bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Basal core promoters control the equilibrium between negative cofactor 2 and preinitiation complexes in human cells
Authors: Albert Thomas K , Grote Korbinian , Boeing Stefan , Meisterernst Michael
Published: March 2010

Background

The general transcription factor TFIIB and its antagonist negative cofactor 2 (NC2) are hallmarks of RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) transcription. Both factors bind TATA box-binding protein (TBP) at promoters in a mutually exclusive manner. Dissociation of NC2 is thought to be followed by TFIIB association and subsequent preinitiation complex formation. TFIIB dissociates upon RNAPII promoter clearance, thereby providing a specific measure for steady-state preinitiation complex levels. As yet, genome-scale promoter mapping of human TFIIB has not been reported. It thus remains elusive how human core promoters contribute to preinitiation complex formation in vivo.

Results

We compare target genes of TFIIB and NC2 in human B cells and analyze associated core promoter architectures. TFIIB occupancy is positively correlated with gene expression, with the vast majority of promoters being GC-rich and lacking defined core promoter elements. TATA elements, but not the previously in vitro defined TFIIB recognition elements, are enriched in some 4 to 5% of the genes. NC2 binds to a highly related target gene set. Nonetheless, subpopulations show strong variations in factor ratios: whereas high TFIIB/NC2 ratios select for promoters with focused start sites and conserved core elements, high NC2/TFIIB ratios correlate to multiple start-site promoters lacking defined core elements.

Conclusions

TFIIB and NC2 are global players that occupy active genes. Preinitiation complex formation is independent of core elements at the majority of genes. TATA and TATA-like elements dictate TFIIB occupancy at a subset of genes. Biochemical data support a model in which preinitiation complex but not TBP-NC2 complex formation is regulated.
Predictors of Tumor Progression During Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Breast Cancer
Authors: Caudle Abigail S. , Gonzalez-Angulo Ana M. , Hunt Kelly K. , Liu Ping , Pusztai Lajos , Symmans W. Fraser , Kuerer Henry M. , Mittendorf Elizabeth A. , Hortobagyi Gabriel N. , Meric-Bernstam Funda
Published: March 2010

Purpose

Although most breast cancer patients who receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT) have a tumor response, a small proportion experience progressive disease (PD). Predictors of response have been reported, but predictors for progression have not been identified. We sought to identify predictors of tumor progression during NCT with the ultimate aim of identifying patients who might benefit from a first-line surgical approach or from novel targeted therapies.

Patients and Methods

Data were obtained from reviewing medical records of patients with stage I to III breast cancer who received NCT (anthracycline and/or taxane based). Statistical analysis was performed to compare patients with any response or stable disease with patients with PD.

Results

One thousand nine hundred twenty-eight patients received NCT; 1,762 patients (91%) had some response, 107 (6%) had stable disease, and 59 (3%) had PD at some point during NCT. Factors predictive of PD included African American race (P = .002), tumor (T) status (P = .002), and American Joint Committee on Cancer clinical stage (P = .02). Histopathologic features of PD were high tumor grade (P = .005), high Ki-67 score (P = .002), and negative estrogen receptor (ER)/progesterone receptor (PR) status (P < .001/P < .001). Pre-NCT T status, race, and ER status were independent predictors of progression in multivariate analysis. Disease progression was a negative predictor of distant disease–free survival and overall survival in multivariate analysis (P < .001).

Conclusion

Factors predictive of PD include race, advanced tumor stage, high nuclear grade, high Ki-67 score, and ER/PR negativity. Because many of these variables are also associated with response to NCT, novel molecular predictors are needed to identify patients at risk for progression on standard NCT.
Predicting Adverse Events in Children With Fever and Chemotherapy-Induced Neutropenia: The Prospective Multicenter SPOG 2003 FN Study
Authors: Ammann Roland A. , Bodmer Nicole , Hirt Andreas , Niggli Felix K. , Nadal David , Simon Arne , Ozsahin Hulya , Kontny Udo , Kühne Thomas , Popovic Maja Beck , Lüthy Annette Ridolfi , Aebi Christoph
Published: March 2010

Purpose

To develop a score predicting the risk of adverse events (AEs) in pediatric patients with cancer who experience fever and neutropenia (FN) and to evaluate its performance.

Patients and Methods

Pediatric patients with cancer presenting with FN induced by nonmyeloablative chemotherapy were observed in a prospective multicenter study. A score predicting the risk of future AEs (ie, serious medical complication, microbiologically defined infection, radiologically confirmed pneumonia) was developed from a multivariate mixed logistic regression model. Its cross-validated predictive performance was compared with that of published risk prediction rules.

