bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
CoFe2O4/buffer layer ultrathin heterostructures on Si(001)
Authors: Bachelet R. , de Coux P. , Warot-Fonrose B. , Skumryev V. , Fontcuberta J. , Sánchez F.
Published: October 2011

Epitaxial films of ferromagnetic CoFe2O4 (CFO) were grown by pulsed laser deposition on Si(001) buffered with ultrathin yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) layers in a single process. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction was used to monitor in real time the crystallization of YSZ, allowing the fabrication of epitaxial YSZ buffers with thickness of about 2 nm. CFO films, with thicknesses in the 2–50 nm range were subsequently deposited. The magnetization of the CFO films is close to the bulk value. The ultrathin CFO/YSZ heterostructures have very flat morphology (0.1 nm roughness) and thin interfacial SiOx layer (about 2 nm thick) making them suitable for integration in tunnel (e.g., spin injection) devices.
Optimal Cu buffer layer thickness for growing epitaxial Co overlayers on Si(111)7 × 7
Authors: Ivanov Yu. P. , Ilin A. I. , Davydenko A. V. , Zotov A. V.
Published: October 2011

Using scanning tunneling microscopy, reflection high energy diffraction and magnetic optical Kerr effect measurements, growth mode and the magnetic properties of epitaxial Co films on Si(111) with epitaxial Cu(111) buffer layers of various thicknesses have been studied. The strained 3.5-monolayer-thick Cu/Si(111) film has been found to be an optimal buffer, in which case an almost ideal layer-by-layer like growth of Co is observed up to six Co monolayers, due to a negligible lattice mismatch. The coercivity of Co films grown in this layer-by-layer like fashion has been determined to be about 10 Oe, testifying to the high quality of the formed Co film and Co/Cu interface. Changeover of the Co film growth mode from layer-by-layer like to multilayer has been found to result in the transition of the film magnetic properties from isotropic to markedly uniaxially anisotropic.
Interface effects on perpendicular magnetic anisotropy for molecular-capped cobalt ultrathin films
Authors: Zhang Xianmin , Mizukami Shigemi , Kubota Takahide , Oogane Mikihiko , Naganuma Hiroshi , Ando Yasuo , Miyazaki Terunobu
Published: October 2011

The perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) of cobalt (0.5-1.8 nm) films capped separately by pentacene (Pc), fullerene (C60), and 8-hydroxyquinoline-aluminum (Alq3) are investigated. For all three series, the thickness of Co is around 0.7 nm for maximum out-of-plane coercivity. It is found that the coercivity of C60-capped films is nearly equal to that for Alq3-capped samples, although both are smaller than for Pc-capped films. The different interface effects of Co/molecules are discussed to explain this observation. This work highlights the PMA of ferromagnetic metal, which can be markedly infected depending on the nature of organic molecule.
Thermal conductivity of bovine serum albumin: A tool to probe denaturation of protein
Authors: Kyoo Park Byoung , Yi Namwoo , Park Jaesung , Choi Tae Y. , Young Lee Jin , Busnaina Ahmed , Kim Dongsik
Published: October 2011

We demonstrate a strong correlation between denaturation of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and the thermal conductivity k of aqueous solutions of BSA. When denaturation of BSA began, k dropped significantly. These results suggest that k, i.e., the ability of a protein to transport passively applied thermal energy, can be exploited to probe the conformational dynamics of BSA and potentially of other proteins. The technique of protein analysis demonstrated in this work is expected to be useful in micro-total-analysis systems because it is easier to miniaturize and to integrate into a device than is conventional differential scanning calorimetry analysis.
Pulsed laser excitation power dependence of photoluminescence peak energies in bulk ZnO
Authors: Dang Giang T. , Kanbe Hiroshi , Kawaharamura Toshiyuki , Taniwaki Masafumi
Published: October 2011

Photoluminescence (PL) spectra of hydrothermal bulk ZnO were measured in the temperature range from 5 to 298 K. The sample was excited by means of the 266-nm line of an Nd3+: YAG Q-switched pulsed laser with numerous average excitation powers in the range from 0.33 to 7.50 mW. At constant temperatures, the most intense PL peak red-shifts with average excitation power, whereas positions of other near-band-edge peaks remain unchanged. It was experimentally proven that the red-shift is not due to local heating at the excited spot. Rather, it is due to relaxation of photoexcited carriers to lower energy transitions as the most intense transition is saturated by high excitation photon density. Furthermore, the temperature dependence of energy of the most intense PL peak was fitted with the Varshni equation. The Varshni coefficients α and β decrease with increasing pulsed laser excitation power.
Light extraction limits in textured GaN-InGaN light-emitting diodes: Radiative transfer analysis
Authors: Heikkilä Oskari , Oksanen Jani , Tulkki Jukka
Published: October 2011

