bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Green Claims and Message Frames: How Green New Products Change Brand Attitude
Authors: Olsen Mitchell C. , Slotegraaf Rebecca J. , Chandukala Sandeep R.
Published: May 2014

In response to a top ten global consumer trend, firms are increasingly introducing environmentally sustainable (“green”) new products. Firms allocate significant resources to this area; thus, the authors consider the brand-level implications by investigating how the introduction of green new products changes attitude toward the brand. In examining this relationship, they draw from social identity and framing theories to investigate drivers of green new product introductions as well as the moderating effects of message framing, source credibility, and product type. Estimating a three-stage least squares model based on new product introductions from 75 brands across a four-year time period (2009–2012), the authors find that green new product introductions can indeed improve brand attitude and that both the brand and category's positioning influence the introduction of green new products. They also find that the quantity of green messages, the product type, and their source credibility influence the extent to which green new products change brand attitude. The authors use these findings to provide guidance for managers as they attempt to effectively link their green innovation efforts to improve consumer attitudes toward their brands.
Positioning Brands against Large Competitors to Increase Sales
Authors: Paharia Neeru , Avery Jill , Keinan Anat
Published: May 2014

The authors explore the effects of having a large dominant competitor and show conditions under which focusing on a competitive threat, rather than hiding it, can actually help a brand. Through lab and field studies, the authors demonstrate that highlighting a large competitor's size and close proximity can help smaller brands rather than harm them. The results show that support for small brands goes up when faced with a competitive threat from large brands versus when they are in competition with brands that are similar to them or when consumers view them outside a competitive context. This support translates into purchase intentions, real purchases, and more favorable online reviews in a study of more than 10,000 Yelp posts. The authors argue that this “framing-the-game effect” is mediated by consumers' motivation to express their views and have an impact in the marketplace through their purchase choices.
Aristotle on the Utility and Choiceworthiness of Friends
Authors: Walker Matthew D.
Published: May 2014

Aristotle’s views on the choiceworthiness of friends might seem both internally inconsistent and objectionably instrumentalizing. On the one hand, Aristotle maintains that perfect friends or virtue friends are choiceworthy and lovable for their own sake, and not merely for the sake of further ends. On the other hand, in
Cascaded energy based trajectory tracking control of a quadrotor
Authors: Fritsch Oliver , Tromba David , Lohmann Boris
Published: May 2014

This paper presents a cascaded nonlinear state feedback control law for a quadrotor, which achieves asymptotic tracking of a predefined position and heading reference trajectory. The inner-loop attitude controller and the outer-loop position controller reflect the cascade structure of the quadrotor dynamics and are designed independently using an energy shaping approach. The closed loop tracking error dynamics form a nonautonomous nonlinear cascade for whose zero equilibrium we prove almost global asymptotic stability. Experimental results show the performance of the control concept.
Das Petrinetz Modellierungs- und -analysetool Π-Tool
Authors: Quiroga Lisandro M. , Becker Uwe , Schnieder Eckehard
Published: May 2014

In der Praxis werden zur Durchführung von Zuverlässigkeits- und
Sicherheitsanalysen, kurz RAMS-Analysen (Reliability, Availability,
Maintainability, Safety) verschiedene Beschreibungsmittel, Methoden und
Softwarewerkzeuge eingesetzt. Mit Hilfe von Petrinetz-Modellen können
jedoch alle vier Eigenschaften anhand nur eines einzigen Modells bewertet
werden. In diesem Beitrag wird das Modellierungs- und -analysewerkzeug Π-Tool für stochastische Petrinetze präsentiert, welche hierfür
mit seinen umfangreichen Modellierungs- und Analysefunktionalitäten eine
hervorragende Möglichkeit anbietet.
Bericht des GMA-Fachausschusses 1.40 „Theoretische Verfahren der Regelungstechnik“
Authors: Lens Dieter
Published: May 2014

Dieser Beitrag beschreibt die inhaltlichen Schwerpunkte der diesjährigen Tagung des GMA-Fachausschusses 1.40 und fasst die Beschlüsse des Ausschusses bezüglich seiner zukünftigen Arbeit zusammen.
Finite Volume Methods for Well-Driven Flows in Anisotropic Porous Media
Authors: Dotlić Milan
Published: May 2014

We consider a finite volume method for flow simulations in an anisotropic porous medium in the presence of a well. The hydraulic head varies logarithmically and its gradient changes rapidly in the well vicinity. Thus, the use of standard numerical schemes results in a completely wrong total well flux and an inaccurate hydraulic head. In this article we propose two finite volume methods to model the well singularity in an anisotropic medium. The first method significantly reduces the total well flux error, but the hydraulic head is still not even first-order accurate. The second method gives a second-order accurate hydraulic head and at least first-order accurate total well flux.
Corrosion behavior of metallic materials in biomedical applications. II. Stainless steels and Co-Cr alloys
Authors: Pound Bruce G.
Published: May 2014

