bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
EFFECT OF HUMAN SPLENIC CONTRACTION ON VARIATION IN CIRCULATING BLOOD CELL COUNTS
Authors: Baković Darija , Eterović Davor , Saratlija‐Novaković XXXana , Palada Ivan , Valic Zoran , Bilopavlović Nada , Dujić XXXeljko
Published: December 2005

1. The human spleen sequesters 200–250 mL densely packed red blood cells. Up to 50% of this viscous blood is actively expelled into the systemic circulation during strenuous exercise or simulated apnoea (breath‐hold) diving. The contribution of splenic contraction to changes in the circulating volume of red blood cells (RBCV), as well as the venous concentration of white blood cells (WBC) and platelets (PLT), was investigated following repeated breath‐hold apnoeas.

2. Eighteen trained apnoea divers and 18 intact and six splenectomized subjects without diving experience repeated five maximal apnoeas with face immersion in cold water, with 2 min intervals between successive attempts. Venous blood samples were taken before and between consecutive apnoeas, as well as at 0, 10 and 20 min after the last breath hold. Arterial pressure, heart rate and transcutaneous partial pressure of oxygen and carbon dioxide were monitored continuously.

3. Plasma protein concentration decreased by 5.8, 2.2 and 9% in apnoea divers, untrained and splenectomized subjects, respectively, indicating an expansion of plasma volume. The RBCV and venous concentration of WBC, corrected for changes in plasma volume, increased in both trained apnoea divers (4.9 ± 1.0 and 14.9 ± 3.1%, respectively) and intact subjects (1.7 ± 0.8 and 7.2 ± 1.8%, respectively), whereas in splenectomized subjects there was no change in RBCV and a delayed increase in WBC concentration. Furthermore, an initial lymphocytosis detected during repeated breath holds in divers and intact subjects was completely absent in splenectomized subjects. None of the groups showed significant changes in PLT concentrations. The well‐recognized diving response to apnoea (bradycardia and increased blood pressure) was seen during all breath‐hold attempts in all subjects.

4. Repeated breath‐holds (apnoeas) contribute to increased RBCV and venous blood concentrations of WBC through splenic contraction.
Connective tissue growth factor: A role in airway remodelling in asthma?
Authors: Burgess Janette K
Published: December 2005

1. Severe persistent asthma is accompanied by structural changes in the airway, referred to as remodelling. The mechanisms driving airway remodelling are poorly understood.

2. Transforming growth factor (TGF)‐β is increased in the airways of patients with asthma. Many of the effects of TGF‐β are mediated by connective tissue growth factor (CTGF).

3. Overexpression of CTGF is linked to many fibrotic diseases, but its exact role in airway remodelling is unknown.

4. Connective tissue growth factor mediates cell adhesion, migration, proliferation, survival, extracellular matrix synthesis and has a role in angiogenesis.

5. Current asthma therapies do not inhibit CTGF induction.

6. Understanding the mechanisms underlying the role of CTGF in airway remodelling may lead to new therapeutic strategies for asthma.
CLINICAL TOXICOLOGY: CLINICAL SCIENCE TO PUBLIC HEALTH
Authors: Bateman Dn
Published: December 2005

1. The aims of the present paper are to: (i) review progress in clinical toxicology over the past 40 years and to place it in the context of modern health care by describing its development; and (ii) illustrate the use of clinical toxicology data from Scotland, in particular, as a tool for informing clinical care and public health policy with respect to drugs.

2. A historical literature review was conducted with amalgamation and comparison of a series of published and unpublished clinical toxicology datasets from NPIS Edinburgh and other sources.

3. Clinical databases within poisons treatment centres offer an important method of collecting data on the clinical effects of drugs in overdose. These data can be used to increase knowledge on drug toxicity mechanisms that inform licensing decisions, contribute to evidence‐based care and clinical management. Combination of this material with national morbidity datasets provides another valuable approach that can inform public health prevention strategies.

4. In conclusion, clinical toxicology datasets offer clinical pharmacologists a new study area. Clinical toxicology treatment units and poisons information services offer an important health resource.
The need for translational research on antidotes for pesticide poisoning
Authors: Buckley Nick A , Eddleston Michael , Dawson Andrew H
Published: December 2005

1. Pesticide poisoning kills hundreds of thousands of people in the Asia–Pacific region each year. The majority of deaths are from deliberate self‐poisoning with organophosphorus pesticides (OP), aluminium phosphide and paraquat. The current response from a public health, medical and research perspective is inadequate.

2. There are few proven or effective treatments; in addition, very little clinical research has been performed to transfer antidotes shown to work in animal studies into clinical practice.

3. The human toxicity of pesticides is poorly studied and better information may inform a more sustained and appropriate regulatory response. Further understanding may also lead to improvements in diagnosis and treatment.

