bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Trends in dietary carbohydrate quality during puberty from 1988 to 2007: a cause for concern?
Authors: Cheng Guo , Libuda Lars , Karaolis-Danckert Nadina , Alexy Ute , Bolzenius Katja , Remer Thomas , Buyken Anette E.
Published: July 2010

The extent to which the quality of dietary carbohydrates (CHO) changes throughout puberty is not known. We analysed trends in the quantity and quality of CHO intake among German adolescents by separately examining trends during puberty (pubertal trends) and trends in CHO intake from 1988 to 2007 (secular trends). Linear mixed-effects regression analyses were performed in 216 participants of the Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed Study who had provided weighed 3 d dietary records at the onset of the pubertal growth spurt (defined by age at take-off) and over the subsequent 4 years. Over the course of puberty, CHO quality changed little: added sugar intake from beverages increased in girls (0·25 (se0·12) % energy (% E)/year,P = 0·04) and added sugar intake from sweets decreased in both sexes (boys: − 0·22 (se0·11) % E/year,P = 0·049; girls: − 0·20 (se0·10) % E/year,P = 0·04). For both sexes, significant upward secular trends were observed for CHO (% E), glycaemic load (g/MJ) and added sugar intakes from sources other than sweets and soft drinks (% E), while absolute fibre intake (g/d) decreased (P ≤ 0·04). Concomitant increases in total added sugar intake (% E) and decreases in fibre and whole-grain densities (g/MJ) (P = 0·001–0·02) were confined to boys only. The quality of dietary CHO consumed by healthy German adolescents shows notable secular declines, but does not change markedly during puberty. Public health initiatives should be tailored to improve the overall quality of CHO nutrition.
“I,” “You,” “Mine”: Subject and Quotation in Eléna Rivera'sMistakes, Accidents, and a Want of Liberty
Authors: KENNEDY DAVID , KENNEDY CHRISTINE
Published: June 2010

In the introduction toQuid 11: Three U.S. Poets(November 2002), Keston Sutherland wrote, “One considerable and vital task now facing U.S. poets … might be a confrontation with abstractionper se.” In the context of political poetry, this speaks to two important questions: first, how the individual is to be portrayed as a political subject by the avant-garde; second, what is the role of form in that portrayal? This essay will explore these questions through a detailed reading of Eléna Rivera's sequenceMistakes, Accidents, and a Want of Liberty(Barque Press, 2006). At first sight,Mistakesreads as a coded series of meditations in an associative order which give the reader the feeling of being abandoned into the text. However, Googling the opening poem's title, “thinking of my life, I almost forgot my liberty”, takes the reader straight to the nineteenth-century autobiography of slavery, escape and freedomThe Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass(1845). This connects Rivera's sequence and the reader with one of the moments when a new type of individual-as-political-subject enters literature. An important part of Frederick Douglass's story involves learning to read and write at a time when slaves were forbidden to do so. In this context, Rivera is opening an argument about how the political subject is constructed and portrayed in language. We will argue, then, that through its intertextual relationship withThe Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglassand with other texts such asKing Lear, Rivera's sequence offers revitalizing strategies not only for portraying the subject but for writing and reading politically. In this way,Mistakes, Accidents, and a Want of Libertysuggests ways of thinking, writing and reading outside what one poem calls “The limits … of ‘you’ as reflection, of ‘you’ as reaction”.
Passionate Intensity: Political Blogs and the American Journalistic Tradition
Authors: SERFATY VIVIANE
Published: June 2010

This study attempts to find out the reasons for the emergence of blogging in the contemporary media scene and for its widespread acceptance. First, it delineates the various events that contributed to the notoriety of political blogs. In a second stage, it traces the origins of contemporary blogging back to the history of early journalistic forms, from the penny press to the muckraking movement. After identifying the characteristics linking blogs to the American journalistic tradition, it focusses on what differentiates blogging from other forms of journalistic writing.
On unified boundary conditions for improved predictions of near-wall turbulence
Authors: JAKIRLIĆ S. , JOVANOVIĆ J.
Published: July 2010

A novel formulation of the wall boundary conditions relying on the asymptotic behaviour of the Taylor microscale λ and its relationship to the homogeneous part of the viscous dissipation rate of the kinetic energy of turbulence εh=5νq2/λ2, applicable to near-wall turbulence, is examined. The linear dependence of λ on the wall distance in close proximity to the solid surface enables the wall-closest grid node to be positioned immediately below the edge of the viscous sublayer, leading to a substantial coarsening of the grid resolution. This approach provides bridging of a major portion of the viscous sublayer, higher grid flexibility and weaker sensitivity against the grid non-uniformities in the near-wall region. The performance of the proposed formulation was checked against available direct numerical simulation databases of complex wall-bounded flows featured by swirl and separation.
Neurocognitive functioning in bulimia nervosa: the role of neuroendocrine, personality and clinical aspects
Authors: Galderisi S. , Bucci P. , Mucci A. , Bellodi L. , Cassano G. B. , Santonastaso P. , Erzegovesi S. , Favaro A. , Mauri M. , Monteleone P. , Maj M.
Published: July 2010

Background

Studies investigating neurocognitive impairment in subjects with eating disorders (EDs) have reported heterogeneous patterns of impairment and, in some instances, no dysfunction. The present study aimed to define the pattern of neurocognitive impairment in a large sample of bulimia nervosa (BN) patients and to demonstrate that neuroendocrine, personality and clinical characteristics influence neurocognitive performance in BN.

