bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
IL CARTEGGIO DEL FONDO SIACCI DELLA BIBLIOTECA DEL DIPARTIMENTO DI MATEMATICA RENATO CACCIOPPOLI: DELL'UNIVERSIT FEDERICO II DI NAPOLI
Authors: GATTO ROMANO , CARBONE LUCIANO
Published: November 2012

title SUMMARY /title We present here the letters of the "Fondo Siacci" which was found recently while reorganising some papers from the old seat of the library at the Department of Mathematics "Renato Caccioppoli" of the University "Federico II" of Naples, in Via Mezzocannone 8. Grancing at these letters we discovered their interest to reconstruct various historical events of italian mathematics life in the 2nd half of the 19th century.
STRUMENTARIA LEARNED INSTITUTIONS: SOURCES FOR UNKNOWN SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS*
Authors: JIMENEZ MARIA J. , SEBASTIN AMPARO
Published: November 2012

title RIASSUNTO /title Gli autori cercano di attirare l'attenzione sui problemi relativi alle collezioni di strumenti scientifici preservate in istituzioni (accademie, biblioteche, universit), i cui scopi sono lungi da essere quelli di un museo. Il lavoro di cura e conservazione andrebbe affidato a specialisti, che tuttavia sono scarsamente presenti in queste istituzioni. Tale situazione dovrebbe servire da stimolo ad una seria riflessione sulle condizioni e la tutela del patrimonio scientifico. Nell'articolo vengono presentati vari oggetti provenienti da diverse istituzioni e attualmente conservati presso il Museo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia di Madrid.
PER UN ARCHIVIO DELLA CORRISPONDENZA DEGLI SCIENZIATI ITALIANI MATEMATICA ED ERUDIZIONE. GIOVANNI ALFONSO BORELLI E L'EDIZIONE FIORENTINA DEI LIBRI V, VI E VII DELLE CONICHE DI APOLLONIO DI PERGA
Authors: GUERRINI LUIGI
Published: November 2012

title SUMMARY /title As a consequence of the recovery of thirty-four of Giovanni Alfonso Borelli's letters to Carlo Roberto Dati relevant to the Florentine edition of the V, VI and VII books of Apollonius of Perga's CONICHE (1661), the article completes the known reconstruction of the various stages of the preparation of the edition with previously unknown events and gives some information about the meaning of some philological and mathematical controversy to which it gave rise. The letters show to the reader the lofty cultural quality of the edition of 1661 and enlighten the seventeenth-century debates on the genuineness of the codicological tradition as the means of transmission of the mathematical books of ancient times. The intellectual connexion between the letterato Carlo Roberto Dati and the mathematician Giovanni Alfonso Borelli gives furthermore a proof of the very close links binding erudition and science in seventeenth-century Italy.
UN CONTRIBUTO AL CARTEGGIO DI GUIDO GRANDI E ODOARDO CORSINI*
Authors: BARBIERI FRANCESCO , ZUCCOLI MARINA
Published: November 2012

title SUMMARY /title The following letters aim to add a chapter to the studies about Guido Grandi (1671-1742), illustrating his relationship with Odoardo Corsini (1702-1765), historian and mathematician of the Scolopian fathers. Grandi, already a well known mathematician, received from the young Corsini an attempt at the squaring of the circle and kindly read it, pointing out its mistake. Eleven years later, Corsini submitted him another mathematical problem and its solution, which Grandi himself and other mathematicians had already discovered.
A Neighbourless Empire? The Forgotten Diplomatic Tradition of Imperial China
Authors: Sverdrup-Thygeson Bjørnar
Published: November 2012

Summary

In the diplomatic canon, where the field has been demarcated by a central distinction drawn between suzerain and parity-based state relations, Imperial China has squarely been designated to the former category, and thereby as inherently alien to the diplomatic tradition. However, this image of a monolithic 2000-year-long rigid, hierarchical system betrays a too shallow assessment of Chinese history, and fails to acknowledge a noteworthy strain of parity-based relations running through Imperial Chinese foreign policy. This strain was at its most pronounced during the four centuries of the Song Dynasty, where China’s relations with a set of important neighbouring states were handled on egalitarian terms that were far more reminiscent of a full-fledged diplomatic multi-state system than what is popularly acknowledged. Based on a case study of the diplomatic relations of the Song Dynasty, this article argues that Imperial Chinese foreign policy on a set of occasions showed itself to adhere to principles immanent to classical diplomacy, and that these eras thus should naturally, and beneficially, belong to the historical canon of diplomacy.
Unit-Ideas Unleashed: A Reinterpretation and Reassessment of Lovejovian Methodology in the History of Ideas
Authors: Knight Carl
Published: November 2012

