bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Equating quantitative emphysema measurements on different CT image reconstructions
Authors: Bartel Seth T. , Bierhals Andrew J. , Pilgram Thomas K. , Hong Cheng , Schechtman Kenneth B. , Conradi Susan H. , Gierada David S.
Published: August 2011

Purpose:

To mathematically model the relationship between CT measurements of emphysema obtained from images reconstructed using different section thicknesses and kernels and to evaluate the accuracy of the models for converting measurements to those of a reference reconstruction.

Methods:

CT raw data from the lung cancer screening examinations of 138 heavy smokers were reconstructed at 15 different combinations of section thickness and kernel. An emphysema index was quantified as the percentage of the lung with attenuation below −950 HU (EI950). Linear, quadratic, and power functions were used to model the relationship between EI950 values obtained with a reference 1 mm, medium smooth kernel reconstruction and values from each of the other 14 reconstructions. Preferred models were selected using the corrected Akaike information criterion (AICc), coefficients of determination (R2), and residuals (conversion errors), and cross‐validated by a jackknife approach using the leave‐one‐out method.

Results:

The preferred models were power functions, with modelR2 values ranging from 0.949 to 0.998. The errors in converting EI950 measurements from other reconstructions to the 1 mm, medium smooth kernel reconstruction in leave‐one‐out testing were less than 3.0 index percentage points for all reconstructions, and less than 1.0 index percentage point for five reconstructions. Conversion errors were related in part to image noise, emphysema distribution, and attenuation histogram parameters. Conversion inaccuracy related to increased kernel sharpness tended to be reduced by increased section thickness.

Conclusions:

Image reconstruction‐related differences in quantitative emphysema measurements were successfully modeled using power functions.
Inflammatory bowel disease in transition: challenges and solutions in adolescent care
Authors: McCartney Sara
Published: August 2011

The prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in childhood is increasing with a phenotype now established as one of complicated and extensive disease. Adolescent patients form a significant proportion of those requiring lifelong care. One of the most important steps in establishing a personal ability to effectively manage chronic disease is appropriate education, communication and a good relationship with healthcare professionals and a successful transition programme and subsequent transfer to adult care underpins this. It is vital to build trust and include parental input while transferring responsibility to the young person Although the literature confirms that the majority of paediatric gastroenterology units now have planned provision for transfer, the quality and appropriateness of these services have not been assessed or audited. This article discusses the drivers for establishing and improving transition services from both the patient's and healthcare provider's perspective. This heterogeneity of provision of healthcare for adolescents needs to be addressed and the experience of young people themselves is good evidence of this need. Barriers to optimal care need to be identified and managed and healthcare providers need to ‘buy in’ to establishing a flexible, patient focused achievable service for their patient population.
UHF FLOWS AND COCYCLES
Authors: KISHIMOTO A.
Published: August 2011

UHF flows are the flows obtained as inductive limits of flows on full matrix algebras. We will revisit universal UHF flows and give an explicit construction of such flows on a UHF algebra Mk∞ for any k and also present a characterization of such flows. Those flows are UHF flows whose cocycle perturbations are almost conjugate to themselves.
ON THE COHOMOLOGY OF ALMOST-COMPLEX MANIFOLDS
Authors: ANGELLA DANIELE , TOMASSINI ADRIANO
Published: August 2011

Following [T.-J. Li and W. Zhang, Comparing tamed and compatible symplectic cones and cohomological properties of almost complex manifolds, Comm. Anal. Geom.17(4) (2009) 651–683], we continue to study the link between the cohomology of an almost-complex manifold and its almost-complex structure. In particular, we apply the same argument in [T.-J. Li and W. Zhang, Comparing tamed and compatible symplectic cones and cohomological properties of almost complex manifolds, Comm. Anal. Geom.17(4) (2009) 651–683] and the results obtained by [D. Sullivan, Cycles for the dynamical study of foliated manifolds and complex manifolds, Invent. Math.36(1) (1976) 225–255] to study the cone of semi-Kähler structures on a compact semi-Kähler manifold.
ON THE SINGULARITIES OF THE ZETA AND ETA FUNCTIONS OF AN ELLIPTIC OPERATOR
Authors: LOYA PAUL , MOROIANU SERGIU , PONGE RAPHAËL
Published: August 2011

Let P be a self-adjoint elliptic operator of order m > 0 acting on the sections of a Hermitian vector bundle over a compact Riemannian manifold of dimension n. General arguments show that its zeta and eta functions may have poles only at points of the form [Formula: see text], where k ranges over all nonzero integers ≤ n. In this paper, we construct elementary and explicit examples of perturbations of P which make the zeta and eta functions become singular at all points at which they are allowed to have singularities. We proceed within three classes of operators: Dirac-type operators, self-adjoint first-order differential operators and self-adjoint elliptic pseudodifferential operators. As consequences, we obtain genericity results for the singularities of the zeta and eta functions in those settings. In particular, in the setting of Dirac-type operators we obtain a purely analytical proof of a well-known result of Branson–Gilkey [Residues of the eta function for an operator of Dirac type, J. Funct. Anal. 108(1) (1992) 47–87], which was obtained by invoking Riemannian invariant theory. As it turns out, the results of this paper contradict Theorem 6.3 of [R. Ponge, Spectral asymmetry, zeta functions and the noncommutative residue, Int. J. Math. 17 (2006) 1065–1090]. Corrections to that statement are given in this paper.
DILATON DECAYS INTO UNPARTICLES AND A SINGLE PHOTON
Authors: KOZLOV G. A. , GORBUNOV I. N.
Published: August 2011

