bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Reinterpretation of the Banking Crisis of 1930
Authors: White Eugene Nelson
Published: September 2009

The banking crisis of 1930 is one of the central events of the Great Depression. The causes of this wave of bank failures are examined using individual bank balance sheet data. Both real and monetary factors are found to have forced the closure of banks, many of which were already weakened by regulatory constraints and regional economic difficulties. The bank failures in this crisis do not seem to have been different in character from failures in previous years, suggesting that the rise in the number of failures may have marked only the beginning of a recession rather than a depression.
Underinvestment in Literacy? The Potential Contribution of Government Involvement in Elementary Education to Economic Growth in Nineteenth-Century England
Authors: Mitch David
Published: September 2009

The case for government involvement in the provision of elementary education in nineteenth-century England is assessed by presenting estimates of the rate of return to literacy. Before government involvement, the estimated rate of return to male literacy was considerably above the return on most alternative investments in the English economy. The differential narrowed with the onset of government involvement. The evidence is much weaker for any initial underinvestment in female literacy. The contribution to national income from correcting any initial underinvestment in literacy appears to have been modest.
Slavery and Supervision in Comparative Perspective: A Model
Authors: Fenoaltea Stefano
Published: September 2009

The familiar transaction-costs model is extended to allow for the varying costs and benefits of supervision and pain incentives on the one hand, and ordinary rewards on the other, in differentially effort- and care-intensive activities. Applied to unfree labor, this model accounts for the observed patterns of slave governance and manumission in extractive, industrial, agricultural, and service activities in antiquity and in the New World. Applied to free labor, it accounts for wage work on large estates in labor-surplus medieval England or modern Italy, the choice between bonuses and penalties in industrial contracts, and the growing paternalism of our own time.
Why Was British Growth So Slow During the Industrial Revolution?
Authors: Williamson Jeffrey G.
Published: September 2009

Although it has been labeled the “First Industrial Revolution,” British growth and industrialization was slow between the 1760s and the 1820s. The explanation seems to lie with low capital formation shares in national income, low rates of accumulation, and thus little change in the capital-labor ratio. What accounts for the modest investment rates? Lack of thrift? Weak investment demand? This paper argues that the answer is to be found in the enormous debt issues used, to finance the French Wars.
Why Was Specie Scarce in Colonial Economies? An Analysis of the Canadian Currency, 1796–1830
Authors: Redish Angela
Published: September 2009

Colonial economies suffered from a scarcity of specie that traditionally has been attributed to a chronic external drain. An analysis of the Canadian currency in the early nineteenth century suggests that the explanation for the specie scarcity lies in the multi-coin monetary standard imposed by the currency laws. Gresham's Law accurately predicts the coins that circulated in Canada, and it is concluded that the colonists suffered from a lack of quality rather than quantity of specie.
The Demand for Land: The United States, 1820–1860
Authors: Lebergott Stanley
Published: September 2009

The demand for land in the United States was shaped by inherited attitudes and modern asset creation. Immigrants inherited the view that landowners had an enhanced chance of survival in a “starving time.” But the United States farmer also found that by clearing his unimproved acres he could create assets from otherwise idle time between seasonal peaks in the use of family labor. Public land sales in the South from 1820 to 1860 correlate well with variables that reflect expected money return and supply price. Substantial residuals for 1835–1837 chiefly trace to specific policy actions in Washington.
Clearinghouses and the Origin of Central Banking in the United States
Authors: Gorton Gary
Published: September 2009

The pre-1914 U.S. banking industry is not easily characterized as a market operating through a price system. The endogenous development of the clearinghouse as the industry's organizing institution can be explained by inherent characteristics of demand deposits. During banking panics the clearinghouse united banks into an organization resembling a single firm which produced deposit insurance.
Income, Public Works, and Mortality in Early Twentieth-Century American Cities
Authors: Gaspari K. Celeste , Woolf Arthur G.
Published: September 2009

Mortality differentials for 122 cities in the United States in 1910 are examined with specific attention given to the influence of public works projects. Sewage systems are found to have significantly reduced mortality, while water filtration systems had no impact. This runs counter to the theories and beliefs of many public health officials and sanitary engineers of the era. Other factors, including the racial and immigrant composition of the population, urban density, number of physicians, and the standard of living, are also examined.
The Market for Indentured Immigrants: Evidence on the Efficiency of Forward-Labor Contracting in Philadelphia, 1745–1773
Authors: Grubb Farley
Published: September 2009

Indentured servitude is modeled as a trans-Atlantic market in forward-labor contracts. The model is applied to servant-auction evidence in Philadelphia, and the determinants of contract prices are used to test the efficient-market hypothesis. While competing for servants in Europe, most of the expected price differences across servants were lost through arbitrage by recruiters.
Colonial Monetary Standards Contrasted: Evidence from the Seven Years' War
Authors: Wicker Elmus
Published: September 2009

