bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Fish hepatic glutathione-S-transferase activity is affected by the cestode parasitesSchistocephalus solidusandLigula intestinalis: evidence from field and laboratory studies
Authors: FRANK SABRINA NADINE , FAUST STEFFEN , KALBE MARTIN , TRUBIROHA ACHIM , KLOAS WERNER , SURES BERND 
Published: April 2011

SUMMARYThe activity of hepatic glutathione-S-transferase (GST) was analysed in 3 different fish species with respect to fish sex and infection with parasites. In both sexes of laboratory bred three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus)experimentally infected withSchistocephalus solidus(Cestoda), a significantly lower GST-activity was found for infected fish compared to control. After field sampling of roach (Rutilus rutilus) from Lake Müggelsee (MS) and the Reservoir Listertalsperre (LTS), the GST-activity showed significantly lower values for males infected withLigula intestinalisfrom MS (25%) and for infected females from LTS (55%).L. intestinalis-infected female chub (Leuciscus cephalus) from LTS also appeared to have a lower GST-activity. Thus, it could be shown that the presence of parasites significantly affects GST-activity in different fish species resulting in a decreased GST-activity due to infection. Our results therefore emphasize the need for more integrative approaches in environmental pollution research to clearly identify the possible effects of parasites in an effort to develop biomarkers for evaluating environmental health.
Prevalence, diversity, and interaction patterns of avian haemosporidians in a four-year study of blackcaps in a migratory divide
Authors: SANTIAGO-ALARCON D. , BLOCH R. , ROLSHAUSEN G. , SCHAEFER H. M. , SEGELBACHER G. 
Published: April 2011

SUMMARYMigratory birds contribute to the movement of avian parasites between distant locations, thereby influencing parasite distribution and ecology. Here we analyse the prevalence, diversity and interaction patterns of Haemosporida parasites infecting Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) populations in a recently established migratory divide of southwestern Germany across 4 years. We hypothesize that the temporal and spatial isolation provided by 2 sympatric Blackcap breeding populations (migratory divide) might modify ecological interactions and thus create differences in the structure of the parasite community according to migratory route. We used a fragment of the mitochondrial DNA cytochromebgene to determine haemosporidian haplotypes. We detected an overall infection prevalence of 70·3% (348 out of 495 blackcaps sampled from 2006 to 2009), and prevalence rates were significantly different among years and seasons. We observed a total of 27 parasite haplotypes infecting blackcaps, from them 6 new rareHaemoproteushaplotypes were found in 2 mixed infections.H. parabelopolskyihaplotypes SYAT01 (35·7%) and SYAT02 (20·8%) comprised most of the infections. An association analysis suggests that SYAT01 and SYAT02 are interacting negatively, implying that they are either competing directly for host resources, or indirectly by eliciting a cross-immune response. Molecular data show no clear difference between the parasite communities infecting blackcaps with different migratory routes, despite some temporal and spatial isolation between the two sympatric blackcap populations.
Immuno-enzymatic evaluation of the recombinant TSSA-II protein ofTrypanosoma cruziin dogs and human sera: a tool for epidemiological studies
Authors: CIMINO R. O. , RUMI M. MONJE , RAGONE P. , LAUTHIER J. , ALBERTI D'AMATO A. , QUIROGA I. R. LÓPEZ , GIL J. F. , CAJAL S. P. , ACOSTA N. , JUÁREZ M. , KROLEWIECKI A. , ORELLANA V. , ZACCA R. , MARCIPAR I. , DIOSQUE P. , NASSER J. R. 
Published: April 2011