We study the production of the vector U-unparticle stuff and a single photon in decays of a dilaton. The signals of an unparticle can be detected through the missing energy and momentum distribution carried away by U once it was produced in radiative decay of a dilaton. The continuous energy spectrum of the emitted photons encoding the recoil unparticle can be measured in precision studies of rare decays of the dilaton or Higgs-boson after their discoveries.
Growth and Nutrient Use Efficiencies of Yams (Dioscoreaspp.) Grown in Two Contrasting Soils of West Africa
Authors: Diby Lucien N'Guessan , Tie Bi Tra , Girardin Olivier , Sangakkara Ravi , Frossard Emmanuel
Published: August 2011

Fertilization is an important management strategy of yams (Dioscoreaspp.) especially when grown in degraded soils. A field study evaluated the leaf numbers, leaf area indices, crop growth, yields, and nitrogen (N) and potassium (K) use efficiencies ofD. alataandD. rotundatain Côte d'Ivoire when grown in two contrasting soils with and without fertilizer.D. alatahad a lower number of leaves per vine, although leaf area indices were higher, and the leaves were retained for a longer period than inD. rotundata. In all situations, the yields ofD. alatawere significantly higher, and fertilizers promoted growth of shoots, roots, tubers, and, thus, final yields especially in the low fertile savanna soil. The beneficial impact of fertilizer on yields was significantly lower in the fertile forest soils. The nutrient use agronomic efficiencies indicated the impact of both N and K in promoting yields especially under nonfertilized conditions.
A Costing Analysis for Decision Making Grid Model in Failure-Based Maintenance
Authors: M. A. Burhanuddin , Halawani Sami M. , Ahmad A. R.
Published: August 2011

Background. In current economic downturn, industries have to set good control on production cost, to maintain their profit margin. Maintenance department as an imperative unit in industries should attain all maintenance data, process information instantaneously, and subsequently transform it into a useful decision. Then act on the alternative to reduce production cost. Decision Making Grid model is used to identify strategies for maintenance decision. However, the model has limitation as it consider two factors only, that is, downtime and frequency of failures. We consider third factor, cost, in this study for failure-based maintenance. The objective of this paper is to introduce the formulae to estimate maintenance cost. Methods. Fish bone analysis conducted with Ishikawa model and Decision Making Grid methods are used in this study to reveal some underlying risk factors that delay failure-based maintenance. The goal of the study is to estimate the risk factor that is, repair cost to fit in the Decision Making Grid model. Decision Making grid model consider two variables, frequency of failure and downtime in the analysis. This paper introduces third variable, repair cost for Decision Making Grid model. This approaches give better result to categorize the machines, reduce cost, and boost the earning for the manufacturing plant. Results. We collected data from one of the food processing factories in Malaysia. From our empirical result, Machine C, Machine D, Machine F, and Machine I must be in the Decision Making Grid model even though their frequency of failures and downtime are less than Machine B and Machine N, based on the costing analysis. The case study and experimental results show that the cost analysis in Decision Making Grid model gives more promising strategies in failure-based maintenance. Conclusions. The improvement of Decision Making Grid model for decision analysis with costing analysis is our contribution in this paper for computerized maintenance management system.
Psychological Distress during Ovarian Cancer Treatment: Improving Quality by Examining Patient Problems and Advanced Practice Nursing Interventions
Authors: O'Sullivan Cynthia Kline , Bowles Kathryn H. , Jeon Sangchoon , Ercolano Elizabeth , McCorkle Ruth
Published: August 2011

Background/Significance. Ovarian cancer patients are prone to psychological distress. The clinical significance and best practices for distress among this population are poorly understood.Method. Secondary analysis of research records from a six month randomized control trial included 32 women with primary ovarian cancer. All received 18 advanced practice nurse (APN) visits over six months. Three sub-samples were determined by distress level (high/low) and mental health service consent for high distress. Demographic, clinical factors, patient problems and APN interventions obtained through content analysis and categorized via the Omaha System were compared.Results. Clinically-significant psychiatric conditions were identified in 8/18 (44%) high distress subjects consenting to mental health intervention. High distress subjects who refused mental health intervention had more income and housing problems than the other subjects, received the fewest interventions at baseline, and progressively more throughout the study, exceeding the other sub-samples by study completion.Conclusions. Highly-distressed women not psychologically ready to work through emotional consequences of cancer at treatment onset may obtain support from APNs to manage cancer problems as they arise. Additional studies may identify best practices for all highly-distressed women with cancer, particularly those who do not accept mental health services for distress, but suffer from its effects.
Nonlocal Symmetries of Systems of Evolution Equations
Authors: Zhdanov Renat
Published: August 2011

