bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Women of the Open Door: Jews in the Belle Epoque Amazonian Demimonde, 1890-1920
Authors: Orum Thomas T
Published: February 2007

The forays of white-linen-clad urban gentlemen, visiting
seringueiros and other devotees of bohemian life in the bars, brothels,
and gambling dens of Belem and Manaus during the rubber boom,
are part of the folklore of the era. The legendary bacchanalian soirees
and sparkling night life of clubs like the High Life and Moulin Rouge
in Belem and Pensao da Mulata and Chalet Jardim of Manaus
still echo from today's silent sidewalks.

Women that lived with an open door in Amazonian parlance meant
women that accepted callers for paid sexual liaisons. None were more
favored companions in the demimonde than the polacas, Jewesses from the
European Pale. Both Belem and Manaus had contingents of European
prostitutes attracted by Amazonian prosperity that capitalized on their
racial precedents and the overwhelming fascination among the Brazilian
middle and upper classes for European culture. The Polish and Russian
Jewesses eventually supplanted the traditional French cocotte in the
Amazonian demimonde. These courtesans were an anomaly in the large
primarily Moroccan Sephardic community of the region. Many were simply
exotic birds of passage, alighting only temporarily, while others found
permanent relationships on the rubber frontier.
Isaac Singer and the Threat of America
Authors: Guzlowski John Z
Published: February 2007

Isaac Bashevis Singer is a writer who seems tied to the
past and the distant, mythic regions of Eastern Europe. But he is also
a writer who has written extensively about America in Enemies: A Love
Story, The Penitent, and the posthumously published Meshugah
and Shadows on the Hudson. This essay discusses his depiction of
America and its effect on Jews. He sees Jews being transformed by their
experiences here in America and fears what will happen if Jewishness
disappears under the pressure of a materialistic culture of the kind
America and the modern world seem to offer.
Banishing The Coercion of Despair: Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and the Holocaust Today
Authors: Henry Patrick (Patrick Gerard)
Published: February 2007

From 1940 to 1944 on the plateau Vivarais-Lignon in
southern France, several thousand relatively isolated mountain people
risked their lives and those of their children by sheltering thousands
of refugee Jews from the Nazis and French police. We now know a great
deal more about what happened on that plateau than when Philip Hallie
wrote his famous Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed. Without rejecting
Hallie's brilliant ethical analysis of the nonviolent rescue mission,
this article takes into account twenty years of historical research
unavailable to Hallie in 1979. Finally, it elucidates what we can learn
from these French peasants and other rescuers about creating a world in
which another Auschwitz would be unthinkable.
Spinoza, Liberalism, Science, and Contemporary Judaism
Authors: Boyd Mark , Shermis S. Samuel
Published: February 2007

For centuries Benedict Spinoza has been regarded as
everything from an antisemite to anti- Biblical. These and similar charges
are not supported by recent analyses. Spinoza was an intellectual figure
who believed deeply in a Deity while opening up the Torah to the same
kind of criticism that would be seen in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. Not a "liberal" in the modern political sense, he expressed a
passionate faith in freedom of conscience. Not a modern epistemologist,
he built his knowledge theory on intuitive reasoning which is similar to
that of contemporary physicists. Spinoza is a unique figure in Jewish
intellectual history and deserves to be seen as a Jewish philosopher
who anticipated biblical criticism by two centuries.
Reading Yiddish in a Post-Modern Age: Some Trends in Literary Scholarship of the 1990s
Authors: Krutikov Mikhail
Published: February 2007

From the Age of Enlightenment on, attitudes to Yiddish
language and culture have been ideologically motivated. Yiddish was
variously perceived as a corrupt jargon or the quintessence of the
Jewish soul, a propaganda tool or the idiom of the Jewish collective
unconscious. But with the worldwide decline of secular education in
Yiddish after the Holocaust, knowledge of Yiddish culture becomes
increasingly fragmented. Although Yiddish forms a legitimate part of
various academic Jewish Studies programs, it often has the secondary
status of an auxiliary subject. As a result, academic research in
Yiddish culture rarely tackles central topics such as literary history
or monographic studies of individual writers. With Yiddish studies in
the U.S. increasingly focused on border cases between Yiddish and other
cultural phenomena, Germany is gradually emerging as a major center of
Yiddish philology.
Wright Morris and the Jews
Authors: Pollak Oliver B
Published: February 2007

Wright Morris was born in Nebraska in 1910 and left the state by
1925. Despite the relatively short contact, the Midwest was a formative
influence as rural and small-town Nebraska and ethnic diversity in
Omaha frequently provided material for many of the essays, novels, and
photographs produced from 1942 to 1985. The Jewish aspect of Morris's
production lies in the characters, plots, and world events generated
by Jewish issues including his 1933 residence in Vienna, fascism, the
Holocaust, and anti- McCarthyism. Morris acknowledges a deep reading
influence of Jewish writers including Isaac Babel, Ettore Svevo, and
Marcel Proust. Morris died in 1998. Although much has been written about
Morris, this essay provides the first recognition of the Jewish motif
in his work.
Patricio Garcia
Authors: Plann Susan
Published: February 2007