Abstract

This article argues for an unconventional interpretation of Arthur O. Lovejoy’s distinctive approach to method in the history of ideas. It is maintained that the value of the central concept of the ‘unit-idea’ has been misunderstood by friends and foes alike. The commonality of unit-ideas at different times and places is often defined in terms of familial resemblance. But such an approach must necessarily define unit-ideas as being something other than the smallest conceptual unit. It is therefore in tension with Lovejoy’s methodological prescription and, more importantly, disregards a potentially important aspect of intellectual history – the smaller conceptual units themselves. In response to this, an alternative interpretation of unit-ideas as ‘elemental’ – as the smallest identifiable conceptual components – is put forward. Unlike the familial resemblance approach, the elemental approach can provide a plausible explanation for changes in ideas. These are construed as being either the creation of new unit-ideas, the disappearance of existing ones, or alterations in the groups of unit-ideas that compose idea-complexes. The focus on the movement of unit-ideas and idea-complexes through history can also be sensitive to contextual issues, carefully distinguishing the different meanings that single words may have, in much the way that both Lovejoy and his influential critic Quentin Skinner suggest.
The Medical Missionary’s Changing Conceptions of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Authors: Feiya Tao
Published: November 2012

Chinese medicine and Western medicine first met when Western missionaries came to China in the late Ming and early Qing period. Initially, they regarded the two types of medicine as almost equals, but gradually their evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine became more negative. After the Opium War, with the establishment of missionary hospitals, Western medical missionaries commonly criticized the theories of Chinese medicine, denigrated its practitioners and questioned its value. However, after the founding of Republic of China, the emergence of medical schools in Christian universities provided favorable conditions for the in-depth study of traditional Chinese medicine; at the same time, the fact that Western trained Chinese medical men in China were providing an introduction to traditional Chinese medicine corrected many of the missionaries’ misinterpretations of its canonical texts. In particular, some medical missionaries who had worked together with practitioners of Chinese medicine for many years began to take a “sympathetic view” of the theories and clinical experience of traditional Chinese medicine and the value of its pharmacopeia, thus pioneering Western understanding and use of traditional Chinese medicine.
Time for Implementation of the Right to Water and Sanitation—e.g. The Missing Implementation in Germany
Authors: Laskowski Silke Ruth
Published: November 2012

Access to safe water supplies and basic sanitation are necessary for maintaining public health, and water is needed to support healthy ecosystems, which in turn provide critical environmental goods and services. As water demand and availability become more uncertain, all societies become more vulnerable to a wide range of risks associated with inadequate water supply, including hunger and thirst, high rates of disease and death, economic crises, and degraded ecosystems. This endangers the enforcement of the Human Right to Water and Sanitation. Against this background the paper reviews the current political development to strengthen the legal enforcement of the Right to Water; describes the importance of its legal implementation regarding poor populations in Europe; exemplifies the need for implementation and legal action in view of Germany; and addresses to strengthen enforcement of the Human Right to Water and Sanitation with a view to Environmental Justice.
Du contact entre les langues au clivage dans la langue. Vers une anthropologie renouvelée*
Authors: Nicolaï Robert
Published: November 2012

The major aim of this paper is to offer an account of some results of investigations on language contact. I also aim at deconstructing the notion of ‘language contact’ going beyond the notion of ‘contact’. I attempt to analyze contact inside a language rather than contact between languages. This is reflected in the term ‘splitting’, as a way of approaching a new set of issues and breaking new grounds. My empirical base lies beyond an exocentric view whose objective is to capture the essence of mixed languages or the dynamics of multilingual situations. I take an endocentric stance, focused on the construction of signs and the process of construction of meaning within the general space of signification. My further objective is to propose a new dynamic view of semiotics, closely linked to the notions of boundary, system and representations as they are, reconditioned and simultaneously resulting from a predetermined analytic process. This has a potential of coming close to a Humboldtian perspective on the dynamic of languages, and of language.
Predicting multisensory enhancement in neuronal responses
Authors: Rowland Benjamin A.
Published: November 2012

The most dramatic physiological example of multisensory integration is response enhancement, where the integration of concordant signals across multiple sensory modalities leads to a larger and more reliable response. In the model system of the superior colliculus, the largest enhancements (often greater than the predicted sum) are observed when the individual signals being combined are weak. This principle conforms to expectations based on signal detection theory, and also as expected, enhancement is not uniform throughout any response. Typically it is greatest near its onset, when the unisensory inputs are at their weakest (Initial Response Enhancement, see Rowland et al., 2007; Rowland and Stein, 2008). Despite the general accuracy of this heuristic, however, there is a substantial amount of variance in the degree of observed enhancement at all levels of responsiveness. This observation appears to violate standard Bayesian predictions that are based on overall response magnitude. Aside from statistical noise, a possible explanation is that individual neurons in the dataset are calibrated to different ‘computational modes’. An alternative hypothesis is that the amount of enhancement is influenced greatly by response properties other than magnitude, specifically, the temporal profile of the response. The present analysis advances the latter hypothesis. We present a mechanistic framework that explains these findings and extends the standard Bayesian approach to generate an accurate prediction for the multisensory response profile given known unisensory response profiles. These predictions offer a ‘null hypothesis’ that can be used to quantify the circumstances and timing of anomalies in the integrative processes in different experimental conditions; for example, when it is developing under different conditions, or when it is disrupted by experimental or surgical intervention at any stage of life.
Telling the time with audiovisual speech and non-speech: Does the brain use multiple clocks?
Authors: Ipser Alberta , Paunoiu Diana , Freeman Elliot D.
Published: November 2012