Method

Attention/immediate memory, set shifting, perseveration, conditional and implicit learning were evaluated in 83 untreated female patients with BN and 77 healthy controls (HC). Cortisol and 17β-estradiol plasma levels were assessed. Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory – Revised (TCI-R), the Bulimic Investigation Test Edinburgh (BITE) and the Montgomery–Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) were administered.

Results

No impairment of cognitive performance was found in subjects with BN compared with HC. Cortisol and ‘Self-directedness’ were associated with better performance on conditional learning whereas 17β-estradiol had a negative influence on this domain; ‘Reward dependence’ was associated with worse performance on implicit learning; and depressive symptomatology influenced performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) negatively.

Conclusions

No cognitive impairment was found in untreated patients with BN. Neuroendocrine, personality and clinical variables do influence neurocognitive functioning and might explain discrepancies in literature findings.
Calvin on deification: a reply to Carl Mosser and Jonathan Slater
Authors: Lee Yang-Ho
Published: July 2010

Calvin scholars have disputed whether Calvin had the concept of deification. Carl Mosser was eager to find deification in Calvin's theology. On the other hand, Jonathan Slater was earnest to deny deification in Calvin's thought. Calvin distinguishes between divine essence and divine kind. According to Calvin, we will be partakers of the divine kind, but not of the divine essence. We will be like God, but we will not be God. For Calvin, righteousness and immortality are called divine righteousness and divine immortality because God is its author. They are gifts from God, not God's own essence. Calvin says that we are God's offspring, but in quality, not in essence, inasmuch as he, indeed, adorned us with divine gifts. On the other hand, although Slater argues that Calvin's position is that believers share in what is Christ's according to his human nature, in accordance with Calvin, all the actions which Christ performed to reconcile God and man refer to the whole person, and are not to be separately restricted to only one nature. In this article, I find that Calvin distinguishes between divine essence and divine kind, in other words, essential and non-essential or central and peripheral.
The implications for christology of David Tracy's theological epistemology
Authors: Forsyth Andrew C.
Published: July 2010

Widely recognised for his work in hermeneutics and theological method, the christological implications of David Tracy's thinking have been less explored. This article engages in a close reading of David Tracy's major work: critically correlating his theological epistemology with his christological statements; offering suggestions for the future development of christology. Theology, for Tracy, is the critical engagement of the Christian tradition in a specific culture. Theology, today, requires the responses of the early faith communities mediated by the church in scripture and tradition. Its corporate purpose of reform is achieved through personal encounter. The meeting of a particular, complex individual with the event of Jesus Christ brings forth change in the individual, and a new reading of the event. Christian theology is held together by its focus on Jesus Christ and its recognition of the scriptures as normative. Writing is, nonetheless, always ambiguous, thus multiple readings of scripture must be recognised and welcomed. Today's theology must be concretely embedded in history and the cosmos: for, too often, the victims of history have been silenced in Christian readings. There may be concreteness when there is recognition that facts may be actualised in individuals as well as in concepts. Theology's use of personal experiences may, therefore, be adequate for the tradition, and intelligible through coherence with general grounds for truth. Theology today, Tracy argues, must hold together all appropriate reflection on Jesus, known as Christ; just as the tradition has always allowed for multiple understandings such as Word-as-Logos and Word-as-Kergyma. In incarnation, cross and resurrection, in communal and personal encounter, reflection on Jesus empowers other-focused action through a spirit of hope. Future christologies, in this reading, must ultimately recognise that universality is a network of responses to the event of Jesus Christ. Particular encounters reflect the genuine multiplicity of today's interpretations of the tradition in specific cultures.
Concept talk cannot be avoided
Authors: Hampton James A.
Published: June 2010

Distinct systems for representing concepts as prototypes, exemplars, and theories are closely integrated in the mind, and the notion of concept is required as a framework for exploring this integration. Eliminating the term “concept” from our theories will hinder rather than promote scientific progress.
Concepts and theoretical unification
Authors: Margolis Eric , Laurence Stephen
Published: June 2010

Concepts are mental symbols that have semantic structure and processing structure. This approach (1) allows for different disciplines to converge on a common subject matter; (2) it promotes theoretical unification; and (3) it accommodates the varied processes that preoccupy Machery. It also avoids problems that go with his eliminativism, including the explanation of how fundamentally different types of concepts can be co-referential.
Why don't concepts constitute a natural kind?
Authors: Samuels Richard , Ferreira Michael
Published: June 2010

Machery argues that concepts do not constitute a natural kind. We argue that this is a mistake. When appropriately construed, his discussion in fact bolsters the claim that concepts are a natural kind.
Consequences of a network view for genetic association studies
Authors: van der Sluis Sophie , Kan Kees-Jan , Dolan Conor V.
Published: June 2010

