bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Cargo Transport by Sea and Road — Technical and Economical Environmental Factors
Authors: Kristensen Hans Otto 
Published: October 2008

AbstractThis paper presents the background for a method of calculating the energy demand for different ship types using only a relatively few, but important parameters. It is an empirical method, based on a statistical analysis of the main parameters of different ship types in order to establish representative relationships between the cargo capacity and the ships main dimensions. On this basis, it has been possible to calculate the necessary propulsive power by using well‐established empirical power prediction methods (Guldhammer and Harvald (1974), Oossanen (1980), and Insel & Molland (1992)). » By combining the statistical analysis with a subsequent power prediction, it has been possible to develop a method which can calculate the energy consumption as a function of only 3 general parameters, namely the size of the ship (more precisely the capacity), the ship's speed and the average cargo utilization. » Having established a method for the calculation of the ships energy demand, it is relatively simple to calculate the exhaust emissions by using some well‐established specific emission factors, i.e. figures for the exhaust emission pr. consumed energy unit (g/MJ). » In the paper, a comparison with road transport will also be presented focusing on the energy demand and exhaust emissions per transport unit, i.e. per ton cargo per km. » Finally, the energy and emission data will be used for an economical evaluation of sea transport versus land transport. This will be done by calculating the external costs to society caused by the negative effect of the different modes of transportation, i.e. costs due to air pollution, noise, accidents and congestion, which in total covers most of the external transport costs.
Emissions Trading for Ships — a European Perspective
Authors: Davies Mel 
Published: October 2008

AbstractShipping is under growing pressure to reduce its emissions to air. Pressures exist at both a local (e.g. port environment) and global (transboundary pollution transport and greenhouse gas issues). Regulation is gradually coming into effect internationally (IMO) and through regional actions in Europe. North America may be next. Shipping would benefit from flexible schemes to achieve better environmental performance and to allow investments to be made in the most cost effective areas. This brief paper sets out some of the issues and describes a Pilot scheme to explore trading in SOx emissions from ships.
Plasticity and allometry of meristem allocation in response to density in three annual plants with different architectures
Authors: Zhang Hongxuan , Zhou Daowei , Huang Yingxin , Japhet Wisdom , Sun Dandan 
Published: October 2008

An experiment was conducted to investigate plasticity of meristem allocation under intraspecific competition in three annual species ( Xanthium sibiricum Patrin., Datura stramonium L., and Fagopyrum esculentum Moench.) with different architectures (monopodial, false dichotomous, and sympodial branching, respectively). There were two density treatments for X. sibiricum and D. stramonium, with plant–plant distances of 7 and 14 cm, and five density treatments for F. esculentum, with plant–plant distances of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 cm. We recorded meristem fates (inactive, growth, and reproduction) at several developmental stages and at the final developmental stage. Allocation of meristems to reproduction in all three species could be explained by allometric growth (“apparent plasticity”), but meristem allocation patterns to the other functions differed among the species. Allocation of meristems to growth affects and is affected by plant architecture. Our results suggest that vegetative growth is more plastic than reproduction in annual plants.
The structure of the flower–insect visitor system in tall-grass prairie
Authors: Robson Diana Bizecki 
Published: October 2008

Tall-grass prairie is endangered by habitat loss and fragmentation, and climate change. Flower-visiting-insect activity on two tall-grass prairie communities, one larger and more mesic than the other, was examined to determine network structure, and temporal and spatial variation. Flower-visiting insect richness and visitation rate were monitored for 2 years. Most insect-visitor taxa were Diptera, followed closely by Hymenoptera. Only 18% of insect taxa visited both communities in both years, but were responsible for 70% of all visits. The three most active insect species were Toxomerus marginatus Say, Bombus ternarius Say, and Odontomyia pubescens Day. The core plants, receiving over 67% of all visits, were Solidago canadensis L., Solidago rigida L., and Zizia aptera (Gray) Fern. Seasonal differences in insect visits were primarily due to temperature, as well as normal phenological patterns. Diptera was more abundant at one site, likely owing to differences in the quantity of nearby aquatic larval habitat. The mutualistic network of these two tall-grass prairies is significantly nested, which may make it more resilient to environmental perturbations than systems that are more compartmentalized.
Meta-community structure of vascular epiphytes in a temperate rainforest
Authors: Burns K. C. 
Published: October 2008

