bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Narratives of Inequality
Authors: Schmitt John
Published: October 2012

In September 2010, a full year before protestors occupied Zuccotti Park in New York City, Timothy Noah wrote a monumental ten-part series for Slate on the rise of economic inequality in the United States. The series earned Noah the 2011 Hillman Prize for Magazine Journalism and has now been updated, expanded, and published in book form as The Great Divergence. The book has created buzz, including reviews in the New Yorker , the New York Review of Books , the New York Times (weekday and Sunday), the Nation , and the American Prospect .
Citizenship and the Right to Birth Control
Authors: Gordon Linda
Published: October 2012

Calling this yea's political fight about funding for contraception a "war on women" may be a catchy slogan and a strong mobilizing call. But as an analysis, it is misleading. True, birth control does affect women disproportionately, because women still take primary responsibility for raising children. But everyone needs access to birth control. It is, irst, a matter of public health, in that unsafe and irresponsible sex affects us all.
With Friends Like These . . . Who Will Defend Liberal Education?
Authors: Sleeper Jim
Published: October 2012

Like free markets and Christianity, liberal education in the United States has more noisy claimants than true friends. Lately, it's conservatives who've been crying hosanna to the humanities and funding campus institutes that conscript classic texts into training future Platonic Guardians for business and national security ventures. At Yale, former Reagan foreign-service of?cer Charles Hill uses Thucydides as a manual for aspiring leaders in a "Studies in Grand Strategy Program" funded partly by former Reagan Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady. The neoconservative ?nancier Roger Hertog is funding "grand strategy" programs at Columbia, Duke, Temple, the University of Texas at Austin, and (until recently) the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Other undergraduate programs, at George Mason University, St. John's in Annapolis, and the Claremont colleges outside Los Angeles, have long been redoubts for conservative humanists with fairly explicit political agendas.
Israel: The Great Disconnect
Authors: Rule James B.
Published: October 2012

I was attending a friend's wedding at the Park Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan. Before starting the ceremony, the rabbi was running through a list of announcements. Amid notices of committee meetings and other events came an injunction that took me off guard—a reminder of the obligation of unstinting support for Israel. The Jewish state, we were reminded, needed always to maximize the strength required to confront its enemies, both immediate and potential.
Democratic Change in the Arab World, Past and Present
Authors: Chaney Eric
Published: October 2012

Will the Arab Spring lead to long-lasting democratic change? To explore this question, I examine the determinants of the Arab world’s democratic deficit in 2010. I find that the percentage of a country’s landmass that was conquered by Arab armies following the death of the prophet Muhammad statistically accounts for this deficit. Using history as a guide, I hypothesize that this pattern reflects the long-run influence of control structures developed under Islamic empires in the premodern era and find that the available evidence is consistent with this interpretation. I also investigate the determinants of the recent uprisings. Taken in unison, the results cast doubt on claims that the Arab-Israeli conflict or Arab culture or Muslim theology is a systematic obstacle to democratic change in the region and point instead to the legacy of the region’s historical institutional framework.
“I was also absent at my dairy-house”: The Representation and Symbolic Function of the Dairy House in Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa
Authors: Lipsedge Karen
Published: October 2012

Exploring the symbolic function of the dairy house in Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa helps to unearth the novel’s commentary on the relation between garden buildings and concepts of self. An examination of recent work on the role of space in the novel and eighteenth-century architectural manuals and images reveals how Richardson’s representation of the dairy house intersects with contemporary ideas of self and interiority. Richardson employs the dairy house’s removed location at her grandfather’s estate and the reason for its construction (her grandfather constructed it for Clarissa in honour of her skills in dairy house management) to emphasize Clarissa’s independence, self-sufficiency, and command of space. He draws on the dairy house’s association with Arcadian rural simplicity and wholesome purity to underline Clarissa’s exemplary piety and pastoral innocence. As a symbol, her dairy house also reinforces the distance between Clarissa and the Harlowes’ economic ambitions.
Castle Stopgap: Historical Reality, Literary Realism, and Oral Culture
Authors: O’Donnell Katherine
Published: October 2012

Maria Edgeworth’s Castle Rackrent (1800) relates the genealogy of the various Irish squires, and after reading this short novel King George iii reportedly said, “I know something now of my Irish subjects.” This article focuses on the issue of knowing, specifically knowing the Irish subject. I argue that knowledge and the processes of identification in the novel are ultimately made unintelligible by the gap between the different standards and practices of oral and literary cultures. To call the narrator Thady Quirk, the family retainer at Castle Rackrent, an unreliable narrator fails at marking how fundamentally his narration undermines every convention of the realist novel. Castle Rackrent is best understood as owing a profound debt to the virtuoso oral performance of Anglo-Gaelic culture.
"Mais où est le cul?": Life and Form in Sade's Les Infortunes de la vertu and La Nouvelle Justine
Authors: Delers Olivier
Published: October 2012