Cramer et al's proposal to view mental disorders as the outcome of network dynamics among symptoms obviates the need to invoke latent traits to explain co-occurrence of symptoms and syndromes. This commentary considers the consequences of such a network view for genetic association studies.
Is there a contradiction between the network and latent variable perspectives?
Authors: Humphry Stephen M. , McGrane Joshua A.
Published: June 2010

First, we question whether Cramer et al.'s proposed network model can provide a viable scientific foundation for investigating comorbidity without invoking latent variables in some form. Second, the authors' claim that the network perspective is radically different from a latent variable perspective rests upon an undemonstrated premise. Without being demonstrated, we think the premise is potentially misleading.
The heterogeneity of knowledge representation and the elimination of concept
Authors: Machery Edouard
Published: June 2010

In this response, I begin by defending and clarifying the notion of concept proposed in Doing without Concepts (Machery 2009) against the alternatives proposed by several commentators. I then discuss whether psychologists and philosophers who theorize about concepts are talking about distinct phenomena or about different aspects of the same phenomenon, as argued in some commentaries. Next, I criticize the idea that the cognitive-scientific findings about induction, categorization, concept combination, and so on, could be explained by positing a single kind of concept, and I insist that many categories (substances, types of events, etc.) are represented by distinct coreferential concepts that belong to very different kinds of concept. This is followed by an assessment of the hybrid theories of concepts offered by commentators, according to which categories, substances, and types of events are represented by hybrid concepts made of several parts. Finally, I defend the proposal that it may be useful to eliminate concept from the theoretical vocabulary of psychology.
Shades of grey: to dye or not to dye one's hair in later life
Authors: CLARKE LAURA HURD , KOROTCHENKO ALEXANDRA
Published: July 2010

This article examines older women's perceptions of grey, white and coloured hair. Using data from in-depth interviews with 36 women aged 71–94 years (mean 79), we elucidate the women's attitudes towards and reasons for dyeing or not dyeing their hair. The majority of our participants disparaged the appearance of grey hair, which they equated with ugliness, dependence, poor health, social disengagement and cultural invisibility. The women were particularly averse to their own grey hair, and many suggested that other women's grey hair was acceptable, if not attractive. At the same time, half of the women liked the look of snowy white hair, which they associated with attractiveness in later life as well as with goodness and purity. While one-third of the women had begun to dye their hair in their youth so as to appear more fashionable, two-thirds continued to dye their hair in later life so as to mask their grey hair and their chronological age. The women suggested that they used hair dye to appear more youthful and to resist ageist stereotypes associated with older women. We discuss the findings in relation to previous research concerning older women's hair, the concept of doing gender, and theories pertaining to ageism.
Modeling in pharmacoeconomic studies: Funding sources and outcomes
Authors: Garattini Livio , Koleva Daniela , Casadei Gianluigi
Published: June 2010

Objectives: The prime objective of this study was to investigate whether sponsorship by the pharmaceutical industry affected the results of full economic evaluations (FEE) based on modeling. In particular, we focused on the flourishing literature based on Markov models, by far the most widely exploited tool for estimating lifetime costs and benefits.

Methods: We made a literature search of the international database PubMed to find all the studies on pharmacological treatments based on Markov models published in English in the period January 1, 2004 to June 30, 2009. We selected the FEEs focused on single drugs only, specifically cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses. Two hundred articles including FEEs based on Markov models were considered eligible. For the analysis, we classified the FEEs into two groups according to whether or not they had financial backing from the pharmaceutical industry. We then assessed the main conclusions, which were classified as (i) “favorable,” (ii) “doubtful,” and (iii) “unfavorable.”

Results: Of the 200 articles, 138 (69 percent) were sponsored and 162 (81 percent) reached favorable conclusions. Sponsored studies were much more likely to report favorable conclusions than nonsponsored ones (95 percent and 50 percent, p < .001), the former even omitting unfavorable conclusions.

Conclusions: The review found a substantial share of studies supported by the pharmaceutical industry, almost all concluding in favor of the drug studied, without any unfavorable conclusions at all. These results confirm also in the field of pharmacoeconomic studies that the best way of limiting confounding factors is by clearly distinguishing assessors from manufacturers and marketers of any new technology.
The usefulness of NICE guidance in practice: Different perspectives of managers, clinicians, and patients
Authors: Owen-Smith Amanda , Coast Joanna , Donovan Jenny
Published: June 2010

Objectives: The UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has been widely hailed as an international leader in health technology assessment. The objectives of its guidance are to ensure uniformity in healthcare provision, and promote a systematic and accountable way to allocate resources. However, research relating to the implementation of guidance is limited, and little is known about how it influences decision making at the consultation level or how useful it is to individual patients.

Methods: In-depth interviews were undertaken with professionals involved in healthcare provision at the community level, and with clinical professionals and patients providing or receiving care for morbid obesity and breast cancer (n = 52).

Results: Although NICE guidance was generally well-regarded, in practice it was of more importance and usefulness to managerial than clinical professionals. Clinicians used a patchy approach to implementation depending on whether recommendations accorded with their personal interpretation of the evidence available, and whether funding was available locally. Many patients had not heard of NICE, and clinical professionals did not alert them to its existence. Even where patients knew about relevant guidance, they were rarely able to use it to assert their right to treatment.

