bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Rapid integration of young newborn dentate gyrus granule cells in the adult hippocampal circuitry
Authors: Ide Yoko , Fujiyama Fumino , Okamoto‐Furuta Keiko , Tamamaki Nobuaki , Kaneko Takeshi , Hisatsune Tatsuhiro 
Published: December 2008

AbstractNewborn dentate gyrus granule cells (DGCs) are integrated into the hippocampal circuitry and contribute to the cognitive functions of learning and memory. The dendritic maturation of newborn DGCs in adult mice occurs by the first 3–4 weeks, but DGCs seem to receive a variety of neural inputs at both their dendrites and soma even shortly after their birth. However, few studies on the axonal maturation of newborn DGCs have focused on synaptic structure. Here, we investigated the potentiality of output and input in newborn DGCs, especially in the early period after terminal mitosis. We labeled nestin‐positive progenitor cells by injecting GFP Cre‐reporter adenovirus into Nestin‐Cre mice, enabling us to trace the development of progenitor cells by their GFP expression. In addition to GABAergic input from interneurons, we observed that the young DGCs received axosomatic input from the medial septum as early as postinfection day 7 (PID 7). To evaluate the axonal maturation of the newborn DGCs compared with mature DCGs, we performed confocal and electron microscopic analyses. We observed that newborn DGCs projected their mossy fibers to the CA3 region, forming small terminals on hilar or CA3 interneurons and large boutons on CA3 pyramidal cells. These terminals expressed vesicular glutamate transporter 1, indicating they were glutamatergic terminals. Intriguingly, the terminals at PID 7 had already formed asymmetric synapses, similar to those of mature DGCs. Together, our findings suggest that newborn DGCs may form excitatory synapses on both interneurons and CA3 pyramidal cells within 7 days of their terminal mitosis.
Topography of attention in the primary visual cortex
Authors: Simola Jaana , Stenbacka Linda , Vanni Simo 
Published: December 2008

AbstractPrevious research suggests that feedback circuits mediate the effect of attention to the primary visual cortex (V1). This inference is mainly based on temporal information of the responses, where late modulation is associated with feedback signals. However, temporal data alone are inconclusive because the anatomical hierarchy between cortical areas differs significantly from the temporal sequence of activation. In the current work, we relied on recent physiological and computational models of V1 network architecture, which have shown that the thalamic feedforward, local horizontal and feedback contribution are reflected in the spatial spread of responses. We used multifocal functional localizer and quantitative analysis in functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine the spatial scales of attention and sensory responses. Representations of 60 visual field regions in V1 were functionally localized and four of these regions were targets in a subsequent attention experiment, where human volunteers fixated centrally and performed a visual discrimination task at the attended location. Attention enhanced the peak amplitudes significantly more in the lower than in the upper visual field. This enhancement by attention spread with a 2.4 times larger radius (approximately 10 mm, assuming an average magnification factor) compared with the unattended response. The corresponding target region of interest was on average 20% stronger than that caused by the afferent sensory stimulation alone. This modulation could not be attributed to eye movements. Given the contemporary view of primate V1 connections, the activation spread along the cortex provides further evidence that the signal enhancement by spatial attention is dependent on feedback circuits.
Preferential allocation to beneficial symbiont with spatial structure maintains mycorrhizal mutualism
Authors: Bever James D. , Richardson Sarah C. , Lawrence Brandy M. , Holmes Jonathan , Watson Maxine 
Published: December 2008

AbstractMutualisms, beneficial interactions between species, are expected to be unstable because delivery of benefit likely involves fitness costs and selection should favour partners that deliver less benefit. Yet, mutualisms are common and persistent, even in the largely promiscuous associations between plants and soil microorganisms such as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. In two different systems, we demonstrate preferential allocation of photosynthate by host plants to the more beneficial of two AM fungal symbionts. This preferential allocation could allow the persistence of the mutualism if it confers sufficient advantage to the beneficial symbiont that it overcomes the cost of mutualism. We find that the beneficial fungus does increase in biomass when the fungi are spatially separated within the root system. However, in well‐mixed fungal communities, non‐beneficial fungi proliferate as expected from their reduced cost of mutualism. Our findings suggest that preferential allocation within spatially structured microbial communities can stabilize mutualisms between plants and root symbionts.
Death and cannibalism in a seasonal environment facilitate bacterial coexistence
Authors: Rozen Daniel E. , Philippe Nadège , Arjan de Visser J. , Lenski Richard E. , Schneider Dominique 
Published: December 2008

