bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Superficial lizards in cold climates: Nest site choice along an elevational gradient
Authors: DOODY J. SEAN 
Published: May 2009

AbstractEmbryonic conditions may limit the distributions of egg‐laying ectotherms, and recent research suggests that nesting mothers of wide‐ranging species may use a number of factors to compensate for differing climates. However, while variation in temporal factors across environmental gradients are common or pervasive (i.e. seasonal timing of nesting), similar evidence for spatial factors is rare (e.g. aspect, openness and depth of nest sites). I tested the idea that a wide‐ranging lizard, the Australia water dragon (Physignathus lesueurii), uses nest depth to counter climate differences along a temperature cline at their cold‐end range margin. Two measures of nest depth were significantly, inversely related to elevation across six populations spanning 700 m. Elevation explained 83–86% of the variation in nest depth. These findings support a thermal compensatory mechanism for this pattern, although soil moisture compensation is plausible. My results directly support a recent, untested prediction that the evolution of viviparity in reptiles is preceded by a behavioural shift towards increasingly superficial nest sites in cold climates, followed by selection for increased egg retention to avoid temperature extremes. However, in the present study egg desiccation rates increased with increasing elevation in a dry year, suggesting that increased egg retention may evolve in response to lethal hydric conditions, rather than lethal temperatures. When considered alongside recent research, the present study indicates that water dragons possess several mechanisms for adjusting to climate change.
Antidiabetic effects of 11β‐HSD1 inhibition in a mouse model of combined diabetes, dyslipidaemia and atherosclerosis
Authors: Lloyd D. J. , Helmering J. , Cordover D. , Bowsman M. , Chen M. , Hale C. , Fordstrom P. , Zhou M. , Wang M. , Kaufman S. A. , Véniant M. M. 
Published: May 2009

Aim:  11 β‐hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11β‐HSD1) is considered to contribute to the aetiology of the metabolic syndrome, and specific inhibitors have begun to emerge as treatments for insulin resistance and other facets of the syndrome, including atherosclerosis. Given the role of glucocorticoids and 11β‐HSD1 in the anti‐inflammatory response and the involvement of inflammation in the development of atherosclerosis, 11β‐HSD1 inhibition may exacerbate atherosclerosis. Our aim was to investigate in vivo the effects of a specific 11β‐HSD1 inhibitor (2922) on atherosclerosis while assessing glucose homeostasis.Methods:  We conducted a 12‐week study administering 2922 (at three doses, 3, 10 and 100 mg/kg body weight) in Ldlr 3KO (Ldlr−/−Apob100/100Lepob/ob) mice, a genetic model of obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia and atherosclerosis. Rosiglitazone and simvastatin were used to test the responsiveness of our model in both types of therapy.Results:  2922 was effective in reducing 11β‐HSD1 activity in inguinal adipose tissue (>90% for 100 mg/kg) and was efficacious in improving glucose homeostasis at doses ≥10 mg/kg. Plasma insulin, blood glucose, glucose tolerance and homeostatic model assessment indices were all improved in mice treated with 2922 (100 mg/kg) compared with control animals. Despite an improvement in these parameters, no differences were observed in body weight, adipose or lean tissue masses in the 2922‐treated mice. Interestingly, circulating lipids, proinflammatory cytokines and atherosclerosis were unaltered in response to 2922, although a small reduction in LDL cholesterol was detected.Conclusions:  Importantly, 11β‐HSD1 inhibition leads to improved glucose metabolism and does not result in a worsening of atherosclerotic lesion area, yet retained antidiabetic potential in the face of multiple severe metabolic aberrations. This study reinforces the potential use of 11β‐HSD1 inhibitors in patients with the metabolic syndrome without negatively impacting atherosclerosis.
Adult Educators: an example of the new approach to lifelong learning in Poland
Authors: MAZURKIEWICZ GRZEGORZ 
Published: May 2009

This article presents reflections arising from a study on adult learning professions in Poland. Changes in the socio‐political and legal context created phenomena that have occurred in the adult education systems, mechanisms and approaches. The article focuses on the impact of those processes on a specific professional group — adult educators.Because of the increasing importance of lifelong learning and the promising vision of a knowledge society, new initiatives in education open challenging possibilities for human development. Based on interviews with practitioners the article describes the professional situation of adult educators: training, development, awareness, values, priorities and practice. A new trend noticeable in these interviews — the emergence of a new kind of educator. The working style of this new group (operating like a closed caste) with a specific language and communication style, value system, ethics and critical skills resulted in the creation of the culture of lifelong learning. The culture of adult educators has developed skills of survival in a fragmented reality of the Polish educational policy, a chaotic legal frame and the strong pressure of the labour market.
Teacher Education in Italy, Germany, England, Sweden and Finland
Authors: OSTINELLI GIORGIO 
Published: May 2009

