bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Political Cycles in the Australian Stock Market since Federation
Authors: Worthington Andrew C. 
Published: December 2009

Abstract This article examines the political cycles in Australian stock returns from 1901–2005. The article defines the political cycle in terms of the party in power, ministerial tenure and election information effects. The market variables are returns, excess returns over inflation and excess returns over interest rates. Descriptive analysis suggests differences in the variance of returns under Labor and non‐Labor ministries, but no significant differences in mean returns. Using a generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedastistic‐M model, returns are found to be higher only for non‐Labor ministries before 1949 and there is no difference in excess returns over inflation or interest throughout the full sample.
A STUDY OF THE DIVERSIFICATION OF CHINA'S FOREIGN RESERVES WITHIN A THREE‐COUNTRY STOCK‐FLOW CONSISTENT MODEL
Authors: Lavoie Marc , Zhao Jun 
Published: December 2009

ABSTRACTThe paper presents a three‐country stock‐flow consistent model, with one fixed exchange rate and two flexible exchange rates, in the tradition of portfolio balance models with imperfect asset substitutability. The model is applied to simulate the impact of the diversification of the foreign reserves of China, away from US dollars and towards euros. The simulation results show that China and the USA both benefit from diversification, while the Euroland economy slows down. An intriguing feature of the model is that it generates path dependence.
The psychological status of HIV‐positive people and their psychosocial experiences in eastern China
Authors: Jin C , Zhao G , Zhang F , Feng L , Wu N 
Published: December 2009

Objectives
The aim of the study was to investigate the psychological status and the psychosocial experiences of HIV‐positive people using Symptom Check List 90 (SCL‐90) in eastern China.Methods
Two hundred and fourteen HIV‐positive people and 200 controls were recruited to the study. Participants were given an anonymous questionnaire which included questions pertaining to demography, SCL‐90 and psychosocial experiences.Results
The mean subscale scores for SCL‐90 in the HIV‐positive group were all higher than those of the control group (P<0.001), especially for depression, anxiety, obsessive–compulsive disorder and hostility. Female HIV‐positive individuals had significantly higher depression and anxiety scores (P<0.05) and more scores higher than 2.0 than male HIV‐positive individuals. The average number of subscales with mean scores higher than 2.0 was 4.1 for female HIV‐positive individuals and 3.7 for male HIV‐positive individuals. The most common psychosocial experiences related to HIV infection were fear (36.9%) and helplessness (31.8%). 90.2% of HIV‐positive people would not tell others about their disease because of fear of discrimination against family members (42.2%), exclusion by community members (26.9%) and abandonment (23.3%). Discrimination from acquaintances (38.8%) was a main stressor in the HIV‐positive individuals' daily life. Most members of HIV‐positive individuals' communities expressed negative attitudes: alienation, coldness, aversion and fear. 38.3% of the HIV‐positive participants reported that their family members had been discriminated against.Conclusions
The results demonstrate that HIV‐positive people in eastern China live in a negative psychosocial environment and suffer from psychological distress. It is necessary to provide psychological interventions for people living with AIDS and to educate community members in order to improve the psychosocial environment.
Systematics and phylogeography of a threatened tortoise, the speckled padloper
Authors: Daniels S. R. , Hofmeyr M. D. , Henen B. T. , Baard E. H. W. 
Published: December 2009

AbstractThis study investigated the systematics and phylogeography of a threatened tortoise of South Africa, the speckled padloper Homopus signatus. Sixty three specimens were collected from 17 localities that covered the distributional range of the two subspecies in western South Africa and a north‐eastern population that was recently discovered near Pofadder. The Pofadder sample could not be assigned to either subspecies based on morphology. The samples were sequenced for two partial mtDNA fragments, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide dehydrogenase component four and cytochrome b, which yielded ∼1.1 kb, while a subset of the samples were sequenced for a 390 bp nuclear DNA (nDNA) fragment of prolactin. Phylogenetic analyses of mtDNA using minimum evolution, maximum parsimony and Bayesian inferences supported the monophyly of H. signatus and revealed that the Pofadder specimen was basal in the topology and sister to the remainder. The phylogenetic analyses did not support the recognition of two subspecies; there was statistical support for a Homopus signatus signatus clade but Homopus signatus cafer was not monophyletic. The nDNA analysis showed no difference between the subspecies and placed the Pofadder sample distant but not distinct from H. s. signatus. The mtDNA and the nDNA data suggest that the subspecies are invalid taxonomic units. The structure of the mtDNA network corresponded to the geographical distribution of populations. The north‐western populations formed one haplocluster, corresponding to H. s. signatus, whereas the south‐western populations formed three haploclusters, corresponding to H. s. cafer. The Pofadder sample was unconnected to the network. The morphology of the northern and southern morphotypes probably reflects selection for crypsis on the different substrate types of the regions, granites and sedimentary rocks, respectively. These results highlight that subspecies designations should be authenticated by molecular techniques because morphological plasticity can obfuscate phylogenetic relationships. We consider the western H. signatus populations as one taxonomic unit and recommend wider sampling of the Pofadder locality to clarify the taxonomic status of this lineage.
Resource stoichiometry elucidates the structure and function of arbuscular mycorrhizas across scales
Authors: Johnson Nancy Collins 
Published: December 2009

