bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Medicinal Cannibalism in Early Modern Literature and Culture
Authors: Sugg Richard 
Published: November 2013

AbstractJust as the real and imagined cannibals of the New World became, for Old World authors, a subject of fascination, condemnation and polemic, medicinal cannibalism and corpse medicine became a widespread and systematic phenomenon in early modern Europe. Matter from Egyptian mummies, along with more recently dead human flesh, fat, blood, skull and the moss of the skull (known as usnea) were in high demand by patients in Britain, France, Germanic countries and Scandinavia. Paracelsian chemists and physicians in particular made rigorously thorough use of virtually the entire human corpse. Those involved in this practice included Thomas Willis, Robert Boyle, Charles II and a host of affluent gentry and aristocrats, along with a more shadowy world of merchants, executioners and graverobbers. This essay explores both the facts of medicinal cannibalism and the peculiar social and political ironies it could produce in the highly unequal societies of the early modern world.
Thioploca spp. sheaths as niches for bacterial and protistan assemblages
Authors: Buck Kurt R. , Barry James P. , Hallam Steven J. 
Published: November 2013

AbstractSulfide oxidizing bacterial mats are common in regions of the continental shelves characterized by high primary production and the resultant oxygen minimum zone. These mats are made up of several species of Beggiatoa and/or Thioploca, which oxidize sulfide that is generated in the sediment. Thioploca spp. inhabit a large polysaccharide sheath that encompasses bundles of 1–20 filaments (trichomes), each ranging from 3 to 60 μm in diameter. This sheath has been shown to be a critical component of the autecology of Thioploca. Analysis of Thioploca from cold seeps in Monterey Bay using light and transmission electron microscopy identified new and diverse microbial assemblages associated with interstitial spaces between trichomes, inside the sheath. Small diameter, non‐vacuolate, filamentous prokaryotes were numerous. Amoebae, euglenozoa, ciliates and other protists of unknown affiliation were observed in sheaths. Most of the protists possessed food vacuoles and some protists showed ultrastructural evidence of endosymbionts. These observations suggest that Thioploca sheaths may serve as oases on the sea floor, providing nutritional and detoxification services to previously unrecognized microbial partners.
Symbiodinium diversity within Acropora muricata and the surrounding environment
Authors: Sweet Michael J. 
Published: November 2013

AbstractSeveral long‐term studies have monitored populations of algal symbionts, Symbiodinium sp., in coral hosts over different temporal and spatial scales, and among multiple host species. The extension of these studies to include environmental pools of algal symbionts from sources such as the water column, sediments, free‐floating mucus mats and those settling on biofilms has only been studied by a few, yet has the potential to enhance our understanding of the dynamics and controls on symbiont populations. Adaptive changes in the coral symbiont complement rely either on the uptake of new strains from the environment or population expansion of rarer strains in the existing symbiont population. The relative scope for these alternative pathways of uptake is unknown. This study therefore examined spatial changes in Symbiodinium clades within the water column at two different time periods and compared these with other environmental pools (biofilms, sediments, and mucus mats) and those within the dominant reef‐building species at the study site, Acropora muricata. A diversity of algal symbiont clades were detected in environmental pools, with specific clades associated with different habitats. At an island scale, there was significant variation in clade composition between sites separated by 0.5–7 km, a result which was repeated for both sample periods encompassing different seasons (March 2009 and August 2010). Although no single environmental pool contained a Symbiodinium complement comparable to that of the host coral species investigated, the dominant coral Symbiodinium were available in combinations of the environmental pools, indicating that the coral has the potential to obtain its symbionts from a variety of environmental sources.
Molecular recognition in myxobacterial outer membrane exchange: functional, social and evolutionary implications
Authors: Wall Daniel 
Published: November 2013

SummaryThrough cooperative interactions, bacteria can build multicellular communities. To ensure that productive interactions occur, bacteria must recognize their neighbours and respond accordingly. Molecular recognition between cells is thus a fundamental behaviour, and in bacteria important discoveries have been made. This MicroReview focuses on a recently described recognition system in myxobacteria that is governed by a polymorphic cell surface receptor called TraA. TraA regulates outer membrane exchange (OME), whereby myxobacterial cells transiently fuse their OMs to efficiently transfer proteins and lipids between cells. Unlike other transport systems, OME is rather indiscriminate in what OM goods are transferred. In contrast, the recognition of partnering cells is discriminatory and only occurs between cells that bear identical or closely related TraA proteins. Therefore TraA functions in kin recognition and, in turn, OME helps regulate social interactions between myxobacteria. Here, I discuss and speculate on the social and evolutionary implications of OME and suggest it helps to guide their transition from free‐living cells into coherent and functional populations.
Contextualising Causation Part I
Authors: Reiss Julian 
Published: November 2013

