bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Structure and Absolute Configuration of 20β-Hydroxyprednisolone, a Biotransformed Product of Predinisolone by the Marine Endophytic Fungus Penicilium lapidosum
Authors: Sultan Sadia , Noor Muhammad , Anouar El , Shah Syed , Salim Fatimah , Rahim Rohani , Trabolsy Zuhra , Weber Jean-Frédéric
Published: September 2014

The anti-inflammatory drug predinisolone (1) was reduced to 20β-hydroxyprednisolone (2) by the marine endophytic fungus Penicilium lapidosum isolated from an alga. The structural elucidation of 2 was achieved by 1D- and 2D-NMR, MS, IR data. Although, 2 is a known compound previously obtained through microbial transformation, the data provided failed to prove the C20 stereochemistry. To solve this issue, DFT and TD-DFT calculations have been carried out at the B3LYP/6–31+G (d,p) level of theory in gas and solvent phase. The absolute configuration of C20 was eventually assigned by combining experimental and calculated electronic circular dichroism spectra and 3JHH chemical coupling constants.
Meeting Report from “Frontiers in Nutritional Science: Nutritional Metabolomics”
Authors: O'Callaghan Nathan , Noakes Manny
Published: September 2014

The potential for transforming nutritional and health research through the discovery and application of non-invasive markers of dietary intake and metabolic status is profound. The science of metabolomics for the fingerprinting of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from expired human breath holds great promise in this regard. Coupled with tools utilising sensor technology, breath volatile signatures allow a new horizon of research in which indicators of metabolic risk and indicators of dietary intake could be collected at a population level with unprecedented simplicity and low cost. Metabolomics (measuring metabolites from physiological process) provides a “window into the body”, which could transform how we measure health, how we identify and monitor people most at risk of disease and the way we monitor food intake. [...]
« Serious games » et recrutement : quels enjeux de recherche en gestion des ressources humaines ?
Authors: Galois-Faurie Isabelle , Lacroux Alain
Published: September 2014

La présente étude se propose d’explorer un domaine émergent dans le champ des sciences de la gestion : l’usage d’outils de réalité virtuelle dans le processus de recrutement. Nous nous intéressons en particulier à l’utilisation croissante des serious games (ou jeux sérieux) par les entreprises. Cette utilisation croissante, qui trouve notamment écho dans la presse managériale, semble correspondre à une évolution profonde, en partie commandée par l’évolution technologique et par le souhait de certaines entreprises de mettre en place des procédés innovants pour susciter des candidatures ciblées et sélectionner efficacement les postulants. Notre revue de littérature, menée dans le domaine des sciences de gestion mais également dans les domaines de l’apprentissage médiatisé et de l’usage des jeux vidéo, a été complétée par une étude exploratoire auprès d’experts suivant la méthode Delphi. Ceci nous a permis de mettre en évidence les enjeux psychologiques et managériaux liés à l’utilisation des serious games dans le processus de recrutement, et de dégager un certain nombre de voies de recherche potentiellement fructueuses dans le domaine de la gestion des ressources humaines.
Les consultants dans la prévention des risques psychosociaux au travail : proposition d'une typologie de pratiques
Authors: Chakor Tarik
Published: September 2014

L’objectif de cet article est d’analyser les pratiques des consultants dans la prévention des risques psychosociaux au travail (RPS). Phénomène au cœur de l’actualité mais mal défini, les RPS peuvent faire l’objet d’une approche restrictive, tendant à individualiser le risque, à limiter la responsabilité de l’employeur et à soigner le travailleur ; ou d’une approche élargie, appréhendant la dimension organisationnelle du risque, étendant la responsabilité de l’employeur et soignant le travail et son organisation. Il s’agit d’un champ stratégique autour de l’imputation de la responsabilité du risque, opposant principalement employeurs et représentants du personnel. Sur la base d’un échantillon de 37 consultants et d’une démarche exploratoire qualitative, ancrée dans le paradigme interprétativiste, nous avons souligné l’hétérogénéité de leurs pratiques, pouvant se traduire dans le choix du commanditaire, le profil disciplinaire du consultant, le contexte d’intervention et les modalités de questionnement, d’analyse et de « mise en marche » de la démarche. Il existe ainsi trois « pratiques-type » : les pratiques co-constructives, adaptatives et militantes. Inscrits dans une logique de marché, les consultants sont des acteurs hybrides, oscillant entre co-construction et adaptation, voire militantisme, en fonction des marges de manœuvre et des besoins du commanditaire.
Anti-NMDA Encephalitis: An Uncommon, Autoimmune Mediated Form of Encephalitis
Authors: Azizyan Avetis , Albrektson Joshua Raymond , Maya Marcel Menahem , Pressman Barry David , Moser Franklin
Published: August 2014

We report an interesting case of a 19 year old female with findings on MRI suggestive of viral encephalitis.  An extensive workup was negative for infectious causes and she was subsequently diagnosed with anti-NMDA encephalitis.  Anti-NMDA encephalitis is a highly lethal but treatable form of autoimmune encephalitis that has recently been characterized.  It is frequently found in young women and associated with an underlying teratoma.  Although rare, this diagnosis should be considered in young females for whom a rapid onset of encephalitis cannot be explained by more common causes.
Transarterial Embolization of a Hepatic Arteriovenous Malformation in an Infant Using Onyx: A Case Report and Review of the Differential Diagnosis Imaging Findings
Authors: Bolus Christopher , Yamada Ricardo , Alshora Sama , Hannegan Christopher , Anderson Bret
Published: August 2014

