An ecosystem for linked humanities data

The main promise of the digital humanities is the ability to perform scholar studies at a much broader scale, and in a much more reusable fashion. The key enabler for such studies is the availability of suciently well described data. For the eld of socio-economic history, data usually comes in a tabular form. Existing eorts to curate and publish datasets take a top-down approach and are focused on large collections. This paper presents QBer and the underlying structured data hub, which address the long tail of research data by catering for the needs of individual scholars. QBer allows researchers to publish their (small) datasets, link them to existing vocabularies and other datasets, and thereby contribute to a growing collection of interlinked datasets.We present QBer, and evaluate our rst results by showing how our system facilitates two use cases in socio-economic history

Alcohol Schema Acquisition in Preschoolers: Differences Between Children of Alcoholics and Children of Nonalcoholics

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65209/1/j.1530-0277.1995.tb00982.x.pd

Moderate exercise and chronic stress produce counteractive effects on different areas of the brain by acting through various neurotransmitter receptor subtypes: A hypothesis

BACKGROUND: Regular, "moderate", physical exercise is an established non-pharmacological form of treatment for depressive disorders. Brain lateralization has a significant role in the progress of depression. External stimuli such as various stressors or exercise influence the higher functions of the brain (cognition and affect). These effects often do not follow a linear course. Therefore, nonlinear dynamics seem best suited for modeling many of the phenomena, and putative global pathways in the brain, attributable to such external influences. HYPOTHESIS: The general hypothesis presented here considers only the nonlinear aspects of the effects produced by "moderate" exercise and "chronic" stressors, but does not preclude the possibility of linear responses. In reality, both linear and nonlinear mechanisms may be involved in the final outcomes. The well-known neurotransmitters serotonin (5-HT), dopamine (D) and norepinephrine (NE) all have various receptor subtypes. The article hypothesizes that 'Stress' increases the activity/concentration of some particular subtypes of receptors (designated nt(s)) for each of the known (and unknown) neurotransmitters in the right anterior (RA) and left posterior (LP) regions (cortical and subcortical) of the brain, and has the converse effects on a different set of receptor subtypes (designated nt(h)). In contrast, 'Exercise' increases nt(h )activity/concentration and/or reduces nt(s )activity/concentration in the LA and RP areas of the brain. These effects may be initiated by the activation of Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) (among others) in exercise and its suppression in stress. CONCLUSION: On the basis of this hypothesis, a better understanding of brain neurodynamics might be achieved by considering the oscillations caused by single neurotransmitters acting on their different receptor subtypes, and the temporal pattern of recruitment of these subtypes. Further, appropriately designed and planned experiments will not only corroborate such theoretical models, but also shed more light on the underlying brain dynamics

Ethnic Related Selection for an ADH Class I Variant within East Asia

The alcohol dehydrogenases (ADH) are widely studied enzymes and the evolution of the mammalian gene cluster encoding these enzymes is also well studied. Previous studies have shown that the ADH1B*47His allele at one of the seven genes in humans is associated with a decrease in the risk of alcoholism and the core molecular region with this allele has been selected for in some East Asian populations. As the frequency of ADH1B*47His is highest in East Asia, and very low in most of the rest of the world, we have undertaken more detailed investigation in this geographic region.Here we report new data on 30 SNPs in the ADH7 and Class I ADH region in samples of 24 populations from China and Laos. These populations cover a wide geographic region and diverse ethnicities. Combined with our previously published East Asian data for these SNPs in 8 populations, we have typed populations from all of the 6 major linguistic phyla (Altaic including Korean-Japanese and inland Altaic, Sino-Tibetan, Hmong-Mien, Austro-Asiatic, Daic, and Austronesian). The ADH1B genotyping data are strongly related to ethnicity. Only some eastern ethnic phyla or subphyla (Korean-Japanese, Han Chinese, Hmong-Mien, Daic, and Austronesian) have a high frequency of ADH1B*47His. ADH1B haplotype data clustered the populations into linguistic subphyla, and divided the subphyla into eastern and western parts. In the Hmong-Mien and Altaic populations, the extended haplotype homozygosity (EHH) and relative EHH (REHH) tests for the ADH1B core were consistent with selection for the haplotype with derived SNP alleles. In the other ethnic phyla, the core showed only a weak signal of selection at best.The selection distribution is more significantly correlated with the frequency of the derived ADH1B regulatory region polymorphism than the derived amino-acid altering allele ADH1B*47His. Thus, the real focus of selection may be the regulatory region. The obvious ethnicity-related distributions of ADH1B diversities suggest the existence of some culture-related selective forces that have acted on the ADH1B region

