bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
STOCHASTIC ORDERINGS OF DISCRETE-TIME PROCESSES AND DISCRETE RECORD
VALUES
Authors: Belzunce Félix , Ortega Eva-María , Ruiz José M.
Published: April 2008

Recently, Pellerey, Shaked, and Zinn [6] introduced a discrete-time analogue of the
nonhomogeneous Poisson process. The purpose of this article is to provide
some results for stochastic comparisons of the epoch times and the
interepoch times of those processes. Also, we show the relationships
between these processes and discrete record values and we provide several
results for discrete weak record values.
ON BOUNDS AND APPROXIMATING WEIGHTED DISTRIBUTIONS BY EXPONENTIAL
DISTRIBUTIONS
Authors: Oluyede Broderick O.
Published: April 2008

In this article, we obtain error bounds for exponential approximations
to the classes of weighted residual and equilibrium lifetime distributions
with monotone weight functions. These bounds are obtained for the class of
distributions with increasing (decreasing) hazard rate and mean residual
life functions.
OPTIMAL ADMISSION CONTROL IN QUEUES WITH WORKLOAD-DEPENDENT SERVICE
RATES
Authors: Bekker René , Borst Sem C.
Published: April 2008

We consider a queuing system with a workload-dependent service rate.
We specifically assume that the service rate is first increasing and then
decreasing as a function of the amount of work. The latter qualitative
behavior is quite common in practical situations, such as production
systems. The admission of work into the system is controlled by a policy
for accepting or rejecting jobs, depending on the state of the system. We
seek an admission control policy that maximizes the long-run throughput.
Under certain conditions, we show that a threshold policy is optimal, and
we derive a criterion for determining the optimal threshold value.
BOUNDING THE STATIONARY DISTRIBUTION OF THE
M/G/1 QUEUE SIZE
Authors: Ross Sheldon M.
Published: April 2008

We start with a simple derivation of an identity connecting the
conditional expected residual service time as seen by an arrival and the
steady-state tail distribution function of the number of customers in the
system, which was previously proven by Mandelbaum and Yechiali. We then
show how to use it to obtain bounds on the the stationary distribution of
the number of customers in the M/G/1 queue.
HEAVY TRAFFIC LIMITS VIA BROWNIAN EMBEDDINGS
Authors: Peköz Erol A. , Blanchet Jose
Published: April 2008

For theGI/GI/1 queue we show that the scaled queue size converges to reflected Brownian motion in a critical queue and converges to reflected Brownian motion with drift for a sequence of subcritical queuing models that approach a critical model. Instead of invoking the topological argument of the usual continuous-mapping approach, we give a probabilistic argument using Skorokhod embeddings in Brownian motion.
OPTIMAL CONTROL OF A MAKE-TO-STOCK SYSTEM WITH ADJUSTABLE SERVICE
RATE
Authors: Mayorga Maria E. , Ahn Hyun-Soo , Shanthikumar J. George
Published: April 2008

We consider a multiclass make-to-stock system served by a single
server with adjustable capacity (service rate). At any point in time, the
decision-maker must determine the capacity level, make a production
decision (i.e., whether to produce an item to stock or to satisfy a
backorder), and make a rationing decision (i.e., whether to satisfy a new
order from stock or place it on backorder). In this article we
characterize the structure of optimal capacity adjustment, production, and
stock rationing policy for both finite- and infinite-horizon problems. We
show that an optimal policy is monotone in current inventory and backorder
levels, and we characterize its properties. In a numerical study we
compare the optimal policy with heuristic policies and show that the
savings from using an optimal policy can be significant.
TIGHT BOUNDS ON EXPECTED ORDER STATISTICS
Authors: Bertsimas Dimitris , Natarajan Karthik , Teo Chung-Piaw
Published: April 2008

In this article, we study the problem of finding tight bounds on the
expected value of the kth-order statistic E
[Xk:n] under first and
second moment information on n real-valued random variables.
Given means E [Xi] =
μi and variances
Var[Xi] =
σi2, we show that the tight upper bound
on the expected value of the highest-order statistic E
[Xn:n] can be computed
with a bisection search algorithm. An extremal discrete distribution is
identified that attains the bound, and two closed-form bounds are
proposed. Under additional covariance information
Cov[Xi,Xj]
= Qij, we show that the tight upper bound on
the expected value of the highest-order statistic can be computed with
semidefinite optimization. We generalize these results to find bounds on
the expected value of the kth-order statistic under mean and
variance information. For k < n, this bound is shown
to be tight under identical means and variances. All of our results are
distribution-free with no explicit assumption of independence made.
Particularly, using optimization methods, we develop tractable approaches
to compute bounds on the expected value of order statistics.
Conceptualizing Diaspora: Tales of Jewish Travelers in Search of the Lost Tribes
Authors: Cooper Alanna E.
Published: April 2008

