bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
REVIEW OF SEASONAL CLIMATE FORECASTING FOR AGRICULTURE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
Authors: HANSEN JAMES W. , MASON SIMON J. , SUN LIQIANG , TALL ARAME 
Published: March 2011

SUMMARYWe review the use and value of seasonal climate forecasting for agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with a view to understanding and exploiting opportunities to realize more of its potential benefits. Interaction between the atmosphere and underlying oceans provides the basis for probabilistic forecasts of climate conditions at a seasonal lead-time, including during cropping seasons in parts of SSA. Regional climate outlook forums (RCOF) and national meteorological services (NMS) have been at the forefront of efforts to provide forecast information for agriculture. A survey showed that African NMS often go well beyond the RCOF process to improve seasonal forecast information and disseminate it to the agricultural sector. Evidence from a combination of understanding of how climatic uncertainty impacts agriculture, model-basedex-anteanalyses, subjective expressions of demand or value, and the few well-documented evaluations of actual use and resulting benefit suggests that seasonal forecasts may have considerable potential to improve agricultural management and rural livelihoods. However, constraints related to legitimacy, salience, access, understanding, capacity to respond and data scarcity have so far limited the widespread use and benefit from seasonal prediction among smallholder farmers. Those constraints that reflect inadequate information products, policies or institutional process can potentially be overcome. Additional opportunities to benefit rural communities come from expanding the use of seasonal forecast information for coordinating input and credit supply, food crisis management, trade and agricultural insurance. The surge of activity surrounding seasonal forecasting in SSA following the 1997/98 El Niño has waned in recent years, but emerging initiatives, such as the Global Framework for Climate Services and ClimDev-Africa, are poised to reinvigorate support for seasonal forecast information services for agriculture. We conclude with a discussion of institutional and policy changes that we believe will greatly enhance the benefits of seasonal forecasting to agriculture in SSA.
CLIMATE- AND LAND USE-INDUCED RISKS TO WATERSHED SERVICES IN THE NYANDO RIVER BASIN, KENYA
Authors: GATHENYA MWANGI , MWANGI HOSEA , COE RICHARD , SANG JOSEPH 
Published: March 2011

SUMMARYClimate change and land use change are two forces influencing the hydrology of watersheds and their ability to provide ecosystem services, such as clean and well-regulated streamflow and control of soil erosion and sediment yield. The Soil Water Assessment Tool, SWAT, a distributed, watershed-scale hydrological model was used with 18 scenarios of rainfall, temperature and infiltration capacity of land surface to investigate the spatial distribution of watershed services over the 3587 km2 Nyando basin in Western Kenya and how it is affected by these two forces. The total annual water yield varied over the 50 sub-basins from 35 to 600 mm while the annual sediment yield ranged from 0 to 104 tons ha−1. Temperature change had a relatively minor effect on streamflow and sediment yield compared to change in rainfall and land surface condition. Improvements in land surface condition that result in higher infiltration are an effective adaptation strategy to moderate the effects of climate change on supply of watershed services. Spatial heterogeneity in response to climate and land use change is large, and hence it is necessary to understand it if interventions to modify hydrology or adapt to climate change are to be effective.
Do dyslexics have auditory input processing difficulties?
Authors: POULSEN MADS 
Published: March 2011

ABSTRACTWord production difficulties are well documented in dyslexia, whereas the results are mixed for receptive phonological processing. This asymmetry raises the possibility that the core phonological deficit of dyslexia is restricted to output processing stages. The present study investigated whether a group of dyslexics had word level receptive difficulties using an auditory lexical decision task with long words and nonsense words. The dyslexics were slower and less accurate than chronological age controls in an auditory lexical decision task, with disproportionate low performance on nonsense words. The finding suggests that input processing difficulties are associated with the phonological deficit, but that these difficulties may be stronger above the level of phoneme perception.
La protección debida a los niños en situaciones de conflicto armado
Authors: Singer Sandra 
Published: March 2011