We present a study on the light extraction properties of thin film light-emitting diodes (LEDs) based on the radiative transfer theory. We show that the well known ergodic limit for absorptivity in textured solar cells also applies to emissivity in LEDs accordance with the Kirchhoff’s radiation law. This limit for the emission enhancement by surface texturing in LEDs is fundamental and cannot be exceeded even with index-matched optics. We further carry out numerical calculations accounting for realistic absorption in typical GaN-InGaN LEDs to compare their performance with the ergodic limit for non-absorbing structures. The results show that the optical power of InGaN-GaN LED designs can be improved by a substantial factor of 2–4 with textured surfaces and engineering of the emission pattern and provide a guideline for more efficient LED designs.
Terahertz instability of field effect transistor in quantum regime
Authors: Zhang Li-Ping , Xue Ju-Kui
Published: October 2011

The current-carrying state of a field effect transistor (FET) with asymmetric source and drain boundary conditions may become unstable and lead to generation of terahertz radiation. While previous studies of this instability are limited to the classical case, we extend this analysis to the nanometer FET with quantum effects. We find that quantum effects broaden the instability range of the drift velocity and enhance the radiation frequencies and the output power. These properties could make the nanometer FET advantageous for realization of practical terahertz oscillations.
Phase stability of Heusler compound Co2FeSi under pressure: An in-situ x-ray diffraction investigation
Authors: Garg Alka B. , Vijayakumar V.
Published: October 2011

Results of ambient temperature synchrotron based in-situ x-ray powder diffraction measurements up to 24.8 GPa on the structural stability of the ferromagnetic shape memory Heusler alloy Co2FeSi is reported. The compound is structurally stable up to the highest pressure of the present investigations; however, the pressure (P) vs. volume (V) data shows an anomalous linearity beyond 4.7 GPa. The P-V data up to 4.7 GPa, when fitted to Birch-Murnaghan equation of states, gives the value of bulk modulus (B) as 240 GPa (B′ = 4). The P-V data beyond 4.7 GPa can be fitted to a straight line implying a constant bulk modulus (B = 279.5 GPa, B′ = 0.0) as seen in several metallic samples with highly correlated electrons.
Comparing Self-Assembling and Covalent Fluorescent Boronolectins for the Detection of Free Sialic Acid
Authors: Levonis Stephan M. , Kiefel Milton J. , Houston Todd A.
Published: October 2011

A self-assembling fluorescence sensor with boronic acid functionalities was tested for binding selectivity to the monosaccharide, sialic acid. Working from a previously reported system, a self-assembling system could form an imine in situ that enables a conjugated fluorophore to display a measurable change in fluorescence in the presence of monosaccharide. However, further examination showed that free sugars give a similar fluorescence response to just the m-aminophenylboronic acid moiety on its own. Still, such a self-assembly method may be applicable to cell surface saccharide sensing as aldehydes and ketones are noticeably absent on most cells’ exteriors. The original covalent receptor appears best suited for the detection of free sialic acid.
Molecular Epidemiology of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) among Patients Admitted to Adult Intensive Care Units: The STAR*ICU Trial
Authors: Nair Nisha , Kourbatova Ekaterina , Poole Katharine , Huckabee Charmaine M. , Murray Patrick , Huskins W. Charles , Blumberg Henry M.
Published: October 2011

Background.

The multicenter, cluster-randomized Strategies to Reduce Transmission of Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria in Intensive Care Units (STAR*ICU) trial was performed in 18 U.S. adult intensive care units (ICUs). It evaluated the effectiveness of infection control strategies to reduce the transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) colonization and/or infection. Our study objective was to examine the molecular epidemiology of MRSA and assess the prevalence and risk factors for community acquired (CA)-MRSA genotype nasal carriage at the time of ICU admission.

Methods.

Selected MRSA isolates were subjected to molecular typing using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis.

Results.

Of 5,512 ICU patient admissions in the STAR*ICU trial during the intervention period, 626 (11%) had a nares sample culture result that was positive for MRSA. A total of 210 (34%) of 626 available isolates were selected for molecular typing by weighted random sampling. Of 210 patients, 123 (59%) were male; mean age was 63 years. Molecular typing revealed that 147 isolates (70%) were the USAIOO clone, 26 (12%) were USA300, 12 (6%) were USA500, 8 (4%) were USA800, and 17 (8%) were other MRSA genotypes. In a multivariate analysis, patients who were colonized with a CA-MRSA genotype (USA300, USA400, or USA1000) were less likely to have been hospitalized during the previous 12 months (PR [prevalence ratio], 0.39 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.21-0.73]) and were less likely to be older (PR, 0.97 [95% CI, 0.95-0.98] per year) compared with patients who were colonized with a healthcare-associated (HA)-MRSA genotype.

Conclusion.

CA-MRSA genotypes have emerged as a cause of MRSA nares colonization among patients admitted to adult ICUs in the United States. During the study period (2006), the predominant site of CA-MRSA genotype acquisition appeared to be in the community.
Electronic Surveillance for Healthcare-Associated Central Line—Associated Bloodstream Infections Outside the Intensive Care Unit
Authors: Woeltje Keith F. , McMullen Kathleen M. , Butler Anne M. , Goris Ashleigh J. , Doherty Joshua A.
Published: October 2011

Background.

