bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The travelling sonnet: The key role of technology in an inter-university cultural heritage project
Authors: Berbel-Gómez Noemy , Cabedo-Mas Alberto , Riaño-Galán María-Elena , Arriaga-Sanz Cristina , Díaz-Gómez Maravillas
Published: August 2015

Students on the undergraduate degree in Primary Education in Spain took part in this inter-university experience within the subject of Didactics of Musical Expression. Eleven teachers and 307 students from four Spanish universities were involved in the experience, which took place in the academic year 2012–2013. The four universities were the University of the Basque Country, the University of Cantabria, University Jaume I of Castellon and the University of the Balearic Islands. The aim of the experience was to discover the traditional culture in various Spanish regions through an interdisciplinary and creative project. Based on cooperative methodology, each class in the four universities was divided into work groups of five to seven students. Technologies played an essential role in developing and coordinating the experience, as the students were able to interact and learn about the work being carried out in the other universities through virtual platforms and networks. The results of the evaluation process undertaken with the students and teachers showed that the experience had helped them to acquire basic competencies and knowledge about intangible cultural heritage and that it was a source of exchange and enrichment for both students and teachers.
‘Is it okay to use the mobile phone?’ Student use of information technology in pop-band rehearsals in Swedish music education
Authors: Wallerstedt Cecilia , Hillman Thomas
Published: August 2015

This study examines IT use by year-9 students performing in pop ensembles, drawing on eight weeks of video observations. The data are analysed with a sociocultural perspective on what tools are used, what meanings they mediate and how they are socially constructed. The results show that, while notations were exclusively down- loaded from the Internet and almost all students used mobile phones to listen to the songs they performed, other types of IT use were rare. To illustrate more extensive use, one case involving how to play the bridge in a song has been analysed in detail. This speaks to the broader finding of the study that the availability of IT and the potential for seeking information and creating music implies little on its own for how technology is used in music classrooms. Pedagogical implications are discussed in relation to the intersection between formal and informal learning and IT use in music education.
Five notes on collateral art
Authors: Theodoridou Danae , Georgelou Konstantina , Janša Janez
Published: August 2015

With the term “collateral art”, Janez Janša discusses works created as “side effects”, as a collateral consequence of an action. He uses the term to refer to the side effects that the changing of their names had in the case of the three Slovenian artists Janez Janša, Janez Janša and Janez Janša. This series of “side effects” is revealing the complicit character of the functioning of art in contemporary society.
Reenactment and the rhythm of thinking together
Authors: Bleeker Maaike
Published: August 2015

This text elaborates structural relationships between Deleuze and Guattari’s understanding of thinking (in their What is Philosophy?) and the ways in which writing opens dimensions of the virtual as accounted for by Rotman. In both, virtual agents or ‘I’s mediate how thinking and imagining are understood to proceed. Deleuze and Guattari’s explanation of thinking has incorporated the cut inaugurated by writing – the cut disconnecting expressions and ideas from the situation of enunciation – and this is reflected in an understanding of thought as something a thinker finds her bearings in, rather than something originating from her. Here, as I will show, the theatrical practice of reenactment presents an image of how we find our bearings in thought.
Memories of the theatrum mundi
Authors: Schallenberg André
Published: August 2015

Andrzej Wirth is considered one of the theoretical founders of the term “post-dramatic theatre”. With Flucht nach vorn, he now presents his memoirs, compiled in an interview and essay volume, beginning with his work in the 1950s in Poland and Germany, via his time in the USA in the 1960s and 1970s, and finishing with his direction of the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Gießen, Germany, and his preoccupation with modern performance theatre.
On thinking: Appearances and withdrawals
Authors: Protopapa Efrosini
Published: August 2015

This article explores “thinking” both as a form of doing and as an activity that is performed. It asks how thinking appears in performance (and in writing) through a close reading of Arendt and Heidegger. The implications of the concepts of withdrawal and solitude proposed by the two philosophers are discussed in relation to task-based performance, but also in the context of the specific parameters of the project Syros, which invited a group of thinkers to spend time writing together, to co-operate while working mostly privately. Thinking as a solitary activity is put forward as a precondition for being with others, while the task of writing (or dancing or performing) becomes the very condition for doing thinking.
The drizzly identity: A dissolution of the body as a solution of life
Authors: Tratnik Polona
Published: August 2015

Regenerative medicine requires living cells in order for it to work. The process involves a biologist entering the body, cutting into its flesh and taking away a part of it in order to return with an improvement. In other words, to optimize the body it first needs to be deconstructed. This process is demonstrated in the project ‘Hair in Vitro’. However, the fact that it is difficult to reconcile oneself with such a ‘disfigurement’ testifies to a certain sacredness surrounding the body in western culture, where its wholeness and completeness is still fundamental. Nevertheless, could one argue for the idea of an intimate, individual body; of an identity that is preponderantly distinguished and separated from the other world (especially if a human is to be acknowledged as being immersed in the world); where things reciprocally belong to each other in such a manner that they constitute the same flesh of the world?

