of picking an object from a table and discuss how to evaluate transferability into non-deterministic real world contexts.
Dynamic balance optimization in biped robots: Physical modeling, implementation and tests using an innovative formula
Authors: Muscolo G. G. , Recchiuto C. T. , Molfino R. 
Published: May 2014

SUMMARYIn this paper, an analytical formula for the determination of the center of mass position in humanoid platforms is proposed and tested in a real humanoid robot. The formula uses the force-torque values obtained by the two force-torque sensors applied on the feet of the robot and the measured currents required from the motors to maintain balance as inputs. The proposed formula outputs the real center of mass position that minimizes the errors between real humanoid robots and virtual models. Data related to the Zero Moment Point positions and to the joint movements are compared with the target values, showing how the application of the proposed formula enables achieving better repeatability and predictability of the static and dynamic robot behaviour.
Change in agricultural land use constrains adaptation of national wildlife refuges to climate change
Authors: HAMILTON CHRISTOPHER M. , THOGMARTIN WAYNE E. , RADELOFF VOLKER C. , PLANTINGA ANDREW J. , HEGLUND PATRICIA J. , MARTINUZZI SEBASTIAN , PIDGEON ANNA M. 
Published: May 2014

SUMMARYLand-use change around protected areas limits their ability to conserve biodiversity by altering ecological processes such as natural hydrologic and disturbance regimes, facilitating species invasions, and interfering with dispersal of organisms. This paper informs USA National Wildlife Refuge System conservation planning by predicting future land-use change on lands within 25 km distance of 461 refuges in the USA using an econometric model. The model contained two differing policy scenarios, namely a ‘business-as-usual’ scenario and a ‘pro-agriculture’ scenario. Regardless of scenario, by 2051, forest cover and urban land use were predicted to increase around refuges, while the extent of range and pasture was predicted to decrease; cropland use decreased under the business-as-usual scenario, but increased under the pro-agriculture scenario. Increasing agricultural land value under the pro-agriculture scenario slowed an expected increase in forest around refuges, and doubled the rate of range and pasture loss. Intensity of land-use change on lands surrounding refuges differed by regions. Regional differences among scenarios revealed that an understanding of regional and local land-use dynamics and management options was an essential requirement to effectively manage these conserved lands. Such knowledge is particularly important given the predicted need to adapt to a changing global climate.
Smoke-enhanced seed germination in Mediterranean Lamiaceae
Authors: Çatav Şükrü Serter , Küçükakyüz Köksal , Akbaş Kenan , Tavşanoğlu Çağatay 
Published: May 2014

AbstractThe role of smoke in fire-stimulated germination in the Mediterranean Basin has often been underestimated. A few records on smoke-enhanced germination are present in Mediterranean Lamiaceae species, but there is still a shortage of information to allow generalizations about this family to be made. To test the hypothesis that smoke enhances germination in Mediterranean Lamiaceae species, we performed a germination experiment, including aqueous smoke treatments in various concentrations (1:1, 1:10 and 1:100) on seven eastern Mediterranean Lamiaceae taxa. Six of the studied taxa (Lavandula stoechas, Origanum onites, Phlomis bourgaei, Stachys cretica ssp. smyrnaea, Satureja thymbra, Teucrium lamiifolium ssp. stachyophyllum) showed significant increments in germination percentage in at least one smoke treatment, as compared to the control. Moreover, L. stoechas, S. thymbra and T. lamiifolium ssp. stachyophyllum displayed faster germination in at least one smoke treatment than in the control. Of the species showing significant increments in germination percentages after aqueous smoke application, at least one single concentration of smoke solution did not stimulate germination, except in L. stoechas and S. thymbra which responded positively to all smoke treatments. Therefore, the concentration of aqueous smoke that improved germination was species-specific. Our results contribute to the current limited knowledge on smoke-enhanced germination in Mediterranean Lamiaceae, and support the idea that smoke is an important germination cue for this family.
Effects of great bustard (Otis tarda) gut passage on black nightshade (Solanumnigrum) seed germination
Authors: Bravo C. , Velilla S. , Bautista L.M. , Peco B. 
Published: May 2014

AbstractBirds are important seed dispersers for fleshy fruits through their transportation of ingested seeds. The seeds of many species germinate faster and in greater proportions after passing through a digestive tract, although the effects of this passage vary amongst bird and plant species. Many factors determine the germination success of ingested seeds, such as seed scarification during the digestion process, the fertilizing effect of droppings and the removal of pulp surrounding the seeds. In central Spain, the great bustard (Otis tarda) may act as a disperser of European black nightshade (Solanum nigrum). We analysed the germination success of ingested and non-ingestedS. nigrumseeds. The fertilizing effect of bustard droppings and the disinhibition effect of the removal ofSolanumpulp on final germination percentage, germination speed and viability were also assessed. Although ingested seeds germinated faster than non-ingested seeds, the former showed a lower germination percentage than the latter: 80–87% versus 99%. Droppings and fruit pulp showed no effect on germination enhancement, except in one aspect: the germination speed of non-ingested seeds decreased when they were sprayed with a fruit extract. We confirm that seeds ingested by great bustards had lower germination success than non-ingested seeds. Although seed ingestion by great bustards reduced seedling emergence, the number of emerged seedlings was still quite large. Thus, great bustards may play a role as aS. nigrumseed dispersal vector.
Obese women less likely to have low serum ferritin, Nicaragua
Authors: Wendt Amanda S , Jefferds Maria E , Perrine Cria G , Halleslevens Patricia , Sullivan Kevin M 
Published: May 2014

AbstractObjectiveTo examine the association between overweight and obesity and serum ferritin among women of reproductive age (15–49 years) in Nicaragua, considering the effect of α1-acid glycoprotein (AGP), a marker of inflammation.DesignWe analysed data from the 2004–05 Nicaraguan Integrated Surveillance System for Nutrition Interventions. Three logistic regression models were analysed with low serum ferritin (<15 μg/l) as the dependent variable: (i) overweight or obese status and covariates; (ii) model 1 plus AGP; and (iii) model 1 restricted to only women with normal AGP levels (≤1·0 g/l).SettingNicaragua.SubjectsIncluded in this analysis were 832 non-pregnant mother/caregivers (15–49 years) surveyed in 2004–2005.ResultsIn the sample, prevalence of overweight and obesity was 31·8 % and 19·2 %, respectively, and 27·6 % had low serum ferritin. In model 1, the adjusted OR of low serum ferritin was 0·74 (95 % CI 0·52, 1·05) for overweight women and 0·42 (95 % CI 0·26, 0·65) for obese women. In model 2, AGP was significantly independently associated with low serum ferritin (adjusted OR=0·56, 95 % CI 0·34, 0·92) while the adjusted OR for overweight and obesity were largely unchanged. Excluding women with elevated AGP did not appreciably affect the relationship between overweight or obesity and low serum ferritin (model 3).ConclusionsOverall, in this population of reproductive-age women, obese women were less likely to have low serum ferritin levels, and this was independent of inflammation as measured by AGP.