In 1878 Patricio Garc�a, a student at the Spanish National School for Deaf Mutes and the Blind, smuggled a note to the Ministry of Development in which he denounced corporal punishment at the establishment. The charges led to a high-level investigation that brought about fundamental changes at the school. The incident affords a behind-the-scenes glimpse of life at a nineteenth-century deaf residential school: the students� daily lives, their resistance to abuses of authority, and the unity that reigned among them.
Language Standardization and Signed Language Dictionaries
Authors: Johnston Trevor A
Published: February 2007

The issue of the use of signed language dictionaries in the standardization of signed languages is discussed with reference to the Australian Sign Language (Auslan) dictionaries. First I describe language standardization as broadly understood in the context of written and unwritten languages, on the one hand, and signed and spoken languages on the other. I then describe the distinctive situation of deaf community signed languages and the types of dictionaries that have recently been produced of these languages and the limitations. I detail the structure of the Auslan dictionaries and argue that bilingual, bidirectional dictionaries of this type must be produced first if communities are to encourage language standardization in a meaningful and informed way. I conclude that the Internet provides a means of recording and displaying signed language lexicons in widely dispersed signing communities in a way that may facilitate language standardization in a grassroots manner, rather than being imposed on the community in the form of a prescriptive publication.
Symbolic Properties of Graphical Actions
Authors: Boudreau Ginette
Published: February 2007

This study aims to determine whether graphical actions used in a military planning task with a map have symbolic properties that are similar to those of symbols of sign languages. Specifically, this article identifies (1) a lexicon of the graphical actions that military planners use to refer to significants on a map during a planning assessment; (2) the set of significants (objects, concepts, attributes, and relations) that the graphical actions designate or represent on the map; and (3) the analogical properties of graphical actions. The results suggest that graphical actions are manual symbols whose properties are similar to the symbols of sign languages.
“Wild Indians,” “Mexican Gentlemen,” and the Lessons Learned in the Casa del Estudiante Indígena, 1926-1932
Authors: Dawson Alexander S.
Published: February 2007

In their zeal to transform rural society during the 1920s, Mexican educators undertook a number of projects that in retrospect seem unusual. Fancying themselves as the intellectual heirs of the earliest Catholic friars, they sent “missionaries” into the countryside to preach the gospel of progress, developed rigid definitions of the appropriate forms of rural living, and even taught school children in Mexico City to paint according to pre-Colombian styles in order to build a harmonious nation. These were indeed creative ideas, but none was more imaginative than the decision to establish a Rural Normal School in the midst of the largest urban center in the country. Established in the Anáhuac neighborhood of Mexico City in 1926, the Casa del Estudiante Indígena was hailed as the centerpiece of the government's commitment to Indian education. Inside the Casa a culturally diverse student population, speaking mutually unintelligible languages, would be transformed into models of the national culture. They would adopt modern dress and practices, learn perfect Spanish, and in turn bring the benefits of modernity to their home communities.
Conspicuous Benevolence: Liberalism, Public Welfare, and Private Charity in Porfirian Mexico City, 1877-1910
Authors: Blum Ann S.
Published: February 2007

“If the charity that one practices for adults honors and gratifies, that which one engages in for children redeems and glorifies,” wrote Juan de Dios Peza, poet and playwright, in his journalistic chronicle of public welfare under the government of Porfirio Díaz. Peza elaborated: “If charity is beautiful when exercised in favor of adults, it is a divine reflection, a smile of God, when given to children.” Peza's imagery evoked religious charity of the colonial era, when giving alms and pious bequests earned the salvation of the donor. But Peza wrote in 1881 to celebrate the achievements of General Porfirio Díaz's first presidential term in the realm of public welfare, principally bringing welfare administration under federal jurisdiction.
National Identity in the Sports Pages: Football and the Mass Media in 1920s Buenos Aires
Authors: Karush Matthew B.
Published: February 2007

The 1920s saw the emergence of a distinctive, new urban culture in the city of Buenos Aires. Although this culture did not extend to the borders of the nation, it was a national culture in the sense that it continually manufactured and reproduced images of Argentine national identity. Research conducted over the last two decades has greatly improved our understanding of this new culture. We know that it was, to a great extent, forged in the city's new, outlying barrios where manual workers lived side by side with skilled workers and members of the middle class. The relatively strong performance of the Argentine economy during these years made social mobility a more for realistic aspiration for more people than it had ever been before. Partly as a result of this economic reality, the new barrio culture revealed a less militant attitude on the part ofporteñoworkers, a trend visible as well in the significant decline in membership and effectiveness experienced by labor unions. But the new cultural milieu reflected more than just economic prosperity; it was intimately tied to the birth of a mass culture disseminated by radio, cinema, and tabloid. In particular, the 1920s witnessed the commodification and massification of tango and football, two popular cultural practices that were now transformed into quintessential representations ofArgentinidad.
Reconciliation, Resolution, and the Political Role of Oklahoma! in American Consciousness
Authors: Kirle Bruce
Published: February 2007

