bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
‘Horses in the race course’: the domestication of ingoma dancing in South Africa, 1929–39
Authors: Erlmann Veit
Published: November 2008

On a Saturday night of January 1930 several thousand African men clad in loin cloths and the calico uniforms of domestic servants thronged a concert in the Workers' Hall of the Durban branch of the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU) in Prince Edward Street. To the pounding sounds of hundreds of sticks, successive teams of dancers, some of them trained by Union officials from the rural hinterland, rushed to the stage performing the virile, stampingingomadance. The Zulu termingoma(lit. ‘song’) covers a broad range of male group dances likeisikhuze, isicathulo, ukukomika, isiZulu, isiBhaca, umzansiandisishameni. The kinesic patterns of ingoma are inseparably linked to choral songs in call-and-response structure and, as such, constitute a complex statement of the unity of dance and song in Zulu performance culture. The peak of Zulu-speaking migrants' dance culture, ingoma evolved out of the profound transformation of traditional rural Zulu culture through impoverishment, dispossession and labour migration around the first World War. But on that night of January 1930, at the climax of the spectacle, the ingoma dancers struck a particularly defiant note:

Who has taken our country from us?

Who has taken it?

Come out! Let us fight!

The land was ours. Now it is taken.

We have no more freedom left in it.

Come out and fight!

The land is ours, now it is taken.

Fight! Fight!

Shame on the man who is burnt in his hut!

Come out and fight! (Perham 1974, p. 196
Twins of Evil: an investigation into the aesthetics of film music
Authors: Huckvale David
Published: November 2008

If you are a movie fan (and who isn't) you may sit in a movie theatre three times a week listening to the symphonic background scores which Hollywood composers concoct. What happens? Your musical tastes become moulded by these scores, heard without knowing it. You see love, and you hear it. Simultaneously. It makes sense. Music suddenly becomes a language for you, without your knowing it. (Thomas 1973, p. 171).
Not just the same old show on my radio: An analysis of the role of radio in the diffusion of black music among whites in the south of the United States of America, 1920 to 1960
Authors: Kloosterman Robert C. , Quispel Chris
Published: November 2008

In the autumn of 1954, the triumphal tour of a young white singer started in the south of the United States. Although many objected to his music and his way of performing, the rise of this artist – by the name of Elvis Presley – in states like Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana was not to be stopped (Goldman 1981, p. 124; Gillett 1970, p. 21).
The cassette industry and popular music in North India
Authors: Manuel Peter
Published: November 2008

Since the early 1970s the advent of cassette technology has had a profound effect on music industries worldwide. This influence has been particularly marked in the developing world, where cassettes have largely replaced vinyl records and have extended their impact into regions, classes and genres previously uninfluenced by the mass media. Cassettes have served to decentralise and democratise both production and consumption, thereby counterbalancing the previous tendency toward oligopolisation of international commercial recording industries.
The Smiths: repressed (but remarkably dressed)
Authors: Stringer Julian
Published: November 2008

The biographies of most stars work on the misconception that a performer's true, private self can be discretely separated from the meaning of their public image. Whether it is a serious study of a major artist or a trashy exposé of a behind-the-scenes scandal, the organisational logic is usually the same: the writer assumes that since a media image is a false representation of an actual person, digging deep into the background and lifestyle of any star can only help to reveal something of what that person is ‘really’ like.
‘Sadeness’, Scorpions and single markets: national and transnational trends in European popular music
Authors: Laing Dave
Published: November 2008

Among the biggest international hits of 1991 was ‘Sadeness’, a piece of music created in a studio in Spain by Michael Cretu, a German-based, Rumanian-born producer using samples from recordings of Gregorian chants. This followed the chart successes of dance records created in Belgium by Technotronic and Snap, in Italy (Black Box) and Sweden (Dr Alban).
Mixing pop and politics: rock music in Czechoslovakia before and after the Velvet Revolution
Authors: Mitchell Tony
Published: November 2008

Rock and pop music in the USSR and eastern Europe has become an area of increasing interest to both the western mass media and cultural studies since glasnost, perestroika, the collapse of the Eastern bloc Communist regimes and the constitution of new western-styled democratic governments. This is largely because rock music has represented probably the most widespread vehicle of youth rebellion, resistance and independence behind the Iron Curtain, both in terms of providing an enhanced political context for the often banned sounds of British and American rock, and in the development of home-grown musics built on western foundations but resonating within their own highly charged political contexts. As the East German critic Peter Wicke has claimed,

