bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The late Aeronian graptolitesedgwickiiEvent, associated positive carbon isotope excursion and facies changes in the Prague Synform (Barrandian area, Bohemia)
Authors: ŠTORCH PETR , FRÝDA JIŘÍ 
Published: June 2012

AbstractStudy of the lower Silurian black shale succession of the Prague Synform has enabled detailed insight into graptolite faunal dynamics and diversity trends from the mid-Aeronian diversity maximum through to the late Aeronian crisis. Graptolite diversity decreased from 33 taxa in theLituigraptus convolutusBiozone to 17 taxa in the upper part of theStimulograptus sedgwickiiBiozone and newly erectedLituigraptus rastrumBiozone. The graptolite assemblages of the latter biozones exhibit low species richness along with high dominance. Many graptolite species that became extinct in the early part of thesedgwickiiZone were promptly replaced by new forms. In the later part of thesedgwickiiZone, however, replacement of extinct species by new forms considerably decelerated. The increased rate of graptolite extinction recorded in theconvolutus–sedgwickiibiozone boundary beds coincided with subtle changes in black shale lithologies and a positive shift in δ13Corg(of 2.2 ‰) compared to baseline values. Sea-level drawdown can be inferred from siltstones and/or temporary nondeposition in the middlesedgwickiiZone. This level also sees total organic carbon (TOC) fluctuations and a strong positive δ13Corgexcursion with a peak shift of at least 7 ‰. ThesedgwickiiEvent exhibits substantial reorganization of the graptolite fauna, its taxonomic impoverishment and concomitant increase in species dominance rather than a sudden collapse of the pre-extinction assemblage. Associated changes in lithology, TOC and the pronounced δ13Corgexcursion suggest a relatively extended and probably multi-phase period of stressed conditions that affected the pelagic realm inhabited by graptolites in the course of the late Aeronian interval.
A review of the impact of charcoal rot (Macrophomina phaseolina) on sunflower
Authors: IJAZ S. , SADAQAT H. A. , KHAN M. N. 
Published: June 2012

SUMMARYCharcoal rot, caused by Macrophomina phaseolina, is the most prevalent and important disease of crop plants such as sunflower. Although it is monotypic and no physiological races have been reported, it has high genetic variability resulting in a wide host range, which in turn means that crop rotation is not an effective strategy to combat the disease. The current paper reviews the adverse effects of this disease and summarizes the present state of knowledge about charcoal rot severity and its impact on crop production.
DELIVERING POST-ABORTION CARE THROUGH A COMMUNITY-BASED REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH VOLUNTEER PROGRAMME IN PAKISTAN
Authors: AZMAT SYED KHURRAM , SHAIKH BABAR T , MUSTAFA GHULAM , HAMEED WAQAS , BILGRAMI MOHSINA 
Published: June 2012

SummaryThis qualitative study was conducted in May–June 2010 with women using post-abortion care (PAC) services provided by the Marie Stopes Society in Pakistan during the six month period preceding the study, more than 70% of whom had been referred to the clinics by reproductive health volunteers (RHVs). The aim of the study was to establish the socio-demographic profile of clients, determine their preferred method of treatment, explore their perceptions of the barriers to accessing post-abortion services and to understand the challenges faced by RHVs. The sample women were selected from six randomly selected districts of Sindh and Punjab. Eight focus group discussions were conducted with PAC clients and fifteen in-depth interviews with RHVs. In addition, a quantitative exit interview questionnaire was administered to 76 clients. Medical, rather than surgical, treatment for incomplete and unsafe abortions was preferred because it was perceived to ‘cause less pain’, was ‘easy to employ’ and ‘having fewer complications’. Household economics influence women's decision-making on seeking post-abortion care. Other restraining factors include objection by husbands and in-laws, restrictions on female mobility, the views of religious clerics and a lack of transport. The involvement of all stakeholders could secure social approval and acceptance of the provision of safe post-abortion care services in Pakistan, and improve the quality of family planning services to the women who want to space their pregnancies.
The historical geography of north-central Anatolia in the Hittite period: texts and archaeology in concert
Authors: Matthews Roger , Glatz Claudia 
Published: June 2012