The Seven Years' War warrants a reinterpretation of the colonial paper-money experiment. Pennsylvania, New York, and South Carolina with fiduciary standards issued large quantities of paper money to finance the war accompanied by only moderate increases in the rate of inflation. Massachusetts with its pure specie standard financed the war with interest-bearing debt and fared little better, if not a little worse. Success of war finance in Pennsylvania, New York, and South Carolina can be attributed to paper-money issues that financed government expenditures and were matched by imposition of tax labilities for early redemption.
Israeli Economic Policies, 1948–1951: Problems of Evaluation
Authors: Gross Nachum T.
Published: September 2009

The State of Israel was established in the midst of a war for its survival, and its population doubled within three years by mass immigration. The Israeli governments opted for a system of far-reaching and direct intervention in the economy as a means of winning the war, meeting basic consumption needs, and sustaining a high investment ratio. The circumstances and ideological premises of this policy are discussed, and the major problems of evaluation spelled out.
Winning the Eight-Hour Day, 1909–1919
Authors: Whaples Robert
Published: September 2009

The American workers' quest for an eight-hour day finally came to an end around 1919. I argue that the most important factors behind the rapid decline in manufacturing hours in the decade before 1919 include the rapid expansion of the economy, which increased wages and drew new participants into the manufacturing sector; the reduction of immigration during the war; the growth in organized labor's strength; federal and state legislation that mandated reduced work weeks; and the electrification of the manufacturing sector.
The Development of Irrigation in Provence, 1700-1860: The French Revolution and Economic Growth
Authors: Rosenthal Jean-Laurent
Published: September 2009

Quantiative and qualitative evidence suggest that the returns to irrigation in France were similar during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Old Regime failed to develop irrigation because of fragmented political authority over rights of eminent domain. Since many groups could hold projects up, transaction costs increased dramatically. Reforms enacted during the French Revolution reduced the costs of securing rights of eminent domain.
The Real Takeover of the BIA: The Preferential Hiring of Indians
Authors: Novak Steven J.
Published: September 2009

An early long-running federal social policy experiment was the preferential hiring of American Indians at agencies, reserations, and shools. This government employment was designed to accelerate the assimilation of the natives and to reduce their resistance to education and economic change. Instead, the program inadvertently created a form of dependency. This ironic outcome was due to the power of the natives to shape the policy according to their needs and values.
The Evolution of Private Property in Nineteenth-Century Hawaii
Authors: Croix Sumner J. La , Roumasset James
Published: September 2009

Population pressure has been identified as a major force behind the transition from traditional property rights in land to exclusive, transferable property rights. This article examines the case of Hawaii where the transition to private property in land occurred while its population was rapidly declining. That transition was driven by new market opportunities and considerations of public finance.The shift in comparative advantage to sugar production increased the rents associated with private land rights, while declining tax revenues prompted the king and his government to pursue property rights reform to gain additional revenues.
Institutional Choice and the Development of U.S. Agricultural Policies in the 1920s
Authors: Hoffman Elizabeth , Libecap Gary D.
Published: September 2009

We examine U.S. agricultural policy as an institutional choice. Price controls in World War I had demonstrated the government's influence in markets, and with falling crop prices in the 1920s, farmers appealed to the federal government. The federal government was large enough by then to intervene in variou ways. It could have assisted private cooperatives by providing antitrust exemptions, market information, and enforcement of cooperative rules or intervened directly with mandatory output reductions and targeted prices. The policies adopted were influenced by crop-specific characteristics and broader market conditions affecting the success of private cooperatives.
Male Retirement Behavior in the United States, 1930–1950
Authors: Parsons Donald O.
Published: September 2009

Explanations for the recent decline in the labor force attachment of males 65 years of age and older include the introduction of Old Age and Survivors Insurance and the growth in private pension programs. Neither hypothesis can explain the sizable decline that occurred between 1930 and 1950, when aggregate social security and private pension payments were small. Estimates from pooled state aggregate data indicate that the means-tested Old Age Assistance program established by the Social Security Act of 1935 significantly increased retirement activity in this period, particularly among low-income individuals.
The Panic of 1857: Origins, Transmission, and Containment
Authors: Calomiris Charles W. , Schweikart Larry
Published: September 2009

We explain the origins of the Panic of 1857, examine its spread, and compare state banking systems's responses. We describe the decline in western land and railroad investments and the consequent stress on securities brokers and banks in eastern cities, and trace the transmission of the shock to other regions. Bank performance depended not only on regional conditions and links to eastern banks, but on the ability to coordinate behavior. Southern branch banks and coinsuring banks in Ohio and Indiana were particularly successful.
The Gold Deflation, France, and the Coming of the Depression, 1919–1932
Authors: Johnson H. Clark
Published: September 2009

The dissertation argues for a distinction between two varieties of price deflation, one offset by declining costs, the other induced by declining profits. Where the second type of deflation occurs, the usual result is contraction of output, income, and employment. We can roughly measure the relative amounts of cost and profit deflation underway in different situations. Price declines usually aggravate profit downturns, and in some cases directly cause them. An international profit deflation that (except for its milder consequences) anticipated that of 1929 to 1932 occurred during 1891 to 1896.
Infant Mortality and Living Standards of English Workers During the Industrial Revolution
Authors: Huck Paul
Published: September 2009

