bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Monoamniotic twins discordant for anencephaly managed conservatively with good outcomes: two case reports and a review of the literature
Authors: Lim K. I. , Dy C. , Pugash D. , Williams K. P.
Published: July 2005

Monoamniotic twin pregnancy discordant for anencephaly (MATDA) is a rare occurrence with only seven prior reported cases. Selective termination has been advocated in managing discordant monoamniotic twins. We report two cases managed expectantly with good outcomes and review other previously reported cases. The first case was a primigravid woman diagnosed with MATDA at 18 weeks. She was managed expectantly until 32 + 5 weeks when a Cesarean section was performed for preterm labor. The surviving female infant weighed 1610 g. The second case was a multigravid woman who was diagnosed with MATDA at 17 + 5 weeks and was managed as an outpatient. An emergency Cesarean section was performed at 31 weeks for non‐reassuring monitoring and the surviving male infant weighed 1790 g. In both cases, the survivors were discharged home in good condition. A review of these two cases and those in the literature suggests that expectant management should be considered among management options for this rare condition. Copyright © 2005 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A Large Family of Iron Ruddlesden‐Popper Relatives: from Oxides to Oxycarbonates and Oxyhydroxides
Authors: Raveau Bernard , Hervieu M. , Pelloquin D. , Michel C. , Retoux R.
Published: July 2005

Iron oxides, oxyhydroxydes and oxycarbonates derived from the layered Ruddlesden‐Popper (RP) structure form a large family of layered compounds. Besides the classical RP oxides Srn+1FenO3n+1, single intergrowths with the generic formulation (A,Sr)n+2FenO3n+2 and (A,Sr)n+3FenO3n+3 (A = Tl, Pb, Bi…) can be generated by increasing the multiplicity of the rock salt layers, and multiple intergrowths of these single intergrowths can be synthesized. Starting from oxygen deficient RP oxides such as n = 3 member Sr3NdFe3O9−δ, oxyhydroxydes hydrates and oxyhydroxydes such as Sr3NdFe3O7.5(OH)2·H2O and Sr3NdFe3O7.5(OH)2 can be created topotactically. Carbonate groups can also replace FeO6 octahedra in the n = 3 member Sr4Fe3O10, leading to layered oxycarbonates Sr4Fe3−x(CO3)xO10−4x with 0 < × ≤ 1. Shearing mechanism applied transversally to the layers allows collapsed structures to be generated such as the [Bi2Sr3Fe2O9]n [Bi4Sr6Fe2O16] family and the ferrite Bi13Ba2Sr25Fe13O66. Finally the replacement of rock salt SrO layers in the intergrowth Sr2FeO4 allows a new series of modulated structures [Sr8Fe12O26]·[Sr3Fe2O6]n to be generated, built up of layers of FeO5 bipyramids and tetragonal pyramids intergrown with perovskite layers.
Iridium Complexes of 2,2′‐Bidipyrrins
Authors: Bröring Martin , Brandt Carsten D. , Cónsul Tejero Esther
Published: July 2005

The reaction of [{Ir(cod)(μ‐Cl)}2] and K2CO3 or of [{Ir(cod)(μ‐OMe)}2] alone with the non‐natural tetrapyrrole 2,2′‐bidipyrrin (H2BDP) yields, depending on the stoichiometry, the mononuclear complex [Ir(cod)(HBDP)] or the homodinuclear complex [{Ir(cod)}2(BDP)]. Both complexes react readily with carbon monoxide to yield the species [Ir(CO)2(HBDP)] and [{Ir(CO)2}2(BDP)], respectively. The results from NMR spectroscopy and X‐ray diffraction reveal different conformations for the tetrapyrrolic ligand in both complexes. The reaction of [{Ir(coe)2(μ‐Cl)}2] with H2BDP proceeds differently and yields the macrocyclic [4e−,2H+]‐oxidized product [IrCl2(9‐Meic)] (9‐Meic = monoanion of 9‐methyl‐9,10‐isocorrole), which can be addressed as an iridium analog of cobalamin.
Genetic Counseling for Fragile X Syndrome: Updated Recommendations of the National Society of Genetic Counselors
Authors: McConkie‐Rosell Allyn , Finucane Brenda , Cronister Amy , Abrams Liane , Bennett Robin L. , Pettersen Barbara J.
Published: July 2005

These recommendations describe the minimum standard criteria for genetic counseling and testing of individuals and families with fragile X syndrome, as well as carriers and potential carriers of a fragile X mutation. The original guidelines (published in 2000) have been revised, replacing a stratified pre‐ and full mutation model of fragile X syndrome with one based on a continuum of gene effects across the full spectrum of FMR1 CGG trinucleotide repeat expansion. This document reviews the molecular genetics of fragile X syndrome, clinical phenotype (including the spectrum of premature ovarian failure and fragile X‐associated tremor‐ataxia syndrome), indications for genetic testing and interpretation of results, risks of transmission, family planning options, psychosocial issues, and references for professional and patient resources. These recommendations are the opinions of a multicenter working group of genetic counselors with expertise in fragile X syndrome genetic counseling, and they are based on clinical experience, review of pertinent English language articles, and reports of expert committees. These recommendations should not be construed as dictating an exclusive course of management, nor does use of such recommendations guarantee a particular outcome. The professional judgment of a health care provider, familiar with the facts and circumstances of a specific case, will always supersede these recommendations.
The diagnosis of heart failure in European primary care: The IMPROVEMENT Programme survey of perception and practice
Authors: Hobbs F.D. Richard , Korewicki Jerzy , Cleland John G.F. , Eastaugh Joanne , Freemantle Nick ,   on behalf of the IMPROVEMENT Investigators
Published: July 2005