Numerous studies have been performed to investigate the corrosion behavior of Ti and its alloys, 316-type stainless steel, and Co-Cr alloys in simulated and actual physiological liquids. This review is the second of two parts and focuses on 316-type stainless steel and Co-Cr alloys. It deals with the forms of corrosion that are of principal interest with regard to these alloys in vivo: general corrosion, pitting corrosion, crevice corrosion, galvanic corrosion, and fretting corrosion. The review also addresses environmentally assisted cracking in the form of corrosion fatigue and hydrogen embrittlement as well as the use of implantable electrodes.
Icon Language –A Shortcut to Global Semantic Communication
Authors: Xunzhun Lin , Jingzhou Zhou
Published: May 2014

Icon has long been used to express isolated concrete concepts such as the signs of parking. In this article, we extend its usage in two aspects. First, we define a set of icons to represent abstract concepts such as conjunctions. Second, we present a unified format to construct icons into structural language. This Icon Language has the potential to become the common language for all people in different nations, because it can be learned in one day. It is based on the principles of semiotics, artificial intelligence, system theory, and computer language. This article is an abbreviation of the book Global Icon Language for International Travel, in which a detailed introduction and explanation of motivations of Icon Language are presented along with extensive examples.
The Magic of Meme –On Memetics and Its Development in China
Authors: Juming Shen
Published: May 2014

Meme, in line with the concept gene in the study of biological evolution, was born as a semiotic concept for the study of culture evolution. Like many other new concepts, meme has experienced both compliments and criticisms from many researchers in different fields since its birth in 1976. Through years of development, it has been established into Memetics-a new branch of study accompanied by specialized journals and a number of research findings. This paper first clarifies the concept of "meme" and then surveys both the compliments and criticisms that memetics has received worldwide through explaining the relations between memetics and social evolution and eco-semiotics, the differentiation between the "meme" and "sign", as well as the different comments on The Meme Machine. Finally, an introduction to the related studies of memetics in China is presented.
The Value and Definition of Intertextuality
Authors: Yuping Li
Published: May 2014

Intertextual phenomenon exists in both fields of literature and art, and of science. However, intertextuality in literature is a positive one that produces new meaning and forms dialogue, therefore, occupies a decisive position, while intertextuality in science is a negative one that accurately transmits the others' thought. Since science's view of the past is completely different from literature, it values little intertextuality. As a kind of function relationship in which meanings transform and come into being, three elements are necessarily required· for the formation of intertextuality·. text a, text b, and intertextual relationship.
Rhetoric of Movie Images
Authors: Miraglia Valentina
Published: May 2014

In the first part of this paper, we will discuss the problem of cinematographic enunciation (the shooting).

In the second part, our approach will be more analytical. We will touch upon expressive close-ups and also the aesthetic point of view. We will make use of images (frames, close-ups, sequences). We will show at which point our relationship with the pictures and films changes if the interpretation is no longer uniquely from the film, from the textual analysis of the enunciated but also from "the experience of filming".

The films I have chosen are: Rer Window by A. Hitchcock (1954), Tess by R. Polanski (1979), The Sacrifice by A. Tarkovski (1986), Le Fils by the brothers Dardenne (2002) and Lost in Translation by Sofia Coppola (2003 ). These films, together with the shooting documents are good examples of the way of proceeding in our analysis.

In artistic matters we are not dealing with simple communication but more importantly with creation. In the specific case of film: creation of time travelled through the film.
Understanding Peircean Semiotics and Its Influence on Linguistics – An Exploration on Triadic Logic System of Categories and Model of Signs
Authors: Hong Guo
Published: May 2014

Peircean Semiotics is inaccessible to most people for its triadic logic system of categories and model of signs. Author of this paper tries to understand it through a historical view of logic systems of categories and interpret Peircean semiotics and its applications in linguistic studies.
Understanding Peirce’s Mathematical Inquiry as a Practice: Some Ontological Implication
Authors: Cooke Elizabeth F.
Published: May 2014

One of Peirce's most important and influential contributions to pragmatism is his reconceptualization of traditional metaphysical ideas like reality in terms of human inquiry. Whether we consider his definition of reality as the external permanence which gives science its selfcorrective, or his definition of reality as the object of the final opinion in the long run, Peirce clearly intends to connect his idea of reality to the practice of inquiry. In this paper, we will consider some of the difficulties of applying the same pragmatic argument when it comes to the reality of mathematics. First, there is the difficulty of discerning what Peirce's position is regarding the reality of mathematics, since there are several disparities in his writings. Second, there is the difficulty of which view regarding the reality of mathematics serves inquiry best. In other words, must a mathematician suppose he studies real entities in order to practice mathematics? In considering this problem, we will examine the Quine-Putnam Indispensability thesis, as well as Angus Kerr-Lawson's bicategorial view. We will conclude that Peirce's philosophy of mathematics only apparently commits him to a bicategorial ontological dualism, and that is more monistic view-which is more agreeable to the Indispensability Thesis-is ultimately preferable.
Semiotics Seen Synchronically: The View as of 2010
Authors: Deely John
Published: May 2014