AbstractBacterial populations can evolve and adapt to become diverse niche specialists, even in seemingly homogeneous environments. One source of this diversity arises from newly ‘constructed’ niches that result from the activities of the bacteria themselves. Ecotypes specialized to exploit these distinct niches can subsequently coexist via frequency‐dependent interactions. Here, we describe a novel form of niche construction that is based upon differential death and cannibalism, and which evolved during 20 000 generations of experimental evolution in Escherichia coli in a seasonal environment with alternating growth and starvation. In one of 12 populations, two monophyletic ecotypes, S and L, evolved that stably coexist with one another. When grown and then starved in monoculture, the death rate of S exceeds that of L, whereas the reverse is observed in mixed cultures. As shown by experiments and numerical simulations, the competitive advantage of S cells is increased by extending the period of starvation, and this advantage results from their cannibalization of the debris of lysed L cells, which allows the S cells to increase both their growth rate and total cell density. At the molecular level, the polymorphism is associated with divergence in the activity of the alternative sigma factor RpoS, with S cells displaying no detectable activity, while L cells show increased activity relative to the ancestral genotype. Our results extend the repertoire of known cross‐feeding mechanisms in microbes to include cannibalism during starvation, and confirm the central roles for niche construction and seasonality in the maintenance of microbial polymorphisms.
Spatial‐Scene Similarity Queries
Authors: Nedas Konstantinos A , Egenhofer Max J 
Published: December 2008

AbstractAssessing spatial scenes for similarity is difficult from a cognitive and computational perspective. Solutions to spatial‐scene similarity assessments are sensible only if corresponding elements in the compared scenes are identified correctly. This matching process becomes increasingly complex and error‐prone for large spatial scenes as it is questionable how to choose one set of associations over another or how to account quantitatively for unmatched elements. We develop a comprehensive methodology for similarity queries over spatial scenes that incorporates cognitively motivated approaches about scene comparisons, together with explicit domain knowledge about spatial objects and their relations for the relaxation of spatial query constraints. Along with a sound graph‐theoretical methodology, this approach provides the foundation for plausible reasoning about spatial‐scene similarity queries.
Risk factors for stroke‐related pain 1 year after first‐ever stroke
Authors: Lundström E. , Smits A. , Terént A. , Borg J. 
Published: December 2008

Objective:  To estimate the prevalence of stroke‐related pain and to explore its relation to spasticity. Design:  Cross‐sectional survey. Patients and methods:  One hundred and forty patients were examined at 1 year after first‐ever stroke. Pain was assessed by a structured interview and categorized as stroke‐related or not, pain intensity by use of the visual analogue scale (VAS), spasticity by use of the modified Ashworth scale, stroke severity and the presence of specific neurological impairments by use of the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), and depression by use of the Montgomery–Åsberg Depression Scale. Results:  Pain was reported by 68 patients (49%) with a mean VAS of 42 (95% CI 36–47). In 29 patients (21%), pain was categorized as stroke‐related pain. Univariate analyses demonstrated correlations between stroke‐related pain and total NIHSS score, paresis, sensory disturbance, depression and spasticity respectively. A multiple regression analysis demonstrated an independent association of stroke‐related pain with paresis (OR = 3.1, 95% CI 1.2–7.7), sensory disturbance (OR = 3.1, 95% CI 1.1–8.9) and depression (OR = 4.1, 95% CI 1.4–13). Conclusions:  The estimated prevalence of stroke‐related pain was 21%. Stroke‐related pain was associated with sensorimotor impairments and depression, but not with spasticity as an independent variable.
Cerebral leukoaraiosis in patients with stroke or TIA: clinical correlates and 1‐year outcome
Authors: Koton S. , Schwammenthal Y. , Merzeliak O. , Philips T. , Tsabari R. , Orion D. , Dichtiar R. , Tanne D. 
Published: December 2008

Background and purpose:  Cerebral leukoaraiosis is frequently observed in patients with acute stroke, but its clinical consequences on functional recovery remain incompletely defined. We evaluated the clinical correlates of leukoaraiosis, and its association with stroke‐outcome in a cohort of consecutively hospitalized patients.Methods:  One‐thousand twenty‐four consecutive patients with acute stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA) undergoing brain CT were included in this single‐center study. Patients were systematically evaluated at hospitalization and followed‐up for 1 year. Mortality, functional outcome, quality of life (QoL), psychological distress, community integration, and patient perception of recovery were evaluated by leukoaraiosis severity. Adjusted ORs (95%CI) were calculated.Results:  Moderate/severe leukoaraiosis was diagnosed in 177 patients (17.3%) and mild leukoaraiosis in 362 patients (35.3%). After 1 year, adjusted ORs for moderate/severe leukoaraiosis compared with no leukoaraiosis were 2.0 (95%CI 1.1–4.0) for Barthel Index ≤75; 1.9 (95%CI 0.9–4.0) for help needed in ADL; 2.5 (95%CI 1.0–6.3) for not feeling totally recovered; 2.0 (95%CI 1.1–4.1) for low QoL; 1.9 (95%CI 1.0–3.5) for psychological distress, and 1.6 (95%CI 0.9–2.9) for reduced community integration.Conclusions:  In a large cohort of consecutive patients hospitalized for stroke or TIA, leukoaraiosis predicted poor functional recovery, worse QoL and community integration, and higher psychological distress during the first year following stroke onset.
Cerebrospinal fluid tau protein is not a biological marker in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Authors: Paladino P. , Valentino F. , Piccoli T. , Piccoli F. , La Bella V. 
Published: December 2008