I quantified the occurrence of all vascular plant species inhabiting 43 Thuja plicata Donn ex D. Don trees in a temperate rainforest in British Columbia, Canada, to test whether (i) epiphyte species richness increased with tree diameter, and (ii) epiphyte distributions showed evidence for nestedness, checkerboard distributions, or compartmentalization. Nine vascular plant species were observed growing epiphytically. One species ( Polypodium glycyrrhiza Eat.) is an obligate epiphyte, while the remainder typically occurred on the forest floor. Smaller host trees (<0.5 m in diameter) lacked vascular epiphytes, and species richness increased with host diameter. No evidence for nested or checkerboarded distributions was observed. However, epiphyte distributions were compartmentalized, owing to five similar shrub species that tended to co-occur jointly, generating sharp turnover in species composition between host trees with and without shrubs. The lack of co-occurrence patterns indicative of interspecific interactions among epiphytes indicates that the epiphyte meta-community is structured stochastically from species that normally grow terrestrially.
Seed production and gametophyte formation inAgave tequilanaandAgave americana
Authors: Escobar-Guzmán Rocio E. , Hernández Flor Zamudio , Vega Katia Gil , Simpson June 
Published: October 2008

Agave tequilana Weber var. azul is the raw material used in the production of tequila. This species has a life cycle of approximately 6–8 years; however, owing to the practice of removing the inflorescence to conserve accumulated sugar reserves, the main form of reproduction is asexual. Little attention has, therefore, been paid to the process of flowering and the factors leading to low levels of germination and seedling viability have not been investigated in detail. The objective of this study was to document gametophyte development, seed production, and germination in A. tequilana under different pollination treatments and in an interspecies cross with Agave americana L. Seed production and germination efficiency was low for both A. tequilana and A. americana under the different pollination treatments, although interspecies crosses did produce some viable seeds. Development of the male gametophyte in both species is of the successive type, producing pollen grains with dicolpate morphology. Female gametophyte development is of the Polygonum monosporic type. The results obtained suggest that genetic incompatibility, inbreeding effects, factors affecting pollen development and germination, or errors in female gametophyte development may contribute to the low fertility observed for A. tequilana and A. americana.
BIRTH OF THE OBJECT: DETECTION OF OBJECTNESS AND EXTRACTION OF OBJECT SHAPE THROUGH OBJECT–ACTION COMPLEXES
Authors: KRAFT DIRK , PUGEAULT NICOLAS , BAŞESKI EMRE , POPOVIĆ MILA , KRAGIĆ DANICA , KALKAN SINAN , WÖRGÖTTER FLORENTIN , KRÜGER NORBERT 
Published: October 2008

We describe a process in which the segmentation of objects as well as the extraction of the object shape becomes realized through active exploration of a robot vision system. In the exploration process, two behavioral modules that link robot actions to the visual and haptic perception of objects interact. First, by making use of an object independent grasping mechanism, physical control over potential objects can be gained. Having evaluated the initial grasping mechanism as being successful, a second behavior extracts the object shape by making use of prediction based on the motion induced by the robot. This also leads to the concept of an "object" as a set of features that change predictably over different frames. The system is equipped with a certain degree of generic prior knowledge about the world in terms of a sophisticated visual feature extraction process in an early cognitive vision system, knowledge about its own embodiment as well as knowledge about geometric relationships such as rigid body motion. This prior knowledge allows the extraction of representations that are semantically richer compared to many other approaches.
Karl Barth's Theology of Reconciliation in Dialogue with a Theology of Religions
Authors: Chung Paul 
Published: October 2008

