bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
To start practice theorizing anew: The contribution of the concepts of agencement and formativeness
Authors: Gherardi Silvia
Published: September 2015

The journal Organization was a precursor of the turn to practice with its 2000 Special Issue, and the burgeoning number of special issues between 2000 and 2011 testifies to the vitality of a field under construction. Nowadays, the consolidation of the field makes it possible to start to understand and spell out differences and, in so doing, to promote lines of practice theorizing with a greater internal consistency. This article contributes to the articulation of differences among various practice theories and within a practice-based theorizing inspired by the sociology of translation. It proposes two concepts—agencement and formativeness—that address two ‘blind spots’ in the conversation on the turn to practice. The first blind spot concerns how we can talk of practices as having agency and the second concerns how we can articulate knowing in practice as a ‘doing while inventing the way of doing’, that is, the creative entanglement of knowing and doing. I shall address these two ‘blind spots’ by saying that one difficulty in addressing them is created by language. Hence, if we want to turn to practice anew, we need to invent/discover/reconfigure a new vocabulary with which to shape new concepts or to circulate existing ones better.
The use of mobile phones to deliver acceptance and commitment therapy in the prevention of mother–child HIV transmission in Nigeria
Authors: Ishola AG , Chipps J
Published: September 2015

The objective of this study was to determine if introducing acceptance and commitment therapy in the prevention of mother to child HIV transmission (PMTCT) programme using weekly mobile phone messages would result in improved mental health status of HIV-positive, pregnant women in Nigeria. We used a Solomon four-group (two intervention and two control groups) randomised design. The study population was 144 randomly selected, HIV-positive pregnant women attending four randomly selected PMTCT centres in Nigeria. The intervention groups were exposed to one session of acceptance and commitment therapy with weekly value-based health messages sent by mobile phone for three months during pregnancy. The control groups received only post-HIV test counselling. A total of 132 participants (33 per site) were enrolled in the study from the two intervention and two control sites. In the pre-tests, the intervention and control groups did not differ significantly with regard to demographics. Evaluation of the pre- and post-tests of the intervention group indicated significantly higher Action and Acceptance Questionnaire (AAQ-II) scores. The introduction of a mobile phone acceptance and commitment therapy programme may result in greater psychological flexibility in women diagnosed with HIV.
Evidence of negative implicit attitudes toward individuals with a tattoo near the face
Authors: Zestcott Colin A. , Bean Meghan G. , Stone Jeff
Published: September 2015

Three studies examined if people express negative implicit attitudes toward individuals with a tattoo near the face. In Study 1, participants who completed an Implicit Association Test (IAT) expressed moderately negative implicit attitudes toward individuals with a tribal tattoo on one side of the neck. Study 2 replicated Study 1 when the tattoo was symmetrical, suggesting that negative affect, and not processing fluency, underlies the implicit negative evaluation of individuals with a tribal tattoo near the face. Study 3 showed dissociation between explicit and implicit attitudes toward individuals with a tribal tattoo near the face, and that the negative implicit evaluation was attenuated if the tattoo image was an objectively positive symbol. The implications for displaying a tattoo near the face are discussed.
Humour as discursive practice in Nigeria’s 2015 presidential election online campaign discourse
Authors: Adegoju Adeyemi , Oyebode Oluwabunmi
Published: September 2015

One of the most popular forms of humour on the Internet is memes. Given the identity construction motif that is associated with memes, agents of memes select targets outside the in-group and criticise the targets’ behaviour for ideological purposes. This study examines the patterns of humour evidenced in the deployment of Internet memes (both verbal and visual) in the online campaign discourse of the 2015 presidential election in Nigeria. Data for the study consist of Internet memes produced and disseminated during the presidential election campaign between December 2014 and March 2015. Considering Archakis and Tsakona’s view that humour can be a very efficient means of identity construction, the study applies Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive model with particular reference to the theoretical concept of the ‘ideological square’, which encapsulates the twin strategies of positive ‘in-group’ description and negative ‘out-group’ description. This theoretical approach is complemented with Neuendorf et al.’s taxonomy of theoretical perspectives on humour. The study reveals that the memes deployed in the presidential election online campaign discourse largely serve subversive purposes to detract greatly from the electoral value of the targets. In terms of the reinforcing function of humour, however, serious socio-political issues were raised to express the public’s worries and desires in a bottom-up communication flow.
A national Infection in Critical Care Quality Improvement Programme for England: A survey of stakeholder priorities and preferences
Authors:   ICCQIP Collaboration
Published: September 2015

Introduction

Severe infection is one of the most common causes of critical illness. Healthcare-associated infections complicating critical illness bring the additional challenge of multidrug resistance. However, England lacks a national surveillance system for infections in intensive care units. Prior experience with surveillance systems suggests that they are most effective when placed within a collaborative quality improvement framework.