Because of the intrinsic characteristics of the circumstances within which rock music is produced and consumed, this cultural medium became, in the GDR, the most suitable vehicle for forms of cultural and political resistance that could not be controlled by the state. (Wicke 1991, p. 1)
On some dilemmas of Polish post-communist rock culture
Authors: Pekacz Jolanta
Published: November 2008

Until the late 1970s rock music in Poland was hidden behind many different labels, such as ‘music of a young generation’, ‘youth music’ or ‘big beat’, usually meaning something, if not pejorative, at least suspicious. Having the flavour of a forbidden fruit, genuine rock functioned quite successfully, mostly through independent circulation, not only as a specific form of art, but, first of all, as a symbol of protest against an existing political and social order (it does not matter if we call it ‘communistic’ or ‘capitalistic’); it was a symbol of independence and freedom.
Islam, the Turkish state and arabesk
Authors: Stokes Martin
Published: November 2008

The relationship between ideology and popular culture has largely been discussed in the context of developed industrial societies, in which the ideologies that might be considered to have most bearing on society in general and popular culture in particular are capitalism and socialism in the context of specific nationalisms. On the Muslim peripheries of Europe, however, the situation may be different. The appearance of ‘Islamic’ motifs in Turkish popular music and the ambiguous but conspicuous attempts by a populist government in Turkey to control and co-opt this music over the last eight years suggests that Islam has also played a powerful role in shaping the experience of popular music in Turkey. The extent to which Islam constitutes an ideology distinct and separable from capitalism and socialism has been debated at length within and outside the Muslim world. It is clear that Islam has proved less of an obstacle to the development of capitalist economies than that of socialist economies (Rodinson 1977; Gellner 1981). It is also true that the collapse of world markets in the 1970s resulted in crises which reverberated throughout the Muslim world, in which a pristine and ‘traditional’ Islam has become a focus, in various ways, for resentment at the cultural and economic dependency of the Muslim upon the non-Muslim world. Islam projects itself now as a rival and ultimately superior alternative to the nationalist ideologies within which capitalist or socialist formations have been articulated. In Turkey, the dominant and competing discourses of nationalist Turkism on the one hand and Islam on the other have framed the terms in which Turkish social and political history has been seen in and outside Turkey. The popular music known as arabesk apparently defies both of these ideologies and provides a useful case-study of the way in which they operate ‘on the ground’, shaping the identities and strategies around which people organise their social existence.
Subcultural identity in alternative music culture
Authors: Kruse Holly
Published: November 2008

Angela McRobbie (1992) has recently observed that what is currently missing from Marxist cultural studies is a sense of urgency. In part, I believe this lack of urgency is the result of cultural studies' tendency ultimately to privilege theory over lived experience; the lived experiences of the post-baby boom generation seem especially neglected. As a 1991 issue of Spin magazine told its readers:

Magazines and newspapers such as Time and the New York Times are … comparing you unfairly to the dynamic and euphoric baby boomers – the authentic prototype of youth culture, at least as they would have it. They're saying you, the members of the twentysomething generation, have no distinctive identity, no culture to call your own, only recycled bits from the past. Ask yourself this question: Do you recognize yourself in this portrait? No? We didn't think so. (Owen 1991, p. 68)
Local differences? popular music and the local state
Authors: Street John
Published: November 2008

This is the story of a rock venue in an English city. Hardly, it might be supposed, the stuff of great drama; there are, after all, rock venues throughout England. Most towns and cities of any size have at least one. But this venue, the Waterfront in Norwich, is distinctive, if not unique, in at least two respects.It was purpose-built and, more importantly, it was largely financed, not by private enterprise, but by the city's Labour council. Norwich's local politicians risked both financial and political capital so that their city could host performers like Nitzer Ebb, Dumpy's Rusty Nuts, Labi Siffre and Orzic Tentacles (all of whom appeared at the Waterfront in the space of a week in November 1991). The £1 million project opened in late 1990, amid much publicity and intense criticism from the opposition parties and local residents: these complaints continued into the venue's second year, when it received a further subsidy of £30,000 from the council. Why did the council take these risks? What were the political interests and values which led to this novel policy development?
Factors affecting the musical choices of audiences in East Suffolk, England
Authors: Pegg Carole
Published: November 2008

