bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Mapping Sustainability Initiatives Across a Region: An Innovative Survey Approach
Authors: Somerville Margaret , Green Monica
Published: March 2013

The project of mapping sustainability initiatives across a region is part of a larger program of research about place and sustainability education for the Anthropocene, the new geological age of human-induced planetary changes (Zalasiewicz, Williams, Steffen, & Crutzen, 2010). The study investigated the location, nature and type of sustainability initiatives in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. The purpose of the study was to trial the development of a place-based survey questionnaire to map initiatives in education for sustainability across a region in order to understand how they emerge in local places. The data from the survey was interpreted using a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches. This article focuses on the qualitative thematic analysis across all survey responses and assesses the findings in order to determine the usefulness of the approach. The study found that a regional place-based approach enables a different conceptualisation of the possibilities of a cross-sectoral interconnected system of sustainability education. The nonformal and informal sectors are important sites of innovation and have great potential to enrich the pedagogies of education for sustainability in the formal sector.
Bala ga lili: Meeting Indigenous Learners Halfway
Authors: Bissett Susan Zela
Published: March 2013

The author's experience of the day-to-day issues faced as an educator in an Aboriginal school are recounted, along with perspectives gained as part of a research project. The proposition is argued that an Education for Sustainability approach, where learning is structured around a negotiated environmental issue within local community, represents a cultural accommodation or halfway point between mainstream formal schooling and the needs of Indigenous learners. This article contends that such an educative approach meets Indigenous learners ‘halfway’, through compatibility with Indigenous values frameworks and employing culturally appropriate pedagogical methods. The argument is made that by demonstrating a willingness to negotiate worthwhile environmentally based projects that address community ecological concerns, EfS may be able to improve community support and mitigate impediments to the engagement of Indigenous learners with formal education. A critical pedagogy of place (Grunewald, 2003) is discussed as a theoretical framework that combines place-based pedagogy with empowering educational theory. Indigenous learners’ connection with place is recognised in this approach and ascribed a positive rather than negative value.
Cube spaces and the multiple term return times theorem
Authors: ZORIN-KRANICH PAVEL
Published: March 2013

We give a new proof of Rudolph’s multiple term return times theorem based on Host–Kra structure theory. Our approach provides characteristic factors for all terms, works for arbitrary tempered Følner sequences and also yields a multiple term Wiener–Wintner-type return times theorem for nilsequences.
EXISTENCE RESULTS FOR A CLASS OF ABSTRACT IMPULSIVE DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
Authors: HERNÁNDEZ EDUARDO , O’REGAN DONAL
Published: March 2013

We study the existence of solutions for a class of abstract impulsive differential equations. Our technical framework allows us to study partial differential equations with impulsive conditions involving partial derivatives and nonlinear expressions of the solution. Some applications to impulsive partial differential equations are presented.
Protective effect of naringenin against experimental colitis via suppression of Toll-like receptor 4/NF-κB signalling
Authors: Dou Wei , Zhang Jingjing , Sun Aning , Zhang Eryun , Ding Lili , Mukherjee Subhajit , Wei Xiaohui , Chou Guixin , Wang Zheng-Tao , Mani Sridhar
Published: March 2013

Naringenin, one of the most abundant flavonoids in citrus, grapefruits and tomatoes, has been used as a traditional anti-inflammatory agent for centuries. However, the molecular mechanism of naringenin in intestinal inflammation remains unknown so far. The present study investigated a molecular basis for the protective effect of naringenin in dextran sulphate sodium-induced murine colitis. Pre-administration of naringenin significantly reduced the severity of colitis and resulted in down-regulation of pro-inflammatory mediators (inducible NO synthase (iNOS), intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), cyclo-oxygenase-2 (Cox2), TNF-α and IL-6 mRNA) in the colon mucosa. The decline in the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, specifically TNF-α and IL-6, correlated with a decrease in mucosal Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) mRNA and protein. Phospho-NF-κB p65 protein was significantly decreased, which correlated with a similar decrease in phospho-IκBα protein. Consistent with the in vivo results, naringenin exposure blocked lipopolysaccharide-stimulated nuclear translocation of NF-κB p65 in mouse macrophage RAW264.7 cells. In addition, in vitro NF-κB reporter assays performed on human colonic HT-29 cells exposed to naringenin demonstrated a significant inhibition of TNF-α-induced NF-κB luciferase expression. Thus, for the first time, the present study indicates that targeted inhibition of the TLR4/NF-κB signalling pathway might be an important mechanism for naringenin in abrogating experimental colitis.
Effect of plant foods and beverages on plasma non-enzymatic antioxidant capacity in human subjects: a meta-analysis
Authors: Lettieri-Barbato Daniele , Tomei Francesco , Sancini Angela , Morabito Giuseppa , Serafini Mauro
Published: March 2013