Hepatic arteriovenous malformations are rare congenital lesions associated with significant morbidity and mortality, most commonly from high output cardiac failure. Efficient diagnosis and treatment demands an interdisciplinary approach, and the interventional radiologist plays a pivotal role in both. Imaging is important for diagnostic accuracy and treatment planning, and transcatheter embolization has become an established primary therapy. We report the clinical and imaging findings of a rare hepatic arteriovenous malformation in an infant presenting with high-output cardiac failure and pulmonary artery hypertension that was successfully treated by transarterial embolization using Onyx.
Congenital Indifference to Pain: An Illustrated Case Report and Literature Review
Authors: Golshani Ashkahn , Kamdar Ankur , Spence Susanna , Beckmann Nicholas
Published: August 2014

Congenital indifference to pain is a rare and debilitating congenital disease.  Individuals with the disorder may have one or a combination of sensory or autonomic deficits, which can range from lack of mechanical nociception, diminished ability to detect heat and cool stimulation, to the devastating and fatal form which includes autonomic dysfunction.  It is important for radiologists to be able to recognize the radiographic presentations of this rare disorder, as delay in diagnosis can lead to extensive and sometimes unnecessary workup.  We present a case of congenital indifference to pain initially interpreted as a mass of the distal femur.
75 lecciones aprendidas en programas de alfabetización informacional en universidades iberoamericanas
Authors: Uribe Tirado Alejandro , Pinto María
Published: September 2014

El objetivo de este artículo es ofrecer una sistematización y organización de las lecciones aprendidas desde los programas más representativos de Alfabetización Informacional –ALFIN– en universidades iberoamericanas. Tras la aplicación de un modelo de captura de lecciones aprendidas basado en la triangulación de diferentes fuentes de información y métodos de investigación (análisis de la literatura y sitios web, entrevistas, encuestas, etc.), se ofrece como resultado las 75 lecciones aprendidas identificadas, categorizadas según cuatro grandes componentes, para que a modo de guía puedan ser utilizadas por las universidades iberoamericanas iniciadas y/o principiantes en el diseño de sus programas de formación en Alfabetización Informacional.
Universidades y Google News: visibilidad internacional a través de los medios de comunicación online
Authors: Herrero-Solana Víctor , Arboledas Luis , Legerén-Álvarez Elisa
Published: September 2014

La difusión de la actividad científica y la mediatización de la ciencia en la actualidad convergen en Internet. Ambos procesos contribuyen a la creación de la reputación online de las instituciones académicas. Este estudio discute si la capacidad investigadora de una universidad repercute en su presencia en los medios digitales. Para responder a esta cuestión se mide y compara la producción científica y las noticias recuperadas por Google News de nueve universidades. Los resultados muestran que las instituciones académicas con mayor capacidad científica tienen a su vez más visibilidad mediática y, por tanto, más impacto y prestigio.
Integrated Sensing Techniques for Assistive Chairs
Authors: Lu Hang , Li Dayou , Oyekan John , Maple Carsten
Published: September 2014

This paper presents a survey of the contemporary assistive chairs and on-chair sensing approaches of capturing sit-to-stand (STS) movement. Sitting in a chair and standing up from a seated position are activities of daily living (ADLs) performed by humans. However, older people often encounter difficulties with these activities. These difficulties may cause substantial decreasing of the elderly mobility, leading to inactive participation in social activities and increasing the risk of chronic diseases that may cause premature death. Therefore, assisting older people to overcome these difficulties has significance for their independent living. At present, the assistive devices can be allocated in terms of market available ones and experimental prototypes, both of which are discussed here. Afterwards, the authors cast more light on integrated sensing techniques that are currently used with experimental prototypes and create a taxonomy of sensing techniques. Following from this survey, a chair capable of delivering assistance-as-needed is proposed.
EARLY PREDICTORS OF RENAL DYSFUNCTION IN Β-THALASSEMIA MAJOR AND INTERMEDIA PATIENTS
Authors: Tantawy Azza A.G. , El Bablawy Nagham , Adly Amira A. M , Ebeid Fatma S E
Published: September 2014