AbstractIn this paper we deploy both archaeological evidence, principally from survey, as well as topographic textual evidence in an integrated attempt to localise a broad range of place-names attested in the Hittite period of the Late Bronze Age. The geographical focus is on the north-central region of Anatolia, particularly relating to the survey area of Inner Paphlagonia. Investigated toponyms include rivers, mountains, regions and settlement names. By these means we aim to situate the recurrent Hittite-Kaska conflict of the Late Bronze Age more firmly within its physical environment.
The invention of history in the later Roman world. The conversion of Isauria inThe Life of Conon
Authors: Wood Philip 
Published: June 2012

AbstractThe historiography of the later Roman Empire has emphasised the centripetal results of Christianisation, in which the new religion completed the earlier Hellenisation and destroyed independent languages, histories and notions of identity in Anatolia and much of Syria. However, the discourse of ethnic origins, drawn from Christian stories as well as the Classical past, allowed different kinds of cultural independence to survive this process on the edges of the Empire. While more famous cases are provided by the Armenians, Suryoye and Goths, here I examine an ultimately unsuccessful attempt at historical invention and cultural independence, that of the Isaurians from the end of the fifth century. I begin by discussing the stereotypes employed by a Roman élite to distinguish themselves from ‘barbarians’, both within and outside the empire, before examining the attempts of Isaurians to contest this in history and hagiography.
The apse decoration of the Akhiza cathedral: documents and materials in the museums of Georgia
Authors: Skhirtladze Zaza 
Published: June 2012

AbstractThe meagre evidence, based on reports in sources and the material gleaned in the course of surveys by several researchers, of the fortress of Akhiza (northeast Turkey), which was renovated in the reign of King Vakhtang Gorgasali (446–522), and on the Episcopal See set up there, may be supplemented by archival material preserved at the Sh. Amiranashvili Museum of Art, as well as by recourse to the artefacts deposited at the S. Janashia Museum of Georgia, both in Tbilisi. In particular, a letter of A. Florenski, a collaborator with the Caucasian Museum in Tbilisi, written early in the 20th century to D. Gordeev (1889–1964) makes it clear that, at that time, a mosaic image of the Virgin Orans existed in the chancel of the ruined cathedral. According to Florenski, the mosaic was destroyed by a resident of Ardanuch, Usta-Gevork, at the beginning of the 20th century. Some of the material collected by Florenski from Akhiza (including a finger-ring with a cameo bearing the image of the Archangel Michael and distinguished for its high artistic features) found its way to St Petersburg, while two antefixes with representations of leaved crosses and deer, as well as up to three dozen mosaic tesserae are kept in the S. Janashia Museum of Georgia. At the time of the creation of the mosaic, it is worth noting that, after the Arab conquests (in the 730s), Akhiza, with its cathedral, must have ceased to exist as an Episcopal See. In this connection, the antefixes supply additional dating evidence, the artistic peculiarities of the images adorning them clearly pointing to the fifth to sixth century.
A Hittite seal from Kavuşan Höyük
Authors: d'Alfonso Lorenzo 
Published: June 2012

AbstractA Hittite seal was found recently in a cinerary urn, as a grave-good of a child, in the Iron Age cremation cemetery at Kavuşan Höyük, in the upper Tigris region. This article attempts to read the inscription on the seal and to discuss its date and place of production. The reading of the name of the owner of the seal, written in Anatolian Hieroglyphic, remains problematic because of the uncertainty of the phonetic value of sign *177. Tentatively, one can read it Ḫatanu. On the basis of some parallels, the author suggests that the seal could have been produced locally in the southern region of the Hittite Empire, and that, therefore, on the basis of historic considerations, it should date to the second half of the 14th century BC.
Patterns of Iron Age interaction in central Anatolia: three sites in Yozgat province
Authors: Kealhofer Lisa , Grave Peter , Marsh Ben , Steadman Sharon , Gorny Ronald L. , Summers Geoffrey D. 
Published: June 2012

