bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
After a market panic: cash is king
Authors: C.C. Smith Garrett 
Published: April 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of financial flexibility as represented by excess cash holdings and debt capacity upon firm returns after periods of high market uncertainty.

Design/methodology/approach
– Days of high uncertainty are identified from 1987-2011 using the VXO Index (implied volatility of the S&P 100) yielding approximately 45,000 firm events. The main variables of interest are excess cash (Duchin et al., 2010) and debt capacity. Two financial constraint indexes are used as controls in a cross-sectional OLS regression.

Findings
– The precautionary value of cash during and after times of uncertainty is beneficial. A positive relationship exists for periods of up to two years following the initial day of high uncertainty. Positive BHRs exist on a zero-cost trade investing in a portfolio of high excess cash firms and shorting a portfolio of cash constrained firms. The value of excess debt capacity, on the other hand, is harder to discern; positive profits are obtainable on a zero-cost trade while regression estimates are typically insignificant on average.

Originality/value
– This paper expands the financial flexibility literature by testing the effects of financial flexibility on returns following days of high market uncertainty.
Natural habitat loss and exotic plants reduce the functional diversity of flower visitors in a heterogeneous subtropical landscape
Authors: Grass Ingo , Berens Dana G. , Farwig Nina 
Published: April 2014

Summary

Functional diversity (FD) of pollinators can increase plant reproductive output and the stability of plant‐pollinator communities. Yet, in times of world‐wide pollinator declines, effects of global change on pollinator FD remain poorly understood. Loss of natural habitat and exotic plant invasions are two major drivers of global change that particularly threaten pollinator diversity.

In a subtropical South African landscape, we investigated changes in the FD of flower visitor assemblages on native and exotic plants along gradients of natural habitat loss and relative abundance of exotic plants. We used a data set of 1434 flower visitor individuals sampled on 131 focal plants and calculated the FD in three flower visitor traits that are strongly related to plant–flower visitor interactions and pollination processes: proboscis length, proboscis diameter and body length.

Multivariate FD of flower visitors decreased with both increasing natural habitat loss and relative exotic abundance. Importantly, changes in FD went beyond those in flower visitor richness. Furthermore, flower visitor richness was not related to either natural habitat loss or relative exotic abundance. Loss in multivariate FD seemed to be mediated by complementary reductions of FD in proboscis length with natural habitat loss and of FD in body length with both global change drivers. Correspondingly, we recorded lower abundances of long‐tongued flower visitors with natural habitat loss and reduced variance in body size with both drivers. In contrast, FD in proboscis diameter was unaffected by either driver. All effects of the two global change drivers were non‐interactive.

Our results show that both natural habitat loss and exotic plants negatively affect flower visitor FD, which may imperil pollination of specialized plant species in degraded habitats. In contrast, flower visitor richness may not cover all facets of flower visitor FD that are relevant to pollination processes. Distinct responses of visitor traits to the two drivers suggest limited options to infer relations of one trait to another. Finally, additive effects of natural habitat loss and exotic plant invasions highlight the need to consider multiple drivers of global change when investigating ecosystem processes at a community scale.
Matrix composition and patch edges influence plant–herbivore interactions in marine landscapes
Authors: Pagès Jordi F. , Gera Alessandro , Romero Javier , Alcoverro Teresa 
Published: April 2014

Summary

The functioning of ecosystems can be strongly driven by landscape attributes. Despite its importance, however, our understanding of how landscape influences ecosystem function derives mostly from species richness and abundance patterns, with few studies assessing how these relate to actual functional rates.

We examined the influence of landscape attributes on the rates of herbivory in seagrass meadows, where herbivory has been identified as a key process structuring these relatively simple systems. The study was conducted in three representative Posidonia oceanica meadows. The principal herbivores in these meadows are the fish Sarpa salpa and the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus, and we hypothesized that differences in their interaction with landscape attributes would significantly influence herbivory rates.

We measured herbivore abundance, herbivory rates, primary production and plant quality (C:N) in seagrass patches embedded either in rock or in sand (matrix attribute), in patches either near or far from a rocky reef (distance attribute) and at the edges and interior of meadows.

Our results show that matrix and meadow edges significantly affected the actual levels of herbivory. Herbivory rates were higher in seagrass patches embedded in a rocky matrix compared to those on sand, and herbivory at the centre of seagrass meadows was higher than at the edges. In contrast, patch distance to rocky reefs did not affect herbivory. Neither herbivore abundance nor food quality explained the patterns across different landscape attributes. This suggests that variation in herbivory across the landscape may be related much more to behavioural differences between species in their evaluation of risk, movement and food preference in relation to the landscape structure.