It has often been claimed that there is mutual dependence between the perceived synchrony of auditory and visual sources, and the extent to which they perceptually integrate (‘unity assumption’: Vroomen and Keetels, 2010; Welsh and Warren, 1980). However subjective audiovisual synchrony can vary widely between subjects (Stone, 2001) and between paradigms (van Eijk, 2008). Do such individual differences in subjective synchrony correlate positively with individual differences in optimal timing for integration, as expected under the unity assumption? In separate experiments we measured the optimal audiovisual asynchrony for the McGurk illusion (McGurk and MacDonald, 1976), and the stream-bounce illusion (Sekuler et al., 1997). We concurrently elicited either temporal order judgements (TOJ) or simultaneity judgements (SJ), in counterbalanced sessions, from which we derived the point of subjective simultaneity (PSS). For both experiments, the asynchrony for maximum illusion showed a significant positive correlation with PSS derived from SJ, following the unity assumption. But surprisingly, the analogous correlation with PSS derived from TOJ was significantly negative. The temporal mechanisms for this pairing of tasks seem neither unitary nor fully independent, but apparently antagonistic. A tentative temporal renormalisation mechanism explains these paradoxical results as follows: (1) subjective timing in our different tasks can depend on independent mechanisms subject to their own neural delays; (2) inter-modal synchronization is achieved by first discounting the mean neural delay within each modality; and (3) apparent antagonism between estimates of subjective timing emerges as the mean is attracted towards deviants in the unimodal temporal distribution.
Temporal rate adaptation transfers cross-modally at a subconscious level
Authors: Yang Charlotte L. , Stiles Noelle R. B. , Levitan Carmel A. , Shimojo Shinsuke
Published: November 2012

In an earlier study, we demonstrated that the temporal rate adaptation effect can be transferred from audition to vision and vice versa. However, it was unclear whether this effect was due to a top-down cognitive process, or rather to an earlier calibration process which is stimulus-driven and automatic. We therefore examined the effect of interocular masking of the adapting stimuli on the temporal rate adaptation and its cross-modal transfer from vision to audition (VA). Participants were trained, using feedback, to classify repetitive auditory stimuli presented at a range of frequencies (3.25–4.75 Hz) as fast or slow (as compared to the average frequency of 4 Hz). Afterwards, subjects were repeatedly exposed to visual stimuli at a specific rate (3 or 5 Hz). This adaptation stimulus was masked by continuous flash suppression (CFS). During CFS, a stimulus presented to one eye can be suppressed from awareness by a stream of constantly changing images in the other eye. To test whether adaptation resulted from this less visible exposure, participants then performed the same task as in the training, but without feedback. Test and adaptation tasks were presented in 20 alternating blocks. A comparison of the pre- and post-adaptation responses showed cross-modal changes in subjects’ perception of temporal rate. Adaptation to the masked 5 Hz (3 Hz) stimuli led to subsequent stimuli seeming slower (faster) than they had before adaptation. Since the adaptation stimuli were mostly masked by CFS, the results suggest that temporal rate adaptation and its cross-modal transfer occur mostly at a subconscious level.
The effect of vision on tactile TOJ during arm crossing
Authors: Wada Makoto , Kansaku Kenji
Published: November 2012

When people cross their arms, subjective rank ordering of successive unseen tactile stimuli delivered to both arms is affected (often being reversed) (Shore et al., 2002; Yamamoto and Kitazawa, 2001). It is also known that vision plays a significant role in modulating perceived limb position (Graziano et al., 2000). In this study, we examined the effect of vision; i.e., eyes opening and closing on tactile temporal order judgment (TOJ) with their arms crossed or uncrossed. In a psychophysical experiment, participants (, 13 males, 27.3 ± 1.8 y.o.) were required to judge temporal order of two tactile stimuli that were delivered to their both ring fingers with four conditions: uncrossed arms with eyes closed, crossed arms with eyes closed, uncrossed arms with eyes open and crossed arms with eyes open. To evaluate judgment probabilities of the participants, degree of reversals of their judgment was calculated as the sum of differences between correct response rates of the arms crossed condition and those of the arms uncrossed condition. In arms uncrossed conditions, judgment probabilities of the participants were not significantly different between eyes closed and open conditions. In contrast, reversal of the judgment with eyes closed was significantly larger than that with eyes open in arms crossed conditions (). The results suggest that vision play a significant role in tactile order judgment when the subject arms crossed.
Audiovisual crossmodal correspondences in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs)
Authors: Occelli Valeria , Esposito Gianluca , Venuti Paola , Walker Peter , Zampini Massimiliano
Published: November 2012