SummaryDespite the fact that arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) associations are among the most ancient, abundant and important symbioses in terrestrial ecosystems, there are currently few unifying theories that can be used to help understand the factors that control their structure and function. This review explores how a stoichiometric perspective facilitates integration of three complementary ecological and evolutionary models of mycorrhizal structure and function. AM symbiotic function should be governed by the relative availability of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus (trade balance model) and allocation to plant and fungal structures should depend on the availabilities of these resources (functional equilibrium model). Moreover, in an evolutionary framework, communities of plants and AM fungi are predicted to adapt to each other and their local soil environment (co‐adaptation model). Anthropogenic enrichment of essential resources in the environment is known to impact AM symbioses. A more predictive theory of AM structure and function will help us to better understand how these impacts may influence plant communities and ecosystem properties.

Contents

Summary
631

I.
Introduction
632

II.
Overview of ecological and evolutionary models from a stoichiometric perspective
632

III.
Carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in AM symbioses
634

IV.
Trade balance and thresholds in the AM marketplace
635

V.
Optimal foraging and functional equilibrium in AM symbioses
638

VI.
Fungal life histories and resource utilization
640

VII.
Community feedbacks, co‐adaptation and ecosystem consequences
641

VIII.
The scaling‐up challenge
643

Acknowledgements
643

References
643
Making connections: Global Production Networks and World City Networks
Authors: COE NEIL M. , DICKEN PETER , HESS MARTIN , YEUNG HENRY WAI‐CHEUNG 
Published: December 2009

AbstractThis article offers a sympathetic critique of recent attempts to forge a dialogue between Global Commodity Chain (GCC) and World City Network (WCN) approaches to global economic change. While broadly supportive of the endeavour, we make three observations about this ongoing project. First, we question the utility of emphasizing the common roots of these approaches in World Systems Theory given that both have subsequently moved into new epistemological terrain and, additionally, that the language of core and periphery seems ever less pertinent to global economic realities. Second, we seek to highlight the potential dangers of essentializing the global system as one that is primarily shaped by certain kinds of connections – namely the intra‐firm relationships of advanced producer service firms – between certain kinds of cities – namely the leading tiers of global cities. Third, we point to the need to expand the interpretations of relationality within global networks to include a wider variety of actors, particularly beyond the corporate realm, and to explore the dynamic power relations between those actors. We also discuss the methodological challenges of expanding the purview of research in this way. This commentary has been stimulated by the articles in the special issue of Global Networks on ‘World City Networks and Global Commodity Chains’.
Global inter‐city networks and commodity chains: any intersections?
Authors: SASSEN SASKIA 
Published: December 2009

AbstractThe article proposes five analytic operations that help in generating a larger frame that can encompass at least some foundational aspects of global city analysis and Global Commodity Chains analysis. Given the author's research, the ground from which this task is taken on here is the city. To do this requires going beyond the narrow empirical component that is at the centre of this special issue, namely World City Networks (WCNs). The five analytic propositions range from the problematic of incomplete knowledge for global actors, one shared by actors in the WCN and in the GCC, to that of the locational correlates of command functions, which can be as diverse as functions concentrated in headquarters to functions distributed across the chain of operations. The article concludes by asking what a focus on the city and its messiness adds to what is basically an analysis of the current phase of global capitalism (rather than an urban theory as is often assumed).
CREB‐dependent Nur77 induction following depolarization in PC12 cells and neurons is modulated by MEF2 transcription factors
Authors: Lam Brian Yee Hong , Zhang Wenting , Ng David Chi‐Heng , Maruthappu Mahiben , Roderick Hywel Llewelyn , Chawla Sangeeta 
Published: December 2009

