bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Caribou exclusion during a population low increases deciduous and evergreen shrub species biomass and nitrogen pools in low Arctic tundra
Authors: Zamin Tara J. , Grogan Paul 
Published: May 2013

Summary

Increased shrub growth has been observed across the Arctic with recent climate warming trends, whilst many populations of caribou and reindeer (Rangifer) have been in decline. Paradoxically, our current understanding of the impacts of caribou and reindeer in altering trajectories of Arctic vegetation change is almost entirely dependent on studies with relatively high density semi‐domesticated herds in Fennoscandia. With many wild herd populations across the Arctic presently at much lower densities, it is important to understand the impact of low intensity browsing on shrub biomass and the soil nutrient pools that fuel it.

We used exclosures that have been in place for 5 years in mesic birch hummock tundra in the central Canadian low Arctic to investigate the impact of caribou exclusion on tundra shrub biomass, tissue chemistry and plant and soil nitrogen (N) pools. Over the study period, the migratory tundra caribou herd in the region declined from 25% to 7% of its previous population maximum.

Caribou exclusion significantly enhanced the above‐ground biomass components of one deciduous shrub (Betula glandulosa) and two evergreen shrubs (Vaccinium vitis‐idaea and Rhododendron subarcticum). In particular, exclusion doubled B. glandulosa leaf biomass and increased V. vitis‐idaea old leaf biomass 1.7 times, with the strongest effects in evergreens present in tissues > 1 year old, indicating a legacy of browsing from the earlier years of the experiment when the caribou population was higher. Meanwhile, Vaccinium uliginosum biomass and overall vascular plant diversity tended to decline with exclusion. Caribou exclusion increased B. glandulosa leaf N pools by 0.15 g N m−2 (equivalent to 12% of the total vascular plant community annual N requirement for apical growth). Altogether exclusion did not alter total above‐ground N pools, but rather led to a redistribution of shoot biomass and N, enhancing spatial variability in a key growth‐limiting resource for tundra plants.

Synthesis. Excluding caribou during a population low resulted in ecologically significant changes in the distribution of plant above‐ground biomass and nitrogen, further increasing the dominance of the three most abundant shrubs. These findings demonstrate that, despite uncertainty in herd recovery, Rangifer browsing impacts to both deciduous and evergreen shrub species should be considered for more robust projections of Arctic vegetation change.
The pace and shape of senescence in angiosperms
Authors: Baudisch Annette , Salguero‐Gómez Roberto , Jones Owen R. , Wrycza Tomasz , Mbeau‐Ache Cyril , Franco Miguel , Colchero Fernando 
Published: May 2013

Summary

Demographic senescence, the decay in fertility and increase in the risk of mortality with age, is one of the most striking phenomena in ecology and evolution. Comparative studies of senescence patterns of plants are scarce, and consequently, little is known about senescence and its determinants in the plant kingdom.

Senescence patterns of mortality can be classified by distinguishing between two metrics: pace and shape. The pace of mortality captures the speed at which life proceeds and can be measured by life expectancy, while the shape of mortality captures whether mortality increases (‘senescence’), decreases (‘negative senescence’) or remains constant over age (‘negligible senescence’).

We extract mortality trajectories from ComPADRe III, a data base that contains demographic information for several hundred plant species. We apply age‐from‐stage matrix decomposition methods to obtain age‐specific trajectories from 290 angiosperm species of various growth forms distributed globally. From these trajectories, we survey pace and shape values and investigate how growth form and ecoregion influence these two aspects of mortality using a Bayesian regression analysis that accounts for phylogenetic relationships using a resolved supertree.

In contrast to the animal kingdom, most angiosperms (93%) show no senescence. Senescence is observed among phanerophytes (i.e. trees), but not among any other growth form (e.g. epiphytes, chamaephytes or cryptopyhtes). Yet, most phanerophytes (81%) do not senesce. We find that growth form relates to differences in pace, that is, life span, as woody plants are typically longer lived than nonwoody plants, while differences in shape, that is, whether or not angiosperms senesce, are related to ancestral history.

