bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Application of multi-attribute utility theory for sustainable energy decisions in commercial buildings
Authors: Nikou Tina , Klotz Leidy 
Published: November 2014

Purpose
– Despite substantial advances in technologies enhancing the energy efficiency of buildings, they remain the largest consumers of energy in the USA compared with other sectors. In addition, the current rating systems for sustainable buildings do not reflect all potential energy savings during the design, construction, and occupancy of the built environment. The purpose of this paper is to examine the application of multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT) as a framework for quantifying energy decisions made during the design phase of a building construction project.

Design/methodology/approach
– The MAUT method was applied to a case study, and the results were compared with subjective results from the decision makers. Analysis of the results suggested that MAUT is a decision analysis tool that could aid decision makers in communicating their decision criteria and expectations.

Findings
– Findings from this research suggest that using an analysis method provides the decision makers with a systematic way to include their concerns and preferences and specific requirements of the project along with the criteria for sustainable energy and the built environment at the same time. Using a multi-criteria, decision-making method provides the decision makers with quantitative information, which facilitates the comparison of alternatives. MAUT enabled the various stakeholders of the project to collaborate on the inputs of the problems and allowed the decision makers to communicate their priorities and expectations more effectively.

Originality/value
– The findings indicated that MAUT provides stakeholders with a quantitative and holistic approach to decision making in which they can track changes in parameters during the process. The implementation of MAUT as a decision analysis tool in designing construction projects ultimately could lead to better decision making for sustainable building designs.
Some don't like it hot: microhabitat‐dependent thermal and water stresses in a trailing edge population
Authors: Mota Catarina F. , Engelen Aschwin H. , Serrão Ester A. , Pearson Gareth A. 
Published: November 2014

Summary

The distributional limits of species in response to environmental change are usually studied at large temporal and/or geographical scales. However, organismal scale habitat variation can be overlooked when investigating large‐scale averages of key factors such as temperature. We examine how microhabitat thermal conditions relate to physiological limits, which may contribute to recent range shifts in an intertidal alga.

We defined the onset and maximum temperatures of the heat‐shock response (HSR) for a southern edge population of Fucus vesiculosus, which has subsequently become extinct. The physiological threshold for resilience (assayed using chlorophyll fluorescence) coincided with declining HSR, determined from the temperature‐dependent induction of seven heat‐shock protein transcripts.

In intertidal habitats, temperature affects physiology directly by controlling body temperature and indirectly through evaporative water loss. We investigated the relationship between the thermal environment and in situ molecular HSR at microhabitat scales. Over cm to m scales, four distinct microhabitats were defined in algal patches (canopy surface, patch edge, subcanopy, submerged channels), revealing distinct thermal and water stress environments during low‐tide emersion.

The in situ HSR agreed with estimated tissue temperatures in all but one microhabitat. Remarkably, in the most thermally extreme microhabitat (canopy surface), the HSR was essentially absent in desiccated tissue, providing a potential escape from the cellular metabolic costs of thermal stress.

Meteorological records, microenvironmental thermal profiles and HSR data indicate that the maximum HSR is approached or exceeded in hydrated tissue during daytime low tides for much of the year. Furthermore, present‐day summer seawater temperatures are sufficient to induce HSR during high‐tide immersion, preventing recovery and resulting in continuous HSR during daytime low‐tide cycles over the entire summer.

HSR in the field matched microhabitat temperatures more closely than local seawater or atmospheric data, suggesting that the impacts of climatic change are best understood at the microhabitat scale, particularly in intertidal areas.
Density‐dependent movement and the consequences of the Allee effect in the model organism Tetrahymena
Authors: Fronhofer Emanuel A. , Kropf Tabea , Altermatt Florian 
Published: November 2014

Summary

Movement and dispersal are critical processes for almost all organisms in natural populations. Understanding their causes and consequences is therefore of high interest. While both theoretical and empirical work suggest that dispersal, more exactly emigration, is plastic and may be a function of local population density, the functional relationship between the underlying movement strategies and population density has received less attention.

