bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Piketty's capital and social policy
Authors: Piachaud David 
Published: December 2014

AbstractPiketty's Capital (2014) primarily describes and analyses changes in the distribution of wealth and annual incomes. This paper focuses on his policy proposals that make up Part Four of the book.Piketty defends the ‘social state’ but he discusses it largely in terms of distribution and redistribution between tax units. This neglects the important role of social policy in promoting recognition and redistribution of income and opportunities that is related to gender, race, disability and sexual orientation. Nor does Piketty consider inequalities in health which effect life‐time incomes, nor the impact of housing policies on house prices and the distribution of wealth. It is argued that Piketty's approach to social security is simplistic and plays down the complexity of competing policy goals. On taxation, Piketty defends progressive taxation and proposes a global capital levy. The latter proposal runs into formidable problems in seeking global taxation in a world of nation states. Rather than seeking a policy that is, for the foreseeable future, wholly politically impractical, a case is made for less idealistic but more practical and urgent tax coordination between nations to address the widespread avoidance of taxation that large corporations and the very wealthy are now permitted – taxation on which the future of the social state depends.The importance of human and social capital, which are largely set aside by Piketty, are discussed. Finally,it is argued that his approach to policy is to describe trends and propose amelioration of growing inequality rather than to identify causes of the trends and propose policies that might address the causes. Nevertheless, the importance of his work in bringing issues of inequality to the fore, especially among economists, is recognized and applauded.
The politics of Piketty: what political science can learn from, and contribute to, the debate on Capital in the Twenty‐First Century
Authors: Hopkin Jonathan 
Published: December 2014

AbstractThomas Piketty's imposing volume has brought serious economics firmly into the mainstream of public debate on inequality, yet political science has been mostly absent from this debate. This article argues that political science has an essential contribution to make to this debate, and that Piketty's important and powerful book lacks a clear political theory. It develops this argument by first assessing and critiquing the changing nature of political science and its account of contemporary capitalism, and then suggesting how Piketty's thesis can be complemented, extended and challenged by focusing on the ways in which politics and collective action shape the economy and the distribution of income and wealth. Although Capital's principal message is that ‘capital is back’ and that without political interventions active political interventions will continue to grow, a political economy perspective would suggest another rather more fundamental critique: the very economic forces Piketty describes are embedded in institutional arrangements which can only be properly understood as political phenomena. In a sense capital itself – the central concept of the book – is almost meaningless without proper consideration of its political foundations. Even if the fact of capital accumulation may respond to an economic logic, the process is embedded in a very political logic. The examples of housing policy and the regulation, and failure to regulate, financial markets are used to illustrate these points.
Where's the capital? A geographical essay
Authors: Jones Gareth A. 
Published: December 2014

AbstractThis paper is inspired byThomasPiketty's bookCapital in theTwenty‐FirstCentury.Piketty does a wonderful job of tracing income and wealth over time, and relating changes to trends of economic and population growth, and drawing out the implications for inequality, inheritance and even democracy. But, he says relatively little about where capital is located, how capital accumulation in one place relies on activities elsewhere, how capital is urbanized with advanced capitalism and what life is like in spaces without capital. This paper asks ‘where is the geography inCapital’ or ‘where is the geography of capital inCapital’? FollowingPiketty's lead, the paper develops its analysis through a number of important novels. It examines, first, the debate thatJaneAusten ignored colonialism and slavery in her treatment of nineteenth centuryBritain, second, howBalzac and thenZola provide insight to the urban political economy of capital later in the century, and third, howKatherineBoo attends to inequality as the everyday suffering of the poor.
Changes in Quality of Health Care Delivery after Vertical Integration
Authors: Carlin Caroline S. , Dowd Bryan , Feldman Roger 
Published: December 2014

ObjectivesTo fill an empirical gap in the literature by examining changes in quality of care measures occurring when multispecialty clinic systems were acquired by hospital‐owned, vertically integrated health care delivery systems in the Twin Cities area.Data Sources/Study SettingAdministrative data for health plan enrollees attributed to treatment and control clinic systems, merged with U.S. Census data.Study DesignWe compared changes in quality measures for health plan enrollees in the acquired clinics to enrollees in nine control groups using a differences‐in‐differences model. Our dataset spans 2 years prior to and 4 years after the acquisitions. We estimated probit models with errors clustered within enrollees.Data Collection/Extraction MethodsData were assembled by the health plan's informatics team.Principal FindingsVertical integration is associated with increased rates of colorectal and cervical cancer screening and more appropriate emergency department use. The probability of ambulatory care–sensitive admissions increased when the acquisition caused disruption in admitting patterns.ConclusionsMoving a clinic system into a vertically integrated delivery system resulted in limited increases in quality of care indicators. Caution is warranted when the acquisition causes disruption in referral patterns.
Cardiopulmonary exercise testing screening and pre‐operative pulmonary rehabilitation reduce postoperative complications and improve fast‐track recovery after lung cancer surgery: A study for 342 cases
Authors: Gao Ke , Yu Peng‐ming , Su Jian‐hua , He Cheng‐qi , Liu Lun‐xu , Zhou Yu‐bin , Pu Qiang , Che Guo‐wei 
Published: December 2014

