bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Postnatal nicotine effects on the expression of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the developing piglet hippocampus and brainstem
Authors: Vivekanandarajah Arunnjah , Waters Karen A. , Machaalani Rita 
Published: October 2015

AbstractPostnatal exposure to cigarette smoke during infancy is associated with increased number of respiratory illnesses, impaired pulmonary function, and the occurrence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). It is also associated with reduced cognitive functioning and attention deficits in childhood. Nicotine, the major neurotoxic component of cigarette smoke, induces its actions by binding to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR). Using a piglet model of postnatal nicotine exposure, we studied the immunohistochemical expression of nAChR subunits α2, α3, α4, α5, α7, α9, β1 and β2 in the brainstem medulla and the hippocampus, given the role of these structures in cardiorespiratory control and cognition, respectively. We compared piglets exposed postnatally to 2 mg/kg/day nicotine for 14 days (n = 14: 7 males: 7 females) to controls (n = 14: 7 males: 7 females). In the hippocampus, decreased expression was seen for α3 in CA1 (p = 0.017), α9 in CA1 (p < 0.001) and CA2 (p < 0.001), β1 in CA1 (p = 0.001) and CA2 (p = 0.001) and β2 in CA3 (p = 0.036). In the medulla, the nucleus of the spinal trigeminal tract had increased α2 and α4; vestibular nucleus increased α2 and α3, and decreased α4; hypoglossal decreased α3 and β1; dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus decreased α4 and β1. This is the first demonstration that non‐classical nAChR subunits are affected by postnatal nicotine in the developing brain, and the implications are discussed.
Virtuous Persons and Virtuous Actions in Business Ethics and Organizational Research
Authors: Alzola Miguel 
Published: October 2015

ABSTRACT:The language of virtue is gaining wider appreciation in the philosophical, psychological, and management literatures. Ethicists and social scientists aim to integrate normative and empirical approaches into a new “science of virtue.” But, I submit, they are talking past each other; they hold radically different notions of what a virtue is. In this paper, I shall examine two conflicting conceptions of virtue, what I call the reductive and the non-reductive accounts of virtue. I shall critically study them and argue that the non-reductive view is the best philosophical account of virtue and the only one that can account for the way we talk about virtue in business and in everyday life. We can only understand what it means to act virtuously through the examination of the attitudes, beliefs, desires, and inclinations of the virtuous agent. I shall illustrate the differences between the reductive and non-reductive accounts by considering the virtue of gratitude.
Studying Policy Changes in Disaster Management in India: A Tale of Two Cyclones
Authors: Jha Ayan , Basu Rivu , Basu Atreyee 
Published: October 2015

AbstractObjectiveThe mainstay of India’s disaster management policy until the early 2000s had been relief and rescue operations. The Odisha Super Cyclone (1999) with 10,000 deaths and US $3 billion economic damage provided a rude awakening. Recognizing the importance of preemptive preparedness, the government initiated systematic steps to implement a national framework interlinking economic, environmental, and overall developmental issues for efficient response to and mitigation of disasters.MethodsWe attempted a critical analysis of this paradigm shift in India’s disaster management policy through the prism of 2 cyclones, 14 years apart in time.ResultsWith improved preparedness and response measures, the death toll in 2013 Cyclone Phailin was 0.5% and the economic loss was about one-third of that during 1999. Concomitant improvements in the technological expertise of the early warning system, an integrated approach at all levels of administration including joint planning with major nongovernmental organizations, and improved community participation were identified as game-changers. An unbelievable 1 million people were evacuated to safety.ConclusionsOur essay aims to highlight key steps in this success and calls for futuristic approaches like insurance programs and gender-sensitive recovery plans. With thorough scrutiny, India’s model may well stand to be replicated in resource-restricted settings. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;10:42-46)
Partisan Politics and Congressional Election Prospects: Evidence from the Iowa Electronic Markets
Authors: Berg Joyce E. , Penney Christopher E. , Rietz Thomas A. 
Published: October 2015

