bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Details on the Computation of Hypersonic Inlet Flows
Authors: Reinartz B. , Ballmann J.
Published: April 2003

Within the frame of the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) “Fundamentals of Design of Aerospace Planes”, the design criteria of hypersonic engine inlet flows are studied computationally as well as experimentally. Of special interest are geometrical considerations with respect to the attainable total pressure recovery as well as the thermal load on the engine structure. Thus, the length and base angle of the exterior compression ramps are varied and their influence on the overall pressure gain is investigated. In addition, the length of the subsequent isolator/diffusor, responsible for the interior flow compression, is analyzed with emphasis on the total pressure loss.
Strömungsmechanische und rheooptische Untersuchungen viskoelastischer Flüssigkeiten in turbulenten Kanalströmungen
Authors: Gampert B. , Brämer T. , Eich T.
Published: April 2003

In dieser Arbeit wurden strömungsmechanische und rheooptische Experimente an viskoelastischen Flüssigkeiten in der vollausgebildeten turbulenten Kanalströmung durchgeführt. Dabei wurden das Turbulenzverhalten und die Orientierung der Makromoleküle in der Strömung mit Hilfe der Laser‐Doppler‐Anemometrie (LDA) und dem Verfahren der strömungsinduzierten Doppelbrechung (FIB) für verschieden konzentrierte Polymerlösungen untersucht. Es wird der Zusammenhang zwischen rheologischen und turbulenten Ergebnissen diskutiert.
Driftflussmodell für unstrukturierte Netze mit Partikelagglomeration
Authors: Javurek Mirko
Published: April 2003

Ein Driftflussmodell (oder auch algebraisches Mischungsmodell genannt) kann in Mehrphasen‐CFD‐Simulationen eingesetzt werden, wenn die Sekundärphasen Partikel, Tropfen oder Blasen sind. Das Geschwindigkeitsfeld der Sekund ärphase wird berechnet, indem die Driftgeschwindigkeit (die von der Partikelgröße abhängt) zum Geschwindigkeitsfeld der Primärphase addiert wird. Für jede Sekundärphase wird nur eine zusätzliche Transportgleichung gelöst. Deswegen ist das Driftlussmodell im Vergleich mit Euler‐Euler‐Modellen ein sehr robustes, stabiles und schnelles Modell um Mehrphasenströmungen zu berechnen. Bei Implementierungen des Driftlussmodells für unstrukturierte Gitter können Probleme an Wänden auftreten, an denen die Partikel das Rechengebiet nicht verlassen können und sich dort ansammeln (Agglomeration). Diese Probleme und eine Lösungsidee sind in dieser Arbeit geschildert.
Unsteady Cavitation in Injection Nozzles ‐ Dynamic Interaction of Internal Flow and Jet Formation ‐
Authors: Yuan Weixing , Schnerr Günter H. , Gabi Martin
Published: April 2003

This actual extension of our previous work demonstrates the strong interaction of cavitation inside injection nozzles with the external jet flow. Due to the high sensitivity of cavitation on the imposed initial and boundary conditions, simulations with restriction to the internal nozzle flow are qualitatively and quantitatively incorrect. Results of this very first simulations indicate the potential of cavitation for enhancement of atomization and spray formation.
Material Modelling of Porous Media for Wave Propagation Problems
Authors: Schanz M.
Published: April 2003

Under the assumption of a linear geometry description and linear constitutive equations, the governing equations are derived for two poroelastic theories, Biot's theory and Theory of Porous Media (TPM), using solid displacements and pore pressure as unknowns. In both theories, this is only possible in the Laplace domain. Comparing the sets of differential equations of Biot's theory and of TPM, they show different constant coefficients but the same structure of coupled differential equations. Identifying these coefficients with the material data and correlating them leads to the known problem with Biot's ‘apparent mass density’. Further, in trying to find a correlation between Biot's stress coefficient to parameters used in TPM yet unsolved inconsistencies are found. For studying the numerical effect of these differences, wave propagation results of a one‐dimensional poroelastic column are analysed. Differences between both theories are resolved only for compressible constituents.
On the properties of the radiosity equation near corners
Authors: Hansen Olaf
Published: April 2003

The radiosity equation is an integral equation of the second kind which describes the energy exchange by radiation between surfaces in R3. It is assumed that all surfaces are Lambertian reflectors and that all emitters are diffusive emitters. The radiosity equation plays an important role for the calculation of photo realistic images with the help of computers. Many surfaces which are used in practical calculations are only piecewise smooth and contain edges or corners. In this contribution we present regularity results for the solution of the radiosity equation in the vicinity of corners. The space of piecewise continuous functions is not suitable for this equation and we construct a new function space which contains the solution of the radiosity equation.
Numerical simulation of rotational symmetric tube bulging with inside pressure and axial compression
Authors: Kosel F. , Pipan J. , Petrišič J.
Published: April 2003