We prove that any potential symmetry of a system of evolution equations reduces to a Lie symmetry through a nonlocal transformation of variables. This fact is in the core of our approach to computation of potential and more general nonlocal symmetries of systems of evolution equations having nontrivial Lie symmetry. Several examples are considered.
Diacylglycerol Signaling Underlies Astrocytic ATP Release
Authors: Mungenast Alison E.
Published: August 2011

Astrocytes have the ability to modulate neuronal excitability and synaptic transmission by the release of gliotransmitters. The importance of ATP released downstream of the activation of Gq-coupled receptors has been well established, but the mechanisms by which this release is regulated are unclear. The current work reveals that the elevation of diacylglycerol (DAG) in astrocytes induces vesicular ATP release. Unexpectedly, DAG-induced ATP release was found to be independent of PKC activation, but dependent upon activation of a C1 domain-containing protein. Astrocytes express the C1 domain-containing protein Munc13-1, which has been implicated in neuronal transmitter release, and RNAi-targeted downregulation of Munc13-1 inhibits astrocytic ATP release. These studies demonstrate that elevations of DAG induce the exocytotic release of ATP in astrocytes, likely via a Munc13-1-dependent mechanism.
Primary Hydatid Cyst of the Thyroid Gland
Authors: Azendour Imen , Boulaich Mohamed , Ayoubi Ali , Oujilal Abdelilah , Essakalli Leila , Kzadri Mohamed
Published: August 2011

Primary hydatid cyst of thyroid gland is an exceptional localization even in Morocco where echinococcal disease is endemic. A 23-year-old woman presented with multiples cystic lesions of the thyroid revealed by neck mass and dyspnea. She underwent a subtotal thyroidectomy. The diagnosis of hydatid cyst was made preoperatively and was confirmed by histological studies. Further investigation failed to identify any other evidence of systemic hydatidosis. The patient has remained asymptomatic for 24 months after surgery. The possibility of hydatid disease, though rare, should be always kept in mind, for patients with cystic lesions of the thyroid, because a needle aspiration biopsy is a potentially harmful procedure.
Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency in Diabetes Mellitus: A Complication of Diabetic Neuropathy or a Different Type of Diabetes?
Authors: Hardt Philip D. , Ewald Nils
Published: August 2011

Pancreatic exocrine insufficiency is a frequently observed phenomenon in type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Alterations of exocrine pancreatic morphology can also be found frequently in diabetic patients. Several hypotheses try to explain these findings, including lack of insulin as a trophic factor for exocrine tissue, changes in secretion and/or action of other islet hormones, and autoimmunity against common endocrine and exocrine antigens. Another explanation might be that diabetes mellitus could also be a consequence of underlying pancreatic diseases (e.g., chronic pancreatitis). Another pathophysiological concept proposes the functional and morphological alterations as a consequence of diabetic neuropathy. This paper discusses the currently available studies on this subject and tries to provide an overview of the current concepts of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency in diabetes mellitus.
Effect of Sisal Fiber Surface Treatment on Properties of Sisal Fiber Reinforced Polylactide Composites
Authors: Li Zhaoqian , Zhou Xiaodong , Pei Chonghua
Published: August 2011

Mechanical properties of composites are strongly influenced by the quality of the fiber/matrix interface. The objective of this study was to evaluate the mechanical properties of polylactide (PLA) composites as a function of modification of sisal fiber with two different macromolecular coupling agents. Sisal fiber reinforced polylactide composites were prepared by injection molding, and the properties of composites were studied by static/dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). The results from mechanical testing revealed that surface-treated sisal fiber reinforced composite offered superior mechanical properties compared to untreated fiber reinforced polylactide composite, which indicated that better adhesion between sisal fiber and PLA matrix was achieved. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) investigations also showed that surface modifications improved the adhesion of the sisal fiber/polylactide matrix.
Royal Jelly Modulates Oxidative Stress and Apoptosis in Liver and Kidneys of Rats Treated with Cisplatin
Authors: Karadeniz Ali , Simsek Nejdet , Karakus Emre , Yildirim Serap , Kara Adem , Can Ismail , Kisa Fikrullah , Emre Habib , Turkeli Mehmet
Published: August 2011