ABSTRACTUsing the Iowa Electronic Markets (IEM), this article assesses the political impact of several important events during the fall of 2013: the US government shutdown, the Senate elimination of filibusters for presidential nominations (i.e., the “nuclear option”), and the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (i.e., ObamaCare). Did these events have meaningful effects on congressional control prospects in the 2014 election? According to IEM price changes, Republican chances fell dramatically when the government shut down, and they did not recover on resolution. Eliminating filibusters had a negative impact on Democratic chances. Various aspects of the ObamaCare rollout and reporting, as well as new announcements that incumbents would not run for reelection, had little effect. In contrast, the budget resolution reinforced the status quo. Overall, political rhetoric does not appear to affect congressional control prospects. Instead, actions matter: deliberate partisan actions of Congress adversely affect the initiating party’s prospects, whereas bipartisan initiatives help the party that initiates the bipartisan effort.
Reviewer Fatigue? Why Scholars Decline to Review their Peers’ Work
Authors: Breuning Marijke , Backstrom Jeremy , Brannon Jeremy , Gross Benjamin Isaak , Widmeier Michael 
Published: October 2015

ABSTRACTAs new academic journals have emerged in political science and existing journals experience increasing submission rates, editors are concerned that scholars experience “reviewer fatigue.” Editors often assume that an overload of requests to review makes scholars less willing to perform the anonymous yet time-consuming tasks associated with reviewing manuscripts. To date, there has not been a systematic investigation of the reasons why scholars decline to review. We empirically investigated the rate at which scholars accept or decline to review, as well as the reasons they gave for declining. We found that reviewer fatigue is only one of several reasons why scholars decline to review. The evidence suggests that scholars are willing to review but that they also lead busy professional and personal lives.
Teaching Policy Analysis Through Animated Films: A Mickey Mouse Assignment?
Authors: Cooley Valerie , Pennock Andrew 
Published: October 2015

ABSTRACTTo conduct a policy analysis, students must master foundational concepts and apply them using critical and evaluative thinking. A film-based assignment allows students to practice the steps of policy analysis in a low-stakes setting that requires a limited investment of time. Ideally, the assignment is used as an initial practice exercise before engaging in applied projects later in the semester. The applied projects are enhanced because students already have used the steps of policy analysis and been given feedback in a sheltered setting. We suggest using animated films for this assignment because they force students to define problems, solutions, and criteria without reference to existing practices or dominant perspectives. Therefore, student time and instructor feedback is devoted to developing what Bardach termed “first-rate thinking.” Concentrating attention on logical thought processes builds a strong foundation for further training in policy analysis.
Simulating the Bargaining Model of War
Authors: Haynes Kyle 
Published: October 2015

ABSTRACTThis article outlines a classroom simulation for teaching the bargaining model of war. This model has become one of the most important theories of international conflict, but the technical notation often used to illustrate it is troublesome for some students. I describe a simple card game that can be integrated into a broader strategy for conveying the bargaining model’s core insights. I also highlight ways in which the game can be modified to focus on different aspects of the model’s logic.
We Still Need You! An Update on the Status of K-12 Civics Education in the United States
Authors: Journell Wayne 
Published: October 2015

ABSTRACTIn 2001, Richard Niemi and Julia Smith published an article inPS: Political Science and Politicson enrollments in high school civics and government courses. They framed their study on the premise that political scientists were ignoring an important aspect of American civic and political life, and they concluded by issuing a call for political scientists to become more involved in K-12 civics education. This article provides an update on the state of K-12 civics education and renews Niemi and Smith’s call for political science engagement in K-12 education.
INDICATIVE CONDITIONALS, RESTRICTED QUANTIFICATION, AND NAIVE TRUTH
Authors: FIELD HARTRY 
Published: October 2015