Results

An AE was reported in 122 (29%) of 423 FN episodes. In 57 episodes (13%), the first AE was known only after reassessment after 8 to 24 hours of inpatient management. Predicting AE at reassessment was better than prediction at presentation with FN. A differential leukocyte count did not increase the predictive performance. The score predicting future AE in 358 episodes without known AE at reassessment used the following four variables: preceding chemotherapy more intensive than acute lymphoblastic leukemia maintenance (weight = 4), hemoglobin ≥ 90 g/L (weight = 5), leukocyte count less than 0.3 G/L (weight = 3), and platelet count less than 50 G/L (weight = 3). A score (sum of weights) ≥ 9 predicted future AEs. The cross-validated performance of this score exceeded the performance of published risk prediction rules. At an overall sensitivity of 92%, 35% of the episodes were classified as low risk, with a specificity of 45% and a negative predictive value of 93%.

Conclusion

This score, based on four routinely accessible characteristics, accurately identifies pediatric patients with cancer with FN at risk for AEs after reassessment.
Surgery With or Without Preoperative Paclitaxel and Carboplatin in Early-Stage Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer: Southwest Oncology Group Trial S9900, an Intergroup, Randomized, Phase III Trial
Authors: Pisters Katherine M.W. , Vallières Eric , Crowley John J. , Franklin Wilbur A. , Bunn Paul A. , Ginsberg Robert J. , Putnam Joe B. , Chansky Kari , Gandara David
Published: March 2010

Purpose

Patients with early-stage non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have a poor prognosis even after complete resection. Earlier studies of preoperative (induction) chemotherapy in resectable NSCLC demonstrated feasibility and encouraging survival data. This randomized phase III trial compared overall survival (OS) for preoperative paclitaxel and carboplatin followed by surgery with surgery alone in patients with early-stage NSCLC.

Patients and Methods

Patients with clinical stage IB-IIIA NSCLC (excluding superior sulcus tumors and N2 disease) were eligible. Patients were randomly assigned to surgery alone or to three cycles of paclitaxel (225 mg/m2) and carboplatin (area under curve, 6) followed by surgical resection. The primary end point was OS; secondary end points were progression-free survival (PFS), chemotherapy response, and toxicity.

Results

The trial closed early with 354 patients after reports of a survival benefit for postoperative chemotherapy in other studies. The median OS was 41 months in the surgery-only arm and 62 months in the preoperative chemotherapy arm (hazard ratio, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.60 to 1.06; P = .11.) The median PFS was 20 months for surgery alone and 33 months for preoperative chemotherapy (hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.61 to 1.04; P = .10.) Major response to chemotherapy was seen in 41% of patients; no unexpected toxicity was observed.

Conclusion

This trial closed prematurely after compelling evidence supporting postoperative chemotherapy emerged. Although OS and PFS were higher with preoperative chemotherapy, the differences did not reach statistical significance. At present, stronger evidence exists for postoperative chemotherapy in early-stage NSCLC.
Reconstructing Corrosion: A Conversation with Pallavi Govindnathan
Authors: Paidipaty Poornima
Published: March 2010

Poornima Paidipaty interviews the artist Pallavi Govindnathan on two recent series, Acerbic Drips and Reconstruction, which chronicle the social, psychic, and physical effects of acid attacks on young women in Bangladesh. This conversation explores questions of masculinity in visual art, the politics of documenting and representing violence, and the corrosive effects of gender violence on social mobility and bonds of intimacy.
Markets for Inventors: Learning-by-Hiring as a Driver of Mobility
Authors: Palomeras Neus , Melero Eduardo
Published: March 2010

Hiring away inventors has long been recognized as a way of learning used by innovative firms. This paper claims that the characteristics of the knowledge accumulated by an inventor at his current employer affect what hiring firms can learn from him. The implication is that some inventors are more likely to be hired away than their coworkers. We analyze the relationship between the type of knowledge embodied by inventors working at IBM and their probability of moving. Relying on patent data to track the movement of inventors across firms and to characterize the kind of know-how they hold, we identify the following drivers of inventor mobility: the quality of their work; the complementarity of their knowledge with that of other inventors; and, to a lower extent, their expertise in the firm's core areas in which the firm is not a dominant player. Results confirm the role of knowledge characteristics behind the mobility of research and development personnel and suggest that learning is a relevant force in the market for inventors.
Empirical Analysis of Ambulance Travel Times: The Case of Calgary Emergency Medical Services
Authors: Budge Susan , Ingolfsson Armann , Zerom Dawit
Published: March 2010

Using administrative data for high-priority calls in Calgary, Alberta, we estimate how ambulance travel times depend on distance. We find that a logarithmic transformation produces symmetric travel-time distributions with heavier tails than those of a normal distribution. Guided by nonparametric estimates of the median and coefficient of variation, we demonstrate that a previously proposed model for mean fire engine travel times is a valid and useful description of median ambulance travel times. We propose a new specification for the coefficient of variation, which decreases with distance. We illustrate how the resulting travel-time distribution model can be used to create probability-of-coverage maps for diagnosis and improvement of system performance.
Optimal Windows for Aggregating Ratings in Electronic Marketplaces
Authors: Aperjis Christina , Johari Ramesh
Published: March 2010

