bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Challenge from the philosophy of scientific practice and New Empiricism
Authors: Tong Wu
Published: February 2010

In this paper the author discusses: (1) the basic characteristics of the concept of Traditional Chinese Systems views, including the concepts of Universalism and unified systems and the concepts of Fundamentalism and Holism systems; (2) the concepts of Pluralistic and local systems embedded in the Philosophy of Scientific Practice and New Empiricism; (3) the necessity of Local Realism to Checkland's Soft Systems Methodology and the significance of social organization and management embedded in the concepts of pluralistic and local systems. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The tension between holism and pluralism: Comment on ‘creative holism’
Authors: Dongping Fan
Published: February 2010

Creative holism of Michael C. Jackson provides an insightful and enlightening research framework in making suitable use of various systems methodologies in combination for complex management situations, especially its metamethodology and coherent pluralism, which is a unique holistic analysis for dealing with the relationship between paradigm diversity and theoretical pluralism. However, in order to insist on pluralism, creative holism pays the price for giving up metatheory. In fact, the integral unity and plurality of it are not in opposition or exclusion. There is a necessary tension between holism and pluralism. Therefore, creative holism may further improve the relationship between its theory and metamethodology to give more prominence to its theoretical feature and practical value. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Diagramming qualitative goals for multiobjective project selection in large‐scale systems
Authors: Martinez Lauro J. , Joshi Nilesh N. , Lambert James H.
Published: February 2010

Allocating resources to competing projects is typically driven by multiple quantified objectives generated from the top‐level goals of a large‐scale system. Analytical tools to aid such allocations have a significant history with many existing methodologies, particularly for optimization and programming within a hierarchy of objective functions. However, the quantified objective functions are known to only partially represent the system goals, and significant challenges remain to preserve relevant considerations that resisted quantification. In particular, the patterns of allocation of resources across the goals may be important to decision‐makers, since they could thereby address known, quantifiable issues with some consideration of unknown and emergent issues. This paper develops decision‐aiding diagrams of top‐level goals and resources that complement the existing multiobjective combinatorial optimization models, to better refine and choose among the optimization‐generated portfolios of projects. Adapting existing path diagrams from the social sciences, the newly developed methodology can be subordinate to the generation of Pareto‐optimal solutions via the optimization model. The application of path diagrams is demonstrated through a case study of allocating resources to a large‐scale system of airports. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng 14: 73–86, 2011
Φύσις Κίvησις… Aux origines aristotéliciennes du concept de mouvement
Authors: Desanti Jean-Toussaint
Published: February 2010

Le titre même donne à la transcription de cet exposé son résumé le plus exact et le plus laconique. Huit phrases extraites du corpus aristotélicien tracent un ensemble de dépendances où sont pris les mots que nous traduisons habituellement par nature et mouvement. L'exposé met en évidence le travail des concepts et son examen contrôlé par une lecture stricte du texte ancien et sa critique étymologique. La nature apparaît dès lors comme fondamentalement en écart par rapport à ellemême, et c'est cela que nous avons encore à penser aujourd'hui.
Aristote Topologue
Authors: Thom René
Published: February 2010

René Thom scrute les propriétés qu'on peut assigner à tout lieu, et désigne la question de ses bords, celle des extrémités. Il s'interroge sur la théorie aristotélicienne des lieux que la transposition topologique éclaire. Des réflexions sur le lieu propre à un animal et des impressions de voyage de Marcel Proust étayent la construction.
Innocence et puissance Heidegger face au principe de raison
Authors: Caye Pierre
Published: February 2010

Le principe de raison, le fait de rendre raison de toutes choses en les référant à un principe fondamental inquestionné, commande, pour Heidegger, la mobilisation totale et la computation universelle du monde par la technique. La critique de ce principe semble conduire Heidegger à une pensée du délaissement des choses et à une épistémologie de l'innocence, affranchies de tout effet de pouvoir métaphysique, politique ou sociologique. Mais l'innocence est ici ambiguë. Elle rappelle le jeu héraclitéen de l'enfant-roi et annonce le retour d'une souveraineté mystérieuse. Le pouvoir de la technique est conjuré au profit d'une autre puissance non moins impérieuse et absolue, une « surpuissance » qui pourrait bien à son tour signifier, d'une façon plus décisive encore que le devenir-technique de la pensée, l'accomplissement et la fin de la métaphysique.
Portrait de l'animal comme sujet
Authors: Lestel Dominique
Published: February 2010

De nombreux philosophes anglo-saxons de tradition analytique nient qu'un animal puisse penser, ou qu'on puisse accéder à sa subjectivité. Nous développons une réponse alternative. La légitimité d'une évaluation de l'intelligence de l'animal repose d'abord sur une familiarité acquise à son contact au cours d'une histoire partagée. Elle est propre à celui qui vit avec un animal mais aussi à l'expert qui a acquis une connaissance de l'animal à la suite d'une pratique professionnelle élaborée. C'est parce que nous interagissons avec l'animal comme s'il était un sujet que nous sommes prêts à lui accorder une intelligence susceptible de rendre intelligibles nos relations avec lui. L'intelligence d'un même animal n'est pas fixée une fois pour toutes. Elle est en partie dépendante des dispositifs humains dans lesquels elle se trouve impliquée. La question d'une véritable zoologie se pose, qui étudie l'intelligence du vivant dans la perspective des sciences sociales aussi bien que dans celle de la biologie.
L'animal, entre personne et chose?
Authors: Chareix Fabien
Published: February 2010

