bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Chemical stabilization of organic carbon in agricultural soils in a semi-arid region (SE Spain)
Authors: SIERRA M. , MARTÍNEZ F. J. , BRAOJOS V. , ROMERO-FREIRE A. , ORTIZ-BERNAD I. , MARTÍN F. J. 
Published: May 2015

SUMMARYLand use and management, together with soil properties, determine soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration and its stabilization mechanisms. Four soils (0–30 cm depth) were studied in a semi-arid region with different uses and management regimes: two soils with olive cultivation, both under a non-tillage regime and one with a cover crop (OCC) and the other without (ONT); a fluvial terrace soil (FT) with cereal–sunflower–fallow rotation; and an unaltered soil under natural vegetation (oak trees; OT). The OT soil had a higher SOC concentration than the agricultural soils (OCC, ONT and FT), followed by the FT soil without significant differences. The olive grove soils had a lower SOC concentration but the two types of management differed significantly, with higher concentrations due to the cover crop. Hydrofluoric acid (HF)-soluble, hydrochloric acid (HCl)-resistant, and non-oxidizable (sodium peroxodisulphate; Na2S2O8) SOC fractions were determined at different depths (0–5, 5–10, 10–20 and 20–30 cm). The relative HCl-resistant and non-oxidizable SOC fractions increased with depth, whereas the relative HF-soluble SOC fraction varied slightly among the four soils considered. Differences in the SOC-stabilization mechanism were found according to the chemical SOC fractionation. In the FT and OT soils, where HF-soluble SOC and soil respiration rates were higher, the intense biological activity rapidly degraded the plant debris, being partially fixed and stabilized by the fine mineral-soil fraction as the principal stabilization mechanism of SOC. The olive grove soils had lower biological activity but higher SOC resistance to oxidation with Na2S2O8, thus suggesting that chemical recalcitrance of soil organic matter was a relevant stabilization mechanism in these soils.
Collective action by older people in natural disasters: the Great East Japan Earthquake
Authors: YOTSUI MIHOKO , CAMPBELL CATHERINE , HONMA TERUO 
Published: May 2015

ABSTRACTHow can social participation by older people support their wellbeing? We explore the elder-focused community support system developed in Minamisanriku town after the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011. Many elderly people lost all their material possessions and were moved from their devastated home communities to temporary housing. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 17 participants including 14 community workers and three members in the Minamisanriku Council of Social Welfare (MCSW) in a programme framed by the MCSW's disaster-response model. Thematic analysis highlighted how older people's involvement in the visiting programme of their temporary community, and conducting twice-daily visits to other vulnerable elders, enabled them to provide valued social support to isolated and homebound peers. It also helped reconstruct their own social identities shattered by the dissolution of former communities, the shock of displacement and loss of possessions. This positive social participation was heavily influenced by strong bridges between their temporary community and MCSW support staff and infrastructure that promoted and supported their visits. Our study highlights how strong and empowering relationships amongst older people can be facilitated by an active government-funded support agency that is immediately responsive to the needs and deeply respectful of the world-views of vulnerable groups.
From Cautionary Chart-Topper to Friendly Beverage Anthem: Michael Jackson's “Billie Jean” and Pepsi's “Choice of a New Generation” Television Campaign
Authors: LOVE JOANNA 
Published: May 2015

AbstractIn 1984 Pepsi-Cola released two groundbreaking commercials for its “Choice of a New Generation” campaign. Marketers reimagined Pepsi's product alongside superstar Michael Jackson's most iconic visual “symbols” and composed a slogan to be sung over fragments of the backing-track to his then-hit song, “Billie Jean.” Although merely replacing Jackson's original lyrics about lust and revenge with a family-oriented slogan had the potential to change meaning potentials the song held in other contexts, it was the re-working of Jackson's celebrity image and omission of key musical structures present within the original that allowed “Billie Jean” to acquire new meanings in the commercials. On the album, careful voice leading practices that pivot precariously between the natural and flat-VI underpin the score's complex harmonic structures to reinforce Jackson's cautionary tale. Pepsi's commercials, on the other hand, skillfully pick “Billie Jean” apart, extract its most memorable themes, and stitch the fragments back together. Consequently, when paired with Pepsi's overtly positive images, the reworked track noticeably diffuses the tension expressed in the original. By incorporating formal musical analysis, musicological inquiry, and formative cultural theory on advertising, MTV, and musical meaning in multimedia, this article contributes to growing discussions about pre-existing popular music's roles in advertising.
Genome-wide RNAi screen for synthetic lethal interactions with the C. elegans kinesin-5 homolog BMK-1
Authors: Maia André F. , Tanenbaum Marvin E. , Galli Matilde , Lelieveld Daphne , Egan David A. , Gassmann Reto , Sunkel Claudio E. , van den Heuvel Sander , Medema René H. 
Published: May 2015

