bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Deadly Culture Wars in Pakistan
Authors: Sunkara Bhaskar
Published: October 2010

Adding a bit of jest to Hegel, Marx quipped that if history repeats itself, it does so first as tragedy then as farce. Even by this standard, it is not clear how we should characterize Pakistan's third overthrow of military rule and fourth proclamation of a bright, democratic future. Has tragedy again given way to farce or farce to tragedy? Islamic fundamentalism has found a willing partner in Pashtun nationalism on the country's western frontier; refugees stream across a porous border from war-torn Afghanistan and again from the Pakistani army's own offensives. In the cities, workers face double-digit unemployment, crumbling infrastructure, and entrenched systems of patronage and nepotism. If this is a farce, no one is in on the joke.
Reimagining the Humanities: Proposals for a New Century
Authors: Bell David A.
Published: October 2010

In 1922, Austrian art historian Josef Stryzgowski lectured in Boston on "The Crisis in the Humanities as Exemplified in the History of Art." In 1964, British historian J.H. Plumb published a volume of essays entitled The Crisis in the Humanities. Between 1980 and 2000 a "crisis in the humanities" was discussed more than a hundred times in the pages of major scholarly journals. Is there anything new to be said about it? Has the hypochondriac finally come down with a life-threatening disease? Certain forms of apprehension do seem built into the very structure of the modern humanities. I found no record of Stryzgowski's lectures, but Plumb's complaints from 1964 sound familiar: overspecialization; triviality; insularity; fragmentation; and opaque, overly technical writing. Just two years later, a certain James Newcomer, professor of English at Texas Christian University, identified a threat to the humanities almost identical to the one classicist and philosopher Martha Nussbaum warns about in her 2010 Not for Profit: "Since the sciences are … exerting a dominant influence on the activities of the universities, the humanities are in danger of being forced into practices … that can end only in diminishing still further their effectiveness in modifying the character and the customs of our society." And in 1975, a writing teacher named Mel Topf discussed much the same list of problems that Harvard professor Louis Menand sees as critical in his 2010 Marketplace of Ideas: "declining public support, declining enrollments as students turn away from the liberal arts to professional studies, and overproduction of Ph.D.'s."
Suburban Diversity and Economic Inequality: Can the Democrats Meet the Challenge?
Authors: Lassiter Matthew D.
Published: October 2010

Since 2004, the sixty-two-foot statue of Jesus erected by the Solid Rock Church has stood as one of the most conspicuous landmarks in southern Ohio, located at the midpoint of the fifty-mile corridor of suburban sprawl along I75 between Cincinnati and Dayton. The evangelical megachurch built the "King of Kings" statue, featuring a fiberglass and styrofoam Messiah rising with uplifted arms from a large reflecting pool, to proclaim the gospel to the surrounding community and especially to motorists passing by on the highway. This year, the icon, tagged with such nicknames as "Touchdown Jesus" and "Drowning Jesus," provided an even greater spectacle when a lightning strike burned it down late in the evening of June 14. The complex's large neon billboard, which flashes messages such as "No God, No Peace," emerged unscathed. Solid Rock Church immediately promised to rebuild what it had claimed as the largest sculpture of Jesus Christ in the United States, while secular critics across America had a field day mocking the tacky tastes and in-your-face religious values of this Middle American exurb. A columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle sarcastically wondered if gay rights activists had torched the giant Jesus as payback for heartland homophobia and imagined "fundamentalists scurry[ing] about in a baffled frenzy, unsure what it all might mean." Others observed that God had spared the thriving Hustler Hollywood megastore, located at the same interstate exit, which Larry Flynt opened in his home state over the resistance of public officials and a religious right group called Citizens for Community Values.
Lincoln, Resurrected
Authors: Sugrue Thomas J.
Published: October 2010

In 1936, the great Lincoln historian J.G. Randall provocatively asked, "Has the Lincoln theme been exhausted?" At a moment when close to four thousand Lincoln titles were already in print, it seemed a sensible question, but Randall's answer was, counterintuitively, "no." An advocate of empirical, professional history, Randall lamented that the study of the sixteenth president had been dominated by amateurs. Lincoln, he argued, needed to be brought into the academy and subjected to rigorous research. Randall's summons did not go unheeded. Beginning in the mid-twentieth century, Lincoln attracted some of the most talented historians of the age, among them Richard Hofstadter, David Donald, Eric Foner, and James McPherson. The results were extraordinary. Donald produced what is still the best political biography of Lincoln to date. Foner situated Lincoln's Republican Party in a decades-long struggle over labor, slavery, and territorial expansion. And McPherson turned from finely grained histories of abolition to sweeping accounts of Lincoln's leadership in the first modern war. But as fine as post-Randall Lincoln scholarship was, it did not stanch the flow of new books. Although there is no accurate count, by best estimate about sixteen thousand titles have been published on the sixteenth president of the United States. For those strapped for time, the federally-funded Lincoln Bicentennial Commission compiled a list last year of 155 books that belong on the "essential Lincoln book shelf." Even if a mere 1 percent of the output on Lincoln is indispensable, it might be time, two hundred years after Lincoln's birth, to ask Randall's question again, but this time to answer it differently.
Two States or One (Arab) State
Authors: Yakobson Alexander
Published: October 2010