Aseller in an online marketplace with an effective reputation mechanism should expect that dishonest behavior results in higher payments now whereas honest behavior results in a better reputation—and thus higher payments—in the future. We study the Window Aggregation Mechanism, a widely used class of mechanisms that shows the average value of the seller's ratings within some fixed window of past transactions. We suggest approaches for choosing the window size that maximizes the range of parameters for which it is optimal for the seller to be truthful. We show that mechanisms that use information from a larger number of past transactions tend to provide incentives for patient sellers to be more truthful but for higher-quality sellers to be less truthful.
Toward a Biography of Sándor Ferenczi: Footnotes from Miskolc
Authors: Kapusi Krisztián
Published: March 2010

A special, constantly changing relationship exists between an exceptional personality and his native town, at the basis of which certainly lies his choice of a profession. In the long run, however, it is the judgement and approach of posterity that determine the character of the historical interpretation. When the person in question becomes famous and enters the academic canon, the subtlest details regarding both his background and intentions as well as the circumstances that may have influenced him merely in an indirect way become interesting. The evolution of the relationship between Sándor Ferenczi and the country town of Miskolc has reached this stage in our time.
The Problem of Demarcation: Psychoanalysis and the Occult
Authors: Gyimesi Júlia
Published: March 2010

The aim of this article is to outline some aspects of the problem of demarcation in the early history of psychoanalysis, as it pertains to the growing interest in occult phenomena. The nineteenth-century scientific interest in occult phenomena played a fundamental role in the history of psychoanalysis since the examination of the occult called attention to the possible dissociation of the psyche. The theories of subconscious or subliminal tendencies were strongly connected with such dissociation. Psychoanalysis had a special significance in this context since it offered a medicalized, rational-logical explanation of the unconscious. Therefore, the Freudian concept of the unconscious could split off the spiritualist or transcendent meaning of the subconscious tendencies and meet the demands of medical materialism with the theory of sexuality.
Ferenczi's "Feminine Principle": A Feminine Version of the Death Drive
Authors: Martín Cabré Luis J.
Published: March 2010

One of Ferenczi's most original contributions is his conception of femininity. Apart from the interesting intuitions in Thalassa and especially in "Male and Female," his most important insights are found in a few passages of his Clinical Diary . While traumatic suffering is explored in his last writings in terms of the destructive effects of personality dissociation, fragmentation, and splitting, in the Diary femininity becomes the occasion for imagining a possible place of reconciliation, of the acceptance of unpleasure. This place, which does not exist in Freud´s thought, is identified with a "feminine principle" that permeates nature. The capacity for suffering, acceptance, and support, in contrast to the egoistic and masculine impulse to discharge tension, which is the pleasure principle, is the essential characteristic of that "feminine principle" which Ferenczi theorizes as something elemental and having the nature of a drive, but at the same time endowed with intelligence and associated with the reality principle. This drive element constitutes itself as the feminine version of death drive.
Psychoanalysis and Magic: Then and Now
Authors: Brottman Mikita
Published: March 2010

This article considers the long-standing and complex association between psychoanalysis and the paranormal. Beginning with a brief discussion of the early history of the psychoanalytic movement, it then takes up the subject of magic and the paranormal in relation to the earliest practitioners of psychoanalysis, including Freud. Although magic, symbol, and superstition are generally considered to be primitive forms of thinking, contemporary psychoanalysis is full of them. Indeed, psychoanalysis itself is a form of magic, as Freud himself admitted. The author suggests that the tools of psychoanalysis can reveal some fascinating aspects of the modern human condition by showing how deeply we rely on primitive impulses. The final section examines how the connections between psychoanalysis and the paranormal have been extended and developed over time, with particular emphasis on the work of the psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and paranormal investigator Jule Eisenbud.
A Hungarian Precursor of Attachment Theory: Ferenczi's Successor, Imre Hermann
Authors: Kächele Horst
Published: March 2010

Attachment theory has by now achieved considerable scientific and clinical respectability. This paper seeks to remind readers of a Hungarian precursor of this theory, Imre Hermann, who sensed astonishingly early the relevance of ethological research and its potential implications for establishing a sound theory of development.
Sándor Ferenczi between Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy
Authors: Falzeder Ernst
Published: March 2010

Ferenczi was both an orthodox follower of and a creative rebel against Freudian psychoanalysis. This paper tries to investigate this double, and conflicting, stance in the Freud-Ferenczi relationship and to place it in the broader cultural context of the "-isms" prevalent during that period.
Ferenczi's Forgotten Messenger: The Life and Work of Izette de Forest
Authors: Brennan B. William
Published: March 2010

From Stratford, Connecticut to Budapest, Hungary, from the lavish Tiffany mansion on Madison Avenue to a rustic farmhouse in New Hampshire—the untold story of Ferenczi's analysand Izette de Forest captures the pioneering spirit of one of America's earliest female lay analysts. While Ferenczi's influence in the United States is often attributed to Clara Thompson, de Forest was one of the first Americans to bring Ferenczi's ideas to this country. In this paper, the author provides a biographical sketch of de Forest and traces her involvement as one of the first American women to be trained by the Budapest school during the period of Ferenczi's active technique. The author argues that although Clara Thompson is often seen as Ferenczi's major protégée in North America, Izette de Forest is his forgotten messenger.
Islam, Gender, and Identity in Leila Abouzeid's The Last Chapter : A Postcolonial Critique
Authors: Khannous Touria
Published: March 2010