Objective

To examine European primary care physicians (PCPs) views on diagnosis of heart failure and compare perceptions with actual practice.

Design

Semi‐structured PCP interviews and case note review on a random sample of heart failure patients.

Participants

1363 primary care physicians from 14 countries and 11,062 patient notes.

Main outcome measures

Perceptions of PCPs compared to actual performance in heart failure (HF) diagnosis.

Results

Over 50% of patients with HF were above 70 years of age. Most subjects presented with typical clinical symptoms and objective signs of HF. In 50% of cases, HF was mainly diagnosed by PCPs. New York Heart Association classification was used by 50% of physicians. Electrocardiogram and chest X‐ray were the most used diagnostic tests (90% and 84% respectively). PCPs considered echocardiography as having low diagnostic value, with only 48% routine usage. However, in actual practice echocardiography was used in 82% of diagnoses. Systolic dysfunction was observed in 51% HF subjects, but only 50% of physicians would differentiate systolic from diastolic heart failure.

Conclusions

There was low use of NYHA classification (which denotes symptom severity) and differentiation between systolic and diastolic causes (which determines treatment strategies).
Do metoprolol and carvedilol have equivalent effects on diurnal heart rate in patients with chronic heart failure?
Authors: Sanderson John E. , Leung Leata Y.C. , Chan Skiva K.W. , Yip Gabriel W.K. , Fung Jeffrey W.H. , Yu C.M.
Published: July 2005

Background

Carvedilol exerted a greater reduction in mortality than metoprolol tartrate in the Carvedilol or Metoprolol European Trial (COMET). However, it is unclear if the degree and time course of β1‐blockade during a 24‐h period was similar with each agent at the doses used. Therefore we analyzed 24‐h ECG Holter recordings from a study which compared the long‐term clinical efficacy of metoprolol tartrate to carvedilol in chronic heart failure patients using the same dosing regimen as in COMET.

Methods and results

Fifty‐one patients with chronic heart failure with a mean LVEF 26+1.8% were randomized in a double‐blind fashion to receive metoprolol tartrate 50 mg bid or carvedilol 25 mg bid. 24‐h ECG monitoring (Holter) was performed at baseline, 12 weeks and 1 year. Adequate quality recordings for analysis were obtained from 43 subjects at baseline, 42 at 12 weeks and 29 subjects at 1 year. Both drugs produced a fall in average 24‐h heart rate from baseline at 12 weeks and at 1 year: metoprolol 88+3 to 71+2 and 69+3 bpm; carvedilol 83+3 to 70+2 and 70+3 bpm respectively (all p<0.001). The pattern of suppression of heart rate during the 24‐h period was similar for both drugs.

Conclusion

Metoprolol tartrate 50 mg bid and carvedilol 25 mg bid had similar effects on 24‐h heart rate. This result suggests that the degree of β1‐blockade produced by these two drugs in these doses is comparable and the superior survival effect of carvedilol compared to metoprolol seen in COMET is likely to be due to actions of carvedilol other than β1‐blockade.
Digital camera assessment for detection of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia in rural El Salvador
Authors: Cremer M. , Jamshidi R.M. , Muderspach L. , Tsao‐Wei D. , Felix J.C. , Blumenthal P.D.
Published: July 2005

Objective: To explore the feasibility of digital photography for primary cervical cancer screening in a low‐resource setting in El Salvador. Methods: Three independent examiners performed Pap test, visual inspection, digital camera assessment and colposcopy on each subject. Results: Lesions were detected in 99 of 504 patients (20%) by visual inspection, 72/504 (14%) by DART and 90/504 (18%) by colposcopic impression. Seven of 504 patients (1.3%) had CIN on histology. Pap detected 2 of 7 subjects (29% sensitivity) (C.I. 4%, 56%), visual inspection detected 5 of 7 (71% sensitivity, C.I. 34%, 95%), digital assessment detected 6 of 7 (86% sensitivity C. I. 45%, 99%), and colposcopic impression detected 5 of 7 (71% sensitivity, C.I. 34%, 95%). Conclusion: This small pilot trial demonstrates the potential value and feasibility of performing digital camera assessment of the reproductive tract on women in a developing country setting.
ENGAGING THE STATE: PEASANTS AND PETITIONS IN EGYPT ON THE EVE OF COLONIAL RULE
Authors: Chalcraft John
Published: July 2005

