bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Integrating biology into invasive species management is a key principle for eradication success: the case of yellow crazy antAnoplolepis gracilipesin northern Australia
Authors: Hoffmann B.D. 
Published: September 2014

AbstractThe lack of biological knowledge of many invasive species remains as one of the greatest impediments to their management. Here I detail targeted research into the biology of the yellow crazy antAnoplolepis gracilipeswithin northern Australia and detail how such knowledge can be used to improve the management outcomes for this species. I quantified nest location and density in three habitats, worker activity over 24 h, infestation expansion rate, seasonal variation of worker abundance and the timing of production of sexuals. Nests were predominantly (up to 68%) located at the bases of large trees, indicating that search efforts should focus around tree bases. Nest density was one nest per 22, 7.1 and 6.3 m2in the three habitats, respectively. These data form the baselines for quantifying treatment efficacy and set sampling densities for post-treatment assessments. Most (60%) nests were underground, predominantly (89%) occurring in an open area rather than underneath a rock or log. Some seasonality was evident for nests within leaf litter, with most (83%) occurring during the ‘wet season’ (October–March). Of the underground nests, most were shallow, with 44% being less than 10 cm deep, and 67% being less than 20 cm deep. Such nest location and density information serves many management purposes, for improving detection, mapping and post-treatment assessments, and also provided strong evidence that carbohydrate supply was a major driver ofA. gracilipespopulations. Just over half of the nests (56%) contained queens. Of the 62 underground nests containing queens, most queens (80%) were located at the deepest chamber. When queens were present, most often (38%) only one queen was present, the most being 16. Queen number per nest was the lowest in July and August just prior to the emergence of virgin queens in September, with queen numbers then remaining steadily high until April. Nothing is known for any ant species about how the queen number per nest/colony affects treatment efficacy, but further research would no doubt yield important breakthroughs for treating ants. Activity occurred predominantly nocturnally, ceasing during mid-day. These activity data determined the critical threshold above which work must be conducted to be considered reliable, and also suggests that treatments are best applied in the afternoon. Total brood production peaked in February and was the lowest around August and September. These abundance data form the baselines for quantifying treatment efficacy, and may have implications for treatment efficacy. Males were found every month, predominantly between August and November. Queen pupae were found in September. The reproductive timing of sexuals determines the treatment schedule. Targeted, site-specific research such as that described here should be an integral part of any eradication program for invasive species to design knowledge-based treatment protocols and determine assessment benchmarks.
General
Authors: Izzet Vedia , Shorrock Robert 
Published: September 2014

Originally published in Dutch in 1995, Antiquity. Greeks and Romans in Context by Frederick Naerebout and Henk Singor aims to provide (in its own modest words) a ‘reasonably comprehensive one-volume’ overview of the Greco-Roman world for undergraduates and a wider interested audience (xiii). The main focus of the work is the Greco-Roman world from 1000 bc to 500 bc (divided into the Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman Imperial periods). Each period is covered under the same three headings (in the interests of comparability): ‘Historical Outline’, ‘Social Fabric’, ‘Social Life and Mentality’. The wider context is, however, by no means ignored. The authors provide a valuable overview of the Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods (27–35) and of the early civilizations of Eurasia up to 900 bc (36–58). At the other end of the timeline, the book does not simply conclude with the Roman Imperial period but carries on the story up to the tenth century ad and beyond (369–94). A particular emphasis is placed in the introductory chapter on ‘The Ecology of History’ (11–23):
[M]aterial factors can be called the ‘basics’ of history: they determine what, under given circumstances, is possible and what is not; they create preconditions for, and restraints on human life. Thus, every culture has been in many respects the expression of the ways in which some group of human beings managed to adapt to the ecosystem in which they happened to be living, which might also be described as ecological anthropology. (11)
High-resolution transmission spectrum of the Earth's atmosphere-seeing Earth as an exoplanet using a lunar eclipse
Authors: Yan F. , Fosbury R. A. E. , Petr-Gotzens M. G. , Zhao G. , Wang W. , Wang L. , Liu Y. , Pallé E. 
Published: September 2014