Method

A national survey of adult, paediatric and neonatal intensive care doctors, nurses, microbiologists and infection control practitioners was undertaken throughout the UK to determine stakeholder engagement.

Results

Of 763 respondents (80% ICU physicians; 8% nurses) from 158 hospital Trusts across the UK, 721 (94.4%) supported establishing a surveillance system; 63.5% preferred that data collection be mandatory; 47.5% considered that the work should be undertaken within existing resources. Respondents prioritised catheter-associated and multidrug resistant infections. Free-text responses demonstrated strong support for using the data for epidemiological information and benchmarking for quality improvement.

Discussion

The survey provides a satisfactory foundation for establishing a national surveillance system for infection prevention and control in critical care in England.
Insomnia and sleep deficiency in pregnancy
Authors: Reichner Cristina A
Published: September 2015

Insomnia and sleep deficiency in pregnancy are very common with most women reporting sleep disturbances during pregnancy. Insomnia and sleep deficiency are also more prevalent as pregnancy progresses, possibly related to pregnancy-related physical symptoms or discomfort. There is increasing evidence indicating that these sleep problems may be associated with adverse maternal and fetal outcomes such as depressive symptoms, increased pain during labor, more Caesarean sections, preterm birth, and low birth weight. Treatment of insomnia remains challenging as some of the more commonly used sleep inducing medications such as benzodiazepines and hypnotic benzodiazepine receptor agonists may be associated with adverse neonatal outcomes. Nonpharmacological treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy are available but the data in pregnancy is often lacking.
Antenatal steroids for fetal lung maturity: Time to target more frequent doses to fewer women?
Authors: Freeman Carolyn I , Hezelgrave Natasha L , Shennan Andrew H
Published: September 2015

Antenatal corticosteroids for fetal lung maturation have become mainstay treatment in women thought to be at high-risk of premature birth. To ensure treatment efficacy before delivery, the current practice is to administer steroids early to a woman considered at risk; however, neonatal benefit is lost after the seven-day treatment-to-delivery window. Over half of women who deliver before 34 weeks’ gestation do not receive antenatal corticosteroids within this timeframe, but many still deliver prematurely; however, clinicians are reluctant to administer repeated courses of steroids due to concerns, among others, of impaired fetal growth. However, evidence is mounting regarding the optimal timing for steroids, including substantive benefits close to delivery, and the benefits of repeated courses if delivery has not occurred. Better targeted treatment is required to allow for maximum benefit; reducing unnecessary treatment in low-risk women, while targeting therapy in the high-risk cohort and offering repeat courses if the seven-day window is exceeded. Novel tools to aid prediction may help implement this strategy.
Eating behaviors and related cultural attitudes of African American men and women
Authors: Oney Christina , DePaulo Daniel , Lewis Rebecca , Sellers Robert
Published: September 2015

Cultural groups often participate in traditions and activities surrounding food and eating, which contribute to group differences in maladaptive eating-related patterns and outcomes. This study explored the relationships between cultural attitudes and eating behaviors of young adult African American men and women. Endorsing a strong orientation on various dimensions of African American culture were related to less dieting, bulimic, and anorexic behaviors and attitudes. This study extended our knowledge of the ways in which cultural attitudes were related to the physical and mental health of African Americans and recognized the significance of individual differences within this group.
The Widening Gender Gap in Opposition to Pornography, 1975–2012
Authors: Lykke Lucia C. , Cohen Philip N.
Published: September 2015

In the last several decades, pornography in the United States has become more mainstream, more accessible, more phallocentric, and more degrading to women. Furthermore, consumption of pornography remains a major difference in the sexual experiences of men and women. Yet research has not addressed how opposition to pornography has changed over the period, despite shifts in the accessibility and visibility of pornography as well as new cultural and legal issues presented by the advent of Internet pornography. We examine gender differences in opposition to pornography from 1975 to 2012, measured by support for legal censorship of pornography in the General Social Survey. Results show that both men’s and women’s opposition to pornography have decreased significantly over the past 40 years, suggesting a cultural shift toward “pornographication” affecting attitudes. However, women remain more opposed to pornography than men, and men’s opposition has declined faster, so the gender gap in opposition to pornography has widened, indicating further divergence of men’s and women’s sexual attitudes over time. This is consistent with the increasingly normative nature of pornography consumption for men, increases over time in men’s actual consumption of pornography, and its increasingly degrading depiction of women.
Etruscan Foodways and Demographic Demands: Contextualizing Protohistoric Livestock Husbandry in Northern Italy
Authors: Trentacoste Angela
Published: September 2015

