bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
How general are global trends in biotic homogenization? Floristic tracking in Chile, South America
Authors: Castro Sergio A. , Jaksic Fabian M. 
Published: April 2008

ABSTRACTAim  To quantify the occurrence of floristic change in the vascular flora of Chile. We test whether continental areas have experienced floristic modification leading to either homogenization, differentiation or tracking.Location  Continental Chile.Methods  On the basis of the geographical distribution of native (1806 species) and naturalized plants (552 species) in continental Chile, we quantified change between two floristic stages: (1) pre‐European flora, including native extant and extinct species; and (2) current flora, including native and naturalized species, but excluding extinct plants. We compared changes in compositional similarity (calculated by Jaccard's index, ΔJ) between pairs of regions, and similarity decay with respect to geographical distance. Additionally, by means of Whittaker's index, we examined species turnover, distinguishing between native and naturalized plants.Results  Between floristic stages (pre‐European vs. current flora) no significant changes in floristic similarity were noted at national or regional scales. Similarity decay showed no statistical differences between pre‐European and current flora. Analysing patterns of geographical turnover, we found that species turnover of naturalized plants over their geographical range is similar to that of native plants.Conclusions  The composition of the continental flora of Chile does not show significant modifications in similarity patterns after considering naturalized species, thus indicating floristic tracking. The causes of this phenomenon may be related to the current geographical distribution of naturalized plants, which closely parallels that of native plants. Our results differ from those obtained in Northern Hemisphere continents, thus indicating that trends of biotic change may differ between hemispheres.
How does habitat diversity affect the species–area relationship?
Authors: Kallimanis Athanasios S. , Mazaris Antonis D. , Tzanopoulos Joseph , Halley John M. , Pantis John D. , Sgardelis Stefanos P. 
Published: April 2008

ABSTRACTAim  To examine the way in which ‘area’ and ‘habitat diversity’ interact in shaping species richness and to find a simple and valid way to express this interaction.Location  The Natura 2000 network of terrestrial protected areas in Greece, covering approximately 16% of the national territory.Methods  We used the Natura 2000 framework, which provides a classification scheme for natural habitat types, to quantify habitat heterogeneity. We analysed data for the plant species composition in 16,143 quadrats in which 5044 species and subspecies of higher plants were recorded. We built a simple mathematical model that incorporates the effect of habitat diversity on the species–area relationship (SAR).Results  Our analysis showed that habitat diversity was correlated with area. However, keeping habitat diversity constant, species richness was related to area; while keeping area constant, species richness was related to habitat diversity. Comparing the SAR of the 237 sites we found that the slope of the species–area curve was related to habitat diversity.Main conclusions  Discussion of the causes of the SAR has often focused on the primacy of area per se versus habitat heterogeneity, even though the two mechanisms are not mutually exclusive and should be considered jointly. We find that increasing habitat diversity affects the SAR in different ways, but the dominant effect is to increase the slope of the SAR. While a full model fit typically includes a variety of terms involving both area and habitat richness, we find that the effect of habitat diversity can be reduced to a linear perturbation of the slope of the species accumulation curve.
Implementable Ramsey‐Boiteux Pricing in Agricultural and Environmental Policy
Authors: Bourgeon Jean-Marc , Chambers Robert G. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractAgricultural producers frequently face price discrimination that is based either on characteristics of their products, or on the physical manner in which the product is produced. We consider how to set such discriminatory prices optimally and show that for a very broad range of production technologies, the first‐best voluntary policy, which involves a modified version of Ramsey‐Boiteux pricing, is implementable even in the presence of hidden knowledge by farmers about their types.
Fast Stable Direct Fitting and Smoothness Selection for Generalized Additive Models
Authors: Wood Simon N. 
Published: April 2008

SummaryExisting computationally efficient methods for penalized likelihood generalized additive model fitting employ iterative smoothness selection on working linear models (or working mixed models). Such schemes fail to converge for a non-negligible proportion of models, with failure being particularly frequent in the presence of concurvity. If smoothness selection is performed by optimizing ‘whole model’ criteria these problems disappear, but until now attempts to do this have employed finite-difference-based optimization schemes which are computationally inefficient and can suffer from false convergence. The paper develops the first computationally efficient method for direct generalized additive model smoothness selection. It is highly stable, but by careful structuring achieves a computational efficiency that leads, in simulations, to lower mean computation times than the schemes that are based on working model smoothness selection. The method also offers a reliable way of fitting generalized additive mixed models.
Dated Ancestral Trees from Binary Trait Data and Their Application to the Diversification of Languages
Authors: Nicholls Geoff K. , Gray Russell D. 
Published: April 2008