J. Neurochem. (2010) 112, 1065–1073.AbstractExpression of the nuclear orphan receptor gene Nur77 in neuronal cells is induced by activity‐dependent increases in intracellular Ca2+ ions. Ca2+ responsiveness of the Nur77 gene has been attributed to two distinct DNA regulatory regions that recruit the transcription factors cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) and myocyte enhancer factor‐2 (MEF2). Here we used dominant interfering and constitutively active mutants of CREB and MEF2 proteins to assess their relative contribution to depolarization‐induced Nur77 expression in undifferentiated PC12 cells and hippocampal neurons. We show that while CREB is necessary for Ca2+‐activated Nur77 expression MEF2 functions to modulate CREB‐dependent Nur77 expression by acting as a repressor in quiescent cells.
Neuferricin, a novel extracellular heme‐binding protein, promotes neurogenesis
Authors: Kimura Ikuo , Nakayama Yoshiaki , Konishi Morichika , Kobayashi Teruyuki , Mori Masahiro , Ito Masaki , Hirasawa Akira , Tsujimoto Gozoh , Ohta Mitsuhiro , Itoh Nobuyuki , Fujimoto Masafumi 
Published: December 2009

J. Neurochem. (2010) 112, 1156–1167.AbstractWe identified a novel extracellular heme‐binding protein and named it neuferricin. The recombinant mouse neuferricin produced in High Five cells was secreted efficiently into the culture medium. Mouse neuferricin mRNA was expressed mainly in the brain at the embryo stage and gradually increased during development. At postnatal stage, it was widely expressed in the brain, heart, adrenal gland, and kidney. Mouse neuferricin has 263 amino acids. It has a cytochrome b5‐like heme/steroid‐binding domain and appeared to bind hemin because neuferricin solution, but not a solution of neuferricinΔHBD (a mutant lacking the heme‐binding domain), was tinged with brown and had an absorbance peak at 402 nm. In addition, the experiment with anti‐neuferricin antibody using heme‐affinity chromatography proved that the endogenous neuferricin detected in the culture medium of Neuro2a cells was associated with hemin. Inhibition of endogenous neuferricin by RNA interference excessively promoted cell survival and proliferation and suppressed neurite outgrowth during the induction of differentiation in Neuro2a cells. Addition of recombinant mouse neuferricin, but not neuferricinΔHBD, suppressed survival of Neuro2a cells and rescued from the effects of neuferricin RNAi. In primary cultured mouse neural precursor cells, recombinant mouse neuferricin exhibited the ability to promote neurogenesis. The identification of neuferricin, a novel extracellular heme‐binding protein with cytochrome b5‐like heme/steroid‐binding domain and its neurogenic activity, provide new insights not only into brain development but also the function of heme‐binding proteins as extracellular signal transmitters.
BACE1 and BACE2 enzymatic activities in Alzheimer’s disease
Authors: Ahmed Rachel R. , Holler Christopher J. , Webb Robin L. , Li Feng , Beckett Tina L. , Murphy M. Paul 
Published: December 2009

J. Neurochem. (2009) 112, 1045–1053.Abstractβ‐Secretase is the rate limiting enzymatic activity in the production of the amyloid‐β peptide (Aβ) and is thought to be involved in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathogenesis. Although BACE1 (β‐site APP Cleaving Enzyme 1, EC 3.4.23.46) has received significant attention, the related BACE2 (EC 3.4.23.45) has not. Though BACE2 is also expressed in the brain, its potential role in AD has not been resolved. In this study, we compared the activities of both BACE1 and BACE2, which were isolated from the same samples of frontal cortex from both AD‐affected individuals and age‐matched controls. BACE1 activity showed a significant positive correlation with the amount of extractable Aβ, and BACE1 protein and activity were significantly increased in AD cases. Unexpectedly, there were substantial total amounts of BACE2 protein and enzymatic activity in the human brain. BACE2 activity did not change significantly in the AD brain, and was not related to Aβ concentration. These data indicate that BACE1 likely accounts for most of the Aβ produced in the human brain, and that BACE2 activity is not a likely contributor. However, as both forms of BACE compete for the same substrate pool, even small changes in BACE2 activity could have consequences for human disease.
NEW DIRECTIONS IN AFRICAN BIOETHICS: WAYS OF INCLUDING PUBLIC HEALTH CONCERNS IN THE BIOETHICS AGENDA
Authors: AZETSOP JACQUINEAU 
Published: December 2009

ABSTRACTResearch ethics is the most developed aspect of bioethics in Africa. Most African countries have set up Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) to provide guidelines for research and to comply with international norms. However, bioethics has not been responsive to local needs and values in the rest of the continent. A new direction is needed in African bioethics. This new direction promotes the development of a locally‐grounded bioethics, shaped by a dynamic understanding of local cultures and informed by structural and institutional problems that impact the public's health, as well as cognisant of the salient contribution of social sciences and social epidemiology which can bring a lasting impact on African local communities. In today's post‐Structural Adjustment Africa, where healthcare has been liberalized and its cost increased, a bioethics agenda that focuses essentially on disease management and clinical work remains blind in the face of a structural marginalization of the masses of poor. Instead, the multidimensional public health crisis, with which most African countries are confronted, calls for a bioethics agenda that focuses primarily, but not exclusively, on health promotion and advocacy. Such an approach to bioethics reckons with the macro‐determinants of health and well‐being and places clinical and research ethics in the broader context of population's health. The same approach underscores the need to become political, not only by addressing health policymaking processes and procedures, but also by becoming an advocacy forum that includes other constituencies equipped with the potentialities to impact the population's health.
Teachers’ Recognition of Children’s Mental Health Problems
Authors: Loades Maria E. , Mastroyannopoulou Kiki 
Published: December 2009