La revendication contemporaine d'un respect de la nature trouve dans le thème du droit animal une de ses applications concrètes, que ce droit soit entendu comme un « droit naturel » appliqué au vivant en général ou bien comme un droit positif régissant des conduites nouvelles au sein de la communauté des êtres naturels. Le droit, défini comme une émanation d'un «humanisme» possessif, est sommé de valider une nouvelle échelle des êtres, de traduire, par le bouleversement de sa notion même de « sujet », un regard sur le vivant qui ne soit pas normé par l'anthropocentrisme de la métaphysique. Dans ce débat, c'est bien la banalisation puis la suppression du sujet en général qui se joue derrière la promotion d'un concept plastique et instrumental du sujet de droit. Le conflit des droits de l'homme et du droit à la vie comme telle n'est pas un problème de société, mais un de ceux qui montrent l'actualité et l'urgence de poser à nouveau la question de l'homme, de sa différence spécifique brouillée et contestée.
Les sciences naturelles à l'agrégation
Authors: Hulin Nicole , Bilodeau Bénédicte
Published: February 2010

Demandée dès 1840 par Siméon-Denis Poisson, une agrégation spécialisée pour les sciences naturelles est créée par Victor Duruy: elle établit une triple spécialisation (sciences mathématiques, physiques, naturelles) au concours d'agrégation pour les lycées et introduit conjointement dans chacune des agrégations une composition de méthode et d'histoire des sciences dans la spécialité concernée. L'évolution de ce concours est étudiée jusqu'au milieu du xxe siècle. D'autres types de concours d'agrégation (agrégation de l'enseignement spécial, agrégation féminine, agrégation des facultés) ont existé où l'histoire naturelle a trouvé place.
Les « yeux d'argos » et les « étoiles d' astrée » pour mesurer l'univers les jésuites italiens et la science nouvelle
Authors: Aricà Denise
Published: February 2010

Comme la nova de 1604 et les trois comètes de 1618, qui engagèrent Galilée et les jésuites du Collège romain dans un long débat, la comète de 1664 a relancé la curiosité et l'attente des astronomes et des astrologues. L'article analyse quelques aspects de ce débat européen, en se focalisant sur l'observatoire de l'école de Santa-Lucia de Bologne, où Giovan Battista Riccioli et ses «associés» avaient, depuis longtemps, développé une activité expérimentale connue dans toute l'Europe pour sa précision. Il étudie ensuite la renaissance des scientiae mediae, c'est-à-dire principalement la géographie et l'hydrométrie, en cherchant à éclairer les conditions socioculturelles dans lesquelles de nouvelles figures professionnelles, comme celles de l'ingénieur et du technicien, ont pris naissance dans la Bologne du XVIe siècle.
« Une mission glorieuse et profitable » réforme missionnaire et économie sucrière dans la province jésuite du brésil au début du xviie siècle
Authors: de Castelnau-L'Estoile Charlotte , de Moura Ribeiro Zeron Carlos Alberto
Published: February 2010

La province jésuite du Brésil est parcourue au début du XVIIe siècle par une série de tensions qui relèvent autant de son rapport à la société coloniale contemporaine que de ses relations avec le centre romain. À travers l'étude d'un document programmatique exceptionnel et original, dont l'auteur et la date de rédaction demeurent inconnus, les Advertências para a provincia do Brasil, on analyse l'inscription de l'entreprise missionnaire dans sa double dimension économicopolitique, avec l'engagement dans la production sucrière, et spirituelle, assurer le salut du missionnaire et la conversion des Indiens. Ce projet, qui fait de l'a ldeia la structure déterminante de la présence et de l'action jésuites en terre de Brésil, révèle une vision globale de la mission, à la fois géopolitique, économique et religieuse que l'historiographie traditionnelle a occultée au profit d'une approche exclusivement spirituelle.
Des carêmes après le carême
Authors: Copete Marie-Lucie , Palomo Federico
Published: February 2010

L'absence de travaux sur les missions intérieures jésuites en Espagne et au Portugal ne correspond pas à l'abondance des documents qui attestent une forte activité missionnaire depuis la deuxième moitié du XVIe siècle. Le caractère fondamentalement quadragésimal de l'activité initiale des jésuites déterminera le sens pénitentiel des missions ibériques et, par conséquent, les stratégies missionnaires elles-mêmes. Les formes de « présentation » des jésuites et le genre de prédication qu'ils adressent aux fidèles sont des exemples de ces stratégies, vouées à l'objectif final, propres aux missions pénitentielles, de mener les fidèles à la « conversion ». Toutefois, cette idée de conversion prend un sens politique, qui trouve sa manifestation la plus évidente dans l'activité de pacification des communautés. L'action accomplie par les jésuites auprès des saisonniers dans les madragues de Conil et de Zahara en Andalousie montre le rôle joué par la mission intérieure comme moyen d'articulation du corps social, selon les modèles de comportement et d'organisation politique de l'époque.
Les jésuites et l'utopie du « comédien honnête » aux XVIe et XVIIe Siècles
Authors: Olaizola Ruth
Published: February 2010