Non-enzymatic antioxidant capacity (NEAC) represents a sensitive biomarker measuring thein vivoantioxidant potential of vegetable foods. To evaluate the effectiveness of plant-derived foods and beverages on the plasma non-enzymatic antioxidant system, we analysed all literature published upto May 2010. Data were extracted by two authors independently, and the effect size was summarised using standardised mean differences by a random-effects model. For the analysis, eighty-eight studies were included, reporting a total number of 122 interventions and involving 2890 subjects. There was overall evidence of the effectiveness of fruit, vegetables, dietary patterns based on plant foods, red wine and tea in increasing plasma NEAC. No changes were found for chocolate and fruit juices. We observed an overall effect size three times higher in subjects with risk factors when compared with healthy subjects. Total radical-trapping antioxidant parameter, oxygen radical absorbance capacity and ferric-reducing antioxidant power methods showed a similar increase in plasma NEAC following dietary supplementation, whereas Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity did not respond to dietary supplementation. Data from the present meta-analysis show that plant-derived foods represent an effective strategy to enhance an endogenous antioxidant network in humans. This is particularly evident in the presence of oxidative stress-related risk factors.
The Bali Bombings Monument: Ceremonial Cosmopolis
Authors: Lewis Jeff , Lewis Belinda , Putra I Nyoman Darma
Published: March 2013

In 2003 a monument was erected at the site of the 2002 Islamist militant attacks in Kuta, Bali. Government and other official discourses, including the design brief, represent the monument as an integrated and culturally harmonious public testimony to the victims. However, the monument is also a discordant association of ideas, meanings, and political claims. While originally designed to subdue insecurity, the Bali bombings monument, in fact, constitutes a site of powerful “language wars” around its rendering of memory and its presence in Bali's integration into the globalizing economy of pleasure. This paper examines the ways in which the monument is being articulated and “consumed” as a social and cultural marker for the island's tourism geography. The paper pays particular attention to the increasing diversity of Bali's visitors and the ways in which a precarious “cosmopolization” of the Kuta-Legian area is being experienced and expressed at the monument site.
“The Yalu River Era of Developing Asia”: Japanese Expertise, Colonial Power, and the Construction of Sup'ung Dam
Authors: Moore Aaron Stephen
Published: March 2013

Through investigating the construction of one of Japan's largest infrastructure projects during the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45), this article examines the formation of a technocratic regime of colonial development expertise that was an important pillar of Japanese imperial rule and continued to have powerful effects throughout postwar Asia. It analyzes how a particular form of technical expertise and the wider discourse of “Scientific Japan” as the modernizer of Asia were legitimated and naturalized, as well as how they operated as a system of colonial power. Japan and other East Asian regimes after the war continued to invoke forms of technocratic expertise with origins in the colonial era as part of their state-led development programs, often with adverse effects on their populations. Thus this article concludes that there is a continuing need to critique, historicize, and denaturalize such regimes of expertise invoked by networks of bureaucrats, businessmen, engineers, and experts.
Agreement between rectal and vaginal temperature measured with temperature loggers in dairy cows
Authors: Suthar Vishal , Burfeind Onno , Maeder Britta , Heuwieser Wolfgang
Published: March 2013

The overall objective of this study was to evaluate agreement between rectal (RT) and vaginal temperature (VT) measured with the same temperature loggers in dairy cows. Three experiments were conducted. The study began with a validation in vitro of 24 temperature loggers comparing them to a calibrated liquid-in-glass thermometer as a reference method. The association and agreement between the 24 temperature loggers with the reference method was r=0·996 (P<0·001) with a negligible coefficient of variance (0·005) between the loggers. In-vivo temperature loggers were tested in 11 healthy post-partum cows (Experiment 2) and 12 early post-partum cows with greater body temperature (Experiment 3). Temperature loggers were set to record VT and RT at 1-min intervals. To prevent rectal and vaginal straining and potential expulsion of temperature logger an epidural injection of 2·5 ml of 2% Procain was administered. Association between RT and VT was r=0·92 (P<0·001; Experiment 2) and r=0·94 (P<0·001; Experiment 3) with a negligible difference of −0·1 and 0·01 °C. Bland-Altman plots demonstrated agreement between RT and VT for healthy and early post-partum cows with greater body temperature in Experiments 2 and 3, respectively. Furthermore the intra-class correlation coefficient between RT and VT measured with identical loggers within cows of Experiments 2 and 3 also demonstrated greater agreements (P<0·001). Therefore, continuous VT monitoring with temperature loggers can be used as a measure of body temperature in dairy cows.
Determination of folate/folic acid level in milk by microbiological assay, immuno assay and high performance liquid chromatography
Authors: Iyer Ramya , Tomar Sudhir Kumar
Published: March 2013