Summary
Binary trait data record the presence or absence of distinguishing traits in individuals. We treat the problem of estimating ancestral trees with time depth from binary trait data. Simple analysis of such data is problematic. Each homology class of traits has a unique birth event on the tree, and the birth event of a trait that is visible at the leaves is biased towards the leaves. We propose a model-based analysis of such data and present a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm that can sample from the resulting posterior distribution. Our model is based on using a birth–death process for the evolution of the elements of sets of traits. Our analysis correctly accounts for the removal of singleton traits, which are commonly discarded in real data sets. We illustrate Bayesian inference for two binary trait data sets which arise in historical linguistics. The Bayesian approach allows for the incorporation of information from ancestral languages. The marginal prior distribution of the root time is uniform. We present a thorough analysis of the robustness of our results to model misspecification, through analysis of predictive distributions for external data, and fitting data that are simulated under alternative observation models. The reconstructed ages of tree nodes are relatively robust, whereas posterior probabilities for topology are not reliable.
Late adverse effects after soft X‐ray therapy of cutaneous malignancies: pruritus, burning, epiphora and insufficient occlusion of the mouth
Authors: Schulte K‐W , Auras C , Bramkamp G , Breitkopf C , Elsmann H‐J , Habenicht EM , Jasnoch V , Lippold A , Lösler A , Rupprecht R , Müller‐Pannes H , Suter L 
Published: April 2008

AbstractBackground  Pruritus, burning, epiphora and insufficient occlusion of the mouth have been less extensively studied than cosmetic changes in irradiated fields.Objectives  How frequent are these late adverse effects? Do they usually occur permanently? Are they influenced by treatment and tumour parameters, sex and age of the patients?Methods  Patients were interviewed at least once later than 90 days after soft X‐ray therapy.Results  Pruritus has been reported in 18.5% of the interviews, burning in 7.7%, epiphora in 36.2% and insufficient occlusion of the mouth in 11.5%. Patients were usually not permanently troubled and irritated by these symptoms: pruritus more than once per week was reported in every interview for 0.6% of the fields, burning for 0.2%, epiphora for 6.4% and insufficient occlusion for 0%. Irritation by these symptoms has been stated in every interview for 5.1% of fields around the eye and for 1.4% of fields at other sites. Late pruritus, burning and epiphora were less frequently reported after irradiation with lower total doses, lower time–dose–fractionation factor (TDF) and by men. Patients older than 70 years of age experienced pruritus and burning less frequently. The largest diameter of the irradiated field influenced pruritus and the half value depth of the X‐rays influenced burning and epiphora.Conclusions  Late pruritus, burning, epiphora and insufficient occlusion of the mouth do not considerably reduce the value of soft X‐ray therapy because these adverse effects usually are not experienced permanently. Total dose and TDF should not be chosen higher than necessary.
Novelty and conflict in the categorization of complex stimuli
Authors: Folstein Jonathan R. , Van Petten Cyma , Rose Scott A. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractWe manipulated categorical typicality and the presence of conflicting information as participants categorized multifeatured artificial animals. In Experiment 1, rule‐irrelevant features were correlated with particular categories during training. In the test phase, participants applied a one‐dimensional rule to stimuli with rule‐irrelevant features that were category‐congruent, category‐incongruent, or novel. Category‐incongruent and novel features delayed RT and P3 latency, but had no effect on the N2. Experiment 2 used a two‐dimensional rule to create conflict between rule‐relevant features. Conflict resulted in prolonged RTs and larger amplitudes of a prefrontal positive component, but had no impact on the N2. Stimuli with novel features did elicit a larger N2 than those with frequent features. These results suggest limitations on the generality of the N2's sensitivity to conflicting information while confirming its sensitivity to attended visual novelty.
Dietary sodium effects on heart rate variability in salt sensitivity of blood pressure
Authors: McNeely Jessica D. , Windham B. Gwen , Anderson David E. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractHigh dietary sodium intake is a risk factor for hypertension, and heart rate variability (HRV) is decreased in hypertension. Effects of dietary sodium intake on HRV of normotensive persons have not, however, been investigated to date. The present study examined effects of low and high sodium diets on blood pressure, heart rate, and HRV in 36 healthy, normotensive women, ages 40–70. Each was placed on a low sodium diet for 6 days followed by a high sodium diet for 6 days. The high salt diet increased mean systolic blood pressure, decreased heart rate, and increased high frequency HRV (HF). Cardiac vagal tone, estimated at baseline from heart period and a time domain estimate of respiratory sinus arrhythmia, was higher in salt‐sensitive than salt‐insensitive subjects. The finding of increased vagal tone in normotensive persons on high salt intake indicates that dietary sodium status should be considered in behavioral studies of HRV.
Cathepsin L participates in the production of neuropeptide Y in secretory vesicles, demonstrated by protease gene knockout and expression
Authors: Funkelstein Lydiane , Toneff Thomas , Hwang Shin‐Rong , Reinheckel Thomas , Peters Christoph , Hook Vivian 
Published: April 2008