Semiotics as a general phenomenon of intellectual culture took root in the 20th century. The earliest figure in that enrooting was Charles Peirce (1839-1914), but the foregrounded figure was rather Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), who plotted a narrower course under the label "semiology". It was Thomas Sebeok (1920-2001) who made unmistakable the " pars pro toto" fallacy of Saussure's standpoint, and who cleared the way for the full development of a "doctrine of signs" under the broader label of "semiotics". Thus, as Susan Petrilli pointed out in her Sebeok Fellow Address of 2008, it is "we today who have lived in both the 20th and 21 st century" who "have witnessed and participated in" the original establishment of semiotics as knowledge thematically developed from the consideration of the action consequent upon the being proper to signs. This essay aims to provide a record of the 20th century founding of semiotics, through the interplay of the work of the key players in the drama that unfolded between the birth of Peirce and the death of Sebeok-such diverse thinkers as Jacques Maritain (1882-1973), Roman Jakobson ( 1896-1982), Charles Morris (1901-1979), Feruccio Rossi-Landi (1921-1985 ), Algirdas Greimas ( 1917-1992), Juri Lotman ( 1922-1993 ) , Jeff Bernard (1943-2010), along with a few survivors of the "founding era" who yet remain on the current scene of "unfolding synchronicity" - the "land of the living"-within semiotics. The essay makes clear that semiosis depends upon the being of signs as irreducibly of a triadic relational structure, as Poinsot (1589-1644) seems earliest to have demonstrated, and Peirce independently established as the "model" required fully to develop the doctrine of signs as a " science" presupposed to "science" in the modem, ideoscopic sense. Perhaps most important of all is the discovery that interdisciplinarity, wherever it occurs and to whatever extent it is possible, is a direct consequence of semiosis, and the reason why semiotics provides the only inherently interdisciplinary perspective antidotal to the specializations required for ideoscopic advances in science. How the universities, shaped by modem scientific specializations, will eventually accommodate this "semiotic singularity" remains to be seen.
Ancient Chinese Concept of fa (Law) and Its Orthographical Representations
Authors: Chang Han-liang
Published: May 2014

This essay serves several critical and metacritical functions in discussing the semiotic implications of the Chinese writing fa. First of all, it examines critically various conceptualizations of " image" in the current disciplines of " imagologies", and then it comments on a contemporary French legal theoretician's image/mirage of ancient Chinese civil law. After these surveys, the essay introduces a highly specialized topic in legal semiotics by tracing the development of the written sign of fa (law) in ancient China before the second century BCE. The written word was interpreted to represent a mythical animal, whose images have recurred in Chinese writing and art history. Focusing on the scriptural representations of fa, this essay analyzes the process of conceptualization of law in ancient China, and its transformations and mutations across the borders of semiotic systems, from the basic verbal and visual levels, to the higher levels of ideology and legal theory and practice.
Rethinking Literary Genre Theory: From a Chinese Perspective
Authors: Yuping Li
Published: May 2014

Literary genre theory is one of the basic issues in the fields of literary theory and semiotic studies. This paper investigates literary genre theory through analyzing many data of ancient Chinese literary criticism, and provides a critical insight of literary genre. Literary genre essentially refers to the textual kind of literary production and consumption in a conventionalized communicative setting in order to express the original understanding of reality. In Chinese literary theory, "Ti" (体) roughly corresponds with literary genre. In the context of "unity of man with Heaven and Earth" ( 天人合一) , social function and personality are the main criteria of literary classification in ancient China. The original concept of literary genre was tied very tightly to the performances and events on specific social occasions in both the West and the East. The perspective of dynamic semiotics tends to highlight fluidity and open-endedness of the relation between texts and genres.
Remarks for a Semiotics of the Veil
Authors: Leone Massimo
Published: May 2014

From birth to death, the human body is constantly veiled and unveiled, clothed and unclothed, wrapped and unwrapped. Nothing of this process is " natural". Through this process, a natural body belonging to the human species is transformed into a cultural body belonging to a human civilization. Each object that is on the body modifies its meaning, for it is impossible for the human body not to communicate. Even nudity, like silence in verbal language, is hardly deprived of any meaning. In order to understand the meaning of the body and its signs, one must distinguish between signification and communication, and between intentional and non-intentional communication. Bodily communication always entails the encounter between two or more interpretative hypotheses, which can completely match or mismatch. Since globalization, misunderstandings concerning the meaning of the body and its signs are more and more frequent as a correct interpretation of the intention and the content of bodily communication strictly depends on the cultural background of those who are involved in it. One of the most misunderstood bodily signs of our epoque is the veil of observant Islamic women. The paper initiates a reflection on the semiotics of the veil by proposing a phenomenological grid of its possible meanings.
The Convergence of Signs in Flannery O’Connor’s ”Parker‘s Back“
Authors: Tsai Hsiu-chih
Published: May 2014

