bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Variational surface design under normal field guidance
Authors: Wu Weidong , Yang Xunnian 
Published: March 2015

Abstract
This paper proposes a novel method for shape design of a Bézier surface with given boundary curves. The surface is defined as the minimizer of an extended membrane functional or an extended thin plate functional under the guidance of a specified normal field together with an initial prescribed surface. For given boundary curves and the guiding normal field, the free coefficients of a Bézier surface are obtained by solving a linear system. Unlike previous PDE based surface modeling techniques which construct surfaces just from boundaries, our proposed method can be used to generate smooth and fair surfaces that even follow a specified normal field. Several interesting examples are given to demonstrate the applications of the proposed method in geometric modeling.
Highlights Two extended energy functionals are proposed for variational surface modeling. The guiding normal field can be used to control the shapes of the variational surfaces efficiently. The proposed technique can be used for various modeling purposes like editing, hole filling or transition surface design.
The impact of bullwhip on supply chains: Performance pathways, control mechanisms, and managerial levers
Authors: Mackelprang Alan W. , Malhotra Manoj K. 
Published: March 2015

AbstractEven though few empirical studies have tried to actually explicate the relationship between the bullwhip effect and performance of the supplier firm, there exists a common perception for over 30 years among both practitioners and academics that the bullwhip effect naturally results in decreased firm profitability. Anecdotal evidence further suggests that this decline in profitability arises from a decline in operational performance. However, the results of our study, which empirically examines the bullwhip effect across supply chain partners through an analysis of 383 actual customer base‐supplier dyads, challenge this commonly held position by suggesting that while traditional bullwhip often yields reduced ROA, it ultimately has no relationship with the firm's operating margin. Additionally, our results also call into question whether or not production coordination between customers and suppliers can minimize the need for inventory and capacity buffers, which are the two commonly utilized methods for battling the bullwhip effect. Thus the relationship between bullwhip and firm performance is far more nuanced and complicated than previously believed. We also show how the managerial bullwhip levers of coordinating production across supply chain partners, or deploying inventory and capacity buffer control mechanisms, can help maximize a firm's performance along different dimensions.
Bullwhip effect under substitute products
Authors: Duan Yongrui , Yao Yuliang , Huo Jiazhen 
Published: March 2015

AbstractUsing a large‐scale, product‐level dataset collected from a supply chain dyad, we examine the effect of own and substitute products on a focal product's bullwhip effect and estimate the existence and magnitude of the bullwhip effect at the product level. We find that, under substitute products, the bullwhip effect is not only affected by a product's own factors but also by those of its substitute products. An increase in the number of own price changes is associated with a decrease in the bullwhip effect in terms of the direct effect but with an increase in the bullwhip effect in terms of the total effect, and increases in the number of price changes of substitute products and own stockouts are associated with increases in the bullwhip effect. The potential effects for own price changes, price changes of substitute products and own stockouts are as much as 59.51%, 95.06% and 66.11%. We also find that the bullwhip effect is prevalent and very intensive at the product level. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings.
The Upper Ordovician trilobiteRaymonditesSinclair, 1944 in North America
Authors: Swisher Robert E. , Westrop Stephen R. , Amati Lisa 
Published: March 2015

AbstractThe Upper Ordovician (Sandbian–Katian) bathyurid trilobiteRaymonditesSinclair is revised using new collections from Missouri and Ontario, and archival material from Illinois, Wisconsin, New York, and Ontario. Phylogenetic analysis supports monophyly ofRaymondites, but recognition of this genus rendersBathyurusBillings paraphyletic. We treatRaymonditesas a subgenus ofBathyurusand label the paraphylum of species traditionally assigned to the latter asBathyurussensu lato.Bathyurus(Raymondites) is composed of five previously named species,B. (R.)spiniger(Hall),B. (R.)longispinus(Walcott),B. (R.)ingalli(Raymond),B. (R.)bandiferSinclair, andB. (R.)trispinosus(Wilson), and two new species,B. (R.)clochensis, andB. (R.)missouriensis; an eighth species is placed in open nomenclature. All species share tuberculate sculpture on the glabella, a relatively short palpebral lobe whose length is less than half of preoccipital glabellar length, and a pygidial outline that is well rounded posteriorly. Aside from the most basal species,B. (R.)longispinus, they also possess occipital spines and, where the pygidium is known, axial pygidial spines.
A mid-Oligocene (Whitneyan) rhinocerotid from northeastern California
Authors: Bright Jen A. , Tiffney Bruce H. , Wyss André R. 
Published: March 2015