Synthesis: The age trajectory of mortality captures a fundamental life‐history pattern for a species that is crucial to ecological understanding. We contribute to ecological knowledge by surveying these patterns across angiosperms. The novelty and strength of our study lies in the comprehensiveness of the data set, the use of a novel Bayesian analysis that accounts for phylogenetic history and in the distinction between metrics of pace and shape as two separate aspects of mortality. We believe that our approach could prove useful in future comparative studies of mortality patterns.
Plants do not count… or do they? New perspectives on the universality of senescence
Authors: Salguero‐Gómez Roberto , Shefferson Richard P. , Hutchings Michael J. 
Published: May 2013

SummarySenescence, the physiological decline that results in decreasing survival and/or reproduction with age, remains one of the most perplexing topics in biology. Most theories explaining the evolution of senescence (i.e. antagonistic pleiotropy, accumulation of mutations, disposable soma) were developed decades ago. Even though these theories have implicitly focused on unitary animals, they have also been used as the foundation from which the universality of senescence across the tree of life is assumed.Surprisingly, little is known about the general patterns, causes and consequences of whole‐individual senescence in the plant kingdom. There are important differences between plants and most animals, including modular architecture, the absence of early determination of cell lines between the soma and gametes, and cellular division that does not always shorten telomere length. These characteristics violate the basic assumptions of the classical theories of senescence and therefore call the generality of senescence theories into question.This Special Feature contributes to the field of whole‐individual plant senescence with five research articles addressing topics ranging from physiology to demographic modelling and comparative analyses. These articles critically examine the basic assumptions of senescence theories such as age‐specific gene action, the evolution of senescence regardless of the organism's architecture and environmental filtering, and the role of abiotic agents on mortality trajectories.Synthesis. Understanding the conditions under which senescence has evolved is of general importance across biology, ecology, evolution, conservation biology, medicine, gerontology, law and social sciences. The question ‘why is senescence universal or why is it not?’naturally calls for an evolutionary perspective. Senescence is a puzzling phenomenon, and new insights will be gained by uniting methods, theories and observations from formal demography, animal demography and plant population ecology. Plants are more amenable than animals to experiments investigating senescence, and there is a wealth of published plant demographic data that enable interpretation of experimental results in the context of their full life cycles. It is time to make plants count in the field of senescence.
Serial changes in adipocytokines and cardiac function in a rat model of the metabolic syndrome
Authors: Yamaguchi Takanori , Kitamori Kazuya , Ichihara Gaku , Suzuki Yuka , Ochiai Miyuki , Yamada Yoshiji , Tada‐Oikawa Saeko , Tsuchikura Satoru , Yamori Yukio , Ichihara Sahoko 
Published: May 2013

Summary

Obesity is associated with high chronic cardiac workload due to the need to supply more blood to peripheral tissue, and frequently leads to left ventricular (LV) dysfunction. The present study examined serial changes in cardiac function in the SHR/NDmcr‐cp (SHR/cp) strain, an experimental model of obesity plus hypertension and metabolic syndrome.

Transthoracic echocardiography was used to define cardiac dimensions and function in male spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR/lean), SHR/cp and Wistar‐Kyoto rats. We also assessed age‐related changes in plasma and LV adipocytokine levels in this model.

Although there were no significant differences in LV end‐diastolic diameter and end‐systolic diameter among the three rat strains until 24 weeks of age, these parameters were significantly higher and LV fractional shortening (%FS) was significantly lower in SHR/cp compared with SHR/lean at 32 weeks of age. At the same age, pronounced interstitial fibrosis and infiltration of macrophages and T lymphocytes into the LV was noted in SHR/cp relative to the other strains. In the myocardium, adiponectin levels were significantly lower and resistin levels and the expression of proinflammatory cytokines (tumour necrosis factor‐α and interleukin‐6) were significantly higher in SHR/cp than SHR/lean at 32 weeks of age.