L'auteur concentre son approche de l'activité théâtrale dans les collèges jésuites à la fin du XVIe et au début du XVIIe siècle sur la figure mal connue de l'acteur. Elle se livre à l'analyse détaillée d'un certain nombre de textes pour y décrypter le portrait « en creux » de l'acteur chrétien, un antiacteur investi de toute la force de vérité dont le comédien singe l'image. Mais l'article inscrit, plus généralement, l'acteur des drames religieux jésuites, le plus souvent écrits par les professeurs des collèges, dans le cadre de ces collèges, qui constituent la garantie ultime, puisque l'acteur en est l'élève, et n'est nullement apprenti-comédien, de la différence spécifique de ce théâtre.
Marketing's Strategic Influence in Australian Firms: A Review and Survey
Authors: Merlo Omar , Auh Seigyoung
Published: February 2010

In recent years, a large body of literature has bemoaned the lack of influence of the marketing function within organizations. Yet, there is limited evidence to support or reject claims of a crisis of influence of marketing subunits. This paper reviews the extant literature and discusses survey data regarding perceptions of marketing's influence relative to other departments. The study employs data from senior managers in medium and large Australian firms. Marketing departments are found to be influential vis-à-vis other functional areas, thus suggesting that marketing is rather healthy in Australian organizations. The key findings are also compared to the results of previous studies that have employed US and European data, and further evidence pertaining to CEO background, marketing training and marketing's communication channels are presented. The paper discusses the implications of the findings and presents a number of future research directions.
Protein kinase C‐related kinase targets nuclear localization signals in a subset of class IIa histone deacetylases
Authors: Harrison Brooke C. , Huynh Khai , Lundgaard Greta L. , Helmke Steven M. , Perryman M. Benjamin , McKinsey Timothy A.
Published: February 2010

MINT‐7710106:HDAC5 (uniprotkb:Q9UQL6) physically interacts (MI:0915) with PRK2 (uniprotkb:Q16513) by pull down (MI:0096)
Zoning the Past: Brokers, Babbitts, and the Memory Work of Commercial Real Estate
Authors: MILLER JAMES S.
Published: February 2010

From the moment of its publication in 1922, Sinclair Lewis's novel Babbitt was widely hailed as a text that harnessed the tactics of literary realism to the ambitions of social science. Over the years, in fact, critics have consistently linked Lewis's dissection of a crass, puerile, and materialistic white-collar culture to a conception of the novel as barely fictionalized ethnography – a conceit that has scripted the author as the twentieth century's foremost “cartographer” of American business life. Taking this fact as its starting point, this essay shows how Lewis's efforts to create an ethnographic record of modern business life ultimately encoded an even deeper commentary on the peculiar role that industrial–commercial development played in shaping the ways white-collar Americans thought about, valued, and pursued traces of their putative “heritage.” Rather than simply depict industrial–commercial society's destruction of the past, I argue, Babbitt instead labored to create a necessary genealogy for this regime: one that provided the nation's new, forward-lurching order with the kind of temporal coherence and historical context that its own ascendance seemed most directly to expunge. In making such an argument, this essay seeks to query a long-standing presumption within public memory studies that for years has construed the idea(l)s of historical recovery and the operations of commercial capitalism as fundamentally, if not inherently, incompatible. Balefully derided for mass-producing and mass-marketing a commodified pastness, dismissed as tools for replacing authentic history with ersatz heritage, modern development practices have stood for the vast majority of critics as proof of Americans' fundamental disconnection from their common and authentic history. Seeking to complicate this view, this essay shows instead how Babbitt can be read as a powerful counterexample to such logic – one that casts modernization less as an adversary than as an adjunct to prevailing modes of public recollection.
Expression and function of leptin and its receptor in dairy goat mammary gland
Authors: Li Meng , Li Qingzhang , Gao Xuejun
Published: February 2010

Leptin is an autocrine and paracrine factor which affects the development and function of mammary gland. The purpose of this study was to investigate the presence and regulatory effect of leptin in Chinese Guan Zhong dairy goat mammary gland from the virgin state to involution. The protein expression and localization of leptin and its long form receptor (OB-Rb) were detected by western blot and a confocal laser scanning microscope. Explants were cultured to detect the impacts of leptin on mammary gland, western blot was used to research leptin signal transduction pathway in pregnancy, lactation and involution. Leptin and amounts of OB-Rb protein were high throughout the virgin stage and at the beginning of pregnancy, lower at mid-pregnancy and throughout lactation, then higher at involution. Immunofluorescence performed with the anti-leptin and anti-leptin receptor antibody showed labelling located in adipose, epithelial cells, or extracellular matrix at different stages. The localization of leptin and OB-Rb revealed that leptin induced the expression of OB-Rb specifically and controlled the development and physiological function of the mammary gland by binding to OB-Rb. Leptin stimulated the proliferation and differentiation of ductal epithelial cells in pregnancy by JAK-MAPK signal pathway, enhanced the amount of β-casein in cultured lactating mammary gland by JAK-STAT5 signal pathway, made the mammary duct disappear and induced apoptosis of mammary epithelial cells and mammary gland restitution by JAK-STAT3 signal pathway in involution. Overall, this study demonstrated the importance and complexity of leptin and OB-Rb during mammary gland development and provides a valuable resource for future research in this area.
Simone Weil'sIliad: The Power of Words
Authors: Hammer Dean , Kicey Michael
Published: February 2010