The genetic profile of an individual is actually a much more complex assemblage than a profile of just one species. Micro-organisms not only live as components of the body, but also traverse from it into the environment, and vice versa. An exchange of living substances is constantly taking place. The horny layer of the skin is thus something of a vibrant exchange market; it is a region of the dissolution of identity: interiority extends out to exteriority and exteriority goes into interiority. Concepts of interiority and exteriority become senseless here: the body and the environment are intertwined; the body disperses into the milieu, and the milieu spreads onto and into the body. With the deconstruction of the notions of the boundaries of the body and the body as a closed distinguished substance, the idea of the wholeness of the organism has lost a great deal of sense. The body should not just be considered as a multitude, but its notion should denote openness, exchangeability, traversabilty and permeability. Its structure is, in short, rhizomatic – the body is a rhizome.

A body is a temporary locus of a particular organization of life. It is not a closed entity, but rather a drizzling identity. The delimitation of the body is constructed, and therefore where it ends up is drawn arbitrarily. Regenerative medicine derives from the notion of a body as a composition: a dissembling and re-assembling of bodies, as well as a restarting, delaying and slowing down of life processes. A performative installation with growing human organs such as ‘Initiation’ discloses this notion, positioning the observer into the dispersed body. A body dissolved in a milieu – a fertile yard – where human remains are given suitable living conditions for the afterlife; a platform of life where the life that once belonged to the body has emancipated itself. It thus becomes the living other of the body with which the self gets confronted. However, this life is also the body’s own identity.
Biology as a new media for art: An art research endeavour
Authors: Menezes Marta de
Published: August 2015

Throughout art history, numerous artists have explored connections to science. In the society of today, the relationship between art and biology has been acquiring special visibility. Moreover, the current importance given to science and technology by today’s public opinion directly drives an increased awareness about the relationship between art and science. The public has been eagerly following breakthroughs in scientific research, albeit with mixed feelings: simultaneously awe, hope and fear for its potential misuse. Such awareness about biological sciences and biotechnology has been having an increasing influence over artists, where the artist is no longer a mere observer of the scientific research and not quite a science researcher, but rather an art researcher. This particular position has led to the development of strategies to promote the exploration of possibilities deriving from a cross-talk between artists and scientists. This is a new art practice, based on a ‘risk-based’ situation; a timeless research strategy to develop new methods of practice, new media and new ways to manipulate materials for artistic expression. This is art research.

During the twentieth century, the key scientific advances – such as the discovery of the DNA structure, in vitro fertilization, transgenesis or the sequencing of the human genome (in the twenty-first century) – were perceived by society in diverse ways. The progressive incorporation of those concepts by society itself led to a point where biology and the medical sciences became the most promising areas of science. It is therefore not surprising that those same scientific disciplines have marked the development of the artistic discourse in a tremendous fashion, as well as also influencing all other areas of the contemporary society. Furthermore, these artworks explore new media, described as ‘moist’ in that they integrate dry in silico computer components with wet living biological systems.
The fluid coevolution of humans and technologies
Authors: Santaella Lucia
Published: August 2015

In this era of terabytes and big data, the field of digital culture and art is witnessing an emergence of dystopian lines of criticism denouncing new forms of programmed governmentality and ubiquitous surveillance, placing societies, lifestyles and the human psyche under the control of algorithms. These criticisms are so negative because they start from a belief of human autonomy from technology. To examine the other side of this argument, this article aims to discuss the coevolution of humans and technology. To accomplish this aim, the article is based on the writings and practice of the artist and theorist Roy Ascott, in whose work can be found the most original and significant conceptual sources for the defence of this thesis.
Moist art as telematic dance: Connecting wet and dry bodies
Authors: Santana Ivani
Published: August 2015

Assuming that the contemporary world is inevitably set in the context of moistmedia (Ascott 2000), this article discusses some artistic proposals that specifically seek to explore the relationship between dry technology and the wet human body, as in the case of telematic dance. This article is grounded in Clark’s (2003) concept of the ‘extended mind’ and ‘cognitive artefact’; Noë’s (2004; 2012) ‘activism’ theory; and Gallagher’s (2005) ideas surrounding ‘body image’ and ‘body schema’. My discussion of ‘moistmedia’ is focused on Ascott’s ‘Moist Manifesto’ (2000, 2003a), as well as moist theories which contribute to rethinking notions of (tele)presence, time, space, distance and of the very body. Through these new comprehensions we can understand the new perceptual demands that dancers have to deal with in the context of telematic dance. This new art configuration promotes different sensory motor experiences compared with a stage-based dance environment. The networked field of telematic dance is one way in which to render reality fluid in a moist context. In this sense, telematic projects could be assumed as moist art – ‘the hybrid interval between cyber and physical space’ – and as the ‘digitally dry, biologically wet, and spiritually numinous’ (Ascott 2003). Analyses of performances created within the project entitled ‘Embodied Varios Darmstadt’ 58’ (2013–14), with the collaboration of artists from Mexico, Spain, Portugal and Chile, will contribute to my discussion of telematic dance. This telematic artistic project was created to develop the concept of the ‘(tele) sonorous body’ from a theoretical and aesthetic point of view, so as to follow my interest in exploring telepresence beyond visual image. In this article, it is assumed that a human being experiences her/his world through sensory motor skills and that these are in play when s/he interacts with the environment (Noë 2004), a milieu garnered from Ascott’s ‘Moist Manifesto’ (2003a). The cultural shift proposed by this manifesto brings into play some important considerations, including notions of negotiation, construction, context and distributed mind, which overlap with conventional ideas of reception, representation, content and the autonomous brain respectively. Our interactions via telepresence with a dance partner bring about different ways of perceiving one another and oneself, because body image and body schema play an active role in shaping our perceptions (Gallagher 2005). Our actions and perceptions, our body image and body schema are responsible for our behaviour and learning in this world, interweaving these bodies partially wet (i.e. those onstage) with the dry (i.e. those tele-transported through cyberspace. The analysis of ‘Embodied Varios Darmstadt’ 58’ will contribute to understanding the perceptual demands of the dancer within the telematic environment, as well as the new notions of time, space, distance, presence, and the very notion of relationship or body contact in dance embedded into this ‘+ + biological culture’.
An artsci science
Authors: Fróes Maira M.
Published: August 2015