We here present evidence for the shape of this reaction norm and are able to differentiate between three possible cues: the relative number of individuals, the presence of metabolites (chemical cues) and resource availability.

We performed microcosm experiments with the ciliate model organism Tetrahymena in order to understand the plasticity of movement strategies with respect to local density while controlling for possible confounding effects mediated by the availability of different cues. In addition, we investigated how an Allee effect can influence movement and dispersal plasticity.

Our findings suggest that movement strategies in Tetrahymena are plastic and density‐dependent. The observed movement reaction norm was U‐shaped. This may be due to an Allee effect which led to negative density dependence at low population densities and generally positive density dependence at high population densities due to local competition. This possibly adaptive density‐dependent movement strategy was likely mediated by chemical cues.

Our experimental work in highly controlled conditions indicates that both environmental cues as well as inherent population dynamics must be considered to understand movement and dispersal.
The mobility problem in Britain: new findings from the analysis of birth cohort data
Authors: Bukodi Erzsébet , Goldthorpe John H. , Waller Lorraine , Kuha Jouni 
Published: November 2014

AbstractSocial mobility is now a matter of greater political concern in Britain than at any time previously. However, the data available for the determination of mobility trends are less adequate today than two or three decades ago. It is widely believed in political and in media circles that social mobility is in decline. But the evidence so far available from sociological research, focused on intergenerational class mobility, is not supportive of this view. We present results based on a newly‐constructed dataset covering four birth cohorts that provides improved data for the study of trends in class mobility and that also allows analyses to move from the twentieth into the twenty‐first century. These results confirm that there has been no decline in mobility, whether considered in absolute or relative terms. In the case of women, there is in fact evidence of mobility increasing. However, the better quality and extended range of our data enable us to identify other ‘mobility problems’ than the supposed decline. Among the members of successive cohorts, the experience of absolute upward mobility is becoming less common and that of absolute downward mobility more common; and class‐linked inequalities in relative chances of mobility and immobility appear wider than previously thought.
Consumers' Preferences for Nanotechnology in Food Packaging: A Discrete Choice Experiment
Authors: Erdem Seda 
Published: November 2014

AbstractWe examine consumers' preferences for chickens under different levels of foodborne health risk, animal welfare and pric attributes. We analyse how their preferences vary according to the risk reduction method. Our comparison is between risk reductions achieved by conventional improvements in the meat supply chain system (e.g. more stringent regulations and inspection regimes), and risk reductions achieved by food packaging nanosensors. Our comparison uses a two‐treatment discrete choice experiment in which each treatment sample is only presented with one of the risk reductions: either nanotechnology or conventional methods. We also investigate heterogeneity in preferences for two consumer groups: (i) consumers who usually buy conventional raw, whole chickens, and (ii) consumers who usually buy niche, welfare‐improved chickens, such as free‐range and organic. Our results show evidence of heterogeneity in preferences and willingness‐ to‐pay values of the both consumer groups. We find that consumers, on average, prefer raw, whole chicken with a lower risk of food poisoning, better animal welfare, and lower costs, regardless of the presence of nanosensors. Although consumers in general showed no strong preferences towards or resistance to nanotechnology, those who buy chickens with better animal welfare, on average, showed higher WTP for food risk reduction and animal welfare relative to conventional chicken consumers.
The Art of Chiaroscuro Writing: Condillac and the Question of Word Order
Authors: PLANTE MANON 
Published: November 2014

AbstractCondillac's use of clair‐obscur to discuss the role of inversion and sentence construction is akin to the wish to make pictorial chiaroscuro an element of intelligibility of painting, as in de Piles. This article draws on the French heritage of the two elements clair and obscur, each long‐standing metaphors. By associating clair‐obscur with inversion, Condillac places it within a history of ‘la clarté française’, freeing from the dead metaphor ‘clair‐obscur’ a series of potential meanings that the visual arts' definition of chiaroscuro had not attended to, and which are key to the uses that writers such as Diderot and Rétif de la Bretonne will make of ‘clair‐obscur’ in their literary works.
Chiaroscuro in the Eighteenth‐Century Ballet d'Action
Authors: NYE EDWARD 
Published: November 2014