A concurrent determination of folate versus folic acid in milk by microbiological assay (MA) withLactobacillus rhamnosusas the assay organism, Enzyme Linked Immuno Sorbent Assay (ELISA) by competitive binding rapid ELISA kit (RIDASCREEN®) and high-pressure-liquid chromatography (HPLC) was done for detection of the folate form and its level. MA gave total folate content asLb. rhamnosusshowed similar response to most folate isomers formed by the tri-enzyme treatment in comparison with the other two methods which specifically estimated the folic acid. In case of ELISA, specificity was apparently limited to folic acid and dihydro folic acid and thereby showed a lower response for other folate derivatives. Estimation by HPLC with UV detector was highly specific and hence only folic acid could be detected without any cross reactivity. Among the different methods HPLC was observed to be the most sensitive method for determination of folic acid and hence can efficiently determine the folic acid fortification level while MA remained highly efficient, sensitive and reproducible method for estimation of total folate indicating its potential use for dietary folate estimation.
State Antitakeover Laws and Voluntary Disclosure
Authors: Zhao Yijiang , Allen Arthur , Hasan Iftekhar
Published: March 2013

We test the relationship between takeover protection and voluntary disclosure in a setting of antitakeover laws in a firm’s state of incorporation. After correcting for the endogeneity of firms’ incorporation choices, we find that firms incorporated in states with more antitakeover laws have higher levels of voluntary disclosure and stock market liquidity. Further tests do not support shareholder demands being the driving force for this association. Our findings are consistent with takeover protection and poor disclosure serving as substitute mechanisms for deterring takeovers. Therefore, as antitakeover statutes mitigate takeover threats, they enhance managers’ incentives to disclose more in order to realize capital market benefits.
Estimation of transmission dynamics of the Ceratomyxa shasta actinospore to the salmonid host
Authors: RAY R. A. , BARTHOLOMEW J. L.
Published: March 2013

Transmission dynamics of the actinospore stage of Ceratomyxa shasta to the salmonid host were investigated under field and laboratory conditions. The number of parasites transmitted and the transmission rate were compared between 2 different exposure durations and also among different water velocities, by means of field exposures. Under laboratory conditions, the number of parasites transmitted and the transmission rates were compared across a broader range of water velocities and also at different water temperatures. Transmission rate was not constant over time as the number of parasites transmitted increased non-linearly between the 2 exposure durations. Transmission was also inversely related to water velocity and there was a threshold to transmission between 0·2–0·3 m s−1. Lastly, transmission rate increased with water temperature up to 18 °C then decreased at 23 °C. These experiments provide a range of values of transmission that will be incorporated into an epidemiological model to simulate the effectiveness of different management strategies. Additionally, these experiments provided novel information on the effects of environmental conditions (i.e. water velocity and water temperature) on the transmission dynamics between the salmonid host and the actinospore stage.
The Moral Virtue of Doublemindedness
Authors: Beggs Donald
Published: March 2013

The conscientious are morally conflicted when their moral dilemmas or incommensurabilities, real or apparent, have not been resolved. But such doublemindedness need not lead to ethical disintegration or moral insensitivity. For one may develop the moral virtue of doublemindedness, the settled power to deliberate and act well while morally conflicted. Such action will be accompanied by both moral loss (perhaps ‘dirty hands’) and ethical gain (salubrious agental stability). In explaining the virtue's moral psychology I show, among other things, its consistency with wholeheartedness and the unity of the virtues. To broaden its claim to recognition, I show the virtue's consistency with diverse models of practical reason. In conclusion, Michael Walzer's interpretation of Hamlet's attitude toward Gertrude exemplifies this virtue in a fragmentary but nonetheless praiseworthy form.
The Good and the True (or the Bad and the False)
Authors: Whiting Daniel
Published: March 2013

It is commonplace to claim that it is good to believe the truth. In this paper, I reject that claim and argue that the considerations which might seem to support it in fact support a quite distinct though superficially similar claim, namely, that it is bad to believe the false. This claim is typically either ignored completely or lumped together with the previous claim, perhaps on the assumption that the two are equivalent, or at least that they stand or fall together. Such assumptions, I argue, are mistaken. While it is not always good to be right, it is always bad to be wrong. This is an interesting and overlooked asymmetry, which calls for further investigation.
Educating the design stance: Issues of coherence and transgression
Authors: Freeman Norman H. , Allen Melissa L.
Published: March 2013

Bullot & Reber (B&R) put forth a design stance to fuse psychological and art historical accounts of visual thinking into a single theory. We argue that this aspect of their proposal needs further fine-tuning. Issues of transgression and coherence are necessary to provide stability to the design stance. We advocate looking to Art Education for such fundamentals of picture understanding.
Artistic understanding as embodied simulation
Authors: Gibbs Raymond W.
Published: March 2013

Bullot & Reber (B&R) correctly include historical perspectives into the scientific study of art appreciation. But artistic understanding always emerges from embodied simulation processes that incorporate the ongoing dynamics of brains, bodies, and world interactions. There may not be separate modes of artistic understanding, but a continuum of processes that provide imaginative simulations of the artworks we see or hear.
“The anti-developmental, the anti-narrative, the anti-historical”: Mondrian as a paradigmatic artist for empirical aesthetics
Authors: McManus Chris
Published: March 2013