4. The few effective treatments are not being recommended or delivered in an optimal and timely fashion to poisoned patients. A regional approach to facilitate appropriate pricing, packaging and delivery of antidotes is required.
The pathophysiology of non‐cardiac chest pain
Authors: VAN HANDEL DANIEL , FASS RONNIE
Published: December 2005

Abstract:  Various underlying mechanisms have been described in patients with non‐cardiac chest pain (NCCP). By far, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is the most common cause and thus requires initial attention when patients with NCCP are managed. Esophageal dysmotility can be demonstrated in 30% of the NCCP patients, but appears to play a very limited role in symptom generation. A significant number of patients with NCCP lack any evidence of GERD and have been consistently shown to have reduced perception thresholds for pain. Peripheral and/or central sensitization have been suggested to be responsible for visceral hypersensivity in NCCP patients. Further understanding of the underlying mechanisms for pain in patients with NCCP will likely improve our current therapeutic approach.
Morphological study of the marine planktonic diatom Chaetoceros okamurai (Chaetocerotales, Bacillariophyceae) from the Gulf of Mexico
Authors: Hernández‐Becerril David U.
Published: December 2005

Despite the numerous works on phytoplankton in the Gulf of Mexico, there are new records of species made continually, especially diatoms and dinoflagellates in this area. The presence of the planktonic diatom Chaetoceros okamurai Ikari, originally described by Ikari in 1928 from Japanese Pacific waters, is reported from the Gulf of Mexico, This species appeared occasionally in net samples from the southern Gulf of Mexico, Its morphology was studied by light and scanning electron microscopy. Some morphological characteristics are useful to distinguish C. okamurai trom closely related species: the form of the chains (slightly twisted and heteropolar); the shape of the aperture (typically rhombical); and the shape of the valves. A single rimoportula, centrally placed, is present in every valve of the chain, Chaetoceros okamurai belongs to the subgenus Chaetoceros (Phaeoceros) and the section Borealia, and seems to be closely related to the species Chaetoceros borealis Bailey, Chaetoceros densus Cleve, Chaetoceros eibeniiGrunow and Chaetoceros octagonus Hernández‐Becerril. This is the first record of C. okamurai since its original description, and a new record in the Gulf of Mexico (Atlantic Ocean). The distribution of the species is poorly known, but apparently it is a tropical to subtropical form.
Neorhodomela enomotoi sp. nov. (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta) from Japan
Authors: Masuda Michio , Kogame Kazuhiro
Published: December 2005

The red alga Neorhodomela enomotoi Masuda et Kogame (Rhodomelaceae, Ceramiales) is described as a new species from Japan. It is characterized by the following combination of features: (i) thalli reddish‐brown and slightly rigid; (ii) first‐order branches mostly indeterminately branched; (iii) adventitious branches infrequent, determinately branched and formed chiefly in the axils of lateral branches; (iv) vegetative trichoblasts abundant; (v) tetrasporangia produced on paniculate ultimate and penultimate branches; and (vi) cystocarps flask‐shaped (urceolate). This species has been found growing only in the upper subtidal zone in the warm temperate waters of Japan.
Reproductive structures of Dictyopteris undulata (Dictyotales, Phaeophyceae) from Japan
Authors: Tanaka Jiro
Published: December 2005

sporophytes, and both male and female gametophytes of Dictyopteris undulata Holmes were collected from the Pacific coast and the Japan Sea coast of Japan. Female gametophytes are reported for the first time in the present study. All reproductive structures are aggregated in sori that form on both sides of the midrib in the upper and the middle parts of a blade. Tetraspor‐angia are spherical and project from the cortical layer with a 2–4‐celled stalk at the base. They are sometimes divided tetrahedrally to form four spores, but often remain undivided. Oogoniat sori also project from the cortical layer. Each oogonium is ovoid, sometimes borne on a single stalk cell at the base. Antheridial sori appear swollen above the cortex and each antheridium has a basal stalk cell. Fertile female gametophytes and te‐trasporophytes are difficult to distinguish from each other in surface view because tetrasporangial and oogonial sori are similar in size and undivided tetrasporangia resemble oogonia. Oogonia are not so closely packed in small groups, unlike in Dictyota species, and they can be distinguished by the cell sizes (i.e. tetrasporangia are bigger in diameter than oogonia).
Shigeo Yamanouchi (1876–1973): A noted Japanese phycologist
Authors: Chihara Mitsuo , West* John A.
Published: December 2005

Dr Shigeo Yamanouchi was born in Yamagata Prefecture and completed his secondary education at Tokyo Higher Normal School (THNS) where he was also a professor until 1904. In 1905, he went to the University of Chicago in the USA and earned a PhD in Botany in 1907. He is best noted for his excellent research on the cytology and life histories of the marine algaePolysiphonia, Fucus, Cutleria, AglaozoniaandZanardinia, published between 1906 and 1921 while he was associated with the University of Chicago. He also described the freshwater green algaHydrodictyon africanum. In 1910, he returned to THNS as a Professor and wrote several botanical textbooks, receiving his DSc degree in 1911 and traveling in England and the USA as an advisor for the Japanese Ministry of Education during 1911–1913. For much of the time between 1920 and 1942 he remained in the USA, returning to Japan following the advent of World War II, During his later life, he was in obscurity, and sadly there is very little recorded of his activities in the post‐war years. He died in Tokyo on 2 February 1973 at the age of 96.
Statistical methods for characterizing diversity of microbial communities by analysis of terminal restriction fragment length polymorphisms of 16S rRNA genes
Authors: Abdo Zaid , Schüette Ursel M.E. , Bent Stephen J. , Williams Christopher J. , Forney Larry J. , Joyce Paul
Published: December 2005