Domestic livestock were a crucial part of Mediterranean communities throughout later prehistory. In the first millennium BC, livestock mangement changed, and was changed by, the rise of cities in Italy. Italian prehistory has a rich zooarchaeological tradition, but investigation of the Iron Age has been regionally divided and synthetic works on the Po valley comparatively few. This article presents a pan-regional review of late prehistoric and protohistoric livestock exploitation that considers Northern and Central Italy together for the first time. Zooarchaeological comparison reveals an increase in the use of sheep/goat for secondary products, while cattle and caprines were subject to size changes that distinguish their management from that of pigs. A marked increase in pig husbandry is visible in both regions, but this shift took place earlier and more emphatically in Northern Etruscan centres than in Central Italy. After defining the main changes in animal management during the period under review, this article looks beyond population density to explore the wider environmental, economic, and cultural context of pork consumption and its relation to the development of urbanism in Etruria padana.
RETRACTED ARTICLE: 4′-O-β-d-glucosyl-5-O-methylvisamminol, an active ingredient of Saposhnikovia divaricata, attenuates high-mobility group box 1 and subarachnoid hemorrhage-induced vasospasm in a rat model
Authors: Chang Chih-Zen , Wu Shu-Chuan , Kwan Aij-Lie , Lin Chih-Lung
Published: September 2015

Background

High-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) was observed to be an important extracellular mediator involved in vascular inflammation associated with subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). This study is of interest to examine the efficacy of 4′-O-β-d-glucosyl-5-O-methylvisamminol (4OGOMV), C22H28O10, on the alternation of cytokines and HMGB1 in an animal model.

Methods

A rodent double hemorrhage SAH model was employed. Administration with 4OGOMV was initiated 1 h after animals were subjected to SAH. Basilar arteries (BAs) were harvested and cortexes examined for HMGB1 mRNA, protein expression (Western blot) and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) immunostaining. Cerebrospinal fluid samples were collected to examine IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8 and MCP-1 (rt-PCR).

Results

Morphological findings revealed endothelial cell deformity, intravascular elastic lamina torture, and smooth muscle necrosis in the vessels of SAH groups. Correspondently, IL-1β, IL-6 and MCP-1 in the SAH-only and SAH-plus vehicle groups was also elevated. 4OGOMV dose-dependently reduced HMGB1 protein expression when compared with the SAH groups.(p < 0.01) Likewise, 400 μg/kg 4OGOMV reduced IL-1β, MCP-1 and HMGB1 mRNA levels as well as MCP-1(+) monocytes when compared with the SAH groups..

Conclusion

4OGOMV exerts its neuro-protective effect partly through the dual effect of inhibiting IL-6 and MCP-1 activation and also reduced HMGB1 protein, mRNA and MCP-1(+) leukocytes translocation. This study lends credence to validating 4OGOMV as able to attenuate pro-inflammatory cytokine mRNA, late-onset inflammasome, and cellular basis in SAH-induced vasospasm.
Validation and reliability testing of a new, fully integrated gait analysis insole
Authors: Braun Benedikt Johannes , Veith Nils Thomas , Hell Rebecca , Döbele Stefan , Roland Michael , Rollmann Mika , Holstein Jörg , Pohlemann Tim
Published: September 2015

Background

A new tool (OpenGo, Moticon GmbH) was introduced to continuously measure kinetic and temporospatial gait parameters independently through an insole over up to 4 weeks. The goal of this study was to investigate the validity and reliability of this new insole system in a group of healthy individuals.

Methods

Gait data were collected from 12 healthy individuals on a treadmill at two different speeds. In total, six trials of three minutes each were performed by every participant. Validation was performed with the FDM‐S System (Zebris). Complete sensor data were used for a within test reliability analysis of over 10000 steps. Intraclass correlation was calculated for different gait parameters and analysis of variance performed.

Results

Intraclass correlation for the validation was >0.796 for temporospatial and kinetic gait parameters. No statistical difference was seen between the insole and force plate measurements (difference between means: 36.3 ± 27.19 N; p = 0.19 and 0.027 ± 0.028 s; p = 0.36). Intraclass correlation for the reliability was >0.994 for all parameters measured.

Conclusion

The system is feasible for clinical trials that require step by step as well as grouped analysis of gait over a long period of time. Comparable validity and reliability to a stationary analysis tool has been shown.
Increased Preclass Preparation Underlies Student Outcome Improvement in the Flipped Classroom
Authors: Gross David , Pietri Evava S. , Anderson Gordon , Moyano-Camihort Karin , Graham Mark J.
Published: September 2015

