bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Historical summer distribution of the endangered North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis): a hypothesis based on environmental preferences of a congeneric species
Authors: Monsarrat Sophie , Pennino Maria G. , Smith Tim D. , Reeves Randall R. , Meynard Christine N. , Kaplan David M. , Rodrigues Ana S. L. 
Published: March 2015

AbstractAimTo obtain a plausible hypothesis for the historical distribution of North Atlantic right whales (NARWs) (Eubalaena glacialis) in their summer feeding grounds. Previously widespread in the North Atlantic, after centuries of hunting, these whales survive as a small population off eastern North America. Because their exploitation began before formal records started, information about their historical distribution is fragmentary.LocationNorth Atlantic and North Pacific oceans.MethodsWe linked historical records of North Pacific right whales (E. japonica; from 19th‐century American whaling logbooks) with oceanographic data to generate a species distribution model. Assuming that the two species have similar environmental preferences, the model was projected into the North Atlantic to predict environmental suitability for NARWs. The reliability of these predictions was assessed by comparing the model results with historical and recent records in the North Atlantic.ResultsThe model predicts suitable environmental conditions over a wide, mostly offshore band across the North Atlantic. Predictions are well supported by historical and recent records, but discrepancies in some areas indicate lower discriminative ability in coastal, shallow‐depth areas, suggesting that this model mainly describes the summer offshore distribution of right whales.Main conclusionsOur results suggest that the summer range of the NARW consisted of a relatively narrow band (width c. 10° in latitude), extending from the eastern coast of North America to northern Norway, over the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, south of Greenland and Iceland, north of the British Isles and in the Norwegian Sea. These results highlight possibilities for additional research both on the history of exploitation and on the current summer distribution of this species. In particular, better survey coverage of historical whaling grounds could help inform conservation efforts for this endangered species. More generally, this study illustrates the challenges and opportunities in using historical data to understand the original distribution of highly depleted species.
Invasive earthworms shape forest seed bank composition
Authors: Nuzzo Victoria , Dávalos Andrea , Blossey Bernd 
Published: March 2015

AbstractAimTo assess how non‐native earthworm and non‐native plant invasions shape soil seed bank composition in deciduous temperate forests.LocationNew York State, USA.MethodsWe recorded earthworm density, earthworm biomass and vegetation composition in 12 deciduous forests and subsequently collected soil cores and recorded emergence of plant species from the seed bank. We used path analysis to assess direct and indirect contributions of earthworms and vegetation composition (species richness and cover of native and non‐native plants) to the species richness and abundance of emergent seedlings.ResultsHigh earthworm populations were positively associated with increased species richness and seedling density of both native and non‐native plant species emerging from the seed bank. This relationship held for all life‐form groups, although the earthworm effect was indirect for non‐native graminoid abundance. Non‐native plants were positively correlated with earthworms and while they influenced both aboveground vegetation cover and species richness, they had no direct influence on emergent abundance or species richness.Main conclusionsOur results suggest that forest seed bank composition is strongly influenced by the presence and abundance of non‐native earthworms, and only weakly influenced by non‐native plants. Forest understorey recovery from seed banks is possible following earthworm invasion, but resulting communities bear little similarity to standing vegetation. Recovery of the full desirable and typical complement of aboveground vegetation will require input to seed banks by (1) fostering seed production of existing vegetation and/or (2) planting seed of desired species. We suggest managing understorey vegetation to allow herbaceous species to set seed.
Do attitudes toward societal structure predict beliefs about free will and achievement? Evidence from the Indian caste system
Authors: Srinivasan Mahesh , Dunham Yarrow , Hicks Catherine M. , Barner David 
Published: March 2015