Background: Better survival of thalassemia patients allowed previously unrecognized renal complications to emerge. Objectives: Assess prevalence and early predictors of renal dysfunction in young β-thalassemia major (β-TM) and intermedia (β-TI) patients. Subjects: 66 β-TM (group I), 26 β-TI (group II) Egyptian patients and 40 healthy controls. Methods: History, examination and investigations that included kidney function tests, serum ferritin, serum bicarbonate, plasma osmolality and urinary total proteins, microalbuminuria (MAU), N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase (NAG), retinol binding protein (RBP), α-1 microglobulin, bicarbonate, osmolality, Creatinine clearance (CrCl), % fractional excretion of bicarbonate (% FE-HCO3). Results: The most common renal abnormality was proteinuria (71%), followed by increased urinary level of RBP (69.4%), NAG (58.1%), α-1 microglobulin (54.8%) and microalbumin (29%) and also decreased urinary osmolality (58.1%). Although serum creatinine and BUN were not statistically different between thalassemia patients and control, CrCl were significantly lowered in thalassemia patients. Total serum protein and albumin was significant lower in splenectomized β-TM, whereas urinary total protein and MAU were significantly increased in all thalassemia patients. NAG, RBP and α-1 microglobulin were negatively correlated with CrCl and positively correlated with serum ferritin and urinary total protein. Z-score analysis for discrimination of patients with renal dysfunction proved superiority of urine total protein and RBP. Comparative statistics of different frequencies revealed significant difference between the urinary total protein and both MAU and % FE-HCO3. Conclusion: Asymptomatic renal dysfunctions are prevalent in young β-TM and β-TI patients that necessitate regular screening and urinary total protein and RBP may be cost-effective for early detection.
IS HEMOGLOBIN E GENE WIDELY SPREAD IN THE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH IN CENTRAL INDIA? EVIDENCE FROM FIVE TYPICAL FAMILIES
Authors: Balgir R S
Published: September 2014

Background: Red cell inherited hemoglobin anomalies are commonly encountered in the central region of India. These cause a public health concern due to high degree of morbidity, mortality, and fetal loss in the backward, underprivileged, and vulnerable people. Purpose: To report five typical families of hemoglobin E disorders identified for the first time in the state of Madhya Pradesh from central India. Methods: Out of a total of 445 couples/families (excluding the present study) with 1526 persons (848 males and 678 females) referred from a tertiary hospital in central India for investigations of anemia/hemoglobinopathies during the period from March 2010 to February 2014, we came across five typical rare couples/families of hemoglobin E disorders worthy of detailed investigations. Laboratory investigations were carried out following the standard procedures after cross checking for quality control from time to time. Results: For the first time, we have encountered nine cases of heterozygous hemoglobin E trait, two members with hemoglobin E-β-thalassemia (double heterozygosity), two cases of sickle cell-hemoglobin E disease (double heterozygosity), and none with homozygous hemoglobin E. Cases  of hemoglobin E trait, hemoglobin E-β-thalassemia, sickle cell-β-thalassemia and sickle cell-E disease showed moderate to severe anemia, and target cells, and reduced values of red cell indices like RBC, Hb level, HCT, MCV, MCH and MCHC, representing abnormal hematological profile and clinical manifestations before blood transfusion. Conclusions: Double heterozygosity for hemoglobinopathies such as occurrence of β-thalassemia mutation with structurally abnormal hemoglobins (Hb S and Hb E) is a rare entity, but occurs with severe clinical manifestations only in those areas or communities where these are highly prevalent, testifying the migrations and genetic admixture. Distribution of hemoglobin E and β-thalassemia in different districts of Madhya Pradesh indicates that abnormal Hb E gene has wide spread and needs prevention for the rehabilitation of vulnerable people in central India.
A perspective on notions of spirituality, democracy, social cohesion and public theology
Authors: Tshaka Rothney S.
Published: September 2014

This article explores the notions of spirituality, democracy, social cohesion and public theology briefly. Whilst these notions seem unrelated to each other, the article finds that they are indeed very much related especially in a conversation pertaining to the role of theology in democratic South Africa today. It argues that these notions are particularly important if one seeks the unity of a dislocated people. The word dislocation here refers to more than merely those who were dispossessed of their wealth and land, but speaks especially also to a spiritual dislocation which happened as a result of that material dislocation. Black liberation theology which has always been public must be seen to incorporate issues of the spiritual in its reflections. All this, it is argued, has pertinent repercussions for social cohesion in South Africa today.
Attitudes toward psychotropic medications among patients with chronic psychiatric disorders and their family caregivers
Authors: Grover Sandeep , Chakrabarti Subho , Sharma Aarti , Tyagi Shikha
Published: September 2014

Aim: To examine attitudes towards psychotropic medications among patients with chronic psychiatric disorders as well as their family caregivers by using factor analysis. Materials and Methods: The study included 200 patients and their family caregivers with chronic psychiatric disorders who are attending the psychiatry outpatient services. A self-designed 18-item self-rated questionnaire was used to evaluate the attitude toward psychotropics and factor analysis was done to study the different models of attitudes. Results: In general both patients and caregivers had positive attitude toward the psychotropic medications and there was no significant difference between the patients and caregivers on the various items of the questionnaire assessing the attitude. Factor analysis of the questionnaire indicated that either two-factor or four-factor models explained the attitude of the patients and caregivers. In the two-factor model there was one positive and one negative attitude factor, whereas the four-factor model comprised of two positive and two negative attitude factors. The four-factor model of attitudes provided a more comprehensive solution to how attitudes might be formed among patients and their family caregivers. Factors one and four in the four-factor solution still reflected positive attitudes, but appeared to portray a risk-benefit approach, in which benefits such as the efficacy of psychotropic medications in treating mental illnesses and preventing relapse, and medications being better than other options were being contrasted with the risks of side effects and permanent damage or harm. Conclusion: Attitudes of patients with chronic psychiatric disorders and their caregivers toward psychotropic medications appear to be shaped by factors such as perceived efficacy or benefit from medicines, the necessity for taking treatment and concerns such as side effects, harm or expense.
Iniencephaly: Radiological and pathological features of a series of three cases
Authors: Chikkannaiah Panduranga , Srinivasamurthy V. , Satish Prasad B. S. , Lalyanayak Pradeepkumar , Shivaram Divya N.
Published: September 2014