Using echocardiography, we demonstrated reduced systolic function in 32‐week‐old SHR/cp. Changes in myocardial cytokine concentrations could be involved in worsening of cardiac function in our animal model of metabolic syndrome.
The efficacy, safety and cost‐effectiveness of hydrotalcite versus esomeprazole in on‐demand therapy of NERD: A multicenter, randomized, open‐label study in China
Authors: Xiao Ying Lian , Nie Yu Qiang , Hou Xiao Hua , Xie Peng Yan , Fang Jing Yuan , Yuan Yao Zong , Zhou Li Ya , Zhao Nai Qing , Chen Min Hu 
Published: May 2013

ObjectiveThe aim of the study was to investigate whether hydrotalcite was comparable to esomeprazole, a proton pump inhibitor, in on‐demand therapy for non‐erosive reflux disease (NERD).MethodsThis was a multicenter, randomized, open‐label clinical trial with initial and on‐demand therapy. Patients who had complete symptom relief in the initial therapy were randomized to either hydrotalcite or esomeprazole in the on‐demand therapy. The percentage of patients who quit on‐demand therapy in the two groups and the cost‐effectiveness of the treatment were evaluated as primary end points. The rate of symptom relief and the improvement of symptom score for initial therapy and the weekly average symptom score and weekly average number of days on treatment for on‐demand therapy were evaluated as secondary end points.ResultsIn total, 398 patients were recruited in the initial therapy group, among whom 253 were included in on‐demand therapy, with 127 patients in the hydrotalcite group and the remaining 126 in the esomeprazole group. 14 (11.0%) patients in the hydrotalcite group and six (4.8%) in the esomeprazole group quit the on‐demand therapy due to unsatisfactory symptom control (P = 0.065). Cost‐effectiveness calculated as the ratio of the cost of hydrotalcite to that of esomeprazole (per person/day) was 35.3% in the on‐demand therapy. Similar number of patients achieved symptom relief in both groups.ConclusionHydrotalcite is a good option of on‐demand therapy for NERD patients due to its cost‐effectiveness and speed of action.
Mastoid pneumocoele with skull base and cervical spine pneumatisation
Authors: Cowan Ian A , Greig Sam R , Bird Philip A 
Published: May 2013

SummaryVery uncommonly, Eustachian tube dysfunction can lead to symptomatic chronic elevation of middle ear pressure with aeration of bone and adjacent structures in the skull base and upper cervical spine, and an increased risk of fracture. We present a case demonstrating the natural history of this condition over 11 years before treatment and 10 months after treatment.
Patterns of retreatment with radiotherapy in a large academic centre
Authors: Khor Richard , Bressel Mathias , Tai Keen Hun , Ball David , Duchesne Gillian , Rose William , Tedesco Jo , Gill Suki , Fitzpatrick Claire , Foroudi Farshad 
Published: May 2013

AbstractAimsTo characterise retreatment rates with radiotherapy at a large multifacility academic radiotherapy centre and assess the effect of distance on retreatment rate.Materials and MethodsElectronic administrative records were reviewed for patients receiving radiotherapy between 1998 and 2010 at regional and metropolitan facilities. Course‐level data were reconstructed from electronic administrative databases. Intent of therapy, treatment dates and diagnosis were available for analysis. Retreatment characteristics were derived, including proportion of patients receiving retreatment, proportion of total radiotherapy prescriptions dedicated to retreatment and retreatment per treating facility. Travel distance for each patient to their treatment centre was estimated, and retreatment rates were reported as a function of increasing distance.ResultsA total of 48 200 patients were treated with 66 277 treatment courses during the study period. Retreatment courses constituted 25.2% of all courses prescribed. During the study period, 20.4% of all patients received at least one treatment course. Of these, the average number of retreatment courses prescribed was 1.84. Patients treated with radical intent had a retreatment rate of 13% compared with 45% for those treated initially with palliative intent. Retreatment rates in individual tumour sites ranged from 1.3 to 44.4%. The retreatment rate for those living less than 100 km from treatment facility was 24.8%, and 20.5% for those living more than 100 km from treatment centre (P < 0.001)ConclusionRetreatment accounted for over one quarter of radiotherapy courses, with the rate influenced by casemix and follow‐up duration. With increasing distance from treatment centre, a decrease in retreatment rate was observed.
Significant association between SNPs in the superoxide dismutase 3, extracellular (SOD3) gene and resistance to Aeromonas hydrophila in the freshwater mussel Hyriopsis cumingii
Authors: Wang G. L. , Li X. L. , Li J. L. 
Published: May 2013