In spite of many competing views on peasants, their politics, and the state in 19th-century Egypt, the historiography contains certain striking continuities in its understanding of peasant–state political relations. Historians influenced by Marxism, modernization theory, and nationalism alike have usually seen state and peasantry as sharply distinct and conflicting. Peasants have often been depicted as locked in a struggle against the penetration of state agency into a previously autonomous rural domain. Whether seen as a force for benevolent modernization or for the predatory extraction of conscripts and taxes, the state has regularly been viewed as self-propelled and sui generis, reforming or invading the world of an either passive, silently subversive, or violently revolutionary peasantry. The figure of the tradition-bound, submissive, or apathetic peasant simply marks out a terrain for state agency, albeit an agency obstructed by peasant hostility, irrationality, or resentment. The silently subversive peasant, further, who uses James C. Scott's “weapons of the weak,” merely undermines in antagonistic and wordless fashion projects emanating from above. The revolutionary peasant, finally, becomes the self-generating locus of the nationalist or socialist modern and seeks the violent overthrow of the predatory state, transforming the latter into only the negative—albeit treacherous—terrain on which the positive historical agency of peasants and their allies can work. In short, the existing historiography, while varying the historical role, value, and meaning of peasant and state, preserves both as radically distinct, self-creating, and self-defining collective agents involved in zero-sum and often violent antagonism.
WRITING ARABS AND AFRICA(NS) IN AMERICA: ADONIS AND RADWA ASHOUR FROM HARLEM TO LADY LIBERTY
Authors: Hartman Michelle
Published: July 2005

Two years after naming himself a Black Man as opposed to an American in his 1964 expression of alienation from mainstream, white U.S. society, Muhammad Ali announced, “I ain't got no quarrel with the Viet Cong.” In doing so, he powerfully linked his racialized status in the United States to his unwillingness to fight a war against other similarly racialized, marginalized, and disempowered people. He thus embraced a message of Third World solidarity as a First World resident with a similarly subaltern status in “his own” country. The second epigraph shows Ali's effort to articulate his sense of belonging within the United States, thus pushing at the limits of both his “Black” and “American” identities. The two epigraphs demonstrate the contradiction in the way in which African Americans can be identified as both “Black” and “American” in the United States, here in statements by one of Black America's most iconic public figures. This paradox of African American identity will be explored in this article in relation to two Arabic literary texts: Adonis's “Qabr min ajl New York” (“A Grave for New York”) and Radwa Ashour's al-Rihla:ayyam taliba misriyya fi amrika (The Journey: The Memoirs of an Egyptian Student in America), both of which are particularly concerned with Black Americans and firmly rooted in the tradition of commitment literature, which sees them as brothers and sisters in solidarity with Third World struggles.
A REPLY TO BASSEL F. SALLOUKH'S REVIEW OF ARABS AT THE CROSSROADS: POLITICAL IDENTITY AND NATIONALISM (IJMES 36 [2004]: 527–28)
Authors: KHASHAN HILAL
Published: July 2005

In his review of my book Arabs at the Crossroads: Political Identity and Nationalism, the neophyte political scientist Bassel F. Salloukh attempts to instruct me on the fundamentals of research methodology. Sadly, however, his review amounts to nothing more than a brazen barrage of protestations and disapprovals. I counted about two dozen complaints and unsubstantiated criticisms in the one-and-a-half-page review, in which he summarily condemns the book for its purported “sweeping indictment of Arab failures.” Salloukh unleashes a fiery litany of pseudoacademic indignation because I found the political-culture approach and crises of identity and legitimacy relevant to the study of failed Arab political systems. The reviewer is certainly free to disagree with my approach, but professional integrity necessitates that he adopt a method more academic than screeching sophomoric objections. Rather than develop an analytical case against me, the reviewer instead opts to swing from the hip, falsely attributing to me things that I never said, such as my alleged identification of a “basic foundational dislocation that has doomed everything Arab.”
Biological effects of milk proteins and their peptides with emphasis on those related to the gastrointestinal ecosystem
Authors: Baldi Antonella , Ioannis Politis , Chiara Pecorini , Eleonora Fusi , Roubini Chronopoulou , Vittorio Dell'Orto
Published: July 2005

The protein fraction of milk contains several components with physiological significance for the development of the newborn. Among them, immunomodulatory peptides and lactoferrin exemplify the complexity of biologically active substances of milk. Immunomodulatory peptides have latent activity within the native protein and are generated after proteolysis during gastrointestinal transit. Once they are generated, they modulate mucosal immunity, possibly by guiding the local immune system until it develops its full functionality. Lactoferrin is another milk bioactive compound with nutritional and health promoting properties; it modulates the microbial intestinal environment, displays anti-microbial activity against various pathogens and stimulates the establishment of beneficial microflora. The following overview focuses on the importance of immunomodulatory peptides and lactoferrin for the maturation of intestine and immune system that are functionally immature in the newborn.
Expression of the neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) in the bovine mammary gland
Authors: Mayer Balázs , Doleschall Márton , Bender Balázs , Bartyik János , Bősze Zsuzsanna , Frenyó László V , Kacskovics Imre
Published: July 2005