This article presents a brief analysis of teacher education in five European countries: Italy, Germany, England, Sweden and Finland. In the post‐industrial world, the sense of teaching has profoundly changed, influenced by a rapidly evolving socio‐economic context.The responses given by each country are different, but two tendencies emerge: on the one hand, the English model, which seeks to make a teacher a faithful executor with regard to centrally decided learning objectives; on the other, the Nordic model that conceives the teacher as a ‘fully‐fledged’ professional.From the point of view of the sustainability and of the safeguard of the educative mission of the school, the second model, though with all the difficulties that its efficacious realisation entails, presents some advantages when compared to the first. The article concludes with some considerations on the need to conceive the reform of teacher education from a systemic point of view, in the context of a global change of national school systems, where the autonomy of the single schools plays a role of paramount importance.
‘Unwilling’ versus ‘unable’: capuchin monkeys’ (Cebus apella) understanding of human intentional action
Authors: Phillips Webb , Barnes Jennifer L. , Mahajan Neha , Yamaguchi Mariko , Santos Laurie R. 
Published: May 2009

AbstractA sensitivity to the intentions behind human action is a crucial developmental achievement in infants. Is this intention reading ability a unique and relatively recent product of human evolution and culture, or does this capacity instead have roots in our non‐human primate ancestors? Recent work by Call and colleagues (2004) lends credence to the latter hypothesis, providing evidence that chimpanzees are also sensitive to human intentions. Specifically, chimpanzees remained in a testing area longer and exhibited fewer frustration behaviors when an experimenter behaved as if he intended to give food but was unable to do so, than when the experimenter behaved as if he had no intention of giving food. The present research builds on and extends this paradigm, providing some of the first evidence of intention reading in a more distant primate relative, the capuchin monkey (Cebus apella). Like chimpanzees, capuchin monkeys distinguish between different goal‐directed acts, vacating an enclosure sooner when an experimenter acts unwilling to give food than when she acts unable to give food. Additionally, we found that this pattern is specific to animate action, and does not obtain when the same actions are performed by inanimate rods instead of human hands (for a similar logic, seeWoodward, 1998). Taken together with the previous evidence, the present research suggests that our own intention reading is not a wholly unique aspect of the human species, but rather is shared broadly across the primate order.
Brainstem correlates of temporal auditory processing in children with specific language impairment
Authors: Basu Madhavi , Krishnan Ananthanarayan , Weber‐Fox Christine 
Published: May 2009

AbstractDeficits in identification and discrimination of sounds with short inter‐stimulus intervals or short formant transitions in children with specific language impairment (SLI) have been taken to reflect an underlying temporal auditory processing deficit. Using the sustained frequency following response (FFR) and the onset auditory brainstem responses (ABR) we evaluated if children with SLI show abnormalities at the brainstem level consistent with a temporal processing deficit. To this end, the neural encoding of tonal sweeps, as reflected in the FFR, for different rates of frequency change, and the effects of reducing inter‐stimulus interval on the ABR components were evaluated in 10 4–11‐year‐old SLI children and their age‐matched controls. Results for the SLI group showed degraded FFR phase‐locked neural activity that failed to faithfully track the frequency change presented in the tonal sweeps, particularly at the faster sweep rates. SLI children also showed longer latencies for waves III and V of the ABR and a greater prolongation of wave III at high stimulus rates (>30/sec), suggesting greater susceptibility to neural adaptation. These results taken together appear to suggest a disruption in the temporal pattern of phase‐locked neural activity necessary to encode rapid frequency change and an increased susceptibility to desynchronizing factors related to faster rates of stimulus presentation in children with SLI.
Nonlinear epigenetic variance: review and simulations
Authors: Kan Kees‐Jan , Ploeger Annemie , Raijmakers Maartje E. J. , Dolan Conor V. , Van Der Maas Han L. J. 
Published: May 2009