I met Simcha Jacobovici in 1998 while doing my dissertation research in Uzbekistan. Long-haired, fair-skinned, and dressed in American garb, he was clearly an outsider like myself, and we introduced ourselves. I told him I was a cultural anthropologist doing fieldwork among the Bukharan Jews. He told me that he was a filmmaker collecting footage for a documentary about the ten lost tribes. I had heard the theory that the Bukharan Jews were among the lost Israelite tribes, but I considered it far-fetched and had trouble taking Simcha's enthusiasm about the possibility seriously.
Authors: Deshen Shlomo
Published: April 2008

In this new book, the author of Rituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe broadens the scope of his earlier acclaimed work. Moving beyond early childhood and schooling, Marcus devotes chapters to the other major stages of the Jewish life cycle (bar mitzvah, marriage, and death). While seeking to present “a comprehensive guide to Jewish rites of passage,” the book also aims to sustain a general thesis: that ritual inventiveness is a persistent pattern of traditional Jewish culture.
Authors: Matthews Victor H.
Published: April 2008

This volume takes a very different approach to biblical narrative, law, and society. In many ways, it is a treatise on comparative mythology, on comparative legal practice and attitudes. The author, Daniel Friedmann, is very forthcoming, saying that he does not intend “to tackle the immensity of scholarly literature in the field.” Instead, his intent is to “infer from the biblical stories the legal and moral concepts they reflect and the system of laws underlying them, which seems not to conform with many of the laws of the Pentateuch” (vii). There are only a few references to modern scholarship (all in footnotes—no bibliography of works cited); most of Friedmann's discussion is bolstered by references to Rashi, Maimonides, the Talmud, and other rabbinical commentaries. There is no attempt to interact with modern critical approaches to biblical interpretation, and there is no regard for current discussions of “maximalist” or “minimalist” dating and editing of the text.
Agent-based support within an interactive evolutionary design
system
Authors: CVETKOVIĆ DRAGAN , PARMEE IAN
Published: April 2008

This paper describes the use of software agents within an
interactive evolutionary conceptual design system. Several
different agent classes are introduced (search agents, interface
agents, and information agents) and their function within the
system is explained. A preference modification agent is developed
and an example is given illustrating the use of agents in
preference modeling.
Function and behavior representation in conceptual mechanical
design
Authors: DENG Y.-M.
Published: April 2008

Conceptual design seeks to deliver design concepts that implement
desired functions. Function and behavior are two dominant terms
used in the research of this design phase. However, there are
still some fundamental ambiguities and confusions over their
representation, which have greatly hindered the interchange
of research ideas and the development of design synthesis
strategies. For conceptual design of mechanical products
specifically, this paper attempts to clarify these ambiguities.
It classifies function as purpose function and action function
and relates them to the different levels of design hierarchy
and abstraction. It distinguishes between semantic and syntactic
representations of function and behavior and summarizes basic
representation schemes. It also proposes an input–output
action transformation scheme for semantic function representation
and an input–output flow of action scheme for semantic
behavior representation. Based on these discoveries, a refined
framework is proposed for conceptual mechanical product design,
where a function–decomposition–mapping process is
elaborated to demonstrate the necessities and usefulness of
the presented work.
Self-regulatory hierarchical coevolution
Authors: ROSENMAN MIKE , SAUNDERS ROB
Published: April 2008

An evolutionary model for nonroutine design is presented, which is
called hierarchical coevolution. The requirements for an evolutionary
model of nonroutine design are provided, and some of the problems with
existing approaches are discussed. Some of the ways in which these
problems have been addressed are examined in terms of the design
knowledge required by evolutionary processes. Then, a synthesis of
these approaches as a hierarchical coevolutionary model of nonroutine
design is presented and the manner in which this model addresses the
requirements of an evolutionary design model is discussed. An
implementation in the domain of space planning provides an example of a
hierarchical design problem.
Adaptive neurofuzzy inference systems networks design using hybrid
genetic and singular value decomposition methods for modeling and
prediction of the explosive cutting process
Authors: NARIMAN–ZADEH N. , DARVIZEH A. , DADFARMAI M.H.
Published: April 2008

Genetic algorithm (GA) and singular value decomposition (SVD) are
deployed for the optimal design of both Gaussian membership functions
of antecedents and the vector of linear coefficients of consequents,
respectively, of adaptive neurofuzzy inference systems (ANFIS) networks
that are used for modeling of the explosive cutting process of plates
by shaped charges. The aim of such modeling is to show how the depth of
penetration varies with the variation of important parameters, namely,
the apex angle, standoff, liner thickness, and mass of charge. It is
demonstrated that SVD can be effectively used to optimally find the
vector of linear coefficients of conclusion parts in ANFIS models and
their Gaussian membership functions in premise parts are determined by
a GA.
Intelligent selective disassembly using the ant colony algorithm
Authors: WANG J.F. , LIU J.H. , LI S.Q. , ZHONG Y.F.
Published: April 2008