The contribution treats the process of rotational symmetric tube bulging with inside pressure and axial compression. This process enables the standard tubes to be formed into different rotational symmetric hollow parts in such a way that their central part is expanded into a desired shape while the ends remain unchanged. The superposition of axial compression contributes to a more favourable forming stress state, which is reflected in larger forming limits and smaller wall thinning in the widened area. The problems characterizing the process are a limited range of compression stability and difficulties met when establishing and optimizing the technological parameters of the process whose course cannot be defined in an analytical way. Based on a physical model of the forming process, a numerical model was built. Using ABAQUS code the model was simulated over the entire stress/forming region. A comparison of the computer simulated forming process with the experimentally obtained results showed that the model was highly accurate.
Homogenization of Fatigue and Creep Durability of Composites
Authors: Mikhailov S.E. , Orlik J.
Published: April 2003

The paper is an extension of the theory presented in [4] to fatigue, creep and other types of time‐dependent material behaviour. In the previous paper a multi‐phase periodic composite subjected to prescribed mechanical loads was considered. The asymptotic homogenization was applied for calculation of homogenized macro‐stresses. A nonlocal approximate macro‐strength condition, defined on homogenised stress‐field, was derived from the micro‐strength conditions and their convergence to the approximate macro‐strength condition, as the structure period tends to zero, was proved. This paper presents the analogous results for the macro‐durability of elastic and viscoelastic composites.
Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation of Biofilm Formation and Decay
Authors: Eberl HJ , Efendiev MA
Published: April 2003

In this article, we give a brief overview of our recent work on continuum mechanical modelling and simulation of microbial films. This comprises some classical tasks of applied mathematics such as computational fluid dynamics, analysis of partial differential equations, and mathematical biology.
On Mean Value Forms for Complex Functions
Authors: Neher M.
Published: April 2003

The mean value form is a well‐known interval arithmetic means to compute tight range bounds for real functions. In this paper, the mean value form is extended for the computation of range bounds for complex analytic functions, both for rectangular and for circular complex intervals. Quadratic convergence and inclusion isotonicity of the complex mean value forms are discussed.
Autonomy, Controllability, and Extension Modules
Authors: Zerz Eva
Published: April 2003

The so‐called behavioral approach to systems theory, developed by Willems, provides a unified framework for the mathematical treatment of linear systems. In the behavioral context, a linear system is nothing but the solution space of a linear system of (partial) difference or differential equations. For simplicity, the coefficients are supposed to be constant.

Oberst proved a duality theorem that builds upon an earlier result of Palamodov. It says that for certain signal spaces of interest, e.g., the smooth functions or the distributions, the solutions spaces of linear systems of partial differential equations, are dual to certain polynomial modules associated to them. Then the solution space and the module contain the same information, and algebraic properties of the module translate to analytic properties of the solution space. Powerful tools from commutative algebra may be used to derive them.

As a prominent example, we study two properties that lie at the very heart of systems and control theory: autonomy and controllability. We summarize the characterizations given by several authors, and unify them in the language of extension modules, an algebraic concept which yields a full classification of these systems theoretic notions.
Chances and limitations of a short‐term overreaction effect – stochastic considerations and empirical results
Authors: Düvelmeyer D. , Hofmann B.
Published: April 2003

As a specific case of the overreaction phenomenon in financial markets we observe reversals of index and future prices in periods following a suggested “qualified movement” of prices. Such a situation is indicated on the one hand by a monotone growth or decline of closing prices during three trading days. On the other hand, there are formulated stochastic conditions expressing a sufficiently improbable market situation, which is frequently compensated by a significant short‐term price reversal. Reversal measures are discussed and a case study completes the paper.
On Existence Theorems for Solutions of Non‐Linear Systems
Authors: Mayer Jan
Published: April 2003

An equivalent formulation of a recent result in [1] states that if the conditions of the Theorem of Newton‐Kantorovich are satisfied in a slightly modified (but equivalent) form in the maximum norm for a function g : G → ℝn, G ⊆ ℝn, guaranteeing the existence of a zero in D, then the conditions of Miranda's Theorem are automatically satisfied. We prove that this result holds for arbitrary norms if the conditions of the Theorem of Newton‐Kantorovich are suitable strengthened and Miranda's Theorem is suitably generalized.
Radiotomography with an additional functional assumption: the CONSERT case
Authors: Barriot J.‐P. , Benna M.
Published: April 2003

In this paper, we derive a third order differential equation resulting from the linearization of an eikonal equation arising in a physical problem of radio tomography. We show that this equation as a unique solution and study its numerical solution.
Multi‐grid for PDEs on complicated domains
Authors: Frauböse N. , Sauter S.A.
Published: April 2003

A multi‐grid method for solving linear equation systems as they arise from finite element discretisations of elliptic boundary value problems on complicated domains will be presented and analysed. The emphasis is on the robustness of this algorithm with respect to the geometric details in the domain. Robust multi‐grid convergence can be proved for a two‐dimensional model problem.
Formulation of a Non‐linear Higher‐Order Shell Theory Using the Convective Description
Authors: Sparr H. , Ulbricht V.
Published: April 2003