Oklahoma! (1943), this essay argues, helped resolve the conflict between interventionists and isolationists prior to and during World War II as well as the friction between New Dealer and conservative. In his libretto, Oscar Hammerstein, a Jewish supporter of FDR, helps combat America's own wartime anti-Semitism by redefining populism as all-inclusive and by melding nostalgia for a bygone America with assimilationist, interventionist strategies. The Jew, represented by the peddler Ali Hakim, is a liminal figure, who hovers between the acceptable and the non-acceptable, and who works within the walls of the community. Jud, the metaphorical, racialized Other, including both the African American and Native American, works outside those walls, much like the myopic isolationist or closet fascist. Through topsy-turvydom, Oklahoma! demonstrates that fragmentation, in the guise of insularity, enervates the grassroots American values that wartime conservatives believed were menaced by the New Deal.
Queering Homoerotic Desire, Silence, and Violence in Zeno Wilde's Blue Jeans: A Performance-Sensitive Reading for the Twenty-first Century
Authors: Medeiros Claudio
Published: February 2007

In Blue Jeans, Brazilian playwright Zeno Wilde pits a middle-class male homosexual against a series of young hustlers, but preemptively and inexplicably silences the former to foreground the socioeconomic underpinnings of prostitution. In this essay, I argue that, in front of an audience, the queer landscape of desire and identity which Wilde creates through the hustlers' confessional stories transforms the homosexual protagonist's silence into a powerful rhetorical and performative space. In the final part of the essay, I read the death of the voiceless "faggot" in juxtaposition with the play's erotic epilogue to reclaim Blue Jeans's potential as a powerful and necessary protest in opposition to the violence perpetrated against homosexuals and other members of the queer community in Brazil today.
Scenes of Cognition: Performance and Conquest
Authors: Taylor Diana
Published: February 2007

Scenes of Cognition: Performance and Conquest explores how Mesoamerican pre-Conquest practices trouble some basic givens about the terms theatre and performance and ask us, not necessarily to replace them, but to rethink them again. This essay is as much about examining our own epistemic grids as about pre-Conquest theatre and performance.
Italian Dramaturg in a Translation Process
Authors: Basso Beatrice
Published: February 2007

The article explores the role of an Italian dramaturg in translating Eduardo De Filippo's Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Two crucial aspects of the process ÐÐthe linguistic and the cultural translationÑ are explored through specific examples taken from the writing, rehearsing, and post-rehearsing periods.
Questioning the Text
Authors: Ditor Rachel
Published: February 2007

This essay asks the question, "How do we receive story in a play and charts the author's examination of this question through the production of three plays: Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, adapted by John Osborne, Flop created and performed by the Electric Company, and Season in Purgatory by Michael David Kwan. The author proposes that it is through a question and answer dynamic between the text, the actor, and the audience that effectively communicates story.
What Makes a Turg Tick: Two Dramaturgs Discuss What They Like About Their Profession and Why They Do It
Authors: Engelman Liz , Dixon Michael Bigelow
Published: February 2007

Dramaturgs Liz Engelman and Michael Bigelow Dixon discuss the pleasures, interests and passions that keep them enthused about their dramaturgical work. In a field where the challenges are often emphasized over the rewards, the frustrations over the joys, and the barriers over the breakthroughs, Engelman and Dixon speak to what keeps them engaged and gets them to work in the morning. Their discussion highlights fourteen ideas worth sharing and identifies qualities that any dramaturg can bring to the table no matter how extravagantly or simply that table is set.
Dramaturgy: Quirky and Productive
Authors: Gandrow Kristen
Published: February 2007

Running a playwriting organization is like doing good dramaturgy for a play. Both require skill, imagination, a good sense of timing, and flexibility. Art and craft define the work of The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis as staff and myriad theatre artists collaborate with playwrights to develop theirÑourÑnew work We orchestrate workshops and readings for writers and their collaborators, from composers to choreographers to classical cellists, then see the work through to production in our season. Our support provides what the playwright needs, when the play requires it. The result: the writer's process honored, the play's dramaturgy a success.
Dramaturgy and Silence
Authors: Proehl Geoffrey S.
Published: February 2007

Dramaturgs are among the most talkative of theatre makers. To the extent that language and conversation are central tools both of theatre and theatre making, the dramaturg's volubility is an asset. And yet, in rehearsal it is traditionally the director or actor who has the floor and so it is that a legion of talkative dramaturgs has had to learn a discipline of silences: silence as frustration, as power, as pleasure, as necessity, and more. Proehl's essay uses silence as a synecdoche, as the part that opens on the whole of language and relationship in rehearsal.
"Histories"
Authors: Manifold Gay
Published: February 2007

This essay encapsulates the historical role of the dramaturg, and addresses the issue of how difficult it is to get directors and playwrights to take the dramaturg seriously.
Women's Work: Gender and Dramaturgy
Authors: Wolff Tamsen
Published: February 2007

The ways in which dramaturgy has been marked as female labor in America demand rethinking since that feminization has made it difficult for the profession to generate and receive the respect it deserves.
A Performer's Notes on Parody
Authors: Margolin Deb
Published: February 2007