In addition to general criticisms of scientific studies on empirical aesthetics, Bullot & Reber (B&R) particularly criticise two “representative studies” that manipulated paintings by Mondrian, those studies seemingly, “fail[ing] to consider the predictions suggested by a contextualist approach to the appreciation of imbalance” (sect. 4.2, para.2). Those criticisms are unjustified, both within the approaches of empirical aesthetics and the historical context and aims of Mondrian's work.
Exposure, experience, and intention recognition: Take it from the bottom
Authors: Rollins Mark
Published: March 2013

The psycho-historical account implies two ways of construing the relation of basic exposure to the artistic design stance and artistic understanding. One is empirically dubious and the other does not fit well with the account. The assumption that combining psychology with history requires identifying actual intentions is undermined by the artistic design stance.
A psycho-historical research program for the integrative science of art
Authors: Bullot Nicolas J. , Reber Rolf
Published: March 2013

Critics of the target article objected to our account of art appreciators' sensitivity to art-historical contexts and functions, the relations among the modes of artistic appreciation, and the weaknesses of aesthetic science. To rebut these objections and justify our program, we argue that the current neglect of sensitivity to art-historical contexts persists as a result of a pervasive aesthetic–artistic confound; we further specify our claim that basic exposure and the design stance are necessary conditions of artistic understanding; and we explain why many experimental studies do not belong to a psycho-historical science of art.
Repeated games for multiagent systems: a survey
Authors: Burkov Andriy , Chaib-Draa Brahim
Published: March 2013

Repeated games are an important mathematical formalism to model and study long-term economic interactions between multiple self-interested parties (individuals or groups of individuals). They open attractive perspectives in modeling long-term multiagent interactions. This overview paper discusses the most important results that actually exist for repeated games. These results arise from both economics and computer science. Contrary to a number of existing surveys of repeated games, most of which originated from the economic research community, we are first to pay a special attention to a number of important distinctive features proper to artificial agents. More precisely, artificial agents, as opposed to the human agents mainly aimed by the economic research, are usually bounded whether in terms of memory or performance. Therefore, their decisions have to be based on the strategies defined using finite representations. Furthermore, these strategies have to be efficiently computed or approximated using a limited computational resource usually available to artificial agents.
Variational approach to bifurcation from infinity for nonlinear elliptic problems
Authors: Byeon Jaeyoung , Lee Youngae
Published: March 2013

For any N ⩾ 1 and sufficiently small ε > 0, we find a positive solution of a nonlinear elliptic equation

when lim|x| → ∞V(x) = m > 0 and some optimal conditions on f are satisfied. Furthermore, we investigate the asymptotic behaviour of the solution as ε → 0.
Let the Little Children Come: Child Rearing as Challenge to Contemporary Christian Ethics
Authors: Wall John
Published: March 2013

A contemporary culture of market individualism in the United States today is increasingly marginalizing the lives of children. This situation requires Christian ethicists to raise once again, as in the historical past, the question of the larger meaning and purpose of child rearing as a serious disciplinary concern. This paper identifies fundamental issues of child rearing ontology, teleology, deontology, and practice, and maps out some newly emerging Christian ethical responses by communitarians, liberationists, and covenantalists. It then develops a larger social ethics of child rearing—drawing on a range of historical theological resources—able to speak to children's issues in a disciplinarily complex, publicly meaningful, and culturally transformative way. Its argument is that child rearing should be rescued from its increasing social privatization through a revised covenantal social ethic that strengthens the unique tasks of families but also places them within a larger interdependent nexus of community and state supports.
Modernity as a Stimulus of Reconciliation Between American Evangelicals and Catholics
Authors: Shea William M.
Published: March 2013

In my day in the New York Archdiocesan seminary there was a room in the library dedicated entirely to anti-Catholic literature, with four walls, ceiling to floor, of books and pamphlets exposing the various shortcomings and infidelities of the Romish Church. That collection in the New York seminary was more extensive than the collections I found in the Buswell Library at Wheaton College and the Billy Graham Center, and in the library of Westminster Theological Seminary forty years later. In the last ten years I have closely studied only a small fraction of the extant material. Even so, the literature I have plowed through is huge, and the literature of evangelical criticism and Catholic response which I will never get to study is vaster still.

While all of the material belongs in a collection of some sort, not much belongs on a library shelf. Much of it is literary and historical junk. Some of it borders on the savage: for example, H.G. Wells'Crux Ansatawith his suggestion that the allied bombers in World War II obliterate the Vatican. Wells and Jack Chick will sit in the same circle of Purgatory. But some of it is intellectually respectable, even if panic-ridden. Some of it is serious and responsible in its attempts at theological and historical criticism.
Confessions of A Fractured Catholic Theologian
Authors: Portier William L.
Published: March 2013

In the Divine Milieu, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin talked about the “passive diminishments” that accompany the passage of time. But often time's passing also brings a growing desire to look back, to reflect, and to try to see things whole. Recently I have found myself reflecting on U.S. Catholicism, Catholic theology in the United States, and myself as an historical theologian at the University of Dayton. My reflections assess the past, address the present, and look to the future.