Cisplatin (CDDP) is one of the most active cytotoxic agents in the treatment of cancer and has adverse side effects such as nephrotoxicity and hepatotoxicity. The present study was designed to determine the effects of royal jelly (RJ) against oxidative stress caused by CDDP injury of the kidneys and liver, by measuring tissue biochemical and antioxidant parameters and investigating apoptosis immunohistochemically. Twenty-four Sprague Dawley rats were divided into four groups, group C: control group received 0.9% saline; group CDDP: injected i.p. with cisplatin (CDDP, 7 mg kg-1body weight i.p., single dose); group RJ: treated for 15 consecutive days by gavage with RJ (300 mg/kg/day); group RJ + CDDP: treated by gavage with RJ 15 days following a single injection of CDDP. Malondialdehyde (MDA) and glutathione (GSH) levels, glutathione S-transferase (GST), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities were determined in liver and kidney homogenates, and the liver and kidney were also histologically examined. RJ elicited a significant protective effect towards liver and kidney by decreasing the level of lipid peroxidation (MDA), elevating the level of GSH, and increasing the activities of GST, GSH-Px, and SOD. In the immunohistochemical examinations were observed significantly enhanced apoptotic cell numbers and degenerative changes by cisplatin, but these histological changes were lower in the liver and kidney tissues of RJ + CDDP group. Besides, treatment with RJ lead to an increase in antiapoptotic activity hepatocytes and tubular epithelium. In conclusion, RJ may be used in combination with cisplatin in chemotherapy to improve cisplatin-induced oxidative stress parameters and apoptotic activity.
Differential Protein Expression in Sugarcane during Sugarcane-Sporisorium scitamineumInteraction Revealed by 2-DE and MALDI-TOF-TOF/MS
Authors: Que Youxiong , Xu Liping , Lin Jianwei , Ruan Miaohong , Zhang Muqing , Chen Rukai
Published: August 2011

To understand the molecular basis of a specific plant-pathogen interaction, it is important to identify plant proteins that respond to the pathogen attack. Two sugarcane varieties, NCo376 and Ya71-374, were used in this study. By applying 2-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE), the protein expression profile of sugarcane after inoculating withSporisorium scitamineumwas analyzed. In total, 23 differentially expressed proteins were identified by MALDI-TOF-TOF/MS. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that the functions of these 20 differential proteins were associated with such functions as photosynthesis, signal transduction, and disease resistance, while the function of the remaining three proteins was not determined. From above, we can assume that the protein regulatory network during the interaction between sugarcane andS. scitamineumis complicated. This represents the first proteomic investigation focused on highlighting the alterations of the protein expression profile in sugarcane exposed toS. scitamineum, and it provides reference information on sugarcane response toS. scitamineumstress at the protein level.
Alcohol consumption, types of alcoholic beverages and risk of venous thromboembolism – The Tromsø Study
Authors: Hansen-Krone Ida J. , Brækkan Sigrid K. , Enga Kristin F. , Wilsgaard Tom , Hansen John-Bjarne
Published: August 2011

Moderate alcohol consumption has been shown to protect against cardiovascular diseases. The association between alcohol consumption, especially types of alcoholic beverages, and venous thromboembolism (VTE) is less well described. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of alcohol consumption and different alcoholic beverages on risk of VTE. Information on alcohol consumption was collected by a selfadministrated questionnaire in 26,662 subjects, aged 25–97 years, who participated in the Tromsø Study, in 1994–1995. Subjects were followed through September 1, 2007 with incident VTE as the primary outcome. There were 460 incident VTE-events during a median of 12.5 years of follow-up. Total alcohol consumption was not associated with risk of incident VTE. However, subjects consuming ≥3 units of liquor per week had 53% increased risk of VTE compared to teetotalers in analyses adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, smoking, diabetes, cancer, previous cardiovascular disease, physical activity and higher education (HR: 1.53, 95% CI: 1.00–2.33). Contrary, subjects with a wine intake of ≥3 units/week had 22% reduced risk of VTE (HR: 0.78, 95% CI: 0.47–1.30), further adjustment for liquor and beer intake strengthened the protective effect of wine (HR: 0.53, 95% CI: 0.30–1.00). Frequent binge drinkers (≥1/week) had a 17% increased risk of VTE compared to teetotallers (HR 1.17, 95% CI: 0.66–2.09), and a 47% increased risk compared to non-binge drinkers (HR 1.47, 95% CI: 0.85–2.54). In conclusion, liquor consumption and binge drinking was associated with increased risk of VTE, whereas wine consumption was possibly associated with reduced risk of VTE.
Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions
Editors' Picks
Authors:   The Editors
Published: August 2011

The following articles are being highlighted as part of
Circulation
's Topic Review series. This series will summarize the most important manuscripts, as selected by the editors, published in
Circulation
and the
Circulation
subspecialty journals. The studies included in this article represent the “Editors' Picks” for each issue of
Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions
published in 2009 and 2010.
Die Einbanddatenbank und die UB Nijmegen: Ein Einband von Wilhelm Funck(e)
Authors: Arpots Robert P.L.
Published: August 2011