Danny Rubinstein's account, in his Summer 2010 Dissent article ("One State/Two States: Rethinking Israel and Palestine"), of the disdainful reaction of Sufyan Abu-Zayda, a prominent figure in the Palestinian Authority, to Benjamin Netanyahu's "Bar-Ilan speech," in which the right-wing prime minister of Israel formally accepted the two-state solution, is remarkable and telling. Someone who perceives this conflict as it is usually perceived—a small people struggling for national independence after decades of military occupation by a mighty regional power—would perhaps have expected something different. Admittedly, it is natural enough to avoid giving the rival side credit for any show of moderation. A moderate Palestinian spokesman might have questioned Netanyahu's sincerity, called on the international community to hold the prime minister to his word, and insisted that the future Palestinian state be established on Palestinian terms rather than those suggested by Netanyahu. Instead, Abu-Zayda dismisses the very idea of separate Palestinian statehood: Netanyahu is not doing us any favors by agreeing to two states; we have another, more attractive option—"one state."
Democracy in Latin America
Authors: Engler Mark
Published: October 2010

In general, I'm not a big fan of leaders in Latin America eliminating or loosening term limits so that they can stay in office longer. I also believe that recent processes of constitutional reform in many Latin American countries have been sweeping enough to warrant careful and critical review. When I picked up the article by Forrest Colburn and Alberto Trejos in the Summer 2010 issue of Dissent ("Democracy Undermined"), I had hoped that it would provide such a review. Instead, the article is a broadside filled with careless generalizations, overblown rhetoric, and statements that are either misleading or factually incorrect. It is, sadly, so smug and smothering in its biases that it precludes any sort of constructive debate about the Latin American Left. You know an article about democracy in Latin America is going to be bad when it starts off by coming within a hair's breadth of endorsing the coup in Honduras. The authors argue that when the Honduran military removed the democratically elected president from office, "What they did was wrong, and yet, there is an alarming trend in Latin America toward dismantling democracy by legal subterfuge under the cover of populist and even socialist rhetoric."
Not Your Parents' Minnesota: Immigration Politics in a Supposed Liberal Bastion
Authors: Rachleff Peter , Rossinow Doug
Published: October 2010

Minnesota was long known as a progressive stronghold, from its support for Ignatius Donnelly and the Populists of the 1890s and A.C. Townley and his Nonpartisan League in the First World War era to its election of Farmer-Labor governors, senators, and representatives in the 1930s to its later support for liberal Democratic heroes Hubert Humphrey and Eugene McCarthy and its status as the only state to reject Ronald Reagan in 1984. Minnesota was equally known as a bastion of whiteness, gently satirized in Garrison Keillor's ongoing radio broadcasts. Some pundits and scholars conjectured that the state's left-leaning politics had a foundation in its heavily Scandinavian and German ethnic make-up. Minnesota's political move to the right in recent years—Minnesotans have not elected a Democratic governor since 1986, and anti-tax politics has dominated state lawmaking for more than a decade—has coincided with its racial and ethnic diversification, as tens of thousands of immigrants have arrived from Southeast Asia, East Africa, and Mexico and Central America. Are these political and demographic developments related? Have the politics of immigration and diversity arrived in this piece of America's heartland to produce, from a progressive standpoint, a toxic outcome?
The Last Page
Authors: Phillips Maxine
Published: October 2010

"Don't forget your cape," my brother gibed on the phone. "Will the workshops be at night?" a colleague chortled. "Is this like a Star Trek convention?" asked a bewildered friend as I prepared to leave for the biannual conference devoted to the work of Joss Whedon, best known as creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. No, no, and no, I bridled. This was a delightful alternate universe in which pop culture academics welcomed just plain fans to revel in almost all things Whedon. Buffy and its spinoff about a vampire with a soul, Angel, have been off the air for years. In addition, he's written two not-so-successful television series (Firefly—a space Western—and Dollhouse), a movie, and an "indie" film.
Disappointed but Not Resigned
Authors: Blake Casey Nelson
Published: October 2010

"The young are honorable and see the problems," Paul Goodman wrote in 1968, "but they don't know anything because we have not taught them anything." Michael Brown's wise and eloquent essay proves him wrong. The young know quite a lot, but their elders (including the very students Goodman described) have deprived them of a sturdy tradition of social criticism that should be their birthright. The tradition of Thoreau, James, Veblen, Addams, Dewey, Bourne, and Mumford that Goodman kept alive in the postwar years has apparently become an embarrassment to those aspiring to "global citizenship" and a "post-national" consciousness: its masterworks barely figure in humanities courses. As a result, young Americans find themselves exiled from their country's moral narrative. "Tradition has been broken," Goodman wrote fifty years ago, "and yet there is no standard to affirm. Culture becomes eclectic, sensational, or phony." With luck, Jonathan Lee's forthcoming film Paul Goodman Changed My Life will lead viewers back to Goodman's work and that of the critics who inspired him. The new editions of several of his books brought out by PM Press are a good place to start.
Forrest D. Colburn and Alberto Trejos Respond
Authors: Colburn Forrest D. , Trejos Alberto
Published: October 2010