Infant mortality data gathered from the registers of nine parishes in the industrial North of England are used as a concrete indicator of living standards for the early nineteenth century. Rising infant mortality in the sample parishes provides evidence that the standard of living was not improving substantially in these towns up to midcentury. This conclusion remains after considering the effect on mortality of population growth, climate, and feeding practices.
Learning, Capital Accumulation, and the Transformation of California Agriculture
Authors: Rhode Paul W.
Published: September 2009

Between 1890 and 1914, California agriculture rapidly shifted from extensive to intensive crops, emerging as one of the world's major suppliers of Mediterranean products. Based on an analysis of new data on price and quantity movements, this article calls into question the traditional emphasis on changes in transportation, water, and labor market conditions as explanations for California's transformation. It argues that increases in fruit supply outpaced increases in demand and that declining farm interest rates and biological learning played crucial, if relatively neglected, roles in the intensification process.
White Servitude and the Growth of Black Slavery in Colonial America
Authors: Galenson David W.
Published: September 2009

The role of white servitude evolved in a similar way during the American colonial period in those West Indian and southern mainland colonies where slavery became quantitatively important. The change from primary reliance on bound white labor to the use of slaves occurred in two steps, with an initial transition from servants to slaves in unskilled field work, followed some time later by widespread training of blacks and substitution of slaves for servants in skilled occupations. The timing of the two steps can be explained as a function of the changing relative costs of indentured and slave labor in the markets for unskilled and skilled labor.
The Transformation of the American Office: Changes in Employment and Technology
Authors: Rotella Elyce J.
Published: September 2009

Between 1870 and 1930 production methods in American offices changed substantially as mechanical devices were introduced and work was subdivided and routinized. This paper explores connections between these technological advances and changes in clerical emplyment, particularly the employment of women in offices. A close correspondence is found between the timing of changes in the sex composition of clerical employment and the adoption of new techniques. It is argued that the new technology led to increased hiring of female clerical workers by reducing the form-specific skill requirements for clerical jobs.
Price and Wage Controls in Four Wartime Periods
Authors: Rockoff Hugh
Published: September 2009

The debate over wage and price controls has taken a highly stylized form. Advocates of controls stress the direct effect on the obvious problem, inflation, whereas critics stress the side effects. This paper measures and compares the effects of controls during the four periods when controls have been used in the United States in the twentieth century. Although tentative conclusions are drawn concerning the price effects, the size of the administrative bureaucracies, and so forth, the clearest lesson, as usual, is that the issue warrants further investigation by economic historians because it is important, and because the historical record is surprisingly rich.
The Rise (and Retreat) of a Market: English Joint Stock Shares in the Eighteenth Century
Authors: Mirowski Philip
Published: September 2009

The market for joint stock shares in eighteenth-century England is often portrayed as an underdeveloped and flawed mechanism for resource allocation, which in turn is cited to explain the paucity of shares actually traded. This article questions that interpretation, both by inquiring whether the requisite institutions for a functional market were present, and by constructing a new time series of eighteenth-century share prices and exposing them to a test of the efficient markets hypothesis. Because the stock exchange is found to exhibit most of the conventionally defined characteristics of an effective market, the article concludes by outlining the case for skepticism with respect to a common theme in economic history: the idea that the purported superiority of market resource allocation over alternative non-market forms (in the absence of rigidities due to underdevelopment or government interference) is an unambiguous conclusion in every historical context.
The London and New York Stock Exchanges, 1850–1914
Authors: Michie Ranald C.
Published: September 2009

This paper compares two financial institutions that provided the same functions at the same time, but in different countries and with different memberships. Though the London and New York stock exchanges appear to be alike between 1850 and 1914, they were not, as each responded in its own way to the forces acting upon it. The result was a radically different organization of the securities market in Britain and the United States. This had important implications for the money and capital markets and consequences for business and the economy.
The Cotton Harvester in Retrospect: Labor Displacement or Replacement?
Authors: Peterson Willis , Kislev Yoav
Published: September 2009

The prevailing view of new mechanical technology is that it has, in large part, pushed labor out of agriculture. An alternative hypothesis is that labor has been pulled out of agriculture by higher wages in nonfarm occupations. The mechanical cotton harvester is used to test the two hypotheses. Estimation of a simultaneous-equation model of the labor market for cotton pickers reveals 79 percent of reduction in hand picking of cotton was due to increased nonfarm wages—the pull effect; the remaining 21 percent is attributed to the decreased cost of machine harvesting—the push effect.
Redemptioner Immigration to Pennsylvania: Evidence on Contract Choice and Profitability
Authors: Grubb Farley
Published: September 2009

