bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
First Report of Phakopsora pachyrhizi on Soybean Causing Rust in Tanzania
Authors: Murithi H. M. , Beed F. D. , Madata C. S. , Haudenshield J. S. , Hartman G. L. 
Published: July 2014

Phakopsora pachyrhizi Syd. was reported on legume hosts other than soybean in Tanzania as early as 1979 (1). Soybean rust (SBR), caused by P. pachyrhizi, was first reported on soybean in Africa in Uganda in 1996 (3), and its introduction into Africa was proposed to occur through urediniospores blowing from western India to the African east coastal areas by moist northeast monsoon winds (4). The fungus rapidly spread and was reported on soybean in South Africa in 2001, in western Cameroon in 2003, and in Ghana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2007 (5). A second species causing SBR on soybean, P. meibomiae, has not been reported in Africa or elsewhere, outside of the Americas. From 2012 to 2014, symptomatic leaf samples were collected in the major soybean growing areas of the Tanzanian Southern Highlands (Iringa, Mbeya, and Ruvuma regions). Symptoms of SBR included yellowing of leaves and tan sporulating lesions. These symptoms were observed at flowering through seed maturity. From fields surveyed in 2012, 2013, and 2014, SBR was observed in 5 of 14, 7 of 11, and 14 of 31 fields, respectively. Some of the leaves sampled had up to 80% of the leaf area affected. When microscopically examined, urediniospores were elliptical, echinulate, and hyaline to pale yellowish brown. In 2014, sporuliferous uredinia were observed on leaf material collected from the Iringa and Ruvuma regions of Tanzania, and a subset of these samples was sent by APHIS permit to the University of Illinois. To confirm the pathogen, symptomatic soybean leaf tissue of approximately 1 cm2 was excised from each of the samples, and DNA was extracted using the FastDNA Spin Kit (MP Biomedicals, Solon, OH), with further purification using the MicroElute DNA Clean-up Kit (Omega Bio-Tek, Norcross, GA). The DNA was subjected to quantitative PCR using published Taqman assays for P. pachyrhizi, P. meibomiae, and a multiplexed exogenous internal control reaction to validate negative results (2). P. pachyrhizi DNA was detected in excess of 66,000 genome equivalents/cm2 in all samples, and P. meibomiae DNA was determined to be absent from all samples (limit of quantification ~2 pg DNA/cm2). Free surviving urediniospores were dislodged from 12 samples and inoculated onto susceptible soybean cultivar Williams 82, which produced sporulating SBR lesions after 2 weeks of incubation in a detached-leaf assay. Thus, Koch's postulates were completed. This is the first report of P. pachyrhizi causing rust on soybean in Tanzania. In vivo cultures have been established from most of these samples, and ongoing research includes an evaluation of the P. pachyrizi virulence on a differential set, and characterization of the genetic diversity. References: (1) D. L. Ebbels and D. J. Allen. Phytopath. Pap. 22:1-89. (2) J. S. Haudenshield and G. L. Hartman. Plant Dis. 95:343, 2011. (3) R. Kawuki et al. Afr. Crop Sci. J. 11:301, 2003. (4) C. Levy. Plant Dis. 89:669, 2005. (5) P. S. Ojiambo et al. Plant Dis. 91:1204, 2007.
First Report of Sweet potato leaf curl Georgia virus Infecting Tall Morning Glory (Ipomoea purpurea) in China
Authors: Zhang S. B. , Du Z. G. , Wang Z. , Tang Y. F. , She X. M. , Lan G. B. , He Z. F. 
Published: July 2014