Background:  Teachers have a significant role to play in identifying children with mental health problems. However, teachers’ perceptions of children’s mental health problems are relatively unexplored.Method:  Primary school teachers (N = 113) completed a questionnaire, composed of vignettes describing children with symptoms of a common emotional disorder and a common behavioural disorder, following which they were asked a number of questions regarding problem recognition and help‐seeking.Results:  Teachers were able to recognise the existence of a problem and rate its severity. They were significantly more concerned about a vignette of a child with symptoms of a behavioural disorder than an emotional disorder. The gender of the child was found to independently predict teachers’ accurately recognising when a child had a problem.Conclusion:  Teachers are good at recognising whether a child presents with a problem. However, their problem recognition is affected by both the gender of the child and the type of symptomatology being displayed (emotional versus behavioural).
Explaining the electoral effects of public investments: The case of the expansion of the underground in Madrid, 1995–2007
Authors: DE LA CALLE LUIS , ORRIOLS LLUÍS 
Published: December 2009

AbstractAccording to the literature, governments have strong incentives to use the public budget tactically in order to either obtain the electoral support of new voters or strengthen the loyalty of their traditional supporters. Yet vote‐seeking strategies only become rational when voters follow their self‐interest and reward governments when their constituency benefits from public transfers. The literature has focused on the governments' incentives, largely ignoring the importance of knowing whether the electorate is responsive to public investments. This study tests empirically whether incumbents strategically use public investments to gather more electoral support; and whether voters take these investments into account at the polls. These two questions are pursued simultaneously by using as a case study the expansion of the underground network in Madrid, Spain. Only a little evidence is found to support the idea that regional governments constructed new metro stations in neighbourhoods where they had more to gain electorally. Also, the inauguration timing strictly followed the electoral cycle, something that indicates a strategic calculus on the part of the incumbent. However, the models are also consistent with the idea that the government's investments were primarily driven by motives of efficiency. Indeed, although governments are tempted to follow vote‐seeking strategies, they are also aware that they cannot deviate too much from an efficiency‐based allocation of public resources. From the perspective of the voters, robust evidence has been found to show that regional voters rewarded this policy at the neighbourhood level. Neighbourhoods that received new metro stations voted in higher numbers for the incumbent than those quarters without new investments. All in all, these findings may have some implications for normative democratic theory.
Party politicisation of local councils: Cultural or institutional explanations for trends in Denmark, 1966–2005
Authors: KJAER ULRIK , ELKLIT JØRGEN 
Published: December 2009

AbstractLocal government party systems are not necessarily copies of the national party system. In many countries, local party systems have come to resemble the national one more and more – a process Rokkan termed ‘party politicisation’. The traditional expectation has been that the take‐over of local politics by political parties, through a gradual process of societal modernisation, would eventually be complete. More recently, however, it has been suggested that reorganisations of the institutional set‐up – that is, amalgamations of municipalities – could entail developments in the degree of local party system nationalisation. This article investigates cultural and institutional explanations for party politicisation by analysing the Danish case from 1966 to 2005 – a period that witnessed both major amalgamation reforms and periods of stability in the local government structure. The data suggest that dramatic party politicisation does not lend itself to cultural explanations, but originates exclusively from changes in the institutional set‐up. Party politicisation is not a gradual process, but comes – at least in Denmark – in leaps coinciding with major reorganisations of the local government structure.
Explaining variation in sub‐state regional identities in Western Europe
Authors: FITJAR RUNE DAHL 
Published: December 2009

Abstract.While national identities emerged as the dominant source of territorial identification during the twentieth century, sub‐state regional identities are becoming increasingly important in some Western European regions. However, this is not a uniform development. In some regions, nearly half of respondents in Eurobarometer surveys claim a stronger attachment to the region than to the state. In others, less than 4 per cent are primarily attached to their region. This article examines the extent to which these differences are explained by the characteristics of the regions themselves. What, if anything, do regions that mobilise public identity have in common? Developing a model of regional identities, the study examines cultural, geographic, economic and political factors that vary across different regions in Western Europe. The study finds that regional identities tend to be stronger in regions where a regional language is spoken and which do not border the state capital, signalling a cultural and a centre/periphery dimension to regional identity formation. However, there is potentially a more strategic aspect to identification, as regional identities are likely to be stronger in economically developed regions and in regions with highly distinctive voting behaviour.