Within postcolonial criticism and cultural studies, understanding Moroccan literature sensitively requires attention to history and context. In her novel The Last Chapter , Leila Abouzeid positions herself within the context of Islam, modernity and Morocco's post-colonial politics. The novel was originally written in Arabic and then translated into English. This form of presentation has enabled Abouzeid to distance herself from the alleged Eurocentrism of the pioneering Francophone generation of educated Moroccans. Abouzeid illustrates the difficult lives of Moroccan women in post-independent Morocco. She also characterizes educated and religious men and their fragmented and inauthentic identities. The story of gender relationships unfolds, not insignificantly, within the context of both secularism and Islam in today's Morocco. The novel establishes a hierarchy of narrative voices to challenge the patriarchal ideology and to problematize individual and political identities. Her allegory exposes the failure of post-independent Morocco to emancipate women and to establish national independence, even though this post-independent patriarchal ideology has been touted as an authentic national and religious identity. The novel constructs a narrative based on women's struggles, men's crises of identity and Morocco's socio-political and religious upheaval.
Irony and Counter-Irony in Rashid al-Daif's How the German Came to His Senses
Authors: Seigneurie Ken
Published: March 2010

While numerous studies of homosexuality in the Arab world exist within the academic discipline of Gay studies, almost nothing has been done by way of opening an intercultural dialogue over the question. Attitudes toward homosexuality are apparently so widely divergent as to be almost paradigmatic of a more generalized Great Cultural Divide between the West and the Arab world. This essay argues that Lebanese novelist Rashid al-Daif's 'Awdat al-almani ila rushdih ( How the German Came to His Senses ) seeks to establish an intercultural dialogue among contesting viewpoints over the question of homosexuality. This essay seeks to show how al-Daif's novelized biography of the gay German writer Joachim Helfer employs a rhetoric of irony and counter-irony in order to overcome the obstacles to understanding that exist between Arab heterosexual males and gay Germans. The essay is limited to studying al-Daif's text and does not examine Helfer's response.
On Borderline Between Shores: Space and Place in Season of Migration to the North
Authors: Velez Mike
Published: March 2010

Sudanese author Tayeb Salih unravels traditional assumptions regarding setting, geography and location in his 1966 novel, Seasons of Migration to the North . Salih's vision of the North/West (as represented by the London metropole) vis-à-vis the South/East of the Sudan interrogates post-colonial assumptions regarding culture and nationhood. This essay argues that Salih's referents to geographic place should be read spatially; as the novel itself comprises a tapestry of multiple registers of form, chronology and history, so too should the reader re-examine Salih's use of geographic imagery and tropes. Salih's geographic tropes encompass depictions of the varying landscape, in the context of "home" and (specifically) the intimate spaces of private rooms and meeting places; these tropes parallel Salih's directional tropes which contextualize migration and exile. In short, Salih uncovers a cartography in which direction is experiential, evident more so in space than in linear constructions of place or time, and embedded in collective memory.
Anne Frank Goes East: The Algerian Civil War and the Nausea of Postcoloniality in Waciny Laredj's Balconies of the North Sea
Authors: Zayzafoon Lamia Ben Youssef
Published: March 2010

Countering the Eurocentric view that the entire Muslim world denies the Holocaust, this paper demonstrates how Maghrebian writers have engaged in the Shoah through the local aesthetics of Sufi Islam and the blood ties of Andalusia rather than the patronizing prism of western humanism. Waciny Larej 's Balconies of the North Sea (2002) is a typical case of the transgressive Arabic literature which continues to be ignored by Western academia for various political and ideological reasons. Through the testimonial accounts of Yassine and Anne Frank, Larej instrumentalizes the Holocaust and uses the textual space of the novel as a proxy setting for the war crime tribunal thwarted by Bouteflika's decree of national amnesia. Whereas Holocaust testimonial literature is based on a crisis of truth (Shoshana Felman), the testimonial literature ensuing from the Algerian Civil War revolves around a crisis of state responsibility.
Algeria "Revisited": Imperialism, Resistance, and the Dialectic of Violence in Mohammed Dib's The Savage Night
Authors: Maerhofer John W.
Published: March 2010

Writing in the midst of one of bloodiest conflicts in the history of postcolonial Algeria, Mohammed Dib probes the brutalities of war, exploitation and the isolation of economic marginalization, and the complexities of postcolonality in his The Savage Night . For Dib violence is not an inexplicable component of human society, but the outcome of systemic conditions that continually work against the concept of humanity itself. The relationship between writer and society for Dib is less a process of conscious alignment than it is a means of nurturing the dialectical relation that emerges when texts collide with history. In this collection of stories, Mohammed Dib overcomes the existentialist abandonment of the uncommitted writer to confront what he calls the "invisible prison" of systemic violence by offering a model for aesthetic confrontation based on intellectual engagement and the awakening of the reader to the accountability of the text.
Vexing Resistance, Complicating Occupation: A Contrapuntal Reading of Sahar Khalifeh's Wild Thorns and David Grossman's The Smile of the Lamb
Authors: Metres Philip
Published: March 2010