I borrow Diderot's distinction between "esquisse" and "tableau" to explore the formal evolution of Sade's writing in relation to his representation of political economies. In comparing a specific scene in Les Infortunes de la vertu (1787) and La Nouvelle Justine (1799), I suggest that in the final version of Justine's story, amplification blurs generic categories and limits readerly involvement in the narrative. Sade's sketch, in contrast with his overblown pornographic tale of social chaos, provides an unmediated, livelier, and altogether more original commentary on social relations in the eighteenth century. Unburdened by archetypes and repetition, Sade's first version of Justine's misfortunes draws the reader's attention to the realist aspects of the story and to a surprisingly nuanced reflection on the nature of human rationality.
Secondary Qualities and Masculine Form in Clarissa and Sir Charles Grandison
Authors: Thompson Helen
Published: October 2012

This article aligns the formal strategies of the eighteenth-century novelist Samuel Richardson with eighteenth-century empirical science. In his mechanical or corpuscular philosophy, the chemist Robert Boyle theorizes the difference between imperceptible particulate materiality and perceptible attributes like colour, later renamed by John Locke the difference between primary and secondary qualities. Primary-secondary difference structures Richardson’s formal approach to the problem of masculine desirability as it is broached in his second novel Clarissa and imaginatively resolved in his third novel Sir Charles Grandison . While Lovelace, the protagonist of Clarissa , adheres to an empiricist model of objecthood and its apprehension, Sir Charles Grandison cannot be resolved into primary and secondary qualities, offering a collapse of primary-secondary difference that transforms masculine virtue into immediately perceptible appearance. This article argues that Richardson’s engagement with empirical philosophy reflects the importance of the discourse of secondary qualities to the formal development of the eighteenth-century novel.
The Architectural Design of Beckford’s Vathek
Authors: Jung Sandro
Published: October 2012

In this article, I interrogate the textual form and discuss the central importance and meaning of the architectural design of William Beckford’s Vathek , and I trace the formal features of architecture that inform the novel. Rather than contextualizing the novel in terms of biography, reading it as inscribed with Beckford’s personality, or offering an exploration of the characters’ psychological makeup, I focus on Beckford’s narrative and his ability to construct a polygeneric tale of Gothic didacticism. Despite writing Vathek in 1782, at the age of twenty-one, and retailing a myth of its spontaneous composition, Beckford crafted a text that reveals a highly finished architectural design and skilful inversion of the conventions of romance.
Anna Barbauld on Fictional Form in The British Novelists (1810)
Authors: Toner Anne
Published: October 2012

Anna Barbauld has been recognized as advancing the critical study of the novel in her edition of The British Novelists . This article considers closely the attention Barbauld pays to novelistic form in the preface and critical essays in that work. She prioritizes carefully-conceived plot above aspirations to realism and to moral didacticism, and places considerable emphasis on narrative closure. This attention to closure is examined in light of both contemporary and later critical debate on the importance and value of novelistic ending. There is some irony in Barbauld’s disparagement of disrupted narrative forms considering her reputation as the author of the Gothic fragment “Sir Bertrand.” While this was firmly attributed to her brother John in the 1820s, there is some correlation between the expository essay to “Sir Bertrand” and Barbauld’s later writing on Gothic works in The British Novelists . In both “Objects of Terror” and in The British Novelists more generally there is an interest in the construction of readerly curiosity and the power exerted over the reader by a work’s end.
Clarissa Harlowe's "Ode to Wisdom": Composition, Publishing History, and the Semiotics of Printed Music
Authors: McGeary Thomas
Published: October 2012

This article re-examines the "Ode to Wisdom" in Samuel Richardson's Clarissa . The ode's last three stanzas were set to music by Clarissa Harlowe and included in the novel as a fold-out plate of engraved music. I reconstruct the ode's printing history, comment on its composer and musical style, and offer corrections to some claims found in earlier critical discussions. I also note some previously unobserved bibliographic and textual problems in the text of the ode and the musical plate.
“Well Observed by the Poet”: Elias Brand and Richardson’s British Ancients
Authors: Domingo Darryl P.
Published: October 2012

Although Elias Brand contributes only one letter to the first edition of Clarissa , and three letters to the revised third edition of 1751, he is considered by Samuel Richardson important enough to include in his list of the “Principal Characters.” This article accounts for Brand’s complicated role by analyzing in detail the meaning of the forty-five quotations punctuating his letters, as well as the manner in which he quotes his tags and texts. Brand’s marshalling of spurious evidence against Clarissa and his habit of quoting authors as authorities suggests that the latter may be a key to the credibility of the former. Brand represents himself as a confirmed “Ancient,” but taking the pedant at his own word is dangerous because of the extent of his surprising debt to the British “Moderns” and to the seventeenth-century Oxford scholar and Anglo-Latin poet, John Owen. This article concludes that Brand’s letters are thematic and structurally integral to a novel that is, in many ways, about the consequences of right and wrong reading.
Cosmopolitanism and the Radical Politics of Exile in Charlotte Smith's Desmond
Authors: Wang Fuson
Published: October 2012

