bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Three-Component Model of the Control Error in Manual Tracking of Continuous Random Signals
Authors: Gerisch Hans , Staude Gerhard , Wolf Werner , Bauch Gerhard
Published: March 2013

Objective:

The performance of human operators acting within closed-loop control systems is investigated in a classic tracking task. The dependence of the control error (tracking error) on the parameters display gain, kdisplay, and input signal frequency bandwidth, fg, which alter task difficulty and presumably the control delay, is studied with the aim of functionally specifying it via a model.

Background:

The human operator as an element of a cascaded human–machine control system (e.g., car driving or piloting an airplane) codetermines the overall system performance. Control performance of humans in continuous tracking has been described in earlier studies.

Method:

Using a handheld joystick, 10 participants tracked continuous random input signals. The parameters fg and kdisplay were altered between experiments.

Results:

Increased task difficulty promoted lengthened control delay and, consequently, increased control error. Tracking performance degraded profoundly with target deflection components above 1 Hz, confirming earlier reports.

Conclusion:

The control error is composed of a delay-induced component, a demand-based component, and a novel component: a human tracking limit. Accordingly, a new model that allows concepts of the observed control error to be split into these three components is suggested.

Application:

To achieve optimal performance in control systems that include a human operator (e.g., vehicles, remote controlled rovers, crane control), (a) tasks should be kept as simple as possible to achieve shortest control delays, and (b) task components requiring higher-frequency (>1 Hz) tracking actions should be avoided or automated by technical systems.
Clinical Significance of BRAF Mutation in Thyroid Papillary Cancer
Authors: Fernandez Ignacio J. , Piccin Ottavio , Sciascia Silvia , Cavicchi Ottavio , Repaci Andrea , Vicennati Valentina , Fiorentino Michelangelo
Published: March 2013

Objective

To correlate the presence of BRAF V600E mutation with clinicopathological parameters.

Study Design

Case‐control study.

Setting

BRAF mutation represents the most common oncogenic event in sporadic papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). There are, however, significant discrepancies regarding the overall frequency and its relationship with clinicopathological parameters of poor outcome. We analyzed BRAF mutation in a cohort of patients affected by PTCs to identify its association with clinical variables.

Subjects and Methods

We analyzed retrospectively a series of 304 patients, treated for PTC from 1999 to 2011 at Bologna University Hospital. We searched BRAF mutation by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by PCR and direct sequencing.

Results

BRAF mutation was found in 77.4% of classical PTCs, 31.9% of the follicular variant, and 72.2% of high tall cell PTCs, being significantly associated, at univariate analysis, with recurrence, stage, multicentricity, histologic subtype, extrathyroidal extension, nodule dimension, body mass index, and American Thyroid Association (ATA) risk stratification. Furthermore, higher T, but not N or M, stage was associated with BRAF mutation. In the multivariate analysis, the BRAF mutation was significantly associated only with the ATA risk stratification, in turn showing a significant negative association with recurrence‐free survival time with Cox multivariate analysis.

Conclusion

Our results indicate that BRAF mutation identifies a subset of PTC with increased risk of recurrence. The presence of BRAF mutation might be a valuable diagnostic and prognostic marker of the disease. To confirm the diagnostic usefulness of this marker, further studies should be carried out.
Geographies of finance I
Authors: Christophers Brett
Published: March 2013

At a time of ongoing crisis and transformation in financial relations, structures and processes, it would be all too easy to limit our geographical explorations of finance to the narrow temporal window of the early-twenty-first-century here-and-now. Fortunately, recent years have seen the publication of a number of studies that examine geographies of finance in a much wider array of historical contexts. This article reports on the findings of such studies. Reading them in the light of Foucault’s injunction to write histories explicitly of the present, it argues that they provide an essential historical-geographical foundation for understanding the more immediate geographies of contemporary – and perhaps future – financial worlds.
Delay-dependent robust absolute stability criteria for uncertain multiple time-delayed Lur’e systems
Authors: Kazemy Ali , Farrokhi Mohammad
Published: March 2013

In this article, the problem of delay-dependent robust absolute stability of uncertain multiple time-delayed Lur’e systems with sector-bounded nonlinearity is investigated. The nonlinearity is assumed to be both time invariant and time varying. Based on the Lyapunov–Krasovskii stability theory and matrix decomposition method, some delay-dependent sufficient conditions for the robust absolute stability of the Lur’e system are derived and expressed in the form of linear matrix inequalities. By solving a convex optimization problem for these linear matrix inequalities, the maximum upper bounds of the allowable delays are obtained. Some numerical examples are given to show that the proposed stability criteria are less conservative than those in the literature.
The impact of creative learning environments on learners: A systematic literature review
Authors: Jindal-Snape Divya , Davies Dan , Collier Chris , Howe Alan , Digby Rebecca , Hay Penny
Published: March 2013

This article is based on a systematic review of educational research, policy and professional literature relating to creative environments for learning in schools. Despite the search yielding 210 documents, comparatively few empirical studies were published between 2005 and 2011 that addressed the review objectives. Only 18 studies included in the review investigated the impact of creativity on learners. There was, however, some evidence for the impact of creative learning environments on pupil attainment, confidence, resilience, motivation, problem-solving, interpersonal skills and school attendance. These findings have implications for policy, practice and research internationally.
Fetal kidney programming by severe food restriction: Effects on structure, hormonal receptor expression and urinary sodium excretion in rats
Authors: Vaccari Barbara , Mesquita Flavia F , Gontijo Jose AR , Boer Patricia A
Published: March 2013

Introduction:

The present study investigates, in 23-day-old and adult male rats, the effect of severe food restriction in utero on blood pressure (BP), and its association with nephron structure and function changes, angiotensin II (AT1R/AT2R), glucocorticoid (GR) and mineralocorticoid (MR) receptor expression.