The Radboud University Library in Nijmegen is a partner of the Einbanddatenbank (EBDB) in the Berlin Staatsbibliothek - Preussischer Kulturbesitz. Nijmegen records are being entered into this database of decorative tools of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century bookbindings. On the basis of a Nijmegen bookbinding it is shown how to search the EBDB for decorative tools and eventually to identify bookbinders.
The Shift of Labor Market Risks in Deindustrializing Taiwan, Japan, and Korea
Authors: Lee Sophia Seung-yoon
Published: August 2011

This paper has three objectives: i) to empirically examine labor market transitions in deindustrializing Asian economies; ii) to study the character of labor market risks and how these risks are shifting by gender, by education level, and by age in the transitional period; and iii) to rethink the commonly accepted assumptions that deindustrialization and globalization are the main causes of new labor market risks and, thus propose the possibility of institutional legacy as an important factor for such risk shifts. This study focuses on the labor market risks in the Republic of Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. Three steps are taken in this inquiry. First, this study commences by empirically examining the three labor market changes mentioned above. Second, it challenges the idea of the emergence of “new risks,” arguing instead for the concept of “risk shift”: the feature of risk shifting to different demographic groups. Lastly, with the empirical evidence already used, this paper discusses whether deindustrialization or globalization is a sufficient cause for risk shifts in deindustrializing Asian economies, proposing that institutional legacy may be an important factor in risk shift.
On the Image of Painting
Authors: Benjamin Andrew
Published: August 2011

Painting can only be thought in relation to the image. And yet, with (and within) painting what continues to endure is the image of painting. While this is staged explicitly in, for example, paintings of St. Luke by artists of the Northern Renaissance—e.g., Rogier van der Weyden, Jan Gossaert, and Simon Marmion—the same concerns are also at work within both the practices as well as the contemporaneous writings that define central aspects of the Italian Renaissance. The aim of this paper is to begin an investigation into the process by which painting stages the activity of painting. This forms part of a project whose aim is an investigation of the way philosophy should respond to the essential historicity of art (where the latter is understood philosophically).
Displacements—Beyond the Coloniality of Images
Authors: Vallega Alejandro A.
Published: August 2011

Dynamic mental images are co-constitutive of the determinations of reality and possibility under which our senses of life open and unfold. Ultimately, this dynamic sense of images introduces the difficulty of thinking in light of their role in the configuration of human knowledge and their power over interpretations and determinations of the many senses of beings. This relationship between images and philosophical knowledge is further complicated when one looks at it from the perspective of a colonized consciousness. In such cases self-knowledge and the very possibility of philosophical knowledge depend on images that are not one’s own. This makes the articulation of the senses of distinct existences an impossible project. By looking at the work of Fanon, Anibal Quijano, and Alfredo Jaar, this article discusses how such pernicious images occur in spite of one’s distinct sense of existence, and how the distorted displacement of existence may be challenged and overcome.
Pause of Participation. On the Function of Artificial Presence
Authors: Wiesing Lambert
Published: August 2011

The foundation of phenomenological image theories is the view that image perception leads to a perception sui generis. In order to grasp this peculiarity of image perception, two ways have traditionally been considered: either through a description of the particular object of image perception or through a description of the unique origin of image perception. This article explores a third way within the phenomenology of the image by trying to determine the uniqueness of image perception through its peculiar, necessary effects on the observer of the image. The thesis is: The observer of an image does not become an image object in the image. It is only in the case of image perception that there is relief through a gap in participation. It is the perception of something without the demand, as the perceiving person, of being physically involved in what is perceived.
La relativité du Temps et de l’Espace dans le théâtre lā-maqūl de Tawfīq al-akīm
Authors: Denooz Laurence
Published: August 2011

A comparison of The Tree Climber with other plays by Tawfīq al-Ḥakīm (1898-1987) tends to challenge claims that it is a pivotal text in the author’s literary career, and an emblem of Absurdism. Tawfīq al-Ḥakīm himself associates his play with a form of “intellectual popular irrealism” or “irrational theater”, which three distinct elements of his work come to confirm: a) the recurrence of the juxtaposition of two animated short scenes, distinct in both Time and Space; b) the invariability of his philosophical and political message throughout his work; c) the unending fight against spatio-temporal Determinism, coupled with the repeated affirmation of the relativity of the perception of Time and Space.
The Town Clerks of Deventer and Zutphen (IJssel Region, Eastern Netherlands) from c.1300 to the Late Fifteenth Century
Authors: Benders Jeroen F.
Published: August 2011

By means of the prosopographical and comparative methods, this article aims at providing an explanation of local variation in the socio-professional characteristics of town clerks as a distinct group within the late medieval urban administration, using Deventer and Zutphen as case studies.
Two Identical Manuscripts from the Library of Raphael de Mercatellis? The relationship between MSS 11 and 17 in the University Library of Ghent
Authors: van Bergen Saskia
Published: August 2011