I see art as the most efficient technological field for triggering human imagination. I am not alone in my conviction that human imagination has the potential to feed back to arts and science in creative and transforming ways, as does to every humanconceived technology. More than progress, breakthroughs depend on it. A virtually unlimited conceptual hybridization from dramatically distinct knowledge fields is markedly attainable in the present day through use of an art we experience as growingly immaterial and distributed. As claimed by Roy Ascott (2006), the deep significance of this experience is only achieved when a sort of technological intermingling dissolves artwork and observer into a moistmedia that takes the form of a hybrid conscious body. Would the same be true for science?

In addressing this question, a first step is to recognize that there is more to the scientific process of thinking and creative conception than mere cognition (as defined by neuroscience); it also parallels artistic processes. Importantly, both artists and scientists operate at levels of subjacent realities. What would be the implications to scientific practice if, instead of romantic, essentially subjective, speculative guesses, we prove scientifically that subjective processes potentiate science? The present article proclaims the centrality of this question as a transforming demand to contemporary neuroscience. Moreover, it reverberates Roy Ascott’s proposition of the brain as an access system – a ‘moistmedia informer’.

In this article, hybrid artsci labs are proposed as systems that favour aesthetic rapture at different stages of scientific practices. A conceptualization of scientific objects – either material or immaterial – in contemporary art is central in this model. Artsci labs are essentially conceived as providing for interdigitating scientific, artistic and brain technological paradigms, and the effects on cognitive handling through directly controlled technical evaluation is presented. Results from my lab give support to Ascott’s proposition of an art development informed by the brain. Moreover, the hybrid multimodal character of the artwork returns to science as a gain in abstraction, favouring the idea of contemporary art as a speculum of knowledge resonances, while potentiating intuitive conceptual reframing and associative thinking usually detected as insights.
The complexification of self: At the crossroads of concepts of flux and ‘living at risk’
Authors: Choinière Isabelle
Published: August 2015

The idea of considering the living as an element of risk-taking was first inspired by my interest in existentialist approaches in different fields – literature, philosophy, the performing arts, etc. – as well as in the experimental approach Roy Ascott proposes between the arts and technology. Ascott (2003b: 150) advances an interpretation of change that is of particular interest to me: ‘the act of changing becomes a vital part of the total aesthetic experience of the participant’. In his article ‘Biophotonic flux: Bridging virtual and vegetal realities’, Ascott (2003a) speaks of a digital paradigm whose ‘systems and processes become increasingly ubiquitous and invisible, [while provoking] many artists [to] seek new horizons – in the biological sciences, nanotechnology, and the study of consciousness, leading to the emergence of a “moistmedia” (incorporating digitally dry and biologically wet systems)’. From the outset, Ascott (2003b: 123) positions his concept of moistmedia within a dynamic of experimentation, stating ‘I use the word experimental to mean making an action the outcome of which is not foreseen’. I consider these ideas as being fundamental for my own research and for this article, in which I propose a re-evaluation of the relationship between the moving body and technology; more specifically, I suggest focusing on recent perspectives in the performing arts which inscribe new manifestations and dynamics of cross-pollination between the somatic and technology. Thus, my latest research-creation projects led me to the conception and experimentation of a new aesthetic paradigm, which takes the form of a proposition of collective physical and mediated bodies. My interest in conducting creative research involving technology concerns the fact it reveals previously unknown aspects of the body. This article therefore reflects on the experience and conception of the performative body in the link it entertains with technology; an evolutive relationship from which emerges a complexification of self. To do so, I will highlight sensorial and perceptual phenomena and strategies related to the transformation of the body through its contact with technology – lived as a physicality – and subjective experience. This article also introduces the idea of how a culture of flux – reality in flux and constant transformation – is responsible for the emergence of new performative models, and how the dynamics of a loss of bearings and personal risk are essential with respect to this emergence.
Formwandel der Verfassung
Authors: Möller Kolja
Published: August 2015