By formulating a higher‐order non‐linear shell theory, we start with the basic equations of continuum mechanics of a three‐dimensional body. By assuming a director set on a reference surface of a shell, the description shifts into the shell space. The position vector for the body is introduced as a power series with respect to the out‐of‐surface variable. By considering more than the usual linear part of the series, the complete three‐dimensional strain tensor is available. The motion of the continuum can be represented through the usage of the convective description which combines properties from both the spatial and the material description. Furthermore, the rate‐type formulation gives the opportunity to deal with geometrical nonlinearities in a three‐dimensional field problem efficiently. Following these two concepts results as well in a position‐dependent as in a time‐dependent base vector set; applying them leads to an initial boundary value problem (IBVP).
Improved sensitivity of biomolecular interaction analysis mass spectrometry for the identification of interacting molecules
Authors: Lopez Frédéric , Pichereaux Carole , Burlet‐Schiltz Odile , Pradayrol Lucien , Monsarrat Bernard , Estève Jean‐Pierre
Published: April 2003

Biological functions of most macromolecules depend on their ability to interact with other molecules and a great challenge is the complete description of the protein interaction networks. Biomolecular interaction analysis (BIA) is an optical technology that uses the surface plasmon resonance phenomenon for characterizing macromolecular interactions between an analyte in solution and its ligand immobilized on a sensor chip. Further identification of interacting proteins can be achieved by combining this nondestructive method to mass spectrometry (MS). The BIA‐MS approach represents a promising tool in proteomics for the characterization of protein/protein interactions. In this study, we report on the improved sensitivity in the identification of an unknown protein bound to a known ligand by a rapid and simple BIA‐MS approach. We took advantage of a new automatic and very reproducible microelution procedure available on BIACORE 3000 instruments, called “microrecovery”, to elute the bound protein from the sensor chip. Protein identification was then achieved after tryptic digestion by matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization‐time of flight mass mapping and database search. The strategy was succesfully applied to the model protein SHP2 tyrosine phosphatase interacting with an immunoreceptor tyrosine‐based inhibitory motif sequence of the sst2 somatostatin receptor. Optimization of the BIA‐MS approach allowed the unambiguous identification of 10–20 fmol of the protein specifically trapped from a complex mixture of cytosolic extracts.
Identification of the human salivary cystatin complex by the coupling of high‐performance liquid chromatography and ion‐trap mass spectrometry
Authors: Lupi Alessandro , Messana Irene , Denotti Gloria , Schininà Maria Eugenia , Gambarini Gianluca , Fadda Maria Benedetta , Vitali Alberto , Cabras Tiziana , Piras Vincenzo , Patamia Maria , Cordaro Massimo , Giardina Bruno , Castagnola Massimo
Published: April 2003

Human salivary cystatins, five major (S, S1, S2, SA, SN) and two minor (C and D), are multifunctional proteins playing a different role in the oral environment. Salivary cystatin SN is able to effectively inhibit lysosomal cathepsins B, C, H and L and cystatin SA inhibits cathepsins C and L in vitro. These activities suggest, particularly for cystatin SN, an important role in the control of proteolytic events in vivo. Differently, cystatins S are involved, together with statherin, in the mineral balance of the tooth. Due to their distinct role, a reliable method for identification and quantification of the different cystatins, as well as of possible truncated and derived forms, could be helpful for the assessment of the status of the oral cavity. To this purpose high‐performance liquid chromatography electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HPLC‐ESI MS) was applied to the analysis of human saliva obtained from healthy subjects. All known salivary cystatins, with the exception of cystatin C, were detected. Strong evidence was also obtained for the presence in saliva of post‐translational modified isoforms of cystatins, which may be related to donor habits. Cystatin SN and cystatins S, S1 and S2 were well separated by HPLC‐ESI MS coupling from other components and thus this approach can be successfully applied to their quantification.
Proteomics approach to identify wound‐response related proteins from rice leaf sheath
Authors: Shen Shihua , Jing Yuxiang , Kuang Tingyun
Published: April 2003