Through a tattooed body image in the short story "Parker's Back", O'Connor illustrates a possibility of "convergence" in the boundary-crossing encounter of the antithetical concepts separately possessed by the protagonist Parker and his wife. This paper would like to adopt a semiotic approach developed by Roland Barthes to study first, how Parker as a sign can perform the rhetorical function of the paradoxism, and second, through his function of mediation to contribute to the construction of the narrative. Taking Parker's body as the place of meditation of the material and the spirit helps illustrate the rhetorical and symbolic power embedded in the short story that starts and completes the life of the literary narrative. The religious concept of convergence in O'Connor's " Parker's Back" will surprisingly reveal to us certain similarities between the semiotic analyses and the religious interpretation of sign functions.
Theory of the Dialogical Sign
Authors: Pearson Charls
Published: May 2014

Bakhtin regarded every sign as a dialogic sign while Peirce regarded every sign as a sign of thought. But a sign of thought is in dialog with the self. Thure von UexkOII even said that" life is always and everywhere a dialogue between self and self". Thus troth thinkers agreed on the dialogic nature of all signs. All three thinkers even agreed on the presence in the sign of two interpreters-the self and other, thus displaying a unity in their three theories.

The current standard theory of semiotics, the USST-2000, handles the presence of two interpreters quite well but is not able to explain the semiotic details of dialog. Since dialog is a well attested function of signs, there is an empirical need to modify the USST-2000.

This paper attempts to make the minimum adjustments to the USST- 2000 in order to bring dialog within its explanatory power. The theory presented here is successful in doing that and I therefore refer to it as the USST-2010.

The structure of the USST-2010 still maintains a recognizable Peircean heritage and hence can be regarded as a further extension of Peirce's original semiotic theory.
Semiotics for University: Semiosis Makes the World Locally Plural
Authors: Kuli Kalevi , Väli Katre
Published: May 2014

The position of semiotics in university can be discovered by the study of the position of semiosis in the universe. Sign action is what constitutes knowing of all kinds, including both propositional and non-propositional knowing. Contemporary semiotic studies have well proved that semiotics belongs to the core of knowledge, which means that semiotics should be one of the main domains, one of the core disciplines in university teaching in parallel to the natural sciences. At several universities in the world this is already happening. One of these-the University of Tartu-can be used as an example worthy of a case study, as it is where semiotics is taught as a major specialty in undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate levels, and where a course in semiotics is also provided as a core ( methodological) course for students of many specialties. The proper place for semiotics in university entails the cooperation between biosemiotics and cultural semiotics.
Die Kommission zur Herausgabe der Schriften von Schelling an der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
Authors: Zerbst Arne
Published: May 2014

Philosophical editions comprise part of the basic research within the humanities. The commission for the edition of Schelling’s work was founded in 1968 in the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and sees itself as a research centre overarching several institutions. The commission’s academic events are necessary in order to establish and maintain a productive relationship between philology and philosophy. This is why in the last three years alone the Schelling commission has arranged five conferences. One of the most important series of the historicocritical edition of Schelling’s work is dedicated to the literary bequest, whose analysis, compilation, and later publication is of great interest to the research on Schelling.
Die Möglichkeit eines anderen Rechts
Authors: Menke Christoph
Published: May 2014

In his critical review of Recht und Gewalt Andreas Fischer-Lescano has suggested that the critical insight into the paradoxical entwinement of law and violence should lead towards the utopian idea of a “transcendence” of law. The response to Fischer-Lescano rejects this idea as a false leveling of the - decisive normative - difference between law and society. This difference is the condition of possibility of law’s critical and hence transformative relation to society. The response thus defends the idea, brought forward in Recht und Gewalt by way of an interpretation of Benjamin’s formula of the Entsetzung of law, that the break with law’s fateful violence cannot consist in the “transcendence” but rather the “depotenciation” of law.
Sex hormones in the cardiovascular system
Authors: dos Santos Roger Lyrio , da Silva Fabrício Bragança , Ribeiro Rogério Faustino , Stefanon Ivanita
Published: May 2014