The library of Raphael de Mercatellis (1437-1508), natural son of Philip the Good of Burgundy and abbot of St Bavon in Ghent, contains two manuscripts that are similar in both design and content. The manuscripts are preserved as Ghent, UL, MSS 11 and 17. Both were ordered by De Mercatellis around 1500 and contain as main text the Monotessaron, a well-known Gospel Harmony by Johannes Gerson. The text is in both cases supplemented with an extensive set of fragments and glosses, and more than 130 full-page miniatures. Codicological analysis of the manuscripts reveals what went wrong in the planning and copying process of MS 17, because of which the production of MS 11 became inevitable.
A Student’s Reading at the Collegium Trilingue in Louvain in 1547
Authors: Coppens Christian
Published: August 2011

A small booklet with a reading list of a student of the Collegium Trilingue in Louvain of 1547 gives a unique insight in the way in which a student builds up his private library. Besides it enables the putting forward of a hypothesis about the composition of the college’s library.
From ICSID Annulment to Appeal Half Way Down the Slippery Slope
Authors: Schreuer Christoph
Published: August 2011

Annulment under the ICSID Convention offers a limited remedy on the basis of a few carefully circumscribed grounds. Recently, losing parties have attacked awards for a wide array of reasons. Some ad hoc committees deciding these requests for annulment have taken a broad view of their powers. They have given some grounds for annulment an extremely wide interpretation thereby blurring the line between annulment and appeal. For instance, a perceived mistake in the interpretation of a rule of law has been regarded as an excess of powers for failure to apply the proper law. One ad hoc committee went beyond the reasons for annulment put forward by the applicant. It actively searched for additional grounds and eventually annulled the award for a reason not relied upon by the applicant. Some ad hoc committees have gone beyond the task given to them by the ICSID Convention, offering general criticism and advice to tribunals. The risk that an ICSID award will be annulled is now higher than that a non-ICSID award will be set aside by a competent domestic court.
International Water R esources Law and the International Law Commission Draft Articles on Transboundary Aquifers: A Missed Opportunity for Cross-Fertilisation?
Authors: McIntyre Owen
Published: August 2011

While the Draft Articles on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers adopted in 2008 by the International Law Commission (ILC)1 follow the same format as the 1997 UN Watercourses Convention2 and might reasonably have been expected to adopt a similar normative approach wherever possible, the Preamble to the Draft Articles fails to make any reference to this or to other seminal instruments or codifications in the area of international water resources law and the document takes, in some respects, a radically different and less progressive stance. The principal difference in the Draft Articles, and one which can be linked to most of the other deviations, is the inclusion of an express reference to the sovereignty of aquifer States in a manner implying that this is the key guiding principle of the instrument. This emphasis on State sovereignty over shared, and often migratory, water resources appears to represent something of a retreat from the distributive equity inherent in the firmly established principle of equitable and reasonable utilization and from the intense procedural and institutional cooperation required to achieve the community of interests approach necessary to give meaning to this principle. Reliance on sovereignty implies instead a drift towards a position based more on the narrow and immediate self-interest of States. In order to avoid such an interpretation, it would have been better if the Draft Articles had sought to establish two separate but parallel regimes, one based on sovereignty and covering the static geological formation of the aquifer, and one covering the shared water resources contained in, and transiting through, the formation and based on equitable and reasonable utilization.
The Black Death in Hebrew Literature: Ha-Maamar Be-Qaddaat Ha-Dever (Treatise on Pestilential Fever)
Authors: Bos Gerrit
Published: August 2011

Ha-Maamar be-Qaddaat ha-dever (Treatise on Pestilential Fever), composed by an anonymous author, is one of several treatises devoted to the subject of plague that exist in Hebrew literature. The treatise is basically a concise regimen of health as it was common throughout the Middle Ages that has been adapted to the special case of the plague and that has been supplemented with a final section of remedies for the time of the plague. Although we do not know the name of the author nor where and when he lived and composed the treatise, we can draw some conclusions from the foreign, non-Hebrew terminology used in the treatise. As several of the foreign terms used for the different plants and remedies are in old Spanish, it seems reasonable to suppose that the author hailed from the Iberian Peninsula and possibly composed the treatise there as well. The frequent quotations in the supplementary section 21 from Spanish Islamic physicians like Ibn Rushd, al-Zahrāwī, al-Ghāfiqī and above all Ibn Zuhr also confirm such a supposition.
Orthodox strategies in the research of the Wissenschaft des Judentums
Authors: Yedidya Asaf
Published: August 2011

This article deals with the attempts of Orthodox scholars, at the end of the nineteenth and the first third of the twentieth century, to create an Orthodox alternative to the Wissenschaft des Judentums (‘Science of Judaism’). On the one hand, those “experiments” clearly differed from their non-Orthodox equivalents, and on the other from the (un-researched) Orthodox historiography, which was created to serve as an alternative to existing Wissenschaft des Judentums investigations. The Orthodox scholars competed with the basic values and methods of research which challenged traditional concepts of the past, such as objectivity and historicism, and developed research strategies that allowed them to hold on to their two objectives at the same time, i.e. both scientific research methods and traditional values.
Siddi Street Theatre and Dance in North Karnataka, South India
Authors: Obeng Pashington
Published: August 2011