AbstractThis is the first instalment of a two‐part paper on the counterfactual theory of causation. It is well known that this theory is ridden with counterexamples. Specifically, the following four features of the theory suffer from problems:it understands causation as a relation between events;counterfactual dependence is understood using a metric of similarity among possible worlds;it defines a non-discriminatory concept of causation; andit understands causation as transitive.A number of philosophers have recently proposed that causation is contrastive because making contrasts explicit defuses counterexamples. A contrastive causal claim has the following form: C rather than C*causes E rather than E*, where C*and E*are alternative or contrast events. In this paper, I show that making contrasts explicit does indeed defuse some counterexamples. However, I also argue that the examples discussed in the literature all share a common feature, viz. that the original causal judgement is ambiguous in one way or another. Contrasting does not help with counterexamples that do not have this feature. Part II of this paper then takes up the hard cases.
Monetary policy and inflation in South Africa: A VECM augmented with foreign variables
Authors: de Waal Annari , van Eyden Reneé 
Published: November 2013

AbstractWe develop a structural cointegrated vector autoregressive (VAR) model with weakly exogenous foreign variables, known as an augmented VECM or VECX*, suitable for a small open economy like South Africa. This model is novel for South Africa in two ways: it is the first VECX* developed to analyse monetary policy and the first model that uses time‐varying trade weights to create the foreign series. We impose three significant long‐run relations (augmented purchasing power parity, uncovered interest parity and Fisher parity) to investigate the effect of a monetary policy shock on inflation. The results suggest the effective transmission of monetary policy.
A Latent Process Model for Temporal Extremes
Authors: Bortot Paola , Gaetan Carlo 
Published: November 2013

ABSTRACTThis paper presents a hierarchical approach to modelling extremes of a stationary time series. The procedure comprises two stages. In the first stage, exceedances over a high threshold are modelled through a generalized Pareto distribution, which is represented as a mixture of an exponential variable with a Gamma distributed rate parameter. In the second stage, a latent Gamma process is embedded inside the exponential distribution in order to induce temporal dependence among exceedances. Unlike other hierarchical extreme‐value models, this version has marginal distributions that belong to the generalized Pareto family, so that the classical extreme‐value paradigm is respected. In addition, analytical developments show that different choices of the underlying Gamma process can lead to different degrees of temporal dependence of extremes, including asymptotic independence. The model is tested through a simulation study in a Markov chain setting and used for the analysis of two datasets, one environmental and one financial. In both cases, a good flexibility in capturing different types of tail behaviour is obtained.
‘The Ostrich Problem’: Motivated Avoidance or Rejection of Information About Goal Progress
Authors: Webb Thomas L. , Chang Betty P. I. , Benn Yael 
Published: November 2013

AbstractMonitoring one's current standing with respect to goals can promote effective self‐regulation. However, the present review suggests that there is an ostrich problem such that, in many instances, people have a tendency to “bury their head in the sand” and intentionally avoid or reject information that would help them to monitor their goal progress. For example, people with diabetes avoid monitoring their blood glucose, and few people monitor their household energy consumption, check their bank balances, keep track of what they are eating and so on. While situational constraints can explain some problems with progress monitoring, we use a self‐motives framework to posit that the decision to avoid monitoring often represents the product of an interaction between different motives. For example, the desire to accurately assess progress may conflict with the desire to protect or enhance the self. The present review collates evidence pertaining to the ostrich problem, identifies different motives that underlie the decision to monitor versus not monitor goal progress, illustrates how the ostrich problem might be integrated into models of self‐regulation, and provides suggestions for future research. In so doing, the review advances our understanding of the nature and determinants of intentionally deficient monitoring.
Self‐Affirmation: Understanding the Effects
Authors: Sherman David K. 
Published: November 2013