Selective disassembly is an important issue in industrial and mechanical engineering for environmentally conscious manufacturing. This paper presents an intelligent selective disassembly approach based on ant colony algorithms, which take inspiration from the behavior of real ant colonies and are used to solve combinatorial optimization problems. For diverse assemblies, the algorithm generates different amounts of ants cooperating to find disassembly sequences for selected components, minimizing the reorientation of assemblies and removal of components. A candidate list that is composed of feasible disassembly operations, which are derived from a disassembly matrix of products, guides sequence construction in the implicit solution space and ensures the geometric feasibility of sequences. Preliminary implementation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Knowledge-rich catalog services for engineering design
Authors: KIM JIHIE , WILL PETER , LING S. RINGO , NECHES BOB
Published: April 2008

The exponential growth of the Internet and increasing communication and computational power have created many opportunities for advancing engineering, manufacturing, and business activities. Among them are electronic catalogs. These have become basic information resources to a number of people, ranging from shoppers looking for personal items to engineers selecting electromechanical parts to build a product. Although rich in content, current catalog systems are limited both in search quality and in realizing the full potential of the retrieved information. The active catalog system brings a conceptually new idea to electronic commerce by providing a new, computationally usable, catalog information environment about components and their use in applications. It utilizes a rich body of domain knowledge to facilitate access and retrieval of component information. The utility of retrieved information is enhanced by using it to rapidly construct simulation programs and test alternatives, supporting a “try before you buy” paradigm in which users evaluate candidate components within simulations of their design. We describe services provided in the active catalog system to support engineers in selecting and evaluating electromechanical components and subsystems. The services include mechanisms for creating queries for parts based on their intended use rather than merely parametric specifications, refining those queries to take account of constraints imposed by domain knowledge, providing multimodal information to help engineers assess and compare candidate parts, and generating simulation models for candidate parts and integrating them to provide simulation models for candidate systems.
Special Issue: Learning and creativity Part 1
Authors: DUFFY ALEX H.B. , BRAZIER FRANCES M.T.
Published: April 2008

Special Issue Part 1 (Issue 3) and Part 2 (Issue 4) of AIEDAM
are based on a workshop on Learning and Creativity held at the 2002
conference on Artificial Intelligence in Design, AID '02
(www.cad.strath.ac.uk/AID02_workshop/Workshop_webpage.html; Gero, 2002). It was the sixth of similar workshops,
with the previous five focusing on Machine Learning in Design and being
held at AIDs '92, '94, '96, '98, and '00 (Gero,
1992, 2000; Gero &
Sudweeks, 1994, 1996,
1998). The first three workshops also resulted
in special issues of AIEDAM (Maher et al.,
1994; Duffy et al., 1996, 1998).
Designing creative artificial systems
Authors: VAN LANGEN PIETER H.G. , WIJNGAARDS NIEK J.E. , BRAZIER FRANCES M.T.
Published: April 2008

Can artificial systems be creative? Can they be designed to be creative on their own? What are the requirements of such creative artificial systems? To be able to support humans who are expected to deliver creative solutions, or to automate part of their tasks, this paper presents a proposal for creativity requirements that provide a basis for designing creative artificial systems.
Invention and creativity in automated design by means of genetic programming
Authors: KOZA JOHN R. , KEANE MARTIN A. , STREETER MATTHEW J. , ADAMS THOMAS P. , JONES LEE W.
Published: April 2008

Some designs are sufficiently creative that they are considered to be inventions. The invention process is typically characterized by a singular moment when the prevailing thinking concerning a long-standing problem is, in a “flash of genius,” overthrown and replaced by a new approach that could not have been logically deduced from what was previously known. This paper discusses such logical discontinuities using an example based on the history of one of the most important inventions of the 20th century in electrical engineering, namely, the invention of negative feedback by AT&T's Harold S. Black. This 1927 invention overthrew the then prevailing idiom of positive feedback championed by Westinghouse's Edwin Howard Armstrong. The paper then shows how this historically important discovery can be readily replicated by an automated design and invention technique patterned after the evolutionary process in nature, namely, genetic programming. Genetic programming employs Darwinian natural selection along with analogs of recombination (crossover), mutation, gene duplication, gene deletion, and mechanisms of developmental biology to breed an ever improving population of structures. Genetic programming rediscovers negative feedback by conducting an evolutionary search for a structure that satisfies Black's stated high-level goal (i.e., reduction of distortion in amplifiers). Like evolution in nature, genetic programming conducts its search probabilistically without resort to logic using a process that is replete with logical discontinuities. The paper then shows that genetic programming can routinely produce many additional inventive and creative results. In this regard, the paper discusses the automated rediscovery of numerous 20th-century patented inventions involving analog electrical circuits and controllers, the Sallen–Key filter, and six 21st-century patented inventions. In addition, two patentable new inventions (controllers) have been created in the same automated way by means of genetic programming. The paper discusses the promising future of automated invention by means of genetic programming in light of the fact that, to date, increased computer power has yielded progressively more substantial results, including numerous human-competitive results, in synchrony with Moore's law. The paper argues that evolutionary search by means of genetic programming is a promising approach for achieving creative, human-competitive, automated design because illogic and creativity are inherent in the evolutionary process.
Psychological challenges for the analysis of style
Authors: STACEY MARTIN
Published: April 2008