Materials and methods:

The daily food supply to pregnant rats was measured and one group ( n=15) received normal quantity of food (NF) while the other received 50% of that (FR50%) ( n=15). Kidneys were processed to AT1R, AT2R, MR, and GR immunolocalization and for western blotting analysis. The renal function was estimated by creatinine and lithium clearances in 12-week-old offspring.

Results:

By stereological analyses, FR50% offspring present a reduction of nephron numbers (35%) with unchanged renal volume. Expression of AT1R and AT2R was significantly decreased in FR50% while the expression of GR and MR increased in FR50%. We also verified a pronounced decrease in urinary sodium excretion accompanied by increased BP in 12-week-old FR50% offspring.

Conclusion:

The current data suggest that changes in renal function are conducive to excess sodium tubule reabsorption, and this might potentiate the programming of adult hypertension. It is plausible to arise in the current study an association between decreasing natriuresis, reciprocal changes in renal AngII and steroid receptors with the hypertension development found in FR50% compared with age-matched NF offspring.
Dementia: The need for attitudinal change
Authors: O’Sullivan Grace , Hocking Clare , Spence Deb
Published: March 2013

Objective

To undertake a systematic inquiry into the experience of living with dementia in the community.

Design

Action research, underpinned by critical hermeneutics, brought together action and reflection, theory and practice to generate knowledge. Data were gathered by interviews and observations in participants’ homes, and focus group discussions in community settings.

Participants

Eleven people with mild to moderate dementia and their primary caregiver aged 59–84, living in Auckland, New Zealand.

Results

The findings reveal a conflict between living positively with dementia, and enduring the negative attitudes that typify the dominant social discourse. The central argument arising from the findings is the significance of personal attitudes.

Conclusions

Implications for policy makers, health care providers, and caregivers highlight the need to change the ways in which dementia is perceived. The pursuit of positive attitudes will do much to change social perceptions and enable people with dementia to live with a sense of well-being.
Hyers-Ulam stability of a generalized additive set-valued functional equation
Authors: Jang Sun Young , Park Choonkil , Cho Young
Published: March 2013

In this paper, we define a generalized additive set-valued functional equation, which is related to the following generalized additive functional equation:

f(x1+⋯+xl)=(l−1)f(x1+⋯+xl−1l−1)+f(xl)

for a fixed integerlwithl>1, and prove the Hyers-Ulam stability of the generalized additive set-valued functional equation.

MSC:39B52, 54C60, 91B44.
Comparative analysis of quantitative trait loci for body weight, growth rate and growth curve parameters from 3 to 72 weeks of age in female chickens of a broiler–layer cross
Authors: Podisi Baitsi K , Knott Sara A , Burt David W , Hocking Paul M
Published: March 2013

Background

Comparisons of quantitative trait loci (QTL) for growth and parameters of growth curves assist in understanding the genetics and ultimately the physiology of growth. Records of body weight at 3, 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 weeks of age and growth rate between successive age intervals of about 500 F2 female chickens of the Roslin broiler-layer cross were available for analysis. These data were analysed to detect and compare QTL for body weight, growth rate and parameters of the Gompertz growth function.

Results

Over 50 QTL were identified for body weight at specific ages and most were also detected in the nearest preceding and/or subsequent growth stage. The sum of the significant and suggestive additive effects for bodyweight at specific ages accounted for 23-43% of the phenotypic variation. A single QTL for body weight on chromosome 4 at 48 weeks of age had the largest additive effect (550.4 ± 68.0 g, 11.5% of the phenotypic variation) and a QTL at a similar position accounted 14.5% of the phenotypic variation at 12 weeks of age. Age specific QTL for growth rate were detected suggesting that there are specific genes that affect developmental processes during the different stages of growth. Relatively few QTL influencing Gompertz growth curve parameters were detected and overlapped with loci affecting growth rate. Dominance effects were generally not significant but from 12 weeks of age they exceeded the additive effect in a few cases. No evidence for epistatic QTL pairs was found.