AbstractRhinoceroses were important in North American mammal faunas from the late middle Eocene to the Miocene, but the group’s poor sampling outside the High Plains and eastern Rocky Mountain regions during their early evolution significantly hinders understanding of their biogeography. This limited geographic sampling is particularly true of early–middle Oligocene time, with the vast majority of Whitneyan localities occurring in the White River Badlands of South Dakota. Thus, any rhinocerotid from outside the High Plains during this period is significant. We describe two new rhinocerotid specimens from the middle Oligocene Steamboat Formation of the northeastern Warner Mountains of California. Although the Steamboat Formation is well known for fossil plants, this is the first report of mammalian fossils from the area: an isolated lower molar recovered in 1974 but not previously described or illustrated, and a mandibular fragment recovered approximately 20 years later and bearing two molar teeth, most likely pertaining to the same taxon and horizon. The lack of distinctive morphological characters suggests both fossils be conservatively referred to Rhinocerotidae incertae sedis. Based on published tooth measurement data, Trigonias osborni represents the closest size match, but that species is currently only known from the Chadronian. Similarly, the Whitneyan taxon Diceratherium tridactylum is approximately the right size, but is currently only known from the High Plains and its presence in California would expand its geographic range substantially. Of greatest importance here is that sediments of the eastern Warner Mountains may represent a largely unexplored locale for early–middle Oligocene fossil vertebrates, and may yield important future finds.
Revision of Chlidoniopsidae Harmer, (Bryozoa: Cheilostomata) including a description of Celiopsis vici gen. and sp. nov.
Authors: Zágoršek Kamil , Gordon Dennis P. , Vávra Norbert 
Published: March 2015

AbstractThe bryozoan family Chlidoniopsidae Harmer, 1957 is reviewed in relation to a new Paleogene European fossil, Celiopsis vici new genus and new species. It differs from the type and only other genus of the family in having longer internodes with up to three zooids, shorter proximal caudae, and, more importantly, suture lines that unequally divided the umbonuloid frontal shield and basal (abfrontal) wall (and the hypostegal coelom in life) into sectors, analogous to the situation in the lepralioid-shielded Prostomariidae and Urceoliporidae. Unlike Prostomaria and Urceolipora, and like Chlidoniopsis, Celiopsis is uniserial. The suture lines in Celiopsis were lines of insertion (attachment) of epithecal membranes in life and each sector has its own longitudinal series of septular pores, sometimes doubled. Miocene to Recent Chlidoniopsis contains two species, and Eocene–Oligocene Celiopsis contains three species. The geographic distribution gives evidence of origination of the family in the Paratethys of Europe, with southeastwards migration to Australia and the tropical western Pacific. The temporal distribution suggests two macro-evolutionary trends—from multizooidal to unizooidal internodes, and from a broader area of basal wall, with a division into separate cryptocystal fields, to a narrower basal wall with no such division.
Parainoceramyan. gen. forParainoceramusCox, 1954 (exVoronetz, 1936)partim(Bivalvia, Jurassic)
Authors: Ros-Franch Sonia , Damborenea Susana E. , Márquez-Aliaga Ana , Manceñido Miguel O. 
Published: March 2015