AbstractSelf‐affirmation theory proposes that individuals possess a flexible self‐system, such that they can respond to threats in one domain of life by affirming self‐worth in other domains. In social psychology research, this has been examined in studies where people affirm important values in the context of self‐threatening events or information. This paper reviews the literature demonstrating the effects of values affirmations and proposes a theoretical account to understand how self‐affirmations reduce defensiveness in response to threats to individuals' health, attenuate physiological stress responses to laboratory and naturalistic stressors, and improve academic performance among individuals experiencing identity threat. The proposed model has three components: Self‐affirmations boost self‐resources, broaden the perspective with which people view information and events in their lives, and lead to an uncoupling of the self and the threat, reducing the threat's impact in affecting the self. This model helps explain what occurs when individuals affirm values in the context of threats, and how self‐affirmations may instantiate lasting effects through changing the nature of ongoing experience.
Enterprise Architecture: System and Management Framework for NYCT Vital Systems
Authors: Georgiadis Sofia K. , Comba Andrew 
Published: November 2013

The concept of operations for NYCT systems is changing as a result of Automatic Train Supervision (ATS) Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC), and Solid State Interlocking (SSI) deployment. Train dispatchers are dealing with a higher degree of automation with ATS systems; and similarly, train operators are adjusting to a split between automated and manual processes with CBTC systems. The emerging CBTC and SSI systems are becoming Information Technology (IT) infrastructure and digital-control based. While CBTC is increasing the overall safety of the signaling system, it is also increasing system complexity, especially from an analysis point of view. These issues are addressed at NYCT by the implementation of DoDAF, which the U.S. Department of Defense Architecture Framework, an Enterprise Architecture.
This paper discusses VSI’s application of DoDAF with a focus on the safety certification mission. It begins with an overview of DoDAF, followed by a description of Views and Product-models, the building blocks of DoDAF. Each section presents a high-level description of each View, along with exemplary Product-model descriptions, 1 or 2 per View. In addition, two system capability requirements, Safe Train Separation and Control Speed to Restriction Limits, are examined and mapped throughout the model.
Evaluating the Results and Features of Two Capacity Simulation Tools on the Shared-Use Corridors
Authors: Lautala Pasi , Pouryousef Hamed 
Published: November 2013

The majority of passenger rail services in the United States (U.S.) operate on the shared-use corridors with freight rail. These types of operations tend to be challenging due to high heterogeneity, particularly in terms of reliability of service and capacity availability. The projected growth in demand for rail transportation is likely to exacerbate the situation. Similar to the U.S., the European passenger rail services are generally operated on shared-use corridors, but the infrastructure conditions and the operational priorities and patterns typically allow more reliable and higher speed passenger operations in comparison to the U.S. trains.
Both continents use capacity and simulation software to analyze capacity allocations and operational limitations. However, the effects of the software selection haven’t been investigated. This research reviews two common simulation tools developed in the U.S. and Europe, Rail Traffic Controller (RTC) and Railsys, respectively. The paper reviews the structure and the main components of these two simulation tools. It will also present the outcomes of running RTC and Railsys through a given segment of shared-use track based on the same rolling stock, operation and signaling characteristics and analyze the similarities and differences between the outcomes of RTC and Railsys.
RDSP: A Railway Decision Support Platform for Integrating and Bridging Existed Legacy Systems
Authors: Chen I-Chang , Hsu Shu-Keng , Wu Teh-Juan , Yen Li-Hsien , Lee Yusin , Lin Dung-Ying , Chen Chuen-Yih , Lee Wei-Hsun , Su Guo-Wei 
Published: November 2013

Railway system operation is a very complicated task and must be supported by the coordination of several systems including engineering, transportation, locomotive maintenance and management, ticket system and passengers service, etc. Ideally, a modern railway enterprise information system should be an integrated, consisted, and site-opened database to support railway system operation. However, multiple isolated applications instead of one integrated enterprise information system are often formed due to historical factors such as independent departments, budgetary constraint and application requirements diversification. Take Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) as an example, four major departments have their own support systems and databases that store critical planning and operational data. Those systems are isolated and can hardly communicate with each other. As a result, most cross-systems information analyses or data reference for decision making are done manually, which significantly affect the organizational efficiency of TRA.
To address the aforementioned issues, a railway decision support platform (RDSP) for integrating the legacy systems (databases) is proposed in this paper. RDSP is designed to be a railway enterprise information system that supports the critical functions of data warehouse and decision support. Furthermore, RDSP is built by integrating the existing legacy systems rather than by building it from scratch. A data bridging system (HDBS) including four modules are design and implemented, input module for connecting the external data sources, output module for exporting integrated report or dumping data by predefined criteria for other systems, configuration module with a web-based user interface for setting up the periodic operations of data input or output tasks, and DB connection module for connecting external databases. Various types of railway system data are designed in RDSP schema and collected, including facilities, timetable, train services records, tickets, centralized traffic control (CTC) system records, and automatic train protection (ATP) system records.
RDSP provides a system framework to integrate many isolated island-style databases that currently exist in TRA, and can form a cross-enterprise database that serves as the primary and only data platform. To demonstrate the efficacy of the RDSP, a spatiotemporal ticket-selling analysis report, a train delay cause analysis report, and a timetable planning software (TrainWorld) are designed on top of it. In the future, RDSP will play a major supportive role in infrastructure maintenance, operations, decision support, and planning.
Development of a 5-Camera Transfer Length Measurement System for Real-Time Monitoring of Railroad Crosstie Production
Authors: Zhao Weixin , Beck B. Terry , Peterman Robert J. , Wu Chih-Hang John 
Published: November 2013