Simone Weil's work has always been appreciated for its evocative beauty, but not always for its potential contributions to political thought. In this essay, we engage in a reappraisal of her political thought, and of her relevance to contemporary politics, by way of her discussion of the power of words. Weil shares much with contemporary approaches that view the world as a text to be interpreted. But for Weil, the power of interpretation carries with it an illusion, exemplified in Weil's example of Achilles watching over his war-work, in which the world can be seen, measured, and shaped according to one's will. For Weil, the illusion of control that accompanies this perspective is undermined by our encounter with a world of physical causes and sensations that impact us, quite without us being able to control them.
Regulatory Impact Assessment: Formal Institutionalization and Practice
Authors: STAROŇOVÁ KATARÍNA
Published: February 2010

In the last decade regulatory reforms have focused increasingly on efforts to improve regulatory quality. As part of that development policymakers have been encouraged to consider fiscal, socio-economic and administrative effects of proposed legislation when making policy choices. The Central and East European EU member states have adopted regulatory impact analysis (RIA) mechanisms but so far there has been little analysis of their implementation. This article first compares the manner in which RIAs have been institutionalised in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia. Second, it explores how differences in institutionalisation have affected RIA performance. The paper concludes that there are marked differences in the RIA quality across Central and Eastern Europe, notably as a consequence of national differences in institutional and administrative contexts and capacities.
Legislatures and Policy Uncertainty: Evidence from East Central Europe
Authors: ZUBEK RADOSLAW , STECKER CHRISTIAN
Published: February 2010

Relying on social choice theory, this paper argues that uncertainty regarding future public policies is likely to be related to party institutionalization and legislative organization. The argument is evaluated using survey data from businesses in eight EU member states in East Central Europe. It finds that firms report lower concern over policy uncertainty in systems with higher party institutionalization. There is also some evidence, although less robust, that restrictive parliamentary agenda control leads to lower perceptions of policy uncertainty and this effect mediates the influence of party institutionalization. These results tend to hold if one controls for the effect of other national and firm-level factors.
Summary and meta-analysis of prospective studies of animal fat intake and breast cancer
Authors: Alexander Dominik D. , Morimoto Libby M. , Mink Pamela J. , Lowe Kimberly A.
Published: February 2010

The objective of the present review was to examine the potential association between animal fat intake and breast cancer. We conducted a meta-analysis and review of epidemiological cohort studies, including data reported in the Pooling Project publication of Prospective Studies of Diet and Cancer. Random- and fixed-effects models were utilised to generate summary relative risk estimates (SRRE), and sensitivity and influence analyses were conducted. In the meta-analysis that included data reported in the Pooling Project publication of prospective cohorts (n8) and subsequent publications of cohort studies (n3), no significant association was observed comparing the highest category of animal fat intake with the lowest (SRRE 1·03; 95 % CI: 0·76, 1·40). Similarly, no significant association between a 5 % increment of energy from animal fat intake and breast cancer (SRRE 1·02; 95 % CI 0·97, 1·07) was observed in the meta-analysis of these studies. In conclusion, the results of the present quantitative assessment are not supportive of a positive independent association between consumption of animal fat and breast cancer, although findings may be sensitive to the type of dietary instrument used in cohort studies.
ON THE THINNESS OF THE UTILITARIAN DEFENSE OF PRIVATE PROPERTY
Authors: PERSKY JOSEPH
Published: February 2010

Why did classical utilitarian thinkers offer only a thin defense of the institution of private property? Utilitarians might have viewed such a defense as irrelevant, trivial, or impossible. A fourth hypothesis holds that utilitarians were ambivalent about the institution, itself. The utilitarians are clear on the relevance of a defense. Triviality would have to be based on 18th century philosophers and historians. Impossibility would raise serious questions about the utilitarian project. Ambivalence seems the most plausible explanation. Utilitarian writings throw considerable doubt on their own commitment to the strongest versions of the defense of private property.
Asian knowledge and the development of calico printing in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
Authors: Riello Giorgio
Published: February 2010

From the seventeenth century, the brilliance and permanence of colour and the exotic nature of imported Asian textiles attracted European consumers. The limited knowledge of colouring agents and the general absence of textile printing and dyeing in Europe were, however, major impediments to the development of a cotton textile-printing and -dyeing industry in Europe. This article aims to chart the rise of a European calico-printing industry in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by analysing the knowledge transfer of textile-printing techniques from Asia to Europe.
Empire and locality: a global dimension to the 1857 Indian Uprising
Authors: Carter Marina , Bates Crispin
Published: February 2010