Gender-associated differences in the development of cardiovascular diseases have been described in humans and animals. These differences could explain the low incidence of cardiovascular disease in women in the reproductive period, such as stroke, hypertension, and atherosclerosis. The cardiovascular protection observed in females has been attributed to the beneficial effects of estrogen on endothelial function. Besides estrogen, sex hormones are able to modulate blood pressure by acting on important systems as cardiovascular, renal, and neural. They can have complementary or antagonistic actions. For example, testosterone can raise blood pressure by stimulating the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, whereas estrogen alone or combined with progesterone has been associated with decreased blood pressure. The effects of testosterone in the development of cardiovascular disease are contradictory. Although some researchers suggest a positive effect, others indicate negative actions of testosterone. Estrogens physiologically stimulate the release of endothelium-derived vasodilator factors and inhibit the renin-angiotensin system. Although the cardioprotective effects of estrogen are widely appreciated, little is known about the effects of progesterone, which is commonly used in hormone replacement therapy. Progesterone has both vasodilatory and vasoconstrictive effects in the vasculature, depending on the location of the vessel and the level of exposure. Nevertheless, the mechanisms through which sex hormones modulate blood pressure have not been fully elucidated. Therefore, the characterization of those could lead to a better understanding of hypertension in women and men and perhaps to improved forms of therapy.
Meditation can produce beneficial effects to prevent cardiovascular disease
Authors: Koike Marcia Kiyomi , Cardoso Roberto
Published: May 2014

Coronary heart disease is the major cause of global cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. Lifestyle behaviour contributes as a risk factor: unhealthy diet, sedentary lifestyle, tobacco, alcohol, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia and psychosocial stress. Atherosclerosis pathologic mechanisms involving oxidative stress, dyslipidemia, inflammation and senescence are associated with arterial wall damage and plaque formation. Stress reduction was observed in several types of meditation. After meditation, hormonal orchestration modulates effects in the central nervous system and in the body. All types of meditation are associated with blood pressure control, enhancement in insulin resistance, reduction of lipid peroxidation and cellular senescence, independent of type of meditation. This review presents scientific evidence to explain how meditation can produce beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system, and particularly regarding vascular aspects.
Distributional Data and Grammatical Structures: The Case of So-Called ’Subject Extraposition’
Authors: Mindt Ilka
Published: May 2014

This paper focuses on adjectives complemented by that-clauses as in I am happy that you are well or It is clear that the views of the unions were ignored. A new classification of adjectives will be presented which is based on an empirical analysis of the subject types found in the matrix clause. The classification of adjectives can be corroborated by distributional data. It will be demonstrated that all adjectives followed by that-clauses can be grouped into two classes of adjectives. Each class shows typical co-occurrence patterns which are reflected in the lexico-semantic characteristics of the adjectives. The new classification also covers cases which are referred to as 'subject extraposition'. These cases are included in the classification and will be explained in terms of the same syntactic and semantic criteria which apply to all other adjectives
The Distribution of Also and Too: A Preliminary Corpus Study
Authors: Gast Volker
Published: May 2014

This paper discusses distributional differences between the two additive particles also and too on the basis of corpus evidence. Three hypotheses are explored: (i) also and too are characteristic of different registers or styles, (ii) the use of also and too is sensitive to structural properties of the 'added constituent', and (iii) the use of the two particles depends on the distribution of 'added material' over the sentence. The discussion centres around the question to what extent corpus-based methods are appropriate to test these hypotheses. While hypothesis (ii) can straightforwardly be tested (and confirmed), the other two hypotheses pose methodological challenges of different types. Corpus-based test procedures are outlined for both hypotheses and preliminary results are given, but it is pointed out that specific types of questions could be answered more easily by applying common elicitation procedures
The Selective Influence of Rhythmic Cortical versus Cerebellar Transcranial Stimulation on Human Physiological Tremor
Authors: Mehta Arpan R. , Brittain John-Stuart , Brown Peter
Published: May 2014

The influence of central neuronal oscillators on human physiological tremor is controversial. To address this, transcranial alternating current stimulation (TACS) was delivered at peak tremor frequency to 12 healthy volunteers in a 2 × 2 crossover study. Two sites were stimulated [contralateral primary motor cortex (M1), vs ipsilateral cerebellum] while participants performed two types of tasks designed to probe the different manifestations of physiological tremor of the hand–kinetic and postural tremor. Tremor was measured by accelerometry. Cortical coherence with the accelerometry signal was also calculated in the absence of stimulation. The phase synchronization index, a measure of the phase entrainment of tremor, was calculated between stimulation and tremor waveforms. The amplitude modulation of tremor was similarly assessed. There was significant phase entrainment that was dependent both on tremor type and site of stimulation: M1 stimulation gave rise to phase entrainment of postural, but not kinetic, tremor, whereas cerebellar stimulation increased entrainment in both cases. There was no effect on tremor amplitude. Tremor accelerometry was shown to be coherent with the cortical EEG recorded during postural, but not kinetic, tremor. TACS modulates physiological tremor, and its effects are dependent both on tremor type and stimulation site. Accordingly, central oscillators play a significant role in two of the major manifestations of tremor in health.
Global Neural Pattern Similarity as a Common Basis for Categorization and Recognition Memory
Authors: Davis Tyler , Xue Gui , Love Bradley C. , Preston Alison R. , Poldrack Russell A.
Published: May 2014

