bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Environmental factors influence nest excavation by foxes
Authors: Dawson S. J. , Adams P. J. , Huston R. M. , Fleming P. A. 
Published: June 2014

AbstractPredation rates of freshwater turtle nests can vary markedly, suggesting that in addition to different suites of predators present, environmental factors (e.g. vegetation characteristics, distance to water/clearing and rainfall) also influence survival of turtle nests. Understanding the influence of environmental factors on nest success can aid turtle conservation through successful management of nesting habitat. This study simultaneously investigated the effect of multiple factors on artificial nest survivorship at a site where oblong turtles Chelodina colliei were present. Over a 12‐month period, we monitored the fate of 580 artificial nests installed as 145 nest‐sets, each having one of four treatments: (1) two chicken eggs (E) buried and the ground sprayed with water from a turtle pond (S) (E+S+), (2) two chicken eggs (E+S−), (3) nest sprayed (E−S+) and (4) hole dug and refilled (E−S−). Seven environmental factors were recorded for each site and nests. Nests were monitored for 2 months after installation, by which time, 46% of the nests had been excavated. Depredation rate was affected by both the presence of eggs (P < 0.001) and being sprayed with turtle pond water (P = 0.005); but we found that even 38% of empty nests (holes simply dug and refilled) were excavated. Nest excavation was more likely for more obvious nests located in areas with more sparse vegetation (P < 0.05) closer to the shoreline (P < 0.01). Excavation rates were highest immediately after installation, but continued for the duration of the monitoring period. The introduced red fox Vulpes vulpes was identified as the only predator observed on cameras for a subset of 60 nest‐sets. In conclusion, foxes use both visual and olfactory cues to locate nests, and environmental conditions at the nest site significantly influence the fate of the nests.
Emotional well‐being of Vietnamese immigrant women during the transition to motherhood: A descriptive cohort study
Authors: Tsao Ying , Creedy Debra Kay , Gamble Jenny 
Published: June 2014

AbstractThis study investigated the health and well‐being of Vietnamese foreign brides recently immigrated to southern Taiwan. Forty‐four participants were recruited during pregnancy and 23 were followed‐up at six weeks post‐partum. Standardized measures completed during face‐to‐face interviews revealed high levels of life stress, poor general health, low social support, and difficulty caring for their infant amongst participants. Estimated prevalence of probable antenatal depression was 32%, and 26% for probable post‐partum depression using Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) scores of ≥ 13. Probable antenatal depression predicted postnatal depression. Pregnant immigrant women experienced a high level of difficult life circumstances and were significantly more likely to develop depressive symptoms after birth. Immigrant women with low social support during pregnancy were also more likely to report higher EPDS scores than well‐supported women. Given these results, prevention and intervention activities are needed to promote maternal psychological well‐being in disadvantaged women, especially immigrant brides.
Xeroderma Pigmentosum in the United Kingdom
Authors: Lehmann Alan R. 
Published: June 2014

AbstractThe seminal discovery by James Cleaver of defective DNA repair in xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) opened up an ever‐expanding field of DNA repair‐related disorders. In addition, it put XP on the map and has led to improved diagnosis, care and management of affected patients. In the United Kingdom, we recently established a multidisciplinary specialist clinic for XP patients. All XP patients in the United Kingdom are able to visit the clinic where they are examined and advised by a team of specialists with detailed knowledge of the different aspects of XP.
On the consequences of aluminium stress in rye: repression of two mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase mRNAs
Authors: Abd El‐Moneim D. , Contreras R. , Silva‐Navas J. , Gallego F. J. , Figueiras A. M. , Benito C. 
Published: June 2014