Ob auf den Weltmärkten, in der EU oder im Völkerrecht - längst findet eine folgenreiche Verfassungsbildung jenseits des Staates statt. In diesem postdemokratischen Konstitutionalismus wird ein marktliberales Programm zum unbefragbaren Konsens erhoben und mit einem höherrangigen Recht abgestützt. Kolja Möller verbindet systemtheoretische, postmarxistische und demokratietheoretische Ressourcen und zeigt an unterschiedlichen Beispielen: Weder eine Rückbesinnung auf die nationale Demokratie noch die Verbreitung individueller Weltbürgerrechte schaffen hier Abhilfe. Vielmehr braucht es eine destituierende Macht, um die inhaltliche Überformung der Verfassungsbildung jenseits des Staates zu lösen. Die so entstehende neuartige, kritische Verfassungstheorie fordert die aktuellen Verfallsdiagnosen zum Zustand der Demokratie heraus.
Postsowjetische Transformationen in der Weltgesellschaft
Authors: Moser Evelyn
Published: August 2015

Der Zerfall der sowjetischen Organisationsgesellschaft hat vielfältige Veränderungen in Gang gesetzt. Evelyn Moser perspektiviert diese Veränderungen mithilfe der Differenzierungstheorie und der Theorie der Weltgesellschaft. Auf der Grundlage ethnographischer Feldforschung untersucht sie die Umstellungen und Neuordnungen, die sich im Kontext von politischer Dezentralisierung und landwirtschaftlicher Privatisierung vollziehen und die Transformationsgesellschaft im ländlichen Russland kennzeichnen. Zu beobachten ist lokale Kontingenz im Horizont der Weltgesellschaft: Änderungsabsichten müssen Engpässe passieren, Normalitätserwartungen verschieben sich und neue Anschlussmöglichkeiten entstehen.
Campus Shootings
Authors: Braun Andreas
Published: August 2015

Was veranlasst Universitätsangehörige dazu, Kollegen und Kommilitonen zielgerichtet zu töten? Derlei Taten sind die identitätsbedrohenden, nicht-intendierten Nebenfolgen der Hochschulreformen - so das Ergebnis dieser erstmalig tiefergehenden Analyse von Amoktaten an Universitäten. Mit dem soziologischen Blick einer differenzierungstheoretisch angelegten Verflechtung von Handeln und Strukturen gelingt ein tiefer Einblick in die Folgen der gesellschaftlich und kulturell verankerten Ökonomisierung von Universitäten und in die dynamisch angelegte Sichtweise auf universitäre Amoktaten als letzte Form von Identitätsbehauptung.
Possibility of Acetylcholinesterase Overexpression in Alzheimer Disease Patients after Therapy with Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors
Authors: Kračmarová Alžběta , Drtinová Lucie , Pohanka Miroslav
Published: August 2015

Acetylcholinesterase is an enzyme responsible for termination of excitatory transmission at cholinergic synapses by the hydrolyzing of a neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Nowadays, other functions of acetylcholinesterase in the organism are considered, for example its role in regulation of apoptosis. Cholinergic nervous system as well as acetylcholinesterase activity is closely related to pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease. The mostly used therapy of Alzheimer disease is based on enhancing cholinergic function using inhibitors of acetylcholinesterase like rivastigmine, donepezil or galantamine. These drugs can influence not only the acetylcholinesterase activity but also other processes in treated organism. The paper is aimed mainly on possibility of increased expression and protein level of acetylcholinesterase caused by the therapy with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors.
Pistacia Terebinthus Coffee Protects against Thioacetamide-Induced Liver Injury in Rats
Authors: Bahçecıoğlu Ibrahim Halil , Ispiroglu Murat , Tuzcu Mehmet , Orhan Cemal , Ulas Mustafa , Demirel Ulvi , Yalniz Mehmet , Özercan Ibrahim H. , Ilhan Necip , Sahin Kazim
Published: August 2015

Aim/background: Pistacia terebinthus is used as a coffee substitute in the East and Southern Anatolia regions of Turkey. It contains unsaturated fatty acids, tocopherols, polyphenols and carotenoids. P. terebinthus has anti-inflammatory and potential antioxidant activity. In this study we evaluated the protective effects of P. terebinthus coffee (PTC) on thioacetamide (TAA)-induced liver injury in rats. Materials and methods: Twenty-eight male Sprague-Dawley rats were equally randomized into four groups. Chronic liver injury was induced with TAA (100 mg/kg i.p. three times weekly). The first group of rats served as control and received only tap water (G1), and the remaining groups of rats received PTC, p.o (G2); TAA (G3); TAA plus PTC, p.o (G4), respectively. Results: After 8 weeks, PTC intake significantly reduced fibrosis/inflammation scores (p < 0.05) in the livers of TAA-treated group. Compared to control group, PTC intake reduced transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) concentrations in the liver (p < 0.05). Compared to the TAA group, TGF-β, nuclear factor kappa B (NF)-κB (p < 0.05), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) concentrations in the liver tissue were reduced by PTC intake. Discussion and conclusion: PTC intake provided beneficial effects against TAA-induced liver injury in rats. PTC probably suppresses the proinflammatory cytokines through NF-κB signaling pathway.
Detection of Cervical Lymph Node Micrometastases in Patients with Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Oral Cavity, Pharynx and Larynx
Authors: Čelakovský Petr , Kalfeřt David , Smatanová Katarína , Chrobok Viktor , Laco Jan
Published: August 2015