In discussing humanly organised sound in How Musical is Man?, John Blacking points out that musical ability is not only the prerogative of those who make music. Without the capacity of an audience for structured listening, he says, there would be no music and no musical communication (Blacking 1973, p. 9). The construction of a sound-ideal, that is the acceptance or rejection of patterns of sound as music or non-music, is part of the musical process. When Merriam constructed his model for ethnomusicological research in The Anthropology of Music, he recognised that those listening to the sounds produced by musicians played an active role (Merriam 1964, pp. 32ff). He also realised the importance of what he called ‘conceptualisation about music’ to the process. Figure 1 illustrates simply the three analytical stages of his model and the feedback system involving the acceptance or rejection of sound. The weakness of the model lies in the assumption that those listening will react uniformly to the sounds produced. As I shall show, such a consensus on the classifications of sound is not to be found in large differentiated societies.
Music and meaning behind the dykes: the new wave of Dutch rock groups and their audiences
Authors: Van Elderen P. L.
Published: November 2008

During the last two or maybe three years, people in the Netherlands have witnessed a big boom in popular songs in their own language: tear-jerkers, evergreens, easy listening and rock songs performed in Dutch have made a conspicuous conquest of the hit charts, usually dominated by Anglo-American songs. Most striking is the breakthrough of Dutch language rock groups, reflected in higher audience figures for specialised radio programmes, an expanding live performance circuit and high record sales (see Table 1).

On a common-sense or proto-sociological level, this phenomenon has been explained by referring to the end of so-called American ‘cultural imperialism’ – the native rock tradition has finally grown mature, as is the case in other countries on the European continent; or by alluding to the crisis of the modern welfare capitalist state – manifested in a range of aspects, from the economic crisis in the record industry to the cultural-ideological problem of modern people longing for a comprehensible world view in an abstract society. In this article I shall not touch upon these matters, but I shall discuss the reception of Dutch rock as such and try to unveil (some aspects of) the social meaning of this type of music.
Music in the streets: the example of Washington Square Park in New York City
Authors: Prato Paolo
Published: November 2008

Music has always been part of street life. Taking it off the streets and bringing it into enclosed spaces is a relatively recent experience but it has profoundly changed the way music is perceived and evaluated. ‘After art music moved indoors, street music has become an object of increasing scorn’ (Schafer 1980, p. 66). However, although discouraged by the new sonorities that appeared with the Industrial Revolution and the new comfort of home-reproducible music, street music has not disappeared: on the contrary, it is tending to reinvade the urban scene, in forms both old and new.
Technology, politics and contemporary music: necessity and choice in musical forms
Authors: Cutler Chris
Published: November 2008

This article falls into three loosely related parts. The first and third of these are derived from addresses given to the Popular Music Research Symposium at Exeter in September 1982, and at the Festival des Politischen Liedes in East Berlin in February 1982 respectively. The second forms a newly written bridge.
Popular dance music elements in the folk music of Gypsies in Hungary
Authors: Kovalcsik Katalin
Published: November 2008

Gypsy folk music is of a distinctive character compared with that of the other East European ethnic communities. The pecularities differentiating it from these other forms of folk music – improvisation and a readiness to adopt new influences – have continued to be of significance. While in several cases the folk music of peoples who have established themselves in national states is kept alive by artificial means (e.g. by promoting folk singing groups, by teaching folksongs in schools and by various revival movements), the vast majority of Gypsies have preserved their traditional music as an almost exclusive musical language.
Structural relationships of music and images in music video
Authors: Björnberg Alf
Published: November 2008

In the course of the last decade, the body of writing on music video has grown to sizeable proportions. The reason for the present addition to this bulk of literature, in spite of the subject seemingly approaching the state of exhaustion, is that musical semiotics are still rarely applied to the field. It is a fact that pop and rock music have always been heavily infused with socially determined meaning such that an autonomous musical aesthetics appears clearly insufficient to explain their significance; however, to what extent and how this significance is linked in with particular musical structures as such is still largely uninvestigated. In my view, music video may perhaps be less interesting as a phenomenon in itself than as source material for an ‘empirical semiotics’ of popular music, shedding light on signification processes of a more general applicability. Furthermore, the distinctive features of music video may arguably be better explained on the basis of an understanding of the syntactical characteristics of popular music than by prevalent theories of postmodernism; the latter appear problematic not only due to their speculative and unsubstantiated nature with regard to media reception processes (cf. Frith and Horne 1987, p. 11), but their explanatory value as regards syntactic features of music video also seems to be limited (cf. Frith 1988, p. 207).
‘Ethnic’ music traditions in the USA (black music; country music; others; all)
Authors: Keil Charles
Published: November 2008

This is a brief meditation on ethnicity as a source of all powerful musical styles, as a kind of curse in the contemporary world of nation states, and as an ever more complex puzzle for every student of popular music to solve.
Introduction
Authors: Stokes Martin , Davis Ruth
Published: November 2008