I begin with U.S. Catholicism. The story I want to tell about it has a threefold lesson and I will state it very generally. First, as embodied mortals with immortal longings, we are rooted in particular times and places in the world. German philosophers sometimes call this our “historicity.” Second, whether we are aware of it or not, our historical sites or locations provide the forms and terms of our coming to know God. It was in Tenafly, New Jersey, for example, that my mother taught me to pray. Third, if we remain unmindful of the second lesson, we risk mistaking historical forms and terms for God. In biblical language, this would be idolatry. And finally, if my Catholic story is not your own, I ask you to allow it to stand as a figure or a type of the particular sited story you have to tell.
Theological Considerations—Hermeneutical, Ecclesiological, Eschatological Regarding Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past
Authors: Prusak Bernard P.
Published: March 2013

This article analyzes the International Theological Commission's Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past (MR). The document offers methodological reflections about how to proceed in implementing Pope John Paul II's call for the church to ask for forgiveness for past offenses at the dawn of the third millennium of Christianity. MR thus seeks to clarify “the reasons, the conditions, and the exact form of the requests for forgiveness for the faults of the past.” The article raises some specific concerns regarding the three operative distinctions that MR proposes to be applied: between the holiness of the church emphatically differentiated from holiness (and sinfulness) in the church; between church and social context in making historical and theological judgments; and between magisterium and authority in the church (that allows MR to explain how behavior contrary to the Gospel by persons vested with authority in the church need not imply involvement of the magisterial charism).
Genes, Original Sin and the Human Proclivity to Evil
Authors: Duffy Stephen J.
Published: March 2013

Theologians have long recognized that the Augustinian formulation of the doctrine of original sin, based on a historicized reading of Genesis 3, is at odds with biblical scholarship and with what science has established concerning our evolutionary origins. Setting aside Augustine's anti-Gnostic Adamic myth, some attempt to recast the doctrine within an evolutionary worldview by developing an anthropology within the framework of genetics and sociobiology, now evolutionary psychology. This essay argues that a wholly biological explanation of the human tendency to evil is inadequate, even reductionist, and it attempts a constructive reformulation of the doctrine that, while incorporating insights of evolutionary psychology, appeals also to ontological, psychological, and social dimensions of humanity that must also be considered if we are to retrieve the central, still valid point of the doctrine, that deep within human being there inheres a proclivity to evil.
Where We Dwell in Common
Authors: Haight Roger
Published: March 2013

The great surge of Christian missionary activity during the course of the nineteenth century elicited a new concern for church unity. Was this missionary activity, after all, spreading division? In 1910 representatives of Protestant churches came together to respond to that question in Edinburgh at The World Missionary Conference. The conference in its turn channeled the concern to the sending churches. Although somewhat slowed down by World War I, the ecumenical movement grew and was punctuated by landmark events in The Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work (Stockholm, 1925) and The World Conference of Faith and Order (Lausanne, 1927). The report of this second conference included a description of what the churches assembled in their representatives shared in common and the many things that distinguished and sometimes divided them. When the World Council of Churches came into existence in August of 1948, the Faith and Order movement was integrated into it as a distinct agency whose concern was the doctrinal unity of the churches. Its signal achievement thus far has been the document entitledBaptism, Eucharist, and Ministry, frequently referred to as the Lima document, which sketches a proposal for a common understanding of these three aspects of the church across the churches. This document is the best example of what I will call “transdenominational ecclesiology,” and the fact that it has received so much attention from the churches indicates that it plays some important role in the whole church.
Resisting the Eclipse of Dignitatis Humanae
Authors: Doak Mary
Published: March 2013

Vatican II's announcement of the Catholic Church's acceptance of religious freedom in its Declaration on Religious Freedom (Dignitatis Humanae) ought to have ushered in a period of ecumenical agreement on the topic of religious disestablishment. Instead, forty years after this most controversial document was promulgated, we find that public, academic, and even ecclesial discussions of the role of religion in public life are confused and in fact deeply contentious. The problem, however, is not thatDignitatis Humanaewas incoherent or naïve in its understanding of religious freedom, but that we have failed to grasp its nuanced and coherent manner of reconciling a robust religious freedom with a profound view of the political significance of religious beliefs. Careful attention to this Declaration provides a solid foundation for continuing political theology and a public presence of religion without infringing the important value of religious “disestablishment.”
The Abnormality of War: Dissecting the “Just War” Euphemisms and Building an Ethics of Peace
Authors: Maguire Daniel C.
Published: March 2013