Background:  Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder leading to progressive motor neuron cell death. Etiopathogenesis is still imperfectly known and much effort have been undertaken to find a biological marker that could help in the early diagnosis and in the monitoring of disease progression. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of tau, an axonal microtubule‐associated protein, have been measured in ALS with levels found increased in some studies and unchanged in others.Methods:  Total CSF tau level was assayed in a population of ALS patients (n = 57) and controls (n = 110) using a specific ELISA method.Results:  No significant differences in the median CSF tau levels between ALS cases and controls were found [ALS: 126 pg/ml (78–222); controls: 112 pg/ml (71–188), P = ns]. In the ALS group, the bulbar‐onset patients showed increased CSF tau levels as compared with the spinal‐onset cases. These differences might be related to the higher age of the bulbar‐onset patients. Further, no correlations were found between CSF tau concentrations and the rate of progression of the disease.Conclusions:  These results do not support the hypothesis that total CSF tau protein is a reliable biological marker for ALS.
A pilot investigation into the efficacy of a signing training strategy for staff working with adults with intellectual disabilities
Authors: Chadwick Darren D. , Jolliffe Jane 
Published: December 2008

Accessible summary We taught staff some useful signs to help them to communicate with people. We asked staff if they liked the different ways of teaching we used. We tested staff trained to see if they remembered the signs.We found out that: Trained staff could do the signs better than untrained staff. Staff who had been taught liked the different ways of teaching that we used. Only a few staff used the signs a lot when they were communicating with people.SummaryTo contribute to increasing the quality and quantity of communication between staff and adults with intellectual disabilities, training was undertaken to enhance the awareness and knowledge of signing as a method of communication. Multidisciplinary team members, residential and day centre staff were trained to use 20 core signs. Training methods employed included: a training session; a training video; and a training card showing the 20 signs. Caregiver knowledge of the 20 signs was assessed between 6 and 12 months following implementation of the training. Information was also collected about the level of exposure to each of the training methods, and about staff perceptions of the usefulness and effectiveness of the different training types. Training was considered effective by staff, especially the formal training. Trained staff were significantly more accurate at signing, although this knowledge and capability did not often translate into everyday use of signs.
NAFTA‐ization: Regionalization and Domestic Political Adjustment in the North American Economic Area
Authors: ASPINWALL MARK 
Published: December 2008

AbstractEuropeanization is an example of initial bargains between states leading to ongoing political adjustment within the states. In this article I apply the concept to NAFTA and look at two of its member states, finding that despite the low level of institutionalization, NAFTA has set in motion new forms of political organization and behaviour, and new demands for political action. This is especially marked in Mexico, and in certain sectors. It is also clearly visible in the changing patterns of cross‐border bureaucratic communication. The main conclusions are that: (1) even in a lightly institutionalized regional trade agreement, the institutional, legal and civil society capacity of less‐developed members is strengthened; (2) despite the absence of a formal process of policy or institutional development and the lack of legislative instruments, NAFTA has begun a hidden process of domestic adjustment in technical and specialized areas; and (3) like the EU, pressures to expand and strengthen NAFTA have emerged as a result of the initial agreement as well as extraneous factors. These conclusions may offer lessons to the study and practice of regional organizations elsewhere.
Small States, Big Influence: The Overlooked Nordic Influence on the Civilian ESDP*
Authors: JAKOBSEN PETER VIGGO 
Published: December 2008

AbstractThere is almost universal agreement that the European security and defence policy (ESDP) has been driven and determined by the great powers (the UK, France and Germany). I challenge this view by arguing that the Nordic countries have had a significant, and at times even decisive, influence upon the civilian ESDP. They put civilian crisis management on the ESDP agenda and successfully kept it there in the face of strong opposition led by France; they have played central roles with respect to proposing and designing its concepts and institutions; and they have consistently made disproportionate mission contributions in terms of both personnel and treasure. I identify three factors that have blinded researchers to the Nordic role and explain the Nordic influence with four explanatory factors derived from the emerging literature on the European Union (EU) and small states. I thus rely on existing theory to make an empirical contribution to the field.
Achieving Consensus Through Committees: Does the European Parliament Manage?*
Authors: SETTEMBRI PIERPAOLO , NEUHOLD CHRISTINE 
Published: December 2008