The evolution from indentured to redemptioner servitude as a means of financing immigration to late eighteenth-century Pennsylvania is documented. The compensating differences between methods are used to explain contract choice. The rate of return to shipping redemptioners is estimated and compared with the default rate needed to make it a competitive return. The expected incidence of defaults and the implications for risk pooling among families and risk spreading across voyages are investigated.
Westward Who? Estimates of Native White Interstate Migration After the War of 1812
Authors: Oberly James W.
Published: September 2009

Estimates of interstate migration after 1815 and before 1860 for white, U.S.-born adults are presented. The estimates come from a sample of military bounty land warrant recipients who served in the War of 1812 and show that a majority of veterans spent their adult lives in the same state. The limited amount of interstate movement did conform to traditional descriptions of an east-west pattern. I also consider the social basis for interstate migration.
What Do Bosses Really Do?
Authors: Landes David S.
Published: September 2009

If employers make so much money, why don't workers hire machines and expertise and make the money instead? This question has generated a large body of writing, including Stephen Marglin's much-cited article “What Do Bosses Do?” Marglin draws on history to argue that the employer, who added nothing to technical efficiency, used specialization of tasks to divide labor and impose himself as boss, thereby creating an artificial, unproductive role. These arrangements were embodied in domestic industry and were reinforced when employers turned to the factory system as a more effective disciplinary mode. This article argues that such a thesis misreads history and is essentially ideological.
A Peculiar Population: The Nutrition, Health, and Mortality of American Slaves from Childhood to Maturity
Authors: Steckel Richard H.
Published: September 2009

The debate over the health and nutrition of slaves has focused on the typical working adult. Height and mortality data, however, indicate that the greatest systemativ variation in health and nutrition occured by age. Nourishment was exceedingly poor for slave childrenm but workers were remarkably well fed. The unusayal growth-by-age profile for slaves has implications for views on the postwar economic fortunes of blacks, the interpretation of findings of other height studies, and conceptions of slaveowner decision making, the slave family, and the slave personality.
Fiscal News and Inflationary Expectations in Germany after World War I
Authors: Webb Steven B.
Published: September 2009

Inflation in Germany from 1919 to 1923 resulted from the accumulation and the anticipation of government deficits. Inflationary expectations depended therefore on fiscal news. Allied demands for reparations, the occupation of the Ruhr, and domestic revolts were important negative news and led to increased inflation. Tax reforms and eventually the end to government deficits were important positive news and ushered in periods of price stability. Political events were fiscal news as they changed the chances for the government to balance the budget.
The Integration and Efficiency of the London and Amsterdam Stock Markets in the Eighteenth Century
Authors: Neal Larry
Published: September 2009

This article explores the operation of the international capital market between Amsterdam and London in the early eighteenth century and concludes that both markets were efficient and well integrated from 1723 on.
Government Loan Guarantees and the Failure of the Canadian Northern Railway
Authors: Lewis Frank , MacKinnon Mary
Published: September 2009

The failure of the Canadian Northern Railway is analyzed with a model of optimal capital structure drawn from finance theory. Ex ante bankruptcy probabilities, which are computed on the basis of different assumptions about investors' expectations, range from 40 to 90 percent; and our best estimate is about 70 percent. These high probabilities were a consequence of loan guarantees provided to the Canadian Northern by the federal and provincial governments. The guarantees induced the railway's promoters to undertake an ex ante unprofitable project and to finance that project almost exclusively with debt.
Why Did the Bank of Canada Emerge in 1935?
Authors: Bordo Michael D. , Redish Angela
Published: September 2009

Three possible explanations for the emergence of the Canadian central bank in 1935 are examined: that it reflected the need of competitive banking systems for a lender of last resort, that it was necessary to anchor the unregulated Canadian monetary system after abandonment of the gold standard in 1929, and that it was a response to political rather than purely economic pressures. Evidence from a variety of sources (contemporary statements to a Royal Commission, correspondence of chartered bankers, newspaper reports, academic writings, and estimation of time series econometric models) rejects the first two hypotheses and supports the third.
Productivity Growth without Technical Change in European Agriculture before 1850
Authors: Clark Gregory
Published: September 2009

Output per farm worker in the northern United States and Britain in the early nineteenth century was many times that inEastern Europe or in medieval England and wages were correspondingly higher. Technical progress explains little of the high American and British productivity in the early nineteenth century, nor, in the American case, does abundant land per worker. Instead, most of the difference derived from more intense labor in America and Britain.
English Poor Law Policy and the Crusade Against Outrelief
Authors: MacKinnon Mary
Published: September 2009

This article examines the Crusade against outrelief to determine why poor law unions endorsed it. Although initiated by the central government, the Crusade could reduce union costs because very few of those denied outrelief would enter the workhouse. As the tax burden on wealthier and more influential ratepayers rose, guardians had more interest in cutting expenditure. An increase in effective rateable value permitted improvement of workhouse facilities and the restriction of outrelief, even to the deserving poor.
The Height and Weight of West Point Cadets: Dietary Change in Antebellum America
Authors: Komlos John
Published: September 2009