AbstractBackgroundAn evaluation of cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) screening and pre‐operative pulmonary rehabilitation in reducing postoperative complications and improving fast‐track recovery in high‐risk patients who undergo resection for lung cancer.MethodsOf 342 potential lung cancer cases, 142 high‐risk patients were finally divided into two groups: group R (n = 71) underwent an intensive pre‐operative pulmonary rehabilitation program (PRP), followed by lobectomy; group S (n = 71) underwent only lobectomy with conventional management. Postoperative complications, average days in hospital, postoperative days in hospital, and cost were analyzed.ResultsThe 142 high‐risk patients were screened by smoking history and CPET. Sixty‐eight patients had bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) and 47 patients had peak expiratory flow <250 L/minute by CPET. The rate of postoperative total complications in group R (16.90%) was significantly lower than in group S (83.31%) (P = 0.00), as was the rate of postoperative pulmonary complications PPC: group R (12.81%) versus S (13.55%) (P = 0.009); the PPC in the left lung (17.9%) was higher than in the right lung (2.3%) (P = 0.00). The average days in hospital in group S was significantly higher than in group R (P = 0.03). There was no difference between groups in average hospital cost (P = 0.304).ConclusionPre‐operative screening using CPET is conducive to identifying high‐risk patients for lung resection. Pre‐operative pulmonary rehabilitation is helpful to reduce postoperative complications and improve fast‐track recovery.
Land‐use Change Dynamics, Soil Type and Species Forming Mono‐dominant Patches: the Case of Pteridium aquilinum in a Neotropical Rain Forest Region
Authors: Suazo‐Ortuño Ireri , Lopez‐Toledo Leonel , Alvarado‐Díaz Javier , Martínez‐Ramos Miguel 
Published: December 2014

AbstractDeforestation and agricultural land degradation in tropical regions can create conditions for growth of perennial plant species forming mono‐dominated patches (MDP). Such species might limit forest regeneration, and their proliferation forces the abandonment of fields and subsequent deforestation to establish new fields. Therefore, identifying factors fostering MDP species is critical for biodiversity conservation in human‐modified landscapes. Here, we propose a conceptual framework to identify such factors and apply it to the case of Pteridium aquilinum (bracken fern), a light‐demanding species, tolerant of low soil fertility and fire. We hypothesize that bracken proliferation is promoted by land‐use changes that increase light availability, especially in sites with low soil fertility and land uses involving fire. We assessed this idea using agricultural fields in southeastern Mexico with different land‐use change histories and quantifying prevalence and cover of bracken. Five different land‐use change histories resulted from transitions among forest, crop, pasture, and fallow field stages. Of the 133 fields sampled, 71 percent had P. aquilinum; regression tree analysis indicated that 65 percent of inter‐field variation in prevalence and 90 percent in cover was explained by land‐use change history and soil type. Maximum prevalence, cover, and rates of increase in bracken were found on fields with low fertility sandy/clay soils, which had been used for crops and pasture, were frequently burned, and had high levels of light. Fields on fertile alluvial soil never used for pasture were bracken‐free. Agriculture promoting high light environments on less fertile soils is a major cause of bracken proliferation and likely that of other MDP species.
Ant Diversity in Dominant Vegetation Types of Southern Cameroon
Authors: Fotso Kuate Apollin , Hanna Rachid , Tindo Maurice , Nanga Samuel , Nagel Peter 
Published: December 2014

AbstractAnts have been shown as particularly affected by land disturbance through deforestation and conversion of forest to agriculture. The effect of land use change on ant diversity in the Congo Basin is not well known. We conducted intensive sampling along a gradient of increasing vegetation disturbance to test the effect of habitat disturbance on ant diversity and Functional Groups composition. Sampling was conducted in 30 plots (5 study sites × 3 habitat × 2 plots/habitat), replicated six times in 1 year. In each plot, ants were monitored with pitfall traps, quadrats and baits. We recorded 237 ant morphospecies grouped in 10 subfamilies and 43 genera. Myrmicaria opaciventris was the most abundant species followed by Anoplolepis tenella. Forest had greater ant diversity compared with fallows and mixed‐crop fields. Functional groups were dominated by Opportunists, followed by Omnivorous Arboreal Dominants and Generalized Mymicinae. Their composition was not affected by the disturbance, but occurrence of Specialist Predators decreased with increasing disturbance. Occurrence of Generalized Myrmicinae, Opportunists and Subordinate Camponotini increased with disturbance. These results indicate that forest conversion into mixed‐crop fields reduce ant diversity. It can also increase abundance of species with generalized diet that predominates where stress and disturbance limits other ants.
Consistent Effects of Disturbance and Forest Edges on the Invasion of a Continental Rain Forest by Alien Plants
Authors: Dawson Wayne , Burslem David F. R. P. , Hulme Philip E. 
Published: December 2014