In ruminants, protective immunoglobulins are transferred to the newborn via colostrum to mediate maternal immunity. There is a high selectivity in the transport of immunoglobulins from the maternal plasma across the mammary barrier into the colostrum, and only IgG1 is transferred in large amounts. We have recently analysed the expression of the neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) in sheep mammary gland around parturition. Re-analysing this issue in bovine confirmed our previous data indicating that FcRn is homogeneously localized in the mammary gland acinar cells before parturition, however a remarkable difference was observed in the pattern after calving, where only the apical side of the cells was strongly stained. The presence of the FcRn in the acinar epithelial cells of the mammary gland and the obvious change in distribution before and after parturition indicate that FcRn plays an important role in the IgG transport during colostrum formation in ruminants.
COST Action B20: Mammary Development, Function and Cancer
Authors: Baldi Antonella , Wilde Colin
Published: July 2005

The COST Programme

The Cooperation in Science and Technology Programme (COST) is an inter-governmental framework for European Co-operation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research. COST is managed by the European Science Foundation, and in May 2005 supported almost 200 Actions involving nearly 30000 scientists from 32 European member countries and more than 50 participating institutions from 11 non-member countries. These Actions are networks of coordinated national research project in fields which are of interest to a minimum number of participants (at least 5) from different member states. COST Actions cover basic and pre-competitive research as well as activities of public utility. The members of each Action are drawn from member countries which have ratified the Action, and their activities are informed by a programme accepted by the ESF management at time of application and reviewed on an annual basis throughout the Action. Each Action comprises three principal activities: the workshops where the science or technology matters of the Action are presented and discussed; the Action's short-term scientific missions, which allow contacts made during workshop networking to be developed; and, thirdly, the dissemination of the Action's science through publication or electronic communication.
Current status and conservation strategies for Isoetes in China: a case study for the conservation of threatened aquatic plants
Authors: Liu Xing , Wang Jing-Yuan , Wang Qing-Feng
Published: July 2005

There are four known species of Isoetes (Family Isoetaceae) from China: I. hypsophila, I. sinensis and I. yunguiensis on the mainland, and I. taiwanensis on Taiwan. In a 4-year study we documented the distribution and habitat characteristics of all four species and evaluated their conservation status using IUCN criteria. All four species are facing a high risk of extinction and should be categorized as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Habitat degradation and loss, water pollution and eutrophication, competitive exclusion, and human disturbance are the main factors causing the decline and extirpation of Isoetes. Only I. taiwanensis is protected in situ in Yangmingshan National Park on Taiwan. None of the species or habitats of Isoetes on mainland China are presently protected, although all species have been designated by the government as State Key Protected Wild Plants. Our results suggest that conservation strategies should be implemented urgently, particularly on the mainland.
Economic analyses to aid nature conservation decision making
Authors: Cullen Ross , Hughey Kenneth F.D. , Fairburn Geoff , Moran Emma
Published: July 2005

Nature conservation can often be costly and the resources available are often less than are required. Resource allocations and expenditures for nature conservation have an opportunity cost in terms of foregone projects, but are rarely subjected to as much scrutiny as other public activities. Failure to apply economic tools to nature conservation decision making can result in errors in project selection, wasted use of scarce resources, and lower levels of conservation than it is possible to achieve from the resources available. In some instances where economics has been proposed for use in nature conservation research, the methodologies applied provide information that is of limited usefulness to decision makers. Non-market valuation has limited potential to help in nature conservation decision making, is costly to complete and should be supplanted by more useful techniques that focus on the cost and the payoff from nature conservation actions. In contrast, Cost Effectiveness Analysis and Cost Utility Analysis are practical tools that can provide valuable information for conservation decision makers and improve conservation achievement.
The western black crested gibbon Nomascus concolor in Laos: new records and conservation status
Authors: Johnson Arlyne , Singh Sarinda , Duangdala Malaykham , Hedemark Michael
Published: July 2005

Few viable populations of western black crested gibbon Nomascus concolor remain in southern China and northern Indochina, where the species is endemic. We conducted village surveys in the Nam Ha National Protected Area in Luang Namtha Province, Lao PDR to assess presence and status of gibbon populations. Forest surveys used to verify gibbon presence and species identification confirmed village reports of gibbon populations in three locations, and sonogram analysis identified all as N. concolor. These represent an expansion in the known distribution of western black crested gibbon in Lao PDR and the only known populations to occur inside the national protected area system. Significantly longer times since gibbons were last reported were associated with villages with <50% forest cover and high human populations. Although village taboos regarding gibbon hunting were reported, hunting and trade were nevertheless identified as factors contributing to gibbon decline. Results indicated that increased community-based management, public education and enforcement are needed to maintain N. concolor populations and their habitat in Lao PDR.
Suicide attempts, plans, and ideation in culturally diverse sites: the WHO SUPRE-MISS community survey
Authors: BERTOLOTE JOSÉ M. , FLEISCHMANN ALEXANDRA , De LEO DIEGO , BOLHARI JAFAR , BOTEGA NEURY , DE SILVA DAMANI , THI THANH HUONG TRAN , PHILLIPS MICHAEL , SCHLEBUSCH LOURENS , VÄRNIK AIRI , VIJAYAKUMAR LAKSHMI , WASSERMAN DANUTA
Published: July 2005

Background. The objectives were to assess thoughts about suicide, plans to commit suicide and suicide attempts in the community, to investigate the use of health services following a suicide attempt, and to describe basic socio-cultural indices of the community.

