bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Basal ganglia and frontal involvement in self‐generated and externally‐triggered finger movements in the dominant and non‐dominant hand
Authors: François‐Brosseau Félix‐Etienne , Martinu Kristina , Strafella Antonio P. , Petrides Michael , Simard France , Monchi Oury 
Published: March 2009

AbstractAlthough there are a number of functional neuroimaging studies that have investigated self‐initiated and externally‐triggered movements, data directly comparing right and left hands in this context are very scarce. The goal of this study was to further understand the role of the basal ganglia and prefrontal cortex in the realm of self‐initiated and externally‐triggered right and left hand movements. Young healthy right‐handed adults performed random, follow and repeat conditions of a finger moving task with their right and left hands, while being scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Significant activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was observed when comparing the self‐initiated movements with the repeated control and externally‐triggered movements when using either hand in agreement with its role in monitoring. The caudate nucleus activation was found during self‐initiated conditions compared with the control condition when either hand was used, showing that it is particularly involved when a new movement needs to be planned. Significant putamen activation was observed in all within‐hand contrasts except for the externally‐triggered vs. control condition when using the left hand. Furthermore, greater putaminal activation was found for the left vs. the right hand during the control condition, but for the right vs. the left hand subtraction for the self‐initiated condition. Our results show that the putamen is particularly involved in the execution of non‐routine movements, especially if those are self‐initiated. Furthermore, we propose that, for right‐handed people performing fine movements, as far as putamen involvement is concerned, the lack of proficiency of the non‐dominant hand may prevail over other task demands.
Functional connectivity during a social emotion task in adolescents and in adults
Authors: Burnett Stephanie , Blakemore Sarah‐Jayne 
Published: March 2009

AbstractIn this fMRI study we investigated functional connectivity between components of the mentalising system during a social emotion task, using psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis. Ten adults (22–32 years) and 18 adolescents (11–18 years) were scanned while thinking about scenarios in which a social or a basic emotion would be experienced. Unlike basic emotions (such as disgust and fear), social emotions (such as embarrassment and guilt) require the representation of another’s mental states. In both adults and adolescents, an anterior rostral region of medial prefrontal cortex (arMPFC) involved in mentalising showed greater connectivity with the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) bordering on the temporo‐parietal junction (TPJ) and with anterior temporal cortex (ATC) during social than during basic emotion. This result provides novel evidence that components of the mentalising system interact functionally during a social emotion task. Furthermore, functional connectivity differed between adolescence and adulthood. The adolescent group showed stronger connectivity between arMPFC and pSTS/TPJ during social relative to basic emotion than did the adult group, suggestive of developmental changes in functional integration within the mentalising system.
Spatial attention can modulate audiovisual integration at multiple cortical and subcortical sites
Authors: Fairhall S. L. , Macaluso E. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractThe role of attention in multisensory integration (MI) is presently uncertain, with some studies supporting an automatic, pre‐attentive process and others suggesting possible modulation through selective attention. The goal of this functional magnetic resonance imaging study was to investigate the role of spatial attention on the processing of congruent audiovisual speech stimuli (here indexing MI). Subjects were presented with two simultaneous visual streams (speaking lips in the left and right visual hemifields) plus a single central audio stream (spoken words). In the selective attention conditions, the auditory stream was congruent with one of the two visual streams. Subjects attended to either the congruent or the incongruent visual stream, allowing the comparison of brain activity for attended vs. unattended MI while the amount of multisensory information in the environment and the overall attentional requirements were held constant. Meridian mapping and a lateralized ‘speaking‐lips’ localizer were used to identify early visual areas and to localize regions responding to contralateral visual stimulations. Results showed that attention to the congruent audiovisual stimulus resulted in increased activation in the superior temporal sulcus, striate and extrastriate retinotopic visual cortex, and superior colliculus. These findings demonstrate that audiovisual integration and spatial attention jointly interact to influence activity in an extensive network of brain areas, including associative regions, early sensory‐specific visual cortex and subcortical structures that together contribute to the perception of a fused audiovisual percept.
Efficacy of behavioural interventions in managing atypical antipsychotic weight gain
Authors: Gabriele J. M. , Dubbert P. M. , Reeves R. R. 
Published: March 2009