Manual surveillance for central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) by infection prevention practitioners is time-consuming and often limited to intensive care units (ICUs). An automated surveillance system using existing databases with patient-level variables and microbiology data was investigated.

Methods.

Patients with a positive blood culture in 4 non-ICU wards at Barnes-Jewish Hospital between July 1, 2005, and December 31, 2006, were evaluated. CLABSI determination for these patients was made via 2 sources; a manual chart review and an automated review from electronically available data. Agreement between these 2 sources was used to develop the best-fit electronic algorithm that used a set of rules to identify a CLABSI. Sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, and Pearson's correlation were calculated for the various rule sets, using manual chart review as the reference standard.

Results.

During the study period, 391 positive blood cultures from 331 patients were evaluated. Eighty-five (22%) of these were confirmed to be CLABSI by manual chart review. The best-fit model included presence of a catheter, blood culture positive for known pathogen or blood culture with a common skin contaminant confirmed by a second positive culture and the presence of fever, and no positive cultures with the same organism from another sterile site. The best-performing rule set had an overall sensitivity of 95.2%, specificity of 97.5%, positive predictive value of 90%, and negative predictive value of 99.2% compared with intensive manual surveillance.

Conclusions.

Although CLABSIs were slightly overpredicted by electronic surveillance compared with manual chart review, the method offers the possibility of performing acceptably good surveillance in areas where resources do not allow for traditional manual surveillance.
Effectiveness of Low-Temperature Domestic Laundry on the Decontamination of Healthcare Workers' Uniforms
Authors: Lakdawala N. , Pham J. , Shah M. , Holton J.
Published: October 2011

Objective.

Most professionals in the healthcare environment wear uniforms. For the purpose of this study, we concentrated on nurses' uniforms. In the United Kingdom, many nurses are expected to launder their uniforms at home by using a domestic washing machine that frequently has low-temperature wash cycles. We have investigated whether the use of low-temperature wash cycles results in a microbiologically acceptable product to wear on the wards.

Methods.

We have assessed the bioburden on uniforms before and after laundry and the effectiveness of low-temperature wash cycles and ironing on removal of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Acinetobacter baumannii. We did not assess the role of tumble drying.

Results.

We demonstrate contamination of uniforms by gram-negative bacteria after wash, the removal of MRSA at low-temperature wash cycles in the presence of detergent, and the eradication of gram-negative bacteria after ironing.

Conclusions.

Our conclusions are that laundry in a domestic situation at 60°C (140°F) for 10 minutes is sufficient to decontaminate hospital uniforms and reduces the bacterial load by more than 7-log reduction, that items left in the pockets are decontaminated to the same extent, that the addition of either a biological detergent or a nonbiological detergent is beneficial in removing MRSA from experimentally contaminated swatches, and that uniforms become recontaminated with low numbers of principally gram-negative bacteria after laundry but that these are effectively removed by ironing.
A Targeted Strategy to Wipe Out Clostridium difficile
Authors: Orenstein Robert , Aronhalt Kimberly C. , McManus James E. , Fedraw Leslie A.
Published: October 2011

This study evaluated daily cleaning with germicidal bleach wipes on wards with a high incidence of hospital-acquired Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). The intervention reduced hospital-acquired CDI incidence by 85%, from 24.2 to 3.6 cases per 10,000 patient-days, and prolonged the median time between hospital-acquired CDI cases from 8 to 80 days.
Simple modelling of the E–H mode transition and hysteresis in low pressure argon ICP discharges for direct comparison with experiments
Authors: Kang Namjun , Gaboriau Freddy
Published: October 2011

The E–H mode transition and hysteresis in low pressure argon inductively coupled discharges are investigated using a global model and a transformer model. The total absorbed power by the plasma and the coil current are calculated as a function of the electron density at fixed RF injected power rather than fixed RF coil current as previously shown in the literature. We found that the transition corresponds to a difference of the absorbed power efficiency between E and H mode. The calculation results show the existence of an inaccessible region between E and H mode as well as a threshold coil current and a minimum absorbed power for the H mode. Hysteresis is well reproduced by this simple calculation and can be directly compared with experimental data.
Introduction
Authors: Zuckerman Bruce
Published: October 2011

The introduction discusses the “patient Job” as a metaphor making this study more tangible and flexible than just a theory. The book uses an historical counterpoint by playing off distinct but related themes one against the other. The most prominent play of theme against theme in this study involves considering the book of Job side by side a famous Yiddish 19th-century short story: “Bontsye Shvayg” or “Bontsye the Silent” by Y. L. Perets in order to give a historical credibility to the book of Job. This study also takes into account the dynamism of the audience throughout history and the critical analysis of the changes that occur. In the same way, readers are reminded that though the questions posed in this study will be answered at the end, no answers are final since they are merely the latest critical line of argument derived from the lines that preceded it.
The “Patience” Problem
Authors: Zuckerman Bruce
Published: October 2011