Considering Charlotte Smith's novel Desmond (1792) within the framework of Immanuel Kant's concept of cosmopolitanism proves to be distinctly productive. For most readers, the novel clearly dramatizes radical sentiment in the Jacobin tradition. The character of Bethel, however, represents an unlikely cosmopolitan foil for Desmond's more conventional brand of radicalism. Specifically, Bethel's slow conversion to French Revolutionary principles serves to expand and even challenge the insular, congealed ideology of Desmond's Francophile circle of young reformers. Instead of locating an embodied cosmopolitanism in the novel's concluding marriages, Bethel's exclusion from the novel's happy ending signals Smith's endorsement of a more mature cosmopolitanism that extends a narrowly nationalistic sense of community into a properly inclusive system of what Kant called "cosmopolitan right." By subtly drawing attention away from her novel's central couples—the radical pairing of Desmond and Geraldine and the mixed union of Montfleuri and Fanny—and towards old Bethel, Smith emerges less naively partisan and more politically nuanced than most critics have allowed in this early novel.
Love's Universal Impetus: Luce Irigaray and Alain Badiou
Authors: Watrous Lisa
Published: October 2012

Texts by Luce Irigaray and Alain Badiou illuminate love as the bodily comportment of wisdom. Love is a material and symbolic bridge across worlds of difference. Building upon the Socratic notion of Eros as mediator, this article suggests translations across thresholds of difference as the way of love.
Introduction: The Recent Work of Luce Irigaray
Authors: Bostic Heidi
Published: October 2012

A religious spirit animates much of Luce Irigaray’s recent work, which aligns with a post-secular turn. Equally important is the closely linked political dimension of Irigaray’s thought, which emphasizes community and opens out onto questions of politics and an ethical relation to the other. The contributions to this special issue focus on a few key themes: Irigaray as a philosopher in dialogue with other thinkers and with the Western philosophical tradition; spirituality and Irigaray as an interlocutor with the Christian tradition; and Irigaray as a theorist of society and democratic practice.
The Construction of a New Democratic Culture between Two Subjects
Authors: Garcia Oramas Maria José
Published: October 2012

Luce Irigaray’s focus on the two of sexual difference provides guidance about constructing a new democratic culture to confront the serious challenges of contemporary society. This essay illustrates how the author has drawn upon Luce Irigaray’s recent work while implementing democracy education for young people in Mexico.
The World Emperor's Battle against the Evil Forces
Authors: Foxeus Niklas
Published: October 2012

In early postcolonial Burma, millenarian prophecies about the imminent arrival of Setkya Min, the world emperor, circulated. This exalted personage was expected to protect Buddhism, and usher in a golden age for Buddhism and Burma. In the late 1950s and the early 1960s, the anthropologists Michael Mendelson and Melford E. Spiro encountered a perplexing phenomenon — a few so-called royal esoteric congregations whose leaders behaved as kings and were treated as such by their followers. These leaders were held to fulfill the prophecies and thus to be impersonations of the powerful figure Setkya Min, a weikza, a future Buddha, and a righteous king. Mendelson and Spiro understood these congregations as being continuous with the anti-colonial and even the pre-colonial millenarian rebellions. Until now, this interpretation has remained uncontested, probably due to lack of empirical evidence, since most scholars have assumed that these kinds of congregations ceased to exist long time ago. However, there still exists one such congregation in Burma, and was founded in the early 1950s. This article demonstrates how this congregation has waged a "battle" with supernatural means against what it perceived as the evil, anti-Buddhist forces to save Buddhism from extinction, and that it is just as anti-colonial and anti-Western as the anti-colonial rebellions. Moreover, the article argues that this congregation is similar to those studied by Mendelson and Spiro, and that these kinds of congregations should be understood as new Buddhist movements emerging in response to crises of authority and identity, to projects of modernization and nation-building, and to political turmoil in the postcolonial period. These congregations represented a quest for identity (individual, communal, and national), and are comparable to the other new religious movements that emerged in Southeast Asia in the postwar period.
The Longevity of Weikza and Their Practices
Authors: Schober Juliane
Published: October 2012

In this essay, I critique received ideas that describe weikza practices as millennial or unorthodox and propose instead an alternate understanding that places this form of Theravada practice in creative tension with conventional Buddhist practices endorsed by the center of power in royal and modern time. In this approach, I follow the writing of Michael de Certeau on the ways in which certain religious practices were marginalized in the course of modernizing reforms. This somewhat submerged form of Buddhism speaks powerfully to individuals at the margins of power and in need of alternate ways to garner and control it. This kind of Burmese imaginations has been inspired by charismatic figures like Bo Bo Aung, Bo Min Gaung and charismatic monks who became hermits and occupied sanctified spaces outside conventional Buddhist institutions. Weikza practitioners are inspired by narratives of heroic feats and miraculous accomplishments, by their desire for extraordinary powers gained in samatha meditation, and by secret knowledge revealed in dreams and visions or harnessed through spells and alchemy. As weikz a practices and texts did not undergo the authoritative editing of Buddhist reforms, their repertoire is hybrid and resonates with other religious traditions, such as Tibetan Tantric and Shaivite notions. In the absence of historical evidence about the transmission of texts or initiation rites, such polytropic forms only underscore the marginalized displacement of weikza practices. Neither millennial or unorthodox, weikza practices implicitly and subversively contest the conventional sources of power and merit controlled by reformed institutions at the center of Buddhist polities.
The Weikza 's Role in Arakanese Healing Practices
Authors: Coderey Céline
Published: October 2012

