bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Hole concentration dependence of the Curie temperature of (Ga,Mn)Sb in a field-effect structure
Authors: Wen Chang Hsiao , Akita Shingo , Matsukura Fumihiro , Ohno Hideo
Published: October 2013

We investigate magnetotransport properties of thin (Ga,Mn)Sb layers in a field-effect structure. By changing the hole concentration p in the channel by applied electric fields, we establish the relationship between the Curie temperature TC and p, which shows γ of 1.3–1.6 in TC ∝ pγ. The exponent γ is several times larger than γ ∼ 0.2 reported previously for (Ga,Mn)As. Analyses based on the p-d Zener model taking into account of non-uniform hole distribution in the channel shows that the lager γ is explained by the presence of hole accumulation at the interface of (Ga,Mn)Sb and the gate insulator.
Characteristics of mixing enhanced by streamwise vortices in supersonic flow
Authors: Wang Qian-cheng , Wang Zhen-guo , Lei Jing , Feng Jun-hong
Published: October 2013

Vortical characteristics of mixing with existence of large scale streamwise vortices induced by a rectangular lobed mixer in supersonic flow are investigated experimentally. The nanoparticle-based planar laser scattering method and particle image velocimetry are employed. The generation and development of the large scale streamwise vortices, Kelvin-Helmholz vortices and the accompanied breakup of the vortices are presented. The orderly distributed vortex clusters generated from the collapsed streamwise vortices indicate that the effect of primary K-H instability on the motion of the streamwise vortices is significant.
Laser ablated ZnO thin film for amperometric detection of urea
Authors: Batra Neha , Tomar Monika , Jain Prateek , Gupta Vinay
Published: October 2013

Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films deposited onto indium tin oxide (ITO) coated corning glass substrates using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique at two different oxygen pressures (50 mT and 100 mT) have been used as efficient matrix for realization of efficient urea biosensors after immobilization of urease (Urs) enzyme onto ZnO film surface. The bioelectrode Urs/ZnO/ITO/glass having ZnO matrix grown at 100 mT is found to be exhibiting an enhanced sensitivity of 36 μΑ mΜ−1 cm−2 for urea over a wide detection range of 5–200 mg/dl. The relatively low value of Michaelis–Menten constant (Km = 0.82 mM) indicates high affinity of the immobilized urease towards the analyte (urea). The prepared sensor exhibits high selectivity towards detection of urea and retains 90% of its activity for more than 12 weeks. The observed enhanced response characteristics of bioelectrode is attributed to the growth of highly c-axis oriented ZnO thin film by PLD at 100 mT oxygen pressure with desired rough and porous surface morphology besides high electron communication feature. The results confirm the promising application of PLD grown ZnO thin film as an efficient matrix for urea detection.
Growth behavior and field emission property of ZnO nanowire arrays on Au and Ag films
Authors: Kim Sung Hyun , Lee Churl Seung , Kim Jeesun , Cho Jin Woo , Kim Young Keun
Published: October 2013

We propose a facile method to control the growth and areal density of zinc-oxide (ZnO) nanowire arrays using gold or silver films deposited on aluminum-doped ZnO (AZO) layers coated on glass substrates. Nanowires exceeding 5 μm in length grew on both the glass/AZO-layer and on the glass/AZO-layer/Au-film where the areal array density was controlled primarily by changing the annealing temperature. In contrast, the nanowire arrays grew only on the AZO surface but not on the Ag film owing to the formation of an Ag-oxide layer. We fabricated field emitter devices with density controlled ZnO nanowire arrays and low turn-on electric field of ∼6 V/μm and a field enhancement factor of up to 1188 were obtained with density controlled ZnO nanowire arrays.
A pulsar reveals a strong magnetic field near our galaxy’s center
Authors: Schwarzschild Bertram M.
Published: October 2013

Finding a radio pulsar within a light-year of the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole takes some of the guesswork out of modeling the monster’s feeding habits.
The Arctic shifts to a new normal
Authors: Jeffries Martin O. , Overland James E. , Perovich Donald K.
Published: October 2013

Thinning sea ice, thawing permafrost, and greening tundra are among numerous pervasive trends in today’s Arctic.
Infants See Illusory Motion in Static Figures
Authors: Kanazawa So , Kitaoka Akiyoshi , Yamaguchi Masami K
Published: October 2013

We investigated illusory motion perception in 6-to-8-month-old infants using a static figure which produces strong illusory motion. In experiment 1 we prepared a control figure, which was physically similar to the illusory motion figure but which did not produce illusory motion. We presented the illusory figure and the control figure side-by-side, and measured infants' looking time at the target illusory figure. Results showed that the infants' looking time at the illusory figure was significantly longer than that for the control. In experiment 2 we made another set of stimuli consisting of the same local pattern used in experiment 1, but which did not produce illusory motion. The results showed that no preferences were observed in experiment 2. These results suggest that 6-to-8-month-old infants perceive illusory motion in static figures.
Interference Effect of Body Shadow in Action Control
Authors: Badets Arnaud , Toussaint Lucette , Blandin Yannick , Bidet-Ildei Christel
Published: October 2013