This special issue is the first collection of articles specifically devoted to Middle Eastern popular musics to be published anywhere. When we began work on this issue, we were not operating in a void, however. Popular Music has already published a number of articles on Middle Eastern topics and the ‘great names’ associated with mass distributed musics and films in the earlier part of this century – in particular the Egyptian stars Umm Kulthūm and Muhammed 'Abd al-Wahhāb – have already been the subject of excellent studies published elsewhere. This issue has, however, provided us with an opportunity to reflect on the ways in which Middle Eastern musics have conventionally been studied and represented, and on the contribution that several decades of popular music studies might make to this field. The contributors have responded to these opportunities in a variety of ways and the result, we feel, is a distinctly fresh picture of the Middle East.
Theory and practice at the ‘Arabic org’: digital technology in contemporary Arab music performance
Authors: Rasmussen Anne K.
Published: November 2008

The synthesizer is ubiquitous on the Arab–American musical scene. Heard at every party, and on every recording, the synthesizer sings thelingua francaof international popular music. While the facade and the body of the synthesizer consist of neutral, slick, black plastic and metal technology, the soul of the instrument, when played by Arab–American musicians, is capable of a completely indigenous, if synthetic, musical idiom. In this article I draw on my experience of six performers of the Arabic ‘org’, commonly known today as ‘keyboards’, to present a sketch of a modern musical tradition.
Post-Punk's attempt to democratise the music industry: the success and failure of Rough Trade
Authors: Hesmondhalgh David
Published: November 2008

Punk's widely accepted status as a watershed in British music-making has produced some fine academic and journalistic studies. Greil Marcus has devoted much of the last twenty years to an assessment of the legacy of punk rock (Marcus 1989, 1993). Dave Laing'sOne Chord Wondersprovides a multi-layered approach which might serve as a model for any analysis of a particular musical–cultural moment (Laing 1985). The most detailed and thorough account is Jon Savage'sEngland's Dreaming(1991), a paean to the mischievous self-consciousness of punk and a sly put-down of its earnest political wing. Yet there are some important gaps in this literature. Only Laing (1985, pp. 14–21) has addressed the institutional and economic effects of punk in any detail, but his account ends, like that of Savage, with the incorporation of punk imagery and sounds into the mainstream of British cultural life at the end of the 1970s. The symbolic death of punk is marked by the election of Margaret Thatcher as British Prime Minister in May 1979. Marcus traces the underground simmering of punk in 1980s America, and his vision of post-punk as a lasting source of vitality and rebellion in an increasingly conformist culture is a compelling one. But he is drawn primarily to the situationist and dadaist elements of punk politics. As in Savage (1991), lasting institutional repercussions are sidelined in favour of an exploration of punk's cultural impact. What follows, then, is an assessment of punk's significance as along-termintervention in the British music industry. This means tracing the development and mutation of punk initiatives into the 1980s–long after its supposed incorporation.
Popping the question: the function and effect of popular music in cinema
Authors: Lapedis Hilary
Published: November 2008

Claudia Gorbman, in her afterword toUnheard Melodies, looks forward to the ‘new’ phenomenon of the increased use of recorded popular music in the movies. She questions whether the contemporary use of popular music is essentially different from its use in the traditional Hollywood musical, wherein conventional practice permits a musical number to disrupt the narrative flow, and answers that ‘a hybrid is emerging, unlike diegetic music which is normally not listened to, and also not as focused as musical numbers issuing from the magic world of the musical’ (Gorbman 1987, p.162). Certainly, the music video, as Gorbman admits, in its ‘kaleidoscope of forms’ (ibid.) is changing the relationship between visuals and music, so that there is no longer a habitual hierarchy of sound supporting image, or vice versa. It is this shifting relationship and the way in which pop music specifically operates upon the narrative structure of cinema that I wish to explore here.
Prophets and Prophecy in the Qumran Community
Authors: Jassen Alex P.
Published: November 2008

It has long been axiomatic in the study of postbiblical Judaism that prophecy had become a dormant institution. For scholars studying Judaism in its many ancient manifestations, prophecy was a phenomenon closely related to the heritage of biblical Israel. It disappeared as biblical Israel gave way to Judaism in the aftermath of the Babylonian exile. This scholarly assumption has found support in several texts from ancient Judaism that indeed espouse such a position. In recent years, the dominance of this consensus has begun to wither away as scholars have become both more fully aware of the diverse forms of Judaism in the Second Temple and rabbinic periods and more sensitive to the multiple modes of religious piety in ancient Judaism. In this article, I would like to extend the contours of this conversation by mapping out some methodological rubrics for the study of prophecy in ancient Judaism and discuss one context for the application of this methodology—the Qumran community.
Can anthropometry measure gender discrimination? An analysis using WHO standards to assess the growth of Bangladeshi children
Authors: Moestue Helen
Published: November 2008

Objective

To examine the potential of anthropometry as a tool to measure gender discrimination, with particular attention to the WHO growth standards.