AbstractThe use of the term chiaroscuro by choreographers and commentators on the ballet d'action was part of a deliberate strategy, in the context of controversy surrounding this innovative art. De Piles's emphasis on the use of colour rather than the geometry of line is analogous to Noverre and Angiolini's emphasis on body language in mime dance rather than formal step vocabulary. The rationale for using such terminology was to show that the ballet d'action was a hybrid genre and to redefine the nature of contemporary drama, just as the coloristes had sought to redefine the nature of painting a few decades earlier.
Théâtre de l'ombre: Visions of Afterlife in Prints and Plays of the French Revolution
Authors: TREVIEN CLAIRE 
Published: November 2014

AbstractOne notable trend both in prints and in theatre of the French Revolution was the depiction of recently deceased people, such as Louis XVI or Mirabeau, entering heaven or hell, and of their interactions with characters from history. A term often used in the title of these works, ‘ombre’, suggests that these interpretations of the afterlife were deeply entrenched with the interplay of light and darkness. This article charts these representations through the lens of clair‐obscur, a technical term linked to both theatrical lighting and artistic composition.
The Relationship Between R‐Wave Magnitude and Ventricular Volume During Continuous Left Ventricular Assist Device Assistance: Experimental Study
Authors: Fresiello Libera , Trivella Maria Giovanna , Di Molfetta Arianna , Ferrari Gianfranco , Bernini Fabio , Meste Olivier 
Published: November 2014

AbstractThe current use of left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) as destination therapy is associated with the clinical need of monitoring patient–pump interaction. To this aim, the present work investigated the possibility of getting useful information about the status of the assisted left ventricle using electrocardiographic (ECG) data. A total of six animals, undergoing Gyro Centrifugal Pump 2 implantation (a new version of Gyro Centrifugal Pump C1E3 [Kyocera Corporation, Kyoto, Japan]) and CircuLite Synergy Micropump (CircuLite, Inc., Saddlebrooke, NJ, USA) in atrio‐aortic connection, were analyzed. Data refer to different LVAD speeds with consequently different levels of ventricular unloading. From ECG signal, the R wave peak was individuated together with the corresponding left ventricular volume. Then on both signals, a moving average analysis was performed to reduce the effect of the ventilation. A regression and correlation analysis performed on the two resulting signals evidenced that the R wave peak and the ventricular volume are strictly related. Specifically, any change of LVAD speed, inducing a change in ventricular volume, is associated with a change in R wave peak value. The present work is a first step in investigating the usefulness of the ECG signal during LVAD therapy, for the monitoring of mechanical parameters of the heart such as the ventricular volumes. The correlation found between the ECG and the ventricular volume can be a promising starting point for possible future noninvasive LVAD patient monitoring.
Regional differences in postneonatal childhood mortality in Finland, 1985–2004
Authors: Lantto Marjo , Renko Marjo , Uhari Matti 
Published: November 2014

AbstractAimThe Finnish healthcare system will undergo a major reform in the near future. This study examined whether postneonatal childhood mortality differed between university and central hospital districts in Finland from 1985 to 2004 and whether the causes of death were preventable.MethodsWe analysed postneonatal childhood mortality in Finland during two 10‐year periods – 1985 to 1994 and 1995 to 2004 – analysing university and central hospital districts separately, as paediatric intensive care is centralised in university hospitals. The study looked at the main causes of death in each hospital, and the mortality rates were adjusted to demonstrate how many children were at risk of dying.ResultsPostneonatal childhood mortality decreased during the study period in university and central hospital districts. We found no significant difference in mortality rates between university hospital districts, but regional differences were notable in central hospital districts, partly because of historical differences in mortality. Accidents were the most common cause of death, with substantial regional differences.ConclusionRegional postneonatal childhood mortality differed across central hospital districts, and this should be taken into account in the forthcoming restructuring of the Finnish healthcare system. Special attention is needed to prevent accidental deaths, both nationally and locally.
Quantifying the effects of diuretics and β‐adrenoceptor blockers on glycaemic control in diabetes mellitus – a systematic review and meta‐analysis
Authors: Hirst Jennifer A. , Farmer Andrew J. , Feakins Benjamin G. , Aronson Jeffrey K. , Stevens Richard J. 
Published: November 2014