AbstractSeveral Jurassic pterioid bivalve species have been referred toParainoceramusCox by different authors, yet this has proved inadequate because the meaning of such genus has been compounded by nomenclatural and idiomatic problems, as well as misinterpretations. Hence, the new genusParainoceramyais here proposed to accommodate several species previously referred toParainoceramus, withCrenatula ventricosaJ. de C. Sowerby as its type. Permian species originally assigned toParainoceramus, including the type species, are referred to the genusKolymiaLikharev. All species attributed toParainoceramuss.l. are reviewed and the new genus is compared with related genera. As here understood, the new genus is first recorded in the Hettangian and attained a cosmopolitan distribution; its last occurrence is probably Berriasian.
Affinity, life cycle, and intracellular complexity of organic-walled microfossils from the Mesoproterozoic of Shanxi, China
Authors: Agić Heda , Moczydłowska Małgorzata , Yin Lei-Ming 
Published: March 2015

AbstractLight microscope and scanning electron microscope observations on new material of unicellular microfossilsDictyosphaera macroreticulataandShuiyousphaeridium macroreticulatum,from the Mesoproterozoic Ruyang Group in China, provide insights into the microorganisms’ biological affinity, life cycle and cellular complexity.Gigantosphaeridium fibratumn. gen. et sp., is described and is one of the largest Mesoproterozoic microfossils recorded. Phenotypic characters of vesicle ornamentation and excystment structures, properties of resistance and cell wall structure inDictyosphaeraandShuiyousphaeridiumare all diagnostic of microalgal cysts. The wide size ranges of the various morphotypes indicate growth phases compatible with the development of reproductive cysts. Conspecific biologically, each morphotype represents an asexual (resting cyst) or sexual (zygotic cyst) stage in the life cycle, respectively. We reconstruct this hypothetical life cycle and infer that the organism demonstrates a reproductive strategy of alternation of heteromorphic generations. Similarly inGigantosphaeridium,a metabolically expensive vesicle with processes suggests its protective role as a zygotic cyst. In combination with all these characters and from the resemblance to extant green algae, we propose the placement of these ancient microorganisms in the stem group of Chloroplastida (Viridiplantae). A cell wall composed of primary and secondary layers inDictyosphaeraandShuiyouisphaeridiumrequired a high cellular complexity for their synthesis and the presence of an endomembrane system and the Golgi apparatus. The plastid was also present, accepting the organism was photosynthetic. The biota reveals a high degree of morphological and cell structural complexity, and provides an insight into ongoing eukaryotic evolution and the development of complex life cycles with sexual reproduction by 1200 Ma.
A reexamination of Yuknessia from the Cambrian of British Columbia and Utah
Authors: LoDuca Steven T. , Caron Jean-Bernard , Schiffbauer James D. , Xiao Shuhai , Kramer Anthony 
Published: March 2015

AbstractTo investigate the phylogenetic affinity of Yuknessia simplex Walcott, 1919, scanning electron microscopy was applied to the Burgess Shale (Cambrian Series 3, Stage 5) type material and to new material from the Trilobite Beds (Yoho National Park) and specimens from the Cambrian of Utah. On the basis of fine-scale details observed using this approach, including banding structure interpreted as fusellae, Yuknessia Walcott, 1919 is transferred from the algae, where it resided for nearly a century, to the extant taxon Pterobranchia (Phylum Hemichordata). Considered as such, Yuknessia specimens from the Trilobite Beds and Spence Formation (Utah) are amongst the oldest known colonial pterobranchs. Two morphs regarded herein as two different species are recognized from the Trilobite Beds based on tubarium morphology. Yuknessia simplex has slender erect tubes whereas Yuknessia stephenensis n. sp., which is also known in Utah, has more robust erect tubes. The two paratypes of Y. simplex designated by Walcott (1919) are formally removed from Yuknessia and are reinterpreted respectively as an indeterminate alga and Dalyia racemata Walcott, 1919, a putative red alga.
An Early Pleistocene gray whale (Cetacea: Eschrichtiidae) from the Rio Dell Formation of northern California
Authors: Tsai Cheng-Hsiu , Boessenecker Robert W. 
Published: March 2015