AbstractWith the rapid developments in the exoplanet field, more and more terrestrial exoplanets are being detected. Characterizing their atmospheres using transit observations will become a key datum in the quest for detecting an Earth-like exoplanet. The atmospheric transmission spectrum of our Earth will be an ideal template for comparison with future exo-Earth candidates. By observing a lunar eclipse, which offers a similar configuration to that of an exoplanet transit, we have obtained a high-resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) transmission spectrum of the Earth's atmosphere. This observation was performed with the High Resolution Spectrograph at Xinglong Station, China during the total lunar eclipse in December 2011. We compare the observed transmission spectrum with our atmospheric model, and determine the characteristics of the various atmospheric species in detail. In the transmission spectrum, O2, O3, O2 · O2, NO2 and H2O are detected, and their column densities are measured and compared with the satellites data. The visible Chappuis band of ozone produces the most prominent absorption feature, which suggests that ozone is a promising molecule for the future exo-Earth characterization. Due to the high resolution and high SNR of our spectrum, several novel details of the Earth atmosphere's transmission spectrum are presented. The individual O2 lines are resolved and O2 isotopes are clearly detected. Our new observations do not confirm the absorption features of Ca II or Na I which have been reported in previous lunar eclipse observations. However, features in these and some other strong Fraunhofer line positions do occur in the observed spectrum. We propose that these are due to a Raman-scattered component in the forward-scattered sunlight appearing in the lunar umbral spectrum. Water vapour absorption is found to be rather weak in our spectrum because the atmosphere we probed is relatively dry, which prompts us to discuss the detectability of water vapour in Earth-like exoplanet atmospheres.
Cascades on a stochastic pulse-coupled network
Authors: Wray C. M. , Bishop S. R. 
Published: September 2014

AbstractWhile much recent research has focused on understanding isolated cascades of networks, less attention has been given to dynamical processes on networks exhibiting repeated cascades of opposing influence. An example of this is the dynamic behaviour of financial markets where cascades of buying and selling can occur, even over short timescales. To model these phenomena, a stochastic pulse-coupled oscillator network with upper and lower thresholds is described and analysed. Numerical confirmation of asynchronous and synchronous regimes of the system is presented, along with analytical identification of the fixed point state vector of the asynchronous mean field system. A lower bound for the finite system mean field critical value of network coupling probability is found that separates the asynchronous and synchronous regimes. For the low-dimensional mean field system, a closed-form equation is found for cascade size, in terms of the network coupling probability. Finally, a description of how this model can be applied to interacting agents in a financial market is provided.
Implanted rechargeable electroencephalography (EEG) device
Authors: Qian Xing , Hao Hongwei , Ma Bozhi , Wen Xiongwei , Hu Chunhua , Li Luming 
Published: September 2014

Electroencephalography (EEG) and deep brain stimulation (DBS), as specific instrument and tool, respectively, for reading and changing the electrical activities of the human brain, are milestones in the history of neuroscience and brain research. Although scientists have gone very far in exploring the brain, the mechanisms of many neurological diseases and therapies are not clear yet. Therefore, an implanted rechargeable EEG device, adding the recording function to conventional DBS to make it not only a therapy device but a scientific research tool has been developed. The EEG performance of the device is good compared with the SynAmps2 of NeuroScan. Radio‐frequency (RF) communication at 403 MHz is used for data transmission, which has a high speed and long transmission distance and enables mass quantity data transmission. A rechargeable battery is used for power supply, making the system life longer and lowering the requirement of low‐power design. This device is a good platform for neuroscience research by being implanted in animal models of different nervous system disorders or patients with diseases such as Parkinson's disease (PD). The recorded data will help to better understand the brain and the mechanisms of brain disorders and also help to optimise clinical therapy.
60 GHz 28 nm CMOS transformer‐coupled power amplifier for WiGig applications
Authors: Leite B. , Kerhervé E. , Ghiotto A. , Larie A. , Martineau B. , Belot D. 
Published: September 2014

