51 research outputs found
Japanese Ideas of Asian Regionalism
No full textJapan is geographically located on the fringe of Asia. Japan's location is often divided between those arguing that Japan is inside Aisa and those arguing it is outside Asia. Japanese ideas of Asian regionalism are thus immensely varied. This article details a number of Japanese ideas on Asian regionalism with author/agency, scope and method specified. Special mention is made of weak integration of government agencies, thus causing proliferation of many Japanese ideas within Asia. With the increasing self-assertiveness of China, the apparent peaking out of American hegemony, and the steady rise of non-Chinese Asians, Japan tries to maintain enduring alliance with the United States, to invigorate interdependence with China, and to reinvent new relationships with the countries of the East Asian Summit. Japanese ideas of Asian regionalism take those templates as guidelines to develop new ideas of Asian regionalism
A study of the vacuum pyrolysis of para-substituted diazoacetophenones with He(I) ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy
No full textAn ultraviolet photoelectron (PE) spectrometer apparatus that utilizes a tuneable 50 W CW CO2 laser as a directed heat source was used to study the vacuum pyrolysis of diazoacetophenone (la) and its p-methyl, p-methoxy, p-chloro, and p-nitro analogues Ib, Ic, Id, and le. Analysis of the pyrolysate with He(I) ultraviolet PE spectroscopy shows that at a laser power Level of 26 W (500 +/- 50 degrees C) la, Ib, Ic, and Id, cleanly yield the corresponding phenylketenes 2a, 2b, 2c, and 2d, respectively, the products of the Wolff rearrangement of the incipient ketocarbenes. Of this group of highly reactive ketenes, which cannot be isolated in the condensed phase at ambient temperature, only 2a has been the subject of a previous PE spectroscopic study. But our work indicates that the sample of 2a prepared in the earlier study was impure. The low volatility of p-nitrodiazoacetophenone (le) thwarted our attempts to generate 2e and obtain its spectrum. Calculations at semiempirical (AMI) and ab inito (WF/G-31G(d)) levels of theory established that the diazoacetophenones prefer to adopt twisted syn conformations. That the calculated ionization potentials (HAM/3 and Becke3LYP/6-31+G(d)//HF/G-31G(d)) of la-ld and the synthesized PE spectra of la, Ib, and Ic correlate well with the PE spectroscopic data supports this finding. Shifts observed in the three low-energy ionizations of ketenes 26, 2c, and 2d induced by the para-substitution can be related to the character of the corresponding occupied molecular orbitals of phenylketene (2a).PT: J; CR: *HYP INC, 1994, HYPERCHEM 4 0 ALLEN AD, 1987, CAN J CHEM, V65, P1719 ANDRAOS J, 1991, J PHOTOCH PHOTOBIO A, V57, P165 ARDUENGO AJ, 1994, J AM CHEM SOC, V116, P6641 ASBRINK L, 1981, QCPE, V13, P393 BACHMANN C, 1990, J AM CHEM SOC, V112, P7488 BECKE AD, 1993, J CHEM PHYS, V98, P5648 CHMIELEWSKI D, 1993, CAN J CHEM, V71, P1741 CHONG DP, 1984, J PHYS CHEM-US, V88, P1479 COLBOURNE D, 1980, J CHEM SOC CHEM COMM, P250 COLBOURNE D, 1985, J CHEM SOC P2, P2049 FRISCH MJ, 1995, GAUSSIAN 94 REVISION HEHRE WJ, AB INITIO MOL ORBITA HOPE H, 1972, ACTA CRYSTALLOGR B, V28, P3632 HOTZEL A, 1980, ANGEW CHEM INT EDIT, V19, P739 KAPLAN F, 1966, J AM CHEM SOC, V88, P950 KIMURA K, 1981, HDB HEI PHOTOELECTRO KIRMSE W, 1994, ADV CARBENE CHEM, V1 KOOPMANS T, 1933, PHYSICA, V1, P104 MCMAHON RJ, 1985, J AM CHEM SOC, V107, P597 MCMAHON RJ, 1987, J AM CHEM SOC, V109, P2456 MODELLI A, 1980, J ELECT SPECTROSC RE, V18, P359 MOHMAND S, 1981, CHEM BER, V114, P2595 MUCHALL HM, IN PRESS TETRAHEDRON MUCHALL HM, 1997, CAN J CHEM, V75, P1851 MUCHALL HM, 1997, J MOL STRUCT, V435, P157 MUCHALL HM, 1998, CAN J CHEM, V76, P221 MUCHALL HM, 1998, CAN J CHEM, V76, P238 PATAI S, 1978, CHEM DIAZONIUM D 1 2 REGITZ M, 1968, CHEM BER, V101, P2622 SAMMYNAIKEN R, 1989, J CHEM SOC P2, P1987 STEWART JJP, 1983, QCPE, P455 STEWART JJP, 1986, AUSTIN MODEL 1 PACKA, P506 TROST BM, 1975, J AM CHEM SOC, V97, P2438 VOROBEV AS, 1993, RUSS CHEM B, V42, P281 WERSTIUK NH, 1992, CAN J CHEM, V70, P1971 WERSTIUK NH, 1994, CAN J CHEM, V72, P2537 WERSTIUK NH, 1994, J CHEM SOC FARADAY T, V90, P3383 WERSTIUK NH, 1995, CAN J CHEM, V73, P146 WERSTIUK NH, 1995, CAN J CHEM, V73, P1738 WERSTIUK NH, 1996, CAN J CHEM, V74, P1903 WERSTIUK NH, 1996, CAN J CHEM, V74, P2536 WERSTIUK NH, 1998, CAN J CHEM, V76, P672 WOLFF L, 1912, LIEBIGS ANN CHEM, V394, P23; NR: 44; TC: 8; J9: CAN J CHEM; PG: 12; GA: 143VNSource type: Electronic(1
Japanese Ideas of Asian Regionalism