The label ‘crossmodal correspondences’ has been used to define the nonarbitrary associations that appear to exist between different basic physical stimulus attributes in different sensory modalities. For instance, it has been consistently shown in the neurotypical population that higher pitched sounds are more frequently matched with visual patterns which are brighter, smaller, and sharper than those associated to lower pitched sounds. Some evidence suggests that patients with ASDs tend not to show this crossmodal preferential association pattern (e.g., curvilinear shapes and labial/lingual consonants vs. rectilinear shapes and plosive consonants). In the present study, we compared the performance of children with ASDs (6–15 years) and matched neurotypical controls in a non-verbal crossmodal correspondence task. The participants were asked to indicate which of two bouncing visual patterns was making a centrally located sound. In intermixed trials, the visual patterns varied in either size, surface brightness, or shape, whereas the sound varied in pitch. The results showed that, whereas the neurotypical controls reliably matched the higher pitched sound to a smaller and brighter visual pattern, the performance of participants with ASDs was at chance level. In the condition where the visual patterns differed in shape, no inter-group difference was observed. Children’s matching performance cannot be attributed to intensity matching or difficulties in understanding the instructions, which were controlled. These data suggest that the tendency to associate congruent visual and auditory features vary as a function of the presence of ASDs, possibly pointing to poorer capabilities to integrate auditory and visual inputs in this population.
Top-down knowledge about reflection modulates response competition to multisensory stimuli
Authors: Jones Adam , Bertamini Marco , Meyer Georg
Published: November 2012

An image reflected in a mirror may appears in the visual field in a location opposite to the physical location of the object in the environment, in particular it may appear on the right when the object is on the left and vice versa. Through experience people have knowledge that reflections are not real objects an also that they are informative about object locations. We tested the importance of this knowledge in a simple task in which participants had to respond to a visual stimulus (light from an LED) that could appear in the right or left visual field. Participants had to respond with the contralateral hand, i.e., they had to press the right button if the light was on the left and vice versa. An irrelevant sound could also originate from the left or the right side. To avoid different bouncing of the sound the mirror condition was compared to a glass condition so that the solid surfaces were identical in size. When light and sound had the same spatial origin responses were faster, however this was only true as long as the light was seen though a glass and not seen reflected in a mirror. We conclude that participants are influenced by the knowledge about the origin of a light when when this information is irrelevant for their task.
Improved tactile acuity following perceptual learning generalises to untrained fingers
Authors: Harrar Vanessa , Spence Charles , Makin Tamar R.
Published: November 2012

The body is represented in a somatotopic framework such that adjacent body parts are represented next to each other in the brain. We utilised the organisation of the somatosensory cortex to study the generalisation pattern of tactile perceptual learning. Perceptual learning refers to the process of long-lasting improvement in the performance of a perceptual task following persistent sensory exposure. In order to test if perceptual learning generalises to neighbouring brain/body areas, 12 participants were trained on a tactile discrimination task on one fingertip (using tactile oriented gratings) over the course of four days. Thresholds for tactile acuity were estimated prior to, and following, the training for the ‘trained’ finger and three additional fingers: ‘adjacent’, ‘homologous’ (the same finger as trained but on the opposite hand) and ‘other’ (which was neither adjacent nor homologous to the trained finger). Identical threshold estimating with no training was also carried out for a control group. Following training, tactile thresholds were improved (as compared to the control group). Importantly, improved performance was not exclusive for the trained finger; it generalised to the adjacent and homologous fingers, but not the other finger. We found that perceptual learning indeed generalises in a way that can be predicted by the topography of the somatosensory cortex, suggesting that sensory experience is not necessary for perceptual learning. These findings may be translated to rehabilitation procedures that train the partially-deprived cortex using similar principles of perceptual learning generalisation, such as following amputation or blindness in adults.
Predictive power in models of audiovisual integration of speech
Authors: Andersen Tobias Søren
Published: November 2012

Seeing the talking face can influence the phoneme perceived from the voice. This facilitates speech perception in the natural case where the face and voice are congruent and can cause the McGurk illusion when they are not. The classical example of the McGurk illusion is when acoustic /aba/ is perceived as /ada/ when dubbed onto a face articulating /aga/. In order to fully understand the underlying process of integrating information across the senses we need a computational account with predictive power. The Fuzzy Logical Model of Perception is one computational account of audiovisual integration in speech perception. Here we describe alternative accounts in which integration is based on an early continuous internal representation on which the phonetic classes fall. We show that these alternative accounts can provide just as good a fit when corrected for the number of free parameters. We also show, using cross-validation, that they have greater, but not great, predictive power. Finally, we show that introducing a regularization term can amend the lack of predictive power. With regularization, models based on continuous representations have the highest predictive power.
Examining tactile spatial remapping using transcranial magnetic stimulation
Authors: Medina Jared , Khurshid Shaan , Hamilton Roy H. , Coslett H. Branch
Published: November 2012