Familiarity, or memory strength, is a central construct in models of cognition. In previous categorization and long-term memory research, correlations have been found between psychological measures of memory strength and activation in the medial temporal lobes (MTLs), which suggests a common neural locus for memory strength. However, activation alone is insufficient for determining whether the same mechanisms underlie neural function across domains. Guided by mathematical models of categorization and long-term memory, we develop a theory and a method to test whether memory strength arises from the global similarity among neural representations. In human subjects, we find significant correlations between global similarity among activation patterns in the MTLs and both subsequent memory confidence in a recognition memory task and model-based measures of memory strength in a category learning task. Our work bridges formal cognitive theories and neuroscientific models by illustrating that the same global similarity computations underlie processing in multiple cognitive domains. Moreover, by establishing a link between neural similarity and psychological memory strength, our findings suggest that there may be an isomorphism between psychological and neural representational spaces that can be exploited to test cognitive theories at both the neural and behavioral levels.
Cognitive Control Functions of Anterior Cingulate Cortex in Macaque Monkeys Performing a Wisconsin Card Sorting Test Analog
Authors: Kuwabara Masaru , Mansouri Farshad A. , Buckley Mark J. , Tanaka Keiji
Published: May 2014

Monkeys were trained to select one of three targets by matching in color or matching in shape to a sample. Because the matching rule frequently changed and there were no cues for the currently relevant rule, monkeys had to maintain the relevant rule in working memory to select the correct target. We found that monkeys' error commission was not limited to the period after the rule change and occasionally occurred even after several consecutive correct trials, indicating that the task was cognitively demanding. In trials immediately after such error trials, monkeys' speed of selecting targets was slower. Additionally, in trials following consecutive correct trials, the monkeys' target selections for erroneous responses were slower than those for correct responses. We further found evidence for the involvement of the cortex in the anterior cingulate sulcus (ACCs) in these error-related behavioral modulations. First, ACCs cell activity differed between after-error and after-correct trials. In another group of ACCs cells, the activity differed depending on whether the monkeys were making a correct or erroneous decision in target selection. Second, bilateral ACCs lesions significantly abolished the response slowing both in after-error trials and in error trials. The error likelihood in after-error trials could be inferred by the error feedback in the previous trial, whereas the likelihood of erroneous responses after consecutive correct trials could be monitored only internally. These results suggest that ACCs represent both context-dependent and internally detected error likelihoods and promote modes of response selections in situations that involve these two types of error likelihood.
A TIGAR-Regulated Metabolic Pathway Is Critical for Protection of Brain Ischemia
Authors: Li Mei , Sun Meiling , Cao Lijuan , Gu Jin-hua , Ge Jianbin , Chen Jieyu , Han Rong , Qin Yuan-Yuan , Zhou Zhi-Peng , Ding Yuqiang , Qin Zheng-Hong
Published: May 2014

TP53-induced glycolysis and apoptosis regulator (TIGAR) inhibits glycolysis and increases the flow of pentose phosphate pathway (PPP), which generates NADPH and pentose. We hypothesized that TIGAR plays a neuroprotective role in brain ischemia as neurons do not rely on glycolysis but are vulnerable to oxidative stress. We found that TIGAR was highly expressed in brain neurons and was rapidly upregulated in response to ischemia/reperfusion insult in a TP53-independent manner. Overexpression of TIGAR in normal mice with lentivirus reduced ischemic neuronal injury, whereas lentivirus-mediated TIGAR knockdown aggravated it. In cultured primary neurons, increasing TIGAR expression reduced oxygen and glucose deprivation (OGD)/reoxygenation-induced injury, whereas decreasing its expression worsened the injury. The glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase was upregulated in mouse and cellular models of stroke, and its upregulation was further enhanced by overexpression of TIGAR. Supplementation of NADPH also reduced ischemia/reperfusion brain injury and alleviated TIGAR knockdown-induced aggravation of ischemic injury. In animal and cellular stroke models, ischemia/reperfusion increased mitochondrial localization of TIGAR. OGD/reoxygenation-induced elevation of ROS, reduction of GSH, dysfunction of mitochondria, and activation of caspase-3 were rescued by overexpression of TIGAR or supplementation of NADPH, while knockdown of TIGAR aggravated these changes. Together, our results show that TIGAR protects ischemic brain injury via enhancing PPP flux and preserving mitochondria function, and thus may be a valuable therapeutic target for ischemic brain injury.
Tasting Cultural Ecology
Authors: Heatherington Tracey
Published: May 2014