AbstractIntuitive theories about the malleability of intellectual ability affect our motivation and achievement in life. But how are such theories shaped by the culture in which an individual is raised? We addressed this question by exploring how Indian children's and adults’ attitudes toward the Hindu caste system – and its deterministic worldview – are related to differences in their intuitive theories. Strikingly, we found that, beginning at least in middle school and continuing into adulthood, individuals who placed more importance on caste were more likely to adopt deterministic intuitive theories. We also found a developmental change in the scope of this relationship, such that in children, caste attitudes were linked only to abstract beliefs about personal freedom, but that by adulthood, caste attitudes were also linked to beliefs about the potential achievement of members of different castes, personal intellectual ability, and personality attributes. These results are the first to directly relate the societal structure in which a person is raised to the specific intuitive theories they adopt.
Spontaneous non‐verbal counting in toddlers
Authors: Sella Francesco , Berteletti Ilaria , Lucangeli Daniela , Zorzi Marco 
Published: March 2015

AbstractA wealth of studies have investigated numerical abilities in infants and in children aged 3 or above, but research on pre‐counting toddlers is sparse. Here we devised a novel version of an imitation task that was previously used to assess spontaneous focusing on numerosity (i.e. the predisposition to grasp numerical properties of the environment) to assess whether pre‐counters would spontaneously deploy sequential (item‐by‐item) enumeration and whether this ability would rely on the object tracking system (OTS) or on the approximate number system (ANS). Two‐and‐a‐half‐year‐olds watched the experimenter performing one‐by‐one insertion of ‘food tokens’ into an opaque animal puppet and then were asked to imitate the puppet‐feeding behavior. The number of tokens varied between 1 and 6 and each numerosity was presented many times to obtain a distribution of responses during imitation. Many children demonstrated attention to the numerosity of the food tokens despite the lack of any explicit cueing to the number dimension. Most notably, the response distributions centered on the target numerosities and showed the classic variability signature that is attributed to the ANS. These results are consistent with previous studies on sequential enumeration in non‐human primates and suggest that pre‐counting children are capable of sequentially updating the numerosity of non‐visible sets through additive operations and hold it in memory for reproducing the observed behavior.
The Contribution of Regions to Aggregate Growth in the OECD
Authors: Garcilazo Enrique , Oliveira Martins Joaquim 
Published: March 2015

AbstractThis article investigates the contribution of regions to aggregate growth. We find a great degree of heterogeneity in the performance of Territorial Level 3 (TL3) regions of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). The regional contributions to aggregate growth follow a power law, with a coefficient around 1.2 (in absolute terms). This implies that Few‐Large (FL) regions contribute disproportionately to aggregate growth whereas Many‐Small (MS) individual regions contribute only marginally. Because the large number of these smaller regions and the decay of their contribution to growth is slow (generating a fat tail distribution), their cumulated contribution is actually around two‐thirds of aggregate growth.
A practical two‐step approach for mixed model‐based kriging, with an application to the prediction of soil organic carbon concentration
Authors: Ritz C. , Putku E. , Astover A. 
Published: March 2015

SummarySoil scientists often use prediction models to obtain values at unsampled locations. The spatial variation in the soil is best captured by using the empirical best linear unbiased predictor (EBLUP) based on a restricted maximum likelihood (REML) approach that efficiently exploits available data on both mean trends and correlation structures. We proposed a practical two‐step implementation of the REML approach for model‐based kriging, exemplified by predicting soil organic carbon (SOC) concentrations in mineral soils in Estonia from the large‐scale digital soil map information and a previously established prediction model. The prediction model was a linear mixed model with soil type, physical clay content (particle size < 0.01 mm) and A‐horizon thickness as fixed effects and site, transect, plot, year, year‐transect random intercepts and site‐specific random slopes for clay content. We used only the site‐specific intercept EBLUPs for estimating spatial correlation parameters as they described most of the variation in the random effects (86.8%). Fitting an exponential correlation model to these EBLUPs resulted in an estimated range of 10.5 km and the estimated proportion of the variance from the nugget effect was 0.23. The results of a simulation study showed a downwards bias that decreased with sample size. The results were validated through an external dataset, resulting in root mean square errors (RMSE) of 1.06 and 1.07% for the two‐step approach for kriging and the model with only fixed effects (no kriging), respectively. These results indicate that using the two‐step approach for kriging may improve prediction.
No evidence of a role for cystatin B gene in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy
Authors: Mumoli Laura , Tarantino Patrizia , Michelucci Roberto , Bianchi Amedeo , Labate Angelo , Franceschetti Silvana , Marini Carla , Striano Pasquale , Gagliardi Monica , Ferlazzo Edoardo , Sofia Vito , Pennese Loredana , Annesi Grazia , Aguglia Umberto , Guerrini Renzo , Zara Federico , Gambardella Antonio ,   the Genetic Commission, Italian League Against Epilepsy
Published: March 2015