Observing actions performed by other persons can subsequently influence our own motor behaviours. However, it is unknown whether the shadows cast by such actions can also have an impact on the observers' actions. Here we show that the mere observation of a cast shadow can influence imitative behaviours. Specifically, participants were shown a hand picture and its associated cast shadow in a neutral position. In a ‘compatible trial’ the hand and the shadow that followed were turned in the same open or closed direction, whereas in an ‘incompatible trial’ the hand and the shadow were turned in different directions. We contrasted two experimental conditions: (i) ‘hand-shadow’ in which participants observed a hand and its cast shadow (the hand covered the shadow); (ii) ‘hand-hand’ in which participants observed a hand and another black hand (the shadow covered the hand). The participants' task was to imitate (ie by closing or opening their own hands) the hand or the cast shadow of an action. For both conditions results revealed interference (ie longer response latencies) for incompatible trials. This suggests for the first time that the mere observation of a cast shadow of a hand can influence imitative behaviours. However, time courses of the response latencies revealed that imitative effect in the hand-shadow condition was different than the imitative effect in the hand-hand condition. Therefore, we suggest considering the cast shadow of an action as an important feature during motor control for humans.
Approaching Stan Laurel's Illusion: The Self-Induced Rubber Hand Phenomenon
Authors: Neuf Hartmut , Hamburger Kai
Published: October 2013

The classical rubber hand illusion is induced by an experimenter (eg stimulation with a brush) and usually realized with some sort of visual occlusion. Here, we demonstrate a new phenomenon: The self-induced rubber hand illusion. It is possible to elicit the feeling of a third hand without any help from an experimenter and under conditions of no occlusion. The findings are discussed within the context of neural plasticity.
Globin-coupled heme containing oxygen sensor soluble adenylate cyclase in
Leishmania
prevents cell death during hypoxia
Authors: Sen Santara Sumit , Roy Jayasree , Mukherjee Supratim , Bose Moumita , Saha Rina , Adak Subrata
Published: October 2013

Significance

Heme protein sensors interact with various gaseous molecules, such as CO, NO, or O
2
, and play a crucial role in transcriptional and regulatory events. In general, the sensory domains of heme proteins control signal transduction domains such as histidine kinases, phosphodiesterases, DNA-binding domains, guanylate cyclases, diguanylate cyclase, and aerotaxis transducers. Here we report globin-coupled heme containing adenylate cyclase from
Leishmania major
(HemAC-Lm), which regulates O
2
-dependent cAMP synthesis. Oxygen binding at heme iron of HemAC-Lm presumably triggers a conformational change in the sensor domain that sequentially stimulates the catalytic activity of the adenylate cyclase domain, resulting in the synthesis of the second messenger cAMP. This O
2
-dependent cAMP signaling is likely to function in cellular adaptability during hypoxia.
Damage-induced DNA replication stalling relies on MAPK-activated protein kinase 2 activity
Authors: Köpper Frederik , Bierwirth Cathrin , Schön Margarete , Kunze Meike , Elvers Ingegerd , Kranz Dominique , Saini Priyanka , Menon Manoj B. , Walter David , Sørensen Claus Storgaard , Gaestel Matthias , Helleday Thomas , Schön Michael P. , Dobbelstein Matthias
Published: October 2013

Significance

Our results imply a direct impact of the p38–MAP kinase-activated protein kinase 2 (MK2) kinase pathway on the cellular response to replicative stress. In this situation, MK2 activity determines the decision between replication fork stalling and translesion synthesis. In the absence of MK2 activity, even the otherwise essential checkpoint kinase Chk1 becomes dispensable for S phase progression and cell survival. Moreover, MK2 represents a determinant of cancer cell sensitivity toward nucleoside analogue treatment.
p21-mediated RNR2 repression restricts HIV-1 replication in macrophages by inhibiting dNTP biosynthesis pathway
Authors: Allouch Awatef , David Annie , Amie Sarah M. , Lahouassa Hichem , Chartier Loïc , Margottin-Goguet Florence , Barré-Sinoussi Françoise , Kim Baek , Sáez-Cirión Asier , Pancino Gianfranco
Published: October 2013

Significance

Macrophages, with CD4
+
T lymphocytes, are a major cell target for HIV-1 infection. We have previously reported that the induction of a cellular protein, the cyclin-dependent kinase p21, inhibits HIV-1 replication in macrophages. We now show that p21 impairs the reverse transcription of HIV-1 and other primate lentiviruses, including the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)mac, by blocking the synthesis of cellular deoxynucleotides (dNTP) that are used by retroviral reverse transcriptase for viral DNA synthesis. p21 represses the expression of a key enzyme of the dNTP biosynthesis pathway, the RNR2 subunit of the ribonucleotide reductase. Our findings point to new potential cellular targets for antiretroviral strategies.
Mutation in the
RmβAOR
gene is associated with amitraz resistance in the cattle tick
Rhipicephalus microplus
Authors: Corley Sean W. , Jonsson Nicholas N. , Piper Emily K. , Cutullé Christian , Stear Michael J. , Seddon Jennifer M.
Published: October 2013