A 60 GHz power amplifier (PA) based on a 28 nm CMOS technology is presented for WiGig applications. It consists of a two‐stage pseudo‐differential common‐source structure using low‐power and low‐Vt transistors, capacitive neutralisation for isolation enhancement and integrated transformers for impedance matching, power splitting, power combining and balanced‐to‐unbalanced transformation purposes. The output‐stage transistors have a measured 1 dB output compression point (OCP1 dB) of 10.2 dBm, a 10.2 dB gain and a peak power added efficiency (PAE) as high as 35%. The fabricated PA achieves a 12 dBm OCP1 dB, a 15.3 dB gain and a peak PAE better than 20% while occupying a silicon active area of only 0.037 mm2.
UNDO: a Bioconductor R package for unsupervised deconvolution of mixed gene expressions in tumor samples
Authors: Wang Niya , Gong Ting , Clarke Robert , Chen Lulu , Shih Ie-Ming , Zhang Zhen , Levine Douglas A. , Xuan Jianhua , Wang Yue 
Published: September 2014

Abstract
Summary: We develop a novel unsupervised deconvolution method, within a well-grounded mathematical framework, to dissect mixed gene expressions in heterogeneous tumor samples. We implement an R package, UNsupervised DecOnvolution (UNDO), that can be used to automatically detect cell-specific marker genes (MGs) located on the scatter radii of mixed gene expressions, estimate cellular proportions in each sample and deconvolute mixed expressions into cell-specific expression profiles. We demonstrate the performance of UNDO over a wide range of tumor–stroma mixing proportions, validate UNDO on various biologically mixed benchmark gene expression datasets and further estimate tumor purity in TCGA/CPTAC datasets. The highly accurate deconvolution results obtained suggest not only the existence of cell-specific MGs but also UNDO’s ability to detect them blindly and correctly. Although the principal application here involves microarray gene expressions, our methodology can be readily applied to other types of quantitative molecular profiling data.
Availability and implementation: UNDO is available at http://bioconductor.org/packages .
Contact: yuewang@vt.edu
Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Declining maternal mortality in the face of persistently high HIV prevalence in a middle‐income country
Authors: Buchmann EJ , Mnyani CN , Frank KA , Chersich MF , McIntyre JA 
Published: September 2014

ObjectiveTo estimate maternal mortality ratio (MMR) and determine maternal death causes and trends in Greater Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa.DesignCross‐sectional study.SettingChris Hani Baragwanath Maternity Hospital (CHBMH) in Greater Soweto.PopulationMaternal deaths at CHBMH.MethodsRecord review of maternal deaths from 1997 to 2012, using hospital death records, with denominator data from the district health information system and the hospital.Main outcome measuresMaternal mortality ratio per 100 000 live births, and causes of death classified as in the South African confidential enquiries.ResultsThere were 479 deaths, with a peak MMR of 139 in 2004 and a decline to 86 in 2012. Of 332 women tested, 245 (74%) were HIV‐infected. Nonpregnancy‐related infection (40%) was the most frequent cause of death, followed by hypertension (16%) and obstetric haemorrhage (13%). HIV infection rates in these groups were 92%, 30% and 61%, respectively. Previous caesarean section was associated with obstetric haemorrhage death (odds ratio [OR] 3.2, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.7–6.0), maternal age ≥35 years with hypertension death (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.2–3.7) and antenatal anaemia with nonpregnancy‐related infection death (OR 4.0, 95% CI 2.3–6.9), compared with other causes of death.ConclusionThere is evidence of a decline in MMR since HIV treatment for pregnant women was introduced in 2004. Previous caesarean section, advanced maternal age, and anaemia were associated with death from obstetric haemorrhage, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and nonpregnancy‐related infections, respectively. MMR may be further reduced with accelerated initiation of HIV treatment during pregnancy.
A Fluorescence‐Based Method for Cyanate Analysis in Ethanol/Water Media: Correlation between Cyanate Presence and Ethyl Carbamate Formation in Sugar Cane Spirit
Authors: Ohe Thiago Hideyuki Kobe , da Silva Alexandre Ataide , da Silva Rocha Thaís , de Godoy Flávio Schutzer , Franco Douglas Wagner 
Published: September 2014