Background: The goal of this prospective study was to determine the frequency of micrometastases in patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the oral cavity, pharynx and larynx in whom elective neck dissection was indicated (cN0). Patients and Methods: A total of 12 patients (10 males and 2 females) were enrolled in the study. The age ranged 42–73 years (median 62 years). Elective neck dissection was performed in all patients (8 ipsilateral, 4 bilateral) and a total of 256 lymph nodes were removed and sent for microscopic examination. Results: The presence of tumor cells in cervical lymph nodes was found in 5/12 (42%) patients. Micrometastases of SCC were found in two patients and isolated tumor cells (ITC) in two other patients. In the remaining one patient with oropharyngeal SCC, a micrometastasis of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) was detected. Positive lymph nodes were localized in level II in three patients with SCC of larynx, hypopharynx and tongue base, respectively, in level I in one patient with SCC of oral tongue and in level III in one patient with PTC. Conclusion: Our results indicate that SCC of head and neck has a high potential for creating micrometastases which frequency is higher compared to clinically detected macrometastases. Therefore, elective neck dissection or radiotherapy of the neck should be considered in patients with high risk of occult metastases or micrometastases.
Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis in a patient with CD3δ deficiency
Authors: Alsalamah Mohammad , Sarpal Amrita , Siu Victoria Mok , Gibson Paul , Rupar CA , Barton Michelle , Salvadori Marina I , Goobie Sharan
Published: August 2015

Introduction: Primary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a life-threatening inflammatory process that has been linked to abnormal cytotoxic T-cell and natural killer (NK) cell function. We report on the first case of severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) caused by a CD3δ mutation presenting with HLH in a female of Mennonite descent.

Case Description: A Low-German-speaking Mennonite female with past medical history of eczema, mouth sores, and refractory oral and diaper candidiasis presented at the age of 6 months with vomiting, diarrhea, and lethargy. The patient developed HLH that was refractory to treatment and led to multi-organ failure. Immunological evaluation was diagnostic for SCID and post-mortem genetic testing confirmed a homozygous mutation in CD3δ that was previously described in Mennonites.

Method: Targeted molecular testing for CD3δ deficiency confirmed a homozygous C-to-T transition at nucleotide position 202, predicting a premature stop codon, with a truncation at residue 68 (R68X) in the extracellular domain of the protein.

Discussion: Many primary immunodeficiency diseases (PID) that affect cytotoxic T cells and NK cells have presented with HLH. However, a growing number of PID with no obvious NK-cell defect have also been found to predispose patients to HLH, suggesting that failure of NK activity is not the only mechanism leading to this unusual form of inflammation.

Conclusion: CD3δ is known to be critical for T-cell but not NK-cell development, which may suggest an alternate mechanism for overwhelming inflammation leading to HLH.

Statement of novelty: This is the first case report of CD3δ deficiency presenting with HLH.
A variable exponent Sobolev theorem for fractional integrals on quasimetric measure spaces
Authors: Samko Stefan
Published: August 2015

We prove that the coefficients

a

i
j

(
x
)

${a_{ij}(x)}$

, q(x) and the domain Ω of a multidimensional fractional diffusion equation can be recovered uniquely from measurements

u
(
b
,
t
)

${u(b,t)}$

,

t
∈
(

t
0

,

t
1

)

${t\in (t_0,t_1)}$

, at an arbitrary single point b inside a bounded domain

Ω
⊂

ℝ
n

${\Omega \subset \mathbb {R}^n}$

. From the measurements we first recover infinitely many spectral data

(

λ
m

,

ϕ
m

(
x
)

)

${(\lambda _m,\varphi _m(x))}$

of the elliptic operator associated with the fractional diffusion equation. Then, the coefficients

a

i
j

(
x
)

${a_{ij}(x)}$

and q(x) are found from linear algebraic systems of the form

A
y
=
b

${Ay = b}$

, where A is a generalized Wronskian of some set of eigenfunctions that can be shown to be nontrivial. The domain Ω is reconstructed using the first eigenfunction

ϕ
1

(
x
)

${\varphi _1(x)}$

.
The role of Drosophila antifungal immune response genes in intestinal homeostasis
Authors: Hao Yangguang , Liu Qiang , Jin Li Hua
Published: August 2015