A lo largo del siglo XX, la protección del niño ha sido una constante preocupación para la comunidad internacional. Pero, sobre todo a partir de 1979, Año Internacional del Niño, ha aumentado mundialmente el interés a este respecto.Se han constituido nuevas organizaciones que dedican todo su tiempo y todos sus esfuerzos a la defensa de los intereses del niño. Tanto a nivel mundial como a nivel zonal (Europa), se están preparando nuevos instrumentos jurídicos a fin de reforzar la protección debida a la infancia.
Pacing in older people
Authors: Thomas Honey E , Cunnington Michael S , McComb Janet M 
Published: March 2011

SummaryThe vast majority of cardiac pacemakers are implanted in older people. Pacing is a safe and effective treatment for patients with symptomatic bradyarrhythmias. This review provides a clinician's guide to the essential aspects of modern pacemaker therapy in older patients, including aetiology and epidemiology of bradycardia. We discuss some barriers to access to pacing. We review indications for pacemakers, and describe pacing system function, including the different types of pacemakers used. We also review clinical outcomes following pacing, follow-up requirements and problems encountered in clinical practice. Finally, we discuss ethical and end of life considerations with these devices.
Equational presentations of functors and monads
Authors: VELEBIL JIŘÍ , KURZ ALEXANDER 
Published: March 2011

We study equational presentations of functors and monads defined on a category that is equipped by an adjunction F ˧ U : → of descent type. We present a class of functors/monads that admit such an equational presentation that involves finitary signatures in .We apply these results to an equational description of functors arising in various areas of theoretical computer science.
Ensuring Adequate Human Medical Resources during an Avian Influenza A/H5N1 Pandemic
Authors: Mitani Satoko , Ozaki Etsuko , Fujita Naohisa , Hashimoto Tsukuru , Mori Isao , Fukuyama Takeshi , Akatsuka Takefumi , Nishi Takashi , Morishita Sachiko , Nomoto Sinichi , Watanabe Yoshiyuki 
Published: March 2011

AbstractIntroduction:When countermeasures are taken against an avian influenza (AI) pandemic in a hospital, it is essential to know the potential number of staff who would choose to be absent. The purpose of this study was to clarify how many medical staff would be willing to work during a pandemic, and requirements to secure adequate human resources.Methods:From September to December 2008, a total of 3,152 questionnaires were sent to five private hospitals and one public hospital, which represent the core hospitals in the regions of Kyoto, Osaka, and Hyogo Prefectures. Participants consisted of hospital staff including: (1) physicians; (2) nurses; (3) pharmacists; (4) radiological technologists (RTs); (5) physical therapists (PTs); (6) occupational therapists (OTs); (7) clinical laboratory technologists (CLTs); (8) caregivers; (9) office clerks; and (10) others. They were queried about their attitude toward pandemics, including whether they would come to the hospital to work, treat patients, and what kinds of conditions they required in order to work.Results: A total of1,975 persons (62.7%) responded. A total of 204 persons (10.6%) would not come to the hospitals during a pandemic, 363 (18.8%) would perform their duties as usual, unconditionally, 504 (26.1%) would come to hospitals but not treat AI patients, and 857 (44.5%) would report to the hospital and treat AI patients with some essential conditions. These essential conditions were: (1) personal protective equipment (PPE) (80.0%); (2) receipt of workmen's compensation (69.3%); (3) receipt of anti-virus medication (58.2%); and (3) receipt of pre-pandemic vaccination (57.8%).Conclusion:During a pandemic, all types of health professionals would be lacking, not only physicians and nurses. This study indicates that ensuring sufficient medical human resources would be difficult without the provision of adequate safety and compensation measures.
Medical Support for the 2009 World Police and Fire Games: A Descriptive Analysis of a Large-Scale Participation Event and its Impact
Authors: Gutman Samuel J. , Lund Adam , Turris Sheila A. 
Published: March 2011