We are surprised by Mark Engler's criticism of our essay, "Democracy Undermined," in the Summer 2010 issue of Dissent, in which we lament the heavy-handed use of the law to dismantle democracy in Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia, purportedly to build more progressive regimes. We join Engler in condemning the recent coup d'état in Honduras. And we would like to believe we share Engler's commitment to broad-based economic development and socially inclusive governance. However, yes, we are concerned that a new authoritarianism is emerging in Latin America under the protective shield of "constitutional reform," which is, in fact, constitutional subterfuge. The most egregious cases are Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia, where socialist rhetoric has been used to justify the centralization of political power. Our argument is essentially a political one; we don't care if in the new regimes "the trains run on time." Engler suggests we are either not fair or adequately familiar with what is happening in Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia. We both are fluent in Spanish, and have spent time in the three countries, where we have conversed with a wide range of individuals, studied the political systems, and examined economic data. We are worried. And we are not alone. Is it not revealing that university students are in the forefront of opposition to Hugo Chávez in Venezuela? And isn't it troubling that erstwhile champions of social change in the country, such as Teodoro Petkoff, have broken ranks with Chávez?
Multidimensional Scaling of High School Students' Perceptions of Academic Dishonesty
Authors: Schmelkin Liora Pedhazur , Gilbert Kimberly A. , Silva Rebecca
Published: October 2010

Although cheating on tests and other forms of academic dishonesty are considered rampant, no standard definition of academic dishonesty exists. The current study was conducted to investigate the perceptions of academic dishonesty in high school students, utilizing an innovative methodology, multidimensional scaling (MDS). Two methods were used to gather data: a sorting task, which was used to indirectly assess the students' perceptions, and a rating scale task, which was used to externally validate the results of the sorting task. Two dimensions emerged: Seriousness and Papers versus Exams. Implications for future research regarding high school students' perceptions of academic dishonesty are discussed.
Writing through Visual Acts of Reading: Incorporating Visual Aesthetics in Integrated Writing and Reading Tasks
Authors: Choo Suzanne S.
Published: October 2010

The English curriculum tends to be framed in relation to two unconscious boundaries based on the dichotomies between writing and reading as well as print and image. This paper reenvisions the curriculum as comprising a hybrid space where students are involved in composing texts that integrate writing and reading practices while also considering the aesthetic composition of multimodal texts. Beginning with an examination of the writing and reading schism, the paper argues for a consideration of semiotic theory in writing instruction with particular attention to concepts of aesthetic design and representation. Using examples from electronic hypertexts and other forms of visual literature, the paper then proposes two strategies on how writing can be taught through reading in relation to semiotic theories. Essentially, such a space equips students for new ways of writing according to the demands of the 21st century.
The Role of Schools, Families, and Psychological Variables on Math Achievement of Black High School Students
Authors: Strayhorn Terrell L.
Published: October 2010

Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS;1988/2000), the author conducted hierarchical linear regression analyses, with a nested design, to estimate the influence of affective variables–parent involvement, teacher perceptions, and school environments–on Black students' math achievement in grade 10. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological systems theory and Bourdieu's (1977) concept of cultural capital, the author found that all three systems affect Black students' math achievement, accounting for approximately 20% of the variance in scores. Key findings include the role that locus of control, gender, parental involvement, teacher perceptions, and opportunity to learn play on Black students' math achievement. Important implications for advancing future policy, practice, and research are highlighted. This study's results impact future agendas for maximizing the success of Black students in math.
El Rincón de los Olvidados : Participatory GIS, Experiential Learning and Critical Pedagogy in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Authors: Sletto Bjørn , Muñoz Solange , Strange Shawn M. , Donoso Rosa E. , Thomen Martin
Published: October 2010

Un acercamiento participativo a un SIG hace posible que miembros de una comunidad, académicos y especialistas en SIG documenten y representen diferentes capas de información cualitativa y cuantitativa. Sin embargo, mayor atención se debe poner al momento de co-producción de conocimiento espacial que ocurre en los proyectos, cuando este conocimiento se modifica por los complejos encuentros entre conocimiento local y conocimiento científico. Una revisión crítica del trabajo de campo y representación de conocimiento producido por un proyecto de SIG Participativo, en Santo Domingo Norte, República Dominicana, revela cómo las dinámicas de involucramiento y compromiso entre miembros de la comunidad, activistas, representantes del gobierno local y estudiantes de postgrado resultaron en mapas y producción de un SIG enriquecidos político y socialmente por sus participantes.
Community Expansion and Infrastructure Development: Implications for Human Health and Environmental Quality in the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador
Authors: Walsh Stephen J. , McCleary Amy L. , Heumann Benjamin W. , Brewington Laura , Raczkowski Evan J. , Mena Carlos F.
Published: October 2010