Conclusions

The results confirm the location for body weight and body weight gain during growth that were identified in previous studies and were consistent with QTL for the parameters of the Gompertz growth function. Chromosome 4 explained a relatively large proportion of the observed growth variation across the different ages, and also harboured most of the detected QTL for Gompertz parameters, confirming its importance in controlling growth. Very few QTL were detected for body weight or gain at 48 and 72 weeks of age, probably reflecting the effect of differences in reproduction and random environmental effects.
Arsenic trioxide inhibits the proliferation of myeloma cell line through notch signaling pathway
Authors: Hu Jiasheng , Huang Xiao , Hong Xiuli , Lu Quanyi , Zhu Xiongpeng
Published: March 2013

Arsenic Trioxide (ATO) has shown remarkable efficacy for the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM). However, the mechanism by which ATO exerts its inhibitory effect on the proliferation of myeloma cells remains to be clarified. We study the inhibitory effect of ATO at various concentrations on the proliferation of the myeloma cell line RPMI 8226 and discussed the molecular mechanism of ATO on myeloma cell line. Our results proved that ATO had a significant dose-dependent and time-dependent inhibitory effect on the expressions of the Notch receptor (Notch1) and Notch ligand (Jag2). Data from the real-time PCR assay showed that the mRNA expression levels of the Jag2 gene and its downstream gene Hes1 were both significantly down-regulated after the myeloma cells were treated with ATO while the expression of the tumor suppressor gene PTEN was up-regulated. These results elucidated the molecular mechanism underlying the ATO mediated inhibition of myeloma cell proliferation. This is the first report on the anti-myeloma activity in myeloma cells through inhibition of the Notch signaling pathway.
Agranulocytosis Induced by Proton Pump Inhibitors; Bevacizumab-Induced Oral Mucositis in Background of Cutaneous Plaque-Type Psoriasis; Amiodarone-Induced T-U Fusion; Vancomycin-Induced Thrombocytopenia without Isolation of a Drug-Dependent Antibody; Capecitabine-Induced Chest Pain Relieved by Diltiazem; Fatal Clindamycin-Induced Drug Rash with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms (DRESS) Syndrome
Authors: Mancano Michael A.
Published: March 2013

The purpose of this feature is to heighten awareness of specific adverse drug reactions (ADRs), discuss methods of prevention, and promote reporting of ADRs to the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) MedWatch program (800-FDA-1088). If you have reported an interesting, preventable ADR to MedWatch, please consider sharing the account with our readers.
Reduction in Surface Contamination with Cyclophosphamide in 30 US Hospital Pharmacies following Implementation of a Closed-System Drug Transfer Device
Authors: Sessink Paul J.M. , Trahan Jason , Coyne Joseph W.
Published: March 2013

Purpose

In a follow-up to a previous study, surface contamination with the antineoplastic drug cyclophosphamide was compared in 30 US hospital pharmacies from 2004 to 2010 following preparation with standard drug preparation techniques or the PhaSeal closed system drug transfer device (CSTD).

Methods

Wipe samples were taken from biological safety cabinet (BSC) surfaces, BSC airfoils (the front leading edge of the BSC), floors in front of BSCs, and countertops in the pharmacy, and they were analyzed for contamination with cyclophosphamide. Contamination was reassessed after a minimum of 6 months following the implementation of the CSTD. Surface contamination (ng/cm2) was compared between the 2 techniques and between the previous and current test periods and evaluated with the Kruskal-Wallis test.

Results

With the use of CSTD compared to the standard preparation techniques, a significant reduction in levels of contamination with cyclophosphamide was observed ( P < .0001). Median values for surface contamination with cyclophosphamide were reduced by 86% compared to 95% in the previous study.

Conclusions

The CSTD significantly reduced, but did not totally eliminate, surface contamination with cyclophosphamide. In addition to other protective measures, increased usage of CSTDs should be employed to help protect health care workers from exposure to hazardous drugs.
Publication Rates of Abstracts Presented at Five National Pharmacy Association Meetings
Authors: Prohaska Emily , Generali Joyce , Zak Kevin , Grauer Dennis
Published: March 2013

Background

Abstract presentations at professional meetings provide a medium for disseminating the findings of scholarly activity. Rates of abstract publication from various biomedical disciplines have been evaluated, with pharmacy noted to be lower than other specialties. Previous research on pharmacy abstract publication rates was conducted for a limited number of professional meetings but has not been assessed using Google Scholar.

Objective

To determine the full publication rate of abstracts presented at the 2005 American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) Spring and Annual Meetings, American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Annual Meeting, and American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Summer and Midyear Clinical Meetings.

Methods

Publication status was assessed for abstracts presented during the 2005 ACCP Spring and Annual Meetings, APhA Annual Meeting, and ASHP Summer and Midyear Clinical Meetings using PubMed and Google Scholar. Data collected included abstract category, study category, practice site, database(s) in which publication appeared, time in months to publication, publication type, and journal of publication.

Results

Evaluation of 2,000 abstracts presented in 2005 revealed an overall full publication rate of 19.8% (n = 384). Nearly all pharmacy abstracts were published as manuscripts (98.4%; n=378) and indexed in PubMed and Google Scholar (91.9%; n = 353), although a significant percentage were indexed in Google Scholar only (7.8%; n = 30). The mean time to full publication was 16.8 months (SD ±11.9 months).