Iniencephaly is a rare form of neural tube defect with an incidence of 0.1-10 in 10,000 pregnancies. It is characterized by the presence of occipital bone defects at foramen magnum, fixed retroflexion of head, spinal dysmorphism, and lordosis of cervicothoracic vertebrae. It is usually associated with central nervous system, gastrointestinal, and cardiovascular anomalies. We present radiological and autopsy findings in a series of 3 cases of iniencephaly (gestational ages 29.3, 23, and 24 weeks) first fetus in addition showed omphalocele, pulmonary hypoplasia, two lobes in right lung, accessory spleen, atrial septal defect, bilateral clubfoot, ambiguous genitalia, and single umbilical artery. Second fetus was a classical case of iniencephaly apertus with spina bifida. Third fetus had colpocephaly and bifid spine.
Head banging persisting during adolescence: A case with polysomnographic findings
Authors: Gupta Ravi , Goel Deepak , Dhyani Mohan , Mittal Manish
Published: September 2014

Head banging is a sleep-related rhythmic movement disorder of unknown etiology. It is common during infancy; however, available literature suggests that prevalence decreases dramatically after childhood. We report the case of a 16-year-old male who presented with head banging. The symptoms were interfering with his functioning and he had been injured because of the same in the past. We are presenting the video-polysomnographic data of the case. Possible differential diagnoses, etiology, and treatment modalities are discussed. The boy was prescribed clonazepam and followed up for 3 months. Parents did not report any episode afterward.
Psychiatry in 21st century: The road ahead
Authors: Mitra Sayantanava , Kavoor Anjana Rao
Published: September 2014

In spite of becoming more humane in its approach with improvements in understanding of mental illnesses over last century, psychiatry still has a long way to go. At this point in time, on one hand the world faces issues like terrorism, wars and global warming; while on the other it is witnessing economic and gender empowerment like never before. With technology providing us with immense opportunities to advance care for the mentally ill, we are closer than ever to finding the holy-grail of psychiatry, and overcoming daunting challenges.
The effects of ovariectomy on meat performance and expression of GH/IGF-I in young goats
Authors: Zhang Lei , Wang Yan-yan , Fu Ming-zhe , Li Guang , An Ning , Li Si-yao , Zhou Zhan-qin
Published: September 2014

Zhang, L., Wang, Y.-y., Fu, M.-z., Li, G., An, N., Li, S.-y. and Zhou, Z.-q. 2014. The effects of ovariectomy on meat performance and expression of GH/IGF-I in young goats. Can. J. Anim. Sci. 94: 619–626. Experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of ovariectomy on meat production efficiency and to explore the expression of GH/IGF-I in young goats. Animal performance, meat quality, levels of serum growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-I), and mRNA levels of three key genes [GH Receptor (GHR), IGF-I and IGF-I Receptor (IGF-IR)] in longissimus dorsi and biceps femoris muscles were measured. The results show that carcass weight, net meat mass, fat weight and loin eye area of ovariectomized goats were higher than those of the controls, and ovariectomized goats lost 0.40 kg of bone weight (P<0.05). There was no statistically valid difference for the color, pH, water-holding capacity, or cooking rate of meat (P>0.05) between the two groups, except for the shear value, which was significantly lower in the Ovx group than in the control group (P<0.05). The results of this research show for the first time a significant trend (P<0.05) for serum GH and IGF-I in the direction of increasing in ovariectomized goats. Furthermore, the mRNA levels of GHR, IGF-I and IGF-IR in muscle were all up-regulated, except for the IGF-I gene in biceps femoris, by ovariectomy. In summary, ovariectomy showed a beneficial promotion in animal performance, but did not reduce meat quality, and increased serum GH and IGF-I and mRNA expression levels of GHR, IGF-I and IGF-IR in young female goats.
Stubble management effects on canola performance across different climatic regions of western Canada
Authors: Cardillo Michael J. , Bullock Paul , Gulden Rob , Glenn Aaron , Cutforth Herb
Published: September 2014

Cardillo, M. J., Bullock, P., Gulden, R., Glenn, A. and Cutforth, H. 2015. Stubble management effects on canola performance across different climatic regions of western Canada. Can. J. Plant Sci. 95: 149–159. Previous research in the most arid region of the Canadian prairies has shown that wheat stubble cut tall the previous year can improve performance of the following canola crop. This study aimed to determine if tall stubble could benefit canola across the climatic conditions typically experienced in western Canada. Tall stubble impacts on canola were monitored over 11 site-years located throughout the prairies. At each site, tall stubble (50 cm) was compared with short stubble (20 cm). At some sites the stubble lodged allowing an unintended comparison between stubble that remained intact and stubble that was flattened. The comparison of snow water equivalent showed tall stubble caught more snow than short stubble but the benefit of additional spring soil moisture was masked by heavy spring precipitation in both 2011 and 2012. Canola biomass and yield were significantly lower in damaged versus intact stubble, either short or tall. In both years, wet spring conditions were followed by hotter and drier weather in the mid to late growing season. Soil under the damaged stubble (short or tall) likely warmed and dried more slowly in the spring, limiting early-season growth, biomass and yield. At sites where both tall and short stubble remained intact, there was a significant yield advantage with tall stubble. The intact tall stubble may have slowed evaporation and soil drying compared with intact short stubble, which reduced moisture stress later in the growing season, imparting a yield advantage.
CO453 corn inbred line
Authors: Reid L. M. , Voloaca C. , Wu J. , Woldemariam T. , Jindal K. , Zhu X.
Published: September 2014