AbstractPlants have developed several external and internal aluminium (Al) tolerance mechanisms. The external mechanism best characterised is the exudation of organic acids induced by Al. Rye (Secale cereale L.), one of the most Al‐tolerant cereal crops, secretes both citrate and malate from its roots in response to Al. However, the role of malate dehydrogenase (MDH) genes in Al‐induced stress has not been studied in rye. We have isolated the ScMDH1 and ScMDH2 genes, encoding two different mitochondrial MDH isozymes, in three Al‐tolerant rye cultivars (Ailés, Imperial and Petkus) and one sensitive inbred rye line (Riodeva). These genes, which have seven exons and six introns, were located on the 1R (ScMDH1) and 3RL (ScMDH2) chromosomes. Exon 1 of ScMDH1 and exon 7 of ScMDH2 were the most variable among the different ryes. The hypothetical proteins encoded by these genes were classified as putative mitochondrial MDH isoforms. The phylogenetic relationships obtained using both cDNA and protein sequences indicated that the ScMDH1 and ScMDH2 proteins are orthologous to mitochondrial MDH1 and MDH2 proteins of different Poaceae species. The expression studies of the ScMDH1 and ScMDH2 genes indicate that it is more intense in roots than in leaves. Moreover, the amount of their corresponding mRNAs in roots from plants treated and not treated with Al was higher in the tolerant cultivar Petkus than in the sensitive inbred line Riodeva. In addition, ScMDH1 and ScMDH2 mRNA levels decreased in response to Al stress (repressive behaviour) in the roots of both the tolerant Petkus and the sensitive line Riodeva.
Systemic Immunosuppression by Methylprednisolone and Pregnancy Rates in Goats Undergoing the Transfer of Cloned Embryos
Authors: Feltrin C , Cooper CA , Mohamad‐Fauzi N , Rodrigues VHV , Aguiar LH , Gaudencio‐Neto S , Martins LT , Calderón CEM , Morais AS , Carneiro IS , Almeida TM , Silva ING , Rodrigues JL , Maga EA , Murray JD , Libório AB , Bertolini LR , Bertolini M 
Published: June 2014

ContentsThe presence of the zona pellucida has been perceived as a requirement for the oviductal transfer of cloned embryos at early stages of development while protecting the embryo from an immune system response. We hypothesized that steroid hormone therapy could reduce a potential cellular immune response after the transfer of zona‐free cloned embryos into the oviduct of recipient female goats. In Experiment 1, seven does were used to study the systemic immunosuppressant effect of the methylprednisolone administration (for 3 days) on blood cell counts. Whole blood was collected prior to treatment with methyprednisolone and then on Days 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 14, 21 and 28 after the first dose of methylprednisolone for the analysis of haematological parameters. Methylprednisolone treatment significantly reduced circulating white blood cells and neutrophils in comparison with pre‐treatment levels, demonstrating a systemic immunosuppressant effect. In Experiment 2, a group of 58 does were used as recipient females to study the effect of administration of methylprednisolone for 3 days on the establishment of pregnancies after the transfer of zona‐free cloned embryos into the oviducts. No effects on pregnancy rates on Day 30 were observed regarding the distinct treatment groups (control vs. methylprednisolone), the source of oocytes (in vivo‐ vs in vitro‐matured) or the presence or absence of the zona pellucida in embryos. In summary, methylprednisolone was effective at inducing a systemic immunosuppressed state in goats, but the treatment prior to embryo transfer did not affect pregnancy rates. Moreover, pregnancy rates were similar between zona‐free and zona‐intact goat cloned embryos.
Plant Recruitment and Soil Microbial Characteristics of Rehabilitation Seedings Following Wildfire in Northern Utah
Authors: Taylor Megan M. , Hild Ann L. , Shaw Nancy L. , Norton Urszula , Collier Timothy R. 
Published: June 2014