Method. The community survey was one component of the larger WHO multisite intervention study on suicidal behaviours (SUPRE-MISS). In each site, it aimed at randomly selecting and interviewing at least 500 subjects of the general population living in the catchment area of the emergency department where the intervention component of the study was conducted. Communities of eight SUPRE-MISS sites (in Brazil, China, Estonia, India, Iran, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam) participated plus two additional sites from Australia and Sweden conducting similar surveys.

Results. Suicide attempts (0·4–4·2%), plans (1·1–15·6%), and ideation (2·6–25·4%) varied by a factor of 10–14 across sites, but remained mostly within the ranges of previously published data. Depending on the site, the ratios between attempts, plans, and thoughts of suicide differed substantially. Medical attention following a suicide attempt varied between 22% and 88% of the attempts.

Conclusions. The idea of the suicidal process as a continuous and smooth evolution from thoughts to plans and attempts of suicide needs to be further investigated as it seems to be dependent on the cultural setting. There are indications, that the burden of undetected attempted suicide is high in different cultures; an improved response from the health sector on how to identify and support these individuals is needed.
Psychiatric disorder in the children of antisocial parents
Authors: HERNDON RYAN W. , IACONO WILLIAM G.
Published: July 2005

Background. Although parents with psychiatric disorders are likely to have children with psychiatric problems, the nature of disorder risk to offspring of antisocial parents has received limited attention.

Method. We examined the prevalence of common externalizing and internalizing disorders in the pre-adolescent and late adolescent offspring of antisocial parents. Lifetime diagnoses for a sample of 11-year-old twins (958 males, 1042 females) and a sample of 17-year-old twins (1332 males, 1434 females), as well as their parents, were obtained through in-person interviews. Odds ratios were calculated for the effect of the parent's diagnosis on the child's diagnosis, controlling for the effect of the co-parent's diagnosis.

Results. We found that parental antisociality places the child at increased risk for developing a range of externalizing and internalizing disorders. This increase is evident by pre-adolescence and extends to a wide range of disorders by late adolescence. Each parent has an effect net any effects of the co-parent.

Conclusions. Antisocial parents have children who have an increased likelihood of developing a broad range of psychiatric disorders.
Population promotion of informal self-help strategies for early intervention against depression and anxiety
Authors: JORM ANTHONY F. , GRIFFITHS KATHLEEN M.
Published: July 2005

Much of the burden of depression and anxiety in the population is attributable to subclinical symptoms. Broadening formal health-care systems to treat subclinical depression and anxiety is not the answer to reducing this burden, because health-care systems lack the resources even to provide optimal care to clinical cases. The solution proposed is the population-wide dissemination of informal self-help strategies that have evidence for effectiveness. These are highly acceptable to the public, easily applied, inexpensive and may avert the development of many clinical cases.
Comprehension and production of French object clitics by child second language learners and children with specific language impairment
Authors: GRÜTER THERES
Published: July 2005

The objective of this research was to compare child second language (L2) learners and children with specific language impairment (SLI) on both production and comprehension in order to investigate whether the similarity of their error profiles observed in spontaneous production extends to comprehension. Results are presented from an elicited production and a sentence–picture matching task targeting accusative object clitics in French. As groups, both L2 learners and children with SLI show a low rate of clitic suppliance in production, yet perform well on the comprehension task. No statistically significant differences are found between the two groups on either task. Analyses of individual results, however, reveal diversity within both groups. Although there seems to be a correlation between performance in production and comprehension in the L2 group, this is not the case in the SLI group.
TRENDS IN COMPUTER-BASED SECOND LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
Authors: Jamieson Joan
Published: July 2005

In the last 20 years, several authors have described the possible changes that computers may effect in language testing. SinceARAL's last review of general language testing trends (Clapham, 2000), authors in theCambridge Language Assessment Serieshave offered various visions of how computer technology could alter the testing of second language skills. This chapter reflects these perspectives as it charts the paths recently taken in the field. Initial steps were made in the conversion of existing item types and constructs already known from paper-and- pencil testing into formats suitable for computer delivery. This conversion was closely followed by the introduction of computer-adaptive tests, which aim to make more, and perhaps, better, use of computer capabilities to tailor tests more closely to individual abilities and interests. Movement toward greater use of computers in assessment has been coupled with an assumption that computer-based tests should be better than their traditional predecessors, and some related steps have been taken. Corpus linguistics has provided tools to create more authentic assessments; the quest for authenticity has also motivated inclusion of more complex tasks and constructs. Both these innovations have begun to be incorporated into computer-based language tests. Natural language processing has also provided some tools for computerized scoring of essays, particularly relevant in large-scale language testing programs. Although computer use has not revolutionized all aspects of language testing, recent efforts have produced some of the research, technological advances, and improved pedagogical understanding needed to support progress.
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
Authors: McGroarty Mary
Published: July 2005