AbstractKinesins are a superfamily of microtubule-based molecular motors that perform various transport needs and have essential roles in cell division. Among these, the kinesin-5 family has been shown to play a major role in the formation and maintenance of the bipolar mitotic spindle. Moreover, recent work suggests that kinesin-5 motors may have additional roles. In contrast to most model organisms, the sole kinesin-5 gene in Caenorhabditis elegans, bmk-1, is not required for successful mitosis and animals lacking bmk-1 are viable and fertile. To gain insight into factors that may act redundantly with BMK-1 in spindle assembly and to identify possible additional cellular pathways involving BMK-1, we performed a synthetic lethal screen using the bmk-1 deletion allele ok391. We successfully knocked down 82% of the C. elegans genome using RNAi and assayed viability in bmk-1(ok391) and wild type strains using an automated high-throughput approach based on fluorescence microscopy. The dataset includes a final list of 37 synthetic lethal interactions whose further study is likely to provide insight into kinesin-5 function.
Phase transitions of the ionic Hubbard model on the honeycomb lattice
Authors: Lin Heng-Fu , Liu Hai-Di , Tao Hong-Shuai , Liu Wu-Ming 
Published: May 2015

AbstractMany-body problem on the honeycomb lattice systems have been the subject of considerable experimental and theoretical interest. Here we investigate the phase transitions of the ionic Hubbard model on the honeycomb lattice with an alternate ionic potential for the half filling and hole doping cases by means of cellular dynamical mean field theory combining with continue time quantum Monte Carlo as an impurity solver. At half filling, as the increase of the interaction at a fixed ionic potential, we find the single particle gap decreases firstly, reaches a minimum at a critical interaction "Equation missing", then increases upturn. At "Equation missing", there is a band insulator to Mott insulator transition accompanying with the presence of the antiferromagnetic order. Away from half filing, the system shows three phases for the different values of hole density and interaction, paramagnetic metal, antiferromagnetic metal and ferromagnetic metal. Further, we present the staggered particle number, the double occupancy, the staggered magnetization, the uniform magnetization and the single particle spectral properties, which exhibit characteristic features for those phases.
Spatially and spectrally engineered spin-orbit interaction for achromatic virtual shaping
Authors: Pu Mingbo , Zhao Zeyu , Wang Yanqin , Li Xiong , Ma Xiaoliang , Hu Chenggang , Wang Changtao , Huang Cheng , Luo Xiangang 
Published: May 2015

AbstractThe geometries of objects are deterministic in electromagnetic phenomena in all aspects of our world, ranging from imaging with spherical eyes to stealth aircraft with bizarre shapes. Nevertheless, shaping the physical geometry is often undesired owing to other physical constraints such as aero- and hydro-dynamics in the stealth technology. Here we demonstrate that it is possible to change the traditional law of reflection as well as the electromagnetic characters without altering the physical shape, by utilizing the achromatic phase shift stemming from spin-orbit interaction in ultrathin space-variant and spectrally engineered metasurfaces. The proposal is validated by full-wave simulations and experimental characterization in optical wavelengths ranging from 600 nm to 2800 nm and microwave frequencies in 8-16 GHz, with echo reflectance less than 10% in the whole range. The virtual shaping as well as the revised law of reflection may serve as a versatile tool in many realms, including broadband and conformal camouflage and Kinoform holography, to name just a few.
Interferon gamma-induced protein 10 is associated with insulin resistance and incident diabetes in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
Authors: Chang Chia-Chu , Wu Chia-Lin , Su Wei-Wen , Shih Kai-Lun , Tarng Der-Cherng , Chou Chen-Te , Chen Ting-Yu , Kor Chew-Teng , Wu Hung-Ming 
Published: May 2015

AbstractNonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is an important risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Interferon gamma-induced protein 10 (IP-10), a proinflammatory chemokine, plays a crucial role in inflammatory diseases. This cross-sectional pilot study investigated whether circulating IP-10 is associated with the progression of liver disease and prediabetes in patients with NAFLD. A total of 90 patients with NAFLD alone (n = 48) or NAFLD with incident diabetes (n = 42) and 43 controls participated in this study. Fasting plasma was used to assess metabolic parameters, inflammatory factors, endotoxin levels and malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations. Insulin resistance was estimated using homeostatic model assessment (HOMA-IR). IP-10 levels were significantly higher in patients with NAFLD alone (median (interquartile range): 369.44 (309.30–418.97) pg/mL) and in those with incident diabetes (418.99 (330.73–526.04) pg/mL) than in controls (293.37 (214.10–331.57) pg/mL) (P < 0.001). IP-10 levels were positively correlated with levels of alanine aminotransferase, hs-CRP, MDA, MCP-1 and TNF-α as well as HOMA-IR values. Ordinal logistic regression analysis revealed IP-10 was an independent risk factor associated with progressive liver injury, insulin resistance and incident diabetes. Circulating IP-10 may be a non-invasive biomarker for disease progression and subsequent diabetes development of NAFLD.
Quality of fresh organic matter affects priming of soil organic matter and substrate utilization patterns of microbes
Authors: Wang Hui , Boutton Thomas W. , Xu Wenhua , Hu Guoqing , Jiang Ping , Bai Edith 
Published: May 2015

AbstractChanges in biogeochemical cycles and the climate system due to human activities are expected to change the quantity and quality of plant litter inputs to soils. How changing quality of fresh organic matter (FOM) might influence the priming effect (PE) on soil organic matter (SOM) mineralization is still under debate. Here we determined the PE induced by two 13C-labeled FOMs with contrasting nutritional quality (leaf vs. stalk of Zea mays L.). Soils from two different forest types yielded consistent results: soils amended with leaf tissue switched faster from negative PE to positive PE due to greater microbial growth compared to soils amended with stalks. However, after 16 d of incubation, soils amended with stalks had a higher PE than those amended with leaf. Phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) results suggested that microbial demand for carbon and other nutrients was one of the major determinants of the PE observed. Therefore, consideration of both microbial demands for nutrients and FOM supply simultaneously is essential to understand the underlying mechanisms of PE. Our study provided evidence that changes in FOM quality could affect microbial utilization of substrate and PE on SOM mineralization, which may exacerbate global warming problems under future climate change.
Multilayer thin films with compositional PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3/Bi1.5Zn1.0Nb1.5O7 layers for tunable applications
Authors: Yu Shihui , Li Lingxia , Zhang Weifeng , Sun Zheng , Dong Helei 
Published: May 2015

AbstractThe dielectric properties and tunability of multilayer thin films with compositional PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3/Bi1.5Zn1.0Nb1.5O7 (PZT/BZN) layers (PPBLs) fabricated by pulsed laser deposition on Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrate have been investigated. Dielectric measurements indicate that the PZT/BZN bilayer thin films exhibit medium dielectric constant of about 490, low loss tangent of 0.017 and superior tunable dielectric properties (tunability = 49.7% at 500 kV/cm) at a PZT/BZN thickness ratio of 3, while the largest figure of merit is obtained as 51.8. The thickness effect is discussed with a series connection model of bilayer capacitors and the calculated dielectric constant and loss tangent are obtained. Furthermore, five kinds of thin–film samples comprising single bilayers, two, three, four and five PPBLs were also elaborated with the final same thickness. The four PPBLs show the largest dielectric constant of ~538 and tunability of 53.3% at a maximum applied bias field of 500 kV/cm and the lowest loss tangent of ~0.015, while the largest figure of merit is 65.6. The results indicate that four PPBLs are excellent candidates for applications of tunable devices.
Variation in koala microbiomes within and between individuals: effect of body region and captivity status
Authors: Alfano Niccoló , Courtiol Alexandre , Vielgrader Hanna , Timms Peter , Roca Alfred L. , Greenwood Alex D. 
Published: May 2015