Este estudio investiga la comunidad de Puerto Villamil ubicada en la Isla Isabela del archipiélago de los Galápagos. Se examina el desarrollo urbano y las interacciones humanas-ambientales a través de una perspectiva de la ciencia de información geográfica que incluye: (1) la construcción de una serie de tiempo de fotografías aéreas e imagenes satélites, (2) el mapeo de la infraestructura de agua y alcantarillado actual dentro el contexto del crecimiento comunal, con especial referencia a las medidas de la calidad del agua dentro y adyacente a la comunidad; el uso de grupos de discusión y entrevistas a oficiales de salud y residentes sobre las enfermedades trasmitidas por el agua y un análisis de la proximidad de la comunidad y sus infraestructuras al ambiente circundante.
Indigenous Territoriality at the End of the Social Property Era in Mexico
Authors: Kelly John H. , Herlihy Peter H. , Smith Derek A. , Ramos Viera Aida , Hilburn Andrew M. , Hernández Cendejas Gerardo A.
Published: October 2010

No obstante el reconocimiento legal extendido y la provisión de títulos a las tierras indígenas en América Latina, el barrido de reformas neoliberales de régimen de propiedad cambian silenciosamente tenencia comunal y modelos de uso de recursos comunales. Las comunidades indígenas en México tienen derechos de tierras en la forma de ejidos y comunidades agrarias , propiedades 'sociales' que se mantienen colectivamente sin tener en cuenta la pertenencia étnica. Esos territorios se han sometido a cambios drásticos por un programa de certificación de tierra nacional llamado PROCEDE. Aquí combinamos datos censales y catastrales para la región huasteca potosina dentro de un sistema de información geográfico para analizar resultados de cambios de tenencia de tierra a una escala regional. Con relación a comunidades no natales, las comunidades indígenas han tendido a resistir a la privatización. Sin embargo, muchos Teenek, Nahua y otras comunidades indígenas han dividido sus tierras comunales, conduciendo a la fragmentación adicional de lo que era una vez una región cultural grande y contigua.
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in Latin America, 1987-2010: A Preliminary Overview
Authors: Buzai Gustavo D. , Robinson David J.
Published: October 2010

La tecnología de los Sistemas de Información Geográfica (SIG) ha tenido un gran impacto académico y un sostenido crecimiento en investigaciones universitarias en América Latina desde su aparición en el año 1987. El presente trabajo abordará el análisis de esta evolución hasta la actualidad, considerando como elemento articulador la Conferencia Iberoamericana de Sistemas de Información Geográfica (CONFIBSIG), evento científico que ha sido testigo de este recorrido. Se analiza la primera transferencia tecnológica hacia la región, la formación de tres generaciones de usuarios y las tendencias de aplicación que permiten conformar actuales perspectivas en educación e investigación aplicada en América Latina.
Characterizing Urban Land-Cover Change in Rondônia, Brazil: 1985 to 2000
Authors: Powell Rebecca L. , Roberts Dar A.
Published: October 2010

Poucos estudos na Amazônia têm explorado a evolução de forma e composição urbana na hierarquia urbana emergente na região. Este artigo apresenta uma metodologia para caracterizar as propriedades físicas de cobertura da terra urbana em Rondônia por datas multitemporais usando imagens de sensoriamento remoto. Três métricas descritivas são exploradas: (a) extensão urbana em termos de área e densidade de superfícies impermeáveis, (b) o relacionamento entre área e população urbana e (c) trajetórias da composição de cobertura da terra urbana. Tais conjuntos de dados podem contribuir aos estudos longitudinais de áreas urbanas e ofrecer um primeiro passo para ligar urbanização a mudança de cobertura da terra regional.
Locating Amazonian Dark Earths: Creating an interactive GIS of known locations
Authors: WinklerPrins Antoinette M. G. A. , Aldrich Stephen P.
Published: October 2010

Terras pretas são solos antropogêncos, ricos em matería orgânica, bastante férteis, que ocorrem em pequenas manchas por toda bacia amazônica. Esses solos têm chamado atenção porque, em geral, os solos amazônicos são de relativa baixa fertilidade e por suas ligações com a história pré-colonial da amazônia. Por ocorrerem em pequenas manchas isoladas, a documentação desses solos tem se constituído um desafio. Existem poucos mapeamentos desses solos e a localizações dos mesmos são, muitas vezes, aproximadas. Apresentamos nesse artigo um SIG interativo no qual consolidamos todas as ocorrências documentadas de TPs e para cada registro, indicamos o nível de acurácia e especificidade tanto do solo como de sua localização. Isso é importante pois muitas fontes de informação sobre a localização desses solos são antigas e dão apenas uma indicação aproximada de onde realmente estão. Para citações mais recentes de TPs, a localização georeferenciada é dada, quando disponível. A fonte da informação de cada registro é citada, tornando esse SIG interativo uma bibliografia geográfica de TPs. Também discutimos o processo de seleção das localidades citadas, a criação do SIG e refletimos sobre potenciais usos dessas informações. Reconhecemos que esse SIG é um trabalho em andamento e antecipamos incorporar mais registros à medida que novas informações são publicadas e disponibilizadas.
Space, Place, and Hunting Patterns among Indigenous Peoples of the Guyanese Rupununi Region
Authors: Read Jane M. , Fragoso José M. V. , Silvius Kirsten M. , Luzar Jeffrey , Overman Han , Cummings Anthony , Giery Sean T. , de Oliveira L. Flamarion
Published: October 2010