AbstractBased on the fluorescence properties of 2,4‐(1H,3H)‐quinazolinedione, a product of the reaction between cyanate and 2‐aminobenzoic acid, a simple, sensitive, selective, and reproducible method for the cyanate analysis in aqueous ethanolic media is proposed. In this method, λexc and λem are 310 and 410 nm, respectively, and the limits of detection and quantification are 2.2 × 10−7 and 6.7 × 10−7 mol/L, respectively. Under optimal conditions (pH = 4.5, 40% ethanol), a concentration of 5.0 × 10−6 mol/L cyanate can be determined in a single measurement, at a 95% level of confidence, with an uncertainty of ± 0.13 × 10−6 mol/L. Cyanide, thiocyanate, chloride, nitrate, and sulfate ions, as well as urea and urethane in concentrations 1 × 103 higher than that of cyanate do not interfere with the measurement. The methodology was applied to cyanate analyses in the different fractions of the sugarcane distillate and the data strongly suggest a correlation between the presence of urea in wine, and the cyanate and ethyl carbamate concentrations in the spirit.
Current Food Safety Management Systems in Fish‐Exporting Companies Require Further Improvements to Adequately Cope with Contextual Pressure: Case Study
Authors: Onjong Hillary Adawo , Wangoh John , Njage Patrick Murigu Kamau 
Published: September 2014

AbstractFish‐processing plants still face food safety (FS) challenges worldwide despite the existence of several quality assurance standards and food safety management systems/s (FSMSs). This study assessed performance of FSMS in fish exporting sector considering pressure from the context in which they operate. A FSMS diagnostic tool with checklist was used to assess the context, FSMS, and FS output in 9 Kenyan fish exporting companies. Majority (67%) companies operated at moderate‐ to high‐risk context but with an average performance in control and assurance activities. This situation could be insufficient to deal with ambiguity, uncertainty, and vulnerability issues in the context characteristics. Contextual risk posed by product characteristics (nature of raw materials) and chain environment characteristics was high. Risk posed by the chain environment characteristics, low power in supplier relationships, and low degree of authority in customer relationships was high. Lack of authority in relationship with suppliers would lead to high raw material risk situation. Even though cooling facilities, a key control activity, was at an advanced level, there was inadequate packaging intervention equipment which coupled with inadequate physical intervention equipment could lead to further weakened FSMS performance. For the fish companies to improve their FSMS to higher level and enhance predictability, they should base their FSMS on scientific information sources, historical results, and own experimental trials in their preventive, intervention, and monitoring systems. Specific suggestions are derived for improvements toward higher FSMS activity levels or lower risk levels in context characteristics.
The Brazilian National Development Bank goes International: Innovations and Limitations of BNDES' Internationalization
Authors: Hochstetler Kathryn 
Published: September 2014

AbstractThe Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES) saw dramatic increases in its financial resources for lending after 2005. This article explains how the bank has been ‘internationalized’ alongside this growth in total resources, beginning with export finance and expanding to supporting foreign direct investments and other international economic activities. At the same time, legal and structural factors restrict BNDES’ international activities in ways that are often poorly understood, but that keep many of the bank's resources inside Brazil or tightly linked to Brazilian firms. After a general explanation of these factors, this paper examines empirical claims about BNDES’ lending to its South American neighbors, concluding that it is considerably more limited than both the bank's critics and champions contend.
Synthesis, Characterization and Antibacterial Properties of Dihydroxy Quaternary Ammonium Salts with Long Chain Alkyl Bromides
Authors: Liu Wen‐Shuai , Wang Chun‐Hua , Sun Ju‐Feng , Hou Gui‐Ge , Wang Yu‐Peng , Qu Rong‐Jun 
Published: September 2014

Five N‐methyl‐N‐R‐N,N‐bis(2‐hydroxyethyl) ammonium bromides (R = ‐benzyl (chloride, BNQAS), ‐dodecyl (C12QAS), ‐tetradecyl (C14QAS), ‐hexadecyl (C16QAS), ‐octadecyl (C18QAS)) were prepared based on N‐methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) and halohydrocarbon. Five QAS were characterized by FTIR, NMR, and MS. BNQAS, C12QAS, C14QAS, and C16QAS were confirmed by X‐ray single‐crystal diffraction. Their antibacterial properties indicated good antibacterial abilities against E. coli, S. aureus, B. subtilis, especially C12QAS with the best antibacterial ability (100% to E. coli, 95.65% to S. aureus, and 91.41% to B. subtilis). In addition, C12QAS also displayed the best antifungal activities than BNQAS and C18QAS against Cytospora mandshurica, Botryosphaeria ribis, Physalospora piricola, and Glomerella cingulata with the ratio of full marks. The strategy provides a facile way to design and develop new types of antibacterial drugs for application in preventing the fruit rot, especially apple.
Effects of starch addition on the characteristics of CoAl2O4 nano pigments
Authors: Torkian Leila , Radmanesh Elham , Daghighi Maryam 
Published: September 2014