The analysis of terminal restriction fragment length polymorphisms (T‐RFLP) of 16S rRNA genes has proven to be a facile means to compare microbial communities and presumptively identify abundant members. The method provides data that can be used to compare different communities based on similarity or distance measures. Once communities have been clustered into groups, clone libraries can be prepared from sample(s) that are representative of each group in order to determine the phylogeny of the numerically abundant populations in a community. In this paper methods are introduced for the statistical analysis of T‐RFLP data that include objective methods for (i) determining a baseline so that ‘true’ peaks in electropherograms can be identified; (ii) a means to compare electropherograms and bin fragments of similar size; (iii) clustering algorithms that can be used to identify communities that are similar to one another; and (iv) a means to select samples that are representative of a cluster that can be used to construct 16S rRNA gene clone libraries. The methods for data analysis were tested using simulated data with assumptions and parameters that corresponded to actual data. The simulation results demonstrated the usefulness of these methods in their ability to recover the true microbial community structure generated under the assumptions made. Software for implementing these methods is available at http://www.ibest.uidaho.edu/tools/trflp_stats/index.php.
Evaluation of quantitative polymerase chain reaction‐based approaches for determining gene copy and gene transcript numbers in environmental samples
Authors: Smith Cindy J. , Nedwell David B. , Dong Liang F. , Osborn A. Mark
Published: December 2005

Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Q‐PCR) amplification is widely applied for determining gene and transcript numbers within environmental samples. This research evaluated Q‐PCR reproducibility via TaqMan assays quantifying 16S rRNA gene and transcript numbers in sediments, within and between replicate Q‐PCR assays. Intra‐assay variation in 16S rRNA gene numbers in replicate DNA samples was low (coefficients of variation; CV from 3.2 to 5.2%). However, variability increased using replicated standard curves within separate Q‐PCR assays (CV from 11.2% to 26%), indicating absolute comparison of gene numbers between Q‐PCR assays was less reliable. 16S rRNA transcript quantification was evaluated using standard curves of diluted RNA or cDNA (before, or following, reverse transcription). These standard curves were statistically different with cDNA‐derived curves giving higher r2 values and Q‐PCR efficiencies. Template concentrations used in Q‐PCR also affected 16S rRNA gene and transcript numbers. For DNA, 10−3 dilutions yielded higher gene numbers than 10−1 and 10−2 dilutions. Conversely, RNA template dilution reduced numbers of transcripts detected. Finally, different nucleic acid isolation methods also resulted in gene and transcript number variability. This research demonstrates Q‐PCR determination of absolute numbers of genes and transcripts using environmental nucleic acids should be treated cautiously.
Effects of Writing About Emotions Versus Goals on Psychological and Physical Health Among Third‐Year Medical Students
Authors: Austenfeld Jennifer L. , Paolo Anthony M. , Stanton Annette L.
Published: December 2005

A randomized, controlled trial compared writing about emotional topics (EMO) to writing about goals as the “best possible self” (BPS; after King, 2001) and evaluated emotional approach coping, i.e., efforts to cope through processing and expressing emotion, as a moderator of writing effects on psychological and physical health in 64 third‐year medical students. In participants with higher baseline hostility, the EMO condition was associated with less hostility at 3 months compared to the BPS and control conditions. Emotional processing (EP) and emotional expression (EE) moderated the effect of experimental condition on depressive symptoms at 3 months; high EP/EE participants reported fewer depressive symptoms in the EMO condition, whereas low EP/EE individuals reported fewer depressive symptoms in the BPS condition compared to the EMO and control conditions. A moderating effect of EP on physical health was also identified, such that low EP individuals who wrote about goals (BPS) had fewer health care visits at 3 months compared to low EP participants in the EMO and control conditions.
Cloninger's Temperament Dimensions and Threat, Stress, and Performance Appraisals During Different Challenges Among Young Adults
Authors: Ravaja Niklas , Keltikangas‐Järvinen Liisa , Kettunen Joni
Published: December 2005

ABSTRACTWe examined the relationship of Cloninger's temperament factors—Novelty Seeking, Harm Avoidance, Reward Dependence, and Persistence—to perceived threat and stress and performance appraisals during different challenges, i.e., mental arithmetic, the reaction time task, and three public speaking tasks, among 97 young adult men and women. Temperament was measured by the Temperament and Character Inventory. The results showed that, although some of the predictions made by Cloninger's model were confirmed, some were unsupported. The results revealed also some associations between temperament and cognitive appraisals that were intelligible, but not predicted by Cloninger's model. There were considerable domain specificity and gender differences in the associations found. Cloninger's temperament dimensions are related to threat, stress, and performance appraisals, thereby influencing individual's stress vulnerability, adjustment, and personal functioning.
Two languages, one developing brain: event‐related potentials to words in bilingual toddlers
Authors: Conboy Barbara T. , Mills Debra L.
Published: December 2005