Active-learning environments such as those found in a flipped classroom are known to increase student performance, although how these gains are realized over the course of a semester is less well understood. In an upper-level lecture course designed primarily for biochemistry majors, we examine how students attain improved learning outcomes, as measured by exam scores, when the course is converted to a more active flipped format. The context is a physical chemistry course catering to life science majors in which approximately half of the lecture material is placed online and in-class problem-solving activities are increased, while total class time is reduced. We find that exam performance significantly improves by nearly 12% in the flipped-format course, due in part to students interacting with course material in a more timely and accurate manner. We also find that the positive effects of the flipped class are most pronounced for students with lower grade point averages and for female students.
Regulation of Sclerostin Production in Human Male Osteocytes by Androgens: Experimental and Clinical Evidence
Authors: Di Nisio Andrea , De Toni Luca , Speltra Elena , Rocca Maria Santa , Taglialavoro Giuseppe , Ferlin Alberto , Foresta Carlo
Published: September 2015

In this study we aimed to elucidate a possible role of T in the regulation of sclerostin, a glycoprotein secreted by osteocytes known to regulate bone mass. To this end, we evaluated the effect of T stimulation on sclerostin production and gene expression in human cultured osteocytes. In addition, we evaluated serum sclerostin levels in a cohort of 20 hypogonadal male patients, compared with 20 age-matched eugonadal controls. Stimulation with DHT decreased sclerostin expression in cultured osteocytes in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Confirming a direct androgen receptor-mediated effect on sclerostin production, flutamide coincubation and silencing of androgen receptor gene in osteocytes abolished the DHT effects. In addition, hypogonadal patients showed higher serum sclerostin levels with respect to controls (145.87 ± 50.83 pg/mL vs 84.02 ± 32.15 pg/mL; P < .001) and in both probands and controls, serum T levels were negatively correlated with sclerostin (R = −0.664, P = 0.007, and R = −0.447, P = .045, respectively). Finally, multiple stepwise regression analysis showed that T represented the only independent predictor of sclerostin levels. In conclusion, by showing a direct correlation between T and sclerostin, both in vivo and in vitro, this study adds further support to the emerging clinical and experimental studies focusing on sclerostin as a therapeutic target for osteoporosis treatment.
A Comparison of Methods for Solving High Accuracy Surface Modeling in DEM Construction
Authors: Yan Changqing , Yue Tianxiang , Liu Jimin , Zhao Chunyan , Li Han , Chen Chuanfa
Published: September 2015

High accuracy surface modeling method (HASM) has the capacity of constructing a surface with a higher accuracy than classical methods. However, surface construction with HASM requires a large amount of computing time due to the intensive computing arising from solving the large linear systems. An effective linear system solving method is essential to cutting down the computing time so that HASM could be applied in constructing large scale surface with high resolution. This paper aims to study the performances of seven linear system solution methods, including HASM-GS, HASM-MGS, HASM-DSPM, HASM-CG, HASM-PCG, HASM-GCG and HASM-GPCG, thus providing a guideline for choosing the right method for HASM under different situations of computing environment. These seven methods were tested against a real-world DEM surface in the Boyang lake basin, which owns a complex topography. Three performance metrics were used, including convergence rates, computing time and consumed memory size. We found that to attain the same accuracy HASM-DSPM method consumed the least memory, HASM-GCG and HASM-GPCG needed less computing time than other methods and HASM-PCG had the fastest convergent rate. This study could provide valuable suggestions for HASM users to make a wise choice of linear system solving method for different surface construction applications.
Asymmetric Windows and Their Application in Frequency Estimation
Authors: Luo Jiufei , Xie Zhijiang , Li Xinyi
Published: September 2015

Classic windows have constant time delay and linear phase because of the symmetry and the time shift causality-imposed in the time domain. And thus, all such windows have the same spectral phase response. Removal of the symmetry constraint on a classic window can result in a variable phase response and in an alterable time delay. In essence the time delay becomes shorter will bring about a lot of benefits in speech coding. Some asymmetric windows with better magnitude response also can lead to a better recognition performance if the result is relatively insensitive to phase distortion. However, it is surprising that so little attention has been paid to the asymmetric windows in past literature; and never in past history has this issue been systematically or comprehensively studied. As a result, several methods to obtain the asymmetric windows are being presented in this paper. The asymmetric windows are displayed and compared with the classic windows, concerning both in time and frequency domains. Some new asymmetric windows with good behavior are introduced. The work in this paper makes it possible for researchers to select an asymmetric window to meet their requirements, in terms of bias due to time delay or bias due to spectral behavior. Finally, the application in a new aspect, of the asymmetric windows, is displayed. The simulation demonstrates that the improved estimation method, in which the symmetric windows are replaced by the asymmetric windows, shows a stronger capability of additive noise resistance than the traditional method.
Towards a Practical Subject-Independent Affective State Recognition Based on Time-Domain EEG Feature Extraction
Authors: Hadjidimitriou Stelios , Charisis Vasileios , Hadjileontiadis Leontios
Published: September 2015