AbstractIntroduction: In the summer of 2009, British Columbia hosted the World Police and Fire Games (WPFG). The event brought together 10,599 athletes from 55 countries. In this descriptive, Canadian study, the composition of the medical team is analyzed, the unique challenges faced are discussed, and an analysis of the illness and injury rates is presented. This event occurred during a labor dispute affecting the sole provider of emergency ambulance service in the jurisdiction, which necessitated additional planning and resource allocation. As such, the context of this event as it relates to the literature on mass gathering medicine is discussed with a focus on how large-scale public events can impact emergency services for the community.Methods: This is a case report study.Results: There were 1,462 patient encounters. The majority involved musculo-skeletal injuries (53.8%). The patient presentation rate (PPR) was 109.40/1,000. The medical transfer rate (MTR) was 2.32/1,000. The ambulance transfer rate (ATR) for the 2009 WPFG was 0.52/1,000. In total, 31 patients were transported to the hospital, the majority for diagnostic evaluation. Only seven calls were placed to 9-1-1 for emergency ambulance service.Conclusions: The 2009 WPFG was a mass-gathering sporting event that presented specific challenges in relation to medical support. Despite relatively high patient presentation rates, the widely spread geography of the event, and a reduced ability to depend on 9-1-1 emergency medical services, there was minimal impact on local emergency services. Adequate planning and preparation is crucial for events that have the potential to degrade existing public resources and access to emergency health services for participants and the public at large.
La Société suédoise en 1876
Authors: Leijonhufvud A.-G. , von Heyne Axel 
Published: March 2011

Le Comité central suédois nous envoie le compte rendu suivaut qu'il a présenté à l'assemblée générale du 11 décembre 1876 :Plus d'une année s'est écoulée depuis le 1er novembre 1875, époque où, pour la dernière fois, les membres de la Société se sont réunis, afin d'entendre le rapport du Comité-directeur sur l'activité de la Société, l'administration et l'emploi des fonds recueillis. Durant toute cette année, la paix n'a cessé de répandre ses bénédictions sur la Suède; mais, en revanche, dans certaines parties de l'Europe, la guerre a s´vi de manière à émouvoir tous les cœurs qui compatissent aux souffrances de l'humanité.
How can cells in the anterior medial face patch be viewpoint invariant?
Authors: Leibo Joel , Mutch Jim , Poggio Tomaso 
Published: March 2011

AbstractIn a recent paper, Freiwald and Tsao (2010) found evidence that the responses of cells in the macaque anterior medial (AM) face patch are invariant to significant changes in viewpoint. The monkey subjects had no prior experience with the individuals depicted in the stimuli and were never given an opportunity to view the same individual from different viewpoints sequentially. These results cannot be explained by a mechanism based on temporal association of experienced views. Employing a biologically plausible model of object recognition (software available at cbcl.mit.edu), we show two mechanisms which could account for these results. First, we show that hair style and skin color provide sufficient information to enable viewpoint recognition without resorting to any mechanism that associates images across views. It is likely that a large part of the effect described in patch AM is attributable to these cues. Separately, we show that it is possible to further improve view-invariance using class-specific features (see Vetter 1997). Faces, as a class, transform under 3D rotation in similar enough ways that it is possible to use previously viewed example faces to learn a general model of how all faces rotate. Novel faces can be encoded relative to these previously encountered “template” faces and thus recognized with some degree of invariance to 3D rotation. Since each object class transforms differently under 3D rotation, it follows that invariant recognition from a single view requires a recognition architecture with a detection step determining the class of an object (e.g. face or non-face) prior to a subsequent identification stage utilizing the appropriate class-specific features.
Tetraspanin microdomains: fine-tuning platelet function
Authors: Haining Elizabeth J. , Yang Jing , Tomlinson Michael G. 
Published: March 2011