It is a sign of overweening ambition if not hubris to think that all of applied linguistics can fit between two covers. Dynamic even when the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL) began publication in 1981, applied linguistics has continued to change, grow, and redefine its areas of coverage, even as many other journals have emerged in the intervening 25 years. Writing in the 20th anniversary issue of ARAL, my editorial predecessors, Robert Kaplan and William Grabe, provide the historical context for the establishment of ARAL and show how it came to fit into the context of applied linguistics as the field evolved from the mid-20th century to the beginning of the 21st. They summarize the key notions that characterize applied linguistics and remark that it “commonly includes a core set of issues and practices that are readily identified as work done by many applied linguists (language teaching, language teacher preparation, and language curriculum development)” along with “several further identifiable subfields of study: bilingual studies, corpus linguistics, forensic linguistics, language contact studies, language testing, language translation and interpretation, language use in professional contexts, lexicography and dictionary making, literacy, second language acquisition, and second language writing research” (Kaplan & Grabe, 2000, p. 5). The variety and diversity of these subfields defy attempts to gather them into a single volume (although some useful recent handbooks have done so; see, for example, Davies & Elder, 2004; Kaplan, 2002); furthermore, at present, topics in applied linguistics are commonly addressed through entire handbooks for particular subfields (Bhatia & Ritchie, 2004; Doughty & Long, 2003; Spolsky, 1999) or even in multivolume sets such as the Encyclopedia of Language and Education (Corson, 1997). Hence, this year's volume should perhaps be labeled a ‘selective’ survey, or even a sampling of the field, rather than an exhaustive inventory of all possible endeavors that warrant inclusion within applied linguistics. The present volume features research on some of the perennial concerns of applied linguistics, akin to Kaplan and Grabe's ‘core issues.’
KAMINALJUYU STELA 10: Script classification and linguistic affiliation
Authors: Mora-Marín David F.
Published: July 2005

This paper examines various lines of evidence for the classification and linguistic affiliation of writing at Late Preclassic Kaminaljuyu. The linguistic evidence for the ethnic composition of the Maya highlands and Pacific slopes during the Late Preclassic period points to contact among Ch'olan-Tzeltalan, Greater K'iche'an, and other non-Mayan languages, and to a dominant political economic role of Ch'olan-Tzeltalan. The epigraphic evidence supports classifying the script together with the Lowland Mayan script, and separately from the Epi-Olmec script, and hints at the presence of uniquely Ch'olan traits, some of which have been pointed out by other authors. A comparison with contemporaneous texts of unambiguous Lowland Mayan (Ch'olan or Yukatekan) affiliation suggests an overlap of orthographic, calligraphic, and semantic traits. Both lines of evidence support the hypotheses that Ch'olan-Tzeltalan speakers were the innovators of the Maya script, and that such a development perhaps took place in the Maya highlands. At the very least, the evidence points to a much closer relationship between the Maya highlands and lowlands during the Late Preclassic than previously thought.
MAYA BLUE AND PALYGORSKITE: A second possible pre-Columbian source
Authors: Arnold Dean E.
Published: July 2005

Maya Blue is an unusual blue pigment used on pottery, sculpture, and murals from the Preclassic to the Colonial period. Until the late 1960s, its composition was unknown, but chemists working in Spain, Belgium, Mexico, and the United States identified Maya Blue as a combination of indigo and the unusual clay mineral palygorskite (also called attapulgite). A source of palygorskite in the Maya area was unknown for years; then ethnoarchaeological research in the mid-1960s demonstrated that the contemporary Maya recognized the unique physical properties of palygorskite and used it as an additive for pottery temper and for curing certain types of illnesses. Because of its importance in Maya Blue, pre-Hispanic sources of the mineral were then suggested based on ethnoarchaeological data. One of these sources was the cenote in the town of Sacalum, Yucatan. This paper briefly reviews the history of the Maya Blue research from an anthropological perspective and presents evidence of a second possible pre-Hispanic mining site for palygorskite at Yo' Sah Kab near Ticul, Yucatan. Archaeological and technological approaches have demonstrated the use, distribution, composition, and characteristics of Maya Blue, but ethnoarchaeology has related it to Maya language and culture and to possible pre-Hispanic sources of one of its constituents, palygorskite.
EPICLASSIC POLITICAL ORGANIZATION IN SOUTHERN VERACRUZ, MEXICO: Segmentary versus centralized integration
Authors: Borstein Joshua A.
Published: July 2005