This article examines two novels representing the fifth year of Israeli occupation of the West Bank (1972)— Wild Thorns , written by (Palestinian) Sahar Khalifeh, and The Smile of the Lamb , written by (Israeli) David Grossman—testing the possibilities and limits of Edward Said's notion of contrapuntal reading in the Israeli/Palestinian context. While both novels address primarily their own nation, both bridle against the limits of nationalism. Wild Thorns dramatizes the diversity of struggle within Palestinian society to resist military occupation, complicating Orientalist views of Palestinian society. By contrast, The Smile of the Lamb examines the psychological and moral damage of occupation to both Palestinians and Israelis. In tracking the relationship between an Israeli soldier in moral crisis and an Arab outcast grieving the death of his son, Grossman's novel opens up the possibility of cross-national identification in ways that echo and extend Khalifeh's novel.
The Miracle of Emile Habiby's Pessoptimist
Authors: Scott Jonathan
Published: March 2010

This article argues that the ideological blockade in the U.S. academy against any assertion of pan-Arab nationalism is most transparent when it comes to Palestinian writers. A consequence of more than forty years of pro-Israel propaganda aimed at discrediting and silencing the Palestinian right of self-determination, the Pale stinian abyss in American academic cultural studies and also its twentieth-century world literature curricula is best illustrated by the invisibility of Emile Habiby's internationaly celebrated novel The Secret Life of Saeed, the Ill-Fated Pessoptimist . Written in Arabic and originaly published in Haifa in 1974, Habiby's self-ironic and wickedly sarcastic postmodernist pastiche quickly became a classic in the modern Arabic literature tradition and, after translation into English, named by critics a Palestinian masterpiece. For the Palestinian people themselves, from the Diaspora and those living inside Israel to the milions still under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, Habiby's Pessoptimist signifies the beginnings of a distinctive Palestinian national literary form. The purpose of this critique is to appreciate Habiby's logic on its own terms, but it is also to liberate his masterpiece from the Zionist corral—to project it outward into the world of other nations, peoples, and intellectual styles. In this task, a special emphasis is placed on the Arabic trickster figure, Juha , who, while completely singular in origin and meaning in Arabic folklore, has several compelling counterparts in world literature, in particular the African American Signifyin' Monkey. From this double-critique—establishing at once the singularity of Habiby's trickster figure and opening it up to other worldly comparisons—a new concept is offered, what the author terms "the blues people of Palestine." The concept is used to illuminate Habiby's iconoclastic narrative style, and to understand the extremely complex multi-voicedness of the text itself.
The (Im)possibility of Telling: Of Algeria and Memory in the Flesh
Authors: Stampfl Tanja
Published: March 2010

This essay explores the role of the body in Ahlam Mosteghanemi's novel Memory in the Flesh as a locus of the complex construction of an individual's cultural, historical, and national belonging. The novel introduces the body as an object of desire, as an allegory for the nation, and as a symbol for the physical connections to and responsibilities for one's country and its people. Building on the theories of Judith Butler and Réda Bensmaïa in particular, this essay traces the quest for the Arab homeland in the love triangle between three artists: the writer Ahlam, the painter Khalid, and the poet Ziad. These characters are brought about, determined, and come to an end according to their understanding of Algeria. They use their art of telling and each other to construct a place—a home of sorts. This reading of Mosteghanemi's novel aims to answer larger questions concerning the importance of national identity in a globalized world and the role of art in (re)creating a fragmented nation.
Writing Memories of the Present: Alternative Narratives about the 2006 Israeli War on Lebanon
Authors: Fadda-Conrey Carol N.
Published: March 2010

This essay focuses on a selection of blog and online journal entries that document "The Summer 2006 Siege of Lebanon" from a Lebanese perspective, showing how they establish "a living archive" of the war by creating dynamic and varied narratives that underscore the immediacy of the war experience. Examples of the cyberblog-as-testimony written by the likes of Rahsa Salti and Mazen Kerbaj change the topography of war, both at home and abroad, thus broadening its impact and the way it affects its subjects, whether directly or indirectly. Even more pertinent is the ways in which these online testimonials as alternative war narratives possess the potential for connecting the writer and reader across international borders, thus promising a significant transformation of the fabric of cultural spaces by breaking through what is (mis)conceived as clearly defined personal and public, as well as national and cultural parameters.
Representations of the Migrant Domestic Worker in Hoda Barakat's Harith Al-Miya and Danielle Arbid's Maarek Hob
Authors: Dyer Rebecca
Published: March 2010