Significance

Amitraz is a widely used acaricide for the control of the cattle tick
Rhipicephalus microplus
, an important parasite of cattle in the tropics and subtropics. Here we describe in detail the evolution of amitraz resistance in replicated populations of ticks in the field, using divergent selection pressures with amitraz. We also demonstrate a close association between resistance to amitraz and a specific allele of the β-adrenergic octopamine receptor gene, which we propose confers resistance to amitraz.
Higher 5-hydroxymethylcytosine identifies immortal DNA strand chromosomes in asymmetrically self-renewing distributed stem cells
Authors: Huh Yang Hoon , Cohen Justin , Sherley James L.
Published: October 2013

Significance

Distributed stem cells (DSCs), which continuously divide asymmetrically to replenish mature tissue cells, adopt a special form of mitotic chromosome segregation. Chromosome segregation is nonrandom instead of random. DSCs cosegregate the set of sister chromosomes with the older of the two template DNA strands used for semiconservative DNA replication during the preceding S phase. Neither the responsible molecular mechanisms nor the cellular function of nonrandom segregation are known. Here, we report evidence that immortal strand chromosomes have a higher level of cytosine 5-hydroxymethylation than mortal chromosomes, which contain the younger DNA template strands. We propose that asymmetric chromosomal 5-hydroxymethylation is a key element of a cellular mechanism by which DSCs distinguish older DNA template strands from younger ones.
Dysregulated NOD2 predisposes SAMP1/YitFc mice to chronic intestinal inflammation
Authors: Corridoni Daniele , Kodani Tomohiro , Rodriguez-Palacios Alexander , Pizarro Theresa T. , Xin Wei , Nickerson Kourtney P. , McDonald Christine , Ley Klaus F. , Abbott Derek W. , Cominelli Fabio
Published: October 2013

Significance

We discovered that SAMP1/YitFc (SAMP) mice, which develop spontaneous Crohn’s disease (CD)-like ileitis in the absence of nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-containing 2 (
NOD2
) genetic mutations, fail to respond to muramyl dipeptide and display impaired bacterial clearance. These results support the concept that a dysregulated NOD2 in SAMP mice predisposes them to chronic intestinal inflammation. We believe that our study provides a paradigm shift by demonstrating that CD-like ileitis is caused by an innate immune defect, rather than an overly aggressive adaptive immune response. Therefore, preventive and curative treatments for CD should be directed to boost, rather than suppress, mucosal innate immune responses.
Autoreactive thymic B cells are efficient antigen-presenting cells of cognate self-antigens for T cell negative selection
Authors: Perera Jason , Meng Liping , Meng Fanyong , Huang Haochu
Published: October 2013

Significance

In the thymus, developing T cells undergo negative selection to remove T-cell specificities that react to self-antigens. This process generates a T-cell repertoire that is tolerant to one’s own tissues. It depends on antigen-presenting cells to present self-antigens to developing T cells. This paper characterizes the development and antigen-presenting function of a poorly understood population of B cells within the thymus. These cells develop intrathymically, are phenotypically distinct from all other B-cell lineages, and have properties that make them extremely efficient at presenting self-antigens to developing T cells. In particular, they accomplish this by binding to self-antigens with their specific B-cell receptors.
Efficacy of Dilute Hypochlorite Solutions and an Electrochemically Activated Saline Solution Containing Hypochlorous Acid for Disinfection of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in a Pig Skin Model
Authors: Chang Bailey , Nerandzic Michelle M. , Kundrapu Sirisha , Sunkesula Venkata C. K. , Deshpande Abhishek , Donskey Curtis J.
Published: October 2013

Recurrent skin and soft-tissue infections (SSTIs) due to Staphylococcus aureus are a common problem in children and adults. Many of these SSTIs are caused by a community-associated methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strain designated USA300. Dilute bleach baths are commonly used as part of decolonization regimens for recurrent SSTI, particularly in children. However, limited data are available on the microbiological efficacy of dilute bleach on skin, and optimal concentrations are unknown. Recent practice guidelines for MRSA from the Infectious Diseases Society of America recommend a teaspoon of household bleach per gallon of bath water (1.3 μL/mL or a quarter cup per quarter tub of water) for 15 minutes twice weekly. On the basis of in vitro data, Fisher et al suggested that a higher concentration (2.5 μL/mL or a half cup per quarter tub of water) might be more effective (more than a 3-log reduction in MRSA in 5 minutes versus a 2-log reduction for a 1.2-μL/mL concentration). In contrast, more dilute bleach solutions (eg, a quarter cup of 6% sodium hypochlorite per bathtub full of water) for 5 days in combination with intranasal mupirocin were effective for eradication of colonization in a recent randomized trial, but 29% of patients in the mupirocin/bleach bath group developed recurrent colonization within 4 months. Here, we used a pig skin model to examine the effectiveness of various concentrations of dilute bleach solution and an electrochemically activated saline solution containing 0.025% hypochlorous acid (Vashe; PuriCore) for disinfection of MRSA on skin. Vashe is safe for use on skin and is commercially available as a wound care product.
The City and Its Spatial Order
Authors: Pernau Margrit
Published: October 2013