This article analyses the fact that in the Thandwe area, in Arakan State (Western part of Burma), weikza -related practices are largely widespread among healers and are highly appreciated by consultants. Taking the example of the diviners and the "masters of the upper path", I show that weikza knowledge and techniques potentially guarantee healers a wider field of action and a higher respectability, both of which are essential qualities for healers. My opinion is that this advantage comes from the fact that the weikzas ' status, as well as the practices associated to them, combine and mix aspects which are — cognitively — kept distinct: Buddhist and non-Buddhist, this-worldly and other-worldly aspects. The force of the weikza phenomenon resides in its ambiguity and hybridity.
The Anxieties of Authenticity in Post-2000 British Fiction
Authors: Lea Daniel
Published: October 2012

This essay argues that the issue of what it means to live an authentic life in the twenty-first century has been a significant trope in recent British fiction. Negotiating between universalizing humanist perspectives and the radically individualizing politics of late-capitalist philosophy, Tom McCarthy’s Remainder and Steven Hall’s The Raw Shark Texts pose the question of whether any authenticity of the self can be imagined in an increasingly globalized, mediated, and digitalized world. Contextualizing these novels within contemporary British writing, this essay locates a profound psychological anxiety as the dominant mode for engaging with authentic subjectification.
The Critique of Trauma and the Afterlife of the Novel in Tom McCarthy’s Remainder
Authors: Vermeulen Pieter
Published: October 2012

In the last few years, Tom Mcarthy has launched a sustained campaign against the pieties of the traditional British novel. His debut novel Remainder sets out to debunk the conventions of trauma fiction, that, despite its emphasis on fragmentation, repetition, and temporal dislocation, often continues to rely on the conventions of psychological realism. In Remainder , trauma emerges not as a psychological event, but rather as an intractable, dysphoric, subjectless affect. Showing how trauma operates across the domains of the social, the somatic, and the psychological, the novel inaugurates a different account of the linkage of literature and trauma.
New British Fiction
Authors: O’Donnell Patrick
Published: October 2012

This is the guest editor’s Introduction to the MFS Special Issue on “New British Fiction.” The essay discusses new British fiction in broadly generational, aesthetic, and cultural contexts, and briefly introduces each of the ten essays in the issue.
Reading the Multiple Drafts Novel
Authors: Burn Stephen J.
Published: October 2012

This essay outlines the formal characteristics and critical relevance of the “Multiple Drafts Novel,” a neuroscientifically-informed subgenre whose prominence is often obscured by the dominance of social and historical concerns in studies of contemporary British fiction. By reading a sequence of novels by Andrew Crumey, Tom McCarthy, and David Mitchell, alongside Daniel Dennett’s Multiple Drafts model of consciousness, this essay argues that a cognitively-informed analysis of the contemporary novel not only can reformulate our understanding of specific novels, but also can provide new perspectives on problems inherent within critical construction of literary postmodernism.
Inquiry Methods for Critical Consciousness and Self-Change in Faculty
Authors: Vallejo Peña Edlyn
Published: October 2012

This study investigates faculty members' experiences in a 20-month inquiry project that provided them with structured opportunities to (a) interview students of color about their educational journey, and (b) meet with other faculty members as a collaborative inquiry team to discuss student interview findings. Changes in faculty members were documented through faculty interviews, observations of inquiry meetings, and faculty's reflective journal entries. Findings revealed that faculty members developed an intimate knowledge of students' experiences coupled with an understanding of the broader social implications of being a student of color. They developed a critical consciousness and practical knowledge that informed more responsive approaches with students.
Racial Diversity, Legitimacy, and the Citizenry: The Impactof Affirmative Action Bans on Graduate School Enrollment
Authors: Garces Liliana M.
Published: October 2012

This study uses data from the CGS/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment and Degrees and a methodology that supports causal inference to examine the effects of affirmative action bans in Texas, California, Washington, and Florida on graduate student of color enrollment. The findings show that the bans have reduced by 12.2% the average proportion of graduate students who are underrepresented students of color. Given that graduate education is an important pathway for positions of power and influence in our nation, these findings have broad implications for higher education policies that seek to further national educational and democratic goals. They should also help inform legal determinations in cases concerning the constitutionality of affirmative action-related policies.
The Impact of State Appropriations and Grants on Access to Higher Education and Outmigration
Authors: Toutkoushian Robert K. , Hillman Nicholas W.
Published: October 2012