No full textapplication/pdfJournal ArticleJapan is geographically located on the fringe of Asia. Japan's location is often divided between those arguing that Japan is inside Aisa and those arguing it is outside Asia. Japanese ideas of Asian regionalism are thus immensely varied. This article details a number of Japanese ideas on Asian regionalism with author/agency, scope and method specified. Special mention is made of weak integration of government agencies, thus causing proliferation of many Japanese ideas within Asia. With the increasing self-assertiveness of China, the apparent peaking out of American hegemony, and the steady rise of non-Chinese Asians, Japan tries to maintain enduring alliance with the United States, to invigorate interdependence with China, and to reinvent new relationships with the countries of the East Asian Summit. Japanese ideas of Asian regionalism take those templates as guidelines to develop new ideas of Asian regionalism.journal articl
Transgenic Medicago truncatula Plants That Accumulate Proline Display Enhanced Tolerance to Cadmium Stress
No full text© 2022 García de la Torre, Coba de la Peña, Lucas and Pueyo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.Cadmium (Cd) accumulation in agricultural soils constitutes a serious problem for crop yields and food safety. It is known that proline (Pro) can rapidly accumulate in plant tissues in response to abiotic stress. To analyze the potential protective effect of Pro accumulation against Cd toxicity, we compared the response to Cd stress of wild-type (WT) Medicago truncatula and a transgenic line that we had previously obtained and characterized (p18), which expressed the Δ1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase gene from Vigna aconitifolia (VaP5CS), and accumulated high Pro levels. Cadmium significantly reduced germination of WT seeds compared to p18 seeds, and seedling relative root growth, a valid indicator of metal tolerance, was significantly higher for p18 than WT seedlings. We analyzed the relative expression of genes related to Pro metabolism, phytochelatin biosynthesis. antioxidant machinery, and NADPH recycling, which are relevant mechanisms in the response to Cd stress. They presented differential expression in the seedlings of both genotypes both under control conditions and under Cd stress, suggesting that the Cd response mechanisms might be constitutively activated in the transgenic line. Pro accumulation promoted higher survival, enhanced growth performance, and minor nutrient imbalance in transgenic p18 plants compared to WT plants. These facts, together with the recorded gluthatione levels, lipid peroxidation and antioxidant enzyme activities strongly suggested that VaP5CS expression and Pro accumulation conferred enhanced Cd tolerance to M. truncatula p18 plants, which was likely mediated by changes in Pro metabolism, increased phytochelatin biosynthesis and a more efficient antioxidant response. Moreover, p18 roots accumulated significantly higher Cd amounts than WT roots, while Cd translocation to the aerial part was similar to WT plants, thus suggesting that high Pro levels increased not only Cd tolerance, but also Cd phytostabilization by rhizosequestration.This work was supported by Comunidad de Madrid (grant S2009/AMB-151 to MML, and a contract to TCP), MINECO (grant AGL2013-40758-R to JJP and MML), AEI/FEDER-UE (grant AGL2017- 88381-R to JJP and MML), and Fundación Areces (grant to JJP). VSGT was the recipient of an FPU fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education. We acknowledge support of 25% of the publication fee by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI).Peer reviewe
Low-density lipoprotein levels and not mutation status predict Intima-media thickness in familial hypercholesterolemia
No full textBackground Intima-media thickness (IMT) is a well-described marker of cardiovascular disease. In this study we aim to determine whether low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels and disease-related mutation status can predict IMT in patients with severe familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) referred for or on LDL apheresis. Methods Genetic screening, lipid profile testing, and IMT measurements were performed on a series of 33 severe FH patients (19 homozygous) on LDL apheresis treatments (LDL 447 ± 151 mg-dL, age range 6-60 years). Data were then compared with literature IMT-LDL data for normal subjects, mild FH patients, and severe FH patients (18, 41, and 6 studies, respectively). Results Age-adjusted IMT was linearly related to LDL levels over a wide range of values (500 mg-dL), except for the severe FH no-apheresis cohort. Alternatively, our severe FH population (mostly on apheresis) did follow the mild FH-control age-adjusted IMT-LDL relation. Conclusions In severe FH, measuring LDL levels is more predictive