In September 2013, tall morning glory (Ipomoea purpurea) plants showing vein yellowing and leaf curl symptoms typical of a begomovirus infection were observed in Jingzhou, Hubei Province, China. Total nucleic acids were extracted from a symptomatic plant using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). Rolling circle amplification (RCA) was conducted using TempliPhi kit (GE Healthcare) to recover the genome of a putative begomovirus. Digestion of the RCA product with PstI yielded a ~2.8 kbp DNA fragment suggestive of a monomerized begomoviral genome. The fragment was cloned and sequenced and the sequence was deposited in GenBank under accession no. KF769447. SDTv1.0 (species demarcation tool) analysis revealed that the putative begomovirus showed 98.5 and 92.0% nucleotide sequence identity with Sweet potato leaf curl Georgia virus (SPLCGV)-[China:Hebei:2011] (GenBank Accession No. JX448368) and SPLCGV-[US:Geo:16] (AF326775), respectively. The virus contained six ORFs, which encoded proteins showing 96.5 to 100% and 90.6 to 95.6% amino acid sequence identity with their counterparts of SPLCGV-[China:Hebei:2011] and SPLCGV-[US:Geo:16], respectively. Thus, the virus should be considered as an isolate of SPLCGV-[China:Hebei:2011]. Tall glory morning in a nearby field (which covers an area of 3 square kilometers) was surveyed and 70 to 100% of plants were found showing symptoms reminiscent of begomoviral infection. Total nucleic acid was extracted from 13 randomly selected (10 symptomatic and 3 healthy) plants and used as templates for PCR with a pair of specific primers (5′-CGCAGCCTTTCCACACTATC-3′/5′-AAAACAGTTTGGGCTCGGTC-3′) designed according to the sequence described above. Positive results were obtained for all of the symptomatic, but none of the healthy-looking tall morning glory plants. SPLCGV (genus Begomovirus, family Geminiviridae) was reported to infect sweet potato (I. batatas) in the United States (4), India (2), and China (3). To our knowledge, this is the first report of SPLCGV infecting tall morning glory in China. Also, it is the first report of a geminivirus in Hubei, a province of central China. Whereas the finding of SPLCGV in sweet potato (3) may be a result of vegetative propagation of this crop, the detection of SPLCGV in tall morning glory, an annual plant, raises the possibility that this virus is transmissible and is spreading in China. References: (1) B. Muhire et al. Arch. Virol. 158:1411, 2013. (2) G. Prasanth and V. Hegde. Plant Dis. 92:311, 2008. (3) Y. Qin et al. Plant Dis. 97:1388, 2013. (4) R. A. Valverde and D. L. Gutierrez. Rev. Mex. Fitopatol. 21:128, 2003.
Effect of Mini-plate Fixation on Hinge Fracture and Bony Fusion in Unilateral Open-door Cervical Expansive Laminoplasty
Authors: Chen Hua , Liu Hao , Zou Li , Li Tao , Gong Quan , Song Yueming , Zeng Jiancheng , Liu Limin , Kong Qingquan 
Published: July 2014

Study Design:
This was a retrospective study.

Objective:
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of Centerpiece mini-plate fixation on the complete fracture and bony fusion of the hinge side in unilateral open-door cervical expansive laminoplasty.

Summary of Background Data:
Cervical laminoplasty is an effective and safe surgery for cervical canal stenosis. The Centerpiece mini-plate is an instrument used to secure the laminae and maintain the cervical canal expansion. Stability of the new laminae is largely dependent on healing of the hinge side bone fracture and the degree of bony fusion. To date, few studies have reported on the effects of mini-plate fixation on these 2 important factors.

Materials and Methods:
Between September 2009 and March 2011, 58 patients received unilateral open-door cervical expansive laminoplasty at the authors’ hospital. The group included 47 male and 11 female patients, with a mean age of 61 (range, 35–81) years. Two hundred twenty-five laminae were fixed using the Centerpiece mini-plate (group A), whereas 62 laminae were fixed using suture suspension (group B). The rates of fracture and bony fusion of the hinge were observed using computed tomography scan and compared between the 2 groups. The complete fractures were subdivided into 4 groups based on the degree of displacement of the fractured ends: type I (no displacement), type II (mild to moderate displacement), type III (complete displacement or separation), or type IV (the hinge had collapsed into the cervical canal).

Results:
The number of incomplete fractures and type I to IV fractures in group A were 95, 93, 25, 8, and 4 and 29, 25, 4, 2, 2 in group B, respectively. There were no significant differences between the 2 groups in terms of complete fracture rates (P=0.309) and complete fracture type distribution (P=0.694). Group A had a significantly higher rate of bony fusion of the hinge 3 months after surgery (82% vs. 70%, P=0.042); however, this rate was not statistically significant 6 months after surgery (P=0.141). For type I complete hinge fracture, group A had higher bony fusion rates, both 3 months (86% vs. 57%, P=0.004) and 6 months (92% vs. 85%, P=0.048) postoperatively. The rates of bony fusion were also significantly different among all complete fracture types 3 months (P<0.001) and 6 months (P<0.001) postoperatively.