AbstractNeuropeptide Y (NPY) functions as a peptide neurotransmitter and as a neuroendocrine hormone. The active NPY peptide is generated in secretory vesicles by proteolytic processing of proNPY. Novel findings from this study show that cathepsin L participates as a key proteolytic enzyme for NPY production in secretory vesicles. Notably, NPY levels in cathepsin L knockout (KO) mice were substantially reduced in brain and adrenal medulla by 80% and 90%, respectively. Participation of cathepsin L in producing NPY predicts their colocalization in secretory vesicles, a primary site of NPY production. Indeed, cathepsin L was colocalized with NPY in brain cortical neurons and in chromaffin cells of adrenal medulla, demonstrated by immunofluorescence confocal microscopy. Immunoelectron microscopy confirmed the localization of cathepsin L with NPY in regulated secretory vesicles of chromaffin cells. Functional studies showed that coexpression of proNPY with cathepsin L in neuroendocrine PC12 cells resulted in increased production of NPY. Furthermore, in vitroprocessing indicated cathepsin L processing of proNPY at paired basic residues. These findings demonstrate a role for cathepsin L in the production of NPY from its proNPY precursor. These studies illustrate the novel biological role of cathepsin L in the production of NPY, a peptide neurotransmitter, and neuroendocrine hormone.
Characterization of 13 polymorphic microsatellite loci for two land snail species, Trochulus villosus and T. sericeus (Gastropoda: Pulmonata: Hygromiidae)
Authors: DÉPRAZ A. , RATHEY E. , HAUSSER J. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThirteen new microsatellite loci were isolated and tested on two land snail species, Trochulus villosus and T. sericeus (Pulmonata: Hygromiidae), resulting in a set of eight polymorphic markers for each species. The expected heterozygosity was high for all loci and species (between 0.616 and 0.944). Such levels of variability will allow detailed insights into the population genetic structure of some Trochulus species.
Polymetamorphic evolution of pelitic schists and evidence for Permian low‐pressure metamorphism in the Vepor Unit, West Carpathians
Authors: JEŘÁBEK P. , JANÁK M. , FARYAD S. W. , FINGER F. , KONEČNÝ P. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractPhase equilibrium modelling and monazite microprobe dating were used to characterize the polymetamorphic evolution of metapelites from the northern part of the Vepor Unit, West Carpathians. Three generations of garnet and associated metamorphic assemblages found in these rocks correspond to three distinct metamorphic events related to the Variscan orogeny, a Permian phase of crustal extension and the Alpine orogeny. Variscan staurolite‐bearing and Alpine chloritoid‐bearing assemblages record medium‐temperature and medium‐pressure regional metamorphisms reaching 540–570 °C/5–7.5 kbar and 530–550 °C/5–6.5 kbar respectively. The Permian metamorphic assemblage involves garnet, andalusite, sillimanite, biotite, muscovite, plagioclase and corundum and locally forms silica‐undersaturated andalusite‐biotite‐spinel coronas around older staurolite. The transition from andalusite to sillimanite indicates a prograde low‐pressure and medium‐temperature metamorphism characterized by temperature increase from 500 to 650 °C at ∼3 kbar. As accessory monazite is abundant in the rocks, an attempt was made to derive its age of formation by means of electron microprobe‐based Th‐U‐Pb chemical dating. Despite the polymetamorphic nature of the metapelites, the monazite yielded uniform Permian ages. Microstructures confirm that monazite was formed in relation to the low‐pressure and medium‐temperature paragenesis, and the weighted average ages obtained for two different samples are 278 ± 5 and 275 ± 12 Ma respectively. The virtual lack of Variscan and Alpine monazite populations points to interesting aspects concerning the growth systematics of monazite in metamorphic rocks.
Insurance on the Internet
Authors: Klauber Adam 
Published: April 2008

ABSTRACT: The Internet is obviously a force that is here to stay. Every segment of the economy is experiencing dramatic change and is having to respond to shifts in the value chain, enhanced consumer power, and altered competitive cycles. Although the insurance industry has characteristics that should put it at the forefront of Internet adoption, certain cultural and technological factors could continue to limit penetration in the near term.Four strategic business models emerging from the competitive field are: marketplace/exchange, work‐site marketing, transaction processor, and eyeball attractor. This article identifies the factors for success within each model, then provides a competitor analysis to grade insurance e‐commerce organizations on various competencies from Web site functionality to insurance capabilities.
SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS IN MOTOR INSURANCE IN THAILAND
Authors: Lawrence Brian 
Published: April 2008