This essay samples situated perspectives on food, history, and landscape in the Mediterranean. Reflecting on moments of ethnographic research made resonant by particular tastes, it considers how sustainable foodscapes on the island of Sardinia, Italy, are rooted in both family relations and property systems. It focuses on household and community production in the Ogliastra, a rural area on the eastern coast of Sardinia. This enables a critical examination of models of ethical consumption, from the perspective of rural producers. Tastes like the delectable roast meat, goat ricotta, and bitter honey that come from the Ogliastra challenge us to think about such places, not as abstract ecological systems, but as living, adapting communities. Such unique flavors are protected today, not by faddish consumers or ethical gastronomes, but by the residents who value the legacy of the Commons and their own deeply social connections to its generative potential.
Determinism in the mountains: The ongoing belief in the bellicosity of 'mountain people'
Authors: Pickering Steve
Published: May 2014

It has long been argued that mountains have an effect on wars. While some research understands this chiefly in physical terms, other research looks at the effect that mountains have on human nature. This article looks at the two thousand year history of the term 'mountain people.' It explores how the belief has emerged that living in mountainous regions changes people to the degree that it makes them more likely to engage in conflict. It also explores how mountain people can be seen in a more positive light, but this perspective is often ignored by both popular media and conflict research. It makes the case that the foundations upon which perceptions of 'mountain people' are based are rather shaky and somewhat misleading for empirical conflict research.
Bringing the economy back in: The political economy of security sector reform
Authors: Lien Guro
Published: May 2014

The mechanisms underlying the relation between development and security are difficult to define and poorly understood. This has not hindered various donor countries, NGOs, or international organizations from designing and implementing Security Sector Reform (SSR) initiatives with the presumption that increasing security, usually by strengthening state capacity, will lead to increased socioeconomic development. However, in many postwar settings, low state capacity is seen as a desired outcome. The argument in this article is that an exclusive focus on formal state structures in SSR efforts makes several assumption that reduce the possibility of success. There is no "one size fits all" approach to statebuilding, and designing SSR activities without taking into account the premises of the local economic structures may only lead to short-term regime security.
Litigated conflict over fundamental rights: A static model
Authors: Bunting William C.
Published: May 2014

This article introduces a static, within-country, game-theoretic model of litigated conflict over fundamental rights. The static model suggests that increased judicial interference in the determination of fundamental rights through democratic elections is never social welfare-increasing, even if judicial and political biases run in opposite directions (i.e., if the judicial process is biased in favor of one interest group and the political process is biased in favor of an ideologically-opposed interest group). In addition, the analysis identifies a set of parameters where social welfare increases if the extent to which the litigated conflict over fundamental rights in the society is constitutionalized is decreased (i.e., if litigation effort becomes more expensive and/or less effective). A few real-world examples of the implications of this static analysis are examined, including gun control and the possible future reconstitution of the judiciary in Syria.
Heart rate variability is significantly reduced in non-diabetic patients with hypertension
Authors: Nagy Krisztina , Sipos Evelin , El Hadj Othmane Taha
Published: May 2014

Introductions: Heart rate variability is reduced among patients with hypertension or those with diabetes mellitus. Hypertension and diabetes show frequent co-morbidity, but it is still not entirely clear whether heart arte variability is reduced in non-diabetic patients with hypertension. Aim: The aim of the authors was to evaluate the heart rate variability in hypertensive patients with and without diabetes and in control subjects. Method: 130 patients with hypertension, 48 patients with hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus, and 87 control subjects were involved in the study. Minimum, mean and maximum heart rate, and parameters of heart rate variability were measured. Results: The mean of minimum heart rate did not differ significantly between the three groups. However, all other parameters were significantly reduced in patients with hypertension with and without diabetes as compared to the control group. No significant differences were observed between hypertensive patients with and without diabetes mellitus. Conclusions: Heart rate variability is significantly reduced in non-diabetic patients with hypertension. It seems that type 2 diabetes results in no further significant reduction of heart rate variability in patients with hypertension. Orv. Hetil., 2014, 155(22), 865–870.
Characterization of Inherent Materials of San Antonio Altarpiece in San Roque Church, Campeche
Authors: Jiménez Leticia , Arano Diana E. , Ruvalcaba José L. , Unikel Fanny
Published: May 2014

The altarpiece dedicated to San Antonio de Padua was made of wood assembled and self-supporting structure attached to the wall. It is a straight plant altarpiece designed to withstand sculptures. This master piece belongs to the a set of Baroque altarpieces preserved in the state of Campeche and is located in San Roque Church in the City of San Francisco de Campeche, Mexico. This altarpiece was decorated following the traditional technique of the seventeenth century in Mexico, a technique derived from Spain. According to literature sources we know that the strata are the wood, the imprimatura, the pictorial strata and metal sheets that make the golden color and corladuras. The characterization of the constituent materials was of great importance for the interpretation of the constructions system and manufacture of the decoration. The present study shows the results of analysis techniques such as optical microscopy, Particle Induce X Ray Emission (PIXE), and X Ray Florescence Spectroscopy (XRF) and interpretation of the different layers constituting the altarpiece of San Antonio.
Design of Soft-Interface Materials for Highly Sensitive Bio-Sensing Devices
Authors: Takai Madoka
Published: May 2014