If you cross a nerdy Jewish woman with an aspiration to portray the melancholy Prince of Denmark, you get a journey that begins and ends in Parody. This performative essay is an investigation of Parody as a tool of the outsider looking in, and chronicles the movement towards a full-length production of Hamlet from a female Jewish performance artist whose intital foray into Shakespeare's masterpiece takes the form of a bathing-suit competition, and whose use of parodic methods inches her closer to the fulfillment of this classic role.
Race-Making and the Nation-State
Authors: Marx Anthony W.
Published: February 2007

Why was official racial domination enforced in South Africa and the United States, while nothing comparable to apartheid or Jim Crow was constructed in Brazil? Slavery and colonialism established the pattern of early discrimination in all three cases, and yet the postabolition racial orders diverged. Miscegenation influenced later outcomes, as did economic competition, but neither was decisive. Interpretations of these historical and economic factors were shaped by later developments. This article argues that postabolition racial orders were significantly shaped by the processes of nation-state building in each context. In South Africa and the United States ethnic or regional “intrawhite” conflict impeding nation-state consolidation was contained by racial domination. Whites were unified by excluding blacks, in an ongoing dynamic that took different forms. Continued competition and tensions between the American North and South or South Africa's English and Afrikaners were repeatedly resolved or diminished through further entrenchment of Jim Crow or apartheid. With no comparable conflict requiring reconciliation in Brazil, no official racial domination was constructed, although discrimination continued. The dynamics of nation-state building are then reviewed to explain variations in black mobilization and the end of apartheid and Jim Crow.
The Not So Silent Revolution Postwar Migration to Western Europe
Authors: Messina Anthony M.
Published: February 2007

In the 1990s scholars working within the subfield of immigration studies in Western Europe have advanced four major arguments. (1) In a liberal era of global economic markets the capacity of states to govern their territorial borders has significantly eroded. (2) The widespread diffusion of liberal norms has severely inhibited the ability of governments to execute a rational immigrant policy. (3) The experience of mass immigration has transformed the boundaries of national citizenship. And 4) postwar immigration has fostered the surge of radical right-wing populist movements. This article evaluates these arguments in light of the evidence presented in both the collected scholarship under review and other select works. It concludes by arguing the case for new scholarly initiatives to synthesize and unify the separate literatures represented by the volumes under review.
Game Theory and Comparative Politics: New Perspectives and Old Concerns
Authors: Munck Gerardo L.
Published: February 2007

In an effort to take stock of the claims put forth by advocates of game theory, this article offers an assessment that considers game theory both as a set of theoretical principles that extends rational choice theory to interdependent decision making and as a type of formal methodology. Some important strengths of game theory are identified, such as its emphasis on actors and strategic choices and its ability to generate predictions in a logically rigorous and internally consistent manner. But many shortcomings are also discussed. One shortcoming is that the effort to develop a theory of action falls short, both in the sense of failing to provide a full explanation of actions and in the sense of not applying to domains of great significance. A second shortcoming is the failure of the procedures used in formal modeling to offer guidance pertaining to a critical step in the process of modeling: the conceptualization of the model. Thus, the challenge facing scholars in comparative politics is to consider the new perspectives offered by game theory and draw upon its strengths, but to do so without losing sight of a series of old concerns in the social sciences that game theory is not suited to tackle.
Information Systems in Treaty Regimes
Authors: Dai Xinyuan
Published: February 2007

One of the most influential arguments in international relations is that international institutions influence states' behavior by monitoring their compliance with treaties, which in turn facilitates reciprocity. Empirically, however, many treaty organizations are not mandated to monitor compliance. The article develops a parsimonious theoretical framework to address the empirical diversity of monitoring arrangements. By mapping strategic environments onto monitoring arrangements, it accounts for who detects noncompliance and who brings it to light. In particular, two factors—the interest alignment between noncompliance victims and their states and the availability of noncompliance victims as low-cost monitors—largely shape the organizational forms of information systems. This simple theory sheds light on a wide range of substantiveh/important treaty regimes.
Generating Reforms and Reforming Generations: Military Politics in Indonesia's Democratic Transition and Consolidation
Authors: Chandra Siddharth , Kammen Douglas
Published: February 2007

This article examines the importance of the internal structural dynamics of the military in the analysis of transitions from nondemocratic rule and in democratic consolidation. The authors argues that factors endogenous to the military—including variations in the size of the officer corps, solidarity among graduating classes from the military academy, and promotional prospects—are important determinants of the political behavior of militaries. As a case study, military structure and politics during Indonesia's recent transition from nondemocratic rule and current consolidation of democracy are explored in detail. While the ongoing interaction between civilians and the military is acknowledged, systematic structural features are identified as being important for understanding the behavior of the Indonesian military between 1998 and 2001. The authors compare and contrast the study of Indonesia with other cases in the literature on transitions—including Ghana, Nigeria, Portugal, and Thailand—and discuss resulting implications for the study of transitions and consolidations.
Arguing about Muslims: (Un)Reasonable argumentation in letters to the editor
Authors: Atkin Albert , Richardson John E
Published: February 2007