Infant bilingualism offers a unique opportunity to study the relative effects of language experience and maturation on brain development, with each child serving as his or her own control. Event‐related potentials (ERPs) to words were examined in 19‐ to 22‐month‐old English‐Spanish bilingual toddlers. The children's dominant vs. nondominant languages elicited different patterns of neural activity in the lateral asymmetry of an early positive component (P100), and the latencies and distributions of ERP differences to known vs. unknown words from 200–400 and 400–600 ms. ERP effects also differed for ‘high’ and ‘low’ vocabulary groups based on total conceptual vocabulary scores. The results indicate that the organization of language‐relevant brain activity is linked to experience with language rather than brain maturation.
Event‐related potential (ERP) indices of infants’ recognition of familiar and unfamiliar objects in two and three dimensions
Authors: Carver Leslie J. , Meltzoff Andrew N. , Dawson Geraldine
Published: December 2005

We measured infants’ recognition of familiar and unfamiliar 3‐D objects and their 2‐D representations using event‐related potentials (ERPs). Infants differentiated familiar from unfamiliar objects when viewing them in both two and three dimensions. However, differentiation between the familiar and novel objects occurred more quickly when infants viewed the object in 3‐D than when they viewed 2‐D representations. The results are discussed with respect to infants’ recognition abilities and their understanding of real objects and representations. This is the first study using 3‐D objects in conjunction with ERPs in infants, and it introduces an interesting new methodology for assessing infants’ electrophysiological responses to real objects.
Object boundaries influence toddlers’ performance in a search task
Authors: Shutts Kristin , Keen Rachel , Spelke Elizabeth S.
Published: December 2005

Previous research has shown that young children have difficulty searching for a hidden object whose location depends on the position of a partly visible physical barrier. Across four experiments, we tested whether children's search errors are affected by two variables that influence adults’ object‐directed attention: object boundaries and proximity relations. Toddlers searched for a car that rolled down a ramp behind an occluding panel and stopped on contact with a barrier. The car's location on each trial depended on the placement of the barrier behind one of two doors in the panel. In Experiment 1, when a part of the car (a pompom on an antenna) was visible at the same distance from the object as the barrier wall in past research, search performance was above chance but below ceiling. In Experiments 2 and 3, when the visible part was close to the hidden body of the car and could be seen through one of two windows in the doors of the occluding panel, performance was near ceiling. In Experiment 4, when only the barrier was visible through one of the same windows, performance was at chance. Toddlers’ search for a hidden object therefore is affected by the proximity of a visible part of the object, though not by the proximity of a separate visible landmark. These findings suggest a parallel between the object representations of young children and those of adults, whose attention is directed to objects and spreads in a gradient‐like fashion within an object.
THE NATURE OF PERSONAL FREEDOM
Authors: Ingle Dwight J.
Published: December 2005

For there is a struggle for human freedom to be waged not only against external centers of irresponsible power but against those equally irresponsible internal forces which in varying degrees dominate the mind and heart of every man. Because of them, man may be free politically and economically, yet deeply enslaved. He can be free of all arbitrary external controls, yet live under the power ol internal compulsions which make of him an automaton: insatiable in his needs, inflexible in his methods, and incapable of learning intellectually or of maturing emotionally through experience. Because of these inner processes, man may be an absolute monarch or a constitutionally elected president, an abstract artist or a precise scientist, a criminal or a clergyman, yet not possess the greatest of all freedoms–the freedom to change.1
A THERMODYNAMIC THEORY OF THE ORIGIN AND HIERARCHICAL EVOLUTION OF LIVING SYSTEMS
Authors: Hamilton H. J.
Published: December 2005

Growing interest in the origin of life, the physical foundations of biological theory, and the evolution of animal social systems has led to increasing efforts to understand the processes by which elements or living systems at one level of organizational complexity combine to form stable systems of higher order. J. Bronowski saw the need to extend or reformulate evolutionary theory to deal with the hierarchy problem and to account for the evolution of systems of “stratified stability.” The hierarchy problem has become a matter of great interest also in nonequilibrium thermodynamic theory.

An effort is made here to develop an abstract, phenomenological model, based on the laws of thermodynamics, to account for the origin and hierarchical evolution of living systems. It is argued that the principle of minimum entropy production, developed by I. Prigogine, applies generally to all thermodynamic systems and processes and is implicit in an extended and more complete formulation of the second law of thermodynamics. From this are derived a thermodynamic criterion and a principle of thermodynamic selection governing the formation of stable systems of “elements” of various levels of organization. Thermodynamic selection gives rise to the creation of “elements” having increasingly “open” characteristic structures which may combine spontaneously to form “social” or crystalline systems capable of growing and reproducing themselves through processes of fissioning or budding. Such simple, self‐reproducing systems are capable of evolving by natural selection, which is seen to be a special case of the more general process of thermodynamic selection. The principle of natural selection, thus formulated, has the character of a fundamental physical law. Self‐reproducing systems with suitably open hereditary programs may combine to form stable social systems, which may grow and reproduce as a unit. In this way self‐reproducing systems of increasing hierarchical order, size, and organizational complexity may evolve through processes of thermodynamic (natural) selection. Some implications of this open‐ended model and opportunities for testing its empirical and theoretical utility are explored.
INDIVIDUAL NEEDS AND SOCIAL CONSENSUS
Authors: Ferkiss Victor
Published: December 2005