The Indian Uprising of 1857–59, during which thousands of Indian soldiers serving in the British army mutinied, joined by many civilians, led to the identification of a vast number of ‘rebels’ and discussions as to the most appropriate means of punishing them. The wholesale transportation of insurgents was considered a likely scenario in the charged atmosphere of late 1857. The uprising coincided with dramatic increases in the world market price for sugar, prompting British colonial producers to extend cultivation of cane and their political agents to suggest that the need for further plantation labour be met from among the likely Indian convict transportees. The empire-wide response to the events in India during 1857–59 is assessed in this article as an interesting case study of both reactions to a sensationalist news story and the manner in which British officials, keen to exploit the outcome of the revolt and to manipulate the labour market to the advantage of their respective colonies, competed with and contradicted one another. At the same time, the authors contend that arguably the more interesting aspects of the relationship between the Indian Uprising and the surge in numbers migrating to the sugar colonies were either neglected or carefully ignored by policy makers and commentators alike at the time, and have scarcely been investigated by historians since. The article suggests that many individuals who participated in the insurgency in India did indeed make their way overseas, quietly ignored, and only mentioned in subsequent decades when ‘scares’ about mutineer sepoys in their midst were raised in the colonial press as explanation for strikes and labour agitations on colonial sugar estates.
The global social insurance movement since the 1880s
Authors: Hu Aiqun , Manning Patrick
Published: February 2010

This article analyses the patterns and dynamics of the global social insurance movement since the 1880s through the framework of ‘interactive diffusion’. It argues that two principal models of social insurance – the German capitalist and Soviet socialist – diffused around the world throughout the twentieth century. It contends that global forces conveyed basic ideas while national forces determined the timing and specifics of the adoption of global models. From the 1980s, however, a new global model of privatization emerged with the rise of neo-liberalism and support from the World Bank. Privatization partially replaced public pension systems in Latin America, then in the former socialist countries in Europe and in a few other countries. Nevertheless, national compulsory social insurance has remained the predominant form for social protection in the world.
Global history and the spatial turn: from the impact of area studies to the study of critical junctures of globalization
Authors: Middell Matthias , Naumann Katja
Published: February 2010

Globalization can be interpreted as a dialectical process of de- and re-territorialization. The challenges to existing borders that limit economic, socio-cultural, and political activities, and the establishment of new borders as the result of such activities, bring about certain consolidated structures of spatiality, while at the same time societies develop regulatory regimes to use these structures for purposes of dominance and integration. Global history in our understanding investigates the historical roots of those global conditions that have led to modern globalization and should therefore focus on the historicity of regimes of territorialization and their permanent renegotiation over time. There is, at present, a massive insecurity about patterns of spatiality and appropriate regulatory mechanisms. This article begins with a sketch of this current uncertainty and of two further characteristics of contemporary globalization. The second part examines discussions in the field of global history with regard to processes of de- and re-territorialization. In the third part, we suggest three categories that can serve both as a research agenda and as a perspective according to which a history of globalization can be constructed and narrated.
Chinese emigration in global context, 1850–1940
Authors: McKeown Adam
Published: February 2010

Chinese emigration was part of the global wave of mass migration in the nineteenth century. After establishing the main quantities, sources, destinations, and timing of emigration, this article analyses trends in return and female migration, two quantifiable phenomena that are often said to distinguish Chinese from other migrations. These trends are compared between different flows of Chinese migration, both overseas and to Manchuria, and with non-Chinese migrations. The most interesting conclusions have methodological implications: first, comparisons should be situated as historical trends to better understand patterns of convergence or divergence between flows; second, some cycles and patterns may grow more similar across migration flows even as others diverge; third, the results of comparison will change along with the scale of units being compared; and finally, both extensive comparisons of specific flows and an awareness of the global context are necessary to understand the patterns and causes of mass migration.
Legal capacity and family status in child-headed households: Challenges to legal paradigms and concepts
Authors: Bonthuys Elsje
Published: February 2010

In its 2005 Household Survey, Statistics South Africa counted 143,167 children living in child-headed households. The increased numbers of such households is usually ascribed to the death of parents from AIDS, and researchers expect them to increase further in the future. Similar household formations are also found in other Southern African countries such as Zimbabwe, Botswana, Uganda, Lesotho and Tanzania. Although the research indicates that children living in child-headed households usually experience emotional trauma, poverty and problems with accessing education, health care and social welfare grants, the consensus amongst children’s advocates and academics is that placing all such children in institutions, foster homes or adoption is not currently a viable or an optimal solution. The existence of child-headed households and the urgent need to assist children living in them exposes the inadequacy of several common law legal concepts and paradigms. This paper explores some practical and conceptual arguments for assigning family status to child-headed households and for awarding legal capacity to the minors who head these households.
Modeling organic transformations by microorganisms of soils in six contrasting ecosystems: Validation of the MOMOS model
Authors: Pansu M. , Sarmiento L. , Rujano M. A. , Ablan M. , Acevedo D. , Bottner P.
Published: February 2010