Analyses of styles in design have paid little attention to how peopleseestyle and how designers use perceptions of style to guide designing. Although formal and computational methods for analyzing styles and generating designs provide impressively parsimonious accounts of what some stylesare, they do not address many of the factors that influence how humans understand styles. The subtlety of human style judgments raises challenges for computational approaches to style. This paper differentiates between a range of distinct meanings of “style” and explores how designers and ordinary people learn and apply perceptual similarity classes and style concepts in different situations to interpret and create designed artifacts. A range of psychological evidence indicates that style perception is dependent on knowledge and involves the interaction of perceptual recognition of style features and explanatory inference processes that create a coherent understanding of an object as an exemplar of a style. This article concludes by outlining how formal style analyses can be used in combination with psychological research to develop a fuller understanding of style perception and creative design.
Visual style: Qualitative and context-dependent categorization
Authors: JUPP JULIE , GERO JOHN S.
Published: April 2008

Style is an ordering principle by which to structure artifacts in a design domain. The application of a visual order entails some explicit grouping property that is both cognitively plausible and contextually dependent. Central to cognitive–contextual notions are the type of representation used in analysis and the flexibility to allow semantic interpretation. We present a model of visual style based on the concept of similarity as a qualitative context-dependent categorization. The two core components of the model are semantic feature extraction and self-organizing maps (SOMs). The model proposes a method of categorizing two-dimensional unannotated design diagrams using both low-level geometric and high-level semantic features that are automatically derived from the pictorial content of the design. The operation of the initial model, called Q-SOM, is then extended to include relevance feedback (Q-SOM:RF). The extended model can be seen as a series of sequential processing stages, in which qualitative encoding and feature extraction are followed by iterative recategorization. Categorization is achieved using an unsupervised SOM, and contextual dependencies are integrated via cluster relevance determined by the observer's feedback. The following stages are presented: initial per feature detection and extraction, selection of feature sets corresponding to different spatial ontologies, unsupervised categorization of design diagrams based on appropriate feature subsets, and integration of design context via relevance feedback. From our experiments we compare different outcomes from consecutive stages of the model. The results show that the model provides a cognitively plausible and context-dependent method for characterizing visual style in design.
Formalizing abstract characteristics of style
Authors: KOILE KIMBERLE
Published: April 2008

This paper claims that style, in addition to being identified by
common visible physical characteristics of form, can be thought of in
terms of a set of common abstract characteristics. A prototype
computational design support tool is described that explores this idea in
the domain of architecture. The Architect's Collaborator (TAC)
supports articulation and evaluation of abstract characteristics of style
(e.g., experiential characteristics such as privacy and shelter) and does
so by mapping abstract characteristics to details of physical form. The
implementation of TAC is described and successful experiments are reported
in which abstract characteristics of Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie
houses were mapped to physical form characteristics and used to evaluate
Prairie and non-Prairie houses.
Marriage and Federal Police Power
Authors: Sullivan Kathleen S.
Published: April 2008

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the U.S. federal government expanded the scope and extent of its constitutionally enumerated powers in naturalization, Indian policies, and regulation of interstate commerce. In doing so, Congress became more involved with matters of citizenship, both in defining public purposes and national identity. Citizenship had traditionally been a matter for the states, where governance rested on the features of differentiation, jurisdictional autonomy, and local control. The entry of the federal government and the federal constitutional norms of citizenship might have been expected to bring an overarching coherence to the fundamental liberal values that were declared after the Civil War. Under expanded federal power and federal citizenship, however, multiple traditions of both liberal rights of citizenship and illiberal conditions of status continued, and illiberal positions gained new footing.
Salvor in possession: friend or foe to marine archaeology
Authors: Fletcher-Tomenius P , O'Keefe PJ , Williams M
Published: April 2008