The question of how states can best use financial policy to achieve their goals is very important for many higher education stakeholders. In this study, the authors use panel data for all 50 states over a 20-year period to examine how state appropriations, need-based grants, and merit-based grants affect student enrollment in college and whether students migrate to other states for their postsecondary education. We find that increases within states in both appropriations and merit-based grants, but not need-based grants, lead to gains in postsecondary enrollment rates, and that merit-based grants are most effective at reducing outmigration for postsecondary education.
William Fulford, "The Set," and The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine
Authors: Fleming Patrick C.
Published: October 2012

In the minds of most Victorian scholars, the Oxford and Cambridge Magazine is associated with William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. However, for the magazine's first readers, its most notable feature was not the individual contributors but the fact that it was produced by college students. The magazine was considered a "curious specimen of the kind of thoughts and language current among the young men" at the two universities. This paper recovers the original context in which the magazine was produced by focusing on the young men who created it, especially William Fulford, who edited eleven of the twelve issues.
Televised bodies: Berlusconi and the body of italian women
Authors: Benini Stefania
Published: October 2012

This article describes the trajectory of Italian women in the age of Berlusconismo, as they moved from silence to being vocal in the streets. Within the horizon of the unique Italian media landscape, almost all previously controlled by former Prime Minister Berlusconi, I examine the
circularity of gender politics on Berlusconi's television networks and the broader gender gap in Italy, framing the condition of Italian women between Berlusconi's sexcapades and the general socio-economic conditions of contemporary Italy as documented in the 44th Censis Report (Centro Studi
Investimenti Sociali). After describing the initial climate of acquiescence towards gender inequality in Italy, the article explores Lorella Zanardo's documentary Il corpo delle donne/The Body of Women (2009), investigating the Italian media's treatment of women as merely sexual bodies. Symptomatic
of the porno-graphication of the public sphere and typical of 'a postfeminist sensibility' diffused all over the western world, these mediatic aspects are also uniquely Italian because of Berlusconi's media control and his attempt to apply the exploitation of beauty to the realm of politics.
Finally, the article focuses on the success of the 13 February 2011 protests and of the appeal of the women's organization Di Nuovo as the possible beginning of a new women's movement in Italy.
Evaluation of high resolution gel β2-transferrin for detection of cerebrospinal fluid leak
Authors: McCudden Christopher R. , Senior Brent A. , Hainsworth Shirley , Oliveira Walter , Silverman Lawrence M. , Bruns David E. , Hammett-Stabler Catherine A.
Published: October 2012

Background: Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaks are potentially life-threatening conditions that can be diagnosed by detection of β2-transferrin using protein electrophoresis. Another less commonly available test is β-trace protein quantitation using immunoassay. The objectives of this study were to evaluate a new immunofixation-based β2-transferrin test for detection of CSF leaks and to compare it to an existing agarose gel electrophoresis test and β-trace protein immunoassay.

Methods: For method comparison, 63 consecutive samples from physician-ordered β2-transferrin tests were analyzed using two different electrophoresis methods, agarose gel fractionation followed by acid-violet staining, and high resolution agarose gel electrophoresis followed by β2-transferrin immunofixation. A subset of samples (16/63) were analyzed for β-trace protein. Results were compared against patient chart data for the presence of a CSF leak. Additional studies were performed to assess the stability, detection limit, and analytical specificity of the β2-transferrin immunofixation test.

Results: The β2-transferrin immunofixation test had a sensitivity of 100% (40/40) and specificity of 71% (12/17) for detection of CSF leaks. By comparison, the agarose gel test had a sensitivity of 87% (35/40) and specificity of 94% (16/17). β-trace protein had a sensitivity of 100% (10/10) and specificity of 86% (5/6). Serum and saliva could be differentiated from CSF by the β2-transferrin immunofixation test based on their migration patterns. However, whole blood samples appeared positive for β2-transferrin at a threshold of ∼4 g/L hemoglobin. At a cut-off of 3 mg/L, β-trace protein was increased in 10/10 cases with documented CSF leak and in 1/6 patients without CSF leak.

Conclusions: Both the new immunofixation test for β2-transferrin and the β-trace protein were effective at detecting CSF leaks. Users of the β2-transferrin immunofixation test should be cautioned against interpreting samples with blood contamination.
A statistical analysis of regional variation in adverb position in a corpus of written Standard American English
Authors: Grieve, Jack
Published: October 2012

This paper investigates whether the position of adverb phrases in sentences is regionally patterned in written Standard American English, based on an analysis of a 25 million word corpus of letters to the editor representing the language of 200 cities from across the United States. Seven measures of adverb position were tested for regional patterns using the global spatial autocorrelation statistic Moran's I and the local spatial autocorrelation statistic Getis-Ord Gi*. Three of these seven measures were indentified as exhibiting significant levels of spatial autocorrelation, contrasting the language of the Northeast with language of the Southeast and the South Central states. These results demonstrate that continuous regional grammatical variation exists in American English and that regional linguistic variation exists in written Standard English.
Genre-dependent interaction of coherence and lexical cohesion in written discourse
Authors: Berzlánovich, Ildikó , Redeker, Gisela
Published: October 2012