This work presents an evaluation of two time domain-based features, i.e., fractal dimension (FD) and higher-order crossings (HOC), for the subject-independent EEG-based recognition of four affective states as a preliminary step towards a practical real-time affective brain computer interface. EEG data were acquired from an experiment targeting the elicitation of four emotions using affective sounds. Features were computed for each electrode individually and tested in terms of classification using the k-nearest neighbors classifier. Results show that the valence of affective states can be recognized effectively, when the arousal level is specified. Moreover, an above chance level classification accuracy was achieved using a single electrode for the four affective states recognition. Both FD and HOC performed similarly, while the best classification rates were achieved from frontal electrode locations.
The functionality of masticatory apparatus and the sense of depression in patients over 55 years of age living in a family environment and social care centres
Authors: Barczak Katarzyna , Szmidt Monika , Buczkowska-Radlińska Jadwiga
Published: September 2015

Cel

Celem pracy było określenie zależności pomiędzy funkcjonalnością narządu żucia a poczuciem depresji u pacjentów po 55 roku życia zamieszkałych w środowisku rodzinnym i domach pomocy społecznej.

Metoda

Do oceny samopoczucia pacjentów i ich stanu/poczucia depresji posłużono się skróconą wersją Geriatrycznej Skali Depresji. Ocenę kliniczną czynności narządu żucia wykonano podczas jednej wizyty w świetle naturalnym. Kryterium klinicznym zachowania funkcjonalności narządu żucia, przyjętym przez Światową Organizację Zdrowia, był kontakt zwarciowy co najmniej 20 zębów przeciwstawnych, naturalnych lub sztucznych.

Wyniki

W grupie z niską liczbą punktów wg GDS (0–5) statystycznie istotnie wyższy odsetek osób z domów rodzinnych (69,4%) miał zachowaną funkcjonalność narządu żucia niż z DPS (23,5%). Natomiast u osób z wyższą liczbą punktów uzyskanych w GDS (6–15), statystycznie istotnie wyższy odsetek pacjentów z DPS (70,8%) nie miał zachowanej funkcjonalności narządu żucia niż w domach rodzinnych (41,7%).

Wnioski

U pacjentów z domów pomocy społecznej, u których występowało poczucie depresji, częściej stwierdzano brak funkcjonalności narządu żucia niż u pacjentów z domów rodzinnych, u których również stwierdzono poczucie depresji. Występowanie poczucia depresji o rosnącym nasileniu wpływało znacząco na niższy wskaźnik zachowanej funkcjonalności narządu żucia lub odwrotnie.
Pritham Chakravarthy: Performing Aravani s’ Life Stories
Authors: Rudisill Kristen
Published: September 2015

Aravanis (transsexuals or transgenders) experience a moment called nirvanam (transcendence), when they are surgically transformed from woman-in-a-man’s-body to woman. Pritham Chakravarthy, an assistant professor of dramaturgy and film history at the Ramanaidu Film Institute in Hyderabad, presents the life of an aravani , culminating in this moment, in her 2001 one-woman play Nirvanam (Trancendence). This article is an exploration of that play and its performance and reception both within the aravani community itself and for broader audiences. It is based on extensive interviews with Chakravarthy herself as well as film Our Family , and my personal experiences as an audience member at some of Chakravarthy’s applied theatre performances. She developed Nirvanam at the request of the aravani community, and many of them have been actively involved through interviews and critiques of performances. Through her sharing of life stories in performance, Chakravarthy emphasizes women’s agency, choice, and power in an Indian context to inspire hope and recognition instead of despair, she is able to transform narratives that may be both traumatic and quotidian into stories to which caste-privileged, educated, middle-class intellectuals can relate. Her work grapples with the politics of representation and issues of the body as she attempts to expand both her own and her audiences’ points of understanding and experience as well as to benefit in some way the communities she is representing.
Onna Mono : The “Female Presence” on the Stage of the All-Male Traditional Japanese Theatre
Authors: Gabrovska Galia Todorova
Published: September 2015

As is well known, traditional Japanese theatre has been customarily a male domain, with women physically absent for the most part. The representative classical genres: nō, kyōgen , kabuki, and bunraku are performed only by men. The aim of this article is to look for and map a trajectory of the “female presence” on this predominantly all-male public stage, by exploring a phenomenon that has been largely overlooked: female versions of the popular all-male performing arts since medieval times, including reworking stories of the most prominent masculine heroes in kabuki. It could be argued that this practice did have a lasting presence in Japanese popular culture well into the twentieth century. I have come to denote this type of female-centered performances within the androcentric traditional Japanese theatre discourse as onna mono (おんなもの “female things”)—an expression that I would like to propose here as a general term inclusive of all related art forms.
Rulan Chao Pian 卞赵如兰 (1922–2013)
Authors: Wilcox Emily E.
Published: September 2015