AimsAlthough there are reports that β‐adrenoceptor antagonists (beta‐blockers) and diuretics can affect glycaemic control in people with diabetes mellitus, there is no clear information on how blood glucose concentrations may change and by how much. We report results from a systematic review to quantify the effects of these antihypertensive drugs on glycaemic control in adults with established diabetes.MethodsWe systematically reviewed the literature to identify randomized controlled trials in which glycaemic control was studied in adults with diabetes taking either beta‐blockers or diuretics. We combined data on HbA1c and fasting blood glucose using fixed effects meta‐analysis.ResultsFrom 3864 papers retrieved, we found 10 studies of beta‐blockers and 12 studies of diuretics to include in the meta‐analysis. One study included both comparisons, totalling 21 included reports. Beta‐blockers increased fasting blood glucose concentrations by 0.64 mmol l−1 (95% CI 0.24, 1.03) and diuretics by 0.77 mmol l−1 (95% CI 0.14, 1.39) compared with placebo. Effect sizes were largest in trials of non‐selective beta‐blockers (1.33, 95% CI 0.72, 1.95) and thiazide diuretics (1.69, 95% CI 0.60, 2.69). Beta‐blockers increased HbA1c concentrations by 0.75% (95% CI 0.30, 1.20) and diuretics by 0.24% (95% CI −0.17, 0.65) compared with placebo. There was no significant difference in the number of hypoglycaemic events between beta‐blockers and placebo in three trials.ConclusionsRandomized trials suggest that thiazide diuretics and non‐selective beta‐blockers increase fasting blood glucose and HbA1c concentrations in patients with diabetes by moderate amounts. These data will inform prescribing and monitoring of beta‐blockers and diuretics in patients with diabetes.
Renal function is the same 6 months after robot‐assisted partial nephrectomy regardless of clamp technique: analysis of outcomes for off‐clamp, selective arterial clamp and main artery clamp techniques, with a minimum follow‐up of 1 year
Authors: Komninos Christos , Shin Tae Young , Tuliao Patrick , Han Woong Kyu , Chung Byung Ha , Choi Young Deuk , Rha Koon Ho 
Published: November 2014

ObjectiveTo compare the renal functional outcomes, with >1 year of follow‐up, of patients who underwent robot‐assisted partial nephrectomy (RAPN) performed with different clamping techniques.Patients and MethodsThe peri‐operative data of patients undergoing RAPN performed with different clamping techniques were retrospectively analysed (group 1: off‐clamp, n = 23; group 2: selective clamp, n = 25; group 3: main artery clamp, n = 114). The main outcome measures were postoperative serum creatinine level, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and percentage change in eGFR, the data for which were collected at periodic intervals during the first 12 months and annually thereafter, in addition to late eGFR value. Only patients with >1 year of follow‐up were included in the analysis.ResultsThe baseline characteristics of groups 2 and 3 were similar, while patients in group 1 had smaller sized tumours and lower tumour complexity. The median follow‐up periods were 45 (group 1), 20 (group 2) and 47 (group 3) months. The median clamping times were 24.8 min in the main artery clamp and 18 min in the selective artery clamp groups. Group 2 had greater median blood loss volume (100 vs 500 vs 200 mL for groups 1, 2 and 3, respectively; P < 0.01) and a longer length of hospital stay (3 vs 4 vs 3 days for groups 1, 2 and 3, respectively; P = 0.02). No significant differences were found among the groups with regard to transfusion rates, positive surgical margin rates, complications, recurrence or mortality rates. Groups 1 and 2 had significantly less deterioration of postoperative renal function during the first 3 months after surgery (P = 0.04; percent change in eGFR −1.5, −2 and −8% for groups 1, 2 and 3, respectively), but this beneficial outcome was not observed after 6 months or for the latest eGFR measurement (P = 0.48; latest percent change in eGFR −3, −6 and −3.5% for groups 1, 2 and 3, respectively). In regression analysis, baseline eGFR, type of clamp procedure and tumour complexity score were predictive of normal renal function 7 days after surgery, while only baseline eGFR and age could predict it 1 year postoperatively.ConclusionsOff‐clamp and selective artery clamp techniques result in superior short‐term renal functional outcomes compared with the main artery clamp approach; however, after the 6th postoperative month, there were no significant differences regarding the functional outcome among the above surgical techniques, as long as the warm ischaemia time was 20–30 min.
Therapeutic action of 5‐HT3 receptor antagonists targeting peritoneal macrophages in post‐operative ileus
Authors: Maehara Toko , Matsumoto Kenjiro , Horiguchi Kazuhide , Kondo Makoto , Iino Satoshi , Horie Shunji , Murata Takahisa , Tsubone Hirokazu , Shimada Shoichi , Ozaki Hiroshi , Hori Masatoshi 
Published: November 2014