The Modeling Organic Transformations by Microorganisms of Soils (MOMOS) model simulates the growth, respiration, and mortality of soil microorganisms as main drivers of the mineralization and humification processes of organic substrates. Originally built and calibrated using data from two high‐altitude sites, the model is now validated with data from a 14C experiment carried out in six contrasting tropical ecosystems covering a large gradient of temperature, rainfall, vegetation, and soil types from 65 to 3968 m asl. MOMOS enabled prediction of a greater number of variables using a lower number of parameter values than for predictions previously published on this experiment. The measured 14C mineralization and transfer into microbial biomass (MB) and humified compartments were accurately modeled using (1) temperature and moisture response functions to daily adjust the model responses to weather conditions and (2) optimization of only one parameter, the respiration rate kresp of soil microorganisms at optimal temperature and moisture. This validates the parameterization and hypotheses of the previous calibration experiment. Climate and microbial respiratory activity, related to soil properties, appear as the main factors that regulate the C cycle. The kresp rate was found to be negatively related to the fine textural fraction of soil and positively related to soil pH, allowing the proposition of two transfer functions that can be helpful to generalize MOMOS application at regional or global scale.
Extensive meteoroid fragmentation in V/UHF radar meteor observations at Arecibo Observatory
Authors: Mathews J. D. , Briczinski S. J. , Malhotra A. , Cross J.
Published: February 2010

New 46.8/430 MHz (V/UHF) radar meteor observations at Arecibo Observatory reveal many previously unreported features in the radar meteor return that are consistent with meteoroid fragmentation. These signature features—observed at both V/UHF—include strong intra‐pulse and pulse‐to‐pulse fading as the result of interference between or among multiple meteor head‐echo returns and between head‐echo and impulsive “flare” event “trail‐echoes”. A few events are suggestive of differential ablation. These V/UHF radar observations are particularly useful as coaxial beams enable common volume observations that remove much ambiguity in the interpretation of the observations in terms of meteoroid fragmentation. These results, combined with simple modeling and two 500 sample statistical studies, lead us to conclude that a majority of the ∼17,000 AO radar meteor events included in this study exhibit fragmentation—manifested as non‐uniform lightcurves—implying that the form of meteoroid mass flux into the upper atmosphere goes well beyond simple ablation.
Relationship between the ionospheric eastward electric field and the equatorial electrojet
Authors: Alken Patrick , Maus Stefan
Published: February 2010

The equatorial electrojet (EEJ) is a strong ionospheric current along the magnetic equator driven by the day side eastward electric field. Current strength is affected by two‐stream and gradient‐drift instabilities which pose a serious obstacle to quantitative electrodynamic modeling of the equatorial ionosphere. Using highly accurate radar and magnetic field measurements taken over the past decade, we deduce empirical relations between the observed EEJ and the driving eastward electric field. These indicate that the current strength is largely unaffected by instabilities for eastward fields in the range of −0.4 mV/m to 0.07 mV/m. This is followed by a band of moderate current reduction from 0.07 mV/m to 1 mV/m, consistent with predictions for the gradient drift instability. At even stronger eastward fields, a further current reduction is observed, as expected for the two‐stream instability. These non‐linear empirical relations can be used to correct ionospheric electric field strengths inferred from space and ground‐based magnetic field measurements.
THEMIS observations of substorms on 26 February 2008 initiated by magnetotail reconnection
Authors: Pu Z. Y. , Chu X. N. , Cao X. , Mishin V. , Angelopoulos V. , Wang J. , Wei Y. , Zong Q. G. , Fu S. Y. , Xie L. , Glassmeier K.‐H. , Frey H. , Russell C. T. , Liu J. , McFadden J. , Larson D. , Mende S. , Mann I. , Sibeck D. , Sapronova L. A. , Tolochko M. V. , Saifudinova T. I. , Yao Z. H. , Wang X. G. , Xiao C. J. , Zhou X. Z. , Reme H. , Lucek E.
Published: February 2010

On 26 February 2008, the THEMIS satellites observed two substorms that occurred at about 0405 and 0455 UT. Angelopoulos et al. (2008) made a comprehensive study of the second event. In this paper we display detailed features of the two substorms with emphasis on the first. In both substorms, a distinct auroral intensification occurred during the earliest stage of onset, about 1 to 2 min after midtail reconnection began. This initial intensification was weak and localized and thus had the signatures of a pseudobreakup. In both substorms, a second, major intensification occurred next in the substorm onset sequence, followed by rapid and extensive poleward expansion. This second intensification had the features of the major expansion onset and was nearly coincident with observations of earthward flows and magnetic dipolarization in the near‐Earth tail. During the growth phase of the two substorms, open magnetic flux accumulated in the polar cap; in the expansion/recovery phase the polar cap open flux was quickly reduced. These observations are in agreement with the assertion that tail reconnection initiates the initial pseudobreakup and the ensuing major expansion and releases and transports energy to eventually cause near‐Earth dipolarization and the expansion phase onset of these two substorms.
Cluster observations of simultaneous resonant interactions of ULF waves with energetic electrons and thermal ion species in the inner magnetosphere
Authors: Yang B. , Zong Q.‐G. , Wang Y. F. , Fu S. Y. , Song P. , Fu H. S. , Korth A. , Tian T. , Reme H.
Published: February 2010