Rulan Chao Pian, who taught Chinese and music at Harvard University from 1947 to 1992, was a pioneer in the fields of Chinese Song dynasty musical history and ethnomusicological studies of Peking opera and Sinophone popular performance.
From Private Zashiki to the Public Stage: Female Spaces in Early Twentieth-Century Nō
Authors: Geilhorn Barbara
Published: September 2015

This article discusses the situation of women in nō , focusing on the early twentieth century as a crucial period for the advancement of women. At that time, the reconstruction of gender relations assumed a central position in the debates on modernization, and the first actresses in modern theatre ( shingeki ) developed into ambivalent icons of the “new woman” ( atarashii onna ). In nō , following the dramatic rise in the number of female amateurs and the resultant need for female instructors, leading critics and performers engaged in two-sided debates on the role of women. The main points at issue still persist in contemporary debates. This essay offers a compendium of historical information on the key question of female participation in nō , which has been researched very little up to now, and discusses contemporary discourses on gender in nō . By analyzing the situation of women in its sociopolitical context and taking into account the debates on performing gender on stage that were taking place in all genres of performing arts at that time, it adds a new dimension to the existing research.
Women in Revolutionary Theatre: IPTA, Labor, and Performance
Authors: Purkayastha Prarthana
Published: September 2015

This essay examines the ways in which theatre and dance offer possibilities to reassess the Indian nation-state’s historical failure to recognize women’s labor or grant women equal access to civil liberty. It also explores how performance allows for the emergence of women as empowered subjects in South Asia, in spite of the structural limitations of both colonial and anticolonial thought. By analyzing the contribution of women to both Gandhian and communist forms of nationalism, this essay questions previously established scholarship on the binaries of inner/outer or domestic/public within gendered Indian nationalism, and argues for a crucial third domain, that of women’s embodied resistance, which negotiated conservative and progressive notions of femininity through the body. The activism of women in the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) and their autobiographical narratives are privileged to reflect on the complex interrelationship between nationalism, embodiment, women’s unrecognized labor, and women’s agency.
Dead and Alive: Micro-Cinematography between Physics and Biology
Authors: Canales Jimena
Published: September 2015

“Cinematography alone,” argued biologist Alexis Carrel in the 1930s, “is capable of recording” essential qualities of life. Why did film become a privileged means for recording life? Carrel’s microcinematographic studies, essential to the development of twentiethcentury cell biology, represented the culmination of decades of research into the movement of fluids, Brownian particles, and microscopic organisms. Researchers (Henri Bénard, Victor Henri, Lucienne Chevroton, and Jean Comandon) used cinematographic cameras to work at the intersection of physics and biology. While biological organisms had to be filmed “according to the activity of the culture,” physical entities were best captured by filming at predetermined, clockcontrolled intervals. From microbiology to fluid mechanics, film was used to determine the difference between living organisms and dead matter. A hermeneutical study of techniques to capture movement (used in scientific and feature films) reveals how cinematography emerged as a privileged technology of representation, together with a dominant notion of life. This essay studies film as the materia operandi of a certain form of biopolitics.
Why Does Time Have a Future?: The Physical Origins of the Arrow of Time
Authors: Schollwöck Ulrich
Published: September 2015

It seems paradoxical that the laws of physics are invariant under a reversal of time, whereas everyday experience clearly indicates a direction of time, distinguishing the past from the future. The course of events is generally irreversible. Nevertheless, this observation can be reduced to the fundamental laws of physics: reversibility is a feature of the microscopic, atomistic world, whereas irreversibility is an emergent feature of the macroscopic world due to our coarsegrained knowledge about it, combined with very special, highly unlikely initial conditions of the universe as they existed at the time of the Big Bang. The explanation of the arrow of time is a case study of a completely reductionist explanation of a phenomenon in nature, which, however, sees the emergence of concepts that are not present in the fundamental description of the world.
Drilling Down: Can Historians Operationalize Koselleck’s Stratigraphical Times?
Authors: Zammito John
Published: September 2015

According to Reinhart Koselleck, in every moment a congeries of “temporal strata” are effectively co-present, but not necessarily coherent, hence the “simultaneity of the nonsimultaneous.” Contrast this with the notion of a zeitgeist in which every aspect of a historical moment is integrated by some master principle. There are so many trajectories active in any present that it is unlikely that one might coordinate all of them, if not unwise even to believe that they are coordinated. Not only does each historical present demonstrate at best rhizomic or patchy coherences across domains, but it also registers different paces and intensities in the temporal deployment of the domains. Nevertheless, coherence remains a compelling regulative ideal. Fortunately, path-dependency— cumulation as constraint—is a discriminable feature of the several distinct “layers of time” or diachronic flows co-present in any given historical moment. Moreover, that some strata of experience remain roughly constant enables us to appraise the variation of others. If too many elements enter into simultaneous crisis, if we hit the “perfect storm,” then our capacity to comprehend (like that of our objects of inquiry) may be severely impaired. These insights from Koselleck are eminently applicable and deserve recognition and gratitude in historical epistemology.
A Natural History of Disturbance: Time and the Solar Eclipse
Authors: Holland Jocelyn
Published: September 2015