AbstractWe present a review of empirical evidence that suggests that a substantial portion of phenotypic variance is due to nonlinear (epigenetic) processes during ontogenesis. The role of such processes as a source of phenotypic variance in human behaviour genetic studies is not fully appreciated. In addition to our review, we present simulation studies of nonlinear epigenetic variance using a computational model of neuronal network development. In each simulation study, time series for monozygotic and dizygotic twins were generated and analysed using conventional behaviour genetic modelling. In the results of these analyses, the nonlinear epigenetic variance was subsumed under the non‐shared environmental component. As is commonly found in behaviour genetic studies, observed heritabilities and unique environmentabilities increased with time, whereas common environmentabilities decreased. The fact that the phenotypic effects of nonlinear epigenetic processes appear as unsystematic variance in conventional twin analyses complicates the identification and quantification of the ultimate genetic and environmental causes of individual differences. We believe that nonlinear dynamical system theories provide a challenging perspective on the development of individual differences, which may enrich behaviour genetic studies.
Sensitivity to communicative relevance tells young children what to imitate
Authors: Southgate Victoria , Chevallier Coralie , Csibra Gergely 
Published: May 2009

AbstractHow do children decide which elements of an action demonstration are important to reproduce in the context of an imitation game? We tested whether selective imitation of a demonstrator’s actions may be based on the same search for relevance that drives adult interpretation of ostensive communication. Three groups of 18‐month‐old infants were shown a toy animal either hopping or sliding (action style) into a toy house (action outcome), but the communicative relevance of the action style differed depending on the group. For the no prior information group, all the information in the demonstration was new and so equally relevant. However, for infants in the ostensive prior information group, the potential action outcome was already communicated to the infant prior to the main demonstration, rendering the action style more relevant. Infants in the ostensive prior information group imitated the action style significantly more than infants in the no prior information group, suggesting that the relevance manipulation modulated their interpretation of the action demonstration. A further condition (non‐ostensive prior information) confirmed that this sensitivity to new information is only present when the ‘old’ information had been communicated, and not when infants discovered this information for themselves. These results indicate that, like adults, human infants expect communication to contain relevant content, and imitate action elements that, relative to their current knowledge state or to the common ground with the demonstrator, is identified as most relevant.
Do you see what I see? Infants’ reasoning about others’ incomplete perceptions
Authors: Luo Yuyan , Beck Whitney 
Published: May 2009

AbstractTwelve‐month‐olds realize that when an agent cannot see an object, her incomplete perceptions still guide her goal‐directed actions. What would happen if the agent had incomplete perceptions because she could see only one part of the object, for example one side of a screen? In the present research, 16‐month‐olds were first shown an agent who always pointed to a red object, as opposed to a black or a yellow object, suggesting that she preferred red over the other colours. Next, two screens were introduced while the agent was absent. The screens were (1) red or green on both sides; (2) red on the front (infants’ side) but green on the back (the agent’s side) or vice versa; or (3) only coloured red or green on the front. During test, the agent, who could see only the back of the screens, pointed to one of the two screens. The results revealed that while infants expected the agent to continue acting on her colour preference and point to the red rather than the green screen during test, they did so in accord with the agent’s perception of the screens, rather than their own perceptions: they expected the agent to point to the red screen in (1), but to the green‐front screen in (2), and they had no prediction of which screen the agent should point to in (3). The implications of the present findings for early psychological reasoning research are discussed.
The Diet, Obesity and Genes (Diogenes) Dietary Study in eight European countries – a comprehensive design for long‐term intervention
Authors: Larsen T. M. , Dalskov S. , Van Baak M. , Jebb S. , Kafatos A. , Pfeiffer A. , Martinez J. A. , Handjieva‐Darlenska T. , Kunešová M. , Holst C. , Saris W. H. M. , Astrup A. 
Published: May 2009

SummaryDiogenes is a Pan‐European, randomized, controlled dietary intervention study investigating the effects of dietary protein and glycaemic index on weight (re)gain, metabolic and cardiovascular risk factors in obese and overweight families in eight European centres. The article is methodological in character, and the presentation of ‘results’ will be limited to baseline characteristics of the study populations included. A total of 891 families with at least one overweight/obese parent underwent screening. The parents started an initial 8‐week low‐calorie diet and families with minimum one parent attaining a weight loss of ≥8%, were randomized to one of five energy ad libitum, low‐fat (25–30 E%) diets for 6 or 12 months: low protein/low glycaemic index, low protein/high glycaemic index, high protein/low glycaemic index, high protein/high glycaemic index or control (national dietary guidelines). At two centres the families were provided dietary instruction plus free foods for 6 months followed by 6‐month dietary instruction only. At the remaining six centres the families received dietary instruction only for 6 months. The median weight loss during the low‐calorie diet was 10.3 kg (inter‐quartile range: 8.7–12.8 kg, n = 775). A total of 773 adults and 784 children were randomized to the 6‐month weight (re)gain prevention phase. Despite major cultural and dietary regional differences in Europe, interventions addressing effects of dietary factors are feasible with a reasonable attrition.
KERNEL DENSITY ESTIMATION WITH MISSING DATA AND AUXILIARY VARIABLES
Authors: Dubnicka Suzanne R. 
Published: May 2009