Reid, L. M., Voloaca, C., Wu, J., Woldemariam, T., Jindal, K. and Zhu, X. 2015. CO453 corn inbred line. Can. J. Plant Sci. 95: 183–188. CO453 is a short season corn (Zea mays L.) inbred line with excellent combining ability as well as intermediate resistance to common smut, common rust and eyespot. Excellent hybrid yields and performance data were achieved when CO453 was combined with the Iodent inbred MBS8148 and the stiff stalk inbred MBS1130.
Composition of phenolics and volatiles in strawberry cultivars and influence of preharvest hexanal treatment on their profiles
Authors: Misran Azizah , Padmanabhan Priya , Sullivan J. Alan , Khanizadeh Shahrokh , Paliyath Gopinadhan
Published: September 2014

Misran, A., Padmanabhan, P., Sullivan, J. A., Khanizadeh, S. and Paliyath, G. 2015. Composition of phenolics and volatiles in strawberry cultivars and influence of preharvest hexanal treatment on their profiles. Can. J. Plant Sci. 95: 115–126. Biochemical changes of quality-determining components were evaluated in strawberry fruit subjected to preharvest spray treatments using a hexanal-containing formulation that is known to enhance shelf life and quality of fruits. Phenolic compounds and volatiles of fruits of four strawberry cultivars (Mira, Jewel, Kent, and St. Pierre) grown in southern Ontario were characterized by HPLC-MS and solid phase micro extraction (SPME) analysis. Qualitative and quantitative profiles of phenolic compounds varied among the cultivars. In all the cultivars, anthocyanins constituted the most prominent class of phenolic compounds. Volatile profiles of strawberry homogenate differed among the cultivars. Changes in phenolics and volatiles composition were determined in fruits of Mira and Jewel after spraying with a hexanal-containing formulation at weekly intervals. In Jewel, preharvest hexanal spraying altered the profiles of polyphenolic components, while minimal changes were noticed in Mira. Interestingly, very few differences were identified in ester profiles of treated and untreated Mira. In general, hexanal spray application resulted in a decrease in the abundance of several volatile components including esters, ketones, and lactones in treated Jewel compared with the control. The results suggest that cultivar-specific quality changes may result from a preharvest application of hexanal formulations, which may also imply different patterns of metabolite channeling and delay of fruit ripening processes.
AAC Whitehorse great northern dry bean
Authors: Balasubramanian P. M. , Mündel H.-H. , Chatterton S. , Conner R. L. , Hou A.
Published: September 2014

Balasubramanian, P., Mündel, H.-H., Chatterton, S., Conner, R. L. and Hou, A. 2015. AAC Whitehorse great northern dry bean. Can. J. Plant Sci. 95: 175–177. AAC Whitehorse is a high-yielding, early-maturing great northern bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) cultivar with an upright, indeterminate bush growth habit, large seed size and partial field resistance to white mould. AAC Whitehorse was developed at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Research Centre, Lethbridge, AB. AAC Whitehorse is suitable for irrigated wide row production in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Wood ash as a forest soil amendment: The role of boiler and soil type on soil property response
Authors: Pugliese Stephanie , Jones Trevor , Preston Michael D. , Hazlett Paul , Tran Honghi , Basiliko Nathan
Published: August 2014

Pugliese, S., Jones, T., Preston, M. D., Hazlett, P., Tran, H. and Basiliko, N. 2014. Wood ash as a forest soil amendment: The role of boiler and soil type on soil property response. Can. J. Soil Sci. 94: 621–634. Wood ash is produced in large quantities in Canada as a by-product of the pulp and paper, sawmill, and bioenergy industries and it is anticipated that its disposal in landfills will not be a viable option. An alternative option may be to use it to amend forest soils. Wood ash is a complex mixture and its composition depends on several variables, including the combustion parameters of the boiler in which it is generated. We present an analysis of the amendment of two Canadian forest soils (a Brunisol from the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence and a Luvisol from the Carolinian forest regions of Ontario) with six different wood ashes collected from different biomass boilers through short-term controlled incubations. We show that following an 8-wk incubation period, amendment of the soils with wood ash led to small to moderate increases in soil pH, but had little effect on soil microbial activity and biomass. The concentration of important base cations such as calcium, magnesium and potassium as well as phosphorus generally increased in both soil types following amendment with different ash. This practice can return nutrients lost from forest ecosystems during harvesting; however, effects were found to be boiler-specific. Lastly, we show that four ash types led to small increases in cadmium in either soil; the concentration of all other measured heavy metals was not significantly increased following amendment, and in certain cases decreased, particularly with lead. The only potentially negative aspect encountered was elevated sodium, particularly with ash from one boiler, but unacceptable Na-absorptivity ratios were not exceeded. These results demonstrate that with proper characterization and selection of wood ash type and application rates, amendment of Canadian forest soils with wood ash may benefit forest ecosystems and is unlikely to disrupt the chemical and biological processes in soil environments.
Convergence and rate of approximation in $BV^{\varphi}(\mathbb R^N_+)$ for a class of Mellin integral operators
Authors: Angeloni Laura , Vinti Gianluca
Published: August 2014