This article analyses letters to the editor written on or about Muslims printed in a British broadsheet newspaper. The pragma-dialectical theory of argumentation is applied as a model for explaining and understanding the arguments employed in the sampled letters. Our presentation of pragma-dialectical theory focuses on argumentative reasonableness. More specifically, we introduce the four dialectical stages through which any argument must pass and explain the ten rules of critical discussion that participants must follow throughout if they are to resolve the argument. The article focuses in particular on the letter writers' use of argument schemes—that is, the manner in which these writers use arguments to support their standpoints. We conclude by highlighting the role that unreasonable arguments can play in perpetuating racialized inequalities and hence the importance of analyzing argumentation.
Echocardiographic characterisation of cardiac dilatation induced by volume overload in a canine experimental model
Authors: Dudás Györki Z. , Kollár A. , Manczur F. , Kékesi Violetta , Vörös K.
Published: February 2007

The aim of this study was to characterise the development of cardiac dilatation induced by chronic volume overload in 12 dogs. Bilateral arteriovenous fistulas were created between the common femoral arteries and the femoral veins, and the animals were serially studied with transthoracic echocardiography for a period of 12 weeks after the operation. Compared to the measurements obtained before the operation (week 0), the data obtained at the end of the experimental period showed significantly increased left ventricular volume measured by 2D-echocardiography (from 25.1 cm
3
to 43.8 cm
3
, p < 0.0001 in diastole and from 8.6 cm
3
to 16.8 cm
3
, p < 0.001 in systole), and left ventricular diameter measured by M-mode echocardiography (from 26.2 mm to 32.6 mm, p < 0.0001 in diastole and from 17.1 mm to 20.6 mm, p < 0.001 in systole). The size of the left atrium also increased in transversal (from 29.2 mm to 33.6 mm, p < 0.01) but not in longitudinal diameter. In spite of a significant cardiac chamber dilatation over the 12-week period, left ventricular systolic functional variables (fractional shortening, FS % and ejection fraction, EF %), and also the left ventricular systolic and diastolic free wall thickness remained unchanged. In this study we demonstrated that chronic progressive volume overload resulted in gradual dilatation of the canine heart, and that the pathological process can be monitored successfully by serial echocardiography. We found that left atrial dilatation occurred without the development of mitral regurgitation and/or detectable left ventricular dysfunction.
Common atrioventricular canal in a newborn foal — Case report and review of the literature
Authors: Kutasi Orsolya , Vörös K. , Biksi I. , Szenci O. , Sótonyi P.
Published: February 2007

This paper presents the embryological and pathological features as well as the terminology and classification of common atrioventricular canal, a type of endocardial cushion defect. The authors give a complete description of an extremely rare congenital cardiac malformation in an equine neonate. The diagnosis of a complete, balanced common atrioventricular canal of type C in Rastelli’s classification scheme was based on two-dimensional, contrast and colour Doppler echocardiography and subsequent postmortem gross pathology. To support our diagnosis and study the pathophysiological effect of the alteration, physical examination, blood gas analysis and other laboratory tests, electrocardiography and thoracic radiography were also performed. Our search of the literature suggests that this type of developmental anomaly might account for a higher percentage of equine congenital cardiac defects than was thought earlier. We suppose that some previously described congenital heart abnormalities were misinterpreted: these anomalies could have actually represented some type of atrioventricular canal defect, resulting from the failure of the endocardial cushions to undergo complete and proper fusion.
Impacts of Spatial Patterns in Pasture on Animal Grazing Behavior, Intake, and Performance
Authors: Chapman D. F. , Parsons A. J. , Cosgrove G. P. , Barker D. J. , Marotti D. M. , Venning K. J. , Rutter S. M. , Hill J. , Thompson A. N.
Published: February 2007

Control over the quantity and quality of food ingested by grazing ruminants in temperate pasture systems remains elusive. This is due in part to the foraging choices that animals make when grazing from communities of mixed plant species. Grazing behavior and intake interact strongly with the feed supply–demand balance, pasture composition, and grazing method. These interactions are not completely understood, even for relatively simple pasture communities such as a perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenneL.)–white clover (Trifolium repensL.) mixture. When offered a free choice between these species, ruminants exhibit a partial preference for clover compared to grass (about 0.7:0.3) and have a higher intake rate from clover but do not graze to maximize their daily intake of dry matter (DM). When monocultures of grass and clover are offered as a free choice in 50:50 area ratio, animal performance is no different than from a clover monoculture alone. Thus, all of the feeding value benefits of clover are available when only 0.5 of the grazing area is sown to clover. These observations accord with the satiety theory and imply that there are constraints to eating pure clover that animals can overcome by adding grass to their diet, provided their ability to locate and ingest each food is not seriously limited. The challenge for grassland management is to present feed to animals at pasture in ways that allow them to meet their dietary preferences, while also allowing high rates of animal production per hectare.
Response to Direct Selection for Grain Yield under Drought Stress in Rice
Authors: Venuprasad R. , Lafitte H. R. , Atlin G. N.
Published: February 2007