AbstractMetagenomic analysis of 16S ribosomal RNA has been used to profile microbial communities at high resolution and to examine their association with host diet or diseases. We examined the oral and gut microbiome composition of two captive koalas to determine whether bacterial communities are unusual in this species, given that their diet consists almost exclusively of Eucalyptus leaves. Despite a highly specialized diet, koala oral and gut microbiomes were similar in composition to the microbiomes from the same body regions of other mammals. Rectal swabs contained all of the diversity present in faecal samples, along with additional taxa, suggesting that faecal bacterial communities may merely subsample the gut bacterial diversity. Furthermore, the faecal microbiomes of the captive koalas were similar to those reported for wild koalas, suggesting that captivity may not compromise koala microbial health. Since koalas frequently suffer from ocular diseases caused by Chlamydia infection, we also examined the eye microbiome composition of two captive koalas, establishing the healthy baseline for this body part. The eye microbial community was very diverse, similar to other mammalian ocular microbiomes but with an unusually high representation of bacteria from the family Phyllobacteriaceae.
Velvet-mediated repression of β-glucan synthesis in Aspergillus nidulans spores
Authors: Park Hee-Soo , Man Yu Yeong , Lee Mi-Kyung , Jae Maeng Pil , Chang Kim Sun , Yu Jae-Hyuk 
Published: May 2015

AbstractBeta-glucans are a heterologous group of fibrous glucose polymers that are a major constituent of cell walls in Ascomycetes and Basidiomycetes fungi. Synthesis of β (1,3)- and (1,6)-glucans is coordinated with fungal cell growth and development, thus, is under tight genetic regulation. Here, we report that β-glucan synthesis in both asexual and sexual spores is turned off by the NF-kB like fungal regulators VosA and VelB in Aspergillus nidulans. Our genetic and genomic analyses have revealed that both VosA and VelB are necessary for proper down-regulation of cell wall biosynthetic genes including those associated with β-glucan synthesis in both types of spores. The deletion of vosA or velB results in elevated accumulation of β-glucan in asexual spores. Double mutant analyses indicate that VosA and VelB play an inter-dependent role in repressing β-glucan synthesis in asexual spores. In vivo chromatin immuno-precipitation analysis shows that both VelB and VosA bind to the promoter region of the β-glucan synthase gene fksA in asexual spores. Similarly, VosA is required for proper repression of β-glucan synthesis in sexual spores. In summary, the VosA-VelB hetero-complex is a key regulatory unit tightly controlling proper levels of β-glucan synthesis in asexual and sexual spores.
Impact of dataset diversity on accuracy and sensitivity of parallel factor analysis model of dissolved organic matter fluorescence excitation-emission matrix
Authors: Yu Huarong , Liang Heng , Qu Fangshu , Han Zheng-shuang , Shao Senlin , Chang Haiqing , Li Guibai 
Published: May 2015

AbstractParallel factor (PARAFAC) analysis enables a quantitative analysis of excitation-emission matrix (EEM). The impact of a spectral variability stemmed from a diverse dataset on the representativeness of the PARAFAC model needs to be examined. In this study, samples from a river, effluent of a wastewater treatment plant and algae secretion were collected and subjected to PARAFAC analysis. PARAFAC models of global dataset and individual datasets were compared. It was found that the peak shift derived from source diversity undermined the accuracy of the global model. The results imply that building a universal PARAFAC model that can be widely available for fitting new EEMs would be quite difficult, but fitting EEMs to existing PARAFAC model that belong to a similar environment would be more realistic. The accuracy of online monitoring strategy that monitors the fluorescence intensities at the peaks of PARAFAC components was examined by correlating the EEM data with the maximum fluorescence (Fmax) modeled by PARAFAC. For the individual datasets, remarkable correlations were obtained around the peak positions. However, an analysis of cocktail datasets implies that the involvement of foreign components that are spectrally similar to local components would undermine the online monitoring strategy.
Stencil Nano Lithography Based on a Nanoscale Polymer Shadow Mask: Towards Organic Nanoelectronics
Authors: Yun Hoyeol , Kim Sangwook , Kim Hakseong , Lee Junghyun , McAllister Kirstie , Kim Junhyung , Pyo Sengmoon , Sung Kim Jun , Campbell Eleanor E. B. , Hyoung Lee Wi , Wook Lee Sang 
Published: May 2015