AbstractOne goal of post‐fire native species seeding is to increase plant community resistance to exotic weed invasions, yet few studies address the impacts of seeding on exotic annual establishment and persistence. In 2010 and 2011, we investigated the influence of seedings on exotic annuals and the underlying microbial communities. The wildfire site in northern Utah was formerly dominated by Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis, but burned in September 2008. Experimental seeding treatments were installed in November 2008 to examine strategies for establishing native species using two drills, hand broadcasts and different timing of seed applications (resulting in 13 seeding treatments). We collected aboveground biomass of invasive annuals (Halogeton glomeratus, Salsola kali, and Bromus tectorum), other volunteer plants from the extant seed bank, and seeded species from all treatments in the second and third years after fire. We sampled soils within microsites beneath native perennial bunchgrass and exotic annuals to characterize underlying soil microbial communities. High precipitation following seeding led to strong seedling establishment and we found few differences between seeding treatments established with either drill. All seeded treatments reduced exotic biomass by at least 90% relative to unseeded controls. Soil microbial communities (phospholipid fatty acid analysis), beneath B. tectorum, Poa secunda, and Pseudoroegneria spicata microsites differed little 3 years after fire. However, microbial abundance beneath P. spicata increased from June to July, suggesting that microbial communities beneath successful seedings can vary greatly within a single growing season.
A Note on the (Continued) Ability of the Yield Curve to Forecast Economic Downturns in South Africa
Authors: Botha Ferdi , Keeton Gavin 
Published: June 2014

AbstractIn 2002‐2003, the South African yield spread falsely signalled a downswing that never materialised. This paper provides two reasons for this false signal. First, while the Reserve Bank never actually officially declared the start of a downswing, by alternative measures a downswing did actually occur. It is this severe weakness in economic activity at that time that the yield curve pointed to. Second, short‐term interest rates in 2003 were higher than they should have been because of a mistake made in measuring consumer price inflation. Because South Africa had recently introduced an inflation‐targeting regime, policy interest rates were, as a result of this error, kept too high for too long. This policy mistake was rectified as soon as the error in the Consumer Price Index was discovered. Thus, the yield curve in 2003 pointed to the reality that short‐term interest rates were too high and risked pushing the economy into full blown recession. This is demonstrated by the fact that it was a fall in long bond interest rates that caused the yield spread to turn negative, indicating expectations that short‐term interest rates would need to be cut – as indeed they were.
Powerblindness
Authors: Kurzman Charles , Ghoshal Rajesh , Gibson Kristin , Key Clinton , Roos Micah , Wells Amber 
Published: June 2014

AbstractIn the land of the blind, the one‐eyed man may be king. But positions of power may produce their own forms of blindness. This paper reviews multiple theoretical approaches to the concept of powerblindness and categorizes these literatures into five forms through which powerblindness operates: powerblind identity (failure to notice that one belongs to a privileged group), powerblind egalitarianism (belief that all groups are equal in power), powerblind hierarchy (emphasis on one's own subordinate position), powerblind exception (the claim that one is less privileged than others in one's group), and powerblind justification (belief that present‐day hierarchy is merited or inevitable). The paper identifies studies offering evidence for each, drawing on social‐psychological experiments, survey data, and qualitative research, suggesting that power and knowledge do not necessarily go hand in hand – some forms of knowledge about the social order may be more visible to people with less power than to people with more.
The Ideologically Colonized Metropole: Dutch Racism and Racist Denial
Authors: Weiner Melissa F. 
Published: June 2014

AbstractMany in The Netherlands deny the existence of race and racism even as significant research strongly suggests otherwise. This paper synthesized existing literature to illuminate The Netherlands' unique form of racism, which is rooted in racial neoliberalism, anti‐racialism (i.e. the denial of race), racial Europeanization, and the particular Dutch history of colonial exploitation. This article summarizes existing scholarship addressing racism in wide array of social institutions in The Netherlands before addressing the historical roots of Dutch racism and how Dutch aphasia and racial Europeanization deny the links between contemporary and historical oppression before, finally, offering an explanation for this disconnect.
Bridging Immigration Research and Racial Formation Theory to Examine Contemporary Immigrant Identities
Authors: Cheng Yuching Julia 
Published: June 2014