This essay considers a Lebanese novelist's and a Lebanese filmmaker's depiction of foreign maids living in Lebanon during the civil war of 1975-90. Dyer argues that through their portrayal of complex maid characters, Barakat and Arbid draw the attention of their readers and viewers to the current plight of foreign-born maids in the country, the approximately 150,000 women—out of a total population of four million—who have neither political rights nor worker protections and who have long been a concern of local and international human rights organizations. Unlike many other novels and films set during the civil war, neither work examines sectarian divisions or considers who is to blame for military atrocities; rather, Barakat and Arbid have made family dramas the focus, and the figure of the live-in maid helps to complicate that emphasis. Despite many differences in terms of genre, tone, and degree of realism, Barakat's novel and Arbid's film both depict the employing family critically and present the central character, a dissenting member of the family, as developing a close relationship with the maid. These writers' development of maid characters could ideally have political effects resulting from readers' and viewers' growing recognition that the migrant workers in their midst are entitled to fair working conditions, enforceable contracts, and other human rights. Thus, Barakat and Arbid fulfill the authorial obligation to, as Edward Said put it in 1994, insist on "standards of truth about human misery and oppression" regardless of party affiliation or national background.
The Metapolitics of the 2002 Iraq Debate: Public Policy and the Network Imaginary
Authors: Goodnight G. Thomas
Published: March 2010

The September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center was an event that inaugurated a "War on Terror." This essay constitutes a productive rhetorical analysis and critique of the 2002 congressional debate over Iraq in an effort to open a metapolitics. Congressional debate is read as an intertextual extension of administration rhetoric pitting fear appeals lit up through a network imaginary against pragmatic policy questions. The reflexive rhetoric constituting a national policy debate at the federal level is discussed, and the outcomes of common cause and political cover are critiqued.
Switch-Side Debating Meets Demand-Driven Rhetoric of Science
Authors: Mitchell Gordon R.
Published: March 2010

U.S. government agencies are collaborating with outside scholars to untangle disparate threads of knotty technoscientific issues, in part by integrating structured debating exercises into institutional decision-making processes such as intelligence assessment and public policy planning. These initiatives drive up demand for rhetoricians with skill and experience in what Protagoras called dissoi logoi —the practice of airing multiple sides of vexing questions for the purpose of stimulating critical thinking. In the contemporary milieu, dissoi logoi receives concrete expression in the tradition of intercollegiate switch-side debating, a form of structured argumentation categorized by some as a cultural technology with weighty ideological baggage. What exactly is that baggage, and how does it implicate plans to improve institutional decision making by drawing from rhetorical theory and expertise? Exploration of how switch-side debating meets demand-driven rhetoric of science not only sheds light on this question, but also contributes to the burgeoning scholarly literature on deliberative democracy, inform argumentation studies, and suggest new avenues of inquiry in rhetorical theory and practice.
The Rhetorical Presidency Meets the Unitary Executive: Implications for Presidential Rhetoric on Public Policy
Authors: Beasley Vanessa B.
Published: March 2010

Communication scholars interested in presidential rhetoric on public policy are very familiar with the rhetorical presidency, but there is another paradigm worth our consideration: the unitary executive. This model emphasizes the institutional reasons why presidents might not use public discourse to promote their policies, relying instead on the expanding powers of the executive branch. Although there is relatively little discussion of one model within scholarship dedicated to the other, this essay argues for the benefits of considering both models simultaneously. As changes occur within the executive office's capacity for creating and enforcing public policy, so too must our critical orientation to the study of presidential rhetoric.
Resisting a "Treacherous Piety": Issues, Images, and Public Policy Deliberation in Presidential Campaigns
Authors: Parry-Giles Trevor
Published: March 2010

In this essay I explore the ways in which the issue/image dichotomy operates as a default criticism of democratic practice by examining its basis in persistent tensions and idealistic theories of democracy. Turning to political practice, I then explore the articulation and value of political image rhetorics offered during the 2008 presidential election, paying particular attention to political advertisements from the Obama and McCain campaigns that appeared after their nominations were assured but before the national nominating conventions. Ultimately, I offer a normative justification of political image rhetorics in campaign discourse as beneficial to deliberation about public policy and political leadership.
Reflections on the Role of Rhetoric in Public Policy
Authors: Asen Robert
Published: March 2010

This article situates public policy as a mediation of rhetorical and material forces. From this perspective, public policy draws on the constitutive and consequential power of rhetoric as well as other factors like institutional authority and financial resources. As a constellation of multifarious forces, public policy refigures the text as process, which raises issues of authorship, temporality, and polysemy differently than singular speech texts and other relatively discreet texts.
Faculty and Institutional Factors that Promote Student Encounters with Difference in First-Year Courses
Authors: Reason Robert D. , Cox Bradley E. , Lutovsky Quaye Brenda R. , Terenzini Patrick T.
Published: March 2010

Research clearly indicates that faculty members have the potential to influence student learning outcomes through their pedagogical practices, but we know less about what influences faculty members’ choices to employ specific pedagogical practices. This study, based on data from 2,853 faculty members who teach courses that serve primarily first-year students on 45 campuses nationwide, identifies the individual, organizational, environmental, programmatic, and policy factors that individually and collectively influence faculty members’ decisions to engage in one particular pedagogical practice requiring students to engage with difference.
When Race and Gender Collide: Social and Cultural Capital’s Influence on the Academic Achievement of African American and Latino Males
Authors: Strayhorn Terrell L.
Published: March 2010