While the threat to the underwater cultural heritage from the treasure salvage industry is widely recognised, the approach to 'protection' ranges from absolute prohibition to the sale of state licences to the highest bidder. Even the former raises difficult problems of enforceability and the choice of mechanisms to determine whether in situ preservation is the preferred option for any particular wreck site. The common law jurisdictions have tended to prefer a regulated salvage regime, in which the courts themselves have a role in considering whether appropriate archaeological methodology is applied to the recovery of historic artefacts. This article examines the legal and economic basis of such an approach and evaluates whether the underwater cultural heritage has derived any discernible benefit from this judicial creativity. Inter alia, it concludes that the legal framework is itself flawed by uncertainty and that the deliberations of the court are hampered by procedural deficiencies.
Collecting the classical world: first steps in a quantitative history
Authors: Chippindale C , Gill D , Salter E , Hamilton C
Published: April 2008

Of the two values of ancient objects, the connoisseur's first concern is with the object today, and the archaeologist's is with its past place and the knowledge it offers about the past. Central to both is provenance, which comprises the 'archaeology' of the item - its story until it went to rest in the ground - and its 'history' - its story once found and brought to human awareness again. Our response to looting of antiquities depends on how serious is the impact on knowledge, so we need a 'quantitative history' of collecting - how much there was to start with, how much has been dug up, how much we know about it, how much remains. Four quantitative histories are reported: on Cycladic figures, on items in recent celebrated classical collections, on antiquities sold at auction in recent decades, and on classical collecting at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. These pioneering studies are not yet enough to make a clear overall picture; our preliminary conclusion is a glum view of the damage caused by the illicit pursuit of antiquities.
Restricting international trade in the national artistic patrimony: economic rationale and policy instruments
Authors: O'Hagan J , McAndrew C
Published: April 2008

This article examines the rationale for restricting the international artistic patrimony. The meaning of national patrimony is analysed, and rationales for state funding and interventions in the art market are analysed in light of the nonprivate benefits that this category of art produces. Distributional concerns about the international movement of art are considered. The second part of the article provides a taxonomy of restrictions used to prevent art objects leaving a nation, namely export restrictions, import regulations, and tax policies and incentives.
The Elgin Marbles: questions of accuracy and reliability
Authors: Jenkins I
Published: April 2008

The Elgin Marbles continue to be one of the more controversial issues
of the contemporary debate over cultural property and questions of its
moral ownership. Unfortunately but perhaps inevitably, the pace of
discussion is often driven by emotion. In this highly charged
atmosphere, misunderstandings and misrepresentations are so often
repeated that they gain a reality of their own and are very rarely
challenged.

Recently the corpus of disinformation was given
sustenance from a new quarter. In two separate publications, one of them
in this journal, William St. Clair launched an attack on the British
Museum and its care of the Parthenon sculptures. As this work is now
likely to enter the core bibliography of the Parthenon sculptures, I am
grateful to the editors of IJCP for this opportunity to correct some of its many misrepresentations and errors of fact.
White Law, Black Art
Authors: Alexander Isabella
Published: April 2008

This article examines the issues surrounding the appropriation of indigenous culture, in particular art. It discusses the nature and context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art in Australia in order to establish why appropriation and reproduction are important issues. The article outlines some of the ways in which the Australian legal system has attempted to address the problem and looks at the recent introduction of the Label of Authenticity. At the same time, the article places these issues in the context of indigenous self-determination and examines the problematic use of such concepts as “authenticity.” Finally, the article looks beyond the Label of Authenticity and existing law of intellectual and cultural property, to sketch another possible solution to the problem.
“Putting Reform Into Action” — Thirty Years of the World Heritage Convention: How to Reform a Convention without Changing Its Regulations
Authors: Strasser Peter
Published: April 2008

The World Heritage Convention, revolutionary in its conception thirty years ago, has today become the most widely accepted international legal instrument for the protection of cultural and natural heritage. Now, however, it requires adjustments if its successful implementation is to continue. These changes must not modify the Convention but must achieve an equivalent level of implementation. This article focuses on three issues, which are currently the subject of ongoing discussions: the representivity of the World Heritage List, equitable representation in the World Heritage Committee, and revision of the Operational Guidelines. The author not only describes the procedures for reform and the results achieved so far, but he also compares the legal provisions of this Convention to the other international legal instruments for the protection of cultural heritage.
Cultural Property on the Move — Legally, Illegally
Authors: Dietrich Reinhard
Published: April 2008

In 1999 a load of about sixty kilograms of ancient coins, looted from illegal excavations in Bulgaria and falsely declared, were stopped by German customs at the Frankfurt Airport, on its way to the United States. Notwithstanding any rights of ownership or administrative rights to confiscate the smuggled goods, in the end the coins were returned to the dealer. The main weakness proved to be the lack of interest in an “exotic” case like this and a lack of communication among all administrative agencies concerned.
Dignifying Carnival: The Politics of Heritage Recognition in Puebla, Mexico
Authors: Churchill Nancy
Published: April 2008