La cacería persiste como una actividad importante de subsistencia para muchos pueblos indígenas de los neotrópicos. Aquí describimos los patrones de cacería en el sur de Guyana usando un método mixto, desde una perspectiva del espacio y lugar que toma en cuenta factores biofísicos y culturales. Nuestros resultados coinciden con los de otros investigadores, en que la distancia del pueblo, mediada por la característica del ambiente físico, afecta las zonas donde actúan los cazadores. Nuestro mapeo del paisaje cultural, demuestra que el 'sentido de lugar' también es importante. Argumentamos que los investigadores y los que manejan estos territorios deben incluir, no solamente el ambiente físico, sino el contexto cultural que forma parte de la biodiversidad y el manejo y uso de los recursos sustentables.
A Reduced Landscape: Toward a Multi-Causal Understanding of Historic Period Agricultural Deintensification in Highland Peru
Authors: Wernke Steven A.
Published: October 2010

Este artículo examina los efectos de despoblación, desplazamiento de asentamientos (las reducciones), y la Pequeña Edad de Hielo para patrones locales de desintensificación agrícola andina durante la época histórica. Situado en el Valle del Colca del Perú, este análisis emplea simulaciones de caminatas entre una reducción (Coporaque) y las ubicaciones reconstruidas de sus campos de cultivo del siglo XVII. Análisis multivariable demuestra cómo el creciente riesgo de escarchas (por causa de la Pequeña Edad de Hielo) y de distancia (por causa de la reducción) afectaron las decisiones de los grupos locales de parentesco dualísticos (ayllus) de distintas maneras. Para los ayllus de menor rango político en la estructura dualística local, distancia tenía mayor importancia que el riesgo de escarchas, mientras que para los ayllus de mayor rango, el riesgo de escarchas era el factor más importante. La caída demográfica colonial actuó como un factor distal para ambos grupos.
Patterns and Rates of Land Use Land Cover Change: A Case Study of Ambos Nogales (Arizona and Sonora), 1985-2004
Authors: Myint Soe W. , Jain Jyoti , Guhathakurta Subhrajit
Published: October 2010

La expansión continua de las ciudades gemelas de Ambos Nogales (USA-Mexico) presenta muchos desafíos de planificación urbana y manejo ambiental. Este estudio se concentra en un análisis comparativo de los patrones espaciales y velocidad de cambios de uso del suelo con relación a la degradación del terreno, deforestación, y crecimiento urbano durante distintos períodos de tiempo. Basado en datos históricos el estudio sugiere que ambas ciudades han experimentado alta degradación de tierra, pero la tierra en el lado de Arizona ha sido más estable y menos degradada. Sin embargo, en Nogales Arizona, habían áreas severamente más degradadas que en Nogales, Sonora.
The Slave Market in Rio de Janeiro circa 1869: Context, Movement and Social Experience
Authors: Frank Zephyr , Berry Whitney
Published: October 2010

O mercado de escravos no Rio de Janeiro foi transformado ao longo do século XIX. Antes de 1850, escravos africanos chegaram na cidade através do comércio atlântico. A compra e venda de escravos, então, foi transferido a um mercado local caracterizado por vendas individuais. Em vez de um processo concentrado e dominado por espaços formais e negociantes de escravos, o mercado de escravos no Rio de Janeiro foi, em 1869, um processo contínuo que abrangeu todos os bairros da cidade. Mapeando as origens, destinos e características de escravos, utilizando dados detalhados sobre as transaçoes, a partir de 1869, destaca a presença onipresente da escravidão no Rio de Janeiro e o movimento de escravos à ambientes novos.
Numeral-Incorporating Roots in Numeral Systems: A Comparative Analysis of Two Sign Languages
Authors: Fuentes Mariana , Massone María Ignacia , Fernández-Viader María del Pilar , Makotrinsky Alejandro , Pulgarín Francisca
Published: October 2010

Numeral-incorporating roots in the numeral systems of Argentine Sign Language (LSA) and Catalan Sign Language (LSC), as well as the main features of the number systems of both languages, are described and compared. Informants discussed the use of numerals and roots in both languages (in most cases in natural contexts). Ten informants took part in the LSC data collection, and six in the LSA data collection. The data were corroborated by analyzing the videos available at www.youtube.com/confargsordos (for LSA) and by videos and books provided by the ILLESCAT Foundation (for LSC), as well as by previous research. A general inventory of roots in both languages and specifically of roots in both numerals systems was carried out. The role of roots in the formation of ordinals and cardinals and the main features of both number systems are described. The data suggest that numeral-incorporating roots in these number systems are formed only from numerals that do not derive from manual counting. This assumption is discussed, and further research about this point is emphasized.
Literacy Behaviors of Deaf Preschoolers during Video Viewing
Authors: Golos Debbie
Published: October 2010