Conclusions: These findings challenge the perception that NICE guidance results in consistent and accountable decision making, and the limited accessibility and usefulness of guidance to patients suggests more information and support is needed at the point of provision if these objectives are to be achieved.
The cost-effectiveness of the SPHERE intervention for the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease
Authors: Gillespie Paddy , O'Shea Eamon , Murphy Andrew W. , Byrne Mary C. , Byrne Molly , Smith Susan M. , Cupples Margaret E.
Published: June 2010

Objectives:The Secondary Prevention of Heart disEase in geneRal practicE (SPHERE) trial has recently reported. This study examines the cost-effectiveness of the SPHERE intervention in both healthcare systems on the island of Ireland.

Methods:Incremental cost-effectiveness analysis. A probabilistic model was developed to combine within-trial and beyond-trial impacts of treatment to estimate the lifetime costs and benefits of two secondary prevention strategies:Intervention- tailored practice and patient care plans; andControl- standardized usual care.

Results:The intervention strategy resulted in mean cost savings per patient of €512.77 (95 percent confidence interval [CI], −1086.46–91.98) and an increase in mean quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) per patient of 0.0051 (95 percent CI, −0.0101–0.0200), when compared with the control strategy. The probability of the intervention being cost-effective was 94 percent if decision makers are willing to pay €45,000 per additional QALY.

Conclusions:Decision makers in both settings must determine whether the level of evidence presented is sufficient to justify the adoption of the SPHERE intervention in clinical practice.
Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza in the UK: clinical and epidemiological findings from the first few hundred (FF100) cases
Authors: McLEAN E. , PEBODY R. G. , CAMPBELL C. , CHAMBERLAND M. , HAWKINS C. , NGUYEN-VAN-TAM J. S. , OLIVER I. , SMITH G. E. , IHEKWEAZU C. , BRACEBRIDGE S. , MAGUIRE H. , HARRIS R. , KAFATOS G. , WHITE P. J. , WYNNE-EVANS E. , GREEN J. , MYERS R. , UNDERWOOD A. , DALLMAN T. , WREGHITT T. , ZAMBON M. , ELLIS J. , PHIN N. , SMYTH B. , McMENAMIN J. , WATSON J. M.
Published: July 2010

The UK was one of few European countries to document a substantial wave of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza in summer 2009. The First Few Hundred (FF100) project ran from April–June 2009 gathering information on early laboratory-confirmed cases across the UK. In total, 392 confirmed cases were followed up. Children were predominantly affected (median age 15 years, IQR 10–27). Symptoms were mild and similar to seasonal influenza, with the exception of diarrhoea, which was reported by 27%. Eleven per cent of all cases had an underlying medical condition, similar to the general population. The majority (92%) were treated with antiviral drugs with 12% reporting adverse effects, mainly nausea and other gastrointestinal complaints. Duration of illness was significantly shorter when antivirals were given within 48 h of onset (median 5 vs. 9 days, P=0·01). No patients died, although 14 were hospitalized, of whom three required mechanical ventilation. The FF100 identified key clinical and epidemiological characteristics of infection with this novel virus in near real-time.
Post-imperial and Post-war Violence in the South Slav Lands, 1917–1923
Authors: NEWMAN JOHN PAUL
Published: June 2010

This article looks at the transition of the Habsburg South Slav lands, in particular Croatia, from empire into (Yugoslav) nation-state from 1917 to 1923, and the violence which attended it. While this transition was less cataclysmic in the South Slav lands than in other parts of the former Habsburg Empire, patterns of paramilitary violence and counter-revolution similar to those elsewhere in Europe were also present here. The article looks at these patterns from a transnational perspective and shows that although state control was effectively restored in Croatia by 1923, paramilitary networks forged during 1917–23 would return as Yugoslavia faced greater external threats and internal disequilibrium in the 1930s.
Utility of the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery in detecting cognitive impairment after unilateral stroke
Authors: STRICKER NIKKI H. , TYBUR JOSHUA M. , SADEK JOSEPH R. , HAALAND KATHLEEN Y.
Published: July 2010

This study evaluated the clinical utility of the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (NAB) in a stroke sample by examining the NAB’s ability to differentiate a chronic stroke group with radiologically confirmed unilateral damage (n = 42) and a demographically matched healthy control (HC) group (n = 36). The stroke group performed more poorly than the control group across NAB Total score and all five Domain scores. Receiver operator curves (ROC) were derived and area under the curve (AUC) showed moderate diagnostic effectiveness (AUC .70 to .90) for NAB Total score, all five Domain scores, a motor composite, and a Global Deficit Score (GDS) that has been shown to closely approximate clinical ratings of neuropsychological impairment. The NAB Total, GDS, and motor composite had comparable clinical utility, whereas the Attention and Executive domain scores demonstrated better classification utility compared with the Memory domain. Because 90.5% of our stroke sample had middle cerebral artery territory strokes, the comparison of motor and cognitive classification utility may be biased. However, follow-up analyses showed that the NAB accounted for additional variance even when motor composite was included in the model. Sensitivity, specificity, and odds ratios at various clinical cutoffs are provided. These results suggest that the NAB is a useful clinical tool for detection of cognitive deficits in individuals with chronic unilateral stroke, although lenient clinical cutoffs appear warranted to maximize sensitivity. (JINS, 2010, 16, 813–821.)
Genome informatics of influenza A: from data sharing to shared analytical capabilities
Authors: Janies Daniel A. , Voronkin Igor O. , Das Manirupa , Hardman Jori , Treseder Travis W. , Studer Jonathon
Published: July 2010