SUMMARYThe rTSSA-II (recombinant Trypomastigote Small Surface II) antigen was evaluated by ELISA to detect anti-Trypanosoma cruziantibodies in sera from naturally infected dogs and humans. For this evaluation ELISA-rTSSA-II was standardized and groups were classified according to the results obtained through xenodiagnosis, ELISA and PCR. Sensitivity (Se), Specificity (Sp), Kappa index (KI) and area under curve (AUC) were determined. The Se was determined by using 14 sera from dogs infected withT. cruziVI (TcVI) whereas Sp was determined by using 95 non-chagasic sera by xenodiagnosis, ELISA-Homogenate and PCR. The performance of ELISA-rTSSA-II in dog sera was high (AUC=0·93 and KI=0·91). The Se was 92·85% (1 false negative) and Sp was 100%. Two sera from dogs infected with TcI and 1 with TcIII were negative. For patients infected withT. cruzi, reactivity was 87·8% (36/41), there was only 1 indeterminate, and Sp was 100%. Fifty-four sera from non-chagasic and 68 sera from patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis did not react with rTSS-II. ELISA-rTSSA-II showed a high performance when studying sera from naturally infected dogs and it also presented 100% Sp. This assay could be an important tool to carry out sero-epidemiological surveys on the prevalence ofT. cruzicirculating lineages in the region.
Taxonomic approaches to and interpretation of host specificity of trematodes of fishes: lessons from the Great Barrier Reef
Authors: MILLER T. L. , BRAY R. A. , CRIBB T. H. 
Published: April 2011

SUMMARYThe taxonomy of trematodes of Great Barrier Reef (GBR) fishes has been studied in some detail for over 20 years. Understanding of the fauna has been informed iteratively by approaches to sampling, understanding of morphology, the advent of molecular methodology and a feed-back loop from the emergent understanding of host specificity. Here we analyse 658 host-parasite combinations for 290 trematode species, 152 genera and 28 families from GBR fishes. These are reported from 8 orders, 38 families, 117 genera and 243 species of fishes. Of the 290 species, only 4 (1·4%) have been reported from more than one order of fishes and just 23 (7·9%) infect more than one family; 77·9% of species are known from only one genus, and 60% from only one species of fish. Molecular studies have revealed several complexes of cryptic species and others are suspected; we conclude that no euryxenous host distribution should be accepted on the basis of morphology only. The occurrence of individual trematode species in potential hosts is patchy and difficult to predict reliablya priorior explain convincinglya posteriori. These observations point to the need for a vigorous iterative interaction between the accretion of host specificity data and its interpretation.
Abigaille II: toward the development of a spider-inspired climbing robot
Authors: Li Yasong , Ahmed Ausama , Sameoto Dan , Menon Carlo 
Published: April 2011

SUMMARYThis paper presents a novel robotic platform, Abigaille II, designed to climb vertical surfaces using dry adhesion. Abigaille II is a lightweight hexapod prototype actuated by 18 miniaturized motors. The robot's feet consist of adhesive patches, which have microhairs with mushroom-shaped caps fixed on the top of millimeter-scale flexible posts. A pentapedal gait is used to climb flat vertical surfaces as this gait maximizes the number of legs in contact to the surface. Abigaille can however also walk by using other gaits, including the tripod gait.
Teleoperation of a mobile robot with time-varying delay and force feedback
Authors: Slawiñski Emanuel , Mut Vicente , Salinas Lucio , García Sebastian 
Published: April 2011

SUMMARYThis paper proposes a prediction system and a command fusion to help the human operator in a teleoperation system of a mobile robot with time-varying delay and force feedback. The command fusion is used to join a remote controller and the delayed user's commands. Besides, a predictor is proposed since the future trajectory of the mobile robot is not known a priori being it decided online by the user. The command fusion and predictor are designed based on the time delay and the current context measured through the crash probability. Finally, the proposed scheme is tested from teleoperation experiments considering time-varying delay as well as force feedback.
Type synthesis of 4-DOF nonoverconstrained parallel mechanisms based on screw theory
Authors: Guo Sheng , Fang Yuefa , Qu Haibo 
Published: April 2011