Drought is a major cause of yield loss in rain‐fed rice (Oryza sativa L.), grown on over 40 million ha in Asia. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of direct selection for yield under drought stress in upland rice in populations derived from crosses between irrigated high‐yielding cultivars and upland‐adapted cultivars. Random F2:4 lines from five populations were screened for grain yield in fully irrigated lowland fields under nonstress conditions and in uplands under severe reproductive‐stage drought stress. Stress caused mean yield reduction of 64% across populations. Broad‐sense heritability for yield was not consistently lower in stress than in nonstress trials. Response to selection was evaluated in two crosses in subsequent seasons. Stress‐selected lines had a yield advantage of 25 to 34% over random lines when evaluated at stress levels similar to those in which they were selected. Yield gains under very severe stress occurred only in a population derived from a highly tolerant parent. Direct selection usually gave greater response under stress than indirect selection under nonstress conditions. Direct selection under dry‐season stress also gave response under naturally occurring wet‐season stress. These results support the hypothesis that selection for yield under reproductive‐stage drought stress is effective in rice, and that choice of donor is very important in breeding drought‐tolerant rice.
Associated anomalies in multi‐malformed infants with cleft lip and palate: An epidemiologic study of nearly 6 million births in 23 EUROCAT registries
Authors: Calzolari Elisa , Pierini Anna , Astolfi Gianni , Bianchi Fabrizio , Neville Amanda J. , Rivieri Francesca ,   EUROCAT Working Group
Published: February 2007

We studied 5,449 cases of cleft lip (CL) with or without cleft palate (CL/P) identified between 1980 and 2000 from the EUROCAT network of 23 registers (nearly 6 million births) in 14 European countries. We investigated specific types of defect sassociated with clefts. Among CL/P cases (prevalence = 9.1 per 10,000), 1,996 (36.6%) affected only the lip (CL) and 3,453 (63.4%) involved CL and palate (CLP). A total of 3,860 CL/P cases (70.8%) occurred as isolated anomalies and 1,589 (29.2%) were associated with other defects such as multiple congenital anomalies of unknown origin (970), chromosomal (455) and recognized syndromes (164). Associated malformations were more frequent in infants who had CLP (34.0%) than in infants with CL only (20.8%). Among multi‐malformed infants, 2 unrelated anomalies were found in 351 cases, 3 in 242 cases, and 4 or more in 377 cases. Among 5,449 CL/P cases, 4,719 were live births (LB) (86.6%), 203 stillbirths (SB) (3.7%), while 508 (9.3%) were terminations of pregnancy (ToP). CL/P occurred significantly more frequently in males (M/F = 1.70), especially among total isolated cases (M/F = 1.87) and CLP isolated cases (M/F = 1.92). The study confirmed that musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and central nervous system defects are frequently associated with CL/P. An association with reduction anomalies of the brain was found. This association suggests that clinicians should seek to identify structural brain anomalies in these patients with CL/P as the potential functional consequences may be important for rehabilitation and clinical management. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Sustained neocortical neurogenesis after neonatal hypoxic/ischemic injury
Authors: Yang Zhengang , Covey Matthew V. , Bitel Claudine L. , Ni Li , Jonakait G. Miller , Levison Steven W.
Published: February 2007

Objective

Neocortical neurons are sensitive to hypoxic‐ischemic (H‐I) injuries at term and their demise contributes to neurological disorders. Here we tested the hypothesis that the subventricular zone of the immature brain regenerates neocortical neurons, and that this response is sustained.

Methods

Systemic injections of 5‐bromo‐2′‐deoxyuridine (BrdU) and intraventricular injections of replication‐deficient retroviruses were used to label newly born cells, and confocal microscopy after immunofluorescence was used to phenotype the new cells from several days to several months after perinatal H‐I in the postnatal day 6 rat. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction was used to evaluate chemoattractants, growth factors, and receptors.

Results

Robust production of new neocortical neurons after perinatal H‐I occurs. These new neurons are descendants of the subventricular zone, and they colonize the cell‐sparse columns produced by the injury to the neocortex. These columns are populated by reactive astrocytes and microglia. Surprisingly, this neuronogenesis is sustained for months. Molecular analyses demonstrated increased neocortical production of insulin‐like growth factor‐1 and monocyte chemoattractant factor‐1 (but statistically insignificant production of erythropoietin, brain‐derived neurotrophic factor, glial‐derived neurotrophic factor, and transforming growth factor‐α).

Interpretation

The young nervous system has long been known to possess a greater capacity to recover from injury than the adult system. Our data indicate that H‐I injury in the neonatal brain initiates an enduring regenerative response from the subventricular zone. These data suggest that additional mechanisms than those previously surmised contribute to the remarkable ability of the immature brain to recover from injury. Ann Neurol 2007
Vorhersage und Analyse natürlicher Lüftungsvorgänge
Authors: Gritzki Ralf , Rösler Markus , Richter Wolfgang
Published: February 2007