Previous research has provided evidence for two stages of tactile processing (e.g., Azañon and Soto-Faraco, 2008; Groh and Sparks, 1996). First, tactile stimuli are represented in a somatotopic representation that does not take into account body position in space, followed by a representation of body position in external space (body posture representation, see Medina and Coslett, 2010). In order to explore potential functional and neural dissociations between these two stages of processing, we presented eight participants with TMS before and after a tactile temporal order judgment (TOJ) task (see Yamamoto and Kitazawa, 2001). Participants were tested with their hands crossed and uncrossed before and after 20 min of 1 Hz repetitive TMS (rTMS). Stimulation occurred at the left anterior intraparietal sulcus (aIPS, somatotopic representation) or left Brodmann Area 5 (BA5, body posture) during two separate sessions. We predicted that left aIPS TMS would affect a somatotopic representation of the body, and would disrupt performance in both the uncrossed and crossed conditions. However, we predicted that TMS of body posture areas (BA5) would disrupt mechanisms for updating limb position with the hands crossed, resulting in a paradoxical improvement in performance after TMS. Using thresholds derived from adaptive staircase procedures, we found that left aIPS TMS disrupted performance in the uncrossed condition. However, left BA5 TMS resulted in a significant improvement in performance with the hands crossed. We discuss these results with reference to potential dissociations of the traditional body schema.
Intramodal and crossmodal refractory effects: Evidence from oscillatory brain activity
Authors: Bottari Davide , Rohlf Sophie , Hense Marlene , Habets Boukje , Roeder Brigitte
Published: November 2012

Event-related potentials (ERP) to the second stimulus of a pair are known to be reduced in amplitude. The magnitude of this ‘refractoriness’ is modulated by both the interstimulus interval and the similarity between the two stimuli. Intramodal refractoriness is interpreted as an index of a temporary decrement in neural responsiveness. So, cross-modal refractoriness might be an indicator of shared neural generators between modalities. We analysed oscillatory neuronal activity while participants were engaged in an oddball paradigm with auditory (4000 Hz, 50 ms-long, 90 db, bilateral) and tactile stimuli (50 ms-long, 125 Hz-vibrations, index fingers) presented in a random order with an ISI of either 1000 or 2000 ms. Participants were required to detect rare tactile (middle fingers) and auditory deviants (600 Hz). A time–frequency analysis of the brain response to the second stimulus of each pair (T-T, A-A, T-A and A-T) contrasting Short and Long ISIs revealed a reduced refractory effect after Long ISI with respect to Short ISI, in all pairs (both intramodal and cross-modal). This emerged as a broadly distributed increase of evoked theta activity (3–7 Hz, 100–500 ms). Only in intramodal tactile pairs and cross-modal tactile-auditory pairs we also observed that Long ISI with respect to Short ISI determined a decrease of induced alpha (8–12 Hz, 200–700 ms), a typical sign of enhanced neural excitability and thus decreased refractoriness. These data suggest that somatosensory and auditory cortices display different neural markers of refractoriness and that the auditory cortex might have a stronger low level degree of influence on the tactile cortex than vice-versa.
Features of the Human Rod Bipolar Cell ERG Response During Fusion of Scotopic Flicker
Authors: Cameron Allison M. , Lam Jacqueline S. C.
Published: November 2012

The ability of the eye to distinguish between intermittently presented flash stimuli is a measure of the temporal resolution of vision. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the features of the human rod bipolar cell response (as measured from the scotopic ERG b-wave) and the psychophysically measured critical fusion frequency (CFF). Stimuli consisted of dim (∼0.04 Td ⋅ s), blue flashes presented either singly, or as flash pairs (at a range of time separations, between 5 and 300 ms). Single flashes of double intensity (∼0.08 Td ⋅ s) were also presented as a reference. Visual responses to flash pairs were measured via (1) recording of the ERG b-wave, and (2) threshold determinations of the CFF using a two-alternative forced-choice method (flicker vs. fused illumination). The results of this experiment suggest that b-wave responses to flash pairs separated by <100 ms are electrophysiologically similar to those obtained with single flashes of double intensity. Psychophysically, the percepts of flash pairs <100 ms apart appeared fused. In conclusion, the visual system’s ability to discriminate between scotopic stimuli may be determined by the response characteristics of the rod bipolar cell, or perhaps by the rod photoreceptor itself.
Attitudes and Political Views of Petrograd Police on the Eve of the February Revolution
Authors: Борисович Николаев Андрей
Published: November 2012

В российской историографии, как советской, так и новейшей, вопросы о настроениях и политических взглядах столичных полицейских практически не рассматривались. Отчасти это обьясняется ведомственными интересами исследователей, служивших в различных учреждениях Министерства внутренних дел. Кроме этого, долгое время ученые не могли выявить необходимый комплекс документальных источников. Лишь недавно были рассекречены материалы особых следственных отрядов (ОСО) Петрограда. Эти материалы содержат показания как самих полицейских, так и свидетелей, данных ими в ОСО весной 1917 года. На их основе данное исследование выделяет группы аполитичных и политически ориентированных полицейских. Исследование демонстрирует, что среди политически ориентированных полицейских было незначительное количество лиц, придерживавшихся реакционных, черносотенных взглядов, но преобладали как раз те, кто стоял на антиправительственных, прогрессивных и даже революционных позициях. Столичная полиция накануне революции в полной мере не являлась надежной опорой царского режима. Рассуждая о причинах появления и существования внутри столичной полиции недовольных и ориентированных на изменение существующих порядков полицейских, автор высказывает предположение о том, что важнейшей из них было негативное отношение общества к полиции.
Perceptual Anti-Individualism and Skepticism
Authors: Brueckner Anthony
Published: November 2012