This study regressed undergraduate grades on background traits, pre-college variables, and measures of sociocultural capital for nationally representative samples of African American and Latino male undergraduates using data from the NCES’s National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS:88/00). Results suggest that African American and Latino males differ significantly on measures of social and cultural capital, thereby challenging normative assumptions that all racial/ethnic minorities are equal. Additionally, achievement prior to college matters most for Latino males while African American males reap significant benefits from their socioeconomic standing and involvement during college. Implications for future research, policy, and practice are highlighted.
How Gender and Race Moderate the Effect of Interactions across Difference on Student Perceptions of the Campus Environment
Authors: Nelson Laird Thomas F. , Niskodé-Dossett Amanda Suniti
Published: March 2010

Relying on data from 37,122 first-year students and 42,285 seniors who participated in the 2006 administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement, this study illustrates how student interactions across difference positively affect student perceptions of the campus environment. The magnitude of the effect of these interactions varies meaningfully by racial/ethnic group, but not by gender.
A Multi-Institutional Assessment of Moral Reasoning Development among First-Year Students
Authors: Mayhew Matthew J. , Seifert Tricia A. , Pascarella Ernest T.
Published: March 2010

The purpose of this study was to investigate the co-curricular experiences, course-taking behaviors, and educational practices that influence the moral reasoning development of 1,469 first-year students at 19 American colleges and universities. Results showed that contexts and practices that encourage students to engage divergent perspectives when approaching a problem or issue are those most conducive to moral reasoning growth. Implications for researchers in higher education and moral psychology are discussed.
Multiplex Enzyme Assay for Galactosemia Using Ultraperformance Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry
Authors: Ko Dae-Hyun , Jun Sun-Hee , Park Hyung-Doo , Song Sang Hoon , Park Kyoung Un , Kim Jin Q , Song Young-Han , Song Junghan
Published: March 2010

Background: Galactosemia is one of the most important inherited disorders detected by newborn screening tests. Abnormal results in screening tests should be confirmed by enzyme activity assays, but existing methods are time and labor intensive. We developed a novel multiplex enzyme assay for galactosemia using ultraperformance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS).

Methods: [13C6]-galactose, [13C2]-galactose-1-phosphate, and UDP-glucose were used as substrates for 3 galactose-metabolizing enzymes. The end products from the combined reaction mixtures, [13C6]-galactose-1-phosphate, UDP-[13C2]-galactose, and UDP-galactose, were simultaneously measured using UPLC-MS/MS. Linearity, imprecision, ion suppression, and the effects of substrate were evaluated to determine assay performance. Enzyme activities from 35 healthy individuals, 8 patients with enzyme deficiency, and 18 mutant cells were analyzed.

Results: Substrates, products, and internal standards from the mixture of 3 enzyme reactions were clearly separated by using UPLC-MS/MS, with an injection cycle time of 10 min. Ion suppression was 0.1%–2.5%, the interassay imprecision of UPLC-MS/MS was 3.3%–10.6% CV, and the linearity of each system was good (R2 = 0.994–0.999). Patient samples and mutated cells showed consistently low enzyme activities compared with those of normal individuals and wild-type cells.

Conclusions: This method allows for a high-throughput and reproducible multiplex enzyme assay for galactosemia in erythrocytes.
I had a dream: Rose's Turn, musical theatre and the star effigy
Authors: Fitzgerald Jason
Published: March 2010

I had a dream analyses the climactic Rose's Turn number, from Gypsy, in the experience of live performance. Applying Joseph Roach's concept of the celebrity effigy and Scott McMillin's theorization of the musical's dual temporality, Fitzgerald argues that, first, the book musical
presents a fictive world in which non-celebrities rise to the level of effigies and, second, that Rose's Turn is Momma Rose's attempt to turn that fiction into reality by superseding the celebrity presence of the actress playing her.
Species composition and distribution of macroalgae on Atol das Rocas, Brazil, SW Atlantic
Authors: Villaça Roberto , Carvalhal Fonseca Adriana , Jensen Viviane Köppe , Knoppers Bastiaan
Published: March 2010

This study, performed over the years 1999–2003, analyzed the species composition, spatial distribution and ecological aspects of macroalgal assemblages on Atol das Rocas reef, located 266 km off northeastern Brazil. It is the sole atoll in the South Atlantic and is almost completely built of coralline algae. Forty-seven new occurrences of macroalgae were recorded. Adding these to the previous studies, 143 taxa are now known for the local marine flora, with the Rhodophyta as the dominant group. New finds were mainly on the fore reef and in reef pools. The inner habitats (the reef flat, internal ridge and inner pools) harbored fewer macroalgal species than the outer habitats (the reef front, reef crest crevices and outer pools). Inner habitats are subject to prolonged desiccation and solar irradiation stress together with abrupt changes in temperature and salinity controlled by the water oscillations of the mesotidal regime within the atoll; the outer habitats are less affected by these short temporal impacts and are mainly governed by oceanic forcing. Atol das Rocas harbors some species unknown in other Brazilian waters, but these are common in Caribbean reef waters.
Open Energy Gateway Architecture for Customers in the Distribution GridArchitektur eines offenen Gateways für Energiemanagement und Energieeffizienz für Verteilnetzkunden
Authors: Nestle David , Ringelstein Jan , Waldschmidt Heiko
Published: March 2010