AbstractContinental tropical forests are thought to be resistant to alien plant invasion due to a lack of disturbance, or low propagule pressure from introduced species. We assessed the importance of disturbance and edge effects by surveying areas of submontane and lowland forest of Amani Nature Reserve in the East Usambara mountains, Tanzania. These areas are in the vicinity of Amani Botanic Garden (ABG)—a propagule source for many alien plant species. We surveyed three edges in the vicinity of the ABG plantations, using plots interspersed along multiple 250 m transects. Survey plots were either in secondary or seminatural forest, representing a difference in past disturbance). Alien plant species richness and abundance declined with increasing distance from forest edges, indicating that edge effects were important. In addition, the effect of distance on richness and abundance of alien species as adults was much smaller in seminatural than secondary forest, emphasizing that invasion of seminatural forest is less likely to occur. Abundance and occurrence of individual species showed broadly similar declines with increasing distance from the forest edge, and lower abundance in seminatural compared to secondary forest. Alien species were dominant in 15 percent of plots surveyed. As 28 percent of the Amani nature reserve forest is within 250 m of an edge, the importance of disturbance and edges could make a potentially large proportion of the forest vulnerable to alien species invasion.
Role of mtDNA‐related mitoepigenetic phenomena in cancer
Authors: Ferreira André , Serafim Teresa L. , Sardão Vilma A. , Cunha‐Oliveira Teresa 
Published: December 2014

AbstractBackgroundAbnormal mitochondrial function has long been associated with the development and the progression of cancer. Multiple defects in the mitochondrial genome have been reported for various cancers, however the often disregarded mitochondrial epigenetic landscape provides an additional source of deregulation that may contribute to carcinogenesis.DesignThis article reviews the current understanding of mitochondrial epigenetics and how it may relate to cancer progression and development. Relevant studies were found through electronic databases (Web of Science and PubMed).Results and conclusionsThe remarkably unexplored field of mitochondrial epigenetics has the potential to shed light on several cancer‐related mitochondrial abnormalities. More studies using innovative, genome‐wide sequencing technologies are highly warranted to assess whether and how altered mtDNA methylation patterns affect cancer initiation and progression.
Species‐specific PCR for rapid identification of Ganoderma philippii and Ganoderma mastoporum from Acacia mangium and Eucalyptus pellita plantations in Indonesia
Authors: Yuskianti V. , Glen M. , Puspitasari D. , Francis A. , Rimbawanto A. , Gafur A. , Indrayadi H. , Mohammed C. L. 
Published: December 2014

SummaryDNA sequence variation in the rDNA internal transcribed spacers (ITS) was exploited to design species‐specific primers for Ganoderma philippii and Ganoderma mastoporum, two fungi associated with red root rot in Acacia mangium and other perennial crops. Specificity was verified against five other Ganoderma species, 34 other basidiomycete species and two ascomycete species. The PCR tests assisted in the identification of 822 fungal isolates obtained from A. mangium and Eucalyptus pellita plantations in Indonesia. These tests have provided a high level of confidence in the identification of the major root rot pathogens, information that can be used to support the development of management options for their control in A. mangium plantations.
Selective processing of buildings and faces during working memory: the role of the ventral striatum
Authors: Haeger Alexa , Lee Hweeling , Fell Juergen , Axmacher Nikolai 
Published: December 2014

AbstractThe ventral striatum seems to play an important role during working memory (WM) tasks when irrelevant information needs to be filtered out. However, the concrete neural mechanisms underlying this process are still unknown. In this study, we investigated these mechanisms in detail. Eighteen healthy human participants were presented with multiple items consisting of faces or buildings. They either had to maintain two or four items from one category (low‐ and high‐memory‐load condition), or two from one category and suppress (filter out) two items from the other category (distraction condition). Striatal activity was increased in the distraction as compared with the high‐load condition. Activity in category‐specific regions in the inferior temporal cortex [fusiform face area (FFA) and parahippocampal place area (PPA)] was reduced when items from the other category needed to be selectively maintained. Furthermore, functional connectivity analysis showed significant reduction of striatal–PPA correlations during selective maintenance of faces. However, striatal–FFA connectivity was not reduced during maintenance of buildings vs. faces, possibly because face stimuli are more salient. Taken together, our results suggest that the ventral striatum supports selective WM maintenance by reduced gating of task‐irrelevant activity via attenuating functional connectivity without increasing task‐relevant activity correspondingly.
Host plants of Anoplophora glabripennis, a review
Authors: van der Gaag D. J. , Loomans A. J. M. 
Published: December 2014