Drawing on accounts of two total solar eclipses from 1842 and 1851, this essay reads the visual phenomena associated with them—the effects of light and darkness—in terms of narrated time. Whereas the first part of the essay investigates the time of the eclipse as it is integrated into a framework of prediction and anticipation, the second part is more concerned with how the experience of the eclipse’s duration is recorded. The final section then considers the problem of the eclipse’s darkness as a signifier that refuses comparison to prior experiences of time. Even though the eclipse presents an epistemological problem of how to integrate the newness of rare phenomena into familiar frameworks, it also creates an aesthetic one: namely, how to put sensory impressions into language. The essay shows how the darkness of an eclipse is linked to an experience of time defined by discontinuity, raising the question what aesthetic principles can account for or respond to such an experience. To that end, the essay will conclude by examining a peculiar proposal made by Adalbert Stifter, for whom the sense-driven aesthetics of the eclipse is also, ultimately, a problem of artistic media.
Where are the Archers in Shakespeare?
Authors: Tribble Evelyn
Published: September 2015

Archery -- in particular prowess with the longbow — was inextricably tied to English national identity, especially to success over the French during the Hundred Years War, and the association of the victory at Agincourt with the skill of the English archers was widely known. Yet Shakespeare’s Henry V does not mention their role. Using current anthropological work on ‘enskilment’ and cultural transmission, this essay examines the positions of archery and theater, respectively, within the ecologies of skill in early modern England. To account for the missing archers, I consider the promotion of the longbow in Tudor England, including sanctions and incentives to revive the ‘art of shooting,’ as it was called; the stagecraft of archery in the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries; and the role of theater in ‘prestigious imitation’ and the cultural transfer of bodily practices
Fittest and Fairest: Aesthetics and Adaptation Before Darwin
Authors: Zitin Abigail
Published: September 2015

Explaining the phenomenon of the beautiful with reference to adaptive criteria has a history that extends back farther than Darwin’s theory of evolution. This essay compares eighteenth-century moral sense philosophy with the hypotheses about human nature that guide evolutionary psychology at the turn of the 21st century, concluding that adaptive questions about beauty yield instrumental answers--answers that artificially limit the scope of aesthetic inquiry. By contrast, William Hogarth, a skeptic about adaptive aesthetics, offers an alternative set of questions (and answers) about our experience of the beautiful: not what it’s for, but what it’s like.
Tristram Shandy ’s Strange Loops of Reading
Authors: Black Scott
Published: September 2015

In response to recent efforts to contextualize Tristram Shandy in relation to the eighteenth-century novel, this essay considers Sterne’s book as a reflexive romance. Tristram Shandy is formed of Quixotic pleasures of reading, those transitive circuits of desire that are the founding joke of Cervantes’s neo-romance, and it provokes such laughable desires in turn. By laying bare this central mechanism of romance, the circulation of desire through stories of desire, Tristram Shandy offers an entry into a centrifugal literary history organized by futurity and the strange temporalities of readerly play, which I further explore in Raymond Federman’s adaptation of Sterne.
Making Pornography, 1749–1968: The History of The History of the Human Heart
Authors: Lubey Kathleen
Published: September 2015

This essay argues for a historicized approach to defining the genre of pornography. Providing a detailed textual history of one little-known novel from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, I show that narrative descriptions of sex acts become streamlined and condensed over time, a result of editing practices that suppress elements of the text deemed non-erotic. The original shows us that prior to the establishment of a market for pornography, narrative descriptions of sex acts were considered gateways to other kinds of reading and thinking—about religion, science, philosophy, gender. Obscured by the practices of bibliography and cataloguing, eighteenth-century pornography fuses sexual narrative with other kinds of content and discourse, standing as a hybrid, critical, and comic point of origin for the genre.
The Manifold Singularity of Pearl
Authors: Bahr Arthur
Published: September 2015

I argue that the Middle English Pearl , which survives in just one manuscript, gains literary value from this material uniqueness. By blurring the distinction between scribe and author, this single-manuscript text invites unexpected modes of literary analysis. Physical singularity thus creates wide-ranging, enduring, and in that sense “manifold” interpretive potential. My argument proceeds in three parts. First, I demonstrate that the tension between uniqueness and multiplicity underwrites the poem’s narrative drama and complex lexicon of value; my subsequent investigations are therefore grounded in the concerns of the text itself. I then present close readings of three irregularities in the poem’s highly wrought form. Because we have no other manuscripts to use for comparison, we cannot conclusively designate these irregularities as either scribal error or authorial innovation; this uncertainty creates uncanny resemblances between Dreamer and reader, Pearl-Maiden and Pearl -manuscript. Finally, I analyze modern editorial manipulation of a single contested letter in the manuscript, arguing that Pearl ’s physical uniqueness makes this instance of the literal playful, elusive, and metaphorical. These readings show how interpretive energy can emerge from unknowable historical contingency; this most self-consciously belletristic and beautiful poem thus brilliantly undermines an essentialist understanding of the literary.
Catastrophe, Restoration, and Kunstwollen : Igor Grabar, Cultural Heritage, and Soviet Reuses of the Past
Authors: Sandomirskaia Irina
Published: September 2015