We investigate the interaction between coherence and lexical cohesion in expository and persuasive texts using seven encyclopedia texts and seven fundraising letters. We describe genre structure in terms of genre-specific moves and coherence structure with Rhetorical Structure Theory. For lexical cohesion, we identify repetitions, systematic semantic relations and collocations across discourse units, modeled as weighted multigraphs. By comparing the prominence of discourse units in the coherence structure with the centrality in the lexical cohesion structure in the two genres, we show that lexical cohesion is closely aligned with coherence in the expository texts, but not in the persuasive texts.
Human cytochrome P450 4F3: structure, functions, and prospects
Authors: Corcos Laurent , Lucas Danièle , Le Jossic-Corcos Catherine , Dréano Yvonne , Simon Brigitte , Plée-Gautier Emmanuelle , Amet Yolande , Salaün Jean-Pierre
Published: October 2012

Cytochrome P450 4F3 (CYP4F3), originally identified as one of the leukotriene B4 ω-hydroxylases, belongs to a CYP gene family that comprises several members, which participate in the metabolism of various endobiotics, as well as some xenobiotics. The CYP4F gene family is clustered in a 0.5-Mb stretch of genomic DNA on the p13 region of chromosome 19. Apart from the ω-hydroxylation of leukotriene B4 and prostaglandins, CYP4F3 is the main catalyst in the oxidation of fatty acid epoxides. CYP4F3 expression results from the synthesis of two distinct enzymes, CYP4F3A and CYP4F3B, which originate from the alternative splicing of a single pre-mRNA precursor molecule. Remarkably, the selection of either isoform is part of a tissue-specific control through which CYP3F3A is mostly expressed in leukocytes and CYP4F3B mostly in the liver. Recently, CYP4F3 single nucleotide polymorphisms have been incriminated in the onset of pathologies, including celiac or Crohn’s diseases. Although much has been discovered in the regulation and function of CYP4F2, the closest CYP4F subfamily member, analyses of CYP4F3 enzymes lag somewhat behind in the field of our knowledge. In this short review, emphasis will be placed on the regulation and the functional roles of human CYP4F3.
CYP2A6: genetics, structure, regulation, and function
Authors: Raunio Hannu , Rahnasto-Rilla Minna
Published: October 2012

The human CYP2A gene subfamily consists of three members, CYP2A6, CYP2A7, and CYP2A13. The CYP2A6 gene is highly polymorphic with approximately 40 annotated allelic variants. Individuals homozygous for some of these alleles have a total lack of CYP2A6 activity. The CYP2A6 protein is most abundant in liver and is expressed, although at much lower levels, in some other tissues, especially nasal mucosa. CYP2A6 differs from other human liver CYP forms in that it participates in the metabolism of very few currently used drugs. The two most relevant substrates for CYP2A6 are coumarin and nicotine. Coumarin is the marker substance for determining CYP2A6 activity both in vitro and in vivo. Approximately 80% of a nicotine dose is eliminated by CYP2A6, and there is a clear link between CYP2A6 genotypes, smoking behavior, and lung cancer risk.
Tools for Analyzing Computing Resource Management Strategies and Algorithms for SDR Clouds
Authors: Marojevic Vuk , Gomez-Miguelez Ismael , Gelonch Antoni
Published: October 2012

Software defined radio (SDR) clouds centralize the computing resources of base stations. The computing resource pool is shared between radio operators and dynamically loads and unloads digital signal processing chains for providing wireless communications services on demand. Each new user session request particularly requires the allocation of computing resources for executing the corresponding SDR transceivers. The huge amount of computing resources of SDR cloud data centers and the numerous session requests at certain hours of a day require an efficient computing resource management. We propose a hierarchical approach, where the data center is divided in clusters that are managed in a distributed way. This paper presents a set of computing resource management tools for analyzing computing resource management strategies and algorithms for SDR clouds. We use the tools for evaluating a different strategies and algorithms. The results show that more sophisticated algorithms can achieve higher resource occupations and that a tradeoff exists between cluster size and algorithm complexity.
On the Use of the Sparse Property of the Cyclic Autocorrelation Function to Blindly Estimate the Cyclostationarity
Authors: Khalaf Ziad , Palicot Jacques
Published: October 2012

Based on the sparse property of the Cyclic Autocorrelation Function (CAF) in the cyclic frequency domain, we propose in this paper a new blind estimator using compressed sensing, which better estimates the Cyclic Autocorrelation Function at a given delay compared to the classical non blind estimator when using the same number of samples. Two metrics are used to evaluate this estimation: the Mean Square Error of type one and that of type two (
Toward realization of the promise of regenerative medicine
Authors: Wakao Hiroshi
Published: October 2012