of increased IMT than genetic screening. © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Descamps OS, 2001, EUR J CLIN INVEST, V31, P958, DOI 10.1046-j.1365-2362.2001.00915.x; Fahed AC, 2011, MOL GENET METAB, V102, P181, DOI 10.1016-j.ymgme.2010.11.006; Fahed AC, 2011, NUTR METAB, V8, DOI 10.1186-1743-7075-8-23; Feinstein SB, 2002, AM J CARDIOL, V89, p31C; Guardamagna O, 2009, J PEDIATR, V155, P199, DOI 10.1016-j.jpeds.2009.02.022; Kastelein JJP, 2008, NEW ENGL J MED, V358, P1431, DOI 10.1056-NEJMoa0800742; Kastelein JJP, 2007, NEW ENGL J MED, V356, P1620, DOI 10.1056-NEJMoa071359; Koga N, 1999, J INTERN MED, V246, P35, DOI 10.1046-j.1365-2796.1999.00466.x; Nolting PRWD, 2003, ARCH INTERN MED, V163, P18370
Long-term ambient hydrocarbon exposure and incidence of urinary bladder cancer
No full text[[abstract]]Particulate matter and volatile organic compounds, including total hydrocarbons (THCs), are major ambient air pollutants. Primary nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) originate from vehicle emissions. The association between air pollution and urinary bladder cancer (UBC) is debatable. We investigated whether long-term exposure to ambient hydrocarbons increases UBC risk among people aged ≥ 20 years in Taiwan. Linkage dataset research with longitudinal design was conducted among 589,135 initially cancer-free individuals during 2000–2013; 12 airborne pollutants were identified. Several Cox models considering potential confounders were employed. The study outcomes were invasive or in situ UBC incidence over time. The targeted pollutant concentration was divided into three tertiles: T1/T2/T3. The mean age of individuals at risk was 42.5 (SD 15.7), and 50.5% of the individuals were men. The mean daily average over 10 years of airborne THC concentration was 2.25 ppm (SD 0.13), and NMHC was 0.29 ppm (SD 0.09). Both pollutants show long-term monotonic downward trend over time using the Mann–Kendall test. There was a dose-dependent increase in UBC at follow-up. UBC incidence per 100,000 enrollees according to T1/T2/T3 exposure to THC was 60.9, 221.2, and 651.8, respectively; it was 170.0/349.5/426.7 per 100,000 enrollees, corresponding to T1/T2/T3 exposure to NMHC, respectively. Without controlling for confounding air pollutants, the adjusted hazard ratio (adj.HR) was 1.83 (95% CI 1.75–1.91) per 0.13-ppm increase in THC; after controlling for PM2.5, adj.HR was even higher at 2.09 (95% CI 1.99–2.19). The adj.HR was 1.37 (95% CI 1.32–1.43) per 0.09-ppm increase in ambient NMHC concentration. After controlling for SO2 and CH4, the adj.HR was 1.10 (95% CI 1.06–1.15). Sensitivity analyses showed that UBC development risk was not sex-specific or influenced by diabetes status. Long-term exposure to THC and NMHC may be a risk factor for UBC development. Acknowledging pollutant sources can inform risk management strategies. © 2022, The Author(s)
Agent-Based Modeling of Culture's Consequences for Trade
No full textIn this thesis, culture is interpreted as a property of a group of people who share the meaning they attach to symbols, have a common way of expressing their opinions and feelings, and share value systems to judge what is good or bad. The unwritten rules of a culture govern the interpretation of observations and emotions and how to react appropriately. The rules are embedded in an individuals’ mind, form childhood on, by interactions with group members. People often are not aware of differences between their own unwritten rules and those of people having a different cultural background. This may result in unwarranted distrust or unwarranted trust, with serious consequences for the future of relationships. Cultural differences are known to have their effects on trade. Signals that indicate benevolence and trustworthiness of a trade partner in one’s own culture may be interpreted differently by people having a different cultural background. Hofstede (2001) has identified five dimensions of cultural differences: ? Given ingroup relation with relatives and community members may have a different impact on professional relationships in different cultures. ? The impact of hierarchical relationships on the freedom of action of trade partners may be different across cultures. ? Some cultures are oriented toward cooperation and care-taking; others are oriented toward performance and competition. ? Xenophobia is a wide-spread phenomenon in some cultures, while people in other cultures may be more open to the unknown. ? In some cultures people are anxious to keep up their status and display their societal success, while in other cultures thrift and perseverance are seen as virtues. Cultural differences may have their effects in trade on the acceptability of potential