This article problematizes the process of heritage declaration using ethnographic research on the working class carnival produced each year in the historic city center of Puebla, México. The author explores the ways in which the intersection of cultural and political practice in this case has not only called into question the authenticity of certain aspects of this local tradition, but have instead converted them into points of contention among carnival producers.
New Swiss Law on Cultural Property
Authors: Weber Marc
Published: April 2008

On June 1, 2005, the Swiss Federal Act on the International Transfer of Cultural Property (Cultural Property Transfer Act [CPTA]) and the regulations thereof became effective. The CPTA implements the minimal standards of the UNESCO Convention of 1970 on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. The CPTA fills a gap, because Switzerland is not a member state of the Convention of June 24, 1995, on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects (Unidroit Convention 1995). In addition, as a nonmember state of the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Community (EEC), the Council Directive 93/7/EEC of March 15, 1993, on the Return of Cultural Objects Unlawfully Removed from the Territory of a Member State is not applicable. The CPTA enforces foreign export bans in Switzerland. However, claims in Switzerland for return of foreign, illegally exported cultural property are only successful when there is an agreement on the import and return of cultural property between Switzerland and the claiming foreign state. Like Switzerland, the claiming state must be a member state of the UNESCO Convention of 1970.
Codes of ethics: form and function in cultural heritage management
Authors: O'Keefe PJ
Published: April 2008

Many institutions and organizations of professionals have promulgated 'codes' of ethics in recent years in order both to establish accepted practices of professionals in various disciplines and to deal with problems raised by the unique aspects of cultural heritage issues. The author follows the processes of formulation, role, influence, interpretation, and effectiveness of such codes, as well as their relationship to the legal system. While acknowledging that it is often difficult to enforce these codes, the author suggests that they serve a valuable role both in educating the members of the various organizations and the public and in establishing goals for which these professionals aspire.
United States cultural property legislation: observation of a combatant
Authors: Coggins CC
Published: April 2008

A consideration of the U.S. initiatives in response to the loss of cultural property in Latin America and Canada, as seen by a participant in their formulation and implementation from 1969 to 1994; cultural and aesthetic viewpoints are seen to divide the cultural property constituencies, although the former is prevailing. The significance of the U.S. UNESCO cultural property implementing legislation for five requesting countries and for Mexico is discussed, with a final recommendation for its emendation so as to allow the United States to respond immediately to the requests of all parties to the convention.
When data become people: archaeological ethics, reburial, and the past as public heritage
Authors: Zimmermann LJ
Published: April 2008

In the United States, consideration of archaeological ethics has been relatively recent and concerned primarily with defining professionalism. By declaring that the past is a public heritage, claiming that archaeologists should be its stewards, and moving toward a positivist scientific approach, American archaeology has alienated its public. Prompted by pressure from Native Americans on the reburial issue, the Society for American Archaeology has attempted to address the problems by proposing an ethics code, but outsiders are likely to see the contradictions between stated principles and practice. These issues are examined from the perspective of the reburial issues, offering the possibility that an ethnocritical archaeology might provide mechanisms that will allow archaeologists to be more truly accountable and, in the long term, better stewards of the past.
The ethics of archaeology, subsistence digging, and artifact looting in Latin America: point muted counterpoint
Authors: Matsuda D
Published: April 2008

The author portrays the indigenous populations who engage in subsistence digging of sites in Latin America both as a means of supporting themselves economically and as a way of connecting themselves to their past and their ancestors who left the buried remains as a type of gift to their descendants. The article is also critical of the mainstream archaeologists, who, according to the author, hide behind the veil of scientific objectivity. Finally, the author juxtaposes the varying competing interests, particularly against the backdrop of denial of basic human and economic rights in these regions, and poses the question, to whom should these cultural remains belong?
Ethics, the antiquities trade, and archaeology
Authors: Ede J
Published: April 2008

This article presents the perspective of a long-time dealer in ancient art and antiquities on the many attacks on the antiquities trade. After a brief historical review of collecting and the different national approaches to control of export of archaeological materials, the author presents an analysis of why the more draconian of the legal systems defeat their intended purposes and are themselves unethical in that they promote the destruction of archaeological sites and the black market in antiquities.
The treasure of the Berlin State museums and its allied capture: remarks and questions
Authors: Goldmann K
Published: April 2008