SummaryGenetic factors play a major role in the etiology of juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME), a common form of idiopathic generalized epilepsy, but so far, genes related to JME remain largely unknown. JME shares electroclinical features with Unverricht‐Lundborg disease (progressive myoclonic epilepsy type 1; EPM1), a form of progressive myoclonus epilepsy characterized by myoclonus, epilepsy, and gradual neurologic deterioration. EPM1 is caused by mutations in the gene that codes for cystatin B (CSTB), an inhibitor of cysteine protease. In the present study, we wished to investigate the role of the CSTB gene in patients with JME. Fifty‐seven unrelated patients (35 women; mean age ± standard deviation [SD], 24.1 ± 7.7; mean age ± SD at onset, 15.3 ± 2.4) with JME were enrolled. Twenty‐three of 57 patients were the probands of families with JME. The molecular diagnosis was carried out to identify the common dodecamer repeat expansion mutation or other disease‐causing mutations in the CSTB gene. The molecular analysis did not depict mutations in any of the 57 patients with JME. Our study did not support a role for the CSTB gene in patients with familial or sporadic JME.
Distance decay is uncommon in large‐scale population synchrony of common moths: does it promote vulnerability to climate change?
Authors: Nieminen Marko 
Published: March 2015

AbstractLarge‐scale spatial synchrony is common in population dynamics. In nearly all empirical data sets, population synchrony decays with distance.Large‐scale spatial population synchrony of 20 common moth species was studied using 367 separate light‐trap time series of 3–27 years, at 13–19 localities in southern Finland. The maximum distance between trap sites wasca1075 km. The degree of spatial synchrony in three weather variables (daily mean and minimum temperature, and daily total precipitation) from 15 weather stations was also studied. Data were analysed with spatial non‐parametric correlation functions (Sncf).Statistically significant large‐scale spatial synchrony in population fluctuations occurred in 85% of the species (Scotopteryx chenopodiata,Eulithis populata,Chloroclysta citrata,Epirrita autumnata,Perizoma alchemillata,P. didymata,Eupithecia pusillata,Macaria wauaria,Itame brunneata,Cabera pusaria,C. exanthemata,Eilema lurideola,Rusina ferruginea,Amphipoea fucosa,Orthosia gothica,Cerapteryx graminisandDiarsia mendica), as well as in all weather variables.Spatial synchrony decreased with distance (=distance decay) in 45% of the species, and there was no indication of distance decay in the remaining species.Climate change is likely to cause an increasing frequency of extreme weather events, and insects are strongly affected by such environmental stochasticity. In combination with the high frequency of large‐scale spatial synchrony, which did not show distance decay as a rule in these data, even currently common moth species may become threatened in the near future.
Compensatory Intracranial Arterial Dilatation in Extracranial Carotid Atherosclerosis: The Northern Manhattan Study
Authors: Gutierrez Jose , Elkind Mitchell S. V. , Gomez-Schneider Maia , DeRosa Janet T. , Cheung Ken , Bagci Ahmet , Alperin Noam , Sacco Ralph L. , Wright Clinton B. , Rundek Tatjana 
Published: March 2015