Platelets are crucial for preventing excessive blood loss at sites of injury by plugging holes in damaged blood vessels through thrombus formation. Platelet thrombi can, however, cause heart attack or stroke by blocking diseased vessels upon rupture of atherosclerotic plaques. Current anti-platelet therapy is not effective in all patients and carries a risk of bleeding. As such, a major goal in platelet research is to identify new drug targets to specifically inhibit platelets in disease processes. Tetraspanins are potential candidates because of their capacity to regulate other proteins in microdomains, and their defined roles in cell adhesion and signalling. In the last 6 years, analyses of tetraspanin-deficient mice have suggested that tetraspanins are indeed important for fine-tuning platelet responses. The future characterization of novel regulatory mechanisms in tetraspanin microdomains may lead to new drug targets for the prevention and treatment of heart attack and stroke.
Mass-balanced randomization of metabolic networks
Authors: Basler Georg , Ebenhöh Oliver , Selbig Joachim , Nikoloski Zoran 
Published: March 2011

Abstract
Motivation: Network-centered studies in systems biology attempt to integrate the topological properties of biological networks with experimental data in order to make predictions and posit hypotheses. For any topology-based prediction, it is necessary to first assess the significance of the analyzed property in a biologically meaningful context. Therefore, devising network null models, carefully tailored to the topological and biochemical constraints imposed on the network, remains an important computational problem.
Results: We first review the shortcomings of the existing generic sampling scheme—switch randomization—and explain its unsuitability for application to metabolic networks. We then devise a novel polynomial-time algorithm for randomizing metabolic networks under the (bio)chemical constraint of mass balance. The tractability of our method follows from the concept of mass equivalence classes, defined on the representation of compounds in the vector space over chemical elements. We finally demonstrate the uniformity of the proposed method on seven genome-scale metabolic networks, and empirically validate the theoretical findings. The proposed method allows a biologically meaningful estimation of significance for metabolic network properties.
Contact: basler@mpimp-golm.mpg.de; nikoloski@mpimp-golm.mpg.de
Supplementary Information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
The Parrot as Paramour: Yourcenar's Amant Vert
Authors: Herdman Emma 
Published: March 2011

Abstract

This article argues that Marguerite Yourcenar's reference in
L'Œuvre au noir
to l'Amant Vert, the pet parrot belonging to Marguerite d'Autriche, should be read as contributing to the symbolism through which Yourcenar indicates Marguerite's bisexuality. The emergence and development of bisexuality as a theme in Yourcenar's characterization of Marguerite are first examined on their own terms. Next, this presentation of Marguerite is considered in the light of Yourcenar's sixteenth-century sources — Pierre Bourdeille, abbé de Brantôme's
Dames galantes
and Jean Lemaire de Belges's
Épîtres de l'Amant Vert
— in order to assess the historical validity of this presentation of parrots and of Marguerite d'Autriche. Finally, via reference to other sixteenth-century parrots, the article demonstrates that such symbolism is discernible in the sixteenth century, and therefore suggests that Yourcenar's Amant Vert is indicative of a highly perceptive and sensitive response to the period in which her novel is set.
From Fortune to Randomness in Seventeenth-Century Literature
Authors: Lyons John D. 
Published: March 2011

Abstract

This article proposes the view that during the course of the seventeenth century the concept of fortune in the Boethian mode, dominant in French literature during the Middle Ages, yielded to a new manner of conceiving the fortuitous. This new conception, still sometimes called ‘fortune’ but increasingly known as ‘hasard’, took the form of what we would call randomness. However, both the older and the newer ways of representing the fortuitous require awareness of individual human desire. In this study, Molière's
L'École des femmes
and two narratives by Marie-Madeleine de Lafayette,
Zayde
and
La Princesse de Clèves
, are considered with regard to the way the texts display chance either directly or indirectly. In conclusion, the article proposes the hypothesis that the shift from fortune to randomness in French literature is related to an increasing emphasis on what we call the reader's ‘identification’ with fictive characters.
Exit and entry of fishing vessels: an evaluation of factors affecting investment decisions in the North Sea English beam trawl fleet
Authors: Tidd Alex N. , Hutton Trevor , Kell Laurence T. , Padda Gurpreet 
Published: March 2011