AbstractA stencil lithography technique has been developed to fabricate organic-material-based electronic devices with sub-micron resolution. Suspended polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) membranes were used as shadow masks for defining organic channels and top electrodes. Arrays of pentacene field effect transistors (FETs) with various channel lengths from 50 μm down to 500 nm were successfully produced from the same batch using this technique. Electrical transport measurements showed that the electrical contacts of all devices were stable and the normalized contact resistances were much lower than previously studied organic FETs. Scaling effects, originating from the bulk space charge current, were investigated by analyzing the channel-length-dependent mobility and hysteresis behaviors. This novel lithography method provides a reliable means for studying the fundamental transport properties of organic materials at the nanoscale as well as enabling potential applications requiring the fabrication of integrated organic nanoelectronic devices.
Transactivation of the human retinoid X receptor by organotins: use of site-directed mutagenesis to identify critical amino acid residues for organotin-induced transactivation
Authors: Hiromori Youhei , Aoki Akira , Nishikawa Jun-ichi , Nagase Hisamitsu , Nakanishi Tsuyoshi 
Published: May 2015

Abstract
Organotins, such as tributyltin (TBT) and triphenyltin (TPT), may disrupt endocrine activity in mammals arising from their ability to act as ligands for the retinoid X receptor (RXR) and the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ). The structure of TBT is completely different from that of 9-cis retinoic acid (9cRA), an endogenous RXR ligand; and X-ray crystallographic studies have revealed that TBT and 9cRA have distinct binding interactions with human RXRα. Therefore, organotins and rexinoids likely activate RXR by different mechanisms. Here, we used human RXRα mutants to investigate which amino acid residues of the receptor are critical for transactivation induced by rexinoids and organotins. We found that 9cRA and a synthetic RXR agonist (LG100268) failed to activate R316A and L326A RXRα mutants. In contrast, all the tested organotins activated the R316A mutant, the L326A mutant, or both but failed to activate a C432A mutant. These results suggest that the importance of L326, which is located in the β-strand, for rexinoid-induced transactivation of RXRα is comparable to that of R316; in contrast, C432 is critical for organotin-induced transactivation, whereas R316 and L326 are not required. We used a PPARγ/RXRα C432A heterodimer to determine whether TBT and TPT could activate the heterodimer by binding to PPARγ. We found that TBT and TPT activated the PPARγ/RXRα C432A heterodimer, which suggests that both compounds can activate the heterodimer through PPARγ. These findings indicate that the amino acid residues that are critical for organotin-induced transactivation of RXRα are distinct from those required for rexinoid-induced transactivation.
Design and modelling of MEMS DC–DC converter
Authors: Samaali H. , Ouni B. , Najar F. 
Published: May 2015

A new microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) design of an integrated DC–DC converter electrostatically driven is proposed. The converter has one output based on the tunable capacitor principle. The output voltage has been achieved by designing a capacitor with different gaps. Compared to previous research works, the complete mathematical model of the converter is proposed. To examine the dynamic behaviour of the converter two different methods are used: the differential quadratic method and the Galerkin method. The obtained results show good agreement between the methods. In addition, two mechanical switches are added in the structure to replace the conventional diodes that have the advantage of zero leakage current, low power consumption and synchronous operations. Results show that the converter takes about 22.73 ms to convert a 5 V voltage to a range of voltages that are varied from 10 to 50 V.