SUMMARY: When discussing Bolshevik cultural politics, both scholars and the public today emphasize what the Bolsheviks destroyed. In this essay, however, the focus is on what they “preserved,” and especially how they preserved it, to what purpose, and with what consequences. The article reconstructs the ideology and practices of cultural heritage in Soviet Russia from the vantage point of Bolshevik policies in reuses of the past. As an example, in reading the writing of the authority in Soviet cultural heritage industry, Igor Grabar, the author reconstructs the process of aestheticization, commodification, and internationalization of the Russian Orthodox icon. При обсуждении политики большевиков в области культурного наследия внимание исследователей и широкой публики сосредотачивается на том, что было разрушено. В этой статье, наоборот, предлагается взглянуть на то, что было сохранено, каким именно образом, с какими целями и последствиями. В статье делается попытка реконструкции идеологии и практик в деле охраны памятников культуры в советской России с точки зрения большевистских методов практической ап-проприации прошлого. В качестве примера, используя материалы из опубликованного наследия основателя советской системы реставрации Игоря Грабаря, автор предлагает реконструкцию процесса эстетизации, коммодификации и интернационализации русской православной иконы.
Мусульманские метрические книги в Российской империи: между законом, государством и общиной (вторая половина XIX – первая четверть XX вв.)
Authors: Усманова Диляра
Published: September 2015

The article by Diliara Usmanova offers the first comprehensive treatment of the practice of population registration and vital statistics of the Muslims of the Russian Empire through “metrical books” (parish registers). The author argues that the institution of Muslim parish registers reflected the hybrid nature of the imperial legal regime, which not only incorporated different confessional and regional systems of law but also practiced a kind of “outsourcing” by recruiting local elites to communicate administrative assignments to culturally diverse populations in their language and through their customary institutions. This thesis is unfolded against the background of early Modern and Modern European patterns of vital statistics and identification of the population, all originating in parish registers. At the same time, Usmanova points out the absence of such a practice in the Ottoman Empire, which collected population statistics through state censuses rather than Muslim confessional institutions. Russian Muslims not only embraced the Christian Church institution of parish registers, but turned it into an instrument of contestation with the state over religious and, later, national autonomy of the Muslim community. The article reconstructs the history of the introduction of parish registers for the Russian Muslims, the content of registers and the specifics of bookkeeping by clergy, the controversy over the language of documentation, and the problem of control over the vital statistics by the state and the Muslim religious elites. Usmanova shows how, in its need for population statistics and identification, the modernizing imperial state depended on the Muslim clergy, and at the same time resented granting them more administrative authority. On the other hand, the growing complexity and internal diversity within the Muslim community itself contributed to rising appreciation of the practical importance of the parish registers and competition for control over them among rival factions. Eventually, parish registers emerged as a principal institution of religious and national (Tatar) identification and cohesion. It was only in 1918 when the Soviet state officially outlawed parish registers as the basis for identification of individuals and population statistics, despite the fierce protests of Muslims.
Antemurale польской историографии: Оскар Халецкий о ягеллонской идее, федерализме и пограничье Запада
Authors: Королёв Геннадий
Published: September 2015

The article analyzes the evolution of the concept of East-Central Europe in the writings of the famous Polish historian Oskar Halecki (1891–1973), who actually developed it. This seemingly neutral, geographical notion was formulated within the context of Polish nationalist historiography operating with categories such as “Jagiellonian idea,” “federalism,” “Antemurale” (as in “antemurale Christianitatis” – bulwark of Christianity), “the borderland of Western civilization,” “Central Europe,” and so on. “East-Central Europe” thus emerged as a claim for a “special path” of the region traditionally defined as Eastern Europe – emancipated from Russian domination and headed by Poland as a “bulwark of Europe.” This political ideal of the future informed Halecki’s historical studies and evolved in his writings of the interwar and post–World War II periods.
Б. В. Ананьич. In Memoriam
Authors: Правилова Eкатерина
Published: September 2015

As a former student of Boris Anan’ich, Ekaterina Pravilova focuses mostly on his teaching and research style. She stresses his inclination toward collegial and interactive work, even in pursuing individual research projects.