In order to avoid the complex conditions of the intact plant for simple analysis of proteins in wound‐response stress, we used the detached rice leaf sheath which is a very active part of the rice seedling. Proteins were extracted from rice leaf sheath at 0, 12, 24, 48 h after cutting and separated by two‐dimensional (2‐D) polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Changes in differentially displayed proteins were found in leaf sheaths after cutting in the 0–48 h time course. Ten proteins were up‐regulated, while 19 proteins were down‐regulated compared with those on the four 2‐D gels. Among them, 14 proteins were analyzed by N‐terminal, or internal amino acid sequence. The clear functions of nine proteins could be identified. Six proteins did not yield amino acid sequence information due to their blocked N‐termini. Furthermore, 11 proteins were determined by matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization‐time of flight mass spectrometry, and identified protein database matching. It was shown that the down‐regulated proteins were calreticulin (nos. 5, 6), histone H1 (no. 15) and hemoglobin (no. 17), putative peroxidase (no. 19); the up‐regulated proteins were Bowman‐Birk trypsin inhibitor (no. 23), putative receptor‐like protein kinase (nos. 24, 25), calmodulin‐related protein (no. 26), small subunit of ribulose‐1,5‐bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (no. 27), mannose‐binding rice lectin (nos. 28, 29). Among all the above proteins, four (nos. 23, 24, 25, 26) have been confirmed to be wound‐response proteins. The others cannot be excluded as also being related to wound‐responses, such as the signal transduction‐related proteins (nos. 5, 6), photosynthesis‐related protein (no. 27), and stress‐response proteins (nos. 19, 28, 29). This is the first time protein changes in response to wounding in rice leaf sheath have been shown.
Determination of ciliary polarity precedes differentiation in the epithelial cells of quail oviduct
Authors: Boisvieux‐Ulrich Emmanuelle , Sandoz Daniel , Allart Jean‐Paul
Published: April 2003

Summary— In quail oviduct epithelium, as in all metazoan and protozoan ciliated cells, cilia beat in a coordinated cycle. They are arranged in a polarized pattern oriented according to the anteroposterior axis of the oviduct and are most likely responsible for transport of the ovum and egg white proteins from the infundibulum toward the uterus. Orientation of ciliary beating is related to that of the basal bodies, indicated by the location of the lateral basal foot, which points in the direction of the active stroke of ciliary beating. This arrangement of the ciliary cortex occurs as the ultimate step in ciliogenesis and following the oviduct development. Cilia first develop in a random orientation and reorient later, simultaneously with the development of the cortical cytoskeleton. In order to know when the final orientation of basal bodies and cilia is determined in the course of oviduct development, microsurgical reversal of a segment of the immature oviduct was performed. Then, after hormone‐induced development and ciliogenesis, ciliary orientation was examined in the inverted segment and in normal parts of the ciliated epithelium. In the inverted segment, orientation was reversed, as shown by a video recording of the direction of effective flow produced by beating cilia, by the three‐dimensional bending forms of cilia immobilized during the beating cycle and screened by scanning electron microscopy, and by the position of basal body appendages as seen in thin sections by transmission electron microscopy. These results demonstrate that basal body and ciliary orientation are irreversibly determined prior to development by an endogenous signal present early in the cells of the immature oviduct, transmitted to daughter cells during the proliferative phase and expressed at the end of ciliogenesis.
Fibrillar pattern of self‐assembled and cell‐assembled collagen: resemblance and analogy
Authors: Gaill Françoise , Lechaire Jean‐Pierre , Denèfle Jean‐Pierre
Published: April 2003

Summary— The geometrical characteristics of fibrillar organizations are studied by electron microscopy in structures obtained in vitro in cell‐free assembled collagen gels, and in vivo in dermal tracts of anuran skin. We analyze several characteristics of the fibrils including the diameter, the outline, the curvature and the extrafibrillar space. We analyze also the variation of fibrillar orientation (twist) in longitudinal and transverse thin sections of these structures. The results are compared in the Discussion to determine to what extent these fibrillar patterns are similar to liquid crystalline organizations and to what extent they result from a self‐assembly or a cell‐assembly process.
Guide for the Practical Application of the ICRP Human Respiratory Tract Model
Authors: Valentin J.
Published: April 2003

The ICRP Publication 66 Human Respiratory Tract Model for Radiological Protection (HRTM) has been applied to calculate dose coefficients (doses per unit intake) and bioassay functions in ICRP Publications 68, 71, 72 and 78. For these purposes, ICRP assigned numerical values to a range of model parameters, such as the size of the inhaled particles and the breathing rate of the subjects. These are known as ‘default’ or ‘reference’ values, and were chosen to be typical, representative values. In any particular situation the actual values of many parameters can be considerably different from the reference values. Usually, doses from intakes of radionuclides are low compared with the relevant limit or constraint, and the resulting difference is unimportant. There are, however, circumstances where more reliable assessments of intake and dose are desirable. This Guidance Document therefore gives advice on applying specific information within the framework of the HRTM for assessing occupational and environmental exposures and for interpreting bioassay data. Chapters on each aspect of the model (morphometry, physiology, deposition, clearance, gases and vapours, dosimetry) provide:

A summary of how the HRTM treats that topic; Information on the reference values of relevant parameters; Guidance on choosing between default values; Information on how doses and bioassay quantities (lung retention, urine, and faecal excretion) vary with the values of selected parameters, giving guidance on the importance of obtaining specific information; Simple examples of the use of specific information relating to the topic.