SummaryAtypical antipsychotic treatment is associated with weight gain and increased metabolic risk. This systematic literature review evaluates the current research on the effectiveness of behavioural interventions in treating and preventing atypical antipsychotic weight gain and reducing metabolic risk, describes characteristics of interventions implemented and discusses findings in the context of the RE‐AIM framework. Sixteen studies were identified. When initiated at the start of treatment with an atypical antipsychotic agent, behavioural weight loss interventions decreased the amount of weight gain associated with atypical antipsychotic treatment. When behavioural interventions were initiated after the start of atypical antipsychotic treatment, these interventions were associated with weight loss. Mean weight losses across studies by treatment duration were 2.63 kg for 12‐ to 16‐week interventions, 4.24 kg for 6‐month interventions and 3.05 kg for 12‐ to 18‐month interventions. Behavioural weight loss interventions were also found to improve insulin regulation and HbA1c. In addition to assessing efficacy, future studies should evaluate other components of the RE‐AIM framework, including reach, adoption, implementation and maintenance. This information will be useful in determining what types of interventions are both effective and practical for delivery in health care or community mental health settings.
Inventories and Public Information in Private Negotiation: A Laboratory Market Study
Authors: Menkhaus Dale J. , Phillips Owen R. , Yakunina Alla V. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractUsing laboratory markets, this research investigates the impacts of reporting different kinds of aggregated trade information to buyers and sellers who conduct transactions through bilateral/private negotiation. There are a limited number of bargaining rounds or matches between buyer and seller pairs. Sellers hold a perishable inventory before negotiations begin. We find that knowledge of trades, along with price, improves the coordination and bargaining position of buyers. Trade prices are lower and buyer earnings are higher, relative to the no‐information treatment or when just‐past quantities or just‐past prices are reported. Market efficiency declines as public information is reported.
The Varying Impacts of Agricultural Support Programs on U.S. Farm Household Consumption
Authors: Whitaker James B. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractFarm households are economic agents whose income is derived from farm, off‐farm, and government sources. This article uses farm‐level data from the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) and recent advances in the econometric theory of dynamic pseudo‐panels to show that farm households consume various sources of income differently at the margin. Particular attention is given to a specific type of lump‐sum government transfer payment intended to be decoupled from (independent of) farm production decisions. The results suggest that relatively decoupled government subsidies have a greater marginal effect on farm household consumption than subsidies that are tied to market conditions.
Effects of Label Information on Consumer Willingness‐to‐Pay for Food Attributes
Authors: Gao Zhifeng , Schroeder Ted C. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractChoice experiments (CEs) are often used to elicit consumer willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) for food attributes. A concern about these approaches is that food attributes provided to respondents are assumed independent of attributes not provided. We use surveys containing a series of CEs to investigate effects of adding beef steak attributes. WTP for important attributes in the CEs decrease when the number of attributes increases from three to four, while WTP increases when the number of attributes increases from four to five. Changes in WTP for attributes depend on their relationships with newly added attributes and the number of attributes presented.
Who Pays the Costs of Non‐GMO Segregation and Identity Preservation?
Authors: Desquilbet Marion , Bullock David S. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractOur aim is to explore who pays the costs and who reaps the benefits of maintaining a dual‐market system of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and non‐GMOs. We analyze the welfare effects of the introduction of consumer “hatred” given GMO technology and the introduction of GMO technology given hatred. Making alternative assumptions of competitive and then monopolistic supply, we recognize that identity preservation (IP) of non‐GMOs creates costs for IP and non‐IP producers. We model these costs as depending on the sizes of the two supply channels.
Dairy Tariff‐Quota Liberalization: Contrasting Bilateral and Most Favored Nation Reform Options
Authors: Grant Jason H. , Hertel Thomas W. , Rutherford Thomas F. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractA highly disaggregated, “tariff line,” source‐differentiated, partial equilibrium model of U.S. specialty cheese imports is developed to investigate reform options for tariff‐rate quotas (TRQs). A mixed‐complementarity framework is used to represent bilateral and most favored nation (MFN) tariff quotas. The impacts of liberalizing U.S. specialty cheese imports via bilateral and MFN quota expansions, out‐of‐quota tariff cuts, and simultaneous liberalization scenarios are evaluated. We find that the path of liberalization is quite different, depending on the reform approach undertaken, particularly if the United States adopted an MFN quota administration mechanism for specialty cheese imports.
Islamic Financial Institutions and Corporate Governance: New Insights for Agency Theory
Authors: Safieddine Assem 
Published: March 2009