The United States today is faced with a crisis of the liberal system stemming from a shortage of resources and ideas. Liberalism assumes that there will always be enough resources to meet all needs and that politics consists of the struggle of interest groups for resources to meet their particular needs. Liberalism is wrong on both counts: there are not enough resources and there is a common good which includes all particular needs properly understood. We must now revise our ideas and institutions in order to make the common good attainable. Various changes in ideas and institutions toward that end are suggested.
RATIONALITY IN POLITICS
Authors: Wavell Bruce B.
Published: December 2005

This essay examines current decision‐making procedures in politics, especially those employed in parliamentary procedure, with a view to determining the extent to which they contribute to the making of rational political decisions. It concludes that political decision‐making procedures are, on the whole, inferior to court‐trial procedures, and proceeds to exploit this conclusion by describing a new method of political decision‐making based on the concept of a political jury. This method, it is claimed, is more likely than present methods to produce sound legislation.
DISCRIMINATING ALTRUISMS
Authors: Hardin Garrett
Published: December 2005

Reliable Darwinian theory shows that pure altruism cannot persist and expand over time. All higher organisms show inheritable patterns of caring and discrimination. The principal forms of discriminating altruisms among human beings are individualism (different from egoism), familialism, cronyism, tribalism, and patriotism. The promiscuous altruism called “universalism” cannot endure in the face of inescapable competition. Information can be promiscuously shared, but not so matter and energy without evoking the tragedy of the commons. Universalism is not recommendable even as an ideal. Survival now requires the creation of an intellectual base for a new patriotism.
FROM GOD TO INFINITY, OR HOW SCIENCE RAIDED RELIGION'S PATENT ON MYSTERY
Authors: Raschke Carl
Published: December 2005

The efforts of theologians in the last few decades to adapt their discipline to the methodological constraints of the “empirical sciences” have become obsolete. Just as many theologians have reached a tentative rapproachment with the “secular” mentality, the elements of mystery hitherto shepherded by religious thinkers have been appropriated in the cosmological models of the “new physics.”

The paper explores revolutionary developments over the last ten years within quantum physics. It points to an imminent convergence between scientific and religious concepts within a larger framework of speculation termed synholism (from Friedrich von Weizsácher), and examines theoretical implications of such hypotheses in high‐energy physics as a “cosmic consciousness” and “multiple universes.”
EVOLUTION, HUMAN VALUES AND RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE: A PROCESS PERSPECTIVE
Authors: Schroeder W. Widick
Published: December 2005

This essay sketches an interpretation of human experience utilizing the perspective of’ process philosophy. Beauty is a key notion, and emergent evolution is a central theme. The following topics are addressed: the emergence of modern evolutionary thinking and alternative responses to it; the nature of human nature in a process perspective; the place of humans in nature; the immanence of laws; emergent evolution on this planet; some implications of the hierarchy of nature for the interpretation of human life, human morality, and human values; and human religious experience.
IS SCIENCE THE ONLY WAY TO TRUTH?
Authors: Schlegel Richard
Published: December 2005

Abstract. In the context of contemporary life questions, especially that of world peace, this essay first develops the view that truth is essentially scientific truth. Although religion gives insights for living, as science encompasses more and more of human experience it reinforces and modifies religious truths with its own firm knowledge. However, because of several limitations, it is concluded that science alone cannot give a complete account of humanity and the universe. For our first beliefs and principles we must look to other kinds of truth, which are in accord with scientific truth but go beyond scientific method in their justification.
RELIGION AND AN EVOLUTIONARY THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
Authors: Peters Karl E.
Published: December 2005

Abstract. This paper outlines an evolutionary theory of knowledge involving not only conceptual but also behavioral and experiential knowledge. It suggests human knowledge is continuous at the behavioral and experiential level with that of nonhuman animals. By contrasting an evolutionary understanding of ultimate reality (God) with the more traditional, personalistic understanding, the paper shows how an evolutionary epistemology applies to religion in terms of both general and special revelation. Finally, the paper explores how one might respond to the problem of religious knowledge in a pluralistic age and how a nonpersonal, evolutionary understanding of God might be religiously adequate.
THE REBIRTH OF MEANING: A HUMAN PROBLEM
Authors: Sontag Frederick
Published: December 2005

Abstract. With the rise of the social sciences, it was expected they would replace philosophy in solving practical problems and improving the human condition. Ernest Becker's The Birth and Death of Meaning describes this project to cure humankind, but also points out the failures along the way. Nonetheless, a new psychology, based on a final science of humanity, still can accomplish this task. While Becker admits an incurable religious tendency in human nature, he counts on its being satisfied through a “new heroism.” However, in light of past failures, it is worthwhile taking another look at religion as a source for “the rebirth of meaning.”
BELIEF AND DELUSION: THEIR COMMON ORIGIN BUT DIFFERENT COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT
Authors: Lenz Hermann
Published: December 2005