AbstractThis article explores the potential for linking immigration research with racial formation theory to examine contemporary immigrant identities. The current literature is dominated by three paradigms (ethnicity, nationalism, and transnationalism) and five theoretical perspectives on immigrant identities (plain American, hyphenated American, panethnic American, nationality origin, and transnational). They are all flawed in their reductions of race to the concepts of ethnicity, nationality, and transnationality. Based on my reading of the existing research, I will argue that immigration researchers can benefit from using racial formation theory to explore immigrant identity due to its acknowledgment of the autonomous power of race. However, racial formation theory has been correctly challenged due to its high level of abstraction and lack of micro‐level analyses. Certain transnational migration studies have underscored the necessity to integrate national origin into racial formation theoretical frameworks. According to this transnational perspective, my conclusion is that immigrant families represent a logical starting point for conceptualizing the relationship between immigration and racial formation.
American Evangelicals and Conservative Politics: Past, Present, and Future
Authors: Steensland Brian , Wright Eric L. 
Published: June 2014

AbstractSince the late 1970s, American evangelicals have been a potent influence in conservative politics. Recent scholarship both refines and contextualizes some of the central themes found in the broader literature on evangelical politics. We first review key recent scholarship in American religious history. It shows that current patterns of evangelical conservatism are the product of historically contingent social forces and that political conservatism was never uniform among evangelicals. We then discuss recent scholarship on evangelicals' attitudes toward public issues. This work indicates that commitment to moral traditionalism on social issues is the dominant force animating evangelical political conservatism and that evangelicals remain distinctly Republican in their partisan voting despite economic and foreign policy commitments that are not as strongly aligned with Republican priorities. We then shift our focus to the dominant conservative movement of the moment: the Tea Party. We cite evidence that evangelicals and the Tea Party remain distinct in terms of constituents and issue priorities but that social concerns may be taking precedence over the economic concerns that birthed the movement. We conclude by discussing recent trends that suggest that a de‐alignment between evangelicalism and conservative politics may be underway.
Relational Work in Economic Sociology: A Review and Extension
Authors: García Alfredo 
Published: June 2014

AbstractUnderstanding how economic transactions are constitutive in the development, maintenance, and solidification of relationships has been of particular importance for economic sociologists in recent years. Following the work of Viviana Zelizer, economic sociologists have expanded from a purely network‐based approach of analyzing economic action to consider how and in what ways relations shape economic life. This paper provides a review of Zelizer's relational view of economic activity and presents an extension to the theory. While scholars have successfully applied “relational work” to many areas of economic life, this paper asks whether one can use the theory to examine economic interactions between human and non‐human agents. The example of tithing in the Prosperity Gospel tradition is used in order to expand relational work to this realm.
Evidence‐Based Medicine or Cookbook Medicine? Addressing Concerns over the Standardization of Care
Authors: Knaapen Loes 
Published: June 2014

AbstractEvidence‐based medicine (EBM), which advocates clinical decisions are based on evidence from medical research, has become an important ideal pursued in contemporary medicine. EBM relies on two key principles: the evidence hierarchy and clinical practice guidelines. Both principles have been fiercely criticized, and critics often invoke the term ‘Cookbook medicine’ to stress the dangers and limitations of EBM. This article reviews diverse critical literature on EBM by drawing on the newly proposed subfield of “Sociology of Standards.” It reframes the manifold critiques on EBM as concerns over the harm that standardization can bring about and demonstrates how empirical sociological studies have contributed to a better understanding of EBM's justificatory basis and regulatory impact. First, it discusses the ‘politics of Evidence’ inherent in EBM's epistemological basis, secondly, explores the actual ‘evidence‐base’ of its tools in practice, and third, addresses sociological debates on EBM's regulatory impact. In the concluding section, I argue that a ‘Sociology of Standards’ opens up new research avenues by allowing scholars to challenge – or at least empirically investigate – a host of dichotomies. By doing so, the role of the patient in EBM can be reframed to allow for more productive empirical investigations.
Hexon Hypervariable Region-Modified Adenovirus Type 5 (Ad5) Vectors Display Reduced Hepatotoxicity but Induce T Lymphocyte Phenotypes Similar to Ad5 Vectors
Authors: Teigler Jeffrey E. , Penaloza-MacMaster Pablo , Obeng Rebecca , Provine Nicholas M. , Larocca Rafael A. , Borducchi Erica N. , Barouch Dan H. 
Published: June 2014