Somatic cell nuclear transfer allows the generation of cloned embryonic stem cells (ESC) and cloned mice from natural killer T (NKT) cells, an innate-type invariant T cell. The progeny of these cloned mice harboring a rearranged T cell receptor α loci specific for NKT cells, Vα14-Jα18, possess an increased number of NKT cells in the primary as well as in the secondary lymphoid organs. NKT cells in these mice are able to produce interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and interleukin-4 (IL-4) when stimulated with dendritic cells (DC) pulsed with an NKT cell agonist, α-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer). The directed differentiation of cloned ESC toward T cells results in quasi-exclusive generation of NKT cells. These NKT cells are functional as evidenced by the production of cytokines such as IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-10, and IL-13 in response to α-GalCer. Furthermore, they mature autonomously in vivo upon adoptive transfer, and exhibit an antigen-specific adjuvant effect, resulting in IFN-γ production from CD8+ T cells. This effect is evident when the growth of tumors is inhibited in an antigen-dependent manner upon tumor inoculation into the mouse. Unfortunately, in humans, NKT cells are rare, and there is no guarantee that the same technique will be applicable for use in the clinic. We, therefore, exploited a different type of T cells in humans. We established induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) from these T cells, and succeeded in directed differentiation of the iPSC into monoclonal T cells. The availability of iPSC-derived monoclonal T cells paves the way for their use in regenerative medicine. In addition, they will be useful for drug screening to target unmet medical needs such as autoimmunity, severe infection, allergy, and cancer.
Inhibition of Stat3 by peptide aptamer rS3-PA enhances growth suppressive effects of irinotecan on colorectal cancer cells
Authors: Weber Axel , Borghouts Corina , Delis Natalia , Mack Laura , Brill Boris , Bernard Anne-Charlotte , Coqueret Olivier , Groner Bernd
Published: October 2012

Cytotoxic agents, alone or in combination, are being used in the treatment of colorectal cancer. Despite progress in the therapeutic regimes, this common malignancy is still the cause of considerable morbidity and mortality, and further improvements are required. Cancer cells often exhibit intrinsic resistance against chemotherapeutic agents or they develop resistance over the time of treatment. Several mechanisms have been made responsible, e.g., drugs may fail to reach tumor cells or drugs may fail to elicit cytotoxicity. The molecular characterization of drug resistance in cancer cells may lead to strategies to overcome it and enhance the sensitivity to chemotherapy. Irinotecan is one of the main treatments of colorectal cancer; it is converted into its active metabolite SN38 and acts as a topoisomerase I inhibitor. Inhibition of this enzyme prevents DNA relegation following uncoiling. Irinotecan has been used as a chemotherapeutic agent either as a single agent or in combination with 5-fluorouracil and targeted therapies directed against the epidermal growth factor receptor, such as cetuximab. The transcription factor signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (Stat3) is a member of the signal transducer and activator of transcription protein family. Its persistent activation is found in tumor cells and has been associated with drug and radiation resistance. The treatment of colorectal cancer cells with irinotecan leads to senescence or apoptosis following DNA double-strand break induction. This process is impaired by the activation of Stat3. We have derived a Stat3 specific peptide aptamer [recombinant Stat3 inhibitory peptide aptamer (rS3-PA)] that recognizes the dimerization domain of Stat3 and effectively inhibits its function. The delivery of rS3-PA into colon cancer cells and the resulting inhibition of Stat3 strongly enhanced the cytotoxic action of SN38. These data show that the targeted inhibition of Stat3 decreases drug resistance and enhances SN38-mediated cell death. The combination of these agents has a potent antitumor effect and could become beneficial for the treatment of patients with colorectal cancer.
Functional relevance of transmembrane domains in membrane fusion
Authors: Nikolaus Jörg , Herrmann Andreas
Published: October 2012

Membrane fusion is ubiquitous in life. Fusion of biological membranes is mediated by specialized fusion proteins anchored to the bilayers destined to fuse. Here we describe these proteins as being instrumental in viral, intracellular and developmental fusion. Next, we review experimental and theoretical evidence that points to fusion in the different systems as following a common ‘fusion through hemifusion’ pathway. We also focus on the structure and dynamics of the transmembrane segment that anchors the fusion proteins to the bilayer, and its role in driving fusion. In particular, we highlight the influence of this single segment on the surrounding membrane lipids and on the overall shape of the membrane along the way to fusion.
Influence of Element Re on Creep Behavior of Single Crystal Nickel-Based Superalloys at Intermediate Temperature
Authors: Tian Sugui , Meng Xianlin , Zeng Zeng , Zhang Chao , Liu Chen
Published: October 2012

By means of creep curves measurement and microstructure observation, an investigation has been made into the influence of the element Re on creep behaviors of single crystal nickel-base superalloy at intermediate temperature. Results show that, after fully heat treated, microstructure of the alloy consists of the cubic γ′ phase embedded coherent in the γ matrix. Comparing with Re-free superalloy, 4.5% Re alloy displays a better creep resistance and longer creep rupture life in the ranges of the applied stresses and temperatures. After crept for 425 h up to fracture at 760 °C/800 MPa, the γ′ phase in the alloy keeps still the regular cubical configuration, which is attributed to the effect of the element Re decreasing the diffusing rate of other elements during creep. The deformation features of the alloy during creep are that the dislocations move in the γ matrix channels and shear into the γ′ phase, the 〈110〉 super-dislocation shearing into the γ′ phase may be decomposed to form the configuration of (1/3)〈112〉 super-Shockleys partials plus the stacking fault, which may hinder dislocations movement and restrain the cross-slipping of dislocations. This is thought to be the main reason of the alloy having a better creep resistance. In the latter stage of creep, the crack is firstly initiated in the interface of γ′/γ phases and propagated along the interface vertical to the stress axis up to the occurrence of the creep fracture, which is thought to be the fracture mechanism of the alloy during creep.
Dissolution Characteristics and Morphology of Large-sized Scorodite Particles Synthesized from Fe(II) and As(V) in Aqueous Solution
Authors: Fujieda S. , Shinoda K. , Inanaga T. , Abumiya M. , Suzuki S.
Published: October 2012