Conclusions:
Centerpiece mini-plate fixation in unilateral open-door cervical expansive laminoplasty might not increase the complete fracture rate compared with suture suspension and might promote bony fusion of type I complete hinge fractures.
A novel extracellular protease of Vibrio mimicus that mediates maturation of an endogenous hemolysin
Authors: Mizuno Tamaki , Nanko Ayako , Maehara Yoko , Shinoda Sumio , Miyoshi Shin‐Ichi 
Published: July 2014

AbstractVibrio mimicus, a human pathogen that causes gastroenteritis, produces an enterotoxic hemolysin as a virulence factor. The hemolysin is secreted extracellularly as an inactive protoxin and converted to a mature toxin through removal of the N‐terminal propeptide, which comprises 151 amino acid residues. In this study, a novel protease having the trypsin‐like substrate specificity was purified from the bacterial culture supernatant. The N‐terminal amino acid sequence of the purified protein was identical with putative trypsin VMD27150 of V. mimicus strain VM573. The purified protease was found to cause maturation of the protoxin by cleavage of the Arg151Ser152 bond. Deletion of the protease gene resulted in increased amounts of the protoxin in the culture supernatant. In addition, expression of the hemolysin and protease genes was detected during the logarithmic growth phase. These findings indicate that the protease purified may mediate maturation of the hemolysin.
Antigen itself antibody: an alternative one‐step immunoassay for measuring the anti‐idiotypic antibody titer
Authors: Kabir M. Enamul , Krishnaswamy Senthilkumar , Selvakumar Dakshnamurthy , Miyamoto Masahiko , Furuichi Yasuhiro , Komiyama Tadazumi 
Published: July 2014

AbstractImmunoassay designs rely on the great specificity of antibodies and a suitable marker that facilitates generation of a quantitative signal. Currently, there is no reliable method for measuring the titers of an anti‐idiotypic antibody. Our initial attempt to measure titers of mouse anti‐idiotypic antibody after idiotypic vaccination with HM‐1 killer toxin neutralizing monoclonal antibody (nmAb‐KT) failed. Because the injected antigen, nmAb‐KT, is a mouse IgG, using a commercial antibody to measure the antibody titer always gave a false positive signal against control mouse serum antibody in parallel with the antigen‐treated immunized serum antibodies. To get a reliable and clearly differentiable signal by ELISA, idiotypic antigen was labeled with HRP and HRP‐conjugated‐nmAb‐KT used to measure the antibody titers in the antigen‐treated mice. Compared with control mice, signals were found in high anti‐nmAb‐KT IgG responses in test mice; however, untreated control mice had a significant amount of purified non‐specific IgG. This method is amenable to long read lengths and will likely enable anti‐idiotypic antibody titer measurement in a more specific and cost effective way without requiring commercial antibody.
Non‐convex compressed sensing with frequency mask for seismic data reconstruction and denoising
Authors: Gholami Ali 
Published: July 2014

ABSTRACTCompressed Sensing has recently proved itself as a successful tool to help address the challenges of acquisition and processing seismic data sets. Compressed sensing shows that the information contained in sparse signals can be recovered accurately from a small number of linear measurements using a sparsity‐promoting regularization. This paper investigates two aspects of compressed sensing in seismic exploration: (i) using a general non‐convex regularizer instead of the conventional one‐norm minimization for sparsity promotion and (ii) using a frequency mask to additionally subsample the acquired traces in the frequency‐space () domain. The proposed non‐convex regularizer has better sparse recovery performance compared with one‐norm minimization and the additional frequency mask allows us to incorporate a priori information about the events contained in the wavefields into the reconstruction. For example, (i) seismic data are band‐limited; therefore one can use only a partial set of frequency coefficients in the range of reflections band, where the signal‐to‐noise ratio is high and spatial aliasing is low, to reconstruct the original wavefield, and (ii) low‐frequency characteristics of the coherent ground rolls allow direct elimination of them during reconstruction by disregarding the corresponding frequency coefficients (usually bellow 10 Hz) via a frequency mask. The results of this paper show that some challenges of reconstruction and denoising in seismic exploration can be addressed under a unified formulation. It is illustrated numerically that the compressed sensing performance for seismic data interpolation is improved significantly when an additional coherent subsampling is performed in the domain compared with the domain case. Numerical experiments from both simulated and real field data are included to illustrate the effectiveness of the presented method.
Trade, Remittances and Economic Growth in Nigeria: Any Causal Relationship?
Authors: Olubiyi Ebenezer Adesoji 
Published: July 2014