AbstractThis paper extends Kripke’s theory of truth to a language with a variably strict conditional operator, of the kind that Stalnaker and others have used to represent ordinary indicative conditionals of English. It then shows how to combine this with a different and independently motivated conditional operator, to get a substantial logic of restricted quantification within naive truth theory.
Enhancer repertoires are reshaped independently of early priming and heterochromatin dynamics during B cell differentiation
Authors: Choukrallah Mohamed-Amin , Song Shuang , Rolink Antonius G. , Burger Lukas , Matthias Patrick 
Published: October 2015

AbstractA widely accepted model posits that activation of enhancers during differentiation goes through a priming step prior to lineage commitment. To investigate the chronology of enhancer repertoire establishment during hematopoiesis, we monitored epigenome dynamics during three developmental stages representing hematopoietic stem cells, B-cell progenitors and mature B-cells. We find that only a minority of enhancers primed in stem cells or progenitors become active at later stages. Furthermore, most enhancers active in differentiated cells were not primed in earlier stages. Thus, the enhancer repertoire is reshaped dynamically during B-cell differentiation and enhancer priming in early stages does not appear to be an obligate step for enhancer activation. Furthermore, our data reveal that heterochromatin and Polycomb-mediated silencing have only a minor contribution in shaping enhancer repertoires during cell differentiation. Together, our data revisit the prevalent model about epigenetic reprogramming during hematopoiesis and give insights into the formation of gene regulatory networks.
Quantum-secure covert communication on bosonic channels
Authors: Bash Boulat A. , Gheorghe Andrei H. , Patel Monika , Habif Jonathan L. , Goeckel Dennis , Towsley Don , Guha Saikat 
Published: October 2015

AbstractComputational encryption, information-theoretic secrecy and quantum cryptography offer progressively stronger security against unauthorized decoding of messages contained in communication transmissions. However, these approaches do not ensure stealth—that the mere presence of message-bearing transmissions be undetectable. We characterize the ultimate limit of how much data can be reliably and covertly communicated over the lossy thermal-noise bosonic channel (which models various practical communication channels). We show that whenever there is some channel noise that cannot in principle be controlled by an otherwise arbitrarily powerful adversary—for example, thermal noise from blackbody radiation—the number of reliably transmissible covert bits is at most proportional to the square root of the number of orthogonal modes (the time-bandwidth product) available in the transmission interval. We demonstrate this in a proof-of-principle experiment. Our result paves the way to realizing communications that are kept covert from an all-powerful quantum adversary.
Optimizing Field Emission Properties of the Hybrid Structures of Graphene Stretched on Patterned and Size-controllable SiNWs
Authors: Lv Shasha , Li Zhengcao , Liao Jiecui , Wang Guojing , Li Mingyang , Miao Wei 
Published: October 2015

AbstractGraphene is one of the ideal nanomaterials to be paired with silicon and their complementary properties can be exploited in field emission (FE) devices. We reported an efficient way to produce and adjust the dimension of uniform protrusions within graphene. First, a multistep template replication process was utilized to fabricate highly periodic and well-aligned silicon nanowires (SiNWs) of different diameters (400, 500 and 600 nm). Then, large-scale and uniform graphene, fabricated by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), was transferred onto these size-controlled SiNWs to obtain the nanoscale and uniform undulations. As compared to the nanowires alone, the hybrid structures lead to higher FE performance due to electron conductivity enhancement, high-density emmison protrusions and band bending. These hybrid SiNWs/graphene structures could provide a promising class of field emission cathodes.
Seasonal Expression of Prolactin Receptor in the Scented Gland of Male Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus)
Authors: Cao Han , Wang Liang , Zhang Shuo , Lu Lu , Sheng Xia , Han Yingying , Yuan Zhengrong , Weng Qiang 
Published: October 2015