Archaeological investigations in southern Veracruz, Mexico, have traditionally focused on the impressive achievements of the Early Formative Olmec, one of Mesoamerica's earliest complex societies. Fewer studies have investigated post-Olmec cultural developments. Research in parts of the middle San Juan and lower Coatzacoalcos drainages of southern Veracruz provides new data on the Epiclassic period, when population levels exceeded the Olmec period. This paper examines settlement patterns and architectural complexes to interpret the political organization extant during the Epiclassic. Two largely polarized political models are examined, one segmentary and the other centralized. Perhaps not surprisingly, the data are consistent with aspects of both models. Finally, data are compared to other nearby regions to place the study area in a larger regional context. Traditionally conceived as a monolithic region, the southern Gulf lowlands are better characterized by cultural variation, population discontinuities, and intra- and interregional interaction.
Exploring architecture as a critical act, questioning relations between design, criticism, history and theory
Authors: Hatton Brian
Published: July 2005

This conference, which took place 25–27 November 2004, was held by the Bartlett School of Architecture in association with the Architectural Humanities Research Association (AHRA). Its stated aim was to examine the relationship between critical practice in architecture and architectural criticism, intending to place architecture in an interdisciplinary context with reference to modes of criticism in other disciplines, specifically art criticism, and to explore modes of critical practice in architecture: buildings, drawings and texts. Brian Hatton attended the second day of the conference; his comments on the first day are based on discussions with colleagues and reading of transcripts.
Building and exhibition layout: Sainsbury Wing compared with Castelvecchio
Authors: Tzortzi Kali
Published: July 2005

It has always been thought that there are two dimensions in museum experience: the experience of space which can be distinguished from that of exhibits, as the former is largely non-discursive while the latter is more in the discursive domain. This paper aims to contribute to the description and understanding of the intricate pattern of interdependencies between the two parameters of the microstructure of the gallery space, the design of space and of the display layout. The paper uses rigorous methods of ‘spatial data’ collection and analysis (analytic representations of spatial relationships, and systematic representations of the movement pattern) and on this objective foundation builds an interpretative and critical argument.
Architectural research and disciplinarity
Authors: Rendell Jane
Published: July 2005

There are at present considerable concerns with how architectural research will be assessed in the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) of 2008. In RAE 2001, most architectural research was submitted to one of three Units of Assessment (UoA): 33 Built Environment, 60 History of Art, Architecture and Design, and 64 Art and Design. There were subtle, but important, differences in output definition and assessment criteria between UoA 33 and UoA 64 with respect to practice-led research. Most importantly, in UoA 33 practice-led outputs were accepted by the panel, but only as publications, whereas UoA 64 assessed practice-led research outputs accompanied by a 300-word statement that clarified the contributions of that particular research to the development of original knowledge in the field. The diversity of methods and complexity of output types, combined with the composition of UoA 33, led to results that many feel did not properly reflect the strengths of architectural design, particularly practice-led research. This methodology essentially disenfranchised a significant part of the community from the rae process to the detriment not only of the community, but to the credibility of the process itself.
Interpretations of Vitruvius Critical misunderstandings
Authors: TOMBESI PAOLO
Published: July 2005

I was pleasantly surprised by the interest generated by my article on the making of the Australian Parliament House in Canberra (7/2, pp140–154), and intrigued by the parallels drawn between its saga and that of the new Scottish Parliament; but I feel the need to respond to some of the comments by Charles McKean, published in the following issue of arq (7/3+4, pp199–200).
Downward propagation and statistical forecast of the near‐surface weather
Authors: Christiansen Bo
Published: July 2005

We investigate the potential for using the downward propagation of anomalies from the stratosphere to the troposphere in extended‐range statistical forecasts. Considering the near‐surface zonal mean zonal wind at 60°N and the near‐surface temperature in northern Europe as predictands, we find that the inclusion of stratospheric information improves the daily forecast on lead times larger than 5 days. The best forecasts are obtained for predictors in the lower stratosphere. Similar predictions cannot be obtained if the statistical forecast only includes tropospheric information. The simple statistical forecast based on stratospheric winds compares favorably to the forecasts of a state‐of‐the‐art dynamical ensemble prediction system. The statistical forecast can be substantially improved by considering only strong stratospheric anomalies and by predicting averaged values.
Retrievals of cloud ice water path by combining ground cloud radar and satellite high‐frequency microwave measurements near the ARM SGP site
Authors: Seo Eun‐Kyoung , Liu Guosheng
Published: July 2005

A framework to retrieve ice water paths over a broad area by combining observations of surface cloud radar and satellite high‐frequency microwave measurements in a physically consistent way is presented. The surface cloud radar provides the statistics of vertical distribution of ice water content, while the satellite retrievals use those statistics to broaden a point measurement to an areal measurement. This study seeks to improve retrievals by adopting newly available ice microphysical properties from recent in situ observations, and by treating single scattering properties based on discrete dipole approximation simulations of realistic nonspherical ice particles. First, a new radar reflectivity‐ice water content relation is derived using backscattering cross sections calculated from six types of nonspherical ice particles. Ice water content profiles derived from radar reflectivity profiles are then used to calculate brightness temperatures at satellite observing frequencies by a radiative transfer model, which forms an a priori database for a Bayesian ice water path retrieval algorithm. Comparison between the satellite and surface radar retrievals shows that the two agree better for cases with ice water paths greater than 100 g m−2. For lower ice water paths, the difference between satellite and surface radar retrievals becomes large, presumably because of the insensitivity of the microwave scattering to optically thin ice clouds.
Recharge‐induced groundwater flow over a plane sloping bed: Solutions for steady and transient flow using physical and numerical models
Authors: Chapman T. G.
Published: July 2005