Annexes give additional information for those directly involved in applying the HRTM to specific situations, including guidance on obtaining parameter values. A brief overview is given of the deposition, characterisation, and sampling of aerosols, with references to further information, as there are relevant text books already available. Issues specific to radioactive aerosols, such as low particle number concentrations for high specific activity materials are, however, addressed. Guidance on obtaining information about absorption of inhaled radionuclides into blood is given in greater detail, because this is a topic on which ICRP has traditionally given guidance, and because a compilation of such information is not readily available elsewhere. Several detailed examples are also provided. One involves assessment of an individual's intake and committed dose from comprehensive bioassay monitoring data. The others deal with the derivation of HRTM absorption parameter values from experimental data, and their application, with additional information on e.g. size distribution, to calculate dose coefficients and interpret bioassay data.
Spatio‐temporal expression of Drosophila mitochondrial transcription factor A during development
Authors: Takata Kei‐ichi , Inoue Yoshihiro H. , Hirose Fumiko , Murakami Shizuka , Shimanouchi Kaori , Sakimoto Ippei , Sakaguchi Kengo
Published: April 2003

We previously reported cloning of the Drosophila mitochondrial transcription factor A (D‐mtTFA) gene, and characterization of a recombinant protein. In this report, the expression and distribution patterns of D‐mtTFA during development are described. D‐mtTFA mRNA and its protein product were found to be abundant in cells of tissues undergoing both proliferation and polytenization. Furthermore, a DRE‐like sequence present in the D‐mtTFA gene showed promotor activity in Drosophila Kc cells. In addition, D‐mtTFA was detected in brain throughout the developmental process, as well as in non‐proliferating tissues, such as flight muscle and cardia, and was also found in spermatids of imagos. D‐mtTFA possesses a nuclear‐targeting sequence, and is present in the nucleus at the syncytial stage, where bundles of 64 spermatids are present during spermatogenesis. The results suggest that D‐mtTFA not only contributes to the mitochondrial DNA transcription and replication system, but also has a role in cell proliferation and development, including spermatogenesis.
Domestic Service in Australia. By B. W. Higman. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2002. Pp. xvi, 358.
Authors: Sharpe Pamela
Published: April 2003

When I first arrived in Australia as a backpacker in the mid-1980s my job possibilities included negotiating a job as a governess on a remote station through an agency, and, when a café proprietor offered me a job, just a few minutes later finding myself alone in her house confronting a vast mound of laundry and other housework with no terms discussed and no prospect of lunch. I had applied to be a waitress but I felt like a slave. I did not know much about Australia or service jobs at that stage and neither of these positions stuck. I never worked in a bar although the Aussie barmaid might best illustrate the Australian stereotype of female service as Dianne Kirkby has shown in her recent work (Barmaids: A History of Women's Work in Pubs, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1997). It is interesting to place such experiences in the context of Barry Higman's excellent new book. For all the male and macho impressions of the pioneering male conquering the alien landscape of the outback, in fact colonial Australia had a very high proportion of women in the workforce. Yet the concept of service somehow sits oddly with the egalitarianism of Australian culture.
The Deadly Truth: A History of Disease in America. By Gerald N. Grob. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002. Pp. 349. $35.00.
Authors: Johansson Sheila Ryan
Published: April 2003

Despite its somber title, The Deadly Truth is a very lively account of American disease history from prehistory to the present. So much research is summarized in this comparatively short book, that it becomes the best introduction to the subject currently available. The chapters are chronologically arranged; they focus on those diseases that have been leading causes of sickness or death over the last four centuries. Not surprisingly the epidemic and insect borne diseases receive the lion's share of attention; but the occupational diseases are given a chapter of their own. The chronic diseases, which dominate the twentieth century, are reviewed in chapter nine. The author's general conclusion is that although a certain amount of progress has undoubtedly occurred in the treatment and management of specific diseases, there will never be a “final victory” over disease and death. In the present context few would disagree.
The Telecommunications Industry. By Susan E. McMaster. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002. Pp. xiii, 191. $39.95.
Authors: Neufeld John L.
Published: April 2003

Susan McMaster has provided a short and accessible overview of the history of the telecommunications (telephone, until very recently) industry from the beginning (1875) through the year 2000. Those looking for an introduction to the development of the industry will find the book quite readable. Those, however, looking for a review of the extant business-history and economic-history literature on the industry will not find it here, nor will they find a good roadmap on where to look for more information.
Lake Michigan Passenger Steamers. By George W. Hilton. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2002. Pp. xii, 364, $75.00.
Authors: Lindstrom Diane
Published: April 2003

The author, a retired UCLA economist, has written a number of highly specialized transportation studies. In his Lake Michigan Passenger Steamers much as in his Great Lakes Car Ferries and American Narrow Gauge Railroads, George W. Hinton acknowledges that “the principle purpose is to provide antiquarian scholarship” (p. xi). Here we learn about the wooden and steel, sailing and steam ships that operated on Lake Michigan from the early nineteenth century until well into the twentieth century. Although some attention is devoted to the interlake trade, the passenger lines that draw most of the author's attention are those that served Lake Michigan points exclusively.
The Record of Global Economic Development. By Eric Jones. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2000. Pp. xviii, 226.
Authors: Easterlin Richard A.
Published: April 2003