A novel process for preparing scorodite particles with a diameter of approximately 20 µm from Fe(II) and As(V) in aqueous solution has been developed by DOWA Metals and Mining. In the present study, the dissolution characteristics of iron and arsenic from the scorodite particles synthesized by this process have been investigated under different conditions. The results show that the concentration of arsenic dissolved from the particles in aqueous solution is very low, but it has a complicated dependence on the temperature and pH of the solution. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) was used to analyze the morphology, structure, and composition of the scorodite particles. The results indicate that the scorodite particles exhibit a nearly octahedral shape with planes composed of almost (111) planes in the orthorhombic structure. The concentration of iron at the surface of the particles is higher than that of iron inside of the particles. This characteristic morphology, along with the minimal surface defects of the scorodite particles, is considered to be responsible for the low dissolution of arsenic from the particles in aqueous solution. Atmospheric temperature and solution conditions were also found to be important for the safe, long-term storage of arsenic using scorodite particles.
Preparation of Polycrystalline CdTe Films by Annealing of Amorphous Films Electrodeposited from Ammoniacal Alkaline Baths
Authors: Miyake Masao , Sugiura Takashi , Hirato Tetsuji
Published: October 2012

A new route to prepare polycrystalline CdTe films using electrodeposition of amorphous Cd-Te films and subsequent annealing was investigated. Amorphous Cd-Te films with Te-rich compositions could be electrodeposited from ammoniacal alkaline aqueous solutions. The deposition rate of the amorphous film was much higher than that of crystalline CdTe. Annealing of the Te-rich amorphous Cd-Te film at 400 °C in air yielded a crystallized CdTe film with a nearly stoichiometric composition. Thermodynamic calculations of the vapor pressures of Cd and Te species suggested that the decrease in the Te content of the annealed film was due to the vaporization of Te in the forms of oxides. Although an isothermal annealing generated a number of large holes in the film, an annealing with a slow temperature ramp resulted in a crystalline CdTe film without the large holes.
A Review of the Factors Affecting the Thermophysical Properties of Silicate Slags
Authors: Mills KC , Yuan L , Li Z , Zhang GH , Chou KC
Published: October 2012

This paper is dedicated to the memory of the of Prof. Masanori Iwase and his life and work. The factors which affect the thermo-physical properties of silicate and aluminno-silicate slags are reviewed. These include (i) the polymerisation of the silicate network (ii) various cation effects and (iii) temperature. Of these, the degree of polymerisation of the silicate network (expressed here through the parameter Q (= 4-NBO/T)) is the most important and the viscosity (η), electrical resistivity and thermal conductivity all increase as Q increases. Various ways in which different cations affect the properties are considered for each individual property viz. the -M-O bond strength affects (i) liquidus temperature (ii) activity coefficient of SiO2 and (iii) thermal expansion coefficient and whereas both the size and number of available cations affect the electrical conductivity and resistivity.

The following observations were made:

There is less scatter in property data for liquid slags at a specific temperature than that for the liquidus temperature.

The relation between Arrhenius parameters, lnA and B for viscosity and electrical resistivity is non-linear.

The magnitude of the thermal conductivity (k) in solid slags is related to the rigidity of silicate network and the rapid decrease in k with increasing temperature occurs at a temperature where the viscosity reaches η = 106 dPas.

The introduction of Al2O3 into the silicate chain results in significant changes to the properties

The ways in which the various properties can be calculated from chemical composition are outlined.
Thermodynamic Analysis of the Sulphation Roasting of Enargite Concentrates
Authors: Chambers B. , Pickles C. A. , Peacey J. G.
Published: October 2012

The mining industry is under increasing pressure to assess the extraction of value from complex copper ores, such as those containing enargite (Cu3AsS4), due to the rising demand for copper and gold. A sulphation roast, weak acid leach, and electrowinning process flowsheet has been studied to address the treatment of copper concentrates containing significant amounts of enargite. Copper is recovered from the calcine by acid leaching, with most of the arsenic being fixed in the leach residue after gold extraction by cyanidation. The relative simplicity of roasting combined with proven hydrometallurgical technologies has the potential to be economically advantageous and readily scaled for commercial operation. Based on a proposed reaction mechanism, a thermodynamic analysis has been performed using HSC Chemistry® 6.1 in order to establish an operating window and assess the overall potential feasibility of the proposed flowsheet.