This chapter explores the connection between space and identity on two levels. It begins by examining how Delhi’s physical configuration reflects the diversity of identities, be they religious, familial, professional, or social, that is, how the layout of the city reproduces conceptions of belonging and distance. Second, space not only defines and reflects other identities, but also the manner in which individuals relate to spaces forges an identity of its own, the territorial identity. The first section examines how the ashraf conceived of the urban space and what they saw as constituting the essence of the city, distinguishing it from any other. In the second section, these questions are examined with regard to the Europeans, who came to Delhi from the late eighteenth century onwards, first as travelers and later as rulers. The third section traces the colonial efforts to collate and order precise geographical knowledge.
Nobility and Middle Classes
Authors: Pernau Margrit
Published: October 2013

The boundary between those groups which in the European context would be described as ‘nobility’ and ‘middle class’ had been very permeable in northern India. Individuals who had received titles and estates from the court and those who earned their living were connected by a common concept of the respectability of descent from immigrants from the Islamic heartlands. This chapter argues that the identity the new ashraf sought to attain demarcated them from the nobility and brought them closer to the merchants, shifting the emphasis to the middle-class virtue of achievement. The first section of the chapter examines the consequences of the uprising of 1857 and its suppression on the position of the nobility. The second section turns to the traders and the changes in ownership structure in Delhi. The third section traces the increasing gap between noble and middle-class values and the ashraf’s convergence with the trading elite.
Religious Identities between Secularization and Re-Islamization
Authors: Pernau Margrit
Published: October 2013

This chapter examines whether and to what extent there was a long-term tendency towards secularization, towards religion becoming a specialized subsystem which was distinguished from the other subsystems with regard to its institutions and the specialists involved. It also looks at how this development related to the growing importance of religion, particularly within the reformist Islamic movement. The first section explores this by contrasting the two most important Muslim colleges in northern India. The second section then traces the development of Delhi’s religious centres and the development of Madrasa Rahimiya’s teachings. It also looks at the retreat of Mirza Jan-e Janan’s successors from the public sphere and their rapprochement with Sufism. The final section focuses on efforts to secure the position of Muslims by developing an elaborate network of associations where spokespeople from the middle classes were now the authoritative representatives of the community of Muslims.
The Politicization of Communities: Communalism and Nationalism
Authors: Pernau Margrit
Published: October 2013

This chapter explores how nationalism and communalism overlap and interact. The first section examines efforts to homogenize and empower the religious community. The author argues that ambivalences in classification were tolerated less and less during the second half of the century because the more that was at stake politically, the more important it became to rely on solidarity within the group and hence the unambiguousness of identities. This is contrasted in the second section with the emergence of a national identity that demanded of every individual the utmost loyalty. The author argues that this placed it in direct rivalry to religion. The third section examines the link between communalism and nationalism in the first mass movement which mobilized the Muslim, Hindu, and national groupings against the colonial power.
How pitch and loudness shape musical space and motion
Authors: Eitan Zohar
Published: October 2013

Musicians have traditionally referred to musical features and events in terms of spatial location or movement (e.g., high and low pitch, rising and falling melody). Current empirical research reveals that basic auditory features, like pitch or loudness, are indeed consistently mapped in perception or cognition onto aspects of physical space and bodily motion, mappings often independent of the actual motion or location of the sound sources involved. This chapter reviews research examining how auditory pitch and loudness are associated perceptually or cognitively with aspects of space and motion, such as spatial directions in three-dimensional space, speed, and physical size. While also surveying the considerable body of research that has investigated these relationships using rarified auditory and visual stimuli, the chapter emphasizes recent studies using musical or music-like contexts. These studies begin to reveal the matrix of perceived musical space—a surprisingly complex web of correspondences and interactions among auditory and spatio-kinetic features.
Music in television advertising and other persuasive media
Authors: Shevy Mark , Hung Kineta
Published: October 2013