For those taken in by the title of this book (as I was, in agreeing to review it) this volume will be a disappointment. It turns out to be a collection of lectures which, as the author tells us, “reflects the development of my interests in recent years, involving themes such as the rise of East Asia, Protectionism, and cultural, institutional, and structural changes [mldr ] all informed by my original professional perspective as an economic historian” (p. xvi).
The Origins of Nonliberal Capitalism: Germany and Japan in Comparison. Edited by Wolfgang Streeck and Kozo Yamamura. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001. Pp. xvii, 261.
Authors: Tsutsui William M.
Published: April 2003

This volume explores phenomena frequently noted (yet seldom analyzed) in the scholarly literature: the profound similarities in the industrialization processes and the contemporary political economies of Germany and Japan. These parallels—not just in the early stages of industrialization, but through the experiences of depression and war, and on to the rise of postwar “miracle” economies in both nations—are often casually ascribed to the late-developer effect, to the strategic imitation of German economic institutions in Japan, or to cultural factors, from lingering “feudal remnants” to enduring “traditional” social structures. Tagging the economic regimes which had evolved in Germany and Japan by the 1970s “nonliberal” capitalist systems, the essays in this collection seek to investigate systematically “the many similarities between the two capitalisms, the no less intriguing differences between them, and the differences between the two and Anglo-American ‘standard capitalism’” (p. xiii). More specifically, this volume examines “the origins of some of the social institutions that have constrained the spread of free markets within the capitalist economies of Germany and Japan while providing them with alternate mechanisms of economic governance” (p. 5). Throughout, the contributors argue for a more subtle, historically grounded, and systematic understanding of the distinctive practices and institutions of the German and Japanese “nationally embedded capitalisms.”
Vietnam as a ‘Domain of Manifest Civility’ (Va˘n Hieˆn chi Bang)
Authors: Kelley Liam
Published: April 2003

While some scholarship has found the roots of the modern Vietnamese idea of ‘nation’ in the distant past, this paper attempts to illuminate ways of thought which were in conflict with Western nationalist ideas. These ways of thought had to be transformed in the early twentieth century in order for the idea of a Vietnamese nation to take hold.
Problematic Progress: Reading Environmental and Social Change in the Mekong Delta
Authors: Biggs David
Published: April 2003

Colonial engineers and administrators often referred to the pre-colonial Mekong Delta landscape as a vast solitude yet to be reorganised through their hydraulic technology. However, the environmental history of the Delta's waterways is more complex, suggesting that colonial projects were to some extent embedded within an existing infrastructure. This problematises the rhetorical concept of Progress within a colonial context and its value as a metaphor to understand human changes to the landscape.
John R. Rickford, African American Vernacular
English: Features, evolution, educational implications.
Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1999. Pp. xxviii, 399.
Authors: Yang James H.
Published: April 2003

This book primarily addresses the following questions:

(a) What are the features of African American Vernacular English
(AAVE), and how is it used?

(b) What is its evolution and where is it headed?

(c) What are its educational implications?
Amen and Hallelujah preaching: Discourse functions in African
American sermons
Authors: WHARRY CHERYL
Published: April 2003

Numerous discourse markers have been examined
in conversation and lecture contexts, but research is sparse
on markers in the sermon genre and on the religious discourse
communities in which sermons occur. This article examines discourse
marker functions of sermonic expressions frequent in performed
African American sermons (e.g. Amen, Hallelujah, Praise
God). Functions identified include those of textual boundary
marker, spiritual maintenance filler, rhythmic marker, and the
infrequent call-response marker. Results support the importance
of the role that culture (here, African oral tradition) plays
in sermon performance.
EDITOR'S NOTE
Authors: Hill Jane H.
Published: April 2003

Readers will observe that this issue has five
articles but only three book reviews. This curious ratio is
partly the result of my travel schedule, which has required
me to submit the issue to the copy editor weeks in advance of
when I would normally do so. However, it is also the result
of the very slow flow of book reviews into my office. The new
five-issue-per-volume format, of course, uses more reviews,
and the fault is probably partly mine for not commissioning
enough of them. Our founding editor, Dell Hymes, used to write
half a dozen book reviews and book notes in each issue; I'm
not made of that sort of stuff (although I did contribute a
review to this issue, I don't plan to make a habit of it).
However, once again, I want to call for book reviewers currently
in default to write the reviews that they promised of the excellent
volumes that grace their shelves courtesy of this and the past
editor! And also, to those who have written offering to do reviews,
I thank you and will be in touch with you about your interests.
If for some reason I don't reply to your query, please
remind me to do so. Readers should watch the “Publications
Received” column and request opportunities to review books
that look interesting. If the book is not already under review
and is appropriate for an LiS review, I'll be
delighted to send it to you.
Altruism is a primary impulse, not a discipline
Authors: Ainslie George , Haslam Nick
Published: April 2003

Intertemporal bargaining theory based on the hyperbolic discounting of expected rewards accounts for how choosing in categories increases self-control, without postulating, as Rachlin does, the additional rewardingness of patterns per se. However, altruism does not seem to be based on self-control, but on the primary rewardingness of vicarious experience. We describe a mechanism that integrates vicarious experience with other goods of limited availability.
Single cells in the visual system and images past
Authors: Meyer Glenn E.
Published: April 2003