Abstract. Comparing the experiences of mystics and victims of delusion we find very similar states of conditions: an experience of abnormal significance, pseudohallucinations, the sense of mission, the suspension of time, extremes of mood, and the sudden and passive appearance. Only the subsequent course of life of those having the experiences makes it possible to distinguish between belief and delusion. The criteria are simple: we find hope and doubt only in relation to mystical experience whereas in delusion we find a paralyzed belief; human freedom increases in belief but is lost in delusion; and belief allows the interaction between the person and society while the person who is deluded has no effectiveness in society.
EXPERIENCE AND CONCEPTUALIZATION IN MYSTICAL KNOWLEDGE
Authors: Jones Richard H.
Published: December 2005

Abstract. The purpose of this article is to explore certain parallels and divergencies between contemporary philosophy of science and the comparative study of mysticism. Two types of mystical experiences, “depth‐mystical” and “nature‐mystical,” are first differentiated. Next, the role of both experience and doctrine in the development and justification of mystical knowledge is defended. Finally, the issue of whether one mystical system can be established as superior to others is discussed.
BODY, BRAIN, AND CULTURE
Authors: Turner Victor
Published: December 2005

Abstract. Recent work in cerebral neurology should be used to fashion a new synthesis with anthropological studies. Beginning with Paul D. Madean's model of the triune brain, we explore Ralph Wendell Burhoe's question whether creative processes result from a coadaptation, perhaps in ritual itself, of genetic and cultural information. Then we examine the division of labor between right and left cerebral hemispheres and its implications for the notions of play and “ludic recombination.” Intimately related to ritual, play may function in the social construction of reality analogous to mutation and variation in organic evolution. Finally, we consider how our picture of brain functioning accords with some distinctive features of the religious systems dominant in human cultures.
THE MYTH‐RITUAL COMPLEX: A BIOGENETIC STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS
Authors: D'aquili Eugene G.
Published: December 2005

Abstract. The structuring and transformation of myth is presented as a function of a number of brain “operators.” Each operator is understood to represent specifically evolved neural tissue primarily of the neocortex of the brain. Mythmaking as well as other cognitive processes is seen as a behavior arising from the evolution and integration of certain parts of the brain. Human ceremonial ritual is likewise understood as the culmination of a long phylogenetic evolutionary process, and a neural model is presented to explain its properties. Finally, the mechanism by which ritual is used to resolve the antinomies of myth structure is explored.
THE PRAYING ANIMAL
Authors: Jenson Robert W.
Published: December 2005

Abstract. Ritual cannot be interpreted by a root metaphor of evolution, without reducing ritual's necessary intention. We must rather understand ritual as humanizing revolution. We have therefore two questions. First, What part does ritual have in human reckoning with reality? Second, What part does ritual have in the step to the specifically human? To the first question, the answer is proposed: ritual is that embodiment of our discourse with God and one another, by which we are made available and vulnerable to reality. To the second question, the answer is proposed: as embodied prayer, ritual is the complement to that address of God which posits our ontologically specific humanity, Parodying Aristotle, we may say that we are the sacrificing animals.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON VIOLENCE: UNIVERSALS AND PARTICULARS
Authors: Heelas Paul
Published: December 2005

Abstract. The problem addressed is how to establish the nature (grounds and consequences) of culturally formulated aggressive displays, for example, Balinese cockfights. Psychological and other research suggests that aggression can be under the control of nature, culture, or both. After surveying the evidence supporting both endogenous, in particular cathartic, and exogenous processes, the paper explores what is involved in establishing which process is operative in particular ethnographic cases. Special attention is paid to institutions which show coadaptation between biological and culture‐dependent processes and regulations.
LOREN COREY EISELEY: IN APPRECIATION
Authors: Goodenough Ward H.
Published: December 2005

Abstract. In his writings, Loren Eiseley revealed the feelings and the wonder that inspire many scientists in their work but that most scientists are unable or unwilling to write about. He was at once an anthropologist of science and the scientist's bard.
ECOLOGY, BIBLICAL THEOLOGY, AND METHODOLOGY: BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE ENVIRONMENT
Authors: Hiers Richard H.
Published: December 2005

Abstract. Historian Lynn White, Jr.'s theory that the current ecological crisis derives from the biblical creation story still has its adherents. There is no single biblical viewpoint on ecology, nor were the biblical writers addressing twentieth–century problems. Yet the great weight of biblical tradition‐including the Genesis creation narrative‐represents God as caring actively for all living beings, and humanity as having not only dominion over, but also responsibility for the well–being of other creatures. The Bible gives no support to those who would exploit the earth's resources at the cost of destroying any species of life.
PROCESS PHILOSOPHY, SOCIAL THOUGHT, AND LIBERATION THEOLOGY
Authors: Morrison Roy D.
Published: December 2005