A decline in nutritional status is inferred from data on the height and weight of West Point cadets in the antebellum period. The decline was geographically widespread and affected farmers and blue-collar workers the most; middle-class cadets did not experience a decline in nutritional status until the Civil War. Nutritional status declined because meat output did not keep pace with population growth. Urbanization and the expansion of the industrial labor force increased the demand for food. However, the agricultural labor force grew at a slower pace, and productivity growth in food production was insufficient to redress the imbalance.
“…The Most Free From Objection …” The Sexual Division of Labor and Women's Work in Nineteenth-Century England
Authors: Humphries Jane
Published: September 2009

Most explanations of trends in women's work emphasize women's role in childbearing, along with technological and organizational changes in production. The explanations neglect an important factor: the need to control sexuality in order to secure demographic order. Segregated employment enabled almost all family members to work, while discouraging heterosexual intimacy. Nineteenth-century attitudes illustrate the anxiety felt when unrelated men and women worked together. The argument is tested by correlating regional variation in illegitimacy, as a measure of failed social control, with variation in sex segregation.
Did Coal Miners “Owe Their Souls to the Company Store”? Theory and Evidence from the Early 1900s
Authors: Fishback Price V.
Published: September 2009

Although coal companies may have tried to exploit a local-store monopoly, company-store prices in nonunion areas were appreciably limited by competition from other stores and mines in the same labor market. Company stores persisted in part by lowering transactions costs. Prices at company stores were generally similar to those at nearby independent stores, and higher wages may have compensated for higher store prices at isolated mines. Conditions varied, however, with labor-market tightness. Miners were generally not in debt to the store, nor paid entirely in scrip. Scrip was an advance on payday, when miners received cash.
Men and Monotony: Fraternalism as a Managerial Strategy at the Ford Motor Company
Authors: Lewchuk Wayne A.
Published: September 2009

The introduction of mass production transformed many skilled tasks into repetitive and monotonous jobs. In industries such as automobiles, the workforce remained predominantly male despite contemporary assessments that women could efficiently do many of these jobs. This article explores why. It is argued that employers such as Ford concluded that the conversion of labor time into effort would be more difficult in a mixed-gender workforce. The paper shows how Ford developed a fraternalist labor strategy, a men's club, whose objective was to accommodate men to monotony and maximize labor productivity.
BEGONIA SECTION PETERMANNIA (BEGONIACEAE) ON PALAWAN (PHILIPPINES), INCLUDING TWO NEW SPECIES
Authors: Hughes M. , Coyle C.
Published: September 2009

Begonia sect. Petermannia (Begoniaceae) is revised for the Philippine island of Palawan. Three species are recognised, namely Begonia palawanensis Merr. and the newly described B. androturba C.Coyle and B. georgei C.Coyle.
Inferring textual entailment with a probabilistically sound calculus
Authors: HARMELING STEFAN
Published: September 2009

We introduce a system for textual entailment that is based on a probabilistic model of entailment. The model is defined using a calculus of transformations on dependency trees, which is characterized by the fact that derivations in that calculus preserve the truth only with a certain probability. The calculus is successfully evaluated on the datasets of the PASCAL Challenge on Recognizing Textual Entailment.
Recognizing entailment in intelligent tutoring systems
Authors: NIELSEN RODNEY D. , WARD WAYNE , MARTIN JAMES H.
Published: September 2009

This paper describes a new method for recognizing whether a student's response to an automated tutor's question entails that they understand the concepts being taught. We demonstrate the need for a finer-grained analysis of answers than is supported by current tutoring systems or entailment databases and describe a new representation for reference answers that addresses these issues, breaking them into detailed facets and annotating their entailment relationships to the student's answer more precisely. Human annotation at this detailed level still results in substantial interannotator agreement (86.2%), with a kappa statistic of 0.728. We also present our current efforts to automatically assess student answers, which involves training machine learning classifiers on features extracted from dependency parses of the reference answer and student's response and features derived from domain-independent lexical statistics. Our system's performance, as high as 75.5% accuracy within domain and 68.8% out of domain, is very encouraging and confirms the approach is feasible. Another significant contribution of this work is that it represents a significant step in the direction of providing domain-independent semantic assessment of answers. No prior work in the area of tutoring or educational assessment has attempted to build such domain-independent systems. They have virtually all required hundreds of examples of learner answers for each new question in order to train aspects of their systems or to hand-craft information extraction templates.
Triggered codeswitching between cognate languages
Authors: BROERSMA MIRJAM
Published: September 2009

This study shows further evidence for triggered codeswitching. In natural speech from a Dutch–English bilingual, codeswitches occurred more often directly next to a cognate (or “trigger word”) than elsewhere. This evidence from typologically related, cognate languages extends previous evidence for triggering between typologically unrelated languages. With their large proportion of trigger words, the data provide insight into which words can trigger codeswitches; proper nouns, cognate content words with good and moderate form overlap, and cognate function words all induced codeswitching. Further, this study extends the evidence for triggered codeswitching from speech with relatively little codeswitching to speech with a high codeswitching density. In contrast with earlier work, not only words directly following a trigger word but also words directly preceding one were codeswitched more often than other words, suggesting that the scope of triggered codeswitching depends on the frequency of trigger words and of codeswitches in the speech.
The syntax–discourse interface in near-native L2 acquisition: Off-line and on-line performance
Authors: HOPP HOLGER
Published: September 2009