The book of Job predominantly presents a “patient Job” or “ten hupomonen lob” posing an attitude of unquestioning, unresisting fortitude and endurance in the face of suffering. This chapter notes that Job is able to hold on to his fortitude beyond the beginning of Chapter 3 where he suddenly converts into the most impatient man causing him to be greatly persecuted. It stresses that the Epistle of James uses the term “heard of the patience of Job” which is different from “you have read about the patience of Job.” Nonetheless, the problem worsens as the oral tradition about the “patience of Job” takes precedence over the Job that eventually loses patience very quickly and how such opposing ideas coexist. Admittedly, the said problem has always been one of the most difficult problems inhibiting the proper interpretation of the book of Job. The chapter suggests that to be successful in resolving such contradictory pictures, it’s best to go back to how Epistle of James spoke of a “patient Job” as known by many and give precedence about the impatient Job that some have heard.
The Akedah Model
Authors: Zuckerman Bruce
Published: October 2011

The chapter states how Abraham’s story and the Akedah Model are relevant to the study of Job as a historical counterfeit. It discusses how Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac and how his faith was not really tested as God “saved” him from doing so. The same event is made known today by Shalom Spiegel who collected and analyzed it in his book, “The Last Trial.” Spiegel also notes that the story in Akedah has very ancient reverberations and how the story of Abraham and Isaac can be compared with Jephthah and his daughter in Judges 11. The Akedah whose basic theme tells of a son almost sacrificed but was saved by a merciful God at the last moment and Abraham’s story is best seen as a musical counterpoint where traditions that form a biblical narrative are best understood when heard together rather than isolated and analyzed as discrete identities. Spiegel considers the Akedah as a model that will help with the understanding of the book of Job.
The Case against a Linear Reading
Authors: Zuckerman Bruce
Published: October 2011

To further understand the story of Job and how he is the most patient of men, the linear reading of the book of Job specifically in relation to the dating of the Prologue/Epilogue and the Poem is not advisable. Avi Hurtz made a study on the language of the prose sections of Job which points out the role Satan plays in the life of Job but not a single verse in its poetic section at the same time not leaving any trace in the Epilogue. The question is what accounts for the presence of the Satan in the authorized version of the book. The chapter also makes connections with the Joban tradition and the Akedah which both deal with patriarchal figures subjected to severe testing by God. Like the ancient Akedah, the riginal Job story is considered more comprehensive than the one found in the book’s authorized version. It is important, though, that the polyphonic relationship between what is ancient and what is authorized is not neglected or else it will not be the story of Job at all. The ancient story of Job and the authorized version from the Prose Frame Story have the same contrapuntal relationship as the ancient and authorized stories of Akedah. The chapter also shows how Ezekiel equates Job with two other well-known legendary figures—Noah and Danel, all considered as righteous men.
Anti-Job
Authors: Zuckerman Bruce
Published: October 2011

The chapter poses the essential question “How does the Poem of Job fit within the contrapuntal harmony that constitutes the Joban tradition?” It focuses more on the similarities of Bontsye and the traditional Job, where the later can also be Super-Job who holds fast to his integrity and has not a word against God nor Man. The chapter assumes that the attitude of the writer of “Poem of Job” when faced with the optimistic tradition of the pious and silent Job is based on anger, much the same as Perets’. Both could have viewed the two characters not as the ultimate figure of piety worthy of praise but as ultimate fools. This explains why the author structured his poem in a manner that the traditional conventions were turned inside out. The Job in the poem is pictured as vocal, impatient, and challenging the divine authority, emitting a feeling of being Anti-Job, the counterpoint to the traditional Job. Three of Job’s friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, were also seen in a similar perspective. The poet does not wish the reader to simply focus on Job but to look at the nature of God too. The chapter also discusses the Song of Songs to further understand the approach to Scriptures exemplified by Rabbi Aqiba. In explaining the presence of the poem in the center of the book of Job, Aqiba endorses the most traditional of stories whose heroes is the most pious of men.
The “Sincerely Wrong” Approach
Authors: Zuckerman Bruce
Published: October 2011

The interpretations of the story of Bontsye Shvayg by Hilde Abel and Arnold Perl are the focus of this chapter. Abel’s rendition, the most widely read, believes that a bitter laugh is the only possible climax to the story and Perl’s play, “The World Sholom Aleichem,” a dramatic rendition that has done more to bring Perets’ story before contemporary audiences, believes in Bontsye’s piety that no prosecutional laugh could challenge. The chapter presents a “wrong” interpretation of Bontsye that goes against what the text plainly expresses. It notes, however, that an interpretation is only wrong from one’s perspective because of historical factors (i.e. Holocaust) which have been a huge influence in transforming the “wrong” interpretation into what has to be right. The discussion of a “sincerely wrong” approach to Bontsye moves back to the larger issue on how to explain the contrapuntal structure of the book of Job. The chapter also mentions Ecclesiastes, whose pietistic terms must be rethought, still worked to mold the canonical shape of the book of Job.
The Art of Parody: The Legal Metaphor
Authors: Zuckerman Bruce
Published: October 2011