Behavioural and Physiological Responses of Gammarus pulex Exposed to Cadmium and Arsenate at Three Temperatures: Individual and Combined Effects

This study aimed at investigating both the individual and combined effects of cadmium (Cd) and arsenate (AsV) on the physiology and behaviour of the Crustacean Gammarus pulex at three temperatures (5, 10 and15°C). G. pulex was exposed during 96 h to (i) two [Cd] alone, (ii) two [AsV] alone, and (iii) four combinations of [Cd] and [AsV] to obtain a complete factorial plane. After exposure, survival, [AsV] or [Cd] in body tissues, behavioural (ventilatory and locomotor activities) and physiological responses (iono-regulation of [Na+] and [Cl−] in haemolymph) were examined. The interactive effects (antagonistic, additive or synergistic) of binary mixtures were evaluated for each tested temperature using a predictive model for the theoretically expected interactive effect of chemicals. In single metal exposure, both the internal metal concentration in body tissues and the mortality rate increased along metallic gradient concentration. Cd alone significantly impaired both [Na+] and [Cl−] while AsV alone had a weak impact only on [Cl−]. The behavioural responses of G. pulex declined with increasing metal concentration suggesting a reallocation of energy from behavioural responses to maintenance functions. The interaction between AsV and Cd was considered as ‘additive’ for all the tested binary mixtures and temperatures (except for the lowest combination at 10°C considered as “antagonistic”). In binary mixtures, the decrease in both ventilatory and locomotor activities and the decline in haemolymphatic [Cl−] were amplified when respectively compared to those observed with the same concentrations of AsV or Cd alone. However, the presence of AsV decreased the haemolymphatic [Na+] loss when G. pulex was exposed to the lowest Cd concentration. Finally, the observed physiological and behavioural effects (except ventilation) in G. pulex exposed to AsV and/or Cd were exacerbated under the highest temperature. The discussion encompasses both the toxicity mechanisms of these metals and their interaction with rising temperature

Dynamics of Disks and Warps

This chapter reviews theoretical work on the stellar dynamics of galaxy disks. All the known collective global instabilities are identified, and their mechanisms described in terms of local wave mechanics. A detailed discussion of warps and other bending waves is also given. The structure of bars in galaxies, and their effect on galaxy evolution, is now reasonably well understood, but there is still no convincing explanation for their origin and frequency. Spiral patterns have long presented a special challenge, and ideas and recent developments are reviewed. Other topics include scattering of disk stars and the survival of thin disks.Comment: Chapter accepted to appear in Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems, vol 5, ed G. Gilmore. 32 pages, 17 figures. Includes minor corrections made in proofs. Uses emulateapj.st

Addressing food and nutrition insecurity in the Caribbean through domestic smallholder farming system innovation

Structural conditions underlying the development of CARICOM’s two-tiered agricultural innovation system depict diverse drivers of change over time, versus institutional inertia of export-oriented formal institutions and the neglect of informal domestic markets. Key principles of taking an agroecological approach would include: supporting diversity and redundancy, building connectivity, managing slow variables and feedbacks, improving understanding of socioecological systems as complex adaptive systems, and encouraging polycentric governance systems. In this paper, we review the conditions that have been undermining sustainable food and nutrition security in the Caribbean, focusing on issues of history, economy, and innovation

The genetics of addiction—a translational perspective

Addictions are serious and common psychiatric disorders, and are among the leading contributors to preventable death. This selective review outlines and highlights the need for a multi-method translational approach to genetic studies of these important conditions, including both licit (alcohol, nicotine) and illicit (cannabis, cocaine, opiates) drug addictions and the behavioral addiction of disordered gambling. First, we review existing knowledge from twin studies that indicates both the substantial heritability of substance-specific addictions and the genetic overlap across addiction to different substances. Next, we discuss the limited number of candidate genes which have shown consistent replication, and the implications of emerging genomewide association findings for the genetic architecture of addictions. Finally, we review the utility of extensions to existing methods such as novel phenotyping, including the use of endophenotypes, biomarkers and neuroimaging outcomes; emerging methods for identifying alternative sources of genetic variation and accompanying statistical methodologies to interpret them; the role of gene-environment interplay; and importantly, the potential role of genetic variation in suggesting new alternatives for treatment of addictions