Various techniques have attempted to localize imagery. However, early findings using single cell recordings of human receptive fields during imagery tasks have had little impact. Reports by Marg and his coworkers (1968) found no evidence for imagery in human Area 17, 18, and 19. Single cells from humans suggest later imagery-related activity in hippocampus, amygdala, entorhinal cortex, and parahippocampal gyrus.
Altruism: Brand management or uncontrollable urge?
Authors: Read Daniel
Published: April 2003

The act-pattern model of altruism is primarily a brand-equity model, which holds that being altruistic can be traded for social benefits. This is a variant of the “selfish” altruism that Rachlin decries, with altruism being dictated by cold calculations. Moreover, personal and social “self-control” may not be as similar as Rachlin suggests – although we have good (biological) reasons to sacrifice the interests of our current selves in favour of our future selves, we have no such reason to sacrifice ourselves for our neighbours. When we do sacrifice ourselves – giving in to true altruism – we will be repaid with extinction.
Altruism is a social behavior
Authors: Schuster Richard
Published: April 2003

Altruism and cooperation are explained as learned behaviors arising from a pattern of repeated acts whose acquired value outweighs the short-term gains following single acts. But animals and young children, tempted by immediate gains, have difficulty learning behaviors of self-control. An alternative source of reinforcement, shared by animals and humans, arises from social interaction that normally accompanies cooperation and altruism in nature.
Neuronal basis of imagery
Authors: Sokolov Evgeni N.
Published: April 2003

The depiction of pictures as specified points in a functional space is achieved by vector encoding. Picture-selective neurons are added to the declarative memory in the process of learning. New neurons are recruited from stem cells through their proliferation and differentiation. Electrical stimulation of the temporo-parietal cortex produces subjective scenes of the past similar to imagery.
A visual registration can be coloured without being a picture
Authors: Wright Edmond
Published: April 2003

Zenon Pylyshyn here repeats the same error as in his original article (1973) in starting with the premiss that all cognition is a matter of perceiving entities already given in their singularity. He therefore fails to acknowledge the force of the evolutionary argument that perceiving is a motivated process working upon a non-epistemic sensory registration internal to the brain.
Stalking the elusive mental image screen
Authors: Pylyshyn Zenon W.
Published: April 2003

After thirty years of the current “imagery debate,” it appears far from resolved, even though there seems to be a growing acceptance that a cortical display cannot be identified directly with the experienced mental image, nor can it account for the experimental findings on imagery, at least not without additional ad hoc assumptions. The commentaries on the target article range from the annoyed to the supportive, with a surprising number of the latter. In this response I attempt to correct some misreadings of the target article and discuss some of the ideas and evidence introduced by the commentators – much of which I found helpful, even though they do not alter my basic thesis. I also further develop the idea that the spatial character of images may come from the way they are connected to our immediate or immediately-recalled environment (by attention or by visual indexes) and towards which we may orient while we are imaging, thus leaving the alleged spatial properties of images outside the head and freeing image-representations from having to be displayed on any surface.
CAN THERE BE AN “AFTER SOCIALISM”?
Authors: Kors Alan Charles
Published: April 2003

There is no “after socialism.” There will not be
in our or in our children's lifetimes an “after
socialism.” In the wake of the Holocaust and the ruins
of Nazism, anti-Semitism lay low a bit, embarrassed by its worst
manifestation, its actual exercise of state dominion. In the
wake of the collapse of Communism, socialism's only real
and full experience of power, socialism too lays low for just
a moment. Socialism's causes in the West, however, remain
ever with us, the product of the convergence of two extraordinary
achievements: liberal free enterprise and political democracy.
The former creates wealth that has transformed all human
possibility, but it also gives rise to particularly deep envy.
The latter allows ambition a route to power by an appeal to
the democratic state to seize and redistribute wealth in the
name of social equality. As Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises
understood perfectly, the bounty of free enterprise leads the
unproductive to believe that such wealth is a fact of nature,
there for the taking.
BACKWARDS INTO THE FUTURE: NEOREPUBLICANISM AS A POSTSOCIALIST
CRITIQUE OF MARKET SOCIETY
Authors: Gaus Gerald F.
Published: April 2003

Socialism, understood as the rejection of markets based on
private property in favor of comprehensive centralized economic
planning, is no longer a serious political option. If the core
of capitalism is the organization of the economy primarily through
market competition based on private property, then capitalism
has certainly defeated socialism. Markets have been
accepted—and central planning abandoned—throughout
most of the Third World and in most of the formerly Communist
states. In the advanced industrial states of the West, Labor
and “democratic socialist” parties have rejected
socialism, by deregulating markets and privatizing industries,
utilities, and transport. The U.K. Labour Party's 1945
manifesto declared the party to be a “Socialist Party,
and proud of it. Its ultimate aim is the establishment of the
Socialist Commonwealth of Great Britain.” Today the Labour
Party insists that markets are a given.
SOVEREIGNTY, COMMERCE, AND COSMOPOLITANISM: LESSONS FROM
EARLY AMERICA FOR THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD
Authors: Tomasi John
Published: April 2003