In “Perceptual Entitlement, Reliabilism, and Scepticism,” Frank Barel explores some important and under-discussed questions regarding the relation between Tyler Burge’s views on perceptual entitlement, on the one hand, and the problem of skepticism, on the other. In this note, I would like to comment on a couple of aspects of Barel’s article. First, I have my own take, different from Barel’s, on the question of whether we can sketch an a priori anti-skeptical argument proceeding from perceptual anti-individualism. Second, I discuss the question whether Barel’s “Rationalistic” anti-skeptical argument is successful.
Japanese Secularities and the Decline of Temple Buddhism
Authors: Nelson John K.
Published: November 2012

Abstract

In many ways, Japan provides a predictable example of how historical, political, economic, and cultural factors in the postwar and late-modern periods influence the interactivity of religious affiliations and secular forces. And yet, to grasp the complexity of the situation also requires a broader analytical perspective, one that can incorporate secularizing influences that are harder to identify because they are more globally diffuse. Based on extended fieldwork that has examined the ‘boom and bust’ of contemporary Japanese temple Buddhism, I first discuss historical and political legacies unique to Japan that have shaped local secularities. Additionally, concepts of Japanese religiosity and secularity have been referenced in controversial court cases that are relevant to the practice of religion in the public sphere. Finally, the discussion surveys forces that are domestic and familiar as well as global and invasive—new information technologies, greater personal agency, hyper-consumerism, corporate and bureaucratic restructuring, and a growing tolerance for diversity—impacting traditional temple Buddhism. Each one of these factors is significant in understanding Japan’s secularities. The purpose here is to see them as a mutually-reinforcing and interactive web of relations and consequences for the Japanese people and the religious institutions in their midst.
Equity-Based Decision-Making and the Fair and Equitable Treatment Standard: Lessons From the Argentine Investment Disputes – Part II
Authors: Perera Srilal M.
Published: November 2012

In Part II, of this two-part article, the author continues to highlight the difficulties and challenges associated with equity-based decision-making. The many investment disputes presented before ICSID, following the Argentine economic crisis from 1999 onwards, and the consequent number of awards and decisions on them clearly point to the continuing dilemma. The author has selected 5 awards and decisions, and related annulments in 3 of those cases, based on the application of the FET standard in the 1991 US-Argentine BIT, to illustrate the seeming contradictions, inconsistency and subjective opinions which can be symptomatic of equity-based decision-making. To assist in consistent equity-based decision-making, the author proposes the diligent consideration of competing factors relevant in each investment dispute, on the basis of proportionality, reasonableness and relevance. With continuous practice, these factors could then develop, in time, into accepted standards under international law and perhaps incorporated into the next generation of BITs.
Ethical Distance and Difference in Bilateral Trade
Authors: Ramasamy Bala , Yeung Matthew C.H.
Published: November 2012

Cultural, institutional, and psychic distances between countries are critical determinants of bilateral trade. In this paper we examine if ethical distance and difference between an exporting country and an importing country matter in international trade. Using data from 53 countries that participated in the World Values Survey, we show that the closer the ethical distance between countries the greater the trade. We also find that the ethicality of importers matter more than exporters as a determinant of bilateral trade.
The EU Investment Policy: How to ensure a fair regulation of the concerned interests?
Authors: Tavassi Jacopo
Published: November 2012

Until the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon (ToL), the discipline of international investments at the European level has been characterized by an extreme fragmentation. The European Institutions have intervened to promote capital market liberalization, while Member States have been mainly concerned with the post-establishment aspects of international investments. As a result, the EU was unable to promote the protection of the host-State’s public interest as well as play a major role in the field of FDIs. To that extent, the paper argues that the changes made by the ToL to the content and scope of the Common Commercial Policy, through which the EU acquires an exclusive competence on FDIs, can represent a good opportunity to develop a new European Investment Policy aimed at balancing the rights of the investors with the host-State’s public interests, at the same time reinforcing internationally the EU political and economic role.
Review of the Haliplidae of Madagascar, with descriptions of two new species (Coleoptera)
Authors: van Vondel Bernhard , Bergsten Johannes
Published: November 2012

The Haliplidae of Madagascar are reviewed. Six species are known, including two species described here as new:Haliplusgammasp. n. andHaliplusmadagascariensissp. n.Haliplus aspilusGuignot, 1957 is established as junior synonym ofHaliplus incrassatusRégimbart, 1900. A lectotype is designated forHaliplus alluaudiRégimbart, 1903.Haliplus insularisGuignot, 1960 is redescribed. A key to the species of Madagascar is included. Some ecosystem conservation issues related to the occurrence of Haliplidae on Madagascar are discussed.
A Study of Equity in Educational Quality in County Level Primary Schools and Related Factors
Authors: Chunrong Ren , Tao Xin
Published: November 2012