Die rechnerische Vorhersage natürlicher Lüftungsvorgänge in Gebäuden gestaltet sich aufgrund der Problematik der Randbedingungen und der instationären Natur des Vorganges oft schwierig. Hinzu kommt, daß der reine Lüftungsvorgang lediglich eine Teil information liefert, wenn beispielsweise Nachtlüftungen und die damit einhergehende Entwärmung untersucht werden müssen. Unter Nutzung der Möglichkeiten einer speziellen Finite‐Elemente‐Methode (FEM) lassen sich Randbedingungsformulierungen finden, die für die Berechnung natürlicher Lüftungsvorgänge geeignet sind. Weiterhin werden Möglichkeiten und Kriterien vorgestellt, instationäre Lüftungsvorgänge unter hygienischen und energetischen Gesichtspunkten zu analysieren. Der energetische Aspekt lässt sich besonders herausarbeiten, wenn man Raumluftströmungsberechnung und thermische Gebäudesimulation geeignet kombiniert.
Ein Modell zur hygrisch‐thermischen Gebäudesimulation mit Hilfe der Kopplung von Zonen‐ und Feldmodell
Authors: Perschk Alf , Meinhold Uwe
Published: February 2007

Es wird ein Modell vorgestellt, das eine erweiterte Analyse der hygrisch‐thermischen Zustandsgrößen eines Gebäudes, durch die direkte Kopplung von Zonen‐ mit Feldmodellen, ermöglicht. Das ursprünglich auf die Berechnung von technischen Anlagen ausgerichtete Programmpaket TRNSYS ist so aufgebaut, daß in das gegebene Bilanzierungsgebiet eigene Algorithmen für unterschiedliche technische Komponenten oder physikalische Zusammenhänge integriert werden können. Das Gesamtsystem aus vorhandenen Algorithmen und neuen Komponenten wird von TRNSYS für jeden Zeitschritt neu gelöst. Es besteht damit die Möglichkeit, Feldmodelle zur detaillierten Beschreibung der physikalischen Zustände in der Raumumschließungskonstruktion (Wand) oder die komplexe Analyse der Raumluftströmung mit dem Zonenmodell für die Gebäudesimulation zu verbinden. Die neu in das TRNSYS‐Gerüst integrierten Module und die Wechselwirkung mit dem vorhandenen Zonenmodell (Standard TYPE 56) werden erläutert. Eine Basis, die entwickelten Simulationstools zu testen und zu validieren, bietet die Mitarbeit im Rahmen der IEA Annex 41 “Whole building heat, air and moisture response (MOIST‐ENG)”. Einzelne Validierungsberechnungen und praktische Anwendungsbeispiele werden vorgestellt.
Two case studies on user interactions with buildings' environmental systems
Authors: Mahdavi Ardeshir , Lambeva Lyudmila , Mohammadi Abdolazim , Kabir Elham , Pröglhöf Claus
Published: February 2007

The design and operation of energy‐efficient systems for indoor environment control (heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting) can benefit from reliable information on occupants' actions to bring about changes in the status of building control systems. Specifically, the computational modeling of occupants' control‐oriented actions in building performance simulation applications can be significantly improved based on such empirical information on user behavior. The present paper concerns the type and number of user control actions as related to building systems in two office buildings in Vienna, Austria.
Bestimmung des thermischen und hygrischen Zustands der Raumluft bei freier Konvektion
Authors: Göbelsmann Marc
Published: February 2007

Die Kenntnis des zu erwartenden thermischen und hygrischen Zustands der Raumluft bereits in der Planungsphase eines Gebäudes ist in vielerlei Hinsicht bedeutsam. Insbesondere in hohen Räumen bildet sich vielfach ein vertikaler Gradient der Temperatur und der Feuchte im Raum aus. Der Einfluß der freien Konvektion darf bei der Berechnung nicht vernachlässigt werden. Hierfür sind geeignete Rechenmodelle erforderlich. Es wurden ein Feldmodell und ein Multi‐Zonen‐Modell entwickelt und anhand von Meßdaten validiert. Die Berechnung mit dem Feldmodell liefert detaillierte Informationen über den Zustand der Raumluft für jeden Ort im Raum; der numerische Aufwand ist allerdings sehr groß. Mittels des Multi‐Zonen‐Modells kann der Zustand der Raumluft für einzelne Bereiche im Raum unter prinzipieller Berücksichtigung der freien Konvektion berechnet werden; der erforderliche numerische Aufwand ist dabei gering. Beide Modelle ergänzen sich einander und bieten die Möglichkeit, den Aufwand der Berechnung an die jeweilige Problemstellung anzupassen.
An aerobic sequencing batch reactor for 2,4,6‐trinitrophenol (picric acid) biodegradation
Authors: Weidhaas Jennifer L. , Schroeder Edward D. , Chang Daniel P.Y.
Published: February 2007

A bench scale sequencing batch reactor (SBR) was designed and tested for degradation of 2,4,6‐trinitrophenol (TNP) or picric acid‐contaminated wastewater or groundwater. Under varying temperatures (25, 15 and 10°C) and influent concentrations (40–200 mg/L TNP) a stable biomass was developed that was consistently capable of degrading the explosive compound to below regulatory drinking water limits (0.057 mg/L). The reactor was initially seeded with a nitroaromatic and nitramine degrading isolate Rhodococcus opacus strain JW01. Kinetic growth modeling was conducted revealing µmax values at 25, 15 and 10°C of 0.14, 0.08 and 0.04 d−1, while the modeled Ks values were 0.68, 1.11 and 1.24 mg/L, respectively. Overall TNP removal efficiency in the SBR was on average > 99.9% over the 2000 hours of operation. Removal of TNP to below drinking water standards, with low residual dissolved carbon and significant release of nitrogen from the parent compound was accomplished. Biotechnol. Bioneg. 2007;97: 1408–1414. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Anaerobic methanethiol degradation in upflow anaerobic sludge bed reactors at high salinity (≥0.5 M Na+)
Authors: van Leerdam Robin C. , de Bok Frank A.M. , Lens Piet N.L. , Stams Alfons J.M. , Janssen Albert J.H.
Published: February 2007