A pressing concern in the education of deaf children is their lack of academic success as measured by literacy rates. Most deaf children finish high school reading below a fourth-grade level. Educational television programs have successfully fostered preschool hearing children's emergent literacy skills. As for preschool deaf children, however, there has been only limited research on whether this medium can be effective. This study uses descriptive analyses to determine the type and frequency of literacy behaviors that preschool deaf children engage in while viewing an educational video in American Sign Language. Children were videotaped during three such sessions, and the videos were coded for literacy-related engagement behaviors. The results of this study indicate that preschool deaf children engaged in a variety of such behaviors regardless of age and ASL exposure and that these behaviors increased after multiple video viewings.
A Call for Improvement: The Need for Research-Based Materials in American Sign Language Education
Authors: Thoryk Robertta
Published: October 2010

Educational reform and financial considerations have emphasized accountability and use of research-based materials and strategies in education. Simultaneously, with growing enrollment in elementary, secondary, and postsecondary ASL programs, the number of commercially marketed materials has grown. Do such materials stand up under scrutiny when examined for relationship to current educational research and to requests for evidence of efficacy? A commercially available program for improving fingerspelling recognition was tested, using qualitative and quantitative methods, as an example of the type of research needed within the field.
The Mechanics of Fingerspelling: Analyzing Ethiopian Sign Language
Authors: Duarte Kyle
Published: October 2010

Ethiopian Sign Language utilizes a fingerspelling system that represents Amharic orthography. Just as each character of the Amharic abugida encodes a consonant-vowel sound pair, each sign in the Ethiopian Sign Language fingerspelling system uses handshape to encode a base consonant, as well as a combination of timing, placement, and orientation to encode a paired vowel. This fingerspelling system is a productive polymorphemic method of naming the written characters of the Amharic language.
British Sign Name Customs
Authors: Day Linda , Sutton-Spence Rachel
Published: October 2010

Research presented here describes the sign names and the customs of name allocation within the British Deaf community. While some aspects of British Sign Language sign names and British Deaf naming customs differ from those in most Western societies, there are many similarities. There are also similarities with other societies outside the more familiar cultures of most English-speakers. Naming customs in the British Deaf community are shown here to vary over time, with changes in education and other key elements of the British Deaf experience influencing the choice and use of sign names. While descriptive sign names are important within the British Deaf community, arbitrary signs, and those derived from the English language are also important. Additionally BSL sign names are shown to vary among different sections of the Deaf community. In contrast to reports from America, we find that British Deaf parents in the past have rarely allocated sign names to their children—deaf or hearing—beyond finger-spelled forms of their English names. Some of these children of Deaf parents retain these fingerspelled forms throughout their lives. Others only acquire names motivated by descriptive processes on entering school or even later in life. Thus, we conclude that, unlike people in many societies, the overwhelming majority of British Deaf people appear to acquire descriptive sign names from outside their families.
Athletic Fashion, Punch , and the Creation of the New Woman
Authors: Collins Tracy J.R.
Published: October 2010

Between 1885-1900 Punch satirized the personality of the New Woman. However, virtually single-handedly it also gave a body and emancipated culture to this otherwise socially abstract personality. Using illustrations from Punch , this essay argues that using sport specific clothing and equipment in its cartoons, Punch completely unintentionally created a liberating picture of women while simultaneously using its captions and border texts to make the New Woman's body signify the anxieties patriarchal culture had about her social personality and politics.
"Mrs. Schlesinger Wields a Facile Pen": Articulations of Spiritualist Feminism in Julia Schlesinger's Carrier Dove
Authors: Youngkin Molly
Published: October 2010

This essay shows how Julia Schlesinger, editor of the spiritualist-feminist Carrier Dove , balanced derivative and original discourse to contribute significantly to multiple communities. Though Schlesinger's periodical most strongly influenced her own local spiritualist community, Schlesinger was aware of the national status of American spiritualism and transatlantic reach of British spiritualism, so she promulgated her spiritualistfeminist perspective as widely as possible, setting up exchanges with editors of other papers as far away as the United Kingdom. Schlesinger encouraged editors to be derivative themselves, reprinting materials from the Carrier Dove so that Schlesinger's original voice might have influence beyond her local community.
The Month As Hopkins Knew It
Authors: Dubois Martin
Published: October 2010

In the 1870s Gerard Manley Hopkins submitted two poems to the Catholic journal, the Month . Both were rejected. This article argues that the Month was a stronger influence on one of the rejected poems— The Wreck of the Deutschland —than has usually been thought, and traces connections between Hopkins's response to anti-Catholic agitation in Europe and that to be found in the pages of the journal. The article ends by suggesting that although rejection by the journal was felt by Hopkins as a great disappointment, it ultimately benefitted his poetry, removing a likely restraint on his stylistic innovations.
REEP2 Enhances Sweet Receptor Function by Recruitment to Lipid Rafts
Authors: Ilegems Erwin , Iwatsuki Ken , Kokrashvili Zaza , Benard Outhiriaradjou , Ninomiya Yuzo , Margolskee Robert F.
Published: October 2010