AbstractKarl Barth has influenced Christian theology of mission in terms of his Trinitarian concept of God's mission. His theology of reconciliation retains inter-religious implication in missional context. However, Barth's theology of reconciliation is not explored in the context of religious pluralism. The reason is due to the neo-orthodox charge against him and theologians' one-sided critique of Barth as a conservative-evangelical theologian. In this paper at issue is to retrieve hermeneutically Barth as a theologian of reconciliation who stands for Christian witness to the grace of God in the world of religions.
The Cultural Origins of "Intercultural Theology"
Authors: Ustorf Werner 
Published: October 2008

AbstractEcumenical amnesia is accompanying much of the current debate on replacing the terms missiology or mission studies by that of intercultural studies or intercultural theology. This paper tries to address the loss of memory. By remembering the time when the new terminology was established (the 1970s and 80s) we become aware of the particularities, the challenges, and the limitations of the original vision of "intercultural theology". Among the particularities we will detect that of the professional missiologist working in the secular academy; challenges can be found in the reformulations of the missionary paradigm; and some may wish to see the limitations in the fact that intercultural theology began its life as part of a European conversation on culture and transcendence.
Immediate Active Range of Motion after Modified 2-Incision Repair in Acute Distal Biceps Tendon Rupture
Authors: Cil Akin , Merten Sheri , Steinmann Scott P. 
Published: October 2008

Background Different rehabilitation protocols have been used after repair of distal biceps ruptures. Purpose This study investigates the safety of immediate active range of motion protocol after modified 2-incision distal biceps tendon repair in acute ruptures. Study Design Case series; Level of evidence, 4. Materials and Methods Twenty-one patients with a minimum follow-up of 2 years were participants in this study. After repair, the upper extremities were placed in a sling for 1 to 2 days and then immediate active range of motion was started. For the first 6 weeks, the elbow was allowed activities of daily living as tolerated by the patient with a 1-lb weight-lifting restriction. Elbow range of motion, isometric and dynamic flexion, and supination strengths were recorded and Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) scores were obtained. Results Mean follow-up extension was 0° and mean follow-up flexion was 141° on the operated side, with supination of 74° and pronation of 75°. The mean DASH score for 21 patients was 3.6 ± 3.6 (range, 0-11.4). The mean follow-up isometric flexion strength was found to be 5% (P = .411), and the power (dynamic strength) of flexion was 12% greater on the operated side (P = .046). However, follow-up isometric supination strength was 9% less on the involved side than on the noninvolved side (P = .030), and the power of supination was 11% less on the operated side (P = .007). There were no tendon reruptures at follow-up, determined by physical examination. Conclusion A modified 2-incision distal biceps repair allows a safe immediate active range of motion protocol with early return of nearly full range of motion and strength, without any clinically significant disability.
Single room isolation to prevent the transmission of infection: development of a patient journey tool to support safe practice
Authors: Kilpatrick Claire , Prieto Jacqui , Wigglesworth Neil 
Published: October 2008

A variety of infection prevention and control precautions are used to minimise the risk of infection spread from person to person, both patients and staff. Standard Precautions (SPs), including hand hygiene and use of personal protective equipment (PPE), are applied routinely to all patients, whereas transmission-based precautions (TBPs) are used when a patient is known or suspected to have an epidemiologically important infectious disease or condition, in order to further reduce the risk of spread of infection. The use of single room isolation is part of TBPs and is a cornerstone of hospital infection prevention and control practice. However, successfully implementing TBPs, including single room isolation, continues to be a challenge in the UK for a number of reasons. Effective approaches to increasing the quality and safety of patient care are increasingly based on utilising simple tools that increase the likelihood that care will be provided in a reliable way. The tool presented is intended to facilitate both learning and practice in relation to TBPs and to promote the delivery of safe patient care in relation to single room isolation. It is designed for use in those situations when a single room is available for patient isolation. It also highlights the other important TBPs to be taken to prevent the spread of infection, whether or not a single room is available. It can be adapted for use with any organism or disease for which TBPs are recommended. At a time when healthcare associated infections (HCAI) such as Clostridium difficile and meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) continue to have an impact on both acute and community care settings, and their reduction is embedded within national targets for NHS healthcare providers, tools that make it easy for healthcare workers to apply safe practices within their daily routines are essential. Initial testing suggests that this tool is acceptable to healthcare workers and further study will identify its potential contribution to healthcare workers' knowledge and practice in this area.
Two distinct roles of mitogen-activated protein kinases in platelets and a novel Rac1-MAPK–dependent integrin outside-in retractile signaling pathway
Authors: Flevaris Panagiotis , Li Zhenyu , Zhang Guoying , Zheng Yi , Liu Junling , Du Xiaoping 
Published: October 2008

AbstractMitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK), p38, and extracellular stimuli-responsive kinase (ERK), are acutely but transiently activated in platelets by platelet agonists, and the agonist-induced platelet MAPK activation is inhibited by ligand binding to the integrin αIIbβ3. Here we show that, although the activation of MAPK, as indicated by MAPK phosphorylation, is initially inhibited after ligand binding to integrin αIIbβ3, integrin outside-insignaling results in a late but sustained activation of MAPKs in platelets. Furthermore, we show that the early agonist-induced MAPK activation and the late integrin-mediated MAPK activation play distinct roles in different stages of platelet activation. Agonist-induced MAPK activation primarily plays an important role in stimulating secretion of platelet granules, while integrin-mediated MAPK activation is important in facilitating clot retraction. The stimulatory role of MAPK in clot retraction is mediated by stimulating myosin light chain (MLC) phosphorylation. Importantly, integrin-dependent MAPK activation, MAPK-dependent MLC phosphorylation, and clot retraction are inhibited by a Rac1 inhibitor and in Rac1 knockout platelets, indicating that integrin-induced activation of MAPK and MLC and subsequent clot retraction is Rac1-dependent. Thus, our results reveal 2 different activation mechanisms of MAPKs that are involved in distinct aspects of platelet function and a novel Rac1-MAPK–dependent cell retractile signaling pathway.
In vitro–differentiated TH17 cells mediate lethal acute graft-versus-host disease with severe cutaneous and pulmonary pathologic manifestations
Authors: Carlson Michael J. , West Michelle L. , Coghill James M. , Panoskaltsis-Mortari Angela , Blazar Bruce R. , Serody Jonathan S. 
Published: October 2008

AbstractThe morbidity and mortality associated with graft-host-disease (GVHD) is a significant obstacle to the greater use of allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Donor T cells that predominantly differentiate into TH1/Tc1 T cells and generate pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interferon-γ (IFN-γ) mediate GVHD. Although numerous studies have described a pathogenic role for IFN-γ, multiple reports have demonstrated that the lack of IFN-γ paradoxically exacerbated GVHD lethality. This has led to speculation that another subset of T cells may significantly contribute to GVHD mortality. Several groups have demonstrated a new lineage of CD4+ T helper cell development distinct from TH1 or TH2 differentiation. This lineage is characterized by production of interleukin (IL)–17A, IL-17F, IL-22, and IL-21 and has been termed TH17 cells. Here, we demonstrate that a highly purified population of TH17 cells is capable of inducing lethal GVHD, hallmarked by extensive pathologic cutaneous and pulmonary lesions. Upon transfer, these cells migrate to and expand in GVHD target organs and secondary lymphoid tissues. Finally, we demonstrate differential roles for tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and IL-17A in the clinical manifestations of GVHD induced by TH17 cells. Our studies demonstrate that cells other than TH1/Tc1 can mediate acute GVHD.
Knowledge-guided multi-scale independent component analysis for biomarker identification
Authors: Chen Li , Xuan Jianhua , Wang Chen , Shih Ie-Ming , Wang Yue , Zhang Zhen , Hoffman Eric , Clarke Robert 
Published: October 2008