The legalisms from the “Poem of Job” reflect the poet’s innovation. The author produced a legal metaphor which will be considered largely without reference to the Dialogue/Appeal in the “Poem.” The chapter raises one issue that is usually avoided—the question of God’s righteousness. Though this was presented in the poem “according to the rules” as wholly conventional testimonies, the use of legal metaphor makes it clearer that all is not quite as conventional as how it seemed at first. The Hebrew term “rib” seems to be the very essence of the “Poem of Job” from a legalistic standpoint. “Rib” as used in the Bible is an early affirmation of the rule of law-and-order over the law-of-the-jungle. The poet was able to bring legal metaphor in Job when he feels that God resisted giving proper legal recourse and the said legal metaphor reached its climax at the conclusion of Chapter 31. It is remarkable that Job’s legal strategy results into definitive juridical results. The chapter also connotes that Job’s persecution of God from a legal standpoint goes beyond what makes the legal system work. It also explains how the poet gave the most ironic turn to his legal metaphor when God throws Job’s case out court in Theopany which allows Him to put Job back in the role of a mortal as defendant and Him as Prosecutor, Judge, and the Ultimate Authority.
Abbreviated and Targeted Geriatric Assessment
Authors: Lubben James
Published: October 2011

This chapter makes a case for the development of valid and reliable short measures for geriatric social work practice. These abbreviated measures, defined as having no more than 10 items, can be practical screeners for risk factors as well as important tools for clarifying the relevance and importance of social health to the well-being of older adults.
Interdisciplinary Team Practices
Authors: Mellor M. Joanna
Published: October 2011

This chapter discusses interdisciplinary team practice and its importance in providing comprehensive services to older adults. This approach is valuable for its ability to attend to the wide range of needs of the older adult, utilizing the expertise of physical and mental health professionals. Both strengths and weaknesses of this approach are identified and illustrated through the use of a case presentation of how a multidisciplinary approach is superior to any specific profession's approach in identifying both problems and solutions.
Spirituality in Professional Helping Interventions
Authors: Nelson-Becker Holly , Nakashima Mitsuko , Canda Edward
Published: October 2011

This chapter discusses the inclusion of spiritually-focused assessment and helping activities among the strategies social workers use with older adults. It describes the domains included in a spiritual assessment of the older adult and the use of spiritually-oriented helping activities. It identifies what clinician and client characteristics are most appropriate for spiritually-based interventions.
National Advocacy Groups for Older Adults
Authors: Harootyan Linda Krogh , O’Neill Greg
Published: October 2011

This chapter focuses on national advocacy groups for older adults. Although individual advocacy in social work is important and necessary, organizational advocacy is also essential, and has the advantage of potentially bringing greater and more sustained resources to advocacy efforts. Organizational advocacy can be most powerful when combined with individual stories, thereby giving a personal face to the issues.
Assumptions and Hypotheses
Authors: Scott Clive
Published: October 2011

This chapter undertakes an analysis of one of Alain Fournier's free-verse poems, ‘Et maintenant que c'est la pluie’, as a way of addressing larger issues concerning poetry. This analysis in particular seeks to analyse free verse's connections with different kinds of relativity: temporal, paralinguistic, and psychological. How is the relative to be registered in a scansional system? What scansional strategies are available to the reader to capture the flux and variability of enunciation? In addition to addressing questions and providing analysis, the present chapter also provides a framework of terms and concepts from which the subsequent chapters can operate.
Theories and Enquiries
Authors: Scott Clive
Published: October 2011

This chapter discusses the theoretical foundations of free verse. A discussion of the theoretical works of Gustave Kahn's ‘Preface sur le vers libre’, Albert Mockel's Propos de literature and Edouard Dijardin's Les Premiers Poetes du vers libre is included in this chapter. The chapter also includes a presentation of the findings of two literary enquiries made by Huret's Enquete sur l'evolution litteraire and F. T. Marinetti's Enquete international sur le vers libre. Included as well in this chapter are quotations of the text examined and analysis of the related poems to give the chapter a documentary value and to allow measurement of the difference between theory and practice.
Conclusion
Authors: Scott Clive
Published: October 2011

Free verse provided fundamental shifts in the manner of perceiving accentuation, syllabicity, verse-music, and its functions. However, amongst these changes is the change in the rhythm and the perceptions attached to it. In free verse, the rhythm ceases to be an affair of aesthetics, of genre, and of linguistic convention. It stops being something objective, something which inheres in a certain linguistic configuration, something which is perceptible in language and becomes the very relationship between the subject and language. It becomes the experiential dimension of utterance. Rhythm of vers libre is not quantitative but qualitative. It is not susceptible to the metronome but is deeply implicated in the relativities of inner duration. Rhythm in free verse is not what makes vers libre poetic but what makes free verse mundane.
Setting the Scene
Authors: Lamarque Peter , Olsen Stein Haugom
Published: October 2011