partners, on progress and success of negotiations, and on the extent to which partners live up to the negotiated contracts. In a research project Meijer (2009) developed a gaming simulation to study the role of trust in supply networks of food products. The game is called the TRUST & TRACING game. In this game, the producers are informed about product quality. The other players either have to trust the suppliers on their quality statements, or they can have the products traced by an independent authority, but the latter will cost them a fee. In addition to the financial considerations, they must take into account that showing distrust may bring damage to their relationships. Experiments with human subjects in different cultures have shown that the considerations lead to different actions in different countries. It was also found that the inclination to grab an opportunity to defect was different across countries. The subject of this thesis is a computer simulation of the TRUST & TRACING GAME. The purposes of the computer simulation are: ? Validation of theories about, implemented in models of, the players’ behaviors ? testing of hypotheses about relations of rules of the game and parameters of individual players with aggregated game statistics, ? the design of useful game configurations to be played with human players. In the computer simulation the players’ rolls are realized by software agents. The questions which are answered in this thesis concern the modeling of culture’s consequences for the decisions taken by the agents. Such an agent is a computer program which simulates the behavior of human players. In a multi-agent simulation a group of software agents is acting and interacting simultaneously. Autonomy is an important property of software agents. The agents decide what to do; there is no central computer program that imposes decisions on them. Important functions of agents in the present simulation are to approach new potential trade partners, to negotiate about a transaction and to exchange proposals, and, when the negotiation has ended successfully, to exchange products, and to decide and request a trace to be performed. The agents’ decision mechanisms are implemented according to models and data available from scientific literature. To model the influence of culture on the decision making, an expert systems approach is taken, using the Synthetic Cultures according to Hofstede en Pedersen (1999). To develop an expert system, knowledge engineers represent knowledge about some domain of application as a set of rules that can be interpreted by a computer system. Since culture is considered as a set of rules, such an approach is a natural way to model it. The development of expert systems always is an interdisciplinary project. In this case the work of Geert Hofstede has been used and an expert on this work and on Synthetic Cultures has been involved in the formulation of the rules. Synthetic Cultures are imaginary cultures in which the effects of a single dimension of culture are emphasized, isolated from the effects of the other dimensions. The purpose is to make the differences related to that dimension teachable. In reality the differences may be less pronounced and may be mixed with differences related with the other dimensions. In this thesis an approach has been elaborated to compute the simultaneous effect of several dimensions. The approach is based on the principle of weak disjunction, which implies that, if several dimensions have a similar effect, only the strongest effects counts. For instance, if dimension A would have an effect of 75% and dimension B would have an effect of 25%, then their simultaneous effect would be 75%. Expert systems must at least have face validity. An expert in the domain of application mustaccept the decisions that the system produces and the reasoning that leads to these decisions, as being believable. For this purpose computations for specific cases can be made, of which the results are judged by the expert. Further, the results of sensitivity analysis can be judged by an expert. Sensitivity analysis of a model is performed by studying how model outputs vary in relation with systematic variation of input parameter. In addition to face validity, the model must be tested empirically. To that end outputs from gaming simulations with human participants can be compared with outputs from multi-agent simulations. For example, Meijer et al. (2006) found different outcomes from the TRUST & TRACING game between games played in the United States and in the Netherlands. Compared with the Dutch, American players are found to be more eager to buy top quality products, have a stronger inclination to opportunism, anticipate to a greater extent on their partners to defect, and have a stronger preference for quality certification. These differences where reproduced by the multi-agent simulation. The main question of this research is, whether an expert systems approach is feasible to develop a valid model of cultural differentiation in multi-agent simulations, to be applied in research with gaming simulations. The conclusions are: 1. Effects of dimensions of culture can be modeled as an expert system based on Synthetic Cultures. Modeling the simultaneous effects of several dimensions as an expert system proved not feasible: the complexity exceeded the intellectual powers of both expert and modeler. 