Conclusions

Results were consistent with previously reported full publication rates of abstracts from pharmacy association meetings, indicating that abstracts presented at pharmacy meetings continue to have a lower full publication rate than other health disciplines.
Reducing Hospital Readmissions through Prescribable Mobile Apps
Authors: Fox Brent I. , Felkey Bill G.
Published: March 2013

Quality of care continues to be a major focus for hospitals, especially as major payors like the US government create new standards and regulations for the patients whose lives they cover. In this article, we examine the potential role of mobile apps to help with hospital readmissions.
“We are definitely the pioneers of this movement”: The Regis Lay Apostolate and the Origins of Postgraduate Volunteerism, 1949–1972
Authors: Staysniak Christopher
Published: March 2013

The Regis Lay Apostolate was a pioneering postgraduate lay volunteer program that grew out of the heyday of Catholic Action and the lay apostolate in the mid-century American church. The program operated out of Regis College, an all-female school run by the Sisters of St. Joseph in Weston, Massachusetts. Under the vision of Sister Mary John Sullivan, the program ran from 1949 through 1972 and sent approximately 225 Regis graduates to serve at Catholic mission schools domestically and internationally. Sister Mary John and the Regis volunteers played an important role in spearheading and shaping a larger movement of postgraduate Catholic lay volunteers. This phenomenon remains a vibrant force in American Catholicism today, but has gone largely unstudied. As such, exploring the Regis Lay Apostolate as well as the motivations and experiences of its volunteers provides an important first step towards understanding the emergence, development, growth, and impact of the Catholic postgraduate volunteer model, and where it fits within the greater narratives of both Catholic American history and twentieth-century American volunteerism.
Lest We Forget: Ellen Ryan Jolly and the Nuns of the Battlefield Monument
Authors: Szpila Kathleen
Published: March 2013

The Nuns of the Battlefield monument in Washington, DC, was the first public memorial in the nation’s capital honoring the work of Catholic women religious. Dedicated to one thousand sister-nurses of the Civil War, this little known monument highlighted the role of Catholics, particularly Irish Catholics, to American history at the same time as the country witnessed the outbreak of World War I. Ellen Ryan Jolly, National President of the Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, urged the membership to bring to light this forgotten chapter of American history just as questions about the patriotism of Catholics arose once again. A careful study of documents reveals the courage and perseverance of one woman and her Hibernian organization that resulted in the passage of a Congressional bill honoring the sister-nurses. Dedicated shortly after passage of the historic Nineteenth Amendment, the nuns’ memorial represents an important early twentieth century redress to American anti-Catholic rhetoric at a time when the role of women in society was changing.
Counting Catholics in the United States of America
Authors: Hornbeck J. Patrick
Published: March 2013

Statistics about the Catholic population of the United States have frequently been used for political and ideological purposes, at the same time as they have figured prominently in discussions about the disaffiliation of Catholics from the institutional church. But how are the most commonly cited statistics generated, and to what extent are they reliable? This article reports the results of a new, qualitative study of the procedures by which a randomly selected group of Catholic dioceses and archdioceses in the U.S. obtain and publish their population statistics. In addition to assessing the reliability of the procedures used, this essay also reflects on the theological, ecclesial, and political dimensions of the processes of data collection and reporting. Despite the aspirations of the church workers interviewed, most do not believe that the methods at their disposal permit them to report with accuracy important statistics about the populations of their parishes and dioceses. Factors like the choice of statistical methods, unforeseen events in particular dioceses, and the presence of intra-ecclesial incentives to report both higher and lower statistics all reveal that to count the Catholic population is to engage, wittingly or unwittingly, in a theological and ecclesio-political act.
Ancient Greek Prostitutes and the Textile Industry in Attic Vase-Painting ca. 550–450 b.c.e.
Authors: Fischer Marina
Published: March 2013

This paper examines the link between ancient Greek prostitutes and the textile industry, specifically through the women’s association with braiding frames, spinning, and wool-baskets, as they are portrayed in Attic vase-painting. The argument presented is twofold: one, prostitutes from all ranks were involved in the textile industry and were thus depicted working wool in vase-painting; and two, Aphrodite, the prostitutes’ patron deity, was also linked with textiles through the representations of her headdress, gestures of spinning, and her embroidered chest ornament on Attic pottery.
Reviving the Past: Cinematic History and Popular Memory in The 300 Spartans (1962)
Authors: Nikoloutsos Konstantinos P
Published: March 2013

The paper investigates the artistic, economic, and sociopolitical context of The 300 Spartans (1962), from its conception as an Italian peplum to its realization as a Hollywood epic filmed in Greece. I argue that the classical past is recreated on screen in ways that violate the historical record and becomes a vehicle whereby gender hierarchies are reproduced and morality is preached to the viewers. I conclude by showing how the revival of ancient Sparta on film is informed by important events in post-Civil War Greek history and is deployed to propagate notions of national identity, memory, and pride.
The Blind Leading: Aristophanes’ Wealth and Oedipus at Colonus
Authors: Compton-Engle Gwendolyn
Published: March 2013