I dedicate this essay to a ten year old Afghan boy, Mohammed Noor. He was having his Sunday dinner when an American bomb struck. He lost both eyes and both hands. Who, with this child in mind, would dare sing “God bless America,” the hymn that would make God a co-conspirator with American war-makers? The sightless eyes of this child should haunt us to the end of our days and sear on our souls the absolute need to not just pray for peace, but to do something to make it happen.
Intentionality Analysis and Intersubjectivity
Authors: Bracken Joseph A.
Published: March 2013

In Method in Theology Bernard Lonergan acknowledged the reality of intersubjectivity in human life and sought to incorporate it in various ways into his understanding of theological method. Building upon Lonergan's insights, this essay indicates how his three stages of meaning and different realms of meaning can be expanded in terms of the author's Neo-Whiteheadian metaphysics of universal intersubjectivity so as to justify a communal and processive approach to truth and objectivity in human affairs. In this way, Lonergan's transcendental method is clearly vindicated in a Neo-Whiteheadian as well as a Thomistic context and the resulting synthesis of metaphysical perspectives notably strengthens the position of those who advocate discussion and dialogue over the use of force for the resolution of persistent controversial issues.
Breakthrough or Tyranny: Monotheism's Contested Implications
Authors: Gnuse Robert
Published: March 2013

Modern scholars often have pointed out that the emergence of monotheism has occasioned repressive behavior in history, including the suppression of women. The author seeks to distinguish between what monotheistic faith should inherently do, create egalitarianism, as opposed to how monotheistic faith has been used by political powers to create oppression. To this end, the author refers to metaphors previously introduced into the discussion by other scholars, which speak of “monotheism from above” as opposed to “monotheism from below.” The author also believes that monotheism, especially the Judeo-Christian tradition, is on an evolutionary trajectory, ever unfolding the egalitarian implications of its own message, and ultimately it may evolve and transform society so as to preclude its use as a tool of oppression. Thus, the author seeks to respond to some of the issues raised by critical scholars concerning the inherent repression of monotheistic faiths.
The Limits of Ecclesial Metaphors in Systematic Ecclesiology
Authors: Flanagan Brian P.
Published: March 2013

This article looks at two major metaphors used in contemporary ecclesiology, the church as “the People of God” and as “the Bride of Christ,” which have functioned in some of the polarizing debates within the Catholic Church in North America. It then suggests some methodological reasons why reliance upon metaphors in ecclesiology, either through the balancing of different metaphors or the promotion of a dominant metaphor, is inadequate to the task of understanding the church systematically. It then suggests some avenues for future ecclesiological method that may help to understand the church better and so to respond better to contemporary ecclesiological debates.
Newman and Manning: the Strained Relationship
Authors: Miller Edward Jeremy
Published: March 2013

John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801–1890) is on the eve of being beatified. His contributions to theology and philosophy of religion are of such stature that many deem him worthy to be named a Doctor of the Church. Henry Edward Cardinal Manning (1808–1892) is thought to be the most illustrious of Westminster's archbishops since the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in England in 1850. Newman mistrusted Manning, and Manning thought Newman lacked orthodoxy. The strained relationship began in their Anglican days and continued life long. Its story is here recounted and concludes with an explanation of why strain set in. Their very different views on the workings of authority in the Church, the role of the laity in the Church, and the Church's relationship to the world provided a sure recipe for their continued alienation.
Is the Theology of Religions an Exhausted Project?
Authors: Feldmeier Peter
Published: March 2013

Theology of religions, which grounds a theological approach to non-Christian traditions, has become widely dismissed recently as irrelevant, and even challenged to be inimical to authentic dialogue. This article addresses the critiques and defends the viability and even necessity of a theology of religions. It does so by showing how postmodern insights provide the key to break the deadlock previously constraining theologies of religions.
Thinking About Disabilities with Justice, Liberation, and Mercy
Authors: Iozzio Mary Jo
Published: March 2013

This essay challenges the various considerations of people with disabilities that have long excluded them from interpersonal relationships beyond those they enjoy among themselves and their families. The Gospel calls for a different stance especially in light of Jesus' outreach to those with disabling conditions of many kinds, as well as in light of the crucifixion which marks Jesus forever with the disabling and disfiguring scars of a scandalous execution. The essay exposes a history of stigma and oppressions from which people with disabilities have suffered and asks where justice and mercy must serve people who have been set apart.
Hooking Up: Sex, Theology, and Today's “Unhooked” Dating Practices
Authors: Zimmerman Kari-Shane Davis
Published: March 2013

Current theological literature on dating emphasizes issues of premarital sex and chastity. At the same time, recent sociological research suggests that dating is being replaced by the alternative practice called “hooking up” among college-age students. A key issue not addressed in these discussions is whether the current generation's contraceptive practices influence the decision to hook up rather than date. I argue that one cause of younger women's sexual assertiveness today is the increased use of contraception, which in turn promotes a mentality that sustains the practice of hooking up and an insufficient anthropology. For theologians who attempt to discuss these issues with their students, a more adequate anthropology is necessary in order to better ground a theology of dating that is able to compete against the practice of hooking up.
Tasting God: Martin Buber's Sweet Sacrament of Dialogue
Authors: Kramer Kenneth P.
Published: March 2013