This chapter sets the stage for the discussions in the subsequent chapters. It presents a ‘no-truth’ theory of literature. That is, it is argued that, inter alia, that the concept of truth has no central or ineliminable role in critical practice. The point is not, of course, that critics have no concern with true judgements but only that there is no significant place for truth as a critical term applied to works of literature. The rejection of truth as an essential facet of literature is hardly original; indeed versions of ‘no-truth’ theories probably have wider support in the critical community at present than do ‘pro-truth’ theories. So why return again to such well-worn ground? Part of the answer — the positive part — is that a new paradigm is needed, replacing the standard truth/world axis which still dominates the debate, for explaining the values of literature and the nature of fiction. Another, more polemical, reason for taking up again the old debate about literature and truth is because the most prominent arguments currently advanced against ‘literary truth’ are radically misconceived.
Truth-Value and Pretence
Authors: Lamarque Peter , Olsen Stein Haugom
Published: October 2011

This chapter begins with a discussion of falsity thesis, which states that ‘pure fiction’, by definition, consists of false sentences. It then considers an alternative to the falsity thesis, the no-truth-value view of fictive utterance. There are at least three versions of this: (i) sentences in works of fiction are neither true nor false because their (existential) presuppositions are false; (ii) sentences in works of fiction are neither true nor false because the sentences are not asserted; and (iii) it is inappropriate (mistaken, etc.) to ascribe truth or falsity to sentences in works of fiction. The chapter discusses the precise place pretence occupies in the practice of story-telling and what kinds of pretence there are.
Reference and ‘About’
Authors: Lamarque Peter , Olsen Stein Haugom
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines different kinds of referential or quasi-referential relations compatible with fiction (fictive utterance, the fictive stance). While acknowledging that such referential relations do obtain, thereby rejecting non-reference and anti-reference views, the chapter resists the stronger claim that reference is somehow indispensable to literary fiction or is an indicator of literary value. A modest pro-reference position does nothing to support traditional conceptions of ‘literary truth’. Of far greater significance for literary fiction than reference is ‘aboutness’. To speak of what a work is about is not equivalent to speaking of its references. The discussion of ‘aboutness’ in the literary context shows that what a work is about not only helps to determine its value but is connected with its very status as a work of literature.
Aspects, Points of View, and Objectivity
Authors: Lamarque Peter , Olsen Stein Haugom
Published: October 2011

The aspectival nature of fictional content is not an intrinsic feature of a ‘language of fiction’ but a feature of the conventional response associated with the fictive stance. For it is a consequence of adopting the fictive stance to propositional content, under the conventions of the practice, that the aspects through which that content is characterized acquire special prominence. The notion that fictional content is aspectival in this way relates to familiar conceptions of ‘point of view’ in literary criticism. A central task for the literary critic is to identify the means by which a certain content is presented, and the literary purposes behind such a presentation, usually with the working assumption that the content itself is not clearly independent of the mode of its presentation. Less familiar issues, however, of a more philosophical nature, need to be addressed about ‘point of view’ with regard to fiction per se. This chapter discusses the idea of objectivity in order to secure the position on ‘point of view’ — based on the fictive stance — against metaphysically motivated arguments that seek to show that it is not only fictional objects, but in fact all objects, that possess an aspectival nature.
Narrative and Imagination
Authors: Lamarque Peter , Olsen Stein Haugom
Published: October 2011

This chapter addresses two further challenges posed by the alleged ‘ubiquity of narrative’ and ‘ubiquity of imagination’. There are strikingly similar pressures thought to be imposed by narrative and the imagination on the distinction between truth-teller and fiction-maker. Although there need be no direct relation between the two, it has been claimed for both narrative and the imagination: that they are indispensable for human cognition; that they are natural (innate, unlearned) dispositions apparent at the earliest stages of infant development; that their paradigmatic forms are in literary expression; that there is no difference in kind between the way each functions in literary and non-literary applications; and that their fundamental role in all intellectual processes weakens the distinctions between different modes of discourse, historical, philosophical, scientific, and literary. The chapter explores some of these claims and defends the view that the functions of both narrative and the imagination in the practice of fiction are distinct in significant ways from their functions in other contexts, for example in history, philosophy, and science. In doing so it shows that the pressures arising from the apparent ubiquity of narration and imagination do not constitute any serious threat to the distinction between fiction and non-fiction as it bears on literature.
Literature and Fiction
Authors: Lamarque Peter , Olsen Stein Haugom
Published: October 2011

This chapter focuses on the relationship between literature and fiction. It argues that some literary works undoubtedly have invented content and in that regard can be construed as being fictional. Some works do contain passages that can be firmly tied to the biography of the author, passages that describe historical events, persons, and real places. Works of literature do have themes, and a number also present theses. And works do present readers with modes of experience. The question for the literary theorist is whether any of these aspects of literature define the peculiar value which makes literature culturally and humanly significant, and thus provide what the reader demands from a work as literature.
The Mimetic Aspect of Literature
Authors: Lamarque Peter , Olsen Stein Haugom
Published: October 2011