The signaling pathways that control intestinal
development, regeneration and disease show a high
degree of conservation between Drosophila and mammals.
The gut epithelia of Drosophila provide protection against
invasion of microorganisms through production of reactive
oxygen species (ROS) and antimicrobial peptides (AMPs).
Although Drosophila gut immunity has been extensively
studied, the specific responses to Gram-positive bacteria,
fungi and toxic compounds are not fully understood. To
identify the physiological role of genes involved in host
defense we studied Drosophila mutants in antifungal
genes identified previously and tested their survival upon
feeding with various pathogens and toxic compounds.
The results showed that several mutants displayed
decreased viability compared with wild-type flies, and
the lower survival rates were attributed to morphological
change and excessive cell death in mutant guts. Thus, we
identified several new Drosophila genes (spen, jumeau,
inv, DDB1 and shg) required for intestinal homeostasis or
stress responses.
Phenolic fingerprint of the seagrassPosidonia oceanicafrom four locations in the Mediterranean Sea: first evidence for the large predominance of chicoric acid
Authors: Grignon-Dubois Micheline , Rezzonico Bernadette
Published: August 2015

The phenolic fingerprint of the leaves ofPosidonia oceanicacollected from four different Mediterranean Sea regions was determined using a panel of analytical techniques. It was found to be dominated by caffeic tartrates, along with low amounts of coumaric and ferulic tartrates. Chicoric acid (CA) was unambiguously identified as the major phenolic compound, regardless of the sample or collection site. Caftaric acid (CAF) was the second most abundant phenolic, but in much lower average concentrations. These results contrast with most of the previous works, in which CA was not even mentioned. The dramatic influence of extract handling, as well as the importance of choosing the adequate criteria of identity to standards, was demonstrated. These results show the importance of analyzing the crude extract to avoid some of the major pitfalls in determining the phenolic fingerprints. This is the first report to identify and quantify CAF in the Posidoniaceae and to identify CA as the dominant phenolic inPosidonialeaves. The large accumulation of CA in both living (10.12–12.78 mg g-1dw) and detrital leaves (2.49–12.11 mg g-1dw) across large geographical scales is noteworthy. The lack of significant concentrations of flavonoids contrasts with other seagrass genera. Importantly, the phenolic signature ofP. oceanicashows significant similarities to those ofCymodocea nodosaandSyringodium filiforme, both belonging to the Cymodoceaceae. These results are discussed in terms of metabolic pathways and phylogenetic relationships.
Comparison of hydraulic conductivities by grain-size analysis,pumping, and slug tests in Quaternary gravels, NE Slovenia
Authors: Pucko Tatjana , Verbovšek Timotej
Published: August 2015

Hydraulic conductivities (K) can be obtainedfrom pumping and slug tests as well as grain size analysis.Although empirical methods for such estimations are longstanding,there is still insufficient comparison of K valuesamong the various approaches. Six grain-size analysismethods were tested on coarse-grained alluvial sedimentsfrom 12 water wells in NE Slovenia. Values of K from grainsizemethods were compared to those of pumping testsand slug tests. Six grain-size methods (USBR, Slichter,Hazen, Beyer, Kozeny-Carman, and Terzaghi) were usedfor comparison with the Theis and Neuman pumping testmethod and the Bouwer-Rice method for slug tests. Theresults show that the USBR (US Bureau of Reclamation)method overestimates K values and there is no correlationwith other results, so its use is not advised. Conversely,whilst the Slichter method gives much lower estimatesof K, it is the only one to completely fulfill the grainsize requirements. Other methods (Hazen, Beyer, Kozeny-Carman, and Terzaghi) result in intermediate values andare similar to the Slichter method; however they should beused for smaller-sized sediments. Due to their high transmissivityand small radius of inffiuence, slug tests shouldbe avoided in the analysis of gravels, as they only test asmall portion of the aquifer compared to pumping tests.This is confirmed by the low correlation coefficients betweenhydraulic conductivities obtained from pumpingtests and slug tests.
Effect of PNF technique for knee muscles on lower limb performance in subacute stroke – an experimental study
Authors: Kumar Sanjiv , Tiwari Shiva Prasad
Published: August 2015

Approximately two-thirds of stroke survivors have sequel of neurological impairments. Although all sequels have direct impact on the performance of activities of daily living, motor deficits of the lower limbs have the most important impact on an individual’s functioning. The objective was to study the effect of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) technique on lower limb performance in subjects with subacute stroke.

Thirteen participants with subacute strokes were recruited. Participants were treated with PNF rhythmic stabilization technique. All participants received 10 days of intervention. Treatment sessions consisted of PNF rhythmic stabilization exercises for knee that utilizes alternating isometric contractions of agonist and antagonist against resistance. Lower limb performances were measured with Modified Emory Functional Ambulation Profile, Five Time Sit To Stand Test and Postural Assessment Scale For Stroke.

Lower limb performances were improved after 10 days of intervention as compared to baseline assessment in all the outcome measures.

This study suggests that the rhythmic stabilization technique is an effective method to improve lower limb function that can be used as an adjunct with other therapies.
Lexical decision task for taxonomic and thematic categorization in typically developing Kannada-English-speaking bilingual children
Authors: Nanjappa Shilpa , Sebastian Sandra , Deepa M.S.
Published: August 2015

The present study investigated the association between the taxonomic, thematic and combined (taxonomic-thematic) conditions during the lexical decision task in Kannada-English speaking bilingual children. Further, the study explored the nature of categorization skills in typically developing Kannada-English speaking bilingual children with respect to the taxonomy and thematic aspects across gender.