Nanocrystalline cobalt aluminate spinel, CoAl2O4, was prepared via a microwave‐assisted solution combustion process applying various mixtures of urea, glycine, and starch as a novel mixed fuel. The effects of starch addition (0, 10, 20, and 30 wt%) on the physical characteristics (e.g. crystallite size and colour) of the blue nano pigments were also investigated. The resultant powders were characterised by means of X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, electron dispersive X‐ray analysis, and CIE L*a*b* colour measurements. The presence of a CoAl2O4 spinel lattice after calcination of precursors at 600 °C was confirmed by X‐ray diffraction patterns, and the crystallite sizes were ca. 10–39 nm. Colorimetric data pointed to the formation of bright‐blue pigments at low levels of starch addition. Scanning electron microscope images showed that starch enrichment reduced the agglomeration and size of synthesised nanoparticles.
Not all roads can be taken: development induces anisotropic accessibility in morphospace
Authors: Gerber Sylvain 
Published: September 2014

SUMMARYMorphospaces are quantitative representations of phenotype space that are widely used in studies of morphological evolution. Do current conceptualizations of morphospaces, however, appropriately reflect the evolutionary dynamics of organisms depicted in these spaces? Most empirical morphospace studies implicitly consider variability of biological forms as isotropic, but such a view appears inadequate when the properties of development mediating phenotypic changes are considered. Here, a trilobite case study is used to visualize the constraints imposed by development on the accessibility structure of morphospace. Variability in the resultant morphospace is strongly anisotropic and reveals discordances between the apparent range of possible phenotypes and their actual accessibility. Homoplasy, directionality, and asymmetry of evolutionary transitions appear as natural consequences of anisotropic variability and point out the limitation of morphological distance for evolutionary inference. Measures of distance in morphospace should be used with considerable caution and must be complemented with developmentally meaningful measures of evolutionary accessibility.
Improving the prediction performance of a large tropical vis‐NIR spectroscopic soil library from Brazil by clustering into smaller subsets or use of data mining calibration techniques
Authors: Araújo S. R. , Wetterlind J. , Demattê J. A. M. , Stenberg B. 
Published: September 2014

SummaryEffective agricultural planning requires basic soil information. In recent decades visible near‐infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (vis‐NIR) has been shown to be a viable alternative for rapidly analysing soil properties. We studied 7172 samples of seven different soil types collected from several regions of Brazil and varying in organic matter (OM) (0.2–10.3%) and clay content (0.2–99.0%). The aim was to explore the possibility of enhancing the performance of vis‐NIR data in predicting organic matter and clay content in this library by dividing it into smaller sub‐libraries on the basis of their vis‐NIR spectra. We used partial least square regression (PLSR) models on the sub‐libraries and compared the results with PLSR and two non‐linear calibration techniques, boosted regression trees (BT) and support vector machines (SVM) applied to the whole library. The whole library calibrations for clay performed well (ME (modelling efficiency) > 0.82; RMSE (root mean squared error) < 10.9%), reflecting the influence of the direct spectral responses of this property in the vis‐NIR range. Calibrations for OM were reasonably good, especially in view of the very small variation in this property (ME > 0.60; RMSE < 0.55%). The best results were, however, found when dividing the large library into smaller subsets by using variation in the mean‐normalized or first derivative spectra. This divided the global data set into clusters that were more uniform in mineralogy, regardless of geographical origin, and improved predictive performance. The best clustering method improved the RMSE in the validation to 8.6% clay and 0.47% OM, which corresponds to a 21% and 15% reduction, respectively, as compared with whole library PLSR. For the whole library, SVM performed almost equally well, reducing RMSE to 8.9% clay and 0.48% OM.