AbstractThe cultural and political changes that happened in Anatolia after the collapse of the Hittite Empire have only recently been recognised as a significant, but as yet unexplained, phenomenon. Here we present the results of analyses of ceramics from three sites south and southwest of the present-day town of Sorgun – Çadır Höyük, Kerkenes Dağ and Tilkigediği Tepe – to identity how regional groups within the Hittite core area regrouped in the aftermath of the collapse. Ceramic analyses provide a means to assess both cultural continuity and the scale and nature of interaction in a region. Results suggest some evidence of cultural continuity at Çadır Höyük from the Late Bronze Age into the Middle Iron Age, and highlight the variable local responses in the aftermath of Hittite collapse.
A Pannonian auxiliary's epitaph from Roman Gordion
Authors: Goldman Andrew L. 
Published: June 2012

AbstractA funerary stele of a Pannonian auxiliary soldier recovered in 1996 at Gordion (Turkey) provided the first concrete evidence of Roman military activity at the site. The Latin epitaph on the monument revealed the presence of a unit (cohors VII Breucorum c.R. equitata), previously unattested in central Turkey, within the rural environs of northern Galatia. Little is currently known about the garrisons and movements of auxiliary forces in that region, and the monument's discovery permits a fresh examination of military deployment within Rome's comparatively lightly-garrisoned provinces of Asia Minor. New archaeological fieldwork in the Roman settlement at Gordion has provided a firm context for the stele, and recently published epigraphical finds relating to the soldier's unit and its deployment strongly link the monument's presence to activities surrounding Trajan's Parthian War (AD 114–117).
Predation on exposed and leaf-rolling artificial caterpillars in tropical forests of Papua New Guinea
Authors: Tvardikova Katerina , Novotny Vojtech 
Published: June 2012

Abstract:Although predation is generally seen as one of the key factors determining the abundance and composition of insect herbivore communities in tropical rain forests, quantitative estimates of predation pressure in rain-forest habitats remain rare. We compared incidence of attacks of different natural enemies on semi-concealed and exposed caterpillars (Lepidoptera) in lowland and montane tropical rain forests, using plasticine models of caterpillars. We recorded attacks on caterpillars in four habitats: primary forest, secondary forest and forest fragment in lowlands (200 m asl), and montane primary forest (1700 m asl). We used 300 exposed and 300 semi-concealed caterpillars daily, and conducted the experiment for 6 d in every habitat. Daily incidence of attacks was higher on exposed caterpillars (4.95%) than on semi-concealed (leaf-rolling) caterpillars (2.99%). Attack pressure of natural enemies differed also among habitats. In the lowlands, continuous primary and secondary forests had similar daily incidence of attacks (2.39% and 2.36%) which was however lower than that found in a primary forest fragment (4.62%). This difference was caused by higher incidence of attacks by birds, ants and wasps in the forest fragment. The most important predators were birds in montane rain forests (61.9% of identified attacks), but insect predators, mostly ants, in the lowlands (58.3% of identified attacks). These results suggest that rapid decrease in the abundance of ants with altitude may be compensated by increased importance of birds as predators in montane forests. Further, it suggests that small rain-forest fragments may suffer from disproportionately high pressure from natural enemies, with potentially serious consequences for survival of their herbivorous communities.
The δ15N signature of the detrital food web tracks a landscape-scale soil phosphorus gradient in a Costa Rican lowland tropical rain forest
Authors: Huang Ching-Yu , Tully Katherine L. , Clark Deborah A. , Oberbauer Steven F. , McGlynn Terrence P. 
Published: June 2012