This study investigates ultimate attainment at the syntax–discourse interface in adult second-language (L2) acquisition. In total, 91 L1 (first-language) English, L1 Dutch and L1 Russian advanced-to-near-native speakers of German and 63 native controls are tested on an acceptability judgement task and an on-line self-paced reading task. These centre on discourse-related word order optionality in German. Results indicate that convergence at the syntax–discourse interface is in principle possible in adult L2 acquisition, both in off-line knowledge and on-line processing, even for L1 English speakers, whose L1 does not correspond to L2 German in discourse-to-syntax mappings. At the same time, non-convergence of the L1 Dutch groups and differences in the L2 groups' performance between tasks suggest that asymmetries in L1–L2 discourse configurations and computational difficulties in mapping discourse onto syntax constrain L2 performance.
“Choppy wave” model for nonlinear gravity waves
Authors: Nouguier Frédéric , Guérin Charles‐Antoine , Chapron Bertrand
Published: September 2009

We investigate the statistical properties of a three‐dimensional simple and versatile model for weakly nonlinear gravity waves in infinite depth, referred to as the “choppy wave model” (CWM). This model is analytically tractable, numerically efficient, and robust to the inclusion of high frequencies. It is based on horizontal rather than vertical local displacement of a linear surface and is a priori not restricted to large wavelengths. Under the assumption of space and time stationarity, we establish the complete first‐ and second‐order statistical properties of surface random elevations and slopes for long‐crested as well as fully two‐dimensional surfaces, and we provide some characteristics of the surface variation rate and frequency spectrum. We establish a relationship between the so‐called “dressed spectrum,” which is the enriched wave number spectrum of the nonlinear surface, and the “undressed” one, which is the spectrum of the underlying linear surface. The obtained results compare favorably with other classical analytical nonlinear theories. The slope statistics are further found to exhibit non‐Gaussian peakedness characteristics. Compared to observations, the measured non‐Gaussian omnidirectional slope statistics can only be explained by non‐Gaussian effects and are consistently approached by the CWM.
Upwelling on the continental slope of the Alaskan Beaufort Sea: Storms, ice, and oceanographic response
Authors: Pickart Robert S. , Moore G. W. K. , Torres Daniel J. , Fratantoni Paula S. , Goldsmith Roger A. , Yang Jiayan
Published: September 2009

The characteristics of Pacific‐born storms that cause upwelling along the Beaufort Sea continental slope, the oceanographic response, and the modulation of the response due to sea ice are investigated. In fall 2002 a mooring array located near 152°W measured 11 significant upwelling events that brought warm and salty Atlantic water to shallow depths. When comparing the storms that caused these events to other Aleutian lows that did not induce upwelling, interesting trends emerged. Upwelling occurred most frequently when storms were located in a region near the eastern end of the Aleutian Island Arc and Alaskan Peninsula. Not only were these storms deep but they generally had northward‐tending trajectories. While the steering flow aloft aided this northward progression, the occurrence of lee cyclogenesis due to the orography of Alaska seems to play a role as well in expanding the meridional influence of the storms. In late fall and early winter both the intensity and frequency of the upwelling diminished significantly at the array site. It is argued that the reduction in amplitude was due to the onset of heavy pack ice, while the decreased frequency was due to two different upper‐level atmospheric blocking patterns inhibiting the far field influence of the storms.
Observational constraints on recent increases in the atmospheric CH4 burden
Authors: Dlugokencky E. J. , Bruhwiler L. , White J. W. C. , Emmons L. K. , Novelli P. C. , Montzka S. A. , Masarie K. A. , Lang P. M. , Crotwell A. M. , Miller J. B. , Gatti L. V.
Published: September 2009

Measurements of atmospheric CH4 from air samples collected weekly at 46 remote surface sites show that, after a decade of near‐zero growth, globally averaged atmospheric methane increased during 2007 and 2008. During 2007, CH4 increased by 8.3 ± 0.6 ppb. CH4 mole fractions averaged over polar northern latitudes and the Southern Hemisphere increased more than other zonally averaged regions. In 2008, globally averaged CH4 increased by 4.4 ± 0.6 ppb; the largest increase was in the tropics, while polar northern latitudes did not increase. Satellite and in situ CO observations suggest only a minor contribution to increased CH4 from biomass burning. The most likely drivers of the CH4 anomalies observed during 2007 and 2008 are anomalously high temperatures in the Arctic and greater than average precipitation in the tropics. Near‐zero CH4 growth in the Arctic during 2008 suggests we have not yet activated strong climate feedbacks from permafrost and CH4 hydrates.
If the Sun is so quiet, why is the Earth ringing? A comparison of two solar minimum intervals
Authors: Gibson S. E. , Kozyra J. U. , de Toma G. , Emery B. A. , Onsager T. , Thompson B. J.
Published: September 2009