Emerging infectious diseases are critical issues of public health and the economic and social stability of nations. As demonstrated by the international response to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and influenza A, rapid genomic sequencing is a crucial tool to understand diseases that occur at the interface of human and animal populations. However, our ability to make sense of sequence data lags behind our ability to acquire the data. The potential of sequence data on pathogens is not fully realized until raw data are translated into public health intelligence. Sequencing technologies have become highly mechanized. If the political will for data sharing remains strong, the frontier for progress in emerging infectious diseases will be in analysis of sequence data and translation of results into better public health science and policy. For example, applying analytical tools such as Supramap (http://supramap.osu.edu) to genomic data for pathogens, public health scientists can track specific mutations in pathogens that confer the ability to infect humans or resist drugs. The results produced by the Supramap application are compelling visualizations of pathogen lineages and features mapped into geographic information systems that can be used to test hypotheses and to follow the spread of diseases across geography and hosts and communicate the results to a wide audience.
GANDHI'S GITA AND POLITICS AS SUCH
Authors: CHAKRABARTY DIPESH , MAJUMDAR ROCHONA
Published: July 2010

M. K. Gandhi's “Discourses on the Gita,” a series of talks delivered to ashramites at Sabarmati during 1926 and 1927, provides a singular instance in Indian intellectual thought in which the Bhagavad Gita's message of action is transformed into a theory of non-violent resistance. This essay argues that Gandhi's reading of the Gita has to be placed within an identifiable general understanding of the political that emerged among the so-called “extremists’ in the Congress towards the beginning of the twentieth century. Gandhi, we argue, wrested from the “Extremists” their vocabulary and their pre-eminent political text, the Gita, and put them to use in the cause of non-violent politics. But, more importantly, his discourses on the Gita after 1920 suggest an acceptance, on his part, of politics as it actually was. This is where he departed from the projects of Tilak or Aurobindo. The Gita, in Gandhi's hand, became a talismanic device that allowed the satyagrahi his or her involvement in political action while providing protection from the necessary and unavoidable venality of politics and its propensity to violence.
GANDHI ON DEMOCRACY, POLITICS AND THE ETHICS OF EVERYDAY LIFE
Authors: MEHTA UDAY SINGH
Published: July 2010

This paper is about Gandhi's critique of politics, of which his ambivalence towards democracy was a part. I argue that for Gandhi the ground of moral action is fearlessness, while that of political reason is security and self-defense. Gandhi sees the context of moral action in the mundane fabric of everyday life, in places such as the family and the village. For that reason he does not believe that moral action requires being supplemented by the particular kind of unity which politics and the state call for and necessitate.
MORALITY IN THE SHADOW OF POLITICS
Authors: DEVJI FAISAL
Published: July 2010

Having put an end to his first great movement of non-cooperation following the First World War, Gandhi sat down to learn the lessons of this early experiment in mass politics. In 1926 he went on to impart these lessons to his fellow workers in the Sabarmati Ashram by way of a series of lectures on the Bhagavad Gita. Gandhi was interested in exploring the relations between violence and non-violence, which he thought were so intimate that one could very easily turn into the other. Seeking out the Archimedean point that made such a turning possible, the Mahatma had occasion to criticize any ethics that would divide good from evil on the basis of a moral calculus. How, he asked, was an ethics possible that recognized the intractability of ignorance and compulsion? Any ethical system that relied upon knowledge and choice, he thought, was either deluded or true only for a very small elite. A common ethics, then, had to be one which recognized ignorance and compulsion not negatively, as posing limits to moral life, but rather in the form of positive virtues like duty and obedience. Gandhi's commentary on the Gita was therefore an attempt to think about moral action in the context of ignorance and compulsion, which he did by focusing on the integrity of the act itself divested of the idealism lent it by any moral calculus.
RETHINKING KNOWLEDGE WITH ACTION: V. D. SAVARKAR, THE BHAGAVAD GITA, AND HISTORIES OF WARFARE
Authors: CHATURVEDI VINAYAK
Published: July 2010

This essay examines the significance of the Bhagavad Gita for V. D. Savarkar's interpretations of religion, nationalism, and the idea of Hindu India. As one of the intellectual founders of Hindu nationalism, Savarkar has emerged as the most controversial Indian political thinker of the last century, gaining notoriety for his program to ‘Hinduize Politics and Militarize Hindudom’, for his anti-Muslim and anti-Christian politics, and for his advocacy of violence in everyday life. By bringing together key selections from Savarkar's seminal historical writings, the essay also traces how Savarkar developed the concept of ethical warfare from the Gita for his political purposes of contesting colonial power and creating a Hindu nation. It also shows that Savarkar adopted history writing as his main literary form for his engagement with the Gita and its principles, thereby departing from the existing hermeneutical traditions of studying the Gita. For Savarkar, the creation of historical knowledge that embodied key ideas from the Gita was necessary for transforming the individual and the nation. He claimed that it ultimately motivated individuals to adopt violence for the creation of Hindu India.
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
Authors: KAPILA SHRUTI
Published: July 2010