Following the disclosure of archives in the former Soviet Union detailing art works taken from Germany at the end of World War II, it is now possible to reconstruct more accurately a history of those objects removed from Germany but never returned. Inconsistencies in the documentary evidence concerning both the location of objects sent West from Berlin and other repositories (particularly in the last few months of the war) and the number of objects returned to Germany indicate that the United States may have been involved in an unofficial policy of claiming as war booty art treasures form the conquered German nation. This article attempts to detail some of those inconsistencies by comparing what is known of the inventories of German museums before the war, the movements of art objects and repositories used during the war, and the inventories of the German museums today, in order to reconstruct some of this missing pact.
The fundamental aims of cultural property law
Authors: Fechner FG
Published: April 2008

The law of cultural property is primarily based on the interests of the states concerned. If a cultural object is of high monetary or identificatory value, states will contest the ownership, and many of these cases are resolved by compromise. If a cultural object is of less monetary or identificatory value, states often neglect its preservation. Yet the law for protection of cultural property should not only be a method for the arbitration of national interests but should also take into account the interests of humankind in general, including preservation of the object in its original context, public accessibility, and the scientific, historic and aesthetic interests that can be associated with an object. While some states are unable to protect their cultural heritage, especially in times of war, public international law does not prevent a state from destroying its cultural heritage. Cultural heritage law is developing rapidly, and national laws and international conventions are in the process of creation. At this time, the author posits, it is therefore necessary to consider the reasons for the protection of cultural objects.
Property rights and protection of the cultural heritage in Sweden
Authors: Adlercreutz T
Published: April 2008

This article presents a summary of the Swedish law pertaining to the treatment of the cultural heritage. After a review of the property rights implicated through such a protective scheme, the article examines the national legislation as well as its implementation at both the national and local levels through administrative procedures that define and regulate the protection of ancient sites and monuments, historic buildings, archaeological finds, church-owned property, and movable objects of cultural value.
Essay. Cultural property: a museum director's perspective
Authors: Lowry GD
Published: April 2008

This essay explores a number of issues concerning the relationship between works of art and cultural property. From the perspective of a museum director, it posits an ontological distinction between the idea of a work of art and the concept of cultural property. The essay concludes by arguing that to the extent that nations place restrictions on the export of their art, they inevitably affect the way their culture is understood and perceived abroad and so alter the larger metanarrative of culture.
Case note.McMichael v. Ontario - one man's obsession
Authors: McClean AJ
Published: April 2008

The 'Group of Seven' has a significant, though not totally uncontroversial, place in Canadian art. Robert McMichael's 'obsession' with the group led to the establishment of the McMichael Collection and then to an agreement between Mr. McMichael and his wife and the government of Ontario concerning the collection. The subsequent litigation as to whether the government had failed to comply with provisions in the agreement on the administration of the collection and on the policy to be followed in adding works to it did not entirely resolve these issues but highlighted a matter of importance to donors of works of art and the bodies to which donations are made: how far may donors ensure compliance with the terms on which they make donations?
Evidence for glycine, GABAA, and GABAB
receptors on rabbit OFF-alpha ganglion cells
Authors: ROTOLO THOMAS C. , DACHEUX RAMON F.
Published: April 2008

Inhibitory synaptic transmission via GABA and glycine
receptors plays a crucial role in shaping the excitatory response of
neurons in the retina. Whole-cell recordings were obtained from
ganglion cells in the intact rabbit eyecup preparation to correlate
GABA- and glycine-activated currents with the presence of their
specific receptors on morphologically identified α ganglion cells.
Alpha ganglion cells were chosen based upon their large somata when
viewing the retinal surface, and responses to light and dark spots were
used to identify OFF-alpha ganglion cells. Light responses were
abolished by superfusion of Ringer's containing cobalt to
synaptically isolate the cell by blocking all Ca2+-mediated
transmitter release. Pressure pulses of GABA and glycine were delivered to
an area that encompassed the dendritic field while receptor antagonists
were applied through superfusion to characterize the direct inhibition onto
the ganglion cell. Physiological results indicated that OFF-α cells did
not have any GABAC receptor-activated currents, but did express
currents mediated by ionotropic GABAA receptors and
metabotropic GABAB receptors that were blocked by their
specific antagonists bicuculline and CGP55845, respectively. The
amplitudes of strychnine-sensitive glycine-activated currents were
always larger than the currents elicited by GABA. Confocal optical
sections of physiologically identified, sulforhodamine B-stained cells
displayed the localization of glycine and GABAA receptor
subunit labeling dispersed over the stained dendrites.
Pharmacological analysis of the rat cone electroretinogram
Authors: XU LI , BALL SHERRY L. , ALEXANDER KENNETH R. , PEACHEY NEAL S.
Published: April 2008