Our results indicate that richness and abundance patterns may mask critical interactions between landscape attributes and species responses, which result in considerable heterogeneity in the way key functional processes like herbivory are distributed across the ecosystem mosaic.
Food‐limited mothers favour offspring quality over offspring number: a principal components approach
Authors: Stahlschmidt Zachary R. , Adamo Shelley A. 
Published: April 2014

Summary

Mothers are expected to balance the trade‐off between the number and quality of offspring, and many theoretical studies describe how the maternal environment might influence the evolution of the number–quality trade‐off.

However, few empirical studies attempt to test these theories (and their assumptions) by measuring the fitness consequences of variation in investment per offspring. Part of the problem is that measuring offspring fitness is difficult, which frequently leads experimenters to measure several proxies of offspring fitness in place of a comprehensive fitness assay. This strategy tends to result in multiple univariate analyses that involve different offspring fitness proxies, and these tests can have low power and may produce conflicting conclusions.

Here, we demonstrate the benefits of integrating maternal fecundity and proxies of offspring size and fitness into multivariate analyses to elucidate variation in reproductive allocation strategies. In a 2 × 2 factorial experiment, we manipulated the quality of maternal environment (food availability) throughout early and late adulthood (acute and chronic exposure to the maternal environment) in a field cricket.

We developed a multivariate index of reproductive allocation by incorporating maternal fecundity and the performance of offspring in low‐ and high‐food environments into a principle components analysis. This index of reproductive allocation indicated that females decreased fecundity and increased offspring quality after chronic exposure to low‐food environments, thereby providing evidence of adaptive plasticity in investment per offspring. In contrast, few treatment effects were observed using univariate analyses.

The present study demonstrates that multivariate analysis can increase our ability to assess the adaptive significance of reproductive strategies, particularly in situations when offspring size and fitness are difficult to measure with accuracy. Such an approach might ultimately help assess the adaptive significance of reproductive allocation across a wider range of taxa, thereby providing broader insight into the evolution of reproductive strategies.
Health Care Utilization and Receipt of Preventive Care for Patients Seen at Federally Funded Health Centers Compared to Other Sites of Primary Care
Authors: Laiteerapong Neda , Kirby James , Gao Yue , Yu Tzy‐Chyi , Sharma Ravi , Nocon Robert , Lee Sang Mee , Chin Marshall H. , Nathan Aviva G. , Ngo‐Metzger Quyen , Huang Elbert S. 
Published: April 2014

ObjectiveTo compare utilization and preventive care receipt among patients of federal Section 330 health centers (HCs) versus patients of other settings.Data SourcesA nationally representative sample of adults from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (2004–2008).Study DesignHC patients were defined as those with ≥50 percent of outpatient visits at HCs in the first panel year. Outcomes included utilization and preventive care receipt from the second panel year. We used negative binomial and logistic regression models with propensity score adjustment for confounding differences between HC and non‐HC patients.Principal FindingsCompared to non‐HC patients, HC patients had fewer office visits (adjusted incidence rate ratio [aIRR], 0.63) and hospitalizations (aIRR, 0.43) (both p < .001). HC patients were more likely to receive breast cancer screening than non‐HC patients (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.78, p < .01). In subgroup analyses, uninsured HC patients had fewer outpatient and emergency room visits and were more likely to receive dietary advice and breast cancer screening compared to non‐HC patients.ConclusionsHealth centers add value to the health care system by providing socially and medically disadvantaged patients with care that results in lower utilization and maintained or improved preventive care.
The relationship between lysine 4 on histone H3 methylation levels of alcohol tolerance genes and changes of ethanol tolerance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Authors: Wang Hang , Ji Binfeng , Ren Hongzhen , Meng Chun 
Published: April 2014

SummaryWe evaluated whether epigenetic changes contributed to improve ethanol tolerance in mutant populations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae). Two ethanol‐tolerant variants of S. cerevisiae were used to evaluate the genetic stability in the process of stress‐free passage cultures. We found that acquired ethanol tolerance was lost and transcription level of some genes (HSP104, PRO1, TPS1, and SOD1) closely related to ethanol tolerance decreased significantly after the 10th passage in ethanol‐free medium. Tri‐methylation of lysine 4 on histone H3 (H3K4) enhanced at the promoter of HSP104, PRO1, TPS1 and SOD1 in ethanol‐tolerant variants of S. cerevisiae was also diminished after tenth passage in stress‐free cultures. The ethanol tolerance was reacquired when exogenous SOD1 transferred in some tolerance‐lost strains. This showed that H3K4 methylation is involved in phenotypic variation with regard to ethanol tolerance with respect to classic breeding methods used in yeast.
Construction of leaky strains and extracellular production of exogenous proteins in recombinant Escherichia coli
Authors: Chen Zhao‐Yuan , Cao Jie , Xie Li , Li Xiao‐Fei , Yu Zhen‐Hai , Tong Wang‐Yu 
Published: April 2014