Background There is a scarcity of data supporting the association between atherosclerosis and dolichoectasia in unbiased samples. Aims To test the hypothesis that the association between dolichoectasia and extracranial carotid atherosclerosis depends on the degree of collateral circulation. Methods The Northern Manhattan Study magnetic resonance imaging substudy consists of 1290 participants who remained stroke-free at the time of magnetic resonance imaging. Arterial diameters were collected in all participants with available magnetic resonance angiography. Dolichoectasia was defined as a head-size adjusted diameter >2 standard deviation for each artery. Carotid Doppler was used to evaluate for carotid atherosclerosis (carotid plaque, maximum plaque thickness and carotid intima media thickness). Results We included 994 participants with available Doppler and magnetic resonance angiography data (mean age 63 years, 60% female). Any dolichoectasia was reported in 16% of participants, 54% had at least one carotid plaque and the mean carotid intima media thickness was 0·92 ± 0·09 mm. After adjusting for demographic and clinical characteristics, there was no association between markers of carotid atherosclerosis and dolichoectasia. However, stratifying by collaterals, it was observed that dolichoectasia was more likely in the anterior and posterior circulations when collaterals were available among participants with carotid atherosclerosis. These associations were confirmed by noting an increment in arterial diameters in the corresponding arteries ipsilateral and contralateral to each carotid as well as in the posterior circulation. Conclusions We did not find an association of extracranial carotid atherosclerosis with dolichoectasia. However, we found that dolichoectasia is more frequent when intracranial collaterals are available suggesting a compensatory process that needs further investigation.
Improvement of overactive bladder symptoms after tension‐free vaginal mesh operation in women with pelvic organ prolapse: Correlation with preoperative urodynamic findings
Authors: Tomoe Hikaru 
Published: March 2015

ObjectivesTo further elucidate the mechanisms of overactive bladder coexisting with pelvic organ prolapse.MethodsA total of 100 consecutive women with stage 2 or greater pelvic organ prolapse associated with cystocele were enrolled in the present prospective study. They underwent urodynamic studies and then received tension‐free vaginal mesh operation. Urodynamic studies were carried out before and after the correction of pelvic organ prolapse using a single gauze pack in the vagina in the sitting position. The overactive bladder symptom score and International Prostate Symptom Score were collected before and 3 months after surgery.ResultsIn 53 of 100 cases, pelvic organ prolapse was accompanied with overactive bladder, and detrusor overactivity was observed in 28 out of 53 pelvic organ prolapse with overactive bladder cases (52.8%). Detrusor overactivity was resolved in 18 and reduced in four out of 28 cases after the correction of pelvic organ prolapse by the gauze packing method. Of 53 patients who had overactive bladder preoperatively, overactive bladder symptoms disappeared in 35 cases (66.0%) and improved in six additional cases (11.3%) after tension‐free vaginal mesh operation. A total of 20 of 25 cases whose overactive bladder symptoms disappeared or improved after surgery coincided with those who had shown either disappearance (n = 16) or improvement (n = 4) of detrusor overactivity after intravaginal gauze pack insertion in preoperative urodynamic studies. All scores in the overactive bladder symptom score decreased significantly after tension‐free vaginal mesh, as well as the International Prostate Symptom Score, except for night‐time frequency.ConclusionsPelvic organ prolapse‐associated overactive bladder or detrusor overactivity conditions can be reversed in most cases within a short period of time after surgical correction of pelvic organ prolapse.
Moral Enhancement and Mental Freedom
Authors: Bublitz Christoph 
Published: March 2015

AbstractPromotion of pro‐social attitudes and moral behaviour is a crucial and challenging task for social orders. As traditional ways such as moral education have some, but apparently and unfortunately only limited effect, some authors have suggested employing biomedical means such as pharmaceuticals or electrical stimulation of the brain to alter individual psychologies in a more direct way — moral bioenhancement. One of the salient questions in the nascent ethical debate concerns the impact of such interventions on human freedom. Advocates argue that moral bioenhancements do not pose a serious threat to freedom. This contention, however, is based on an overly narrow, if not impoverished, sense of freedom, which comprises only freedom of action and freedom of will. Mind‐altering interventions primarily affect another sense of freedom: freedom of mind, a concept that has not received much attention although it should rank among the most important legal and political freedoms. The article introduces three senses of mental freedom potentially infringed upon by moral bioenhancement and places it in a broader perspective. Ignorance of mental freedom has far‐ranging consequences for the shape of the political and legal order at large. As many advocates are apparently not aware of the freedoms they seek to undermine, their calls for moral enhancement programmes are dangerously premature.
Chemerin‐induced mitochondrial dysfunction in skeletal muscle
Authors: Xie Qihai , Deng Yujie , Huang Chenglin , Liu Penghao , Yang Ying , Shen Weili , Gao Pingjin 
Published: March 2015