If socialism and liberalism are rivals, one ambition these
rivals have shared is that of being a transnational, even universal
doctrine. Socialists and liberals have each thought of their
own view as being well designed to expand, to reach out and
be taken up in an ever-growing number and variety of societies.
I do not know whether now is the time to write the final obituary
for the socialist version of this dream. But the universalizing
dream most vivid before the minds of the inhabitants of the
world today clearly is not the socialist one, but the liberal
one. “Globalization,” in our day, has come to mean
something very close to “liberalization.” For some
this is a cause of celebration; for others, it is a cause of
protest and despair.
A NOTE ON THE INSURANCE RISK PROBLEM
Authors: Ross Sheldon M.
Published: April 2003

We give a new characterization of the ruin probability of the
classical insurance risk model and use it to obtain bounds on
and a computational approach for evaluating this probability.
STOCHASTIC DISCRETIZATION FOR THE LONG-RUN AVERAGE REWARD
IN FLUID MODELS
Authors: Adan I.J.B.F. , Resing J.A.C. , Kulkarni V.G.
Published: April 2003

Stochastic discretization is a technique of representing a
continuous random variable as a random sum of i.i.d. exponential
random variables. In this article, we apply this technique to
study the limiting behavior of a stochastic fluid model.
Specifically, we consider an infinite-capacity fluid buffer,
where the net input of fluid is regulated by a finite-state
irreducible continuous-time Markov chain. Most long-run performance
characteristics for such a fluid system can be expressed as
the long-run average reward for a suitably chosen reward structure.
In this article, we use stochastic discretization of the fluid
content process to efficiently determine the long-run average
reward. This method transforms the continuous-state Markov process
describing the fluid model into a discrete-state
quasi-birth–death process. Hence, standard tools, such
as the matrix-geometric approach, become available for the analysis
of the fluid buffer. To demonstrate this approach, we analyze
the output of a buffer processing fluid from K sources
on a first-come first-served basis.
Spectral properties and retinal distribution of ferret cones
Authors: CALDERONE JACK B. , JACOBS GERALD H.
Published: April 2003

The spectral mechanisms of the ferret (Mustela putorious
furo) were studied with electroretinogram (ERG) flicker
photometry. Variations in adaptation state and flicker rate were used
to define corneally based spectral sensitivities for the three classes
of receptor present in the retina of this mustelid—rods
(λmax = 505 nm), S cones (430 nm), and L cones (558 nm).
The retinal distributions of the two classes of cone were determined
using opsin antibody labeling. Ferret retinas contain a total of about
1.3 million cones with L cones outnumbering S cones in a ratio of
approximately 14:1. ERGs were also recorded using 18.75-Hz flickering
stimuli that were designed to isolate signals from individual cone
classes. The contrast/response functions for signals originating
from both S and L cones were linear over low-to-moderate levels of
contrast, but with greatly different slopes for the two cone types. The
L:S contrast gain ratio derived from a comparison of these slopes, as
well as inferences drawn from another experiment in which responses to
various combinations of L- and S-cone activation were analyzed, suggest
that contributions of these two cone types to the flicker ERG have a
relative weighting of about 4:1 to 5:1 (L/S).
Contrast encoding in retinal bipolar cells: Current vs.
voltage
Authors: THORESON WALLACE B. , BURKHARDT DWIGHT A.
Published: April 2003

To investigate the influence of voltage-sensitive conductances in
shaping light-evoked responses of retinal bipolar cells, whole-cell
recordings were made in the slice preparation of the tiger salamander,
Ambystoma tigrinum. To study contrast encoding, the retina was
stimulated with 0.5-s steps of negative and positive contrasts of
variable magnitude. In the main, responses recorded under voltage- and
current-clamp modes were remarkably similar. In general agreement with
past results in the intact retina, the contrast/response curves
were relatively steep for small contrasts, thus showing high contrast
gain; the dynamic range was narrow, and responses tended to saturate at
relatively small contrasts. For ON and OFF cells, linear regression
analysis showed that the current response accounted for 83–93% of
the variance of the voltage response. Analysis of specific parameters
of the contrast/response curve showed that contrast gain was
marginally higher for voltage than current in three of four cases,
while no significant differences were found for half-maximal contrast
(C50), dynamic range, or contrast dominance. In sum, the
overall similarity between current and voltage responses indicates that
voltage-sensitive conductances do not play a major role in determining
the shape of the bipolar cell's contrast response in the
light-adapted retina. The salient characteristics of the contrast
response of bipolars apparently arise between the level of the cone
voltage response and the postsynaptic current of bipolar cells,
via the transformation between cone voltage and transmitter
release and/or via the interaction between the
neurotransmitter glutamate and its postsynaptic receptors on bipolar
cells.