Considered for the study were 20 preschool children including ten boys and ten girls in the age range of 4–5 years. A total of 50 pictures, including ten target, ten taxonomically related, ten thematically related and 20 distracters were taken from an internet source. Three tasks were introduced to examine the association of the pictures based on taxonomic, thematic and combined conditions. For the first and second task (considered as Experiment I), the children were expected to relate pictures based on taxonomic relationship followed by thematic relationship in the second task. For the final task (Experiment II), both relationships (taxonomic and thematic) were given for each target picture, and the children were expected to relate it with either one of them. Responses were scored and statistically analyzed.

There was a significant difference in the performances between male and female children for the taxonomic condition but not for the other two tasks (i.e. thematic and combined conditions). The comparison across three conditions revealed that the performance of those children varied between the conditions. Further, on pair-wise comparison, there was a significant difference for both combined-thematic and combined-taxonomic conditions but not for taxonomic and thematic conditions.

The study supports the phenomenon of “thematic to taxonomic shift”, which is found to be emerging in pre-school children. This occurs differently among male and female children. The preferences of thematic relation as opposed to taxonomic relation is highlighted in the present study.
Using curriculum-based measurement data to monitor the effectiveness of the Wilson Reading System for students with disabilities: an exploratory study
Authors: Duff David , Stebbins Molly Susanne , Stormont Melissa , Lembke Erica Susanne , Wilson David J.
Published: August 2015

The purpose of this study was to contribute to the literature on the promise of the Wilson Reading System (WRS) for students with disabilities. School professionals monitored the growth of students over time using curriculum-based measurements. Participants included 51 students (53% male, 47% female) from six schools (five elementary, one middle school); the vast majority (80%) qualified for free or reduced lunches. All students were receiving special education and related services, and most had either a learning disability or a language impairment (62%). Certified teachers implemented the WRS. Results demonstrated students had significant growth in their reading over time. Directions for future research and practical implications are discussed.
Stability Analysis of an SEIR Epidemic Model with Stochastic Perturbation and Numerical Simulation
Authors: Fan Xiaoming , Wang Zhigang
Published: August 2015

An SEIR epidemic model with constant immigration and random fluctuation around the endemic equilibrium is considered. As a special case, a deterministic system discussed by Li et al. will be incorporated into the stochastic version given by us. We carry out a detailed analysis on the asymptotic behavior of the stochastic model, also regarding of the basic reproduction number ℛ0. By means of Lyapunov functions we give sufficient conditions for globally stochastically asymptotic stability of the unique positive endemic equilibrium. When ℛ0 > 1, under the sufficient conditions, we deduce the globally asymptotic stability of the endemic equilibrium by measuring the difference between the solution and the endemic equilibrium of the deterministic model in time average, the disease will prevail and the infected fraction persists. Numerical simulations support our analytical conclusions and show the effect of intensity of white noise on stability of the system.
Equilibrium-Eulerian LES Model for Turbulent Poly-dispersed Particle-laden Flow
Authors: Icardi Matteo , Marchisio Daniele L. , Chidambaram Narayanan , Fox Rodney O.
Published: August 2015

An efficient Eulerian method for poly-dispersed particles in turbulent flows is implemented, verified and validated for a channel flow. The approach couples a mixture model with a quadrature-based moment method for the particle size distribution in a LES framework, augmented by an approximate deconvolution method to reconstructs the unfiltered velocity. The particle velocity conditioned on particle size is calculated with an equilibrium model, valid for low Stokes numbers. A population balance equation is solved with the direct quadrature method of moments, that efficiently represents the continuous particle size distribution. In this first study particulate processes are not considered and the capability of the model to properly describe particle transport is investigated for a turbulent channel flow. First, single-phase LES are validated through comparison with DNS. Then predictions for the two-phase system, with particles characterised by Stokes numbers ranging from 0.2 to 5, are compared with Lagrangian DNS in terms of particle velocity and accumulation at the walls. Since this phenomenon (turbophoresis) is driven by turbulent fluctuations and depends strongly on the particle Stokes number, the approximation of the particle size distribution, the choice of the sub-grid scale model and the use of an approximate deconvolution method are important to obtain good results. Our method can be considered as a fast and efficient alternative to classical Lagrangian methods or Eulerian multi-fluid models in which poly-dispersity is usually neglected.
Estimating the variance in coordinate measuring for binary orbit
Authors: Perović G. , Cvetković Z.
Published: August 2015

The variance of a purely random error - “pure error”
- in measuring the relative coordinates during the calculation
of the orbits of binary stars, (its "unbiased estimate"),
is necessary for each test used in the orbit calculation
for double stars, such as the adequacy test for the orbit
model, gross-error tests and the like. Since this variance is
unknown, in this paper we present the robust PEROBEPE1
method which provides an unbiased variance estimate for
the pure error in the coordinate measurements concerning
the orbits of double stars. This estimate is independent of
the model adequacy for a double-star orbit and thus can
be used in any test concerning double stars.
Voices of Spectators and Audience Power
Authors: Biet Christian
Published: August 2015