This essay revises the common assumption that non-violence has been central to political modernity in India. The “extremist” nationalist B. G. Tilak, through a foundational philosophical reinterpretation of the Bhagavad Gita, created a modern theology of the Indian “political”. Tilak did so by directly confronting the question of the possibility of the “event” of war and the ethics of the conversion of kinsmen into enemies. Writing in the aftermath of the Swadeshi movement and from a prison cell in Rangoon, Tilak interpreted action as sacrificial duty that created a vocabulary of violence in which killing was naturalized. Violence, whether conceptual or otherwise, was not directed towards the “outsider” but was of meaning only when directed against the intimate. Unlike the distinction between friend and foe that has been taken as central to the understanding of the political in the twentieth century, it was instead the fraternal–enmity issue that framed the modern political in India. Tilak foregrounded the idea of a de-historicized political subject, whose existence was entirely dependent upon the event of violence itself. This helps to explain both the unprecedented violence that accompanied freedom and partition in 1947 and also the fact that it has remained unmemorialized to the present day.
Recursive learning-based joint digital predistorter for power amplifier and I/Q modulator impairments
Authors: Anttila Lauri , Händel Peter , Mylläri Olli , Valkama Mikko
Published: July 2010

The main implementation impairments degrading the performance of direct-conversion radio transmitters are in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) mismatch, local oscillator (LO) leakage, and power amplifier (PA) nonlinear distortion. In this article, we propose a recursive least-squares-based learning algorithm for joint digital predistortion (PD) of frequency-dependent PA and I/Q modulator impairments. The predistorter is composed of a parallel connection of two parallel Hammerstein (PH) predistorters and an LO leakage compensator, yielding a predistorter which as a whole is fully linear in the parameters. In the parameter estimation stage, proper feedback signal from the transmitter radio frequency (RF) stage back to the digital parts is deployed, combined with the indirect learning architecture and recursive least-squares training. The proposed structure is one of the first techniques to explicitly consider the joint estimation and mitigation of frequency-dependent PA and I/Q modulator impairments. Extensive simulation and measurement analysis is carried out to verify the operation and efficiency of the proposed PD technique. In general, the obtained results demonstrate linearization and I/Q modulator calibration performance clearly exceeding the performance of current state-of-the-art reference techniques.
Der kleine Unterschied – Wie der Mensch zur Sprache kam
Authors: Rütsche Bruno , Meyer Martin
Published: July 2010

Die Frage, wie der Mensch zur Sprache kam, findet seit jeher das Interesse interdisziplinärer Forschung. Die vorliegende Arbeit liefert einen zusammenfassenden Überblick über jüngste Entwicklungen aus verschiedenen wissenschaftlichen Feldern (z. B. biologische Anthropologie, Paläogenetik, kognitive Neurowissenschaft, funktionelle Neuroanatomie), in denen in den letzten Jahren entscheidende Einsichten hinsichtlich des Ursprungs der menschlichen Sprache gelungen sind.

Dieser Beitrag diskutiert eine Reihe von Aspekten, die mutmasslich einen entscheidenden Einfluss auf die Evolution der Sprache hatten. Insbesondere weist unser Überblick auf die Bedeutung neuroanatomischer Veränderungen im Laufe der Entwicklungsgeschichte der Homininen hin, wobei primär auf die Relevanz von strukturellen Hemisphärenasymmetrien sowie der kortiko-kortikalen Konnektivität eingegangen wird. Im Zusammenhang mit der Frage nach der ursprünglichen Modalität der menschlichen Sprache beziehungsweise dem funktionellen Äquivalent bei nichtmenschlichen Primaten, betont unsere zusammenfassende Betrachtung der sprachevolutionären Forschung die Perspektive eines gestischen anstatt eines vokalen Ursprungs. Insbesondere das Konzept der „Spiegelneurone“ als zerebrale Grundlage von Imitation und Lernen gilt mittlerweile als ein wichtiger Bestandteil eines akzeptablen und plausiblen Modells, welches diverse ältere Erklärungsansätze integriert.
Abrupt evolution of the summer Northern Hemisphere annular mode and its association with blocking
Authors: Tachibana Yoshihiro , Nakamura Tetsu , Komiya Hideki , Takahashi Masanori
Published: June 2010