ABSTRACTManuscript Type: EmpiricalResearch Question/Issue: This paper takes a theory building approach to highlighting variations of agency theory in the unique and complex context of Islamic banks, mainly stemming from the need to comply with Sharia and the separation of cash flow and control rights for a category of investors.Research Findings/Results: The paper provides insights that agency structures in the context of Islamic banking might give rise to trade‐offs between Sharia compliance and mechanisms protecting investors' rights. Alternative models of idiosyncratic governance might be effective in balancing the two cornerstones of the agency dynamic. In practice, the paper finds that most of the surveyed Islamic banks appear to recognize the value of governance and institute some basic mechanisms. Nonetheless, some governance flaws relating to audit, control, and transparency are observed, a situation further exacerbated by the fact that investment account holders are not represented on the board, and are not granted control or monitoring rights. This leads to a discussion on the tradeoff between the costs and benefits of such a practice.Theoretical Implications: This study contributes to the agency theory literature by providing theoretical propositions highlighting challenges to this theory whereby mechanisms with the purpose of mitigating agency problems might lead to a divergence from Islamic principles of Sharia.Practical Implications: The paper motivates Islamic banks to improve governance practices currently in place. It alerts policy makers to the need to tailor the regulations to safeguard the interests of all investors without violating the principles of Sharia.
Ultimate Institutional Owner and Takeover Defenses in the Controlling versus Minority Shareholders Context
Authors: Ruiz‐Mallorquí M. Victoria , Santana‐Martín Domingo J. 
Published: March 2009

ABSTRACTManuscript Type: EmpiricalResearch Question/Issue: We examine the relationship between the level of voting rights held by the principal owner and the use of defense measures in Spanish listed firms when the owner is an institutional investor.Research Findings/Results: When a bank or a fund is the principal shareholder, the level of defense increases. However, while a larger bank's voting rights exercises a negative effect on the probability and level of defense, the effect of a fund's voting rights is U‐shaped. Moreover, the results show that the coalition of two banks as the largest shareholders increases the defense.Theoretical Implications: Our study is, to the best of our knowledge, the first to analyze the relationship between institutional control and defense in the controlling versus minority shareholders conflict. The results show the importance of the nature of the institutional owner in the ownership‐protection relationship. Thus, while in banks there is a substitution effect between voting rights and anti‐takeover measures, in funds that substitution effect occurs up to a certain level of voting rights, above which defense increases because of the possible reduction of exit barriers of their investment.Practical Implications: The results indicate that European regulators should pay special attention to firms controlled by institutional investors. Ownership and anti‐takeover measures are used by institutional owners to guarantee their power positions. Therefore, in an environment of concentrated ownership, the presence of institutional investors restricts the corporate control market as they either maintain high levels of ownership or facilitate the adoption of defense measures.
REGIONAL SOCIAL NETWORKS AS CONDUITS FOR KNOWLEDGE SPILLOVERS: EXPLAINING PERFORMANCE OF HIGH‐TECH FIRMS
Authors: BOSHUIZEN JOHANNES , GEURTS PETER , VAN DER VEEN ANNE 
Published: March 2009

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this paper is to open the ‘black box’ of knowledge spillovers by testing the extent to which social interactions between firms in a region positively contribute to firm performance. Specifically, we examine the Marshall‐Jacobs controversy, a debate over whether these spillovers occur across firms operating in similar or dissimilar fields. Our empirical examination of the debate relies on a dataset that is constructed from three sources: firm‐level data of 1,881 high‐tech firms in all 40 Dutch regions, regional economic data and network data constructed from the membership registrations of all business associations in a sample of 11 regions. The results show that the total amount of regional network activity has no effect on individual firm performance; however, participation in local business networks does support firm employment growth. With regards to the Marshall‐Jacobs controversy, the results show that having local links to other high‐tech firms is conducive to a firm's employment growth, while links to other types of firms provided no such lift.
Insular shifts and trade‐offs in life‐history traits in pond frogs in the Zhoushan Archipelago, China
Authors: Wang Y. , Li Y. , Wu Z. , Murray B. R. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractIsland and mainland populations of animal species often differ strikingly in life‐history traits such as clutch size, egg size, total reproductive effort and body size. However, despite widespread recognition of insular shifts in these life‐history traits in birds, mammals and reptiles, there have been no reports of such life‐history shifts in amphibians. Furthermore, most studies have focused on one specific life‐history trait without explicit consideration of coordinated evolution among these intimately linked life‐history traits, and thus the relationships among these traits are poorly studied. Here we provide the first evidence of insular shifts and trade‐offs in a coordinated suite of life‐history traits for an amphibian species, the pond frog Rana nigromaculata. Life‐history data were collected from eight islands in the Zhoushan Archipelago and neighboring mainland China. We found consistent, significant shifts in all life‐history traits between mainland and island populations. Island populations had smaller clutch sizes, larger egg sizes, larger female body size and invested less in total reproductive effort than mainland populations. Significant negative relationships were found between egg size and clutch size and between egg size and total reproductive effort among frog populations after controlling for the effects of body size. Therefore, decreased reproductive effort and clutch size, larger egg size and body size in pond frogs on islands were selected through trade‐offs as an overall life‐history strategy. Our findings contribute to the formation of a broad, repeatable ecological generality for insular shifts in life‐history traits across a range of terrestrial vertebrate taxa.
Climate and vegetational regime shifts in the late Paleozoic ice age earth
Authors: DIMICHELE W. A. , MONTAÑEZ I. P. , POULSEN C. J. , TABOR N. J. 
Published: March 2009