Martin Buber (1878–1965) stands among the most significant philosophers of the twentieth century. While many studies have attempted to summarize the scope of Buber's writings, here I will highlight some key implications of Buber's basic insight that there exists a deeply reciprocal bond between genuine interhuman dialogue and the divine-human relationship. Buber characterized authentic dialogue as sacramental, and he suggested that it included four elemental aspects: turning, addressing, listening, and responding. Every genuine dialogue opens out toward transcendence insofar as God's presence can be glimpsed as “absolute Person,” can be tasted as the spirit of elemental togetherness. The fundamental result of engaging in sacramental dialogue, both with others and with God, both in public discourse and private prayer, is the renewal of the entire person. As Buber repeatedly described it, to become who we are created to be—dialogical partners with God—it is the responsibility of every person to participate in God's creative, revealing, and redemptive presence in that part of the world where we stand.
World Christianity: Its Implications for History, Religious Studies, and Theology
Authors: Phan Peter C.
Published: March 2013

The paper traces the emergence of the concept of “World Christianity” to designate a new academic discipline beyond ecumenical and missiological discussions. It then elaborates the implications of “World Christianity” for the History of Christianity in contrast to Church History and for the study of Christianity as a “world religion.” The paper argues for an expansion of the “cartography” and “topography” of Church History to take into account the contributions of ecclesiastically marginalized groups and neglected charismatic/pentecostal activities. Furthermore, it is urged that in the study of Christianity as a world religion greater attention be given to how local communities have received and transformed the imported Christianities, the role of popular religiosity, and the presence of Evangelical/Pentecostal Churches. Finally, it is suggested that “World Christianity” requires the expansion of theological method and reformulation of some key Christian doctrines.
“Apocalyptic Sectarianism”: The Theology at Work in Critiques of Catholic Radicals
Authors: Peters Benjamin
Published: March 2013

This article examines contemporary critiques of Dorothy Day and other Catholic radicals that portray them as world-denying sectarians. Such critiques are then traced back to earlier ones made against American Catholic radicals during the years surrounding World War II, suggesting that all of these critiques stem from important shared theological claims held by both contemporary critics and their neo-Thomists predecessors. But such depictions are a caricature of the radical Christianity put forth by Day and others. I argue that far from denigrating human nature and history, Day and other radicals sought engagement with American society and culture that was neither an outright rejection nor a blanket affirmation. Rather, it was a form of ongoing and critical engagement in light of one's ultimate destiny. Thus Catholic radicals present an approach to social engagement which seeks to discern what is holy in American life and to perfect or abandon what is not.
The Tasks of Theology in the Proyecto Social of the University's Mission
Authors: Hinze Bradford E.
Published: March 2013

It is a great pleasure and honor to offer this address at the end of my term as president of the College Theology Society. I wish to begin by paying tribute to Sister Vera Chester, a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, a graduate of Marquette University, who served as the first woman president of the College Theology Society between 1980–1982. She died on April 22, 2012. I had the good for tune of having Vera Chester as one of my professors when I was an undergraduate student at the College of St. Thomas shortly after the Second Vatican Council. Although I was a philosophy major, I took quite a few classes in theology. In many of those philosophy and theology classes I witnessed my professors working through and acting out the postconciliar debates between the heirs of Neoscholastic Thomism and transcendental Thomism, and I learned a great deal in the process. I experienced a different kind of approach to theology in a course on spiritual autobiographies taught by Vera Chester at The College of St. Catherine. We were introduced to the writings of Augustine, John Henry Newman, Thomas Merton, and (if my memory is correct) Teresa of Avila and Thérèse of Lisieux. What strikes me about this course now is not only Vera's contagious joyful interest in her subject matter and her students, but also her awareness of the importance of introducing students to theology through the use of narratives, specifically autobiographies that describe spiritual life journeys.
Single-frequency Ionosphere-free Precise Point Positioning Using Combined GPS and GLONASS Observations
Authors: Cai Changsheng , Liu Zhizhao , Luo Xiaomin
Published: March 2013

Single-frequency Precise Point Positioning (PPP) using a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) has been attracting increasing interest in recent years due to its low cost and large number of users. Currently, the single-frequency PPP technique is mainly implemented using GPS observations. In order to improve the positioning accuracy and reduce the convergence time, we propose the combined GPS/GLONASS Single-Frequency (GGSF) PPP approach. The approach is based on the GRoup And PHase Ionospheric Correction (GRAPHIC) to remove the ionospheric effect. The performance of the GGSF PPP was tested using both static and kinematic datasets as well as different types of precise satellite orbit and clock correction data, and compared with GPS-only and GLONASS-only PPP solutions. The results show that the GGSF PPP accuracy degrades by a few centimetres using rapid/ultra-rapid products compared with final products. For the static GGSF PPP, the position filter typically converges at 71, 33 and 59 minutes in the East, North and Up directions, respectively. The corresponding positioning accuracies are 0·057, 0·028 and 0·121 m in the East, North and Up directions. Both positioning accuracy and convergence time have been improved by approximately 30% in comparison to the results from GPS-only or GLONASS-only single-frequency PPP. A kinematic GGSF PPP test was conducted and the results illustrate even more significant benefits of increased accuracy and reliability of PPP solutions by integrating GPS and GLONASS signals.
The epidemiological and clinical characteristics of measles in Wenzhou, China, 2000–2010
Authors: XU Z. W. , CHEN Y. P. , YANG M. J. , LI W. C. , LIU Q. , LIN J.
Published: March 2013