Two typed bio-conjugated soft-interface for highly sensitive immunoassay was developed by integrating a phospholipid polymer. Nano-sphered surface with poly [2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC)-co-n-butyl methacrylate (BMA)-co-p-nitrophenyloxycarbonyl poly(ethylene glycol) methacrylate (MEONP)]: PMBN) was prepared by electrospray deposition (ESD) method. The three dimensional nano-sphered surface can be captured an antibody with high density around 860 ng/cm2. The theoretical amount of closest packed immobilized antibodies on flat surface is around 650 ng/cm2, thus large amount of antibodies were immobilized on the nano-sphere surface. The water stability of PMBN nanostructure was improved by crosslinking with 1,4-butylenediamine and by heating. Both heated and cross-linked PMBN nanostructure was not changed at all remaining high porosity after immersing in water. The specific signal in the immunoassay was enhanced with both heated and cross-linked PMBN nanostructure. The PMBN nanostructure which has high porosity and high water stability realized highly sensitive immunoassay.

As the other platform, we developed a novel soft-interface consisting of a well-defined phospholipid polymer surface on which Staphylococcal Protein A (SpA) was site-selectively immobilized. The phospholipid polymer platform was prepared on silicon substrates using the surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) technique. Orientation-controlled antibodies were achieved using enzymatic reactions, and these antibodies captured 1.8 ± 0.1 antigens on average, implying that at least 80% of immobilized antibodies reacted with 2 antigens. Theoretical multivalent binding analysis further revealed that orientation-controlled antibodies had antigen-antibody reaction equilibrium dissociation constants (Kd) as low as 8.6 × 10-10 mol/L, whereas randomly oriented and partially oriented antibodies showed Kd values of 2.0 × 10-7 mol/L and 1.2 × 10-7 mol/L, respectively. These findings support the significance of antibody orientation because controlling the orientation resulted in high reactivity and theoretical binding capacity.
Fractal Models and the Structure of Materials
Authors: Schaefer Dale W.
Published: May 2014

Science often advances through the introdction of new ideas which simplify the understanding of complex problems. Materials science is no exception to this rule. Concepts such as nucleation in crystal growth and spinodal decomposition, for example, have played essential roles in the modern understanding of the structure of materials. More recently, fractal geometry has emerged as an essential idea for understanding the kinetic growth of disordered materials. This review will introduce the concept of fractal geometry and demonstrate its application to the understanding of the structure of materials.

Fractal geometry is a natural concept used to describe random or disordered objects ranging from branched polymers to the earth's surface. Disordered materials seldom display translational or rotational symmetry so conventional crystallographic classification is of no value. These materials, however, often display “dilation symmetry,” which means they look geometrically self-similar under transformation of scale such as changing the magnification of a microscope. Surprisingly, most kinetic growth processes produce objects with self-similar fractal properties. It is now becoming clear that the origin of dilation symmetry is found in disorderly kinetic growth processes present in the formation of these materials.
Dylan and pity
Authors: Punter David
Published: May 2014

Pity is a huge and complex human emotion; among its elements are a kind of universal pity, more specific pity for the suffering fellow-creature, and self-pity. Bob Dylan’s lyrics constitute a remarkable address to these issues, sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly, in specific contexts: the condition of American history, the plight of the immigrant, all manner of relations between the powerful and the powerless. Pity also confuses subject and object: are we in need of pity, or are we more in need of the necessity of displaying it? This article seeks to describe some of the complexities of Dylan’s work on these topics through particular attention to ‘Tryin’ to Get to Heaven’, ‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’, ‘I Pity the Poor Immigrant’, ‘Spanish Harlem Incident’, ‘No Time to Think’, ‘Tight Connection to my Heart’ and ‘Desolation Row’.
Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg
Authors: Karlin Daniel
Published: May 2014

This article takes as its starting point the conversation between Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan at the grave of Jack Kerouac in 1975 during the Rolling Thunder Revue tour, an encounter which was filmed, photographed and narrated, both by the two artists and by others. It considers the ways in which Kerouac’s work focused and mediated the friendship of Ginsberg and Dylan, their sense of each other’s art, and of their own. Ginsberg’s influence on Dylan was more than matched by Dylan’s influence on Ginsberg, but what binds them together is an idea of American speech (whether spoken or sung) for which Kerouac is the disembodied and occluded source.
‘Ain’t gonna go to Hell for anybody’
Authors: Hughes John
Published: May 2014

This piece evaluates Dylan’s Christian period, between 1979 and 1981. It considers the biographical context of the Christian material, and its relations to Dylan’s other work. While describing the circumstances of Dylan’s conversion, and the studio recordings and their critical reception, the piece seeks above all to give special prominence to the consistent intensity and shifting nuances of the live performances of the period. This focus allows us to see how this often denigrated or dismissed phase of Dylan’s career in fact can be said to rival any other in the ways it draws on Dylan’s creative powers of self-renewal.