AbstractThe earliest fossil gray whale (Eschrichtius) from the eastern North Pacific is reported from the Lower Pleistocene Rio Dell Formation of Humboldt County, Northern California. This specimen, a tympanic bulla and posterior process, is identical in morphology to extantEschrichtius robustusand differs from PlioceneEschrichtiussp. from the western North Pacific (Japan). Thus, it suggests that the modern bulla morphology of the gray whale had been acquired by the Early Pleistocene. The absence of fossilEschrichtiusin the Pliocene of the eastern North Pacific may indicate that the extant gray whale lineage originated in the western North Pacific during the Pliocene before invading the eastern North Pacific during the Early Pleistocene. Further discoveries of Plio-Pleistocene gray whale fossils will help test this hypothesis and properly interpret the evolutionary history of eschrichtiid clade.
Association of older paternal age with earlier onset among co-affected schizophrenia sib-pairs
Authors: Wang S. H. , Liu C. M. , Hwu H. G. , Hsiao C. K. , Chen W. J. 
Published: March 2015

BackgroundAdvanced paternal age is associated with increased risk of schizophrenia. This study aimed to explore whether older paternal age is associated with earlier onset among co-affected schizophrenia sib-pairs with the same familial predisposition.MethodA total of 1297 patients with schizophrenia from 630 families, which were ascertained to have at least two siblings affected, throughout Taiwan were interviewed using the Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies. Both inter-family comparisons, a hierarchical regression model allowing for familial dependence and adjusting for confounders, and within-family comparisons, examining the consistency between onset order and birth order, were performed.ResultsAn inverted U shape was observed between paternal age and onset of schizophrenia. Affected offspring with paternal age of 20–24 years had the oldest onset. As paternal age increased over 25 years, older paternal age exhibited a linear decrease in the onset of schizophrenia. On average, the onset was lowered by 1.5 years for paternal age of 25–29 years and by 5.5 years for paternal age ⩾50 years (p = 0.04; trend test). The proportion of younger siblings with earlier onset (58%) was larger than that of older siblings with earlier onset (42%) (p = 0.0002).ConclusionsThese findings indicate that paternal age older than 25 years and younger than 20 years were both associated with earlier onset among familial schizophrenia cases. The associations of advanced paternal age with both increased susceptibility to schizophrenia and earlier onset of schizophrenia are consistent with the rate of increases in spontaneous mutations in sperm as men age.
Changing Tenurial Forms and Service Renders in the North East of Scotland between the Fifteenth and the Eighteenth Centuries: Evidence of Social Development, Capitalised Agrarianism and Ideological Change
Authors: SHEPHERD COLIN 
Published: March 2015

Abstract:Documentary evidence relating to tenurial agreements and service obligations survive for a number of estates in north-east Scotland, spanning the fifteenth to late eighteenth centuries. Close inspection demonstrates the development of terminological usage as semantics alter with reference to changing socioeconomic mechanisms underpinning the structure of society. This article also explores the possibility that these changes may be linked to a developing philosophical view within which the growth of capitalism was rationalised.
Grain dormancy loss is associated with changes in ABA and GA sensitivity and hormone accumulation in bread wheat,Triticum aestivum(L.)
Authors: Tuttle Keiko M. , Martinez Shantel A. , Schramm Elizabeth C. , Takebayashi Yumiko , Seo Mitsunori , Steber Camille M. 
Published: March 2015

AbstractKnowledge about the hormonal control of grain dormancy and dormancy loss is essential in wheat, because low grain dormancy at maturity is associated with the problem of pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) when cool and rainy conditions occur before harvest. Low GA (gibberellin A) hormone sensitivity and high ABA (abscisic acid) sensitivity were associated with higher wheat grain dormancy and PHS tolerance. Grains of two PHS-tolerant cultivars were very dormant at maturity, and insensitive to GA stimulation of germination. More PHS-susceptible cultivars were less sensitive to ABA inhibition of germination, and were either more GA sensitive or germinated efficiently without GA at maturity. As grain dormancy was lost through dry afterripening or cold imbibition, grains first gained GA sensitivity and then lost ABA sensitivity. These changes in GA and ABA sensitivity can serve as landmarks defining stages of dormancy loss that cannot be discerned without hormone treatment. These dormancy stages can be used to compare different cultivars, seed lots and studies. Previous work showed that wheat afterripening is associated with decreasing ABA levels in imbibing seeds. Wheat grain dormancy loss through cold imbibition also led to decreased endogenous ABA levels, suggesting that reduced ABA signalling is a general mechanism triggering dormancy loss.
The structure and chemical layering of Proterozoic stromatolites in the Mojave Desert
Authors: Douglas Susanne , Perry Meredith E. , Abbey William J. , Tanaka Zuki , Chen Bin , McKay Christopher P. 
Published: March 2015