AbstractProlactin (PRL) has numerous actions in mammalian biological systems including mammary development and biological processes. The aim of this study was to investigate the seasonal changes of prolactin receptor (PRLR) expression in the scented gland of muskrat during the breeding and nonbreeding seasons. Histologically, glandular cells, interstitial cells and excretory tubules were identified in the scented glands in both seasons, whereas epithelial cells were sparse in the nonbreeding season. PRLR was observed in glandular cells of scented glands during the breeding and nonbreeding seasons with stronger immunostaining during the breeding season. Consistent with the immunohistochemical results, both the mean of protein and mRNA levels of PRLR were higher in the scented glands of the breeding season and relatively lower level in the nonbreeding season. In addition, differential seasonal changes were also detected in the expression profile of microRNAs (miRNAs) in the scented gland of muskrat. Besides, plasma PRL concentration was remarkably higher in the breeding season than that in the nonbreeding season. These results suggested that muskrat scented gland was the direct target organ of PRL and stronger expression of PRLR in scented glands during the breeding season indicated that PRL may directly regulate scented glandular function of the muskrats.
Global Landscape of Total Organic Carbon, Nitrogen and Phosphorus in Lake Water
Authors: Chen Ming , Zeng Guangming , Zhang Jiachao , Xu Piao , Chen Anwei , Lu Lunhui 
Published: October 2015

AbstractHuman activities continue to increase the amount of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in lakes, which may cause serious environmental and human health problems. Global landscape of total organic C (TOC), N and P in lake water is still poorly known. Using a global data set that covers ~8300 lakes from 68 countries/regions spanning six continents, we estimate that global mean concentrations and storage in lake water are 5.578 mg L−1 and 984.0 Tg for TOC, 0.526 mg L−1 and 92.8 Tg for TN and 0.014 mg L−1 and 2.5 Tg for TP. These lake elements are significantly interrelated and in uneven distribution, being associated with morphological characteristics and climate conditions. We proposed that global C, N and P cycles should be considered as a whole in biogeochemical studies and policy-making related to environmental protection.
Thermodynamic holography
Authors: Wei Bo-Bo , Jiang Zhan-Feng , Liu Ren-Bao 
Published: October 2015

AbstractThe holographic principle states that the information about a volume of a system is encoded on the boundary surface of the volume. Holography appears in many branches of physics, such as optics, electromagnetism, many-body physics, quantum gravity and string theory. Here we show that holography is also an underlying principle in thermodynamics, a most important foundation of physics. The thermodynamics of a system is fully determined by its partition function. We prove that the partition function of a finite but arbitrarily large system is an analytic function on the complex plane of physical parameters and therefore the partition function in a region on the complex plane is uniquely determined by its values along the boundary. The thermodynamic holography has applications in studying thermodynamics of nano-scale systems (such as molecule engines, nano-generators and macromolecules) and provides a new approach to many-body physics.
Combination of six enzymes of a marine Novosphingobium converts the stereoisomers of β-O-4 lignin model dimers into the respective monomers
Authors: Ohta Yukari , Nishi Shinro , Hasegawa Ryoichi , Hatada Yuji 
Published: October 2015

AbstractLignin, an aromatic polymer of phenylpropane units joined predominantly by β-O-4 linkages, is the second most abundant biomass component on Earth. Despite the continuous discharge of terrestrially produced lignin into marine environments, few studies have examined lignin degradation by marine microorganisms. Here, we screened marine isolates for β-O-4 cleavage activity and determined the genes responsible for this enzymatic activity in one positive isolate.Novosphingobiumsp. strain MBES04 converted all four stereoisomers of guaiacylglycerol-β-guaiacyl ether (GGGE), a structural mimic of lignin, to guaiacylhydroxypropanone as an end metabolite in three steps involving six enzymes, including a newly identifiedNu-class glutathione-S-transferase (GST).In silicosearches of the strain MBES04 genome revealed that four GGGE-metabolizing GST genes were arranged in a cluster. Transcriptome analysis demonstrated that the lignin model compounds GGGE and (2-methoxyphenoxy)hydroxypropiovanillone (MPHPV) enhanced the expression of genes in involved in energy metabolism, including aromatic-monomer assimilation and evoked defense responses typically expressed upon exposure to toxic compounds. The findings from this study provide insight into previously unidentified bacterial enzymatic systems and the physiological acclimation of microbes associated with the biological transformation of lignin-containing materials in marine environments.
A new method for achieving enhanced dielectric response over a wide temperature range
Authors: Maurya Deepam , Sun Fu-Chang , Pamir Alpay S. , Priya Shashank 
Published: October 2015