ABSTRACT: The 1990s saw rapid economic growth in Thailand. Motor insurance grew enormously, becoming the biggest income earner for total general business (both for the whole industry and for many individual companies). Cash flow underwriting seemed to be the recipe for success in a competitive market.The agency distribution system for motor insurance in Thailand is almost wholly controlled by finance companies and banks, which expect a high rate of commission. Their delay in paying over the premiums to the insurers created bad‐debt problems after the 1997 economic crash, when the government closed many of these financing companies. This also meant an end to the motor insurance boom, with a decrease in premium income and a reduction in investment returns and assets, thus threatening solvency margins.Earlier in the decade, in 1993, there was the introduction of compulsory third‐party insurance, followed by the establishment by the government of provincial bureaus to help these third‐party claimants. And in 2000, just in time for the next wave of economic growth, a new rating system has been introduced to bring sophistication to the basic process of evaluating and pricing different risks, though still within a government tariff system. Liberalization is coming, in stages, and the industry is making changes so as to be in a fit state to cope with the increased competition and opportunities that this liberalization will bring.Like all setbacks, the crash of 1997 was an opportunity for Thai motor insurers to examine the fundamentals of their business and plan to increase their professionalism. Some are already well on the way to high‐quality service, meeting ISO 9002 standards, and have begun Internet trading.
Arousability in schizophrenia: relationship to emotional and physiological reactivity and symptom severity
Authors: Dinzeo T. J. , Cohen A. S. , Nienow T. M. , Docherty N. M. 
Published: April 2008

Objective:  Socioenvironmental stressors have been linked with increased symptom severity and relapse in those with schizophrenia. However, little is known about how individual differences in stress reactivity may contribute to these outcomes.Method:  This study examined the association between the temperament characteristic of arousability and changes in negative affect and cardiovascular activity during a challenge task in 58 in‐patients with diagnosis of schizophrenia and 21 controls.Results:  In the patient group, levels of arousability were significantly associated with increases in negative affect in response to the task and greater severity of affective symptoms. Levels of arousability were associated with decreased heart rate during the challenge task in our patient group.Conclusion:  These findings suggest that greater attention be given to individual differences, such as temperament and personality characteristics, and their role in the experience of stressors, including emotional and physiological response, as well as symptom development.
Searching for foreign antigens as possible triggering factors of autoimmunity: Torque Teno virus DNA prevalence is elevated in sera of patients with bullous pemphigoid
Authors: Blazsek Antal , Sillo Palma , Ishii Norito , Gergely Jr Peter , Poor Gyula , Preisz Klaudia , Hashimoto Takashi , Medvecz Márta , Kárpáti Sarolta 
Published: April 2008

AbstractObjective:  The Torque Teno virus (TTV), a member of virus genus Anellovirus has been shown to be commonly present in humans, yet without detectable pathogenicity. Recent studies imply that TTV may contribute to provoke autoimmune progresses in systemic lupus erythematosus and idiopathic inflammatory myopathies. We aimed to study the presence of TTV in a group of patients with autoimmune bullous diseases with a further goal to identify long‐lasting foreign antigen, such as TTV as possible triggers of skin‐specific autoimmunity.Patients and methods:  We performed in silico research to study similarities between known TTV sequences and antigens of bullous pemphigoid (BP), pemphigus vulgaris (PV) and dermatitis herpetiformis (DH). Basic Local Alignment Search Tool results showed matching regions for the major BP antigens BP180 and BP230, PV antigen desmoglein 3 and DH antigen transglutaminase 3 and disclosed overlapping, antigen‐predicted sequences only for BP180 regions. We also assessed the prevalence of TTV in these disorders and compared them with the results from two healthy blood donor groups (group 1: sex‐ and age‐matched for the general bullous group, n = 95; group 2: sex‐ and age‐matched for BP, n = 50). Furthermore, we assayed lymphocytes from four TTV DNA and BP180 NC16A blot‐positive BP patients and three controls in a standard lymphocyte transformation test with a TTV peptide from the conserved ORF(Open Reading Frame)1/N22 region.Results:  We found that the detection rate of TTV was comparable with that in healthy controls in the group of PV (19/33); whereas detection rates in DH showed a slight, but not significant tendency for elevation (17/20). Contrary, the TTV prevalence in BP patients was significantly elevated (group 1: 36/40 vs group 2: 31/50, P < 0.032). Lymphocytes from all four virus‐positive BP patients heavily reacted to TTV peptide while two of the three healthy controls have shown not to recognize the viral sequences. Only the TTV carrier healthy control had a minor reaction at lowest peptide concentration. The combined in silico, polymerse chain reaction and in vitro cell assay data of the present study indicate that a TTV persistence may contribute to the pathogenesis of BP.