SummaryIn most parametric statistical analyses, knowledge of the distribution of the response variable, or of the errors, is important. As this distribution is not typically known with certainty, one might initially construct a histogram or estimate the density of the variable of interest to gain insight regarding the distribution and its characteristics. However, when the response variable is incomplete, a histogram will only provide a representation of the distribution of the observed data. In the AIDS Clinical Trial Study protocol 175, interest lies in the difference in CD4 counts from baseline to final follow‐up, but CD4 counts collected at final follow‐up were incomplete. A method is therefore proposed for estimating the density of an incomplete response variable when auxiliary data are available. The proposed estimator is based on the Horvitz–Thompson estimator, and the propensity scores are estimated nonparametrically. Simulation studies indicate that the proposed estimator performs well.
Instructional design and technology grounded in enactivism: A paradigm shift?
Authors: Li Qing , Clark Bruce , Winchester Ian 
Published: May 2009

AbstractAlthough traditional instructional design and technology (IDT) has largely been based on objectivism, in the past 20 years, constructivism has emerged as a dominant framework for IDT. Both perspectives, however, present shortcomings. This paper explores enactivism—an emerging new philosophical world view—as an alternative paradigm. It also investigates the possibilities offered by this new paradigm to IDT. The philosophical world view known as enactivism is reviewed to illustrate the similarities and differences among the three philosophical paradigms, namely, objectivism, constructivism and enactivism. Finally, details of enactivism and its implications for IDT are explored.
Researching computer‐based collaborative learning in inclusive classrooms in Cyprus: The role of the computer in pupils' interaction
Authors: Mavrou Katerina , Lewis Ann , Douglas Graeme 
Published: May 2009

AbstractThis paper discusses the results of a study of the role of the computer in scaffolding pupils' interaction and its effects on the disabled (D) pupils' participation and inclusion in the context of socio‐cultural theories and the ideals of inclusive education. The study investigated the interactions of pairs of D and non‐disabled (ND) pupils working together on computer‐based tasks, in mainstream primary schools in Cyprus. Twenty dyads of pupils (each comprising a D child and an ND peer) were observed and videotaped while working together at the computer. Data analyses were based on the collaborative nature of events for the non‐verbal interaction and the functional–structural approaches for verbal interaction. Through application of video analyses, seven central aspects of interaction were identified: helping behaviours, motivation, self‐confidence, peer‐acceptance, affection, positive and negative socio‐emotional status, and the input of the computer. Results of the study showed that the computer was a mediational scaffolding agent of the other six areas of the participants' interaction as it: (1) was an important interactional agent in initiating and terminating a conversation, (2) facilitated interaction and participation, as an intellectual and physical tool, (3) promoted different styles of interaction (not always positive ones) through the various input and output devices, by differentiating participation. Hence, the computer emerged as the third party in the collaborative activity which provided various opportunities and motivations for interaction.
The Ins and Outs of Biosecurity: Bird 'flu in East Anglia and the Spatial Representation of Risk
Authors: Nerlich Brigitte , Brown Brian , Wright Nick 
Published: May 2009

AbstractAvian influenza, or ‘bird 'flu’ arrived in Norfolk in April 2006 in the form of the low pathogenic strain H7N3. In February 2007 a highly pathogenic strain, H5N1, which can pose a risk to humans, was discovered in Suffolk. We examine how a local newspaper reported the outbreaks, focusing on the linguistic framing of biosecurity. Consistent with the growing concern with securitisation among policymakers, issues were discussed in terms of space (indoor–outdoor; local–global; national–international) and flows (movement, barriers and vectors) between spaces (farms, sheds and countries). The apportioning of blame along the lines of ‘them and us’– Hungary and England – was tempered by the reporting on the Hungarian operations of the British poultry company. Explanations focused on indoor and outdoor farming and alleged breaches of biosecurity by the companies involved. As predicted by the idea of securitisation, risks were formulated as coming from outside the supposedly secure enclaves of poultry production.