This study examined the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of measles in Wenzhou, China. From 2000 to 2010, a total of 13271 measles cases were reported in Wenzhou, with epidemics occurring every 3-4 years. Forty-five per cent of the cases were aged <1 year and 27·2% were aged >14 years. Of 2262 hospitalized measles cases, 66·3% were diagnosed with pneumonia, and three cases died from respiratory failure. The number of measles cases of infants requiring hospitalization increased from birth to age 8 months and declined thereafter. Measurement of serum measles antibody levels in normal infants indicates that over 80% of infants in Wenzhou may be susceptible to measles by age 6 months. The existence of a sufficient pool of unvaccinated children and the decreased level of passively transferred measles antibodies in infants from vaccinated mothers contributed to the sustained transmission observed in Wenzhou.
Morphometric of blastomeres in Salmo salar
Authors: Effer Brian R. , Sánchez Rubén R. , Ubilla Andrea M. , Figueroa Elías V. , Valdebenito Iván I.
Published: March 2013

For Salmo salar, there is a lack of information on the morphology of the first blastomeres formed during embryonic development and which could be used as a diagnostic tool for the first stages of development. The purpose of this investigation, therefore, was to characterize morphometrically the first blastomeres of S. salar. From a pool of eggs incubated at 7.5°C, 100 microphotographs of blastodiscs were extracted and analyzed at different incubation periods: 12, 14, 16, 20 or 24 h. Blastodiscs were characterized morphologically after 16, 20 or 24 h incubation, and classified into symmetric or asymmetric groups according to their morphology. The ratio of length (L) versus width (W) of each blastomere was determined, to establish its symmetry. In addition, 20 microphotographs of blastodiscs of normal appearance were analysed morphologically (control blastodisc: CB) for comparison (20 or 24 h). Results show that the first cleavage ends after 16 h of development. Seven categories were established during blastomere characterization: 47% normal (G1); 27% with dispersed margins (G2); 10% unequal (G3); 9% ‘pie-shaped’ (G4); 3% amorphous (G5); 2% three equal blastomeres and one different one (G6); and 2% with eccentric cleavage (G7). Although the incidence of abnormal cleavage in S. salar is uncertain, there is a potential for some asymmetries to be corrected during embryogenesis to generate viable individuals. More studies are necessary to correlate these abnormal cleavage patterns with indicators of quality in the later stages of embryogenesis in this species, to establish a quality assessment tool for gametes and/or embryos in salmonid species.
Supplementation of insulin–transferrin–selenium to embryo culture medium improves the in vitro development of pig embryos
Authors: Das Ziban Chandra , Gupta Mukesh Kumar , Uhm Sang Jun , Lee Hoon Taek
Published: March 2013

Insulin, transferrin and selenium (ITS) supplementation to oocyte maturation medium improves the post-fertilization embryonic development in pigs. ITS is also commonly used as a supplement for the in vitro culture (IVC) of embryos and stem cells in several mammalian species. However, its use during IVC of pig embryos has not been explored. This study investigated the effect of ITS supplementation to IVC medium on the in vitro development ability of pig embryos produced by parthenogenetic activation (PA), in vitro fertilization (IVF) or somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). We observed that ITS had no significant effect on the rate of first cleavage (P > 0.05). However, the rate of blastocyst formation in ITS-treated PA (45.3 ± 1.9 versus 27.1 ± 2.3%), IVF (31.6 ± 0.6 versus 23.5 ± 0.6%) and SCNT (17.6 ± 2.3 versus 10.7 ± 1.4%) embryos was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than those of non-treated controls. Culture of PA embryos in the presence of ITS also enhanced the expansion and hatching ability (29.1 ± 3.0 versus 18.2 ± 3.8%; P < 0.05) of blastocysts and increased the total number of cells per blastocyst (53 ± 2.5 versus 40.9 ± 2.6; P < 0.05). Furthermore, the beneficial effect of ITS on PA embryos was associated with significantly reduced level of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) (20.0 ± 2.6 versus 46.9 ± 3.0). However, in contrast to PA embryos, ITS had no significant effect on the blastocyst quality of IVF and SCNT embryos (P > 0.05). Taken together, these data suggest that supplementation of ITS to the IVC medium exerts a beneficial but differential effect on pig embryos that varies with the method of embryo production in vitro.