AbstractWe report a novel approach for achieving high dielectric response over a wide temperature range. In this approach, multilayer ceramic heterostructures with constituent compositions having strategically tuned Curie points (TC) were designed and integrated with varying electrical connectivity. Interestingly, these multilayer structures exhibited different dielectric behavior in series and parallel configuration due to variations in electrical boundary conditions resulting in the differences in the strength of the electrostatic coupling. The results are explained using nonlinear thermodynamic model taking into account electrostatic interlayer interaction. We believe that present work will have huge significance in design of high performance ceramic capacitors.
Targeting autocrine HB-EGF signaling with specific ADAM12 inhibition using recombinant ADAM12 prodomain
Authors: Miller Miles A. , Moss Marcia L. , Powell Gary , Petrovich Robert , Edwards Lori , Meyer Aaron S. , Griffith Linda G. , Lauffenburger Douglas A. 
Published: October 2015

AbstractDysregulation of ErbB-family signaling underlies numerous pathologies and has been therapeutically targeted through inhibiting ErbB-receptors themselves or their cognate ligands. For the latter, “decoy” antibodies have been developed to sequester ligands including heparin-binding epidermal growth factor (HB-EGF); however, demonstrating sufficient efficacy has been difficult. Here, we hypothesized that this strategy depends on properties such as ligand-receptor binding affinity, which varies widely across the known ErbB-family ligands. Guided by computational modeling, we found that high-affinity ligands such as HB-EGF are more difficult to target with decoy antibodies compared to low-affinity ligands such as amphiregulin (AREG). To address this issue, we developed an alternative method for inhibiting HB-EGF activity by targeting its cleavage from the cell surface. In a model of the invasive disease endometriosis, we identified A Disintegrin and Metalloproteinase 12 (ADAM12) as a protease implicated in HB-EGF shedding. We designed a specific inhibitor of ADAM12 based on its recombinant prodomain (PA12), which selectively inhibits ADAM12 but not ADAM10 or ADAM17. In endometriotic cells, PA12 significantly reduced HB-EGF shedding and resultant cellular migration. Overall, specific inhibition of ligand shedding represents a possible alternative to decoy antibodies, especially for ligands such as HB-EGF that exhibit high binding affinity and localized signaling.
RETRACTED ARTICLE: A novel IgY-Aptamer hybrid system for cost-effective detection of SEB and its evaluation on food and clinical samples
Authors: Mudili Venkataramana , Makam Shivakiran S. , Sundararaj Naveen , Siddaiah Chandranayaka , Gupta Vijai Kumar , Rao Putcha V. Lakshmana 
Published: October 2015

AbstractIn the present study, we introduce a novel hybrid sandwich-ALISA employing chicken IgY and ssDNA aptamers for the detection of staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB). Cloning, expression and purification of the full length recombinant SEB was carried out. Anti-SEB IgY antibodies generated by immunizing white leg-horn chickens with purified recombinant SEB protein and were purified from the immunized egg yolk. Simultaneously, ssDNA aptamers specific to the toxin were prepared by SELEX method on microtiter well plates. The sensitivity levels of both probe molecules i.e., IgY and ssDNA aptamers were evaluated. We observed that the aptamer at 250 ngmL−1 concentration could detect the target antigen at 50 ngmL−1 and the IgY antibodies at 250 ngmL−1, could able to detect 100 ngmL−1 antigen. We further combined both the probes to prepare a hybrid sandwich aptamer linked immune sorbent assay (ALISA) wherein the IgY as capturing molecule and biotinylated aptamer as revealing probe. Limit of detection (LOD) for the developed method was determined as 50 ngmL−1. Further, developed method was evaluated with artificially SEB spiked milk and natural samples and obtained results were validated with PCR. In conclusion, developed ALISA method may provide cost-effective and robust detection of SEB from food and environmental samples.