Abstract. This essay sets forth the decisive notions and postulates of process philosophy in Process Philosophy and Social Thought, edited by John B. Cobb, Jr. and W. Widick Schroeder. After commenting on the circumstances in which process philosophy came to be a major option among philosophical theologians, I provide some amplification of those notions and postulates. Then, selecting material from the eighteen articles in the volume, I offer several critical assessments of the process viewpoint and its relation to science and to the contemporary call for liberation.
SOCIOBIOLOGY AND ITS THEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS
Authors: Peacocke Arthur
Published: December 2005

Abstract. The broad character of the arguments used by sociobiologists is assessed, particularly in relation to criticisms coming from anthropology. The implications of sociobiology for theology are developed with respect to the general impact of evolutionary ideas, the reductionist assumptions of sociobiologists, whether or not “survival” can be a value, and more holistic accounts of the physical and biological grounding of the mental and spiritual lives of human beings.
SOCIOBIOLOGY, ETHICS, AND THEOLOGY
Authors: Hefner Philip
Published: December 2005

Abstract. The topic of sociobiology and ethics opens up a range of questions that have to do with important relationships: between the history of nature and human being, between biological evolution and psychosocial evolution, between is and ought, between language usages in one domain and another. The task of ethics is properly to discern what sociobiology has to tell us about the fundamentals of life and persuasively to direct our actions in accord with those fundamentals, in a manner that is consistent with our essential humanity. From the theological perspective all of this transpires within the creative will of God.
A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ON THE BIOLOGICAL SCENE
Authors: Baelz Peter
Published: December 2005

Abstract. The interaction of scientific, ethical, and theological concerns raises several distinct but related problems of continuity and discontinuity. The theologian's task is to articulate a unifying vision of God and the world. He must do justice to the discontinuities which exist between the sociobiological and the ethical points of view, but he cannot accept them as ultimate. Within his own discipline he is already confronted with analogous problems of continuity and discontinuity, for example, between creation and redemption. Concepts associated with love, such as freedom, risk, and patience, may prove more persuasive and coherent than concepts associated with omnipotence.
GENETIC ENGINEERING: PROSPECTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Authors: Davis Bernard D. , Engelhardt H. Tristram
Published: December 2005

Abstract. At the 1983 Summer Conference on the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science, working groups chaired by the coauthors outlined some of the prospects for the use of somatic and germ line genetic engineering and related biological technologies to alleviate disease and to modify human behavior. They then offered a series of recommendations concerning the application of genetic engineering to persons and the monitoring of medical research and therapy.
GENESIS REVISITED: CAN WE DO BETTER THAN GOD?
Authors: Ruse Michael
Published: December 2005

Abstract. We are faced with growing powers of manipulation of our human genetic makeup. While not denying that these powers can be used for great good, it behooves us to think now of possible upper limits to the change that we might want to effect. I argue that thoughts of changing the human species into a race of supermen and superwomen are based on weak premises. Genetic fine‐tuning may indeed be in order; wholesale genetic change is not.
SEXUAL ATTRACTION: A TEST CASE OF SOCIOBIOLOGICAL THEORY
Authors: Harris H. V. C.
Published: December 2005

Abstract. A study of the place of human sexuality in religious systems indicates a possible universal stress on sexual attraction. This could be explained by using the theories of Richard Dawkins and other sociobiologists: the philandering male and the coy female express the best strategies for the survival of the “selfish gene.” Closer analysis of four religious systems throws doubt on these theories. In some systems the strategies are contradicted while in others there is stress on cooperative restraint rather than on survival through selfish propagation. The principal objection to the sociobiological approach is its assumption of conflict between the sexes.
THERMODYNAMICS AND LIFE
Authors: Peacocke Arthur
Published: December 2005

Abstract. The basic features of thermodynamics as the “science of the possible” are outlined with a special emphasis on the role of the concept of entropy as a measure of irreversibility in natural processes and its relation to “order,” precisely defined. Natural processes may lead to an increase in complexity, and this concept has a subtle relationship to those of order, organization, and information. These concepts are analyzed with respect to their relation to biological evolution, together with other ways of attempting to quantify it. Thermodynamic interpretations of evolution are described and critically compared, and the significance of dissipative structures, of “order through fluctuations,” is emphasized in relation both to the evolutionary succession of temporarily stable forms and to kinetic mechanisms producing new patterns.
THE COSMIC BREATH: REFLECTIONS ON THE THERMODYNAMICS OF CREATION
Authors: Wicken Jeffrey S.
Published: December 2005

Abstract. This paper views such distinctions as creation and degeneration or good and evil in the Eastern sense of unity in polarity rather than in the Western sense of dual, antagonistic principles. Hence it considers the thermodynamic forces of evolution as processes of creation driven by entropy dissipation and explores the analogies this conception bears to the Hindu image of nature as the changing mist of a universal breath. Using this image, the paper examines the sense in which the second law of thermodynamics connects chance and teleology in the operations of nature and provides for a causal hierarchy in which decision and volitional behavior co‐participate with the laws of nature to determine the course of evolution.
A BIOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF MORAL SYSTEMS
Authors: Alexander Richard D.
Published: December 2005