This chapter presents an overview of theories and research on the role of music in television advertising and other persuasive media. Using Petty and Cacioppo’s Elaboration Likelihood Model as a theoretical framework for attitudinal change, the chapter examines the multiple roles music may play in advertising, either as a background element or as an integrated element in an audiovisual medium. Music may increase or decrease motivation and ability to elaborate on a persuasive message, thereby guiding a person to use a central or peripheral route to processing the content of the advertisement. Music may also provide information (e.g., affect-as-information) in the persuasive message that is processed within either route. To delineate these effects, music as a means to attract attention, facilitate recall, and construct meanings is also examined. Findings of these strands of research are applied to audio branding, understanding musical fit, enhancing implicit learning, and the creation of virtual atmospheres on the Internet.
Birth, life, and death
Authors: Cantat Isabelle , Cohen-Addad Sylvie , Elias Florence , Graner François , Höhler Reinhard , Pitois Olivier , Rouyer Florence , Saint-Jalmes Arnaud
Published: October 2013

We first introduce qualitatively the different mechanisms by which a foam forms, ages, rearranges, and then collapses, which collectively determine foam stability and lifetime. We explain why it is possible to form a stable foam. We first consider the effect that surfactants have on the static and dynamic properties of an interface and on a liquid film. We then discuss the relationship between the foaming capacity of a solution and the properties of the resulting foam’s interfaces and films. A bubble with few neighbours has a higher pressure than its neighbours. If the gas that it contains can diffuse through its films, the bubble shrinks and eventually disappears, giving rise to the process of coarsening. We present a description and model of liquid drainage through a foam. We show that it is comparable to the problem of liquid flow in porous media, with two significant differences between them. First, in a foam, the liquid flows through a network of pores whose diameter depends on the flow itself: the bubbles can move apart to allow liquid to pass and then move back. Second, the interfaces are fluid: they are partially entrained by the flow. The rupture of a film between two neighbouring bubbles is another process which tends to make the foam disappear. In this section we will discuss the mechanisms by which a single film can break, the collective effects at the scale of the foam, and the stimulated rupture of a film by antifoaming agents.
Rheology
Authors: Cantat Isabelle , Cohen-Addad Sylvie , Elias Florence , Graner François , Höhler Reinhard , Pitois Olivier , Rouyer Florence , Saint-Jalmes Arnaud
Published: October 2013

Rheology is the study of the deformation and flow of “complex” fluids which exhibit both liquid and solid behaviour. Such materials are common in our everyday lives (cf. §1, chap. 1). Foams, although mostly air and water, are certainly complex fluids. A small amount of shaving foam or whipped cream doesn’t spread out under its own weight, but keeps the shape it is given, yet it can flow if sufficient force is applied. This complex behaviour forms the basis of this chapter.
The Contradictions of Democracy in American Institutions and Practices
Authors: Edwards Laura F.
Published: October 2013

The American Revolution embodied conflicting impulses. So did the post-revolutionary institutional order, which was bedevilled by tensions between efforts to limit and to expand popular participation in government. These tensions played out in relationships between people, state governments, and federal institutions. Those who devised constitutions were wary of concentrating power, but also of leaving too much power to the people; the weakness of government in practice, and the diffusion of ideas of popular sovereignty, encouraged many to assert themselves, including some who lacked formal rights. Revisions to old and the drafting of new state constitutions repeatedly revealed these tensions. The consolidation of authority at state level during the early nineteenth century profoundly affected relations between people and government. Formal ascriptions of right – as between men and women, or enslaved and free people - played a growing part in determining who had power not only in government but in society.
Varieties of Democracy in the French Revolution
Authors: Scurr Ruth
Published: October 2013

Though the French Revolution had a major impact on how people have talked about democracy ever since, the word was not initially central to revolutionary discourse, though it became more central when interest shifted from making government legitimate towards making it effective. When legitimacy was the key concern, popular sovereignty was a more important concept (though not one favoured by all revolutionary thinkers). Emphasis on will as the basis of legitimacy encouraged the view that the legislature was the most legitimate organ. ‘Democracy’ gained importance during the Terror, as discussion focussed on the challenge of making any form of authority in practice prevail over the people. Representation of the people and surveillance of government by the people were both mooted as solutions. In France (as elsewhere) democracy gained new negative associations in the course of the revolution, because democracy was experienced more as a problem than as a solution.
Constructing Democratic Thought in Ireland in the Age of Revolution, 1775–1800
Authors: Gillen Ultán
Published: October 2013

During the 1790s, some keen radically to change the status quo in Ireland began to describe themselves as democrats. We can reconstruct what they thought a more democratic polity and society would be like. It would not be subordinated to Britain, but responsive to the aspirations of the Irish people; it would be more equal, not discriminating on religious grounds. Attempts would be made to address structures that inhibited national prosperity and kept many people poor. The terminology was new, but democratic political theory drew on existing traditions: on theories about rights, classical republicanism, Enlightenment ideas about toleration and political economy, and egalitarianism, as well as revolutionary internationalism. These were welded into a political outlook that was shaped by the distinctive Irish context. Democrats pitched what they had to say to relatively poor audiences, and strove to show the relevance of what was happening in France to their situation.
‘Democracy’ and the Irish People, 1830–48
Authors: Colantonio Laurent
Published: October 2013