SUMMARYA systematic method is developed for the type synthesis of 4-DOF nonoverconstrained parallel mechanisms with three translations and one rotation inspired by the design of H-4. First, the motion requirements of primary platform and secondary platform of the 4-DOF nonoverconstrained parallel mechanisms are analyzed, and the conflict between the number of actuators and the constraint system for nonoverconstrained parallel mechanism is solved. Then, the research topic of type synthesis of 4-DOF nonoverconstrained parallel mechanisms is transformed into the type synthesis of the secondary platform with three translational DOF linked by two chains. On the basis of the screw and reciprocal theory, all possible secondary limbs with 3-DOF, 4-DOF, and 5-DOF are synthesized, respectively. Finally, the configurations and spatial assembly conditions of all possible secondary limbs are provided and some typical mechanisms are sketched as examples.
Interdisciplinary analysis of the environment: insights from tropical forest research
Authors: LELE SHARACHCHANDRA , KURIEN AMIT 
Published: April 2011

SUMMARYTropical forest management is a quintessential interdisciplinary (ID) problem straddling the social-natural divide, and has attracted scholars from many disciplines. This paper is a review of the ID research on tropical forests with a view to understanding the challenges involved in doing ID environmental research in general and the manner in which they might be addressed. Research on two core interdisciplinary questions in tropical forest research, namely causes of tropical forest loss and degradation and its impacts on society, is analysed to illuminate issues facing ID researchers. The challenges stem from differences in implicit values, theories and epistemologies across disciplines, as well as the relationship between individual disciplines, the ID space and the wider applied research audience. Understanding the value-laden nature of terms such as forest loss and degradation leads to a multidimensional and multidisciplinary characterization of the impact of forest change on human well-being. The analysis of causes of change has been enriched by ID research in which forest outcomes are characterized explicitly in terms of their values, measured in terms relevant to these values and linked to chains of socioeconomic variables at the appropriate scale. Explanations from different disciplines may be reconciled to some extent by seeing each as partial and perhaps having context-specific validity, although some core tensions, especially between economists and anthropologists, remain. Insights from ID research have been unevenly internalized in the literature, pointing to the absence of a broadly shared ID space as a consequence of individual social science disciplines appropriating environment as a subject of study. Shifting from theory-driven to problem-driven research and re-engaging self-consciously in this applied ID space will be required to generate more rigorous and relevant ID research on forests.
General principles in motion vision: Color blindness of object motion depends on pattern velocity in honeybee and goldfish
Authors: STOJCEV MAJA , RADTKE NILS , D’AMARO DANIELE , DYER ADRIAN G. , NEUMEYER CHRISTA 
Published: April 2011

AbstractVisual systems can undergo striking adaptations to specific visual environments during evolution, but they can also be very “conservative.” This seems to be the case in motion vision, which is surprisingly similar in species as distant as honeybee and goldfish. In both visual systems, motion vision measured with the optomotor response is color blind and mediated by one photoreceptor type only. Here, we ask whether this is also the case if the moving stimulus is restricted to a small part of the visual field, and test what influence velocity may have on chromatic motion perception. Honeybees were trained to discriminate between clockwise- and counterclockwise-rotating sector disks. Six types of disk stimuli differing in green receptor contrast were tested using three different rotational velocities. When green receptor contrast was at a minimum, bees were able to discriminate rotation directions with all colored disks at slow velocities of 6 and 12 Hz contrast frequency but not with a relatively high velocity of 24 Hz. In the goldfish experiment, the animals were trained to detect a moving red or blue disk presented in a green surround. Discrimination ability between this stimulus and a homogenous green background was poor when the M-cone type was not or only slightly modulated considering high stimulus velocity (7 cm/s). However, discrimination was improved with slower stimulus velocities (4 and 2 cm/s). These behavioral results indicate that there is potentially an object motion system in both honeybee and goldfish, which is able to incorporate color information at relatively low velocities but is color blind with higher speed. We thus propose that both honeybees and goldfish have multiple subsystems of object motion, which include achromatic as well as chromatic processing.
Religious Offences in Italy: Recent Laws Concerning Blasphemy and Sport
Authors: Gianfreda Anna 
Published: April 2011