In this study, we report in situ observations on the simultaneous periodic modulations in the drifting energetic electrons (∼100 keV) and in the bouncing thermal ion species (O+ at ∼4.5 keV and H+ at ∼280 eV) with the same frequency of 3.3 mHz during the storm recovery phase on 21 October 2001. The Cluster fleet was traveling outbound in the inner magnetosphere from the Southern to Northern Hemisphere on the morning sector (0900 MLT). The ultra‐low‐frequency (ULF) waves from the magnetic field and electric field measurements show a mixture of several dominant wave components in the transverse modes. The poloidal mode at the modulation frequency of 3.3 mHz appears to be a standing wave with an odd harmonic, although other wave components reveal propagating features. The radial extent of this standing wave is around 0.58 RE. The oscillation periods of the energetic electron fluxes (∼100 keV) and the thermal O+ (∼4.5 keV) and H+ (∼280 eV) fluxes are observed the same as the period of the poloidal standing wave, indicating that the energetic electrons and the thermal ion species are modulating by the same wave. Further, we suggest the simultaneous drift resonances of the energetic electrons around 94 keV and the bounce resonances of the thermal O+ around 4.5 keV and H+ around 280 eV with the same poloidal standing wave. In addition, the electron energy spectra variations reveal the accelerations of the electrons in the energy range of 50∼110 keV, which are most likely due to the drift resonances. This is the first study to show both energetic particles (radiation belt population, ∼ a few hundred keV) and thermal ions (background plasma population, ∼ a few keV) can be affected by the same ULF wave simultaneously. Furthermore, this study implies that the superdense ionospheric origin O+ ions in the inner magnetosphere during storm times can modify the local field line eigenfrequency and result in the energetic electron accelerations by the ULF waves in the deep region of the radiation belt.
Structure of magnetic separators and separator reconnection
Authors: Parnell C. E. , Haynes A. L. , Galsgaard K.
Published: February 2010

Magnetic separators are important locations of three‐dimensional magnetic reconnection. They are field lines that lie along the edges of four flux domains and represent the intersection of two separatrix surfaces. Since the intersection of two surfaces produces an X‐type structure, when viewed along the line of intersection, the global three‐dimensional topology of the magnetic field around a separator is hyperbolic. It is therefore usually assumed that the projection of the magnetic field lines themselves onto a two‐dimensional plane perpendicular to a separator is also hyperbolic in nature. In this paper, we use the results of a three‐dimensional MHD experiment of separator reconnection to show that, in fact, the projection of the magnetic field lines in a cut perpendicular to a separator may be either hyperbolic or elliptic and that the structure of the magnetic field projection may change in space, along the separator, as well as in time, during the life of the separator. Furthermore, in our experiment, we find that there are both spatial and temporal variations in the parallel component of current (and electric field) along the separator, with all high parallel current regions (which are associated with reconnection) occurring between counterrotating flow regions. Importantly, reconnection occurs not only at locations where the structure of the projected perpendicular magnetic field is hyperbolic but also where it is elliptic.
Particle‐in‐cell simulations of whistler waves excited by an electron κ distribution in space plasma
Authors: Lu Quanming , Zhou Lihui , Wang Shui
Published: February 2010

Satellite observations clearly reveal that superthermal electrons in space plasma generally possess a pronounced non‐Maxwellian distribution that can be well modeled by a κ distribution. In this paper, one‐dimensional (1‐D) particle‐in‐cell simulations are performed to investigate the evolution of whistler waves driven by superthermal electrons with a typical κ distribution in the presence of a cold plasma population. The results obtained from the linear theory are first confirmed: with the increase of the spectral index κ for the κ distribution, the linear growth rate of the excited waves increases and instability threshold for the temperature anisotropy (A = / − 1) decreases. Then we further find that with the increase of κ, the fluctuating magnetic field energy density at the saturation stage also increases. Therefore, from both the linear growth rate and the fluctuating magnetic field energy density at the saturation stage, we can find that a bi‐Maxwellian distribution (κ → ) overestimates the importance of whistler waves, since the observed value of κ lies in the range 2 ≤ κ ≤ 6. We also find that the κ values of the electron distributions become smaller with the excitation of the whistler waves.
Metagenomic insights into evolution of a heavy metal-contaminated groundwater microbial community
Authors: Hemme Christopher L , Deng Ye , Gentry Terry J , Fields Matthew W , Wu Liyou , Barua Soumitra , Barry Kerrie , Tringe Susannah G , Watson David B , He Zhili , Hazen Terry C , Tiedje James M , Rubin Edward M , Zhou Jizhong
Published: February 2010