The opening scene of Aristophanes’ Wealth , by appropriating and concretizing the “blind man as leader” image from the end of Oedipus at Colonus , encourages its audience to misidentify the old blind character as Oedipus rather than Wealth. Wealth uses other references to Sophocles’ handling of Oedipus and Phineus to engage with Sophoclean themes of disease, healing, and redemption. Furthermore, both Wealth and Oedipus at Colonus end with the once-diseased figure reestablished as a benefactor to Athens. Recognizing this appropriation of Sophoclean material in Wealth further enhances our understanding of the relationship between comedy and tragedy in the early fourth century.
Otium as Civic and Personal Stability in Cicero’s Dialogues
Authors: Hanchey Dan
Published: March 2013

From 63 forward Cicero develops and idealizes a novel concept of otium involving both civic stability and the opportunity for dignified activity and achievement through private leisure, conspicuously locating the interlocutors of his dialogues in such a condition. He regularly contrasts this otium with his own, despite the fact that his interlocutors also lived in periods of civil strife and were unlikely to have experienced their private otium any differently. Ultimately, by representing the stability of this condition over several generations and even implicating himself in it in certain dialogues, Cicero naturalizes the fiction of his otium , implying a transcendent, transtemporal political stability in Rome.
Accentual Rhythm in Ovid, Amores I
Authors: Pilon William
Published: March 2013

This paper uses the first book of Ovid’s Amores to explore the rhythms created by the relationship between quantitative meter and word-accents in Latin elegiac poetry. The first part explains how my analysis of the word-accents in relation to the quantitative meter reveals a single basic rhythm underlying the whole of each hexameter and pentameter line. The second part of this paper gives some examples of how attention to this pattern and its variations can be applied practically to illuminate additional layers of meaning in Ovid’s poetry.
Innocent I's Letter to the Bishops of Apulia
Authors: Dunn Geoffrey D.
Published: March 2013

Early in the fifth century, Innocent I, bishop of Rome, wrote to three bishops in Apulia about the desire of a cleric to become a bishop. Innocent stated that since Modestus had performed penance he ought not to have been ordained a presbyter, let alone be considered for the episcopate. Innocent instructed these bishops to remove Modestus from office if his past was confirmed, avoiding the usual consideration of such matters at provincial episcopal synods. This paper argues that Innocent acted as metropolitan, where it was understood implicitly that failure to comply with Innocent's directives would result in repercussions for the three bishops. Innocent acted differently with bishops within his metropolitan jurisdiction than with bishops further afield.
The Evolution of the Syrian Orthodox Church in the Pre-Islamic Period: From Greek to Syriac?
Authors: Millar Fergus
Published: March 2013

This essay first sketches some issues of ethnic or religious identity and their possible relevance to the late Roman Near East, and then surveys the various labels attached by contemporaries to those within the Church who opposed the doctrines proclaimed at the Council of Chalcedon, and proclaimed instead a one-nature Christology. Its main purpose is to examine the very extensive and detailed contemporary evidence from the pre-Islamic period for the evolving role of Syriac in what would later become the Syrian Orthodox Church.
Sensory Experience and the Women Martyrs of Najran
Authors: Barrett Richard
Published: March 2013

The account of the Women Martyrs of Najran in the Second Letter of Simeon of Beth Arsham provides a witness to the martyrdom of a Christian community against the backdrop of sixth-century geopolitical conflict. There is a level of detail in these texts that strongly suggests that they are intended to be read and understood in relation to Christian sacramental and liturgical practice. Simeon, in disseminating these accounts to the greater Christian community, wishes to glorify the faith of these women in a way that, leaving their sanctity beyond doubt, will ensure their commemoration by the Church at large. He accomplishes this by means of language that carries liturgical and sacramental meaning, linking the acts of these specific martyrdoms to the larger context of Christian sensory experience.
The Angelic Life in Desert and Ladder : John Climacus's Re-Formulation of Ascetic Spirituality
Authors: Zecher Jonathan L.
Published: March 2013

John Climacus's seventh-century ascetical and spiritual masterwork, the Ladder of Divine Ascent , drew on and reformulated the themes and trajectories of Chalcedonian ascetic spirituality in ways that would prove decisive for later Byzantine theologians. This paper seeks to elaborate the conceptualization of Climacus's spirituality through a sustained exploration of his treatment of angels and his understanding of the ascetic life as 'angelic.' In the monastic literature that Climacus inherited and that formed him, three tensions emerge with respect to the predication of "angelic" to ascetics: optimism and doubt about the possibility of a 'care-free' state, alternative conceptions of "liminal" progress, and opposition of individualism and community. Climacus not only holds together these tensions, but by coupling them with his own original ideas carefully develops the possibility of ascetic imitation of angels.
Fecit ad astra viam : Daughters, Wives, and the Metrical Epitaphs of Late Ancient Rome
Authors: Trout Dennis
Published: March 2013

The following essay argues that the verse epitaphs of late ancient Rome offer unique perspectives on the social, religious, and intellectual milieu of Christianity in the late antique city. The allusive strategies and poetic metaphors of many of these texts index the otherwise largely undocumented social aspirations and religious ideals of middling segments of Roman society. More particularly, fourth- and fifth-century gender parity in funerary commemoration coupled with the disproportionate representation of young women in verse epitaphs reflects not only the nuclear family's emergence as society's paramount affective unit but also the premium placed by non-elite as well as elite families on the public display of filial and uxorial pudicitia and castitas . Although the representational strategies of male householders foregrounded traditional themes of female sexual modesty, nevertheless the jeu d'esprit and unguarded idiosyncrasies of these texts subtly project the subjectivity and social agency of commemorands as well as commemorators.
Juba’s “Black Face” / Lady Delacour’s “Mask”: Plotting Domesticity in Maria Edgeworth’s Belinda
Authors: Smith Sharon
Published: March 2013