Religious offences in Italy, as in many European countries, have a long and complex history that is intertwined with the events in the history of the relationship between church and state and the institutional and constitutional framework of a nation.This article is divided into three parts. The first part aims to offer some historical remarks concerning the rules on the contempt of religion and blasphemy in Italian criminal law from the end of the 19th century to the present day. The second part focuses on changes to the law on vilification introduced in 2006 and the third part deals with the recent developments in blasphemy law in the context of sport.The article shows that, on the one hand, reforms of the offences grouped under vilification of religion are anachronistic and do not stand up against the religious freedom of individuals, yet on the other, despite the traditional rules for the protection of religion being considered obsolete, they are applied in new areas of law, for example sport, and are used to curb bad manners and bad behaviour. The relationship between the new functions of these criminal rules and the traditional ones, however, remains uncertain and fluctuating, and reveals a moralistic approach to religious offences.
Employment Rights and Church Discipline: Obst and Schüth
Authors: Cranmer Frank 
Published: April 2011

The Equal Treatment Directive ‘respects and does not prejudice the status under national law of churches and religious associations or communities in the member states and … of philosophical and non-confessional organisations’ and empowers member states to make ‘specific provisions on genuine, legitimate and justified occupational requirements which might be required for carrying out an occupational activity’. Specifically, Article 4 permits member states to make such provision taking account of their ‘constitutional provisions and principles, as well as the general principles of Community law’. Crucially, Article 4 concludes as follows:
… this Directive shall thus not prejudice the right of churches and other public or private organisations, the ethos of which is based on religion or belief, acting in conformity with national constitutions and laws, to require individuals working for them to act in good faith and with loyalty to the organisation's ethos.
Reconceptualizing Church and State: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Separation of Religion and State on Democracy
Authors: Brathwaite Robert , Bramsen Andrew 
Published: April 2011

AbstractThis article argues that the relationship between democracy and the separation of religion and state needs to be reexamined. We argue that previous studies have misconceptualized the impact that a lack of church-state separation can have on democracy, or have taken a narrow focus by concentrating on specific cases. We use principal component analysis and a large-ndata set covering 125 countries to show that the separation of religion and state should be conceptualized multi-dimensionally and that it should be considered a component of democracy. Our findings show that as separation of religion and state increases, the level of democracy also increases.
Not in His Image: The Moderating Effect of Gender on Religious Appeals
Authors: Calfano Brian R. , Djupe Paul A. 
Published: April 2011

AbstractReligious appeals have been part and parcel of campaign strategy for decades. Most often, however, these appeals to have come from men, but little is known about howwomenwould fare using religious appeals on the campaign trail. To remedy this, we used an experimental design to examine voter reaction to religious appeals from a female and a male candidate competing for an open United States Senate seat. We find that women's use of religious appeals is governed by the dynamics of tokenism — reinforcing traditional gender stereotypes and serving to reduce voter support of the female candidate. This suggests that women must be careful in using a key campaign tool traditionally employed by men, and that this may affect the extent to which female candidates can effectively shape voter perceptions on the campaign trail.
Breaking the Chains?: Constraint and the Political Rhetoric of Religious Interest Groups
Authors: Knutson Katherine E. 
Published: April 2011

AbstractSome scholars of religious interest groups argue that one challenge facing religious groups in their pursuit of political goals is that they are unwilling or unable to compromise, which makes it difficult for them to operate strategically within the secular political environment. An alternate explanation is that the types of arguments religious groups use are multifaceted but do not filter into the public discourse. In this article, I examine the concept of constraint in the context of mediated debates of contentious political issues by looking at the extent to which religious and nonreligious groups differ in their development of argument frames. Compared with nonreligious groups, religious groups do display more evidence of constraint in mediated debates over public policies. Patterns of constraint relate to visibility, framing, group resources, and group purpose. More importantly, however, I find that the patterns of constraint have more to do with journalistic decisions to filter arguments made by religious groups than with the actual rhetorical strategies of religious groups.
Learning about World Religions in Modesto, California: The Promise of Teaching Tolerance in Public Schools
Authors: Lester Emile , Roberts Patrick S. 
Published: April 2011