Abstract:In this study, we investigated whether landscape-scale variation of soil P accounts for13C and15N composition of detrital invertebrates in a lowland tropical rain forest in Costa Rica. The top 10-cm soil, leaf-litter samples and plant foliage were collected among 18 plots representing a three-fold soil P gradient during 2007–2009. Body tissue of litter invertebrates (extracted from leaf-litter samples) along with soil, leaf litter and green foliage were analysed for total C, total N, δ13C and δ15N values. Differences in δ13C and δ15N signatures across plots and relative trophic distances of detrital food webs (Δ δ15N), and their variation with soil P gradient were evaluated. We found soil P gradient had a significantly positive correlation with δ15N ofAsterogyne martianafoliage, leaf litter, collembolans and oribatid mites. The δ15N of the collembolans and pseudoscorpions positively correlated to leaf-litter δ15N. Δ δ15N between the trophic levels remained consistent across the soil P gradient. Higher δ15N in the collembolans and oribatid mites might be derived from their consumption on15N-enriched decayed debris or fungal hyphae growing on it. It suggests that fine-scale soil P variation can affect trophic dynamics of detrital arthropods via regulation of microbial community and nutrient dynamics.
Fragment size and local flower density influence seed set of the understorey tree Paypayrola blanchetiana (Violaceae) in Brazilian Atlantic rain forest
Authors: Braun Marcus , Piechowski Daniel , Kazda Marian , Gottsberger Gerhard 
Published: June 2012

Abstract:Reproductive success of many plant species declines in fragmented habitat, but this effect is little studied in trees of tropical rain forest understorey. Paypayrola blanchetiana (Violaceae) is a continuous-flowering treelet endemic to the Atlantic rain forest of north-east Brazil. Plants are distributed in localized patches. Flower, fruit and seed production of a total of 86 trees was quantified in six forest fragments, each belonging to one of two categories of size (> 300 ha vs. < 50 ha) and fragmentation history (isolated for c. 25–30 y vs. at least c. 50 y). Relative fruit set (fruits/flower) and seed set (seeds/ovule) were calculated for a spatial (total fruit set of tree individuals) and a temporal analysis (combined month-by-month fruit set in patches in response to different flowering intensities). Fruit set (1%) and seed set (0.6%) were very low, but variable among trees. Plants in large fragments had significantly higher fruit set and seed set than plants in small fragments. Trees in older fragments, however, displayed similar fruit and seed set to those in recently created ones. We found no interaction effect on seed set of fragment size and isolation time. Seed set was a negative function of patch flower density. Possible drivers of the observed patterns are discussed.
Diversity of bird feeding guilds in relation to habitat heterogeneity and land-use cover in a human-modified landscape in southern Mexico
Authors: Pineda-Diez de Bonilla Esteban , León-Cortés Jorge L. , Rangel-Salazar José Luis 
Published: June 2012

Abstract:Habitat heterogeneity is an important ecological determinant of species richness. We evaluated the diversity within bird feeding guilds as related to habitat heterogeneity and land-use cover in a human-modified tropical landscape. To quantify this process, fine-scale bird census and habitat heterogeneity data were collected for a bird community in a 22.5-km2fragmented landscape in southern Mexico. Land-use cover data derived from field surveys were used to calculate habitat heterogeneity index values and the extent of each land-use cover type in 239 grid cells of 300 × 300 m. Bird diversity values were obtained based on 1195 point-counts in these cells. Product-moment correlations and linear regression analyses were used to evaluate the relationship between bird-guild diversity values and habitat heterogeneity. A total of 109 resident bird species grouped in six feeding guilds were recorded: insectivores (42%), frugivores (21%), granivores (17%), nectarivores (9%), omnivores (8%) and carnivores (3%). Diversity values for the entire bird community were significantly positively related to habitat heterogeneity, but feeding guilds showed contrasting responses to habitat heterogeneity and the amount of land-use cover: insectivores and frugivores were more diverse and abundant in secondary forests than in any other land-cover. Our findings illustrate the importance of small landscape fragments as potential key refuges for the most diverse and specialized feeding guilds, such as granivores and insectivores.
Eco-bursaries as incentives for conservation around Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, Kenya
Authors: JACKSON MICHELLE M. , NAUGHTON-TREVES LISA 
Published: June 2012