The electroretinogram (ERG) of the cone system provides a useful
noninvasive measure of the activity of the cone pathway. Despite a wide
application of the cone ERG in the study of rodent models of human
hereditary retinal disease, the cellular origins of the rat cone ERG
have not been well defined. Here, we address this issue using a
pharmacological approach that has been used previously to derive ERG
response components. Agents that impair synaptic transmission at
well-defined retinal loci were dissolved in saline and injected into
the vitreous of adult Sprague-Dawley rats anesthetized with
ketamine/xylazine, and cone ERGs were recorded approximately 2 h
later. Analysis of the resulting waveforms indicated that the rat cone
ERG includes a relatively small-amplitude component of negative
polarity that is derived from the activity of cone photoreceptors, and
perhaps retinal glial (Müller) cells. The cone depolarizing
bipolar cell pathway contributes a positive potential of large
amplitude to the rat cone ERG. In comparison, the contribution of
hyperpolarizing bipolar cells is of negative polarity and of much
smaller amplitude. The inner retina contributes a negative wave upon
which higher frequency oscillations are superimposed. These results
provide a foundation for interpreting changes in the waveform of the
rat cone ERG that may be observed following genetic alteration or other
experimental treatment.
Topographies of retinal cone photoreceptors in two Australian
marsupials
Authors: ARRESE C. A. , RODGER J. , BEAZLEY L.D. , SHAND J.
Published: April 2008

Microspectrophotometry indicates the presence of at least three cone
visual pigments in two Australian marsupials, the fat-tailed dunnart
(Sminthopsis crassicaudata) and honey possum (Tarsipes
rostratus). Here we have examined the distribution of cone types
using antisera, JH455 and JH492, that recognize short-wavelength-sensitive
(SWS) and medium-to-long-wavelength-sensitive (M/LWS) cone opsins,
respectively. SWS cones were concentrated in dorso-temporal retina in
the dunnart with a shallow decreasing gradient extending to the periphery
(2300–1500/mm2). In the honey possum, SWS cones showed
a uniform distribution (2700/mm2), except for a slight increase
in a narrow peripheral band (3100/mm2). In both species,
M/LWS cones dominated and their distributions were similar to those of
retinal ganglion cells: a horizontal streak in the dunnart
(31,000–21,000/mm2) and a shallow mid-ventral to
peripheral gradient in the honey possum
(37,000–26,000/mm2). A low number of cones remained
unlabeled when the antisera were combined revealing further minority cone
population(s). We discuss cone distributions in relation to visual
capabilities and requirements of the species.
Grant Wood Balkema
Authors: Brunken William J. , Ogren Marilee , Pinto Lawrence H.
Published: April 2008

One clear, crisp November day, Grant returned to the lab after
attending a high school sports event with his family. An hour later an
arrhythmia stopped his heart. Those who knew Grant knew of his devotion to
his family, his science, and soccer. Few of us knew how many lives he
touched until over 1200 people gathered in the early afternoon of November
29, 2004 to remember their husband, father, brother, nephew, friend,
colleague, coach, and mentor.
Perspective: New genetic tools for studying retinal development and disease
Authors: SCHWEERS BRETT A. , DYER MICHAEL A.
Published: April 2008

The use of knock-out and transgenic mice has been instrumental for advancing our understanding of retinal development and disease. In this perspective, we review existing genetic approaches to studying retinal development and present a series of new genetic tools that complement the use of standard knock-out and transgenic mice. Particular emphasis is placed on elucidating cell-autonomous and non-cell-autonomous roles of genes important for retinal development and diseasein vivo. In addition, a series of gene-swapping vectors can be used to elucidate the function of proteins that regulate key processes in retinal development and a wide variety of retinopathies.
Photoreceptor calcium channels: Insight from night blindness
Authors: MORGANS CATHERINE W. , BAYLEY PHILIPPA R. , OESCH NICHOLAS W. , REN GAOYING , AKILESWARAN LAKSHMI , TAYLOR W. ROWLAND
Published: April 2008

The genetic locus for incomplete congenital stationary night blindness
(CSNB2) has been identified as the CACNA1f gene, encoding the
α1F calcium channel subunit, a member of the L-type family
of calcium channels. The electroretinogram associated with CSNB2
implicates α1F in synaptic transmission between retinal
photoreceptors and bipolar cells. Using a recently developed monoclonal
antibody to α1F, we localize the channel to ribbon active
zones in rod photoreceptor terminals of the mouse retina, supporting a
role for α1F in mediating glutamate release from rods.
Detergent extraction experiments indicate that α1F is part
of a detergent-resistant active zone complex, which also includes the
synaptic ribbons. Comparison of native mouse rod calcium currents with
recombinant α1F currents reveals that the
current–voltage relationship for the native current is shifted
approximately 30 mV to more hyperpolarized potentials than for the
recombinant α1F current, suggesting modulation of the
native channel by intracellular factors. Lastly, we present evidence for
L-type α1D calcium channel subunits in cone terminals of
the mouse retina. The presence of α1D channels in cones may
explain the residual visual abilities of individuals with CSNB2.