A multilevel analysis of the effects of school resource variables and educational process variables on math study outcomes for fourth grade students revealed that in regions of Eastern China that have long required nine years of compulsory education, there are significant differences in math scores between schools and between cities and villages; in student interest and self-confidence, also, there are significant differences between schools. It was found that the effects on student scores, interest in study and self-confidence associated with instructional and teaching processes were greater than effects associated with school resources. These results remind us that resources are not omnipotent in promoting equity in educational outcomes. Rather, it is more important to bring about improvements in school management, organizational forms of teaching, student evaluation methods, teacher-student relationships, and schools’ attractiveness to students.
Education Change and Development in Nomadic Communities of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR)
Authors: Postiglione Gerard , Jiao Ben , Xiaoliang Li
Published: November 2012

This research examines the challenges and accomplishments of popularizing basic education in nomadic regions of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. The article provides a background and case study of Nyerong county in northern Tibet. The authors note the rapid progress but also point out that there needs to be more of a focus on improving the learning environment of school life by fostering creativity and the application of relevant knowledge.
Tracking Down the Missing Financial Link in Transitional Justice
Authors: Bohoslavsky Juan Pablo
Published: November 2012

This article argues that lenders providing financial assistance to authoritarian regimes should be held responsible for complicity if they knew or should have known that they would facilitate human rights abuses. Discussing the lenders’ role in a transitional justice context leads to a broadening of legal and institutional tools to channel this responsibility. This article starts by critically assessing the micro criteria traditionally used to understand the causal link between finance and human rights abuses, suggesting that a macro (i.e. holistic, interdisciplinary and casuistic) approach considering structures, processes and dynamics of sovereign financing should be applied when interpreting this link. It also explains how that traditional view is being challenged. A rational choice approach is taken to explain the most salient financial features of large-scale campaigns of gross human rights violations in order to understand the real relevance of funds in contexts of criminal regimes. The legal bases of responsibility for complicity are then discussed, separately presenting the arguments applied to private, multilateral and bilateral lenders. It also outlines how the missing financial link could be integrated into the domain of transitional justice, presenting, elaborating and assessing enforceability of concrete mechanisms to channel financial complicity in order to attain transitional goals. Finally, concluding remarks and challenges on the relationship between financial complicity and transitional justice are presented; and policy and economic considerations are made to better understand the real implications that incorporating the financial dimension into the transitional justice universe could have for a country.
Generation and analysis of expressed sequence tags in the extreme large genomes Lilium and Tulipa
Authors: Shahin Arwa , van Kaauwen Martijn , Esselink Danny , Bargsten Joachim W , van Tuyl Jaap M , Visser Richard GF , Arens Paul
Published: November 2012

Background

Bulbous flowers such as lily and tulip (Liliaceae family) are monocot perennial herbs that are economically very important ornamental plants worldwide. However, there are hardly any genetic studies performed and genomic resources are lacking. To build genomic resources and develop tools to speed up the breeding in both crops, next generation sequencing was implemented. We sequenced and assembled transcriptomes of four lily and five tulip genotypes using 454 pyro-sequencing technology.

Results

Successfully, we developed the first set of 81,791 contigs with an average length of 514 bp for tulip, and enriched the very limited number of 3,329 available ESTs (Expressed Sequence Tags) for lily with 52,172 contigs with an average length of 555 bp. The contigs together with singletons covered on average 37% of lily and 39% of tulip estimated transcriptome. Mining lily and tulip sequence data for SSRs (Simple Sequence Repeats) showed that di-nucleotide repeats were twice more abundant in UTRs (UnTranslated Regions) compared to coding regions, while tri-nucleotide repeats were equally spread over coding and UTR regions. Two sets of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers suitable for high throughput genotyping were developed. In the first set, no SNPs flanking the target SNP (50 bp on either side) were allowed. In the second set, one SNP in the flanking regions was allowed, which resulted in a 2 to 3 fold increase in SNP marker numbers compared with the first set. Orthologous groups between the two flower bulbs: lily and tulip (12,017 groups) and among the three monocot species: lily, tulip, and rice (6,900 groups) were determined using OrthoMCL. Orthologous groups were screened for common SNP markers and EST-SSRs to study synteny between lily and tulip, which resulted in 113 common SNP markers and 292 common EST-SSR. Lily and tulip contigs generated were annotated and described according to Gene Ontology terminology.

Conclusions

Two transcriptome sets were built that are valuable resources for marker development, comparative genomic studies and candidate gene approaches. Next generation sequencing of leaf transcriptome is very effective; however, deeper sequencing and using more tissues and stages is advisable for extended comparative studies.
Left atrial endocarditis as a rare complication of mitral valve endocarditis: a clinical case
Authors: Hamadanchi Ali , Bothe Wolfgang , Pfeil Alexander , Rad Azita Abdi , Brehm Bernhard R , Figulla Hans R , Doenst Thorsten , Franz Marcus , Jung Christian
Published: November 2012

Background

Infective Endocarditis (IE) is considered as a multifaceted problem in every aspect from etiology and presentation to diagnosis and management. Early recognition of this disease and especially its complications, remain a critical task for the cardiologist. Atrial endocarditis is a rare and sometimes unrecognized complication of mitral valve endocarditis.