SUMMARYIncentives used to encourage local residents to support conservation range from integrated conservation and development projects (ICDPs), which indirectly connect improved livelihoods with biodiversity protection, to direct payments for ecosystem services (PES). A unique hybrid between these two strategies, the Arabuko-Sokoke Schools and Ecotourism Scheme (ASSETS), provides secondary-school bursaries to encourage stewardship of a biodiverse highly-imperiled Kenyan forest. Household surveys and semi-structured interviews were used to assess the effectiveness of ASSETS by comparing attitudes and perceptions toward the forest among scheme beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. The most commonly identified benefit of the forest was resource extraction (for example fuelwood), followed by ecosystem services (such as source of rain). Those in favour of forest clearing tended not to be ASSETS beneficiaries, were less-educated, and were less likely to mention ecosystem services and tourism as forest benefits. ASSETS appears to shape pro-conservation attitudes among beneficiaries and foster a sense of responsibility toward the forest. Challenges for ASSETS are similar to those faced by many conservation and development projects, namely unsteady funding and the risk that the extremely poor may be overlooked. ASSETS may serve as an effective hybrid between the PES and ICDP approaches, and such educational support provides a promising conservation incentive.
Role of nerve growth factor (NGF) and its receptors in folliculogenesis
Authors: Chaves R.N. , Alves A.M.C.V. , Lima L.F. , Matos H.M.T. , Rodrigues A.P.R. , Figueiredo J.R. 
Published: June 2012

SummaryNerve growth factor (NGF) is a prototype member of the neurotrophins family and has important functions in the maintenance of viability and proliferation of neuronal and non-neuronal cells, such as certain ovarian cells. The present review highlights the role of NGF and its receptors on ovarian follicle development. NGF initiates its multiple actions through binding to two classes of receptors: the high affinity receptor tyrosine kinase A (TrkA) and the low-affinity receptor p75. Different intracytoplasmic signalling pathways may be activated through binding to NGF due to variation in the receptors. The TrkA receptor activates predominantly phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) and mitogenic activated protein kinase (MAPK) to promote cell survival and proliferation. The activation of the phospholipase type Cγ (PLCγ) pathway, which results in the production of diacylglycerol (DAG) and inositol triphosphate (IP3), culminates in the release of calcium from the intracytoplasmic cellular stocks. However, the details of activation through p75 receptor are less well known. Expression of NGF and its receptors is localized in ovarian cells (oocyte, granulosa, theca and interstitial cells) from several species, which suggests that NGF and its receptors may regulate some ovarian functions such as follicular survival or development. Thus, the use of NGF in culture medium for ovarian follicles may be of critical importance for researchers who want to promote follicular developmentin vitroin the future.
Relative complexity in scientific discourse
Authors: HUNDT MARIANNE , DENISON DAVID , SCHNEIDER GEROLD 
Published: June 2012

Variation and change in relativization strategies are well documented. Previous studies have looked at issues such as (a) relativizer choice with respect to the semantics of the antecedent and type of relative, (b) prescriptive traditions, (c) variation across text types and regional varieties, and (d) the role that relative clauses play in the organization of information within the noun phrase.In this article, our focus is on scientific writing in British and American English. The addition of American scientific texts to the ARCHER corpus gives us the opportunity to compare scientific discourse in the two national varieties of English over the whole Late Modern period. Furthermore, ARCHER has been parsed, and this kind of syntactic annotation facilitates the retrieval of information that was previously difficult to obtain. We take advantage of new data and annotation to investigate two largely unrelated topics: relativizer choice and textual organization within the NP.First, parsing facilitates easy retrieval of relative clauses which were previously difficult to retrieve from plain-text corpora by automatic means, namelythat- and zero relatives. We study the diachronic change in relativizer choice in British and American scientific writing over the last three hundred years; we also test for the accuracy of the automatically retrieved data. In addition, we trace the development of the prescriptive aversion towhichin restrictive relatives (largely peculiar to American English).Second, the parsed data allow us to investigate development in the structure of the NP in this genre, including not only phrasal but also clausal modification of the head noun. We examine the contribution of relative clauses to NP complexity, sentence length and structure. Structural changes within the NP, we argue, are related to the increased professionalization of the scientific publication process.