Background and PurposePost‐operative ileus (POI) is induced by intestinal inflammation. Here, we aimed to clarify the effects of 5‐HT3 receptor antagonists against POI.Experimental ApproachWe administered three 5‐HT3 receptor antagonists, ondansetron, tropisetron and palonosetron, to a mouse model of POI induced by surgical intestinal manipulation (IM). Immunohistochemistry, intestinal transit, inflammatory mediator mRNA expression and 5‐HT content were measured. In some experiments, 5‐HT3A receptor null mice were used.Key ResultsThree 5‐HT3 receptor antagonists reduced IM‐induced infiltration of inflammatory CD68‐positive macrophages and myeloperoxidase‐stained neutrophils. Ondansetron exhibited no anti‐inflammatory actions in 5‐HT3A receptor null mice. Ondansetron inhibited expression of the chemokine CCL2, IL‐1β, IL‐6, TNF‐α and iNOS mRNAs up‐regulated by IM, and also ameliorated the delayed gastrointestinal transit. Peritoneal macrophages, but not most infiltrating monocyte‐derived macrophages, expressed 5‐HT3 receptors. IM stimulation increased the 5‐HT content of peritoneal lavage fluid, which up‐regulated mRNA expression of proinflammatory cytokines in peritoneal macrophages. Immunohistochemical localization of 5‐HT3 receptors suggests that ondansetron suppressed expression of these mRNAs in activated peritoneal macrophages, adhering to the serosal region of the inflamed intestinal wall.Conclusion and Implications5‐HT3 receptor antagonists were anti‐inflammatory, mainly targeting peritoneal macrophages expressing these receptors. They also restored the delayed gastrointestinal transit by IM. 5‐HT3 receptor antagonists should be therapeutically useful agents against POI.
Cortisol Reactivity to Social Stress as a Mediator of Early Adversity on Risk and Adaptive Outcomes
Authors: Conradt Elisabeth , Abar Beau , Lester Barry M. , LaGasse Linda L. , Shankaran Seetha , Bada Henrietta , Bauer Charles R. , Whitaker Toni M. , Hammond Jane A. 
Published: November 2014

Children chronically exposed to stress early in life are at increased risk for maladaptive outcomes, though the physiological mechanisms driving these effects are unknown. Cortisol reactivity was tested as a mediator of the relation between prenatal substance exposure and/or early adversity on adaptive and maladaptive outcomes. Data were drawn from a prospective longitudinal study of prenatal substance exposure (N = 860). Cortisol reactivity was assessed at age 11. Among African Americans, prenatal substance exposure exerted an indirect effect through early adversity and cortisol reactivity to predict externalizing behavior, delinquency, and a positive student–teacher relationship at age 11. Decreased cortisol reactivity was related to maladaptive outcomes, and increased cortisol reactivity predicted better executive functioning and a more positive student–teacher relationship.