AbstractAfter cultural and religious controversy in Modesto, California, community leaders attempted to increase tolerance and respect by requiring an unique world religions course for high school students. The first large-n empirical study of the effect of teaching about religion in public schools indicates that students taking the course showed statistically significant increases in passive tolerance, their willingness to refrain from discriminatory behavior, and active respect, the willingness to take action to counter discrimination. This research documents the circumstances that gave rise to the course and evaluates the course's effects using qualitative and quantitative evidence. It also connects the course to a larger research tradition in political science on the effects of civic education programs that promote liberal, democratic values.
(Not) Getting Religion: Has Political Science Lost Sight of Islam?
Authors: Tepe Sultan , Demirkaya Betul 
Published: April 2011

AbstractIn this analysis, we expand the debate on the place of religion in political science by using the predictions of Wald and Wilcox as our starting point. Following in their footsteps, we askhowpolitical scientists have studied Islam since 2002 and identify the studies on Islam and Muslims at the flagship conference of the discipline, the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. We evaluate not only the quantity but also the approaches employed by these studies. In order to gauge the balancing of roles (or lack thereof) between the discipline and area studies, we also take a closer look at the Middle East Studies Association, the largest association focused on the Middle East, North Africa and the Islamic world and its annual meetings during the same period. Our findings suggest that, unless carefully addressed, the prevailing patterns are likely to result in a crippling knowledge gap among political scientists.
Chemical Profiles of Essential Oils and Non-Polar Extractables from Sumac (Rhus spp.)
Authors: Rayne Sierra 
Published: April 2011

AbstractSumac is the common name for a genus (Rhus) with >250 individual species of flowering plants in the family Anacardiaceae. These plants are globally distributed in temperate and tropical regions and can grow on marginal lands, making them strong candidates for renewable bioproduct sources. Despite the extensive historical use of some members of Rhus spp. for tannins and other commercial phenolics, little is known about the non-phenolic components of extracts and essentials oils. The current review highlights opportunities available to extend these limited prior studies to other sumac species, and for obtaining value-added compounds to complement already established phenolic extractions in these commercial plant species. To date, a number of individual aldehydes, fatty acids, long chain alcohols, terpenes and terpenoids, and waxes of commercial or bioactive potential in essential oils and non-polar extractables from selected members of the Rhus genera have been identified. Additional studies are needed to broaden the phytochemical database from other sumac species, and to better quantify the potential yields of these valuable compounds from the plants under natural and agriculturally managed conditions.
Control of peptide nanotube diameter by chemical modifications of an aromatic residue involved in a single close contact
Authors: Tarabout Christophe , Roux Stéphane , Gobeaux Frédéric , Fay Nicolas , Pouget Emilie , Meriadec Cristelle , Ligeti Melinda , Thomas Daniel , IJsselstijn Maarten , Besselievre François , Buisson David-Alexandre , Verbavatz Jean-Marc , Petitjean Michel , Valéry Céline , Perrin Lionel , Rousseau Bernard , Artzner Franck , Paternostre Maité , Cintrat Jean-Christophe 
Published: April 2011

Supramolecular self-assembly is an attractive pathway for bottom-up synthesis of novel nanomaterials. In particular, this approach allows the spontaneous formation of structures of well-defined shapes and monodisperse characteristic sizes. Because nanotechnology mainly relies on size-dependent physical phenomena, the control of monodispersity is required, but the possibility of tuning the size is also essential. For self-assembling systems, shape, size, and monodispersity are mainly settled by the chemical structure of the building block. Attempts to change the size notably by chemical modification usually end up with the loss of self-assembly. Here, we generated a library of 17 peptides forming nanotubes of monodisperse diameter ranging from 10 to 36 nm. A structural model taking into account close contacts explains how a modification of a few Å of a single aromatic residue induces a fourfold increase in nanotube diameter. The application of such a strategy is demonstrated by the formation of silica nanotubes of various diameters.