Heterologously expressed sensory receptors generally do not achieve the ligand sensitivity observedin vivo, and may require specific accessory proteins to ensure optimal function. We searched for taste cell-expressed receptor transporting protein (RTP) and receptor expression enhancing protein (REEP) family members that might serve as accessory molecules to enhance gustatory receptor function. We determined that REEP2 is an integral membrane protein expressed in taste cells, physically associates with both subunits of the type 1 taste receptor 2 and type 1 taste receptor 3 sweet receptor and specifically enhances responses to tastants of heterologously expressed sweet and bitter taste receptors. Downregulation of endogenously expressed REEP2 in the chemosensory enteroendocrine GLUTag cell line dramatically reduced sensitivity of endogenous sweet receptors. In contrast to the observation that RTP1, RTP2, and REEP1 enhance function of olfactory receptors by promoting their transit to the cell surface, we found that REEP2 does not increase cell surface expression of sweet receptors but instead alters their spatial organization. REEP2 recruits sweet receptors into lipid raft microdomains localized near the taste cell's apical region, thereby improving G-protein-coupled receptor signaling and promoting receptor access to tastants arriving through the apical taste pore.
Glucocorticoids Exacerbate Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Signaling in the Frontal Cortex and Hippocampus in a Dose-Dependent Manner
Authors: Munhoz Carolina Demarchi , Sorrells Shawn F. , Caso Javier R. , Scavone Cristoforo , Sapolsky Robert M.
Published: October 2010

Although the anti-inflammatory actions of glucocorticoids (GCs) are well established, evidence has accumulated showing that proinflammatory GC effects can occur in the brain, in a poorly understood manner. Using electrophoretic mobility shift assay, real-time PCR, and immunoblotting, we investigated the ability of varying concentrations of corticosterone (CORT, the GC of rats) to modulate lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced activation of NF-κB (nuclear factor κB), expression of anti- and proinflammatory factors and of the MAP (mitogen-activated protein) kinase family [ERK (extracellular signal-regulated kinase), p38, and JNK/SAPK (c-Jun N-terminal protein kinase/stress-activated protein kinase)], and AKT. In the frontal cortex, elevated CORT levels were proinflammatory, exacerbating LPS effects on NF-κB, MAP kinases, and proinflammatory gene expression. Milder proinflammatory GCs effects occurred in the hippocampus. In the absence of LPS, elevated CORT levels increased basal activation of ERK1/2, p38, SAPK/JNK, and AKT in both regions. These findings suggest that GCs do not uniformly suppress neuroinflammation and can even enhance it at multiple levels in the pathway linking LPS exposure to inflammation.
Coupled Noisy Spiking Neurons as Velocity-Controlled Oscillators in a Model of Grid Cell Spatial Firing
Authors: Zilli Eric A. , Hasselmo Michael E.
Published: October 2010

One of the two primary classes of models of grid cell spatial firing uses interference between oscillators at dynamically modulated frequencies. Generally, these models are presented in terms of idealized oscillators (modeled as sinusoids), which differ from biological oscillators in multiple important ways. Here we show that two more realistic, noisy neural models (Izhikevich's simple model and a biophysical model of an entorhinal cortex stellate cell) can be successfully used as oscillators in a model of this type. When additive noise is included in the models such that uncoupled or sparsely coupled cells show realistic interspike interval variance, both synaptic and gap-junction coupling can synchronize networks of cells to produce comparatively less variable network-level oscillations. We show that the frequency of these oscillatory networks can be controlled sufficiently well to produce stable grid cell spatial firing on the order of at least 2–5 min, despite the high noise level. Our results suggest that the basic principles of oscillatory interference models work with more realistic models of noisy neurons. Nevertheless, a number of simplifications were still made and future work should examine increasingly realistic models.
Phase Entrainment of Human Delta Oscillations Can Mediate the Effects of Expectation on Reaction Speed
Authors: Stefanics Gábor , Hangya Balázs , Hernádi István , Winkler István , Lakatos Péter , Ulbert István
Published: October 2010

The more we anticipate a response to a predictable stimulus, the faster we react. This empirical observation has been confirmed and quantified by many investigators suggesting that the processing of behaviorally relevant stimuli is facilitated by probability-based confidence of anticipation. However, the exact neural mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are largely unknown. Here we show that performance changes related to different levels of expectancy originate in dynamic modulation of delta oscillation phase. Our results obtained in rhythmic auditory target detection tasks indicated significant entrainment of the EEG delta rhythm to the onset of the target tones with increasing phase synchronization at higher levels of predictability. Reaction times correlated with the phase of the delta band oscillation at target onset. The fastest reactions occurred during the delta phase that most commonly coincided with the target event in the high expectancy conditions. These results suggest that low-frequency oscillations play a functional role in human anticipatory mechanisms, presumably by modulating synchronized rhythmic fluctuations in the excitability of large neuronal populations and by facilitating efficient task-related neuronal communication among brain areas responsible for sensory processing and response execution.
Comparisons of the Dynamics of Local Field Potential and Multiunit Activity Signals in Macaque Visual Cortex
Authors: Burns Samuel P. , Xing Dajun , Shapley Robert M.
Published: October 2010