AbstractThis study examined the causal relationships among GDP, export, imports and remittances. The study, among others, investigated the validity of export‐led and remittances‐led growth hypotheses. Specifically, the study investigated the causal relationship between remittances and GDP, remittances and export and remittances and imports. Employing a VECM Granger Causality for data spanning between 1980 and 2012, imports and remittances significantly Granger‐caused GDP in the short run. Also, there were reverse causalities running from GDP to export and imports. This implies that export‐led growth hypothesis holds in Nigeria. Furthermore, there was a unidirectional causation running from remittances to GDP, implying that remittances matter for economic growth. But since the effect was more from the demand side, it could lead to inflationary pressure. The policy recommendation is that the authorities should intensify efforts on the export base of the economy. The monetary authorities should implement necessary policy to cool the pressure arising from conspicuous spending of remittances.
Knowledge Economy and Financial Sector Competition in African Countries
Authors: Asongu Simplice A. 
Published: July 2014

AbstractThe goal of this paper is to assess how knowledge economy (KE) plays out in financial sector competition. It suggests a practicable way to disentangle the effects of different components of KE on various financial sectors. The variables identified under the World Bank's four knowledge economy index (KEI) are employed. An endogeneity robust panel instrumental variable fixed‐effects estimation strategy is employed on data from 53 African countries for the period 1996–2010. The following findings are established. First, education and innovation in terms of scientific and technical publications broadly bear an inverse nexus with financial development. Second, the incidence of information and communication technologies is positive on all financial sectors but increases the non‐formal sectors to the detriment of the formal sector. Third, economic incentives have positive implications for all sectors though the formal financial sector benefits most. Fourth, institutional regime is positive (negative) for the semi‐formal (informal) financial sector. The findings contribute at the same time to the macroeconomic literature on measuring financial development and respond to the growing fields of informal sector importance, microfinance and mobile banking by means of KE promotion. Policy implications and future research directions are discussed.
Impact of Real Exchange Rate on Trade Balance in Nigeria
Authors: Igue Nkenchor Neville , Ogunleye Toyin Segun 
Published: July 2014

AbstractThe study investigated whether the depreciation of exchange rate has a favourable impact on trade balance in Nigeria, based on the Marshall–Lerner (ML) condition. The Johansen method of cointegration and vector error correction methodology (VECM) was employed to investigate the existence of a long‐run relationship between trade balance and the specified set of independent variables. The results confirm the satisfaction of the Marshall–Lerner condition in Nigeria, implying that depreciation of the exchange rate has a positive effect on trade balance in the long run. The study also established that a one per cent depreciation in the exchange rate would improve trade balance by 1.16 per cent. In the light of these findings, the study recommends a gradual depreciation of the exchange rate, which should be accompanied with export policy that encourages domestic production of non‐oil products for exports.
Facteurs Microéconomiques du Déficit de Financement des PME au Cameroun
Authors: Tsafack Nanfosso Christian Lambert Nguena et Roger 
Published: July 2014

RésuméLa présente étude a pour but d'effectuer une évaluation économétrique des facteurs microéconomiques responsables du problème de financement externe des PME au Cameroun. A l'aide d'un modèle logit multinomial l'on a estimé la variable «Principale source de financement» sur la base des données d'enquête auprès des acteurs du financement portant sur un échantillon de 413 PME du Cameroun. Les résultats montrent que le déficit de financement externe est expliqué par l'absence d'information comptable, le statut juridique Société à Responsabilité Limité (SARL) et Société Anonyme (SA), l'appartenance au secteur industriel, le faible effectif d'employé, le taux d'intérêt élevé et les demandes de crédit à long terme. Ces deux dernières causes étant renforcées par la toute dernière crise financière. Ces résultats conduisent à interpeller Les différents acteurs sur les décisions à prendre en fonction de leur niveau de responsabilité dans ces éléments de frein au financement des PME.
La pauvreté monétaire au Sénégal entre 2002–2006: Disparités régionales et effets de décomposition de la pauvreté
Authors: Sy Ibrahima 
Published: July 2014