ABSTRACTThe late Paleozoic earth experienced alternation between glacial and non‐glacial climates at multiple temporal scales, accompanied by atmospheric CO2fluctuations and global warming intervals, often attended by significant vegetational changes in equatorial latitudes of Pangaea. We assess the nature of climate–vegetation interaction during two time intervals: middle–late Pennsylvanian transition and Pennsylvanian–Permian transition, each marked by tropical warming and drying. In case study 1, there is a catastrophic intra‐biomic reorganization of dominance and diversity in wetland, evergreen vegetation growing under humid climates. This represents a threshold‐type change, possibly a regime shift to an alternative stable state. Case study 2 is an inter‐biome dominance change in western and central Pangaea from humid wetland and seasonally dry to semi‐arid vegetation. Shifts between these vegetation types had been occurring in Euramerican portions of the equatorial region throughout the late middle and late Pennsylvanian, the drier vegetation reaching persistent dominance by Early Permian. The oscillatory transition between humid and seasonally dry vegetation appears to demonstrate a threshold‐like behavior but probably not repeated transitions between alternative stable states. Rather, changes in dominance in lowland equatorial regions were driven by long‐term, repetitive climatic oscillations, occurring with increasing intensity, within overall shift to seasonal dryness through time. In neither case study are there clear biotic or abiotic warning signs of looming changes in vegetational composition or geographic distribution, nor is it clear that there are specific, absolute values or rates of environmental change in temperature, rainfall distribution and amount, or atmospheric composition, approach to which might indicate proximity to a terrestrial biotic‐change threshold.
Influence of a Drinking Quantity and Frequency Measure on the Prevalence and Demographic Correlates of DSM‐IV Alcohol Dependence
Authors: Keyes Katherine M. , Geier Timothy , Grant Bridget F. , Hasin Deborah S. 
Published: March 2009

Background:  Recent research suggests that adding a quantity/frequency alcohol consumption measure to diagnoses of alcohol use disorders may improve construct validity of the diagnoses for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental and Behavior Disorders (DSM‐V). This study explores the epidemiological impact of including weekly at‐risk drinking (WAD) in the DMS‐IV diagnostic definition of alcohol dependence via 3 hypothetical reformulations of the current criteria.Methods:  The sample was the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, a nationally representative sample with 43,093 adults aged >18 in the U.S interviewed with the Alcohol Use Disorder and Associated Disabilities Interview Schedule IV. The current (DSM‐IV) definition of alcohol dependence was compared with 4 hypothetical alcohol dependence reformulations that included WAD: (1) WAD added as an eighth criteria; (2) WAD required for a diagnosis; (3) adding abuse and dependence criteria together, and including WAD with a 3 of 12 symptom threshold; (4) adding abuse and dependence criteria together, and including WAD with a 5 of 12 symptom threshold.Results:  The inclusion of at‐risk drinking as an eighth criterion of alcohol dependence has a minimal impact on the sociodemographic correlates of alcohol dependence but substantially increases the prevalence of dependence (from 3.8% to 5.0%). At‐risk drinking as a required criterion or as part of a diagnosis that combines abuse with dependence criteria with a higher threshold (5+ criteria) decreases prevalence and has a larger impact on sociodemographic correlates. Blacks, Hispanics, and women are less likely to be included in diagnostic reformulations that include WAD, whereas individuals with low‐income and education are more likely to remain diagnosed.Conclusions:  Including WAD as either a requirement of diagnosis or as an additional criterion would have a large impact on the prevalence of alcohol dependence in the general population. The inclusion of a quantity/frequency requirement may eliminate false positives from studies of alcohol disorder etiology and improve phenotype definition for genetic association studies by reducing heterogeneity in the diagnosis, but may also reduce eligibility for treatment services among women and racial/ethnic minorities compared.