AbstractBackgroundMany statistical methods have been proposed to identify disease biomarkers from gene expression profiles. However, from gene expression profile data alone, statistical methods often fail to identify biologically meaningful biomarkers related to a specific disease under study. In this paper, we develop a novel strategy, namely knowledge-guided multi-scale independent component analysis (ICA), to first infer regulatory signals and then identify biologically relevant biomarkers from microarray data.ResultsSince gene expression levels reflect the joint effect of several underlying biological functions, disease-specific biomarkers may be involved in several distinct biological functions. To identify disease-specific biomarkers that provide unique mechanistic insights, a meta-data "knowledge gene pool" (KGP) is first constructed from multiple data sources to provide important information on the likely functions (such as gene ontology information) and regulatory events (such as promoter responsive elements) associated with potential genes of interest. The gene expression and biological meta data associated with the members of the KGP can then be used to guide subsequent analysis. ICA is then applied to multi-scale gene clusters to reveal regulatory modes reflecting the underlying biological mechanisms. Finally disease-specific biomarkers are extracted by their weighted connectivity scores associated with the extracted regulatory modes. A statistical significance test is used to evaluate the significance of transcription factor enrichment for the extracted gene set based on motif information. We applied the proposed method to yeast cell cycle microarray data and Rsf-1-induced ovarian cancer microarray data. The results show that our knowledge-guided ICA approach can extract biologically meaningful regulatory modes and outperform several baseline methods for biomarker identification.ConclusionWe have proposed a novel method, namely knowledge-guided multi-scale ICA, to identify disease-specific biomarkers. The goal is to infer knowledge-relevant regulatory signals and then identify corresponding biomarkers through a multi-scale strategy. The approach has been successfully applied to two expression profiling experiments to demonstrate its improved performance in extracting biologically meaningful and disease-related biomarkers. More importantly, the proposed approach shows promising results to infer novel biomarkers for ovarian cancer and extend current knowledge.
Protocol for German trial of Acyclovir and corticosteroids in Herpes-simplex-virus-encephalitis (GACHE): a multicenter, multinational, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled German, Austrian and Dutch trial [ISRCTN45122933]
Authors: Martinez-Torres Francisco , Menon Sanjay , Pritsch Maria , Victor Norbert , Jenetzky Ekkehart , Jensen Katrin , Schielke Eva , Schmutzhard Erich , de Gans Jan , Chung Chin-Hee , Luntz Steffen , Hacke Werner , Meyding-Lamadé Uta ,   the GACHE Investigators
Published: October 2008

Abstract

Background
The treatment of Herpes-simplex-virus-encephalitis (HSVE) remains a major unsolved problem in Neurology. Current gold standard for therapy is acyclovir, a drug that inhibits viral replication. Despite antiviral treatment, mortality remains up to 15%, less than 20% of patients are able to go back to work, and the majority of patients suffer from severe disability. This is a discouraging, unsatisfactory situation for treating physicians, the disabled patients and their families, and constitutes an enormous burden to the public health services. The information obtained from experimental animal research and from recent retrospective clinical observations, indicates that a substantial benefit in outcome can be expected in patients with HSVE who are treated with adjuvant dexamethasone. But currently there is no available evidence to support the routine use of adjuvant corticosteroid treatment in HSVE. A randomized multicenter trial is the only useful instrument to address this question.

Design
GACHE is a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel group clinical trial of treatment with acyclovir and adjuvant dexamethasone, as compared with acyclovir and placebo in adults with HSVE. The statistical design will be that of a 3-stage-group sequential trial with potential sample size adaptation in the last stage.

Conclusion
372 patients with proven HSVE (positive HSV-DNA-PCR), aged 18 up to 85 years; with focal neurological signs no longer than 5 days prior to admission, and who give informed consent will be recruited from Departments of Neurology of academic medical centers in Germany, Austria and The Netherlands. Sample size will potentially be extended after the second interim analysis up to a maximum of 450 patients.

Trial Registration
Current Controlled Trials
ISRCTN45122933