The feasibility of anaerobic methanethiol (MT) degradation at elevated sodium concentrations was investigated in a mesophilic (30°C) lab‐scale upflow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) reactor, inoculated with estuarine sediment originating from the Wadden Sea (The Netherlands). MT was almost completely degraded (>95%) to sulfide, methane and carbon dioxide at volumetric loading rates up to 37 mmol MT·L−1·day−1, 0.5 M sodium (NaCl or NaHCO3) and between pH 7.3 and 8.4. Batch experiments revealed that inhibition of MT degradation started at sodium (both NaCl and NaHCO3) concentrations exceeding 0.8 M. Sulfide inhibited MT degradation already around 3 mM (pH 8.3). Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2007; 98: 91–100. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Transseptal puncture: Use of an angioplasty guidewire for enhanced safety
Authors: Hildick‐Smith David , McCready James , de Giovanni Jo
Published: February 2007

During transseptal puncture, once the needle tip has successfully accessed the left atrium, advancement of the needle, dilator and sheath into the left atrium can risk left atrial free wall perforation, particularly if the interatrial septum is aneurysmal and tents far into the left atrial cavity during puncture. We have modified our transseptal technique such that once the left atrium is accessed with the needle tip, a 0.014″ angioplasty guidewire is advanced down the Brockenbrough needle. This is guided into the left upper pulmonary vein, and the needle, dilator and sheath advanced over this wire towards the left upper pulmonary vein. In this way, the risk of perforation of the left atrial free wall is negated. We have since used this technique in 30 cases without difficulties. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Xanthones from Pinus roxburghii
Authors: Rawat U. , Srivastava B. , Semwal S. , Sati O. P.
Published: February 2007

ChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 200 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract, please click on HTML or PDF.
Lewis Base‐Catalyzed Formation of α ‐Trifluoromethyl Alcohol from CF3SiMe3 and Carbonyl‐Containing Compounds
Authors: Zhu Shi‐Fa , Pang Wan , Xing Chun‐Hui , Zhu Shi‐Zheng
Published: February 2007

Lewis base could catalyze the formation of α‐trifluoromethyl alcohol from CF3SiMe3 and carbonyl‐containing compounds. It was found that the α‐trifluoromethyl alcohol could also be used to promote the synthesis in basic conditions.
Gradient coil with active endcap shielding
Authors: Baig Tanvir N. , Eagan Timothy P. , Petropoulos Labros S. , Kidane T.K. , Edelstein William A. , Brown Robert W.
Published: February 2007

Shielded gradient coil assemblies produce eddy currents in surrounding metal structures. Such eddy currents can degrade image quality and produce acoustic noise. These effects are magnified for high‐field MRI scanners because of increased Lorentz forces. Conventional actively shielded gradient assemblies consist of primary and secondary coils in the shape of cylindrical shells surrounding the imaging volume. One of the principal regions of field leakage is at the ends of the gradient structure, and these fields are responsible for substantial eddy current generation. We present here a new shielded gradient coil design with an endcap current distribution having both azimuthal and radial components. Our active endcap design significantly reduces the fringe field at the cryostat inner bore. A peak fringe field reduction near the end of the gradient coil of 42% is obtained for the Z gradient relative to a traditional design without active endcaps. The reduction of peak fringe field near the end of the coil for transverse gradients (X and Y) is approximately 40%. We discuss the degree to which the suppression of peak fringe fields corresponds to a reduction in the acoustic noise generated near the end of the warm bore. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Concepts Magn Reson Part B (Magn Reson Engineering) 31B: 12–23, 2007
The Sediments and Benthic‐Pelagic Exchange in the Shallow Lake Müggelsee (Berlin, Germany)
Authors: Kozerski Hans‐Peter , Kleeberg Andreas
Published: February 2007

The sediments and exchange processes of the shallow (mean depth 4.9 m), polymictic, eutrophic Müggelsee have been studied over more than 30 years. Here, previous results are summarised and completed by new data. Sediment analyses were used to identify changes in loadings and migration processes within the sediments of the 12000 year old lake. The surficial oligohumic sediments are rich in Fe (8.8 ± 1.9% DW) and in P (2.7 ± 0.5 mg P g−1 DW). Mass balances of P and Fe as well as sediment trap measurements and sinking velocity analyses showed that the retention of matter strongly varies within seasons and years. The lake amplifies the seasonal fluctuations of P in the River Spree system by a strong redox‐controlled, benthic P‐release in summer. Since 1988, P‐release has exceeded retention so that the lake changed from a P‐sink to a source. The retention rate dropped in summer to ‐7.3 mg P m−2 d−1 and in winter to 1.4 mg P m−2 d−1.