The local field potential (LFP) and multiunit activity (MUA) are extracellularly recorded signals that describe local neuronal network dynamics. In our experiments, the LFP and MUA, recorded from the same electrode in macaque primary visual cortex V1 in response to drifting grating visual stimuli, were evaluated on coarse timescales (∼1–5 s) and fine timescales (<0.1 s). On coarse timescales, MUA and the LFP both produced sustained visual responses to optimal and non-optimal oriented visual stimuli. The sustainedness of the two signals across the population of recording sites was correlated (correlation coefficient, ∼0.4). At most recording sites, the MUA was at least as sustained as the LFP and significantly more sustained for optimal orientations. In previous literature, the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies was found to be more strongly correlated with the LFP than with the MUA as a result of the lack of sustained response in the MUA signal. Because we found that MUA was as sustained as the LFP, MUA may also be correlated with BOLD. On fine timescales, we computed the coherence between the LFP and MUA over the frequency range 10–150 Hz. The LFP and MUA were weakly but significantly coherent (∼0.14) in the gamma band (20–90 Hz). The amount of gamma-band coherence was correlated with the power in the gamma band of the LFP. The data were consistent with the proposal that the LFP and MUA are generated in a noisy, resonant cortical network.
Recoding of Sensory Information across the Retinothalamic Synapse
Authors: Wang Xin , Hirsch Judith A. , Sommer Friedrich T.
Published: October 2010

The neural code that represents the world is transformed at each stage of a sensory pathway. These transformations enable downstream neurons to recode information they receive from earlier stages. Using the retinothalamic synapse as a model system, we developed a theoretical framework to identify stimulus features that are inherited, gained, or lost across stages. Specifically, we observed that thalamic spikes encode novel, emergent, temporal features not conveyed by single retinal spikes. Furthermore, we found that thalamic spikes are not only more informative than retinal ones, as expected, but also more independent. Next, we asked how thalamic spikes gain sensitivity to the emergent features. Explicitly, we found that the emergent features are encoded by retinal spike pairs and then recoded into independent thalamic spikes. Finally, we built a model of synaptic transmission that reproduced our observations. Thus, our results established a link between synaptic mechanisms and the recoding of sensory information.
Mossy Fiber Long-Term Potentiation Deficits in BACE1 Knock-Outs Can Be Rescued by Activation of α7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors
Authors: Wang Hui , Song Lihua , Lee Angela , Laird Fiona , Wong Philip C. , Lee Hey-Kyoung
Published: October 2010

β-Site amyloid precursor protein-cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1)—the neuronal β-secretase responsible for producing β-amyloid (Aβ) peptides—emerged as one of the key therapeutic targets of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Although complete ablation of the BACE1 gene prevents Aβ formation, we reported that BACE1 knock-out mice display severe presynaptic deficits at mossy fiber (MF)-to-CA3 synapses in the hippocampus, a major locus of BACE1 expression. We also found that the deficits are likely due to abnormal presynaptic Ca2+regulation. Cholinergic system has been implicated in AD, in some cases involving Ca2+-permeable α7-nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). Here we report that brief application of nicotine, via α7-nAChRs, can restore MF long-term potentiation in BACE1 knock-outs. Our data suggest that activating α7-nAChRs can recover the presynaptic deficits in BACE1 knock-outs.
Prototypic Seizure Activity Driven by Mature Hippocampal Fast-Spiking Interneurons
Authors: Fujiwara-Tsukamoto Yoko , Isomura Yoshikazu , Imanishi Michiko , Ninomiya Taihei , Tsukada Minoru , Yanagawa Yuchio , Fukai Tomoki , Takada Masahiko
Published: October 2010

A variety of epileptic seizure models have shown that activation of glutamatergic pyramidal cells is usually required for rhythm generation and/or synchronization in hippocampal seizure-like oscillationsin vitro. However, it still remains unclear whether GABAergic interneurons may be able to drive the seizure-like oscillations without glutamatergic transmission. Here, we found that electrical stimulation in rat hippocampal CA1 slices induced a putative prototype of seizure-like oscillations (“prototypic afterdischarge,” 1.8–3.8 Hz) in mature pyramidal cells and interneurons in the presence of ionotropic glutamate receptor antagonists. The prototypic afterdischarge was abolished by GABAAreceptor antagonists or gap junction blockers, but not by a metabotropic glutamate receptor antagonist or a GABABreceptor antagonist. Gramicidin-perforated patch-clamp and voltage-clamp recordings revealed that pyramidal cells were depolarized and frequently excited directly through excitatory GABAergic transmissions in each cycle of the prototypic afterdischarge. Interneurons that were actively spiking during the prototypic afterdischarge were mostly fast-spiking (FS) interneurons located in the strata oriens and pyramidale. Morphologically, these interneurons that might be “potential seizure drivers” included basket, chandelier, and bistratified cells. Furthermore, they received direct excitatory GABAergic input during the prototypic afterdischarge. The O-LM cells and most of the interneurons in the strata radiatum and lacunosum moleculare were not essential for the generation of prototypic afterdischarge. The GABA-mediated prototypic afterdischarge was observed later than the third postnatal week in the rat hippocampus. Our results suggest that an FS interneuron network alone can drive the prototypic form of electrically induced seizure-like oscillations through their excitatory GABAergic transmissions and presumably through gap junction-mediated communications.