The mass movements led by Daniel O’Connell were perceived as ‘democratic’ not only within the British Isles but also on the European continent. O’Connell presented himself as a democrat – meaning by this that he championed the cause of the people, not that he advocated any particular form of government. In fact the emphasis in the Repeal movement was above all on a rather vaguely conceived national regeneration. O’Connell's control over his followers impressed some observers: it seemed that he had contained democracy's disruptive potential. When his unionist opponents called him a democrat they by contrast invoked the term's negative associations. ‘Young Ireland’ nationalists were initially cool about democracy, but warmed to it, especially from 1848. It is unclear whether the language of ‘democracy’ had currency among O’Connell's followers, though both words and imagery impressed upon them the idea that the movement promoted the cause of the Irish people.
Beyond Ctesiphon: Monasteries and Aristocrats in the Christian Histories
Authors: Wood Philip
Published: October 2013

This chapter looks at the emergence of two ‘independent’ forms of Christian historical writing within Iraq and their eventual incorporation into the central, patriarchal tradition. The first of these is the genre of monastic history, which celebrated the foundation of a new generation of monasteries in the north of Iraq from the late sixth century into the seventh. In particular, the chapter examines the ambiguous reputation of the reformer Babai within monastic circles. The second half of the chapter examines the celebration of aristocratic lineage within the histories of the late sixth century, testimony to the increasingly complex relationship between Christian institutions and secular patrons. These stories attempt to establish paradigms of proper behaviour for potential patrons, especially in cultural and religious terms.
A disposition-based process-theory of causation
Authors: Hüttemann Andreas
Published: October 2013

Given certain well-known observations by Mach and Russell the question arises what place there is for causation in the physical world. The aim in this chapter is to understand under what conditions we can use causal terminology and how it fits in with what physics has to say. The chapter will ultimately argue for a disposition-based process-theory of causation. After addressing Mach’s and Russell’s concerns the chapter will outline the kind of problem the disposition-based process-theory of causation is meant to solve. In a second step there will be a discussion of the nature of those dispositions that are relevant for our question. In section three existing dispositional accounts of causation will be addressed before a novel account is presented (sections four to six). Finally, the account presented will be contrasted with traditional process theories (section seven).
Nonlinearity and metaphysical emergence
Authors: Wilson Jessica
Published: October 2013

The nonlinearity of a composite system, whereby certain of its features (including powers and behaviours) cannot be seen as linear or other broadly additive combinations of features of the system’s composing entities, has been frequently seen as a mark of metaphysical emergence, coupling the dependence of a composite system on an underlying system of composing entities with the composite system’s ontological autonomy from its underlying system. But why think that nonlinearity is a mark of emergence, and moreover, of metaphysical rather than merely epistemological emergence? Are there diverse ways in which nonlinearity might enter into an account of properly metaphysical emergence? And what are the prospects for there actually being phenomena that are metaphysically emergent in any available sense? This chapter explores the mutual bearing of nonlinearity and metaphysical emergence, with an eye towards answering these and related questions.
Introduction
Authors: Insole Christopher J.
Published: October 2013

The chapter introduces the central exegetical claim of the book, that Kant struggles with a problem that is irreducibly theological: how can it be said that human beings are free, given that they are created by God? Kant’s claimed solution to this problem is in turn the object of the book’s theological and philosophical analysis. The problem is theological in that it concerns the relationship between divine and human action. The problem is irreducible, in that it arises from a reflection on the unique metaphysical properties of the creator, given certain doctrinal assumptions, rather than from more general philosophical concerns. The introduction relates the contribution of the book to an extensive secondary literature, and explains the scope and methodology of the book. The aim is to offer a new interpretation of a strand of Kant’s work, and to set out an alternative perspective on the significance of Kant for theology.
Minority Rights in the Middle East
Authors: Joshua Castellino , Kathleen A Cavanaugh
Published: October 2013

This, the third book of the OUP Series on Minority Rights Law, focusses on minorities in the Middle East. Written at a time of great turmoil and also hope in the region, the book seeks to examine important minority questions that are central to the events that have unfolded across the region from 2011 to date. The Middle East is a region that raises contentious political, legal, and historical debates. Coming closer to a contemporary understanding of the region challenges, confuses, and demands the critical questioning of numerous assumptions in the public realm. Our analysis is contained in six chapters divided in two parts. The first part examines fundamental underpinning concepts to the discussion and provides an overview of the region, while the second offers a detailed analysis of the history, identity, legal provisions, and remedies available to minorities in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. In offering this analysis we suggest not one, but multiple geographies, and not a fixed, immovable space, but one which, through its historical social formation, has been continually transformed, in more recent centuries through the invidious interference from outside. In examining the shifting constructions of religious, linguistic, and ethnic minorities in the region, the focus of this book lies on two primary questions; first, how the sociopolitical groups definable as minorities engage (or are excluded from) sites of power and, secondly, how state practice on minorities intersects and informs modern constitutionalism and international law.
Concluding remarks
Authors: Ringström Hans
Published: October 2013