In Belinda (1801), Maria Edgeworth forges parallel subplots between Juba, a former African slave residing in England, and Lady Delacour, a wealthy and dissipated London socialite, both of whom undergo a process of domestication during the course of the novel. The connection Edgeworth creates between these characters allows her to explore a version of womanhood that promotes domesticity by negotiating the boundary between domestic and public life; at the same time, however, it reveals the anxieties surrounding this understanding of womanhood. Edgeworth’s novel configures Lady Delacour as a plotting woman who bridges the public/private divide, revealing domesticity to be as much a public construct as a private reality. The public representation of domesticity that Lady Delacour constructs at the end of the novel functions as a stimulant to and a channel for domestic sympathies and, in doing so, shapes private interactions in a positive way. In this way, Edgeworth acknowledges the positive potential inherent in the power Lady Delacour claims. However, by connecting Lady Delacour with the figure of the colonized other, whose domestication was frequently read as a performance that hid threatening, rebellious impulses, Edgeworth also identifies this power as a source of anxiety. In Belinda, Juba functions not as a distinct character, but as the racialized reflection of Lady Delacour’s public/private hybridity and the embodiment of the disruptive impulses that drive her considerable, though never total, resistance to the domesticating influence exerted by Belinda, the novel’s heroine. Even more than the process of assimilation, which the novel ultimately rejects as impossible and undesirable, it is this troubling configuration of character that threatens to bring about Juba’s erasure from the text.
Why We Argue About the Way We Read: An Introduction
Authors: Freeman Lisa A.
Published: March 2013

Drawn from an ASECS 2012 panel titled, “Why We Argue About the Way We Read,” this collection of short essays engages the call for “surface reading” recently put forth by Sharon Marcus and Stephen Best in a special issue of Representations. Each of the speakers on the panel was asked to consider Best’s and Marcus’s “Introduction,” to cogitate on what they each felt was at stake in their own reading methods, and, in the spirit of engagement, to offer a polemic on behalf of those practices. The prompt resulted not only in a lively critique of the idea of “surface reading,” but also in an animated “conversation” about the art of criticism in Eighteenth-Century Studies, about the theoretical paradigms and methodologies that we employ, and about the sharp insights and surprising delights that a nimble-minded critical practice can yield.
Clandestine Schemes: Burney’s Cecilia and the Marriage Act
Authors: Ganz Melissa J.
Published: March 2013

This essay reads Frances Burney’s Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress (1782) alongside the debates surrounding the 1753 Clandestine Marriages Act in order to show how the novel responds to and participates in one of the most divisive public controversies of the Enlightenment. In doing so, the essay challenges the view of Burney as a conservative defender of patriarchal culture, while highlighting the balances that she strikes between individual freedom and filial duty. The novel criticizes secret matches not only because they challenge the legitimate authority of parents and guardians, but also because they enable men to undermine women’s consent. Burney is keenly aware that parents and guardians sometimes abuse their authority, but she ultimately affords them considerable control over marriage: Cecilia suggests that all couples—even those over the age of majority—ought to obtain the approval of parents or guardians before they wed.

While the novel imaginatively extends the reach of the Act, however, it offers a subtle critique of the patriarchal principle that underwrites this law. In Cecilia , Burney shows the dangers of turning marriage into an exchange between men. Shifting the locus of authority from Cecilia’s guardian and prospective father-in-law to her prospective mother-in-law, Burney highlights the importance of maternal as well as paternal consent. She also affirms Cecilia’s own agency in the negotiation of her union with Mortimer and even hints at Cecilia’s autonomy as a wife. In the bequest that Mrs. Delvile’s sister leaves Cecilia when she dies and the change that Mortimer undergoes after Cecilia’s illness, the novel offers a model of marriage as an affective agreement between two equal agents.
Good Names: Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa
Authors: Jaros Peter
Published: March 2013

The double signature “Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa,” while often noted, has not received the attention it merits as a rhetorical gesture. This essay argues that Equiano/Vassa’s double name is a creative solution to a formidable problem: it allows him to participate in the eighteenth century “economy of character” at the same time as it marks that economy’s intersection with the Atlantic slave trade. Situating Equiano/Vassa’s double name in the contexts of Lockean political theory, theory of authorship, and the trope of prosopopoeia, “Good Names” argues that the Interesting Narrative offers an innovative account of political personhood that responds to the paradoxes faced by black Atlantic subjects.
The Dryden-Davenant Tempest, Wonder Production, and the State of Natural Philosophy in 1667
Authors: Shanahan John
Published: March 2013