ABSTRACT

Hexon modification of adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) vectors with the hypervariable regions (HVRs) of Ad48 has been shown to allow Ad5HVR48 vectors to circumvent the majority of the preexisting Ad5-neutralizing antibodies. However, it remains unclear whether modifying hexon HVRs impacts innate or adaptive immune responses elicited by this vector. In this study, we investigated the influence of the HVR substitution of Ad5 on innate and adaptive immune responses following vaccination. Ad5HVR48 displayed an intermediate level of innate immune cytokines and chemokines relative to those of Ad5 and Ad48, consistent with its chimeric nature. Hepatotoxicity was observed after Ad5 immunization but not after Ad5HVR48 or Ad48 immunization. However, the CD8
+
T-cell responses elicited by Ad5HVR48 vectors displayed a partially exhausted phenotype, as evidenced by the sustained expression of programmed death 1 (PD-1), decreased effector-to-central memory conversion, and reduced memory recall responses, similar to those elicited by Ad5 vectors and in contrast to those induced by Ad48 vectors. Taken together, these results indicate that although Ad5HVR48 largely bypasses preexisting Ad5 neutralizing antibodies and shows reduced hepatotoxicity compared to that of Ad5, it induces adaptive immune phenotypes that are functionally exhausted similar to those elicited by Ad5.
Matched Longitudinal Analysis of Biomarkers Associated with Survival
Authors: Dodd Lori E. , Johnson Reed F. , Blaney Joseph E. , Follmann Dean 
Published: June 2014

ABSTRACTThe identification of host or pathogen factors linked to clinical outcome is a common goal in many animal studies of infectious diseases. When the disease is fatal, statistical analysis of such factors may be biased from missing observations due to deaths. For example, when observations of a subject are censored before completing the intended study period, the complete trajectory will not be observed. Even if the factor is not associated with outcome, comparisons of data from survivors with those from nonsurvivors may lead to the wrong conclusions regarding associations with survival. Comparisons between subjects must account for differing observation lengths for those who survive relative to those who do not. Analyzing data over an interval common to all subjects provides one solution but requires eliminating data, some of which may be informative about the differences between groups. Here, we present a novel approach, matched longitudinal analysis (MLA), for analyzing such data based on matching biomarker intervals for survivors and nonsurvivors. We describe the results from simulation studies and from a study of monkeypox virus infection in nonhuman primates. In our application, MLA identified low monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) levels as having a statistically significant association with survival, whereas the alternative methods did not identify an association. The method has general application to longitudinal studies that seek to find associations of biomarker changes with survival.
An H7N1 Influenza Virus Vaccine Induces Broadly Reactive Antibody Responses against H7N9 in Humans
Authors: Krammer Florian , Jul-Larsen Åsne , Margine Irina , Hirsh Ariana , Sjursen Haakon , Zambon Maria , Cox Rebecca J. 
Published: June 2014

ABSTRACTEmerging H7N9 influenza virus infections in Asia have once more spurred the development of effective prepandemic H7 vaccines. However, many vaccines based on avian influenza viruses—including H7—are poorly immunogenic, as measured by traditional correlates of protection. Here we reevaluated sera from an H7N1 human vaccine trial performed in 2006. We examined cross-reactive antibody responses to divergent H7 strains, including H7N9, dissected the antibody response into head- and stalk-reactive antibodies, and tested thein vivopotency of these human sera in a passive-transfer H7N9 challenge experiment with mice. Although only a low percentage of vaccinees induced neutralizing antibody responses against the homologous vaccine strain and also H7N9, we detected strong cross-reactivity to divergent H7 hemagglutinins (HAs) in a large proportion of the cohort with a quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Furthermore, H7N1 vaccination induced antibodies to both the head and stalk domains of the HA, which is in sharp contrast to seasonal inactivated vaccines. Finally, we were able to show that both neutralizing and nonneutralizing antibodies improvedin vivovirus clearance in a passive-transfer H7N9 challenge mouse model.