Chapter 6 contains a description, intended for physicists, of a mathematical statement of stability of the universe. Moreover, it contains a discussion of the cosmological principle in view of all the observations made in the prologue. Finally, it contains a description of models of the universe, different from the standard ones, which are nonetheless consistent with observations. These models indicate that the standard restrictions on the topology are unnatural.
Outline, general theory of the Einstein–Vlasov system
Authors: Ringström Hans
Published: October 2013

One important part of the book is to establish that it is meaningful to formulate a Cauchy problem for the Einstein–Vlasov equations. In Chapter 8 of the book, we give an overview of the part of the book concerned with this topic.
Outline, main results
Authors: Ringström Hans
Published: October 2013

Chapter 9 contains an overview of the material contained in the book which is concerned with proving the main results: future stability of models of the universe and the existence of models, consistent with the observations, with topology different from the standard ones.
References to the literature and outlook
Authors: Ringström Hans
Published: October 2013

It should be possible to improve and extend several of the results in the book. In Chapter 10 we discuss various possibilities of extending and improving the results. This chapter also contains a discussion of results that have been obtained in the past concerning the Einstein–Vlasov equations.
Linear algebra
Authors: Ringström Hans
Published: October 2013

In kinetic theory, the matter is represented by a distribution function. In the relativistic setting, this function is defined on the mass shell, consisting of the future directed unit timelike vectors. When dealing with the mass shell, certain issues of a linear algebra nature appear. We discuss these issues in Chapter 12.
Coordinates
Authors: Ringström Hans
Published: October 2013

In Chapter 13, we introduce conventions concerning local coordinates on the mass shell. Moreover, we express the natural measure on the mass shell in terms of local coordinates. Finally, we discuss the matter quantities induced on a spatial hypersurface.
Concepts of convergence
Authors: Ringström Hans
Published: October 2013

When proving local existence of solutions, it is natural to solve a sequence of related linear equations. The goal is then to prove that the sequence converges to a solution to the nonlinear problem at hand. In the context of such an argument, various notions of convergence arise, and we discuss some of them in Chapter 17.
Stability
Authors: Ringström Hans
Published: October 2013

In various contexts, it is important to know that the solution to the initial value problem depends continuously on the initial data. This is the subject of Chapter 20, in which we consider the equations expressed with respect to local coordinates.
The Vlasov equation
Authors: Ringström Hans
Published: October 2013

In Chapter 21, we discuss the preservation of regularity of solutions to the Vlasov equation in the manifold setting. In particular, we demonstrate that the function spaces we defined previously fit together naturally with the Vlasov equation.
The initial value problem
Authors: Ringström Hans
Published: October 2013

In Chapter 22, we turn to the geometric formulation of the initial value problem for the Einstein–Vlasov equations. In particular, we prove, given initial data, that there is a globally hyperbolic development. Moreover, we prove that two globally hyperbolic developments of the same data are extensions of a common globally hyperbolic development of the initial data. The last statement can be interpreted as a geometric version of local uniqueness.
Cauchy stability
Authors: Ringström Hans
Published: October 2013

In Chapter 24, we prove continuous dependence of the solution on the initial data (in the geometric setting). Prior to the statement, we fix notation and conventions. Since we are comparing solutions defined on different manifolds, it is necessary to define appropriate diffeomorphisms in order to be allowed to make the comparison.
Spatially homogeneous metrics, symmetry reductions
Authors: Ringström Hans
Published: October 2013

One of the main results of the book is the future stability of a large class of spatially locally homogeneous solutions. However, in order to obtain such a result, we first need to analyse the spatially homogeneous solutions. In Chapter 25, we begin this analysis by formulating a symmetry reduced version of the equations in the spatially homogeneous setting. We also provide a first continuation criterion.
Models, fitting the observations, with arbitrary closed spatial topology
Authors: Ringström Hans
Published: October 2013

In Chapter 34, we demonstrate that, given any closed 3-manifold, there are models of the universe, fitting the observations, with the pre-specified spatial topology. In this respect, the observations do not impose any global restrictions on the topology.
Comparative Reasoning in European Supreme Courts
Authors: Bobek Michal
Published: October 2013

The last two decades have witnessed an exponential growth in debates on the use of foreign law by courts. Judges are said to increasingly rely on inspiration from outside of their national legal systems for solving purely domestic cases. This book puts similar claims to the test in relation to the highest national jurisdictions, i.e. supreme and constitutional courts, in Europe today. How often and why do judges choose to draw inspiration from foreign materials in solving domestic cases? The book addresses these questions from the empirical as well as the theoretical angle. Empirically, the genuine use of comparative arguments by the national highest courts in five European jurisdictions is examined: England and Wales, France, Germany, Czech Republic, and Slovakia. On the basis of comparative discussion of the practice and its national theoretical underpinning in these and partially also in other European systems, an overreaching theoretical framework for the current judicial use of comparative arguments is offered.
Foreign Law in Courts: A Typology
Authors: Bobek Michal
Published: October 2013