Thematic statements and thematic concepts are integrated into philosophical discourse in a different way from that of the discourse belonging to literary practice. Of course, there are analogies between philosophical and literary discourse. In philosophical works thematic statements and thematic concepts are applied in the discussion of examples just as in literary interpretation they are applied in the discussion of fictional situations. However, this chapter argues that this does not turn philosophical discourse into literature nor literature into philosophy, no matter how complex the examples become.
Agrarian Politics and Rural Development in West Bengal
Authors: Sengupta Sunil , Gazdar Haris
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines recent attempts to address the challenge of rural poverty in West Bengal. One distinguishing feature of the recent history of the said state is a significant change in the balance of political power in favour of disadvantaged groups, which took a concrete expression in 1977 when the Left Front coalition came to office at the state level. This change in the balance of power has made it possible to implement a number of far-reaching social programmes that are often considered ‘politically infeasible’ in many other states, notably including land reform and the revitalization of democratic institutions at the village level. Public policies concerned with health education and related matters have also been neglected, and correspondingly, the improvement of living conditions in West Bengal in recent years has remained relatively slow.
Placements: The Geographical and Social Locations of the Mareotic Group
Authors: Taylor Joan E.
Published: October 2011

It is easy to configure the Mareotic group in the light of later Christian monasteries, and become blind to the evidence that Philo provides in his text. For Philo and for others in the Graeco-Roman world, the stories of Indian sages and Buddhist monks and nuns provided examples of those who lived a contemplative life. In early Christian monasticism, ascetics such as St Antony went far away from human society into the wilderness. Traditionally, in Theravada Buddhism, the sangha (the community of monks and nuns) has a special relationship with the wider Buddhist community, which supports those who live in the monastery: the wider community supplies the sangha with food, when the monks come to beg, and the sangha gives advice to the wider community. The location of a monastery is often right in the heart of a town. This chapter examines the geographical and social location of the group Philo describes in order to define more precisely how it might be placed in terms of the community from which it came.
The Philosophia of Ioudaismos
Authors: Taylor Joan E.
Published: October 2011

Philo does not expect his audience to think of his philosophers in De Vita Contemplativa as being associated with cultic activities at an actual temple. Instead, he uses them as exemplars of the bios theoretikos, the classic meditative/contemplative life. The Mareotic group are those who truly are ‘the good’, the very image of perfect philosophers. They are explicitly called ‘philosophers’. They are driven by impulses for and trained in philosophy; they live and cultivate a life of philosophy, interpret allegorically the inherited philosophy, and follow the contemplative part of philosophy. Philo jumps from cultic language to philosophical language. This would have seemed perhaps more striking to his audience than to us, for cult and philosophy were two discrete conceptual categories in antiquity. To understand how Philo could make the jump, and how he could expect his audience to do so, we need to look at ‘religion’ as a whole, and basic understandings of Judaism, in the Graeco-Roman world.
Paradigms of ‘Women’ in Discourses on Philosophia
Authors: Taylor Joan E.
Published: October 2011

Philo wished to present a group of extreme allegorizers as living the bios theoretikos: Jewish men and women living a philosophical lifestyle more excellent than any known in the Graeco-Roman world. In order to understand what Philo may have had to deal with, rhetorically, we need to consider how women appear in the discourse of Graeco-Roman philosophy. This chapter explores what is stated about women philosophers and students of philosophers in an attempt to consider how the women are presented in the texts, including epigraphy and art. The women who are represented allegedly lived from the sixth century BCE to the third century CE.
Gendered Space
Authors: Taylor Joan E.
Published: October 2011

Philo was concerned to locate his group very carefully on a certain hill between the Mediterranean Sea and Lake Mareotis. He indicates the surrounding villages and buildings, and the little houses in which senior members of the Mareotic group live. He also shows us two meeting places: a semneion where the seventh-day assemblies take place, and a sumposion where the forty-ninth-day dinner is held. In fact, a further dimension of Philo's rhetoric of gender in De Vita Contemplativa concerns space. In creating a vision of what is good, Philo sought at times to create an ideal spatial arrangement which would vouchsafe the virtue of the group members. Along with this, Philo gives details about the personal space of the group members as signified by clothing. Clothing is a primary indicator of gender, and can be the first step towards the gendering of space in general. This chapter examines the spaces Philo constructs — communal, personal, and sacred — within the context of what we know about spatial arrangements in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt.
Gender Blenders: Moses, Miriam, and Music
Authors: Taylor Joan E.
Published: October 2011