Theatre and law are not so different. Generally, researchers work on the art of theatre, the rhetoric of the actors, or the dramaturgy built from law cases or from the questions that the law does not completely resolve. Trials, tragedies, even comedies are close: everybody can see the interpenetration of them on stage and in the courts. We know that, and we know that the dramas are made with/from/of law, we know that the art the actors are developing is not so far from the art of the lawyers, and conversely. In this paper, I would like to have a look at the action of the audience, at the session itself and at the way the spectators are here to evaluate and judge not only the dramatic action, not only the art of the actors, not only the text of the author, but also the other spectators, and themselves too. In particular, I will focus on the “common judgment” of the audience and on its judicial, aesthetic and social relationship. The spectators have been undisciplined, noisy, unruled, during such a long period that theatre still retains some prints of this behaviour, even if nowadays, the social and aesthetic rule is to be silent. But uncertainty, inattention, distraction, contradiction, heterogeneity are the notions which characterise the session, and the judgments of the spectators still depend on them. So, what was and what is the voice of the audience? And with what sort of voice do spectators give their judgments?
Caesar’s Body in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: Sacralization and De-sacralization of Power
Authors: Carpi Daniela
Published: August 2015

In Julius Caesar the wounds on the body of the “king” are like mouths that cry out the condemnation of the violation of power and of a cosmic order. The divine body of the king has a sacred hue as he represents God on earth, thus the killing of Caesar can be connected to the killing of Christ. Caesar in the text has many Christological connotations. The killing of Caesar has the emblematic character of a cry against the violation of legitimate power: the body is at first concealed (Caesar’s mantel hides his corpse) then exhibited (when Antony uncovers it) and sacralized so as to make this catastrophe symbolic of an adhesion to legitimate power. Antony makes Caesar’s body the voice of power: on one hand it has the function of stressing the persuasive power of Antony’s words, on the other hand Antony transforms the body into a spiritual icon in order to reach his aim of denouncing the illegitimate subversion of the conspirators.
Legal Oracularism and Theological Prophetism. Fleshly Silences Across Memories and Traditions
Authors: Costantini Cristina
Published: August 2015

This essay aims at providing a critical glance on the legal “fault lines” between voice and silence; utterance and dumbness; disclosure and mystery; discernability and ambiguity. At a theoretical level, the arguments suggested intend to innovate the conventional discourse on legal traditions, focusing on their proper and complex morphosyntax. Specifically, the main purpose is to call forth the haunted ventriloquism which animates and informs legal traditions in order to disfigure the ideological image portrayed for a legitimating project. On this ground what is proposed is an original understanding of the politics of memories, conceived as the inner force, which codifies heterogeneous canons of commemoration. The poles of usual contrapositions (memory/forgetting; remembrance/silencing) are questioned and scrutinized; the multiple facets of the voices of memory and the silence of oblivion are taxonomically typified. The proposed paradigm is consequently applied to the particularities of the English Legal Tradition, emphasizing how the culture of legal revelling dramatized the ambiguities concealed in the speakable word of Law: on the one hand, the internal articulation of these sumptuous festivities, which structurally reflected the osmotic threshold between speech and faintness, utterance and dumbness; on the other, it has been noted that Revels made patent the meaningful silence implied in the proper other face of the conventional appearance of Law, that is in its suspension or in its exception. Conclusive remarks are devoted to analyse the nexus among word, interpretation, and violence in Robert Cover’s thought. In this perspective the essay debates on the silent sacrifice behind the supposed creative act of judicial interpretation and intellectually claims for a counter-resistant act of unveiling heterodoxy.
Is There Voice Without Law? On The Road
Authors: Macmillan Fiona
Published: August 2015

Using Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel, The Road (2006) and its cinematographic transformation of the same name by John Hillcoat (2009), this essay explores the relationship between expressive autonomy and law as a form of political and social organization. The essay attempts to understand what it means to be “without law” and whether such an absence implicates some other organizing principle or concept. For this purpose, comparisons are drawn between Hillcoat’s version of The Road and his subsequent film Lawless (2012). In order to consider the relationship between lawlessness and expressive autonomy, the essay focuses on the significance of the balance between love, hope and fear, which it argues characterises the dystopic world of The Road.
Speech and Graphomena: The Power of Apuleius’ Words in Court and in Translation
Authors: Baldissone Riccardo
Published: August 2015

Apuleius’ De Magia, or about magic, is the only extant court defence of his times, the second century CE. Whilst Apuleius most probably provided us with an expanded version of his actual speech, we can still enjoy the flavour of his witty and convincing plea. I will here consider the power of Apuleius’ voice in both his court speech and his other surviving works. Apuleius followed the attempts of Cicero and Seneca to recast Greek concepts and theories in Latin language and culture. These creative translations had a tremendous influence, for better or worse, on subsequent Western thought. However, Apuleius not only produced a compendium of Platonic doctrine, but he also renewed the tradition of Greek tales with his famous novel The Golden Ass. I will examine both texts, and I will underline the role of the neologism curiositas, that is curiosity, in the economy of the novel and in the more general Apuleian recasting of Platonism.