The free surface profile and outflow hydrograph for groundwater under conditions of steady uniform recharge followed by recession have been studied in viscous fluid model tests, using a sloping bed with a gradient of 0.2. The data have been compared with the nonlinear Boussinesq model and a modification of that model simulating the outflow seepage surface, obtained from a finite difference solution of the free boundary problem. It is shown that for a given bed slope, there is close to a linear relationship between outflow and storage raised to a power n, where n ranges from almost 2 for zero slopes to just above 1 at a gradient of 0.3. There is also a simple relationship between outflow and storage in the final stage of recession, when a drainage front occurs on the bed. These results lead to simple algorithms for prediction of the outflow under unsteady recharge conditions.
A mass balance based numerical method for the fractional advection‐dispersion equation: Theory and application
Authors: Zhang Xiaoxian , Crawford John W. , Deeks Lynda K. , Stutter Marc I. , Bengough A. Glyn , Young Iain M.
Published: July 2005

The inherent heterogeneity of many geophysical systems often gives rise to fast and slow pathways to water and chemical movement, and one approach to model solute transport through such media is the continuous time random walk (CTRW). One special asymptotic case of the CTRW is the fractional advection‐dispersion equation (FADE), which has proven to be a promising alternative to model anomalous dispersion and has been increasingly used in hydrology to model chemical transport in both surface and subsurface water. Most practical problems in hydrology have complicated initial and boundary conditions and need to be solved numerically, but the numerical solution of the FADE is not trivial. In this paper we present a finite volume approach to solve the FADE where the spatial derivative of the dispersion term is fractional. We also give methods to solve different boundary conditions often encountered in practical applications. The linear system resulting from the temporal‐spatial discretization is solved using a semi‐implicit scheme. The numerical method is derived on the basis of mass balance, and its accuracy is tested against analytical solutions. The method is then applied to simulate tracer movement in a stream and a near‐saturated hillslope in a naturally structured upland podzol field in northeast Scotland.
Variability of the throughflow at its exit in the Indian Ocean
Authors: Fieux M. , Molcard R. , Morrow R. , Kartavtseff A. , Ilahude A. G.
Published: July 2005

The hydrological properties and circulation along the TIP (Transport Indian Pacific) section between Java and Australia in September 2000 at the end of the southeast monsoon season are described. It is a reoccupation of the JADE (Java Australia Dynamic Experiment) sections carried out in August 1989 and in February 1992, which encompass the throughflow between the Pacific and the Indian oceans. The net geostrophic transport in September 2000 is of the same order as the August 1989 estimate. The results from the three occupations reveal that the seasonal and inter‐annual variability is predominant and during the three cruises the transport evaluations capture the largest variability of the throughflow.
A mechanism for the loading‐unloading substorm cycle missing in MHD global magnetospheric simulation models
Authors: Klimas Alex J. , Uritsky Vadim M. , Vassiliadis Dimitris , Baker Daniel N.
Published: July 2005

A 2‐dimensional numerical driven current‐sheet model has been developed that incorporates an idealized current‐driven instability with a resistive MHD system. Under steady loading, the model exhibits a global loading‐unloading cycle. The specific mechanism for producing the loading‐unloading cycle is discussed. It is shown that scale‐free avalanching of electromagnetic energy through the model, from loading to unloading, is carried by repetitive bursts of localized reconnection. Each burst leads, somewhat later, to a field configuration that is capable of exciting a reconnection burst again. This process repeats itself in an intermittent manner while the total field energy in the system falls. The total field energy is reduced to well below that necessary to initiate an unloading event and, thus, a loading‐unloading cycle results. It is shown that, in this model, it is the topology of bursty localized reconnection that is responsible for the appearance of the loading‐unloading cycle.
Depth constraints on nonlinear strong ground motion from the 2004 Parkfield earthquake
Authors: Rubinstein Justin L. , Beroza Gregory C.
Published: July 2005

We use the two target repeating earthquake sequences of SAFOD to identify time varying properties of the shallow crust in the Parkfield area at the surface and in shallow boreholes. At the surface, we find that the 2004 Parkfield earthquake caused direct S wave delays exceeding 7 ms, and S coda delays exceeding 15 ms. We attribute these delays to cracks formed or opened during the strong shaking of the Parkfield earthquake. Observations at depth show that the direct S wave arrival time was much less affected by the Parkfield earthquake. This provides evidence that damage caused by strong shaking (nonlinear strong ground motion), is limited to the very near surface (<100 m).