Anoplophora glabripennis (Asian longhorned beetle) attacks many different broadleaf tree species. Although there is no doubt that A. glabripennis can complete its life cycle on species belonging to various genera such as Acer, Populus, Salix and Ulmus, there is conflicting information about the host plant status of many other species. Plant species may have been listed because of maturation feeding or oviposition, without evidence that A. glabripennis can actually complete its life cycle on these species. In the present review, 34 plant taxa that have been listed as A. glabripennis‐hosts are placed in four different categories based on information available through literature search and by personal communication with experts. The categories are: (I) plant species on which A. glabripennis has been reported to complete its life cycle (from oviposition to emergence of new beetles) under field conditions, (II) plant species on which A. glabripennis has completed its life cycle in laboratory or semi‐field experiments (i.e. plants and beetles reared in cages), (III) plant species on which A. glabripennis has been reported to complete part of its life cycle, and (IV) others. The following genera were placed in category I: Acer, Aesculus, Betula, Cercidiphyllum, Fraxinus, Platanus, Populus, Salix and Ulmus. The species Albizia julibrissin, Corylus colurna, Elaeagnus angustifolia, Fagus sylvatica, Koelreuteria paniculata, Malus domestica, Pyrus bretschneideri and Sorbus aucuparia were also placed in category I, although records on exit holes were limited. These species may be rather poor or unattractive hosts on which A. glabripennis may only incidentally oviposit and/or complete its life cycle or the species may be rather uncommon in outbreak areas thus far and, therefore, not frequently attacked. Elaeagnus angustifolia has also been reported to be resistant. For some of the species listed the host plant status may need confirmation. The list of category I species may also become longer in the future because several of the plant species listed only recently appeared to be true hosts, i.e. supporting completion of the full life cycle of A. glabripennis.
Interlaboratory tests for resistance toSynchytrium endobioticumin potato by theGlynne‐Lemmerzahl method
Authors: Flath K. , Przetakiewicz J. , van Rijswick P. C. J. , Ristau V. , van Leeuwen G. C. M. 
Published: December 2014

Synchytrium endobioticumis a major quarantine pathogen of potato causing potato wart disease. In Europe, the pathotypes 1(D1), 2(G1), 6(O1) and 18(T1) are the most widespread and occur locally in almost all countries. Resistance to this disease in potato cultivars is tested for in the majority of theEUcountries by the Glynne‐Lemmerzahl method. This paper describes the results of testing two different protocols of this method in five laboratories of three different countries (Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands). The four pathotypes 1(D1), 2(G1), 6(O1) and 18(T1) were tested mainly on the cultivars described in theEPPOStandard PM 7/28Synchytrium endobioticum. For pathotype 1(D1) and in most cases also for pathotype 18(T1), the results of the cultivars tested were identical to the rating in theEPPOStandard for both protocols. For pathotypes 2(G1) and 6(O1), the cultivars Désirée, Delcora and Miriam showed different results between laboratories as well as between the two protocols. In conclusion, further research is needed to develop one harmonised methodology for resistance testing of potato cultivars to the pathotypes 2(G1), 6(O1) and 18(T1) and to develop a new differential set of potato cultivars for the identification of pathotypes ofS. endobioticum.
Preventing a new invasive alien plant from entering and spreading in the Euro‐Mediterranean region: the case study of Parthenium hysterophorus
Authors: Brunel S. , Panetta D. , Fried G. , Kriticos D. , Prasad R. , Lansink A. O. , Shabbir A. , Yaacoby T. 
Published: December 2014

Parthenium or famine weed (Parthenium hysterophorus L.) is an annual plant originating from the Americas, which is a major invasive alien plant in almost all continents. While the deleterious impacts of the species on agriculture, human and animal health have been well documented, information on the pathways of entry of the species is only occasionally mentioned in the literature. As this invasive alien plant is only recorded as established in Israel and Egypt within the Euro‐Mediterranean region, the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization identified P. hysterophorus as an emerging threat. EPPO therefore performed a Pest Risk Analysis on this species to assess the risk it represents and to consider appropriate management options. The EPPO Pest Risk Analysis main outputs are summarized in this article, indicating the probability of entry of the species via the different pathways within the EPPO region, its probabilities of establishment and spread, and the magnitude of its potential agricultural, environmental and social impacts.