Knowledge of transfer length during production is critical for maintaining continuous production quality in the modern manufacture of prestressed concrete railroad crossties. Traditional laboratory methods for measuring transfer length, using manual instruments such as a Whittemore mechanical gauge or surface mounted resistance-type strain gauge, are simply not suitable for production operation. They are too time-consuming to implement, require extensive surface preparation, and can also require special operator training to provide accurate and reliable surface strain profiles from which the transfer length can be determined in a post-processing manner.
In contrast with earlier manual methods, the newly developed non-contact Laser Speckle Imaging (LSI) technique has been shown to be capable of providing rapid and accurate surface strain measurement and consequently also rapid transfer length assessment. This system has recently been automated and combined with the new Zhao-Lee (ZL) least-squares strain profile fitting technique for quickly and reliably processing surface strain data. The automated system and processing procedure have been shown to provide an improved assessment of transfer length, unhampered by human intervention and subsequent potential human judgment bias.
This paper presents recent progress toward the development of a 5-camera non-contact transfer length measurement system that is capable of continuous monitoring of railroad crossties in a production plant. This is made possible using an optimized version of the previously successful LSI system, which minimizes the number of surface strain measurements required to achieve reliable transfer length assessment. Experimental results and analysis will be presented for the latest multi-camera prototype concept for this new system design, demonstrating that only a few discrete surface strain measurements are required to achieve accurate and reliable transfer length assessment. Thus, for the first time it is now possible to envision practical real-time quality control monitoring of railroad crossties during an in-plant production operation.
A Direct Comparison of the Traditional Method and a New Approach in Determining 220 Transfer Lengths in Prestressed Concrete Railroad Ties
Authors: Zhao Weixin , Beck B. Terry , Peterman Robert J. , Murphy Robert , Wu Chih-Hang John , Lee Grace 
Published: November 2013

This paper presents the detailed analysis of surface strain data obtained at six prestressed concrete tie plants in the United States. These data were obtained by the authors by conducting a total of 220 transfer length measurements on prestressed concrete railroad ties with different concrete-mix designs and reinforcement variations.
The surface strain profiles of the railroad ties were obtained using the traditional Whittemore gage, as well as a rapid non-contact technology, called laser-speckle imaging (LSI), that was previously developed by the authors. The LSI technique achieved a microstrain resolution comparable to that was obtained using mechanical gauge technology.
The measured surface strain profiles were then analyzed by both the 95% AMS (95% Average Maximum Strain) method, and the ZL (Zhao-Lee) method that was recently proposed by the authors. The ZL method is an unbiased statistical method that provides a more accurate and reliable transfer length determination. A direct comparison between the 95% AMS method and the ZL method was achieved by applying both methods to determine the 220 railroad tie transfer length values. The comparison confirmed the bias of the 95% AMS method in estimating transfer length value, as predicated by theoretical analysis.
Highway Crossing Control Using PTC Technology
Authors: Thurston David F. 
Published: November 2013

Positive Train Control (PTC) was mandated by Congress in 2008 to be installed on an extensive network of rail carriers within the United States before the end of 2015. As such, the short time frame for implementation has dictated that several key features that could be adopted within the train control area not be considered until the base development is finished. One of the areas that has been pushed off until later is the interface to Highway crossings. This is being explored in part by Caltrain in their Communications Based Overlay Signal System (CBOSS) project that adapts Incremental Train Control System (ITCS) protocols; however this approach does not undertake the full replacement of existing technology.
This paper investigates the concept of operations for PTC controlled highway crossings with the premise that the existing train detection technology will be fully replaced by PTC and its train detection system. This will allow for much reduced hardware in the field while potentially adding additional functionality. Detailed analysis of the safety case will be introduced and interface logic will be included. Additional functions such as prediction, preemption, near side control and switching scenarios will be included in the research for both freight and passenger operations and how these situations can be addressed with available PTC technology.