AbstractThis article examines the role of the standing committees in building consensus within the European Parliament (EP) and asks whether the ability to fulfil this function has remained stable even in the context of enlarged membership after the June 2004 elections. To this avail, original data have been collected on the voting behaviour in EP committees, from July 1999 through July 2006, and interviews with key players have been conducted. Findings show that committees generally work very consensually, regardless of the issue at stake and the procedure applied. At the same time, the committee system seems to be evolving towards greater differentiation across policy areas and, partially, across legislative procedures.
Offshoring in the core: Russian software firms onshoring in the USA
Authors: FEAKINS MELANIE 
Published: December 2008

AbstractOffshoring and outsourcing have become the buzzwords of the IT community and the popular media discourse about the current era of globalization in services. Acknowledging the geographic perspective expressed in these dominant terms, in this article I examine the processes and activities that are oriented in the opposite direction. Capturing this inversion, I develop the concept of ‘onshoring’ and use research material from fieldwork conducted with IT firms in St Petersburg, Russia and their affiliates, agents and clients in the USA to provide an empirical case study. Onshoring encompasses the corporeal, representational, material and legal practices of offshore firms developing a presence onshore, with Russia as offshore and the USA as onshore in this case. The lack of an established Russian professional diaspora in the USA created a context in which developing a recognizable onshore presence was necessary for firms based in Russia. By explicitly recognizing that the efforts, risk‐taking and experimental strategies of offshore firms to create connections, networks and contacts onshore in the USA are a constitutive part of offshore outsourcing, I document and examine the less acknowledged complex flows and practices of onshoring. I argue that although these actors and processes may seem marginal to the widely recognized narrative of offshore outsourcing, in fact, they are creative and strategic compensations that reveal how the globalization of services is enacted at the micro‐level.
The uses and abuses of time: globalization and time arbitrage in India's outsourcing industries
Authors: NADEEM SHEHZAD 
Published: December 2008

AbstractGlobalization has undoubtedly altered our conceptions and experience of time. It has sped up the pace of life and some scholars even suggest that a new temporal order is supplanting ‘natural’ and pre‐existing cycles and rhythms. Yet time is not dissolved in the global circuits of capital. Rather, globalization has brought about a complex mixture of temporal orientations; the workplaces of ‘new economy’, for example, are traversed by novel and retrograde modes of work pace, rhythm and time‐discipline. In this article, I explore the temporal implications of the outsourcing of information technology‐based service work to India. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews with workers, managers and executives in the Indian IT and Business Processing Outsourcing industries, I address the following questions: (1) How are corporations using time arbitrage to reap the full benefits of a globally dispersed labour pool? (2) What impacts are these temporal changes having on the health and social lives of Indian workers? For corporations, time arbitrage means increased efficiency and cost‐savings. But for workers, it results in long hours, an intense work pace, and temporal displacement. Night‐shift employees, such as call centre workers, are particularly vulnerable to such displacement, as manifested in health and safety problems and social alienation. Globalization therefore does not entail the loosening of temporal chains, but their reconfiguration: a combination both rigid and flexible that binds even as it liberates.
Southern African social movements at the 2007 Nairobi World Social Forum
Authors: LARMER MILES , DWYER PETER , ZEILIG LEO 
Published: December 2008

AbstractHow relevant is the anti‐globalization movement to the ideas and activities of social movements seeking to achieve economic justice and greater democratic accountability in southern Africa? Case study research in four southern African countries (Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Swaziland) indicates that, while aspects of the anti‐globalization approach resonate with civil society and social movement actors (for example, an emphasis on mass participation and the internationalization of campaigning), the global social justice movement frequently displays the characteristics of globalization. These include: unaccountable decision‐making; profound (yet largely unacknowledged) inequality of access to resources; and an imposed and uniform organizational form that fails to consider local conditions. The World Social Forum (WSF) held in Nairobi in January 2007 provided many southern African social movement actors with their first opportunity to participate in the global manifestation of the anti‐globalization movement. The authors interviewed social movement activists across southern Africa before and during the Nairobi WSF about their experiences of the anti‐globalization movement and the Social Forum. An assessment of the effectiveness of this participation leads to the conclusion that the WSF is severely limited in its capacity to provide an effective forum for these actors to express their grievances and aspirations. However, hosting national social forums, their precise form adapted to reflect widely varied conditions in southern African states that are affected by globalization in diverse ways, appears to provide an important new form of mobilization that draws on particular elements of anti‐globalization praxis.