The Karnataka African Indians (Siddis, Habshis and Cafrees), drawing on both Indian performing arts and their African heritage, use dance and street theatre for political action, entertainment, social critique and self-expression. This paper focuses on Siddi dance and theatre in Uttara Kannada (North Karnataka), South India. Karnataka Siddis number about twenty thousand (Prasad, 2005). Using dramatic aesthetics, performers portray farming, hunting, child labour, violence against women and domestic work motifs to articulate Siddi grundnorms (foundational norms). I address how some Siddi dances and street theatre parallel and yet may differ from other performing arts in South India. Further, the paper complicates the current discourse on how diasporic African communities use the performing arts. My paper goes beyond the Atlantic Diaspora model. It examines ways in which Siddis of South Asia use their dance and theatre to express multiple domains of cultural art forms alongside the everyday use of such performances including a counter-hegemonic stance.
A West African Sufi Master on the Global Stage: Cheikh Abdoulaye Dièye and the Khidmatul Khadim International Sufi School in France and the United States
Authors: Babou Cheikh A.
Published: August 2011

The recent wave of West African Muslim migration to the West started after the Great War and gained momentum in the 1960s. Sub-Saharan Africans have been particularly successful in finding a niche in Europe and North America partly because of the connection between immigrants and centers of Islamic spirituality and knowledge in Africa provided by a dynamic leadership that straddles the three continents. Based on extensive interviews in the United States and in France and on the examination of Murid internal sources and scholarly secondary literature, this article investigates the efforts of the late Sufi sheikh, Abdoulaye Dièye, to expand the Muridiyya Muslim tariqa in France and North America. I am particularly interested in examining the foundations of Dièye’s appeal, his struggle to earn legitimacy and relevance on the global stage, and the response of diverse constituencies to his calling. I contend that the attraction of Dièye’s teachings to Europeans, Americans, and Africans in the diaspora, is rooted in his dual cultural outlook as a Western educated and traditionally trained Murid.
Beyond Abject Spaces: Enterprising Zimbabwean Diaspora in Britain
Authors: Mbiba Beacon
Published: August 2011

The concept of space in relation to the experiences of African immigrants in Britain has been the focus of recent geographical and development studies with Joann McGregor’s notion of abject spaces the most provocative. This paper considers how the concept of abject spaces can be extended beyond the existence of the marginal, illegal and undocumented immigrants to explore opportunities for entrepreneurship within and beyond these spaces. Based on observation and in-depth interviews with forty entrepreneurs in the same Zimbabwean immigrant community studied by McGregor, the paper demonstrates connections between the businesses formed to serve abject spaces as well as the ways in which living in the same abject space stimulates entrepreneurship. Abject spaces are simultaneously business spaces in ways that demonstrate the innovation and agency of immigrants and the connections between abject spaces and both the country of origin and host community spaces. This contributes to a better understanding of contemporary migration especially the temporality or space-time dimension of abjection and the significance of small immigrant enterprises in Britain.1
Cerebral Correlates and Statistical Criteria of Cross-Modal Face and Voice Integration
Authors: Pollick Frank , Love Scott , Latinus Marianne
Published: August 2011

Perception of faces and voices plays a prominent role in human social interaction, making multisensory integration of cross-modal speech a topic of great interest in cognitive neuroscience. How to define potential sites of multisensory integration using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is currently under debate, with three statistical criteria frequently used (e.g., super-additive, max and mean criteria). In the present fMRI study, 20 participants were scanned in a block design under three stimulus conditions: dynamic unimodal face, unimodal voice and bimodal face–voice. Using this single dataset, we examine all these statistical criteria in an attempt to define loci of face–voice integration. While the super-additive and mean criteria essentially revealed regions in which one of the unimodal responses was a deactivation, the max criterion appeared stringent and only highlighted the left hippocampus as a potential site of face– voice integration. Psychophysiological interaction analysis showed that connectivity between occipital and temporal cortices increased during bimodal compared to unimodal conditions. We concluded that, when investigating multisensory integration with fMRI, all these criteria should be used in conjunction with manipulation of stimulus signal-to-noise ratio and/or cross-modal congruency.
Partitioning Contrast or Luminance Disparity into Perceived Intensity and Rotation
Authors: Hetley Richard , Stine Wm Wren
Published: August 2011

While most of the work on stereopsis focuses on geometric disparities, humans also respond to intensity (contrast or luminance) disparities in the absence of geometric disparities. A rectangular-wave grating viewed with an intensity disparity engenders two perceptions: a perceived intensity, and a perceived rotation of the individual bars of the grating (the Venetian blind effect). Measuring perceived intensity and perceived rotation in gratings with intensity disparities, we found that the two degrees of freedom from the intensities presented to each eye are conserved in the form of two perceptions: perceived intensity is related to the sum of the grating intensities and perceived rotation is related to the difference. Perceived rotation as a function of intensity disparity was then modeled as a simple difference in the neural response of each eye. Perceived contrast and brightness as a function of intensity disparity were modeled using the two-stage gain-control model.
Anomalous Auditory Cortex Activations in Colored Hearing Synaesthetes: An fMRI-Study
Authors: Stiegemann Ursula , Scheich Henning , Gaschler-Markefski Birgit , Szycik Gregor , Emrich Hinderk Meiners , Sinke Christopher , Zedler Markus , Neufeld Janina , Schneider Udo , Baumgart Frank , Dierks Oliver
Published: August 2011