AbstractChemerin is a novel adipocyte‐derived factor that induces insulin resistance in skeletal muscle. However, the effect of chemerin on skeletal muscle mitochondrial function has received little attention. In the present study, we investigated whether mitochondrial dysfunction is involved in the pathogenesis of chemerin‐mediated insulin resistance. In this study, we used recombinant adenovirus to express murine chemerin in C57BL/6 mice. The mitochondrial function and structure were evaluated in isolated soleus muscles from mice. The oxidative mechanism of mitochondrial dysfunction in cultured C2C12 myotubes exposed to recombinant chemerin was analysed by western blotting, immunofluorescence and quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction. The overexpression of chemerin in mice reduced the muscle mitochondrial content and increased mitochondrial autophagy, as determined by the increased conversion of LC3‐I to LC3‐II and higher expression levels of Beclin1 and autophagy‐related protein‐5 and 7. The chemerin treatment of C2C12 myotubes increased the generation of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species, concomitant with a reduced mitochondrial membrane potential and increased the occurrence of mitochondrial protein carbonyls and mitochondrial DNA deletions. Knockdown of the expression of chemokine‐like receptor 1 or the use of mitochondria‐targeting antioxidant Mito‐TEMPO restored the mitochondrial dysfunction induced by chemerin. Furthermore, chemerin exposure in C2C12 myotubes not only reduced the insulin‐stimulated phosphorylation of protein kinase B (AKT) but also dephosphorylated forkhead box O3α (FoxO3α). Chemerin‐induced mitochondrial autophagy likely through an AKT‐FoxO3α‐dependent signalling pathway. These findings provide direct evidence that chemerin may play an important role in regulating mitochondrial remodelling and function in skeletal muscle.
Telocytes in minor salivary glands of primary Sjögren's syndrome: association with the extent of inflammation and ectopic lymphoid neogenesis
Authors: Alunno Alessia , Ibba‐Manneschi Lidia , Bistoni Onelia , Rosa Irene , Caterbi Sara , Gerli Roberto , Manetti Mirko 
Published: March 2015

AbstractIt has been recently reported that telocytes, a stromal (interstitial) cell subset involved in the control of local tissue homeostasis, are hampered in the target organs of inflammatory/autoimmune disorders. Since no data concerning telocytes in minor salivary glands (MSGs) are currently available, aim of the study was to evaluate telocyte distribution in MSGs with normal architecture, non‐specific chronic sialadenitis (NSCS) and primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS)‐focal lymphocytic sialadenitis. Twelve patients with pSS and 16 sicca non‐pSS subjects were enrolled in the study. MSGs were evaluated by haematoxylin and eosin staining and immunofluorescence for CD3/CD20 and CD21 to assess focus score, Tarpley biopsy score, T/B cell segregation and germinal center (GC)‐like structures. Telocytes were identified by immunoperoxidase‐based immunohistochemistry for CD34 and CD34/platelet‐derived growth factor receptor α double immunofluorescence. Telocytes were numerous in the stromal compartment of normal MSGs, where their long cytoplasmic processes surrounded vessels and encircled both the excretory ducts and the secretory units. In NSCS, despite the presence of a certain degree of inflammation, telocytes were normally represented. Conversely, telocytes were markedly reduced in MSGs from pSS patients compared to normal and NSCS MSGs. Such a decrease was associated with both worsening of glandular inflammation and progression of ectopic lymphoid neogenesis, periductal telocytes being reduced in the presence of smaller inflammatory foci and completely absent in the presence of GC‐like structures. Our findings suggest that a loss of MSG telocytes might have important pathophysiological implications in pSS. The specific pro‐inflammatory cytokine milieu of pSS MSGs might be one of the causes of telocyte loss.