This essay argues that the logic governing the adaptation and early popularity of the revised Tempest stems in large part from the way the play exemplified natural philosophical ideas and projects associated with the Royal Society. I show that the Dryden-Davenant Tempest resembles the new science in its form as well as its content, and that its co-authors staged it to be, among other things, a contribution to the ongoing work of the virtuosi. To demonstrate this, I examine two subjects of experimentation in the play: the origin and nature of language use—especially in its role as a mediator of the passions—and the nature of political obligation. The Tempest revision embodied the cautious and multi-perspectival methodological protocols of the new science while simultaneously proposing means to manage memories of the previous two decades’ political strife.
A Community in the Clouds: Advertising Tobacco and Gender in Pre-revolutionary Russia
Authors: Starks Tricia
Published: March 2013

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when western advertisers used women as bait for the male smoker, Russian manufacturers displayed a more relaxed attitude toward policing gender boundaries than in western democracies, and offered images of empowered female consumers who made rational choices in the marketplace. Advertising images of women smoking in Russia were distinctive in their subject, number, and early appearance. The examination of Russian tobacco advertisements complicates scholarly studies of the Russian business community and advertising that emphasizes the conservative tendencies of these industries, and counters studies of global tobacco culture that tie smoking to liberal male political identity in the period before 1914. Russian women’s smoking, like Russian women’s early suffrage, does not fit the established paradigms.
Betrayal, Vengeance, and the Anarchist Ideal: Virgilia D’Andrea’s Radical Antifascism in (American) Exile, 1928–1933
Authors: Iacovetta Franca , Stradiotti Lorenza
Published: March 2013

A contribution to histories of women in the interwar transnational antifascist movement, particularly radical exiles, we focus on Virgilia D’Andrea, a noted Italian anarchist exile from fascist Italy who spent her final exile in New York, 1928–33. An intellectual, writer-poet, and orator belonging to a small but influential group of Italian radical subversives, her New York speeches and lecture tours across the United States helped rejuvenate the depleted ranks of Italian American radical circles in an era of state repression. She also connected emotionally with her working-class audiences. An analysis of her speeches and lectures reveals that the concept of betrayal, and the pain but also political consciousness it aroused, and the belief that adherence to anarchist ideals and humanist internationalism offered a way out of the crippling effects of capitalism, imperialism, and dictatorship, framed D’Andrea’s life narrative and antifascist politics. An analysis of their historical, cultural, and political themes is also offered.
Engendering Contempt for Collaborators: Anti-Hanjian Discourse Following the Sino-Japanese War of 1937–1945
Authors: Xia Yun
Published: March 2013

During the Sino-Japanese War of 1937–1945, the Nationalist government in China launched vigorous anti-collaborator movements. It condemned collaborators as hanjian, or “traitors to the Han Chinese,” and organized legal, social, and literary campaigns against them. This article examines the interplay between gender and the crime of collaboration in the context of the Nationalist government’s post-war struggles, public voyeurism, and changing literary trends. Anti-hanjian literature targeted “female collaborators” as a particular category, exposing their relationships with male collaborators and fabricating details of their private lives. Tabloids and popular pamphlets deployed hearsay and rumors to confirm political disloyalty and personal decadence of collaborators, male or female. In this way, issues such as family and sexuality were written into the discourse on war and collaboration. Many anti-hanjian strategies and vocabularies were inherited and taken up during later campaigns organized by the Chinese Communist party.
Colonial Charity in Hong Kong: A Case of the Po Leung Kuk in the 1930s
Authors: Chin Angelina
Published: March 2013

The Po Leung Kuk (PLK) was a rescue institution in Hong Kong, founded by local Chinese middle and upper class men, devoted to providing shelter for destitute women and children. By producing categories of disempowered and dangerous women, the PLK actually functioned as an institutional tool for the colonial state in dealing with the contradictions between emancipation and morality. The first part of this article examines how the PLK incorporated both Chinese and western forms of charity, each of which sought to confine and reform women who deviated from social norms. The second part of this article reconsiders the nature of charity by examining the operations of the PLK. The expansion of the PLK’s functions from protection of the destitute to classifying women in society reflects an early twentieth-century shift in the discourse of sexuality from a taboo topic contained within marriage to a social problem tied to public hygiene and public order.
In Pursuit of Toyen: Feminist Biography in an Art-Historical Context
Authors: Huebner Karla
Published: March 2013

The Czech surrealist artist Toyen’s work and self-styling cut across gender boundaries. Toyen avoided revealing information about herself, and it became clear that she and her friends collaborated—consciously or not—in the creation of a mythically obscure biography. While the biographies of many other surrealists are well known, Toyen’s personal reticence has rendered her unusually mysterious. In examining the construction of her biography and attempting to place her within an historical context that remains largely unfamiliar to western audiences, this article illuminates how one early twentieth-century female creative figure negotiated male-dominated avant-garde circles and how in some cases female cultural workers were marginalized less by their peers than by the cultural establishment or historical circumstances. This very private artist provides a unique and exciting opportunity to study one woman’s role in three important avant-garde groups (Devětsil and the Prague and Paris surrealist groups) and negotiation of nonconformist gender roles and the erotic.
Making Sense of the Strip: The Postmodern Pastiche of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
Authors: Fletchall Ann
Published: March 2013

Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, es el eje de un corredor muy transitado conectando la Interestatal 40 con el Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Durante las últimas décadas, se ha convertido en un destino turístico regional importante, y la mayor parte de este desarrollo consiste en ir de compras, hoteles y grandes atracciones como el mini-golf, galerías, go-karts y teatros musicales. A través de una comparación con Las Vegas, presento Pigeon Forge en el contexto de un lugar turístico posmoderno, y el desarrollo histórico de la ciudad como tal se describe. A través de un análisis de contenido de los nombres empresariales y materiales de promoción de Pigeon Forge, desarrollo categorías para organizar los diversos temas que se presentan en lugares de interés. Los temas de los Apalaches, el Sur, el país, años cincuenta, y las montañas son identificados a través del análisis de contenido, y todos se encuentran para jugar, en términos generales, a los deseos de los turistas nostálgicos. Aun así, la tira Pigeon Forge es una composición hiper-real diseñada para atraer a la actual post-turista.
Gasoline Station Morphology on Virginia's Eastern Shore
Authors: Macpherson Bradley D. , de Socio Mark
Published: March 2013

Las estaciones de gasolina son un componente ubicuo del medio ambiente moderno construido. Las estaciones de gasolina están en gran parte incluidas en las rutinas diarias espaciales de las personas, dada la naturaleza de los medios de transporte modernos, sobre todo en las sociedades móviles, como los Estados Unidos, y representan una infraestructura material que sirve de base y facilita las actividades económicas diarias. Por lo tanto, las estaciones de gasolina están generalmente relegadas a un segundo plano en los paisajes culturales contemporáneos porque la acción de obtener gasolina para nuestros vehículos se ha convertido en una actividad rutinaria y mundana que casi nunca se toma en consideración. Sin embargo, el cambio de forma y función de las estaciones de gasolina (de ahí el término "morfología") junto con los cambios tecnológicos en el transporte y la infraestructura de transporte han hecho obsoletas muchas estaciones de gasolina. Utilizando análisis de cercanía de vecindario, este trabajo identifica y documenta el cambio de patrones espaciales y funciones de la ubicación de las estaciones de gasolina en toda la costa este de Virginia, por décadas, y documenta los cambios de usos culturales y económicos de las estaciones recicladas de gasolina.
Solar Cycle Extremes as a Seasonal Predictor of Atlantic-Basin Tropical Cyclones
Authors: Hutton Brian T. , Scheitlin Kelsey N. , Dixon P. Grady
Published: March 2013

El ciclo solar (cuantificado por el número de manchas solares) se ha sugerido como un factor que contribuye a la frecuencia y/o intensidad de ciclones tropicales, con un sol activo (más manchas solares) provocando una mayor actividad. A continuación se analiza la relación entre los ciclones tropicales del Atlántico norte y los años mínimos y máximos extremos de manchas solares. El número de manchas solares se prueban con otros predictores comunes para determinar su utilidad en la predicción estacional de ciclones tropicales. Se ha encontrado que el ciclo completo de las manchas solares no es coherente en relación a toda la actividad ciclónica tropical ( r = 0,024). Sin embargo, años de manchas solares extremos muestran fuertes correlaciones, con años de mínimo teniendo las mayores correlaciones con la fre-cuencia de los ciclones tropicales. Los años mínimos de manchas solares y el índice AMO se combinan para explicar más del 54 por ciento de las variaciones en el total de ciclones tropicales y casi 46 por ciento de la variación en el día de ciclones tropicales. Los extremos del ciclo solar se deben considerar para predicciones más precisas de los ciclones tropicales estacionales.
Assessing Potential Urban Tree Planting Sites in the Piedmont of the United States: A Comparison of Methods
Authors: Merry Krista , Siry Jacek , Bettinger Pete , Bowker J. M.
Published: March 2013

En los últimos tiempos hay un creciente interés para mejorar nuestra capacidad para reducir los niveles de dióxido de carbono en la atmósfera a través del incremento de árboles. Aunque la propagación del desarrollo en las zonas urbanas, en algunos casos, causa una reducción de la cobertura forestal, puede haber oportunidades para establecer nuevos árboles en zonas abiertas dentro de las ciudades y áreas metropolitanas. Evaluamos tres productos de imágenes aéreas o de satélite disponibles gratuitamente para determinar su capacidad para identificar correctamente los espacios abiertos en seis ciudades del sur de los Estados Unidos. Un proceso estándar de clasificación supervisada y una evaluación estadística de áreas abiertas plantables se emplearon. Los resultados sugieren que mientras que las imágenes aéreas del National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) de los Estados Unidos pueden requerir más tiempo de procesamiento y equipos con mayor capacidad de memoria, la precisión de la clasificación es aceptable para el propósito de identificar áreas abiertas donde los árboles pueden ser plantados. Por lo tanto, el uso de NAIP para este propósito es tan adecuado como Landsat 5 y 7. Teniendo en cuenta las incertidumbres recientes en la disponibilidad de las imágenes Landsat 5 y 7, y teniendo en cuenta las necesidades de análisis como el que aquí se propone, las mejoras en las estimaciones del potencial de carbono urbano se puede hacer con métodos menos intensivos.