AbstractThe Proterozoic carbonate stromatolites of the Pahrump Group from the Crystal Spring formation exhibit interesting layering patterns. In continuous vertical formations, there are sections of chevron-shaped stromatolites alternating with sections of simple horizontal layering. This apparent cycle of stromatolite formation and lack of formation repeats several times over a vertical distance of at least 30 m at the locality investigated. Small representative samples from each layer were taken and analysed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), environmental scanning electron microscopy – energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry, and were optically analysed in thin section. Optical and spectroscopic analyses of stromatolite and of non-stromatolite samples were undertaken with the objective of determining the differences between them. Elemental analysis of samples from within each of the four stromatolite layers and the four intervening layers shows that the two types of layers are chemically and mineralogically distinct. In the layers that contain stromatolites the Ca/Si ratio is high; in layers without stromatolites the Ca/Si ratio is low. In the high Si layers, both K and Al are positively correlated with the presence and levels of Si. This, together with XRD analysis, suggested a high K-feldspar (microcline) content in the non-stromatolitic layers. This variation between these two types of rocks could be due to changes in biological growth rates in an otherwise uniform environment or variations in detrital influx and the resultant impact on biology. The current analysis does not allow us to choose between these two alternatives. A Mars rover would have adequate resolution to image these structures and instrumentation capable of conducting a similar elemental analysis.
High-temperature Superconductivity in compressed Solid Silane
Authors: Zhang Huadi , Jin Xilian , Lv Yunzhou , Zhuang Quan , Liu Yunxian , Lv Qianqian , Bao Kuo , Li Da , Liu Bingbing , Cui Tian 
Published: March 2015

AbstractCrystal structures of silane have been extensively investigated using ab initio evolutionary simulation methods at high pressures. Two metallic structures with P21/c and C2/m symmetries are found stable above 383 GPa. The superconductivities of metallic phases are fully explored under BCS theory, including the reported C2/c one. Perturbative linear-response calculations for C2/m silane at 610 GPa reveal a high superconducting critical temperature that beyond the order of 102 K.
CD47 Deficiency Protects Mice From Diet-induced Obesity and Improves Whole Body Glucose Tolerance and Insulin Sensitivity
Authors: Maimaitiyiming Hasiyeti , Norman Heather , Zhou Qi , Wang Shuxia 
Published: March 2015

AbstractCD47 is a transmembrane protein with several functions including self-recognition, immune cell communication and cell signaling. Although it has been extensively studied in cancer and ischemia, CD47 function in obesity has never been explored. In this study, we utilized CD47 deficient mice in a high-fat diet induced obesity model to study for the first time whether CD47 plays a role in the development of obesity and metabolic complications. Male CD47 deficient and wild type (WT) control mice were fed with either low fat (LF) or high fat (HF) diets for 16 weeks. Interestingly, we found that CD47 deficient mice were protected from HF diet-induced obesity displaying decreased weight gain and reduced adiposity. This led to decreased MCP1/CCR2 dependent macrophage infiltration into adipose tissue and reduced inflammation, resulting in improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. In addition, CD47 deficiency stimulated the expression of UCP1 and carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1b (CPT1b) levels in brown adipose tissue, leading to increased lipid utilization and heat production. This contributes to the increased energy utilization and reduced adiposity observed in these mice. Taken together, these data revealed a novel role for CD47 in the development of obesity and its related metabolic complications.