In terms of gender roles, both men and women in the Mareotic group share a meal symbolic of God's everlasting covenant with Israel, which they then interpret as the triumph of enkrateia, self-control. They appear to have understood that their contemplation of scripture and musical compositions, mortification of the body, and quiet solitariness involved some kind of training for a vision of God. In Philo's presentation in De Vita Contemplativa, the people of the Mareotic group work themselves into an altered state of consciousness usually referred to as a trance, so that ‘they keep the memory of God’ constantly and ‘in dreams nothing else is dreamt of apart from the beauty of the divine attributes and powers’. One of the means by which the group ascends towards seeing the divine light of God is music. For the Mareotic group, though not actually for Philo, Moses — as inspired prophet — leads the men who have also in some way become struck by the rapture of divine inspiration. Miriam — as inspired prophet — does likewise with the inspired women.
Conclusion
Authors: Taylor Joan E.
Published: October 2011

Since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the elusive Therapeutae have sometimes been read through a different lens, and configured as a branch of the better known Essene school of Judaea, anomalies explained away by their being an Alexandrian branch of the school, or by Philo's twists on sources describing Essenes. This study has reconfigured the Therapeutae as one of the ascetic, contemplative groups that formed part of the philosophical school of Jewish allegorical exegesis in first-century Alexandria. The Therapeutae are illustrative of one of these groups: the extreme allegorizers. Philo chose to present this particular group as indicative of the virtue of the Jews to an audience of Romans, in Rome, during the course of his representations there in 41 CE. He differed with this group regarding the praxis of Jewish law, calendar, asceticism of the young, and celibacy, and was uncomfortable about the women. This study has rested on issues of women and gender in the rhetoric of De Vita Contemplativa and in the group to which Contempl. points.
Coping with the extremes: stress physiology varies between winter and summer in breeding opportunists
Authors: Cornelius Jamie M. , Breuner Creagh W. , Hahn Thomas P.
Published: October 2011

Seasonal changes in stress steroid hormone secretions are thought to reflect investment in self-maintenance versus reproduction. The capricious conditions hypothesis (CCH) posits that reduced corticosterone (CORT) secretion during stress coincident with parental phases of breeding is necessary in harsh environments because a full response would otherwise trigger repeated nest abandonments. To test this hypothesis, we measured seasonal changes in stress physiology in free-living red crossbills (
Loxia curvirostra
), an opportunistically breeding songbird that regularly breeds in summer and winter. This species allows unique comparisons of breeding physiology under very different seasonal environmental conditions within locations. We found strong support for the CCH: red crossbills showed reduced CORT secretion only when in high reproductive condition in the winter, when compared with summer breeders and winter non-breeders. These data demonstrate that behavioural status and local environmental conditions interact to affect mechanisms underlying investment trade-offs, presumably in a way that maximizes lifetime reproductive success.
Tracking long-distance migration to assess marine pollution impact
Authors: Montevecchi William , Fifield David , Burke Chantelle , Garthe Stefan , Hedd April , Rail Jean-François , Robertson Gregory
Published: October 2011

Animal tracking provides new means to assess far-reaching environmental impacts. In the aftermath of theDeepwater Horizonexplosion in the Gulf of Mexico, a long-distance migrant, the northern gannet (Morus bassanus) suffered the highest oiling among beach-wrecked birds recovered. Analysis of bird-borne tracking data indicated that 25 per cent of their North American population from multiple colonies in eastern Canada migrated to the pollution zone. Findings contrasted sharply with available mark-recapture (band recovery) data. The timing of movement into and out of the Gulf indicates that immature birds would have absorbed most oil-induced mortality. Consequently, one of two outcomes is likely: either a lagged (likely difficult to assess) population decrease, or an undetectable population response buffered by age-related life-history adaptations. Tracking research is especially useful when little information on animal distributions in pollution zones is available, as is the case in the Gulf of Mexico. Ongoing research highlights current risks and conservation concerns.
mRNA-Expression of ERα, ERβ, and PR in Clonal Stem Cell Cultures Obtained from Human Endometrial Biopsies
Authors: Schüring A. N. , Braun J. , Wüllner S. , Kiesel L. , Götte M.
Published: October 2011

Background. Proliferation and differentiation of the endometrium are regulated by estrogen and progesterone. The enormous regenerative capacity of the endometrium is thought to be based on the activity of adult stem cells. However, information on endocrine regulatory mechanisms in human endometrial stem cells is scarce. In the present study, we investigated the expression of ERα, ERβ, and PR in clonal cultures of human endometrial stem cells derived from transcervical biopsies.Methods. Endometrial tissue of 11 patients was obtained by transcervical biopsy. Stromal cell suspensions were plated at clonal density and incubated for 15 days. Expression of ERα, ERβand PR was determined by qPCR prior to and after one cloning round, and normalized to 18 S rRNA expression.Results. Expression of ERαand ERβwas downregulated by 64% and 89%, respectively ( and ). In contrast, PR was not significantly downregulated, due to a more heterogenous expression pattern.Conclusions. Culture of human endometrial stroma cells results in a downregulation of ERαand ERβ, while expression of PR remained unchanged in our patient collective. These results support the hypothesis that stem cells may not be subject to direct stimulation by sex steroids, but rather by paracrine mechanisms within the stem cell niche.