SummaryIn this study, a strategy of the construction of leaky strains for the extracellular production of target proteins was exploited, in which the genes mrcA, mrcB, pal and lpp (as a control) from Escherichia coli were knocked out by using single‐ and/or double‐gene deletion methods. Then the recombinant strains for the expression of exogenous target proteins including Trx‐hPTH (human parathyroid hormone 1–84 coupled with thioredoxin as a fusion partner) and reteplase were reconstructed to test the secretory efficiency of the leaky strains. Finally, the fermentation experiments of the target proteins from these recombinant leaky strains were carried out in basic media (Modified R media) and complex media (Terrific Broth media) in flasks or fermenters. The results demonstrated that the resultant leaky strains were genetically stable and had a similar growth profile in the complex media as compared with the original strain, and the secretory levels of target proteins into Modified R media from the strains with double‐gene deletion (up to 88.9%/mrcA lpp‐pth) are higher than the excretory levels from the strains with single‐gene deletion (up to 71.1%/lpp‐pth) and the host E. coli JM109 (DE3) (near zero). The highest level of extracellular production of Trx‐hPTH in fermenters is up to 680 mg l−1.
QDD version 3.1: a user‐friendly computer program for microsatellite selection and primer design revisited: experimental validation of variables determining genotyping success rate
Authors: Meglécz Emese , Pech Nicolas , Gilles André , Dubut Vincent , Hingamp Pascal , Trilles Aurélie , Grenier Rémi , Martin Jean‐François 
Published: April 2014

AbstractMicrosatellite marker development has been greatly simplified by the use of high‐throughput sequencing followed by in silico microsatellite detection and primer design. However, the selection of markers designed by the existing pipelines depends either on arbitrary criteria, or older studies on PCR success. Based on wet laboratory experiments, we have identified the following factors that are most likely to influence genotyping success rate: alignment score between the primers and the amplicon; the distance between primers and microsatellites; the length of the PCR product; target region complexity and the number of reads underlying the sequence. The QDD pipeline has been modified to include these most pertinent factors in the output to help the selection of markers. Furthermore, new features are also included in the present version: (i) not only raw sequencing reads are accepted as input, but also contigs, allowing the analysis of assembled high‐coverage data; (ii) input data can be both in fasta and fastq format to facilitate the use of Illumina and IonTorrent reads; (iii) A comparison to known transposable elements allows their detection; (iv) A contamination check can be carried out by BLASTing potential markers against the nucleotide (nt) database of NCBI; (v) QDD3 is now also available imbedded into a virtual machine making installation easier and operating system independent. It can be used both on command‐line version as well as integrated into a Galaxy server, providing a user‐friendly interface, as well as the possibility to utilize a large variety of NGS tools.
Influence of ecology and landscape on snake road mortality in a sagebrush‐steppe ecosystem
Authors: Jochimsen D. M. , Peterson C. R. , Harmon L. J. 
Published: April 2014

AbstractRoads fragment our landscape, posing a severe threat to the persistence of wildlife populations through losses of individuals to direct mortality and decreased connectivity. Although they possess a particular suite of life history characteristics that make them especially vulnerable, snakes tend to be underrepresented in research examining vertebrate road mortality. Here, we report a statistical analysis of snake mortality along a 183‐km road circuit in sagebrush‐steppe habitat located in southeastern Idaho. We describe differential road mortality across snake species, season, sex and age. We also analyze both fine‐scale and broad‐scale habitat measurements to identify various habitat and landscape factors associated with snake road mortality. Our results show clearly that snake road mortality is influenced by interactions among demographic, ecological and temporal factors. Vagile species and life stages were particularly vulnerable to road mortality during periods of peak activity. Gophersnakes dominated our road observations, with adult male mortality peaking in spring and high casualties of neonates in the fall. Snake crossings were especially common along roadsides with high vegetative cover, in areas dominated by non‐native grasses. These results suggest the potential for snake populations to become fragmented over time, and that habitat conversion and species invasions may be compounding this effect. This study suggests that conservation efforts need to account for inter‐ and intraspecific differences in road mortality risk and provides guidance for roadside management that may serve to minimize vertebrate mortality on roads.
The EAACI/GA2LEN/EDF/WAO Guideline for the definition, classification, diagnosis, and management of urticaria: the 2013 revision and update
Authors: Zuberbier T. , Aberer W. , Asero R. , Bindslev‐Jensen C. , Brzoza Z. , Canonica G. W. , Church M. K. , Ensina L. F. , Giménez‐Arnau A. , Godse K. , Gonçalo M. , Grattan C. , Hebert J. , Hide M. , Kaplan A. , Kapp A. , Abdul Latiff A. H. , Mathelier‐Fusade P. , Metz M. , Nast A. , Saini S. S. , Sánchez‐Borges M. , Schmid‐Grendelmeier P. , Simons F. E. R. , Staubach P. , Sussman G. , Toubi E. , Vena G. A. , Wedi B. , Zhu X. J. , Maurer M. 
Published: April 2014