Abstract.Moral systems are described as systems of indirect reciprocity, existing because of histories of conflicts of interest and arising as outcomes of the complexity of social interactions in groups of long‐lived individuals with varying conflicts and confluences of interest and indefinitely iterated social interactions. Although morality is commonly defined as involving justice for all people, or consistency in the social treatment of all humans, it may have arisen for immoral reasons, as a force leading to cohesiveness within human groups but specifically excluding and directed against other human groups with different interests.
CHANGED CONCEPTS OF BRAIN AND CONSCIOUSNESS: SOME VALUE IMPLICATIONS
Authors: Sperry Roger
Published: December 2005

Abstract. Prospects for uniting religion and science are brightened by recently changed views of consciousness and mind‐brain interaction. Mental, vital, and spiritual forces, long excluded and denounced by materialist philosophy, are reinstated in nonmystical form. A revised scientific cosmology emerges in which reductive materialist interpretations emphasizing causal control from below upward are replaced by revised concepts that emphasize the reciprocal control exerted by higher emergent forces from above downward. Scientific views of ourselves and the world and the kinds of values upheld by scientific belief undergo basic transformations, making them more compatible with religious motivation and moral responsibility.
A JUNGIAN VIEW OF EVIL
Authors: Segal Robert A.
Published: December 2005

Abstract. On the one hand Jungian John Sanford criticizes Carl Jung for underestimating the importance granted evil by at least some strains of Christianity. On the other hand Sanford follows Jung in assuming that psychology is entitled to criticize Christianity whenever it fails to grant evil its due. Like Jung, Sanford contends that he is faulting Christianity on only psychological grounds: for failing to cope with evil in man–the shadow archetype. In fact, Sanford, like perhaps Jung as well, is also criticizing Christianity on metaphysical grounds: for failing to acknowledge not just psychological but also ontological evil. Whether Sanford is thereby using psychology to assess Christian metaphysics is the issue.
MACHINES, BRAINS, AND PERSONS
Authors: MacKay Donald M.
Published: December 2005

Abstract. This paper explores the suggestion that our conscious experience is embodied in, rather than interactive with, our brain activity, and that the distinctive brain correlate of conscious experience lies at the level of global functional organization. To speak of either brains or computers as thinking is categorically inept, but whether stochastic mechanisms using internal experimentation rather than rule‐following to determine behavior could embody conscious agency is argued to be an open question, even in light of the Christian doctrine of man. Mechanistic brain science does nothing to discredit Christian experience in dialogue with God or the Christian hope of eternal life.
THE PHENOMENON OF INTELLIGENCE AS SEEN BY A LAY‐SCIENTIST
Authors: Robertson John H.
Published: December 2005

Abstract. This paper sees intelligence as certainly not a thing which is the sole prerogative of man but rather as a category of skill, natural to all organisms, integral with their capacity for handling their environment, and increasingly well developed in the higher animals. Intelligence is seen as a natural property of living organisms at their highest levels: a characteristic of living things which is emergent in the same way as, and essentially in parallel with, perception, consciousness, and moral and spiritual sensitivities.
HASIDIC CONTRACTION: A MODEL FOR INTERHEMISPHERIC DIALOGUE
Authors: Rotenberg Mordechai
Published: December 2005

Abstract. Neuroclinical studies have claimed that the right side of the brain is associated with mystic orientation and sensual‐affective functioning and that the brain's left side is related to logical‐analytic thinking. From observations of conversion processes among repenters and cult recruitees, it is hypothesized that a drastic switchover between mythic and analytic life orientations, via a dialectic replacement of the previous code, may result in a psychopathological disorientation. Based on the Hasidic‐Cabalic notion of mutual “contraction,” a dialogical model of interhemi‐spheric balancing, which a priori trains people to interpret reality through simultaneous rational Talmudism and Cabalic mysticism, is introduced.
PASCAL'S SYNDROME: POSITIVISM AS A SYMPTOM OF DEPRESSION AND MANIA
Authors: Caton Hiram
Published: December 2005

Abstract. The present study applies results and methods of psychobiology to intellectual history. Pascal's syndrome is a depressive neurosis associated with morbid effects of scientific certainty. The syndrome is characterized by self‐mortification and conversion experience that represses distressing certainties. The dynamics of the syndrome are assessed from Blake Pascal's psychosis. The ideation of the syndrome is evaluated by reference to the neurology of altered states of consciousness and the biogenic amine hypothesis of depression and mania. The evaluation yields a description of the relation between psychogenic and biogenic factors in the syndrome's etiology.
REVITALIZATION MOVEMENTS AND THE HOPE OF PEACE
Authors: Kehoe Alice B.
Published: December 2005

Abstract. Anthropological analysis of religion, following Bronislaw Mahowski, is founded in empirical observational data gained at least in part by participant observation. Malinowski described religion as a “sociological charter” which is a “retrospective moral pattern of behavior,” constructed as a myth after the fact of behavior. Anthony F. C. Wallace's revitalization model provides the mechanism through which the Malinowskian charter is developed. Jack Wilson's Ghost Dance religion is briefly described as an example of a revitalization movement, and it is suggested that both contemporary peace movements and militant Christian movements are revitalization movements.