Using reanalysis data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction‐National Center for Atmosperic Research, Boulder, Colorado, for the period from 1958 to 2005, we statistically analyzed the relationships of the summer Northern Hemisphere annular mode (summer NAM) with hemispheric‐scale anomalous summer weather and the occurrence of blocking highs. The anomalous positive NAM (low‐pressure anomaly in the Arctic and high‐pressure anomaly in midlatitudes) accounts well for the hemispheric‐scale weather associated with anomalous blocking between the polar and subtropical jets, whereas blocking rarely occurs during negative NAM periods. The double jet stream structure is more evident during periods of anomalous positive NAM than during periods of negative NAM. The surface temperatures associated with the anomalous positive NAM clearly show Europe to be hot and East Asia to be cool, as was the case during the anomalous summer of 2003. The occurrence of a positive summer NAM is therefore consistent with the hemispheric‐scale anomalous summer weather associated with blocking in 2003. We investigated the abrupt evolution of atmospheric patterns and the geographic distribution of blocking highs associated with the development, maintenance, and decay periods of an anomalous positive NAM. During the development period, blocking tends to occur over Europe and the Atlantic Ocean, but no significant blocking signature is evident over eastern Eurasia. During the maintenance stage, blocking tends to occur in the Far East. During the decay stage, blocking over the Pacific region is obvious. This longitudinal migration of blocking phenomena may be used to predict the evolution through time of the NAM.
Hypothesis of a spin‐orbit resonance between the Earth and Venus's core
Authors: Caudal Gérard V.
Published: July 2010

The observation that the spin period of Venus is extremely close, although not equal, to the p = −5 spin‐orbit resonance with the Earth makes it very improbable that such a situation is fortuitous. This leads one to explore hypotheses in which the Earth spin‐orbit resonance plays some role in Venus's observed spin rate. This paper proposes one such hypothesis. Venus's core is assumed to be composed of a liquid outer core surrounding a solid inner core, the latter undergoing a 0.31 degree/year differential rotation with the mantle. Due to gravitational coupling, however, core‐mantle differential rotation would be impossible, unless isostatic compensation exists with an effectiveness of 99.9998%. Within that assumption, it is proposed that Venus is trapped in the p = −5 spin‐orbit resonance with the Earth, but that this resonance concerns the inner core rather than the mantle. Stable resonance requires that the inner core should depart significantly from spherical symmetry, while its material should still be able to sustain the stress differences produced by such asymmetric mass distributions. Compatibility between those two conditions is studied, leading to constraints on the size of the inner core. An appreciable probability of stable resonance is found to be achievable, provided that the average inner core radius is larger than a minimum, which is estimated as 1300 km within the heating at the ground hypothesis for atmospheric thermal tide. That condition would become considerably less stringent if solar heat absorption in the upper atmosphere rather than at the ground were assumed.
From divots to swales: Hillslope sediment transport across divers length scales
Authors: Furbish David Jon , Haff Peter K.
Published: July 2010

In soil‐mantled steeplands, soil motions associated with creep, ravel, rain splash, soil slips, tree throw, and rodent activity are patchy and intermittent and involve widely varying travel distances. To describe the collective effect of these motions, we formulate a nonlocal expression for the soil flux. This probabilistic formulation involves upslope and downslope convolutions of land surface geometry to characterize motions in both directions, notably accommodating the bidirectional dispersal of material on gentle slopes as well as mostly downslope dispersal on steeper slopes, and it distinguishes between the mobilization of soil material and the effect of surface slope in giving a downslope bias to the dispersal of mobilized material. The formulation separates dispersal associated with intermittent surface motions from the slower bulk behavior associated with small‐scale bioturbation and similar dilational processes operating mostly within the soil column. With a uniform rate of mobilization of soil material, the nearly parabolic form of a hillslope profile at steady state resembles a diffusive behavior. With a slope‐dependent rate of mobilization, the steady state hillslope profile takes on a nonparabolic form where land surface elevation varies with downslope distance x as xa with a ∼ 3/2, consistent with field observations and where the flux increases nonlinearly with increasing slope. The convolution description of the soil flux, when substituted into a suitable expression of conservation, yields a nonlinear Fokker‐Planck equation and can be mapped to discrete particle models of hillslope behavior and descriptions of soil‐grain transport by rain splash as a stochastic advection‐dispersion process.
Land Use and Climate Variability Amplify Contaminant Pulses
Authors: Kaushal Sujay S. , Pace Michael L. , Groffman Peter M. , Band Lawrence E. , Belt Kenneth T. , Meyer Paul M. , Welty Claire
Published: June 2010

In 2002, the mid‐ Atlantic region experienced record drought levels. In September 2003, Tropical Storm Isabel produced large amounts of rainfall in the Chesapeake Bay region, and freshwater flow into the Chesapeake Bay was 400% above the long‐ term monthly average (http://chesapeake.usgs.gov/isabelinfo.html). Record drought conditions followed by a very wet year coincided with pulsed watershed nitrogen exports and one of the most severe zones of hypoxia, or “dead zones,” reported in the Chesapeake Bay.