2. The simultaneous effect of several dimensions can be modeled by weak disjunction of effects. The results have face validity and have empirically been verified for a limited number of cases. 3. Sensitivity analysis of this model is a complex undertaking if both cultural parameters and other parameters are simultaneously varied, because of the strong interactions between these types of parameters. When only the culture parameters are varied (with a fixed setting of the other parameters), or only the other parameters are varied (in a fixed cultural setting), straightforward sensitivity analysis is feasible. Furthermore, it was found that the sensitivity of aggregate model outputs may greatly differ from sensitivity of individual level outputs: parameters that do not affect the aggregate system performance, may affect results of individual agents. 4. This thesis proves that multi-agent simulation is a potent instrument to be used in research with gaming simulations, in particular for the purpose of validation of behavioral models. A problematic issue is, that similarity of the outputs of gaming simulations and multi-agent simulations is no sound proof that the agent correctly implements the human decision making mechanism. This issue is known as under-determination. A validation method is proposed, which builds on the model’s composed structure. Under-determination can be avoided by separate validation of the components in micro-games. The results of this research contribute to the methodology of cultural adaptation of intelligent software agents. This is relevant for the development of research instruments (like the TRUST & TRACING game), educational and training applications to make people aware of cultural differences, and affective human-computer interfaces in a globalizing world.MediamaticsElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
Adaptive Mechanisms Make Lupin a Choice Crop for Acidic Soils Affected by Aluminum Toxicity
No full text© 2022 Quiñones, Lucas and Pueyo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.Almost half of the world’s agricultural soils are acidic, and most of them present significant levels of aluminum (Al) contamination, with Al3+ as the prevailing phytotoxic species. Lupin is a protein crop that is considered as an optimal alternative to soybean cultivation in cold climates. Lupins establish symbiosis with certain soil bacteria, collectively known as rhizobia, which are capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen. Moreover, some lupin species, especially white lupin, form cluster roots, bottlebrush-like structures specialized in the mobilization and uptake of nutrients in poor soils. Cluster roots are also induced by Al toxicity. They exude phenolic compounds and organic acids that chelate Al to form non-phytotoxic complexes in the rhizosphere and inside the root cells, where Al complexes are accumulated in the vacuole. Lupins flourish in highly acidic soils where most crops, including other legumes, are unable to grow. Some lupin response mechanisms to Al toxicity are common to other plants, but lupin presents specific tolerance mechanisms, partly as a result of the formation of cluster roots. Al-induced lupin organic acid secretion differs from P-induced secretion, and organic acid transporters functions differ from those in other legumes. Additionally, symbiotic rhizobia can contribute to Al detoxification. After revising the existing knowledge on lupin distinct Al tolerance mechanisms, we conclude that further research is required to elucidate the specific organic acid secretion and Al accumulation mechanisms in this unique legume, but definitely, white lupin arises as a choice crop for cultivation in Al-rich acidic soils in temperate climate regions.This work was supported by the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI), grant AGL2017-88381-R to MML and JJP. We acknowledge support of the publication fee (25%) by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI).Peer reviewe
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