Case presentation

We present a 48 year-old male patient who was admitted to our clinic because of recent onset of malaise, fever, jaundice and peripheral edema. Important physical findings were peripheral stigmata of IE in addition to holosystolic murmur over the left sternal border. Transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiophy revealed a severe eccentric MR due to a flailed posterior mitral valve caused by IE. The presence of atrial septal endocarditis caused by jet streaming was also observed. Blood culture was positive for streptococcus oralis and antibiotic therapy was immediately initiated. Considering the large burden of infective tissue, the patient was planned for an early surgical intervention. A minimally invasive resection of the atrial mass, direct closure of the defect, resection of the diseased portions of mitral leaflets and implantation of a biological mitral valve prosthesis was performed. Intra-operative and histological findings confirmed provisional diagnosis by echocardiography.

Conclusions

Together with comprehensive echocardiographic evaluation, attention should be placed on mural vegetations and excluded among all cases of mitral valve endocarditis, particularly those with severe eccentric regurgitant jets.
Centenarians and supercentenarians: a black swan. Emerging social, medical and surgical problems
Authors: Vacante Marco , D’Agata Velia , Motta Massimo , Malaguarnera Giulia , Biondi Antonio , Basile Francesco , Malaguarnera Michele , Gagliano Caterina , Drago Filippo , Salamone Salvatore
Published: November 2012

The Black Swan Theory was described by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book “The Black Swan”. This theory refers to “high-impact, hard-to-predict, and rare events beyond the realm of normal expectations”. According to Taleb’s criteria, a Black Swan Event is a surprise, it has a major impact and after the fact, the event is rationalized by hindsight, as if it had been expected. For most of human history centenarians were a rare and unpredictable phenomenon. The improvements of the social-environmental conditions, of medical care, and the quality of life caused a general improvement of the health status of the population and a consequent reduction of the overall morbidity and mortality, resulting in an overall increase of life expectancy. The study of centenarians and supercentenarians had the objective to consider this black swan and to evaluate the health, welfare, social and economic consequences of this phenomenon.
A pure invasive cribriform carcinoma of the breast with bone metastasis if untreated for thirteen years: a case report and literature review
Authors: Zhang Wei , Lin Zhichun , Zhang Tongxian , Liu Fen , Niu Yun
Published: November 2012

We report a case of pure invasive cribriform carcinoma of the breast, which had been untreated for thirteen years, being found with bone metastasis at initial presentation, because distant metastasis is rarely found in this tumor. A fifty-nine-year-old postmenopausal woman presented with a large left breast mass. Although she had noticed a lump in a left breast thirteen years ago, she had not sought treatment. The tumor had enlarged gradually since from one year before and become ulcerated. The two enlarged axillary lymph nodes were also palpable. After two cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, she underwent left radial mastectomy with a free skin graft. Emission computed tomography result has confirmed bone metastasis. The histological diagnosis of the tumor revealed the pure invasive cribriform carcinoma, since over than ninety percent of invasive tumor components showed a characteristic cribriform growth, and the remainder was tubular carcinoma. She has been well without evidence of tumor recurrence for seven years after surgery and several routine postoperative therapies. Although with favorable prognosis, pure invasive cribriform carcinoma is still possible to develop into the advanced (Stage four) breast cancer if untreated for a long time. However, the survival of this patient for free disease after several locoregional and systemic therapies maybe provide a supplement for invasive cribriform carcinoma’s excellent prognosis.
Tumorigenesis role and clinical significance of DJ-1, a negative regulator of PTEN, in supraglottic squamous cell carcinoma
Authors: Zhu Xiao-Lin , Wang Zhang-Feng , Lei Wen-Bin , Zhuang Hui-Wen , Hou Wei-Jian , Wen Yi-Hui , Wen Wei-Ping
Published: November 2012

Background

DJ-1 can induce the tumor cell proliferation and invasion via down-regulating PTEN in many malignant tumors, and correlated to prognostic significance. However, the tumorigenesis role and clinical significance of DJ-1 in supraglottic squamous cell carcinoma (SSCC) is unclear. We aimed to evaluate the DJ-1 the relationship between DJ-1 and clinicopathological data including patient survival.

Methods

The expression of DJ-1 and PTEN in SSCCs (52) and adjacent non-cancerous tissues (42) was assessed by immunohistochemistry (IHC), and the relationship between DJ-1 and clinicopathological data was analyzed.

Results

DJ-1 was detected mainly in SSCCs (88.5%) and less frequently in adjacent non-cancerous tissues (21.0%). PTEN expression was detected in 46.2% of SSCCs and in 90.5% of adjacent non-cancerous tissues. DJ-1 expression was linked to nodal status (P = 0.009), a highly significant association of DJ-1 expression with shortened patient overall survival (5-year survival rate 88.0% versus 53.9%; P = 0.007; log rank test) was demonstrated.

Conclusions

Our data suggested that DJ-1 over-expression was linked to nodal status, and might be an independent prognostic marker for patients with SSCC.