SummaryExtracellular superoxide dismutase (SOD3) is a major antioxidant enzyme that protects organs from damage by reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this study, the SOD3 gene was identified and characterized from the freshwater mussel Hyriopsis cumingii (Hc‐SOD3). The cDNA sequence consists of 763 bp, encoding a protein of 208 amino acids. The amino acid sequence possesses two CuZnSOD signature sequences, and amino acids required for binding of Cu (His‐93, ‐95, ‐110 and ‐169) and Zn (His‐110, ‐118, ‐129 and Asp‐132) were conserved in Hc‐SOD3. The Hc‐SOD3 genomic sequence was 9165 bp in length, containing four exons and three introns. Eighteen single nucleotide polymorphisms were detected in the Hc‐SOD3 gene from resistant stock (RS) and susceptible stock (SS) of H. cumingii to Aeromonas hydrophila. The genotype and allele distribution were examined in resistant and susceptible stocks. Among them, a C/G substitution at the g.7994C>G locus and G/C substitution at the g.8087G>C locus were significantly associated with resistance/susceptibility of H. cumingii to A. hydrophila, both in genotype (P = 0.017, P = 0.004 respectively) and allele frequency (P = 0.021, P = 0.006 respectively). Linkage disequilibrium analysis revealed that g.7994C>G, g.8001A>G, g.8035G>A, g.8087G>C and g.8191T>A were in linkage disequilibrium. The results suggest that the two polymorphic loci, g.7994C>G and g.8087G>C, could be potential genetic markers for future molecular selection of strains that are resistant to diseases.
The local‐food movement and the anthropology of global systems
Authors: Nonini Donald M. 
Published: May 2013

ABSTRACTToday's wrenching worldwide social and cultural instability calls for more adequate theorization. Through an examination of the local‐food movement in the United States, I consider one such theorization, Kajsa Ekholm Friedman and Jonathan Friedman's anthropology of global systems. The Friedmans set out an original conceptualization of transformations in the political economy of commercial civilizations and processes of identity formation in periods of hegemonic decline. I present data on the local‐food movement in North Carolina and on differences in identity orientations between “sustainable‐agriculture” and “food‐security” activists to evaluate this conceptualization.
Simply the best: Parody and political sincerity in Iceland
Authors: Boyer Dominic 
Published: May 2013

ABSTRACTPursuing a self‐described anarcho‐surrealist politics in the aftermath of Iceland's banking crisis, Jón Gnarr shocked the country's political establishment by winning the mayoral election in Reykjavík in May 2010. In this article, I explore the rise of Gnarr's Best Party, especially its refusal to accept a distinction between parody and sincerity in its mode of political performance. Against the backdrop of the increasing monopolization of (neo)liberal political discourse and action, I discuss how “Gnarrism” reflects at once something old and something new in northern liberal democracy.
Bureaucratic aesthetics: Report writing in the Nigérien gendarmerie
Authors: Göpfert Mirco 
Published: May 2013

ABSTRACTNigérien gendarmes invest considerable creative energy in their daily paperwork. I explore how the gendarmes conceive of the writing of seemingly purely bureaucratic documents, procès‐verbaux, in aesthetic terms. At the same time, I ground the aesthetic appreciation of these documents in the gendarmes’ socioprofessional environment. Writing an aesthetically satisfying procès‐verbal is a means of gaining respect from colleagues and superiors and of justifying and actualizing gendarmes’ self‐perception as intellectuals in uniform. Bureaucratic work, I argue, is always also aesthetic work, and bureaucratic aesthetics is where aesthetic, pragmatic, and legal reasonings become one.
Feminine power or feminine weakness? North Indian girls’ struggles with aspirations, agency, and psychosomatic illness
Authors: Marrow Jocelyn 
Published: May 2013