Observations from the recent Whole Heliosphere Interval (WHI) solar minimum campaign are compared to last cycle's Whole Sun Month (WSM) to demonstrate that sunspot numbers, while providing a good measure of solar activity, do not provide sufficient information to gauge solar and heliospheric magnetic complexity and its effect at the Earth. The present solar minimum is exceptionally quiet, with sunspot numbers at their lowest in 75 years and solar wind magnetic field strength lower than ever observed. Despite, or perhaps because of, a global weakness in the heliospheric magnetic field, large near‐equatorial coronal holes lingered even as the sunspots disappeared. Consequently, for the months surrounding the WHI campaign, strong, long, and recurring high‐speed streams in the solar wind intercepted the Earth in contrast to the weaker and more sporadic streams that occurred around the time of last cycle's WSM campaign. In response, geospace and upper atmospheric parameters continued to ring with the periodicities of the solar wind in a manner that was absent last cycle minimum, and the flux of relativistic electrons in the Earth's outer radiation belt was elevated to levels more than three times higher in WHI than in WSM. Such behavior could not have been predicted using sunspot numbers alone, indicating the importance of considering variation within and between solar minima in analyzing and predicting space weather responses at the Earth during solar quiet intervals, as well as in interpreting the Sun's past behavior as preserved in geological and historical records.
Pioglitazone suppresses the lipopolysaccharide‐induced production of inflammatory factors in mouse macrophages by inactivating NF‐κB
Authors: Ao Caihui , Huo Yong , Qi Litong , Xiong Zhuowei , Xue Lin , Qi Yongfen
Published: September 2009

TZDs (thiazolidinediones) are prescribed as anti‐Type II diabetes drugs, but little is known regarding whether TZDs regulate the expression of sPLA2 (secretory phospholipase A2) in macrophages. We have investigated the effects of pioglitazone on LPS (lipopolysaccharide)‐induced production of TNF‐α (tumour necrosis factor alpha), sPLA2‐V and ‐X (groups V and X sPLA2) in RAW 264.7 macrophages. TNF‐α, sPLA2‐V and ‐X mRNA and protein expression were determined by RT‐PCR (reverse transcriptase‐PCR) and Western blot analysis, respectively. The activity of NF‐κB (nuclear factor κB) was determined by Western blot and confocal microscopy. LPS induced TNF‐α, sPLA2‐V and sPLA2‐X mRNA and protein expression. Pretreatment with 10 μmol/l pioglitazone significantly suppressed LPS‐induced TNF‐α, sPLA2‐V and sPLA2‐X mRNA and protein expression. LPS induced NF‐κB expression and translocation in the nucleus, but the inductive effects were inhibited by pioglitazone. Our findings indicate that pioglitazone inhibits production of inflammatory factors induced by LPS in murine macrophage cells by inactivating NF‐κB. Pioglitazone appears to play an anti‐inflammatory role in the atherosclerotic process.
Compound K protects MIN6N8 pancreatic β‐cells against palmitate‐induced apoptosis through modulating SAPK/JNK activation
Authors: Kim Kyong , Kim Dong‐Hyun , Kim Young Hye
Published: September 2009

Chronic elevation of NEFAs (non‐esterified fatty acids) due to insulin resistance and obesity has been shown to be associated with increased β‐cell apoptosis and with the aetiology of the reduced β‐cell mass of Type 2 diabetes. SAPK (stress‐activated protein kinase)/JNK (c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase) have been implicated in the control of apoptosis. C‐K [compound K; 20‐O‐β‐d‐glucopyranosyl‐20(S)‐protopanaxadiol] is the main intestinal bacterial metabolite of protopanaxadiol ginsenosides. Currently, little is known about the effects of C‐K on β‐cells with the presence of NEFAs. The aim of the present study was to investigate the in vitro protective effect of C‐K on MIN6N8 mouse insulinoma β‐cells against NEFA‐induced apoptosis, as well as the modulating effect on SAPK/JNK activation. Our results have shown that C‐K inhibited the palmitate‐induced apoptosis through modulating SAPK/JNK activation. We conclude that C‐K protects against β‐cell death and that, by anti‐apoptotic activity, C‐K may contribute to the previously reported anti‐diabetic actions of ginseng.
Transcriptome analysis of mammary tissues reveals complex patterns of transporter gene expression during pregnancy and lactation
Authors: Anantamongkol Utchariya , Charoenphandhu Narattaphol , Wongdee Kannikar , Teerapornpuntakit Jarinthorn , Suthiphongchai Tuangporn , Prapong Siriwan , Krishnamra Nateetip
Published: September 2009