Color percept induction in synaesthetes by hearing words was previously shown to involve activation of visual and specifically color processing cortex areas. While this provides a rationale for the origin of the anomalous color percept the question of mechanism of this crossmodal activation remains unclear. We pursued this question with fMRI in color hearing synaesthetes by exposing subjects to words and tones. Brain activations in word condition accompanied by highly reliable color percepts were compared with activations in tone condition with only occasional color percepts and both contrasted to activations in normal subjects under the same stimulus conditions. This revealed that already the tone condition similar to the word condition caused abnormally high activations in various cortical areas even though synaesthetic percepts were more rare. Such tone activations were significantly larger than in normal subjects in visual areas of the right occipital lobe, the fusiform gyrus, and the left middle temporal gyrus and in auditory areas of the left superior temporal gyrus. These auditory areas showed strong word and tone activation alike and not the typically lower tone than word activation in normal subjects. Taken together these results are interpreted in favour of the disinhibited feedback hypothesis as the neurophysiological basis of genuine synaesthesia.
Probabilistic Projections of Climate Change for the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States: Validation of Precipitation Downscaling during the Historical Era*
Authors: Ning Liang , Mann Michael E. , Crane Robert , Wagener Thorsten
Published: August 2011

This study uses a statistical downscaling method based on self-organizing maps (SOMs) to produce high-resolution, downscaled precipitation estimates over the state of Pennsylvania in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The SOMs approach derives a transfer function between large-scale mean atmospheric states and local meteorological variables (daily point precipitation values) of interest. First, the SOM was trained using seven coarsely resolved atmospheric variables from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis dataset to model observed daily precipitation data from 17 stations across Pennsylvania for the period 1979–2005. Employing the same coarsely resolved variables from nine general circulation model (GCM) simulations taken from the historical analysis of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, phase 3 (CMIP3), the trained SOM was subsequently applied to simulate daily precipitation at the same 17 sites for the period 1961–2000. The SOM analysis indicates that the nine model simulations exhibit similar synoptic-scale features to the (NCEP) observations over the 1979–2007 training interval. An analysis of the sea level pressure signatures and the precipitation distribution corresponding to the trained SOM shows that it is effective in differentiating characteristic synoptic circulation patterns and associated precipitation. The downscaling approach provides a faithful reproduction of the observed probability distributions and temporal characteristics of precipitation on both daily and monthly time scales. The downscaled precipitation field shows significant improvement over the raw GCM precipitation fields with regard to observed average monthly precipitation amounts, average monthly number of rainy days, and standard deviations of monthly precipitation amounts, although certain caveats are noted.
Changes in the Interaction between Tropical Convection, Radiation, and the Large-Scale Circulation in a Warming Environment
Authors: Posselt Derek J. , Heever Susan van den , Stephens Graeme , Igel Matthew R.
Published: August 2011

This paper explores the response of the tropical hydrologic cycle to surface warming through the lens of large-domain cloud-system-resolving model experiments run in a radiative–convective equilibrium framework. Simulations are run for 55 days and are driven with fixed insolation and constant sea surface temparatures (SSTs) of 298 K, 300 K, and 302 K. In each experiment, convection organizes into coherent regions of large-scale ascent separated by areas with relatively clear air and troposphere-deep descent. Aspects of the simulations correspond to observed features of the tropical climate system, including the transition to large precipitation rates above a critical value of total column water vapor, and an increase in convective intensity with SST amidst weakening of the large-scale overturning circulation. However, the authors also find notable changes to the interaction between convection and the environment as the surface warms. In particular, organized convection in simulations with SSTs of 298 and 300 K is inhibited by the presence of a strong midtropospheric stable layer and dry upper troposphere. As a result, there is a decrease in the vigor of deep convection and an increase in stratiform precipitation fraction with an increase in SST from 298 to 300 K. With an increase in SST to 302 K, moistening of the middletroposphere and increase in lower-tropospheric buoyancy serve to overcome these limitations, leading to an overall increase in convective intensity and larger increase in upper-tropospheric relative humidity. The authors conclude that, while convective intensity increases with SST, the aggregate nature of deep convection is strongly affected by the details of the thermodynamic environment in which it develops. In particular, the positive feedback between increasing SST and a moistening upper troposphere found in the simulations, operates as a nonmonotonic function of SST and is modulated by a complex interaction between deep convection and the environmental relative humidity and static stability profile. The results suggest that projected changes in convection that assume a monotonic dependence on SST may constitute an oversimplification.