Understanding adaptation of biological communities to environmental change is a central issue in ecology and evolution. Metagenomic analysis of a stressed groundwater microbial community reveals that prolonged exposure to high concentrations of heavy metals, nitric acid and organic solvents (∼50 years) has resulted in a massive decrease in species and allelic diversity as well as a significant loss of metabolic diversity. Although the surviving microbial community possesses all metabolic pathways necessary for survival and growth in such an extreme environment, its structure is very simple, primarily composed of clonal denitrifying γ- and β-proteobacterial populations. The resulting community is overabundant in key genes conferring resistance to specific stresses including nitrate, heavy metals and acetone. Evolutionary analysis indicates that lateral gene transfer could have a key function in rapid response and adaptation to environmental contamination. The results presented in this study have important implications in understanding, assessing and predicting the impacts of human-induced activities on microbial communities ranging from human health to agriculture to environmental management, and their responses to environmental changes.
PANGEA: pipeline for analysis of next generation amplicons
Authors: Giongo Adriana , Crabb David B , Davis-Richardson Austin G , Chauliac Diane , Mobberley Jennifer M , Gano Kelsey A , Mukherjee Nabanita , Casella George , Roesch Luiz F W , Walts Brandon , Riva Alberto , King Gary , Triplett Eric W
Published: February 2010

High-throughput DNA sequencing can identify organisms and describe population structures in many environmental and clinical samples. Current technologies generate millions of reads in a single run, requiring extensive computational strategies to organize, analyze and interpret those sequences. A series of bioinformatics tools for high-throughput sequencing analysis, including pre-processing, clustering, database matching and classification, have been compiled into a pipeline called PANGEA. The PANGEA pipeline was written in Perl and can be run on Mac OSX, Windows or Linux. With PANGEA, sequences obtained directly from the sequencer can be processed quickly to provide the files needed for sequence identification by BLAST and for comparison of microbial communities. Two different sets of bacterial 16S rRNA sequences were used to show the efficiency of this workflow. The first set of 16S rRNA sequences is derived from various soils from Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The second set is derived from stool samples collected from diabetes-resistant and diabetes-prone rats. The workflow described here allows the investigator to quickly assess libraries of sequences on personal computers with customized databases. PANGEA is provided for users as individual scripts for each step in the process or as a single script where all processes, except the χ2 step, are joined into one program called the ‘backbone’.
Regional Adipose Tissue Associations With Calcified Atherosclerotic Plaque: African American–Diabetes Heart Study
Authors: Divers Jasmin , Wagenknecht Lynne E. , Bowden Donald W. , Carr J. Jeffrey , Hightower R. Caresse , Ding Jingzhong , Xu Jianzhao , Langefeld Carl D. , Freedman Barry I.
Published: February 2010

Coronary artery calcified atherosclerotic plaque (CP) is strongly associated with nonsubcutaneous adipose tissue, particularly pericardial adipose tissue (PAT), in community‐based studies. We tested for relationships between regional adipose tissue depots and CP in African Americans with longstanding type 2 diabetes. Infrarenal aorta, coronary, and carotid artery CP and pericardial, visceral, intermuscular, and subcutaneous organ‐specific adipose tissue volumes were measured using single and multidetector computed tomography (CT) in 422 African Americans with type 2 diabetes. Generalized estimating equations using exchangeable correlation and the sandwich estimator of the variance were used to test for associations between CP and adipose tissue depots. Mean (s.d.) age was 56.5 (7.6) years, diabetes duration 10.3 (7.6) years, PAT 85.3 (36.1) cm3/45 mm and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) 174.9 (70.1) cm3/15 mm. Adjusting for age, gender, BMI, blood pressure, medications, proteinuria, smoking, lipids, and 25‐hydroxyvitamin D, PAT was positively associated with the presence (P= 0.009) and quantity of coronary artery CP in African Americans (P= 0.004), as well as the quantity of infrarenal aorta CP (P= 0.004). As in European Americans, PAT is associated with CP in African Americans with type 2 diabetes. Ethnic differences in the relationships between organ‐specific adipose tissue depots and atherosclerosis require further study.
Relations Between Waist Circumference at Four Sites and Metabolic Risk Factors
Authors: Matsushita Yumi , Tomita Kentaro , Yokoyama Tetsuji , Mizoue Tetsuya
Published: February 2010

The location of waist circumference (WC) measurement differs among diagnostic guidelines for the metabolic syndrome. The present study examined which of four WC measurements was associated most strongly with the clustering of metabolic risk factors in cross‐sectional study. The subjects comprised 1,140 Japanese employees, aged 20–70 years, who underwent health examinations in 2007 and 2008. WC was measured at (i) the narrowest part of the waist, (ii) midway between the lowest rib and the iliac crest, (iii) the umbilical level, and (iv) immediately above the iliac crest. A receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve was used to assess the ability of each WC measurement to predict the presence of two or more other components of the metabolic syndrome, as defined by the National Cholesterol Education Program's Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP‐ATP III) in 2005. Multiple risk factors were seen in 43.0% of the men and 12.9% of the women. The minimum and maximum WC measurements differed by 3.9 cm among the men and 12.6 cm among the women. The areas under the curve examining the ability of the four WC measurements to predict the clustering of multiple risk factors were similar. If the same WC cutoff value was applied, the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome changed considerably according to the site of WC measurement. The four WC measurements had similar screening abilities. Given the differences in the WC values according to the site of measurement, WC must be measured at the site specified by each diagnostic guideline.