Energy management and energy efficiency for small electricity customers as part of a Smart Grid strategy are gaining significance with increasing share of renewable and distributed generation. The concept presented provides a single Gateway between the customer and the grid on top of which a variety of applications shall be executable, which access costumer devices, user displays, smart meters, measuring data, pricing data etc.
Renewable Generation and Reliability in the Electric Power NetworkZuverlässigkeit elektrischer Netze mit Energieerzeugung aus erneuerbaren Energien
Authors: Styczynski Zbigniew A. , Heyde Chris O. , Rohrig Kurt , Rudion Krzysztof
Published: March 2010

Present day electric power systems in developed countries are characterised by very high reliability. In Germany the mean supply interruption time per year for the end customers is 23 minutes. How will this high quality of supply change with the increase of decentralised and renewable generation? Which measures are necessary to keep on this high reliability standard? This is one of the investigation goals in the E-Energy project Regenerative Modellregion Harz (RegModHarz). From a power system planning point of view it is possible to calculate some reliability indexes to evaluate the network structure. This methodology and some calculation examples will be given in part one of this paper. Further, taking into account the current experiences with power system operation, some necessary measures to support the secure power system operation with a high share of renewable generation, will be presented. The expected level of reliability in the future distribution power system will be analysed.
Simulations in the Smart Grid Field Study MeRegioSimulationen im MeRegio Smart Grid Feldtest
Authors: Hirsch Christian , Hillemacher Lutz , Block Carsten , Schuller Alexander , Möst Dominik
Published: March 2010

The aim of the research project MeRegio is to meet the claim for more efficient decentralized energy systems by integrating advanced information and communication technologies (ICT) into all stages of the energy supply chain. Several marketplaces — in particular for power and for ancillary services — which are coupled to the technical energy infrastructure through a powerful and lawful ICT infrastructure should serve as a basis for an efficient and transparent coordination of energy supply, energy demand, and services. The developed concepts will be both validated by simulations and tested within a model region.
Innovative Retail Laboratory — Investigating Future Shopping TechnologiesInnovative Retail Laboratory — Erforschung von Technologien für das Einkaufen von morgen
Authors: Krüger Antonio , Spassova Lübomira , Jung Ralf
Published: March 2010

The Innovative Retail Laboratory (IRL) is an application-oriented research laboratory of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) run in collaboration with the German retailer GLOBUS SB-Warenhaus Holding in St. Wendel. In this living lab, we conduct research in a wide range of different domains all connected to intelligent shopping consultants, which range from a virtual assistant responsible for matters of dieting and allergies, over a digital sommelier, to personalized cross and up selling, smart items with digital product memories as a further development of the RFID technology, indoor positioning and navigation as well as new logistics concepts, to see if they are suitable for everyday life and useful for customers. New ways of customer interaction are developed and tested for implementation. The range varies from personalized shopping assistants to “talking” products and intelligent shopping carts, which plan and show the way through the store according to your shopping list. Furthermore they can give advice on what to buy for the recipes you have in mind, they compare products, point out special offers in a personalized way and give additional information about the products. However, the concepts and technologies that regard the self-service store of the future as a place for shopping are not IRL´s only focus. The relation between the store and its customers begins way before the shopping trip itself takes place. It starts with an individual shopping preparation and a personalized presentation of offers at home and will be continued afterwards through advice that is given about purchased goods and information about their use.
The Challenges of Collaboration for Academic and Community Partners in a Research Partnership: Points to Consider
Authors: Ross Lainie Friedman , Loup Allan , Nelson Robert M. , Botkin Jeffrey R. , Kost Rhonda , Smith George R. , Gehlert Sarah
Published: March 2010

The philosophical underpinning of Community-Engaged Research (CEnR) entails a collaborative partnership between academic researchers and the community. The Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) model is the partnership model most widely discussed in the CEnR literature and is the primary model we draw upon in this discussion of the collaboration between academic researchers and the community. In CPBR, the goal is for community partners to have equal authority and responsibility with the academic research team, and that the partners engage in respectful negotiation both before the research begins and throughout the research process to ensure that the concerns, interests, and needs of each party are addressed. The negotiation of a fair, successful, and enduring partnership requires transparency and understanding of the different assets, skills and expertise that each party brings to the project. Delineating the expectations of both parties and documenting the terms of agreement in a memorandum of understanding or similar document may be very useful. This document is structured to provide a “points- to-consider” roadmap for academic and community research partners to establish and maintain a research partnership at each stage of the research process.