In this paper we study convergence results and rate of approximation for a family of linear integral operators of Mellin type in the frame of

BV^{\varphi}(\mathbb R^N_+)

. Here

BV^{\varphi}(\mathbb R^N_+)

denotes the space of functions with bounded

\varphi-

variation on

\mathbb R^N_+

, defined by means of a concept of multidimensional

\varphi-

variation in the sense of Tonelli.
The genus of the configuration spaces for Artin groups of affine type
Authors: Moroni Davide , Salvetti Mario , Villa Andrea
Published: August 2014

Let

(\mathbf W,S)

be a Coxeter system,

S

finite, and let

\mathbf G_{\mathbf W}

be the associated Artin group. One has _ configuration spaces_

\mathbf Y,\ \mathbf Y_{\mathbf W},

where

\mathbf G_{\mathbf W}=\pi_1(\mathbf Y_{\mathbf W}),

and a natural

\mathbf W

-covering

f_{\mathbf W}:\ \mathbf Y\to\mathbf Y_{\mathbf W}.

The_Schwarz genus_

g(f_{\mathbf W})

is a natural topological invariant to consider. In [DS00] it was computed for all finite-type Artin groups, with the exception of case

A_n

(for which see [Vas92],[DPS04]). In this paper we generalize this result by computing the Schwarz genus for a class of Artin groups, which includes the affine-type Artin groups. Let

K=K(\mathbf W,S)

be the simplicial scheme of all subsets

J\subset S

such that the parabolic group

\mathbf W_J

is finite. We introduce the class of groups for which

\mathrm{dim}(K)

equals the homological dimension of

K,

and we show that

g(f_{\mathbf W})

is always the maximum possible for such class of groups. For affine Artin groups, such maximum reduces to the rank of the group. In general, it is given by

\mathrm{dim}(\mathbf X_{\mathbf W})+1,

where

\mathbf X_{\mathbf W}\subset \mathbf Y_{\mathbf W}

is a well-known

CW

-complex which has the same homotopy type as

\mathbf Y_{\mathbf W}

.
Computations with modified diagonals
Authors: O'Grady Kieran G.
Published: August 2014

Motivated by conjectures of Beauville and Voisin on the Chow ring of Hyperkähler varieties we will prove some basic results on the rational equivalence class of modified diagonals of projective varieties.
The steep Nekhoroshev’s Theorem and optimal stability exponents (an announcement)
Authors: Guzzo Massimiliano , Chierchia Luigi , Benettin Giancarlo
Published: August 2014

A new statement of Nekhoroshev’s theorem in the general steep case with stability exponents, conjectured to be optimal, is presented.

Si presenta un nuovo enunciato del teorema di Nekhoroshev nel caso ripido ("steep") generico, con migliori esponenti di stabilità, che si congetturano essere ottimali.
Mathematics helps assessing the risks of esophageal thermal lesions in pulmonary veins isolation by means of cryoablation
Authors: Fasano Antonio , Anfuso Luca , Borsi Iacopo
Published: August 2014

Cryoablation of the pulmonary veins ostia in the left atrium is a procedure often used to cure drug resistant atrial fibrillation. Among the possible complications esophageal thermal lesions can be induced, which in some case turn out to be lethal. Hence the importance of predicting the thermal field created around the heart during the procedure. This goal is achieved here by utilizing a suitably simplified geometry and assuming that heat propagation is governed by the bioheat equation with temperature dependent blood perfusion rate.
Surface measures in infinite dimension
Authors: Da Prato Giuseppe , Lunardi Alessandra , Tubaro Luciano
Published: August 2014

We construct surface measures associated to Gaussian measures in separable Banach spaces, and we prove several properties including an integration by parts formula.
Boats, Borders and the Geo-Imaginaries of the South
Authors: Maravillas Francis
Published: September 2014

This paper activates a mode of spatial inquiry into Australia’s identity through an analysis of a number of frames through which the passage and interdiction of boats off the coast of the nation may be viewed. In particular, I explore the way in which Australia’s paradoxical geographical location as South of both the West and Asia play a key role in affixing the horizon within which a conception of the nation and its relationship with the world was – and continues to be – defined and shaped. Moreover, I not only critically probe the constitutive fears and anxieties that underlie bounded conceptions of the trope of the South, but also to examine how such a trope can articulate itself as a site of exchange and negotiation, a distinctive borderland that engenders new cartographies of difference and belonging in an increasingly globalised and interconnected world. I show how these frames overlap and converge on the wider questions of space, place and identity at the very moment when the process of globalisation and migration has done so much to shake any certainties about Australia’s identity as a geographically distinct and spatially bounded nation-state. In so doing, they represent crucial sites for articulating and enacting a transcultural politics of mobility and spatiality that attends to the ways in which the trope of the South may been imagined not as a sphere of containment or an enclaved territory, but as an evolving cartography, the shifting outlines of which opens up new horizons of possibility for rethinking the spatial and temporal coordinates of Australia in a globalizing world.
I, Migrant?
Authors: Walker Amelia
Published: September 2014