Large pulses of contaminants such as this event may occur more often given evidence of increased variability of precipitation and hydrologic extremes occurring with climate change [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2007]. Conversion of land to human‐ dominated uses has increased contaminant loads in streams and rivers and further transformed hydrologic cycles [Vitousek et al., 1997]. Together, land use and climate change may interact in unexpected ways to alter the amplitude, frequency, and duration of contaminant pulses in streams and rivers (i.e., large contaminant loads that are transported over relatively short time scales).
Correction [to “Dennis Kent Receives 2009 William Gilbert Award”]
Authors: Anonymous
Published: June 2010

In the About AGU piece “Dennis Kent receives 2009 William Gilbert Award” (Eos, 91(22), 201, 2010), Dennis Kent's affiliation should have been Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., and Lamont‐Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, N.Y. Eos regrets this error.
Two opposing effects of absorbing aerosols on global‐mean precipitation
Authors: Ming Yi , Ramaswamy V. , Persad Geeta
Published: July 2010

Absorbing aerosols affect global‐mean precipitation primarily in two ways. They give rise to stronger shortwave atmospheric heating, which acts to suppress precipitation. Depending on the top‐of‐the‐atmosphere radiative flux change, they can also warm up the surface with a tendency to increase precipitation. Here, we present a theoretical framework that takes into account both effects, and apply it to analyze the hydrological responses to increased black carbon burden simulated with a general circulation model. It is found that the damping effect of atmospheric heating can outweigh the enhancing effect of surface warming, resulting in a net decrease in precipitation. The implications for moist convection and general circulation are discussed.
K and Cl concentrations on the Martian surface determined by the Mars Odyssey Gamma Ray Spectrometer: Implications for bulk halogen abundances in Mars
Authors: Taylor G. Jeffrey , Boynton William V. , McLennan Scott M. , Martel Linda M. V.
Published: June 2010

Orbital gamma ray spectrometry shows that the Martian surface has a mean Cl/K ratio of 1.3 ± 0.2, indistinguishable from the ratio in CI chondrites (1.28). Although Cl and K fractionate by magma degassing and aqueous processing, during igneous partial melting both elements are highly incompatible. Thus, if the surface Cl/K reflects the bulk crustal value, then the mantle, hence primitive silicate Mars, also has a roughly CI ratio. Martian meteorite data indicate that Cl/Br is also approximately chondritic, suggesting that elements that condensed in the nebula between ∼1000 K (K and Cl) to ∼500 K (Br) are uniformly depleted in Mars at about 0.6 × CI chondrite concentrations. Mars clearly does not contain 0.6 × CI levels of H2O, which would be ∼6 wt%, indicating that Mars was constructed by planetesimals rich in volatile elements, but not in water.
Bimolecular fluorescence complementation analysis of eukaryotic fusion products
Authors: Lin Ho‐Pi , Vincenz Claudius , Eliceiri Kevin W. , Kerppola Tom K. , Ogle Brenda M.
Published: July 2010

Background information. Cell fusion is known to underlie key developmental processes in humans and is postulated to contribute to tissue maintenance and even carcinogenesis. The mechanistic details of cell fusion, especially between different cell types, have been difficult to characterize because of the dynamic nature of the process and inadequate means to track fusion products over time. Here we introduce an inducible system for detecting and tracking live cell fusion products in vitro and potentially in vivo. This system is based on BiFC (bimolecular fluorescence complementation) analysis. In this approach, two proteins that can interact with each other are joined to fragments of a fluorescent protein and are expressed in separate cells. The interaction of said proteins after cell fusion produces a fluorescent signal, enabling the identification and tracking of fusion products over time.

Results. Long‐term tracking of fused p53‐deficient cells revealed that hybrid cells were capable of proliferation. In some cases, proliferation was preceded by nuclear fusion and division was asymmetric (69%±2% of proliferating hybrids), suggesting chromosomal instability. In addition, asymmetric division following proliferation could give rise to progeny indistinguishable from unfused counterparts.

Conclusions. These results support the possibility that the chromosomal instability characteristic of tumour cells may be incurred as a consequence of cell fusion and suggest that the role of cell fusion in carcinogenesis may have been masked to this point for lack of an inducible method to track cell fusion. In sum, the BiFC‐based approach described here allows for comprehensive studies of the mechanism and biological impact of cell fusion in nature.
p38MAPK/p53 signalling axis mediates neuronal apoptosis in response to tetrahydrobiopterin-induced oxidative stress and glucose uptake inhibition: implication for neurodegeneration
Authors: Cardaci Simone , Filomeni Giuseppe , Rotilio Giuseppe , Ciriolo Maria R.
Published: July 2010

BH4 (tetrahydrobiopterin) induces neuronal demise via production of ROS (reactive oxygen species). In the present study we investigated the mechanisms of its toxicity and the redox signalling events responsible for the apoptotic commitment in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells and in mouse primary cortical neurons. We identified in p38MAPK/p53 a BH4-responsive pro-apoptotic signalling axis, as demonstrated by the recovery of neuronal viability achieved by gene silencing or pharmacological inhibition of both p38MAPK and p53. BH4-induced oxidative stress was characterized by a decrease in the GSH/GSSG ratio, an increase in protein carbonylation and DNA damage. BH4 toxicity and the redox-activated apoptotic pathway were counteracted by the H2O2-scavengers catalase and N-acetylcysteine and enhanced by the GSH neo-synthesis inhibitor BSO (buthionine sulfoximine). We also demonstrated that BH4 impairs glucose uptake and utilization, which was prevented by catalase administration. This effect contributes to the neuronal demise, exacerbating BH4-induced nuclear damage and the activation of the pro-apoptotic p38MAPK/p53 axis. Inhibition of glucose uptake was also observed upon treatment with 6-hydroxydopamine, another redox-cycling molecule, suggesting a common mechanism of action for auto-oxidizable neurotoxins.