ABSTRACTIn Hindi‐speaking northeastern India, mothers whose daughters are afflicted with a psychosomatic illness referred to locally as “the teeth have clenched” employ standard tropes pertaining to Indian femininity to negotiate their daughters’ agency against the backdrop of new aspirations. An inquiry into two cases I encountered during fieldwork in Varanasi psychiatric clinics in 2001–04 demonstrates how girls’ symptomatic bodies mediated social concerns pertaining to the challenges that women's education and work in public spaces present to non‐elite middle‐class domestic orders. While these illnesses may have been born of previous traumas or household conflicts, and sometimes were acknowledged as such, mothers’ and daughters’ own concerns about the illnesses focused on what they indicated about the daughters’ potential for social and academic success. In particular, mothers regarded their daughters as possessing either too much or too little “power” or “strength,” and these attributions attached to their anxieties and hopes for their daughters’ futures. In the drama of clenched teeth, disordered bodies, disruptive behavior, and possible futures were folded into the same metaphors of agency.
Transnational circulation and digital fatigue in Ghana's Azonto dance craze
Authors: Shipley Jesse Weaver 
Published: May 2013

ABSTRACTAzonto is a Ghanaian urban dance craze whose popularity is built through its global circulation. I trace its production and flow across studios, radio stations, dance floors, and digital platforms in Accra and among Ghanaians in London and New York. I argue that, as a technologically mediated style, Azonto is the embodiment of being Ghanaian in a mobile, digital world. This dance reveals both the potentials and the hazards of digital repetition and copying for self‐recognition. Ghanaian musicians and fans creatively use the repetitive aspects of digital technologies, making this dance a style of symbolic appropriation that links Ghanaian youth both in Accra and abroad into a dispersed community of musical participation that valorizes mobility itself. The dance's sudden ubiquity, however, creates “digital fatigue,” an uncertainty among participants about belonging in an era of digital replication that threatens to unmoor signs of recognition from the cultural registers that empower them in the first place.
State of play: The political ontology of sport in Amazonian Peru
Authors: Walker Harry 
Published: May 2013

ABSTRACTBuilding on the importance of “play” in traditional sociality, organized team sports such as soccer are instrumental in promoting a new moral and political order among Urarina people of Peruvian Amazonia, one grounded in notions of roles, rules, and the abstract individual. As a vehicle of nationalist sentiment, highly amenable to ritualization and bureaucratization, sport is central to the process by which the state expands its territory and influence. Like warfare, but unifying rather than fragmenting in its effects, sport harnesses the energy and vitality of youth and co‐opts them for other ends.
Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy is common among patients' first‐degree relatives
Authors: Turunen Kaisa , Helander Kristiina , Mattila Kari J. , Sumanen Markku 
Published: May 2013

AbstractIntrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy has been shown to have a genetic predisposition. We studied whether Finnish women who had suffered from the disorder reported their first‐degree relatives to have had liver dysfunction during their pregnancies. Questionnaires were sent in autumn 2010 to a total of 544 former intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy patients and 1235 controls, all having delivered during 1969–1988. The response rate was 66.2%. The incidence of intrahepatic cholestasis is 0.5–1.5% of pregnancies in Finland. In our survey, altogether 12.8% of mothers (odds ratio 9.2), 15.9% of sisters (odds ratio 5.3) and 10.3% of daughters (odds ratio 4.8) of women who had suffered from intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy had had liver dysfunction during pregnancy. Our findings strengthen the earlier knowledge of the genetic component in intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy. We suggest that all pregnant women are asked about their family history regarding liver dysfunction during pregnancy.
Neonatal stomach volume and physiology suggest feeding at 1‐h intervals
Authors: Bergman Nils J 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
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There is insufficient evidence on optimal neonatal feeding intervals, with a wide range of practices. The stomach capacity could determine feeding frequency. A literature search was conducted for studies reporting volumes or dimensions of stomach capacity before or after birth. Six articles were found, suggesting a stomach capacity of 20 mL at birth.ConclusionA stomach capacity of 20 mL translates to a feeding interval of approximately 1 h for a term neonate. This corresponds to the gastric emptying time for human milk, as well as the normal neonatal sleep cycle. Larger feeding volumes at longer intervals may therefore be stressful and the cause of spitting up, reflux and hypoglycaemia. Outcomes for low birthweight infants could possibly be improved if stress from overfeeding was avoided while supporting the development of normal gastrointestinal physiology. Cycles between feeding and sleeping at 1‐h intervals likely meet the evolutionary expectations of human neonates.