RésuméCet article propose une analyse de la pauvreté monétaire au Sénégal. La pauvreté est estimée non pas à travers un seuil de pauvreté national mais des seuils de pauvreté régionaux. Nous présentons les outils méthodologiques nécessaires à l'appréhension de la dynamique de pauvreté monétaire avec la formule générique des indices proposée par Foster, Greer et Thorbecke (FGT, 1984) afin d'estimer et analyser la pauvreté monétaire au Sénégal sur la période 2002–2006. Partant delà, et supposant l'existence notoire de disparités de la variation de pauvreté, nous explorons la décomposition sectorielle des changements de la pauvreté en fonction de la localisation géographique en utilisant la méthode de décomposition proposée par Ravallion et Huppi (), en vue d'évaluer la contribution des facteurs explicatifs potentiels des disparités de pauvreté. Les résultats obtenus dévoilent d'abord que les disparités en termes de seuil de pauvreté montrent la non pertinence de l'utilisation d'un seuil unique de pauvreté au Sénégal. Ensuite, ils suggèrent une baisse de la pauvre monétaire au plan national, mais avec de fortes disparités entre les régions et une stabilisation des inégalités de pauvreté au cours de la période étudiée. En enfin, l'effet des changements de la localisation de la population contribue à augmenter la pauvreté dans certaines régions et dans la pauvreté globale.
Aid Categories that Foster Pro‐Poor Growth: The Case of Sierra Leone
Authors: Kargbo Philip Michael , Sen Kunal 
Published: July 2014

AbstractThis paper examines the effect of different categories of foreign aid on poverty reduction. It uses a country case study for Sierra Leone to explore the impact of different aid types on pro‐poor growth as a dimension of poverty reduction. Using annual time series data spanning from 1970 to 2007 and employing the bounds test approach to cointegration by Pesaran and Shin (), the study finds strong evidence to suggest that only aid in the form of grants do have a pro‐poor effect. This result is more obvious in the long run than in the short run. Aid in the forms of loans and technical assistance could not prove signficant for fostering pro‐poor growth in the country. Thus, even though total aid reveals a highly significant long‐run impact in improving pro‐poor growth in Sierra Leone, when disaggregated, only aid in the form of grants shows strong evidence of reducing poverty in the country. The implication of these findings is that for reducing poverty in typically poor and fagile states, aid in the form of grants should be encouraged. The increasing donor interest in technical assistance aid in recent years should be reconsidered as there is no strong evidence that it reduces poverty.
What Is the Value of Adding Medicare Data in Estimating VA Hospital Readmission Rates?
Authors: O'Brien William J. , Chen Qi , Mull Hillary J. , Shwartz Michael , Borzecki Ann M. , Hanchate Amresh , Rosen Amy K. 
Published: July 2014

ObjectiveTo determine the effects of including diagnostic and utilization data from a secondary payer on readmission rates and hospital profiles.Data Sources/Study SettingVeterans Health Administration (VA) and Medicare inpatient and outpatient administrative data for veterans discharged from 153 VA hospitals during FY 2008–2010 with a principal diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, or pneumonia.Study DesignWe estimated hospital‐level risk‐standardized readmission rates derived using VA data only. We then used data from both VA and Medicare to reestimate readmission rates and compared hospital profiles using two methods: Hospital Compare and the CMS implementation of the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP).Data Collection/Extraction MethodsRetrospective data analysis using VA hospital discharge and outpatient data matched with Medicare fee‐for‐service claims by scrambled Social Security numbers.Principal FindingsLess than 2 percent of hospitals in any cohort were classified discordantly by the Hospital Compare method when using VA‐only compared with VA/Medicare data. In contrast, using the HRRP method, 13 percent of hospitals had differences in whether they were flagged as having excessive readmission rates in at least one cohort.ConclusionsInclusion of secondary payer data may cause changes in hospital profiles, depending on the methodology used. An assessment of readmission rates should include, to the extent possible, all available information about patients' utilization of care.
Funding emergency care: Australian style
Authors: Bell Anthony , Crilly Julia , Williams Ged , Wylie Kate , Toloo Ghasem (Sam) , Burke John , FitzGerald Gerry 
Published: July 2014

AbstractThe ongoing challenge for ED leaders is to remain abreast of system‐wide changes that impact on the day‐to‐day management of their departments. Changes to the funding model creates another layer of complexity and this introductory paper serves as the beginning of a discussion about the way in which EDs are funded and how this can and will impact on business decisions, models of care and resource allocation within Australian EDs. Furthermore it is evident that any funding model today will mature and change with time, and moves are afoot to refine and contextualise ED funding over the medium term. This perspective seeks to provide a basis of understanding for our current and future funding arrangements in Australian EDs.