AbstractThis guideline is the result of a systematic literature review using the ‘Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation’ (GRADE) methodology and a structured consensus conference held on 28 and 29 November 2012, in Berlin. It is a joint initiative of the Dermatology Section of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI), the EU‐funded network of excellence, the Global Allergy and Asthma European Network (GA2LEN), the European Dermatology Forum (EDF), and the World Allergy Organization (WAO) with the participation of delegates of 21 national and international societies. Urticaria is a frequent, mast cell‐driven disease, presenting with wheals, angioedema, or both. The life‐time prevalence for acute urticaria is approximately 20%. Chronic spontaneous urticaria and other chronic forms of urticaria do not only cause a decrease in quality of life, but also affect performance at work and school and, as such, are members of the group of severe allergic diseases. This guideline covers the definition and classification of urticaria, taking into account the recent progress in identifying its causes, eliciting factors and pathomechanisms. In addition, it outlines evidence‐based diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for the different subtypes of urticaria. This guideline was acknowledged and accepted by the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS).
Repeated exclusive enteral nutrition in the treatment of paediatric Crohn's disease: predictors of efficacy and outcome
Authors: Frivolt K. , Schwerd T. , Werkstetter K. J. , Schwarzer A. , Schatz S. B. , Bufler P. , Koletzko S. 
Published: April 2014

SummaryBackgroundExclusive enteral nutrition (EEN) induces remission and mucosal healing in children with active Crohn's disease (CD).AimTo compare short‐ and long‐term outcomes of the first vs. second courses of EEN, and to identify predictors of sustained remission.MethodsRetrospective single centre analysis of all patients with CD (6–18 years) treated with EEN over 7.5 years. Patients were excluded if exposed to anti‐TNFα or corticosteroids 3 months prior to EEN. Data included disease phenotype, activity, NOD2 genotype, laboratory indices and anthropometrics. Remission and relapse were defined by mathematically weighted Paediatric Crohn's Disease Activity Index (wPCDAI) with 1‐year follow‐up.ResultsOf 94 patients treated with EEN, 52 fulfilled inclusion criteria (31 male, mean age 13.2 years). Azathioprine was started within the first month in 33/52 patients; 26/52 received a second EEN course. First compared to second EEN revealed higher wPCDAI at start (59 vs. 40, P < 0.0001), tended to higher remission rates after 3 months (92% vs. 77%, n.s.), but showed comparable 1‐year relapse rates (67% vs. 70%, median time 231 vs. 145 days, n.s.). Disease activity, weight gain and inflammatory markers showed better improvement with first EEN. Faecal calprotectin >200 μg/g during EEN was associated with shorter remission (median time 157 vs. 287 days, n.s.). Certain NOD2 genotypes were related to higher relapse rates (92% R702W or G908R vs. 50% 1007fs vs. 60% wild‐type, P < 0.01).ConclusionsExclusive enteral nutrition induces remission in active Crohn's disease, but efficacy tends to decrease with the second course. Despite early azathioprine use, 1‐year relapse rates are high, but may be related to NOD2 genotype.
Nucleoside transporters and human organic cation transporter 1 determine the cellular handling of DNA‐methyltransferase inhibitors
Authors: Arimany‐Nardi C , Errasti‐Murugarren E , Minuesa G , Martinez‐Picado J , Gorboulev V , Koepsell H , Pastor‐Anglada M 
Published: April 2014

Background and PurposeInhibitors of DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs), such as azacytidine, decitabine and zebularine, are used for the epigenetic treatment of cancer. Their action may depend upon their translocation across the plasma membrane. The aim of this study was to identify transporter proteins contributing to DNMT inhibitor action.Experimental ApproachDrug interactions with selected hCNT and hENT proteins were studied in transiently transfected HeLa and MDCK cells. Interaction with human organic cation transporters (hOCTs) was assessed in transiently transfected HeLa cells and Xenopus laevis oocytes.Key ResultsZebularine uptake was mediated by hCNT1, hCNT3 and hENT2. Decitabine interacted with but was not translocated by any nucleoside transporter (NT) type. hCNT expression at the apical domain of MDCK cells promoted net vectorial flux of zebularine. Neither hOCT1 nor hOCT2 transported decitabine, but both were involved in the efflux of zebularine, suggesting these proteins act as efflux transporters. hOCT1 polymorphic variants, known to alter function, decreased zebularine efflux.Conclusions and ImplicationsThis study highlights the influence of human NTs and hOCTs on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of selected DNMT inhibitors. As hOCTs may also behave as efflux transporters, they could contribute either to chemoresistance or to chemosensitivity, depending upon the nature of the drug or combination of drugs being used in cancer therapy.