‘I, Migrant?’ is a narrative poetry sequence that explores themes of language, culture, identity and belonging through the eyes of an Australian living in Den Haag, The Netherlands. The speaker in the poems faces challenges such as seeking work and making friends in a context where she does not speak the dominant language, Dutch. This proves far from easy, destabilising her sense of identity. She questions where and how she can belong. Reluctant to join what she considers “the white ghetto of Den Haag,” the speaker initially attempts to assimilate herself into Dutch culture, but later finds solace in a community of other expats. Within this community, national identities become exaggerated and people morph into stereotypes. The speaker increasingly defines herself as “Australian,” performing this identity both publicly and in private. Beneath the surface there bubbles, however, an awareness that she is acting out a myth. A more genuine sense of belonging emerges, unexpectedly, in an Asian food court, where she converses in Dutch with staff who also speak it as their second language. The speaker concludes that identity is located in language. It is therefore neither fixed nor singular, but multiple and forever changing.
Singleness, Marriage, and the Construction of Heterosexual Masculinities: Australian Men Teaching English in Japan
Authors: Appleby Roslyn
Published: September 2014

This article reports on a study of Australian men and their accounts of living and working in Japan as English language teachers. In this site, recent research has explored Japanese discourses of desire for the West, Western men, and English language learning. These patterns of desire have afforded white Western men a privileged personal and professional status in Japan, and enabled access to employment opportunities as teachers of English language. At the same time, white Western men working as English language teachers face the challenge of negotiating competing discourses that threaten their social status. In particular, their employment in a lowly-regarded profession and a reputation for sexual promiscuity potentially position Western male language teachers as the ‘white trash’ of Asia. My analysis of interview data focuses on the ways in which the men negotiate these discourses, and construct ‘respectable’ Western heterosexual masculinities by mobilising a binary distinction between singleness and marriage. Marriage to a Japanese spouse is presented as a bulwark against alignment with problematic discourses that threaten the status of white masculinity: it is associated with fidelity and maturity, and with integration into Japanese social, linguistic and professional communities. However, the articulation of marital status also reinforces a marginalised position for teachers who do not conform to heteronormative expectations.
You Eat What You Are: Identity Via Cannibalistic Food Ethics In Ying Chen’s Le Mangeur
Authors: Robert Julie Lynn
Published: September 2014

Shanghai-born Québécoise Ying Chen focuses her 2006 novel, Le Mangeur, on the ethics of nurturing, locating this key term at the etymological nexus of filiation and nourishment, two recurrent themes in her oeuvre. This instalment in her series of novels about an ambiguously defined female narrator revolves around what proves to be a morbid but still nurturing link between father and daughter. Through the act of the narrator’s becoming food via dysfunctional nurturing—an endogamous, even incestuous, cannibalism—Chen calls to mind debates about modern food politics and situates them on the knife-edge of binaries of self and other, living and dead, human and animal, edible and inedible implicit in questions of food in general, cannibalism in particular, and of the cultural questions of identity inherent to both. By subverting expectations, challenging them by pushing accepted binaries to their illogical extremes and thereby collapsing them Chen succeeds in questioning Brillat-Savarin’s maxim, you are what you eat.
The Cook and the Writer: Maryse Condé's Journey of Self-Discovery
Authors: Thomas Bonnie
Published: September 2014

In her 2006 memoir, Victoire, les saveurs et les mots, (translated into English as Victoire: My Mother’s Mother), celebrated Guadeloupean writer Maryse Condé makes an explicit comparison between herself and her maternal grandmother Victoire. A work of literary invention as much as of personal reflection, this book represents an example of Condé’s quest to know herself as a woman and a writer. It also enables her to fill in some of the gaps left by her mother Jeanne who was always reluctant to share details of her childhood with her daughter and died when Condé was only twenty. One of the few facts Jeanne gives to her about Victoire is that she was a cook and that the results of her labour helped open the doors to greater autonomy for her daughter and, consequently, her granddaughter. This paper will examine the way in which food and cooking are linked to Condé’s journey of self-discovery as well as to the historical trajectory of the French Caribbean islands of Marie-Galante and Guadeloupe.
Introduction: Edible Alterities, Perspectives from La Francophonie
Authors: Giovanangeli Angela , Robert Julie
Published: September 2014

This special issue of Portal contains papers that investigate the ways in which food and food cultures have created but have also disrupted links between different parts of the Fancophone world and between Francophone culture and other societies. Long considered a cornerstone of what is “French”, food and food culture in French speaking societies outside of France (and outside of many of the major centres of French cuisine within France) have been eclipsed by the dominance of the French culinary tradition. This volume uses examinations of literature, festivals, daily practices, languages and diaries to explore how Francophone cultures outside of France have not only positioned themselves relative to the dominant models of French food culture, but have used local produce and practices to question the fundamental assumptions and conventions concerning food in Francophone societies and in broader transnational contexts.
Flora y fauna crónica (Flora & fauna chronicles)
Authors: Chávez-Silverman Susana
Published: September 2014