The chapter maps the landscape of various
types of foreign law in domestic courts. The mapping criterion used is the
domestic normative authority a national judge has for considering foreign law in
various types of cases. On this basis, three types of the use of the foreign law
before national courts are distinguished: mandatory uses, advisable uses, and
voluntary uses. Advisable and voluntary uses are for ease of reference conflated
into one category of non-mandatory references. Eventually, it is suggested that
in most cases, the non-mandatory use of foreign law functionally overlaps with
situations in which comparison between the foreign and domestic law is carried
out.
Factors Influencing the Use of Comparative Arguments by Courts
Authors: Bobek Michal
Published: October 2013

Whether or not judges use comparative arguments is determined by a complex interplay of a number of legal and extra-legal factors within each legal system. The chapter introduces and discusses a number of such factors, which influence the likelihood of the use of comparative reasoning within judicial decision-making at the national level. The factors are grouped into four areas: general, institutional, procedural, and human factors. The closing two sections of this chapter discuss two specific, domain-dependent issues: first, whether it makes any difference, for the likelihood of the use of comparative reasoning, if the dispute at hand pertains to the area of private law or public law. Secondly, the final section addresses the same question with respect to the area of constitutional adjudication and human rights.
France
Authors: Bobek Michal
Published: October 2013

Assessing French theory and practice of the use of comparative arguments by courts, in particular by the three French highest courts, the Conseil constitutionnel, the Cour de cassation, and the Conseil d´Etat, the chapter suggests that in spite of not being visible on the surface, there is comparative exchange going on. For reasons peculiar to the legal and judicial tradition, such an exchange does, however, take on particular form. First, it is not openly displayed. Comparative reasoning in courts is primarily used as a tool of internal debates, not as an instrument for external justification. Secondly, because of the historical constitutional balance within the legal system, comparative law has traditionally been seen as a matter for the legislator and legal scholarship, not for the courts.
Germany
Authors: Bobek Michal
Published: October 2013

The chapter deals with Germany. Although the German legal tradition is relatively open to non-mandatory legal inspiration, the sources of such inspiration are nonetheless generally limited to sources of national origin. The practice of three of the supreme federal jurisdictions, the Federal Constitutional Court, the Federal Supreme Court, and the Federal Administrative Court, discloses only sporadic passing references to foreign inspiration, typically within a larger block of citations of domestic case law or scholarship. References to foreign solutions serve as an additional supportive argument. In the German context, however, the limited quantity of direct uses of foreign law by courts should be weighed against the relatively rich comparative law scholarship.
Comparative Reasoning by Courts: The Theoretical Playing Field
Authors: Bobek Michal
Published: October 2013

The chapter focuses on the theoretical underpinning of the use of comparative arguments in courts. It represents a synthesis of the various national theoretical approaches outlined in the second part of this book. The aim is to reconstruct a minimalist positivistic vision of the role and the legitimacy of comparative arguments in judicial decision-making. Furthermore, it is also suggested that the use of comparative reasoning, at least in the form and to the extent currently carried out in the legal systems studied, is not only compatible with, but is also mandated by the existent mainstream positivistic theories.
Comparative Reasoning by Courts: Some Classical Points Revisited
Authors: Bobek Michal
Published: October 2013

The chapter revisits four of the objections commonly raised against the judicial use of comparative inspiration: legitimacy, methodology, purpose, and predictability. It deals, first, with the question of legitimacy for judicial ‘travels abroad’. Secondly, the traditional challenges formulated in relation to the alleged lack of methodology for judicial comparisons, their selectivity, and utilitarian character, are critically discussed. It is suggested, thirdly, that there is nothing wrong with the methodology, but rather with the presumed aims and purposes of comparative inspiration in courts, which are then translated into incorrect yardsticks. Finally, the seemingly unpredictable patterns of comparative arguments when employed by courts are discussed. Can there be a theory of something one cannot in fact exactly foresee?
The Deviations: Political Over- and Non-comparisons
Authors: Bobek Michal
Published: October 2013

The chapter seeks to conceptualize the deviations from the normal tolerant openness towards comparative inspiration established legal systems generally demonstrate. The first part of the chapter describes such deviations and their origins. In the second part, a recent instance of over-use of comparative inspiration is examined: the role comparative arguments and above all comparative rhetoric played in legal transitions in Central Europe. In the third part, examples of non-uses caused by political system closures are given. In particular, the currently extensively debated uneasy position of the use of foreign law in the US courts is discussed, in particular with respect to one question: why is it that the debates on the subject of the use of foreign law in the US courts have become so heated and, in a way, pathological?