Abstract
Tidd, A. N., Hutton, T., Kell, L. T., and Padda, G. 2011. Exit and entry of fishing vessels: an evaluation of factors affecting investment decisions in the North Sea English beam trawl fleet. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: 961–971. A profitable fishery attracts additional effort (vessels enter), eventually leading to overcapacity and less profit. Similarly, fishing vessels exit depending on their economic viability (or reduced expectations of future benefits) or encouraged by schemes such as decommissioning grants and/or when there is consolidation of fishing effort within a tradable rights-based quota system (e.g. individual transferable quotas). The strategic decision-making behaviour of fishers in entering or exiting the English North Sea beam trawl fishery is analysed using a discrete choice model by integrating data on vessel characteristics with available cost data, decommissioning grant information, and other factors that potentially influence anticipated benefits or future risks. It is then possible to predict whether operators choose to enter, stay, exit, or decommission. Important factors affecting investment include vessel age and size, future revenues, operating costs (e.g. fuel), stock status of the main target species, and the impact of management measures (e.g. total allowable catches) and total fleet size (a proxy for congestion). Based on the results, the predicted marginal effects of each factor are presented and the impact of each is discussed in the context of policies developed to align fleet capacity with fishing opportunities.
Gamma‐glutamyl Transferase Is Strongly Associated With Degree of Overweight and Sex
Authors: Wiegand Susanna , Thamm Michael , Kiess Wieland , Körner Antje , Reinehr Thomas , Krude Heiko , Hoffmeister Ulrike , Holl Reinhard W ,   APV Study Group and the German Competence Network Adipositas
Published: March 2011

ABSTRACTGamma‐glutamyl transferase (GGT) is a marker for cardiovascular risk and an independent predictor of long‐term outcome in adults. Epidemiological data from pediatric cohorts are rare. We studied the association of GGT to body mass index as a standard deviation score, sex, and age in 68,415 children (age 11.7 ± 4.4 years; 48% boys; body mass index 27.2 ± 7.4 kg/m2; GGT measured in n = 23,955). GGT >50 U/L is strongly associated with extreme obesity (odds ratio 27.13, 95% confidence interval 15.07–48.85) and male sex (odds ratio 2.60, 95% confidence interval 2.03–3.31). GGT seems to be of clinical relevance and may be marketable as a surrogate in risk profiling for children with obesity.
Gastroesophageal Reflux in Young Children Treated for Esophageal Atresia: Evaluation With pH‐Multichannel Intraluminal Impedance
Authors: Catalano Pieralba , Di Pace Maria R , Caruso Anna M , Casuccio Alessandra , De Grazia Enrico 
Published: March 2011

ABSTRACTObjectives:Gastroesophageal reflux (GER) and dismotility occur frequently after repair of esophageal atresia (EA). GER‐associated complications can manifest either early or later; then precocious diagnosis and treatment are essential. The aim of the study was to evaluate characteristics of GER and esophageal clearance in children treated for EA with distal tracheoesophageal fistula, using pH‐multichannel intraluminal impedance (pH‐MII).Patients and Methods:Twenty‐two children (ages 3–40 months) treated for EA at birth, and 20 normal children of similar age with suspected GER disease were included in the study. Impedance parameters were analyzed according to age and symptoms.Results:Reflux events were mainly nonacidic. About bolus exposure index, mean acid clearing time (MACT), and mean bolus clearing time (MBCT), a significant difference was found between 2 groups: the median MACT and MBCT were longer, with values of 281 and 39 seconds, respectively, in the EA group and 110 and 15 seconds in the control group (P < 0.0005).Conclusions:Our data show that in young patients the majority of refluxes are not acid. This implies that the incidence of GER may be underestimated if pH‐metry is used. The pH‐MII is an ideal test in children because it studies both GER with its characteristics and motility pattern. The quality of reflux does not seem to influence the onset of symptoms that are related to an impaired esophageal clearance. Hence, this technique could be useful to study patients treated for EA, avoiding the onset of complications.