As a complex Ca2+‐rich fluid mixture of water, casein, lactose and several ions, milk secretion requires a number of unknown transporters, which can be identified by a genome‐wide microarray study in mammary tissues of lactating animals. Ca2+ was reported to be secreted across mammary epithelial cells through the transcellular pathway, presumably involving TRPC (canonical transient receptor potential) channels. In the present study, we have used quantitative real‐time PCR to demonstrate that the human mammary cell line MCF‐7, as well as rat mammary tissues from pregnant and lactating rats, expressed TRPC1, TRPC5 and TRPC6. Expression of TRPC1, TRPC5 and TRPC7 were markedly up‐regulated, whereas that of TRPC3 and TRPC4 was down‐regulated in the early lactating period. To further identify other transporter genes affected by lactation, a highly sensitive Illumina microarray featuring Bead Array technology was performed on RNA samples from mammary tissues of lactating rats. We found that, of the 384 transcripts changed during lactation, 31 transcripts were involved in the transport of water and electrolytes, such as Ca2+, Na+, K+, Cl−, I−, Fe2+, sulfate and phosphate. The present study, therefore, provides information for further investigation of the mechanism of lactation‐induced transport adaptation in mammary epithelial cells.
Calcium wave for cytoplasmic streaming of Physarum polycephalum
Authors: Yoshiyama Shinji , Ishigami Mitsuo , Nakamura Akio , Kohama Kazuhiro
Published: September 2009

The plasmodium Physarum polycepharum exhibits periodic cycles of cytoplasmic streaming in association with those of contraction and relaxation movement. In the present study, we injected Calcium Green dextran as a fluorescent Ca2+ indicator into the thin‐spread living plasmodium. We found changes in the [Ca2+]i (intracellular concentration of Ca2+), which propagated in a wave‐like form in its cytoplasm. The Ca2+ waves were also detected when we used Fura dextran which detected [Ca2+]i by the ratio of two wavelengths. We prepared the plasmodial fragment from the thin‐spread and found that the cycles of the contraction–relaxation movement was so synchronized that the measurement of its area provided an indication of the movement. We observed that [Ca2+]i also synchronized in the entire fragment and that the relaxation ensued upon the reduction in [Ca2+]i. We suggest that the Ca2+ wave generated periodically is one of the major factors playing a crucial role in the relaxation of P. polycepharum.
Pasture cropping: a new approach to integrate crop and livestock farming systems
Authors: Millar G. D. , Badgery W. B.
Published: September 2009

Pasture cropping is a farmer-initiated concept of sowing a winter active cereal into a summer-active native perennial pasture. Proponents claim that by using pasture cropping they are able to maintain or improve the perennial pasture. Research was carried out on a Bothriochloa macra dominant pasture at Wellington, in the central western slopes of New South Wales, to compare pasture cropping to conventional no-till cropping and pasture only systems under different fertiliser rates and rotations. Key variables for the comparison included forage and crop production, pasture perenniality and ground cover, soil fertility and water use, and profitability. Our results show that pasture cropping can successfully retain perennial grasses and ground cover while still producing profitable cropping and grazing compared with continuous pasture. Crop yields from pasture cropping were less than 65% of those for conventional no-till cropping, which led to conventional no-till cropping having the greatest, but also most volatile, gross margin throughout the experiment. However, the lower input costs associated with pasture cropping reduced the effects of crop failure on farm profit. While soil moisture differences did not occur between treatments during the experiment, soil fertility, especially N, played a major role in determining crop yield. The role of pasture cropping in farming systems is discussed.
Identification of human zonulin, a physiological modulator of tight junctions, as prehaptoglobin-2
Authors: Tripathi Amit , Lammers Karen M. , Goldblum Simeon , Shea-Donohue Terez , Netzel-Arnett Sarah , Buzza Marguerite S. , Antalis Toni M. , Vogel Stefanie N. , Zhao Aiping , Yang Shiqi , Arrietta Marie-Claire , Meddings Jon B. , Fasano Alessio
Published: September 2009

Increased intestinal permeability (IP) has emerged recently as a common underlying mechanism in the pathogenesis of allergic, inflammatory, and autoimmune diseases. The characterization of zonulin, the only physiological mediator known to regulate IP reversibly, has remained elusive. Through proteomic analysis of human sera, we have now identified human zonulin as the precursor for haptoglobin-2 (pre-HP2). Although mature HP is known to scavenge free hemoglobin (Hb) to inhibit its oxidative activity, no function has ever been ascribed to its uncleaved precursor form. We found that the single-chain zonulin contains an EGF-like motif that leads to transactivation of EGF receptor (EGFR) via proteinase-activated receptor 2 (PAR
2
) activation. Activation of these 2 receptors was coupled to increased IP. The siRNA-induced silencing of PAR
2
or the use of PAR
2
−/−
mice prevented loss of barrier integrity. Proteolytic cleavage of zonulin into its α
2
- and β-subunits neutralized its ability to both activate EGFR and increase IP. Quantitative gene expression revealed that zonulin is overexpressed in the intestinal mucosa of subjects with celiac disease. To our knowledge, this is the initial example of a molecule that exerts a biological activity in its precursor form that is distinct from the function of its mature form. Our results therefore characterize zonulin as a previously undescribed ligand that engages a key signalosome involved in the pathogenesis of human immune-mediated diseases that can be targeted for therapeutic interventions.