“Flora & Fauna Crónica” is from the book, Killer Crónicas, which will be published by the University of Wisconsin Press in 2004. This collection of chronicles began in 2000, after Susana was awarded a fellowship by the US National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for a project on contemporary Argentine women's poetry. She spent thirteen months in Buenos Aires where, in addition to research and writing on her official (academic) book, she began to send bilingual, punning “letters from the southern [cone] front” to colleagues and friends by email. Susana says: “Living in Buenos Aires, that gorgeous, turn of the century city in a country on the brink of (economic) collapse—home to many of the authors and artists I had long admired (Borges, Cortázar, Alfonsina Storni, Alejandra Pizarnik, and before them the foundational Romantics, Sarmiento and Echeverría)—brought out a sense of self, dis/placed yet oddly at home, in a cultural, linguistic and even tangible way. In Buenos Aires, the fragmented parts of me, the voices, cultures, and places inside of me, rubbed up against each other and struck fire. I called my email missives “Crónicas,” inspired by the somewhat rough-hewn, journalistic, often fantastic first-hand accounts sent “home” by the early conquistadores, and refashioned by modern-day counterparts such as Carlos Monsiváis, Elena Poniatowska, and Cristina Pacheco.” One of Susana’s crónicas, “Anniversary Crónica,” inspired by the wedding anniversary of Susana’s parents and by the so-called “Soweto Riots” in South Africa, was recently awarded First prize in Personal Memoir in the Chicano Literary Excellence Contest sponsored by the U.S. national literary magazine el Andar.
The Militant Nun as Political Activist and Feminist in Martial Law Philippines
Authors: Roces Mina
Published: September 2014

During the martial law era (1972-1986), the militant nuns were the most visible symbols of political activism: they dominated the Task Force Detainees, they were active in the underground press, and were present in the labour strikes and demonstrations. But, in becoming political activists, they discovered the potential of moral power as women religious figures. During the People Power revolution, for example, the nuns – armed only with rosaries, confronted the military (the supreme example of machismo politics) and triumphed. In the process of attacking political oppression, these nuns also began to challenge cultural constructions of the feminine – becoming the first overt feminists to do so in Philippine history. This paper explores how martial law transformed these women into militant activists and feminists. Although driven by their struggle to protect the victims of martial law, they also succeeded in empowering themselves. This new ‘moral power’ has since been harnessed for women’s issues.
Germany: Myth and Apologia in Christa Wolf’s Novel Medea. Voices
Authors: Lü Yixu
Published: September 2014

In 1995, Christa Wolf, the most eminent author of the former German Democratic Republic, published the novel Medea. Voices. It takes up themes which have been worked and re-worked in European literature since Euripides’ tragedy, and which go back into pre-literary myth. Medea has many guises: she can be seen as the monstrous mother; as the victim of Jason’s fickle nature; or as the perpetual ‘stranger’, the woman who has given up all her origins, only to be disowned.

Christa Wolf’s novel concentrates on the impossibility of dialogue—not merely between different cultures, but also between the sexes within one culture. ‘Estrangement’ has come to define the human condition. In this—by no means novel—generalization of cultural antagonism to explain what makes human society violent, there lie many unanswered questions.

The hypothesis I offer is that such fictions lead to inaccurate generalizations if we take them as more than just elaborations of tragic myth. My paper will seek to narrow this focus once more—in a critical sense—by posing the question: to what extent does this specific adaptation of the myth by Christa Wolf reflect problems within the society of reunified Germany post-1989?
Imagining Exodus for Israel-Palestine: Reading the Secular and the Sacred, Diaspora and Homeland, in Edward Said and David Grossman
Authors: Hartnell Anna
Published: September 2014

This paper takes as its starting point Edward Said's distinction between 'religious' and 'secular' modes of cultural affiliation. As these simultaneously diverging and converging modes also trammel the particular grounds of thinking that have been Said's natural target of criticism - Zionism - his work speaks particularly powerfully to the debate surrounding the religious genealogy of Jewish identity. This paper argues that Said's interventions on Zionism highlight as problematic the position whereby the 'Ingathering of the Exiles' is promoted as coexisting with a 'diasporic consciousness' nurtured by Judaism during exile; messianic hopes of religious Jews cannot be reconciled with physical return to the Promised Land; identity circumscribed by ethnicity and place cannot stand in as exemplary for the exiled, unsettled and ultimately homeless identity trumpeted by discourses of the 'post', as many contemporary theorists would have it. And yet through an exploration of the writings of David Grossman, whose construction of Jewish identity is envisaged through the regulating, competing and collaborating tropes of Zionism and Diaspora, I argue that this position is crucial for the elaboration of Israeli identity. I also argue that in fact there is room within Said's thinking both for the anti-essentialist elaboration of 'homeless' identities as well as 'the permission to narrate' an identity politics, and that his own distinction between the 'secular' and the 'religious' begins to disassemble. I explore this blurring of the sacred and the secular through the prism of Exodus - as both concept and narrative. This paper suggests that it is precisely Said's achievement to embody these tensions between religion and its other, divine providence and human agency, historical materialism and postmodernism, alienation and its perennially tempting opposite: home.