Design

Surveillance data collected from 1990 to 1999 were analysed. Height-for-age Z-scores were calculated using three norms: the WHO standards, the 1978 National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reference and the 1990 British growth reference (UK90).

Setting

Bangladesh.

Subjects

Boys and girls aged 6–59 months (n 504 358).

Results

The three sets of growth curves provided conflicting pictures of the relative growth of girls and boys by age and over time. Conclusions on sex differences in growth depended also on the method used to analyse the curves, be it according to the shape or the relative position of the sex-specific curves. The shapes of the WHO-generated curves uniquely implied that Bangladeshi girls faltered faster or caught up slower than boys throughout their pre-school years, a finding consistent with the literature. In contrast, analysis of the relative position of the curves suggested that girls had higher WHO Z-scores than boys below 24 months of age.

Conclusion

Further research is needed to help establish whether and how the WHO international standards can measure gender discrimination in practice, which continues to be a serious problem in many parts of the world.
Seeing the Brain in Action: How Multiphoton Imaging Has Advanced Our Understanding of Neuronal Function
Authors: Stutzmann Grace
Published: November 2008

Gaining insight into how the nervous system functions is a challenge for scientists, particularly because the static morphology of the brain and the cells within tell little about how they actually work. Fixed specimens can provide critical structural information, but the jump to functional neurobiology in living cells is obviated with these preparations. In order to grasp the complexity of neuronal activity, it is necessary to observe the brain in action, from the level of subcellular signaling to the whole organism. Recent advances in nonlinear microscopy have given rise to a new era for biological research. In particular, the introduction of multiphoton excitation has drastically improved the depth and speed to which we can probe brain function. In order to better appreciate recent contributions of multiphoton microscopy to our current and future understanding of biological systems, an historical awareness of past microscopy applications is useful.
Second-Harmonic Generation Imaging of Membrane Potential with Photon Counting
Authors: Jiang Jiang , Yuste Rafael
Published: November 2008

Second-harmonic generation (SHG) can be used for imaging membrane potential in neurons, but poor signal-to-noise (S/N) limits accurate measurements of small voltage transients. We use photon counting to improve the S/N of weak SHG signal detection. Photon counting generates shot-noise limited and integrable signals, eliminates pulse-to-pulse variation, and built-in discriminators reduces the background to practically zero. In single trials, by using photon counting, we obtain a more than a twofold S/N increase over analog voltage detection. Trial-to-trial variability is also reduced by 50%. Finally, we show that, using photon counting, the kinetics of fast events such as action potentials can be recorded more accurately.
Preface: Multiphoton Microscopy
Authors: Schatten Heide
Published: November 2008

Two-photon excitation microscopy (also referred to as multiphoton laser scanning microscopy) has gained increasing popularity during the past few years because of the distinct advantages over single-photon microscopy, which includes increased penetration depth and low out-of-focus photobleaching and photodamage. It allows superior imaging of thick specimen compared to single-photon microscopy, and it excels at imaging live cells either single or within intact tissue. This highly valuable tool has been used with great success to gain important new insights into brain tissue, embryos, whole organs, entire animals, and it has been most useful in numerous other applications.
Research Priorities in Suicide Prevention in Australia
Authors: Robinson Jo , Pirkis Jane , Krysinska Karolina , Niner Sara , Jorm Anthony F. , Dudley Michael , Schindeler Emily , De Leo Diego , Harrigan Susy
Published: November 2008

This project sought to inform priority setting in Australian suicide prevention research, by empirically examining existing priorities and by seeking stakeholders views on where future priorities might lie. Existing priorities were examined via reviews of Australian literature published and grants funded during the life of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy (1999–2006). Stakeholders views of future priorities were elicited via a questionnaire administered to 11 groups comprising 231 individuals with an interest in suicide prevention. The study identified 263 journal articles and 36 grants. The journal articles most commonly reported on studies of descriptive epidemiology, while the grants tended to fund intervention studies. Both gave roughly equal weight to completed and attempted suicide, and gave little emphasis to studies of suicide methods. Young people were the most frequently-researched target group, with people with mental health problems and people who had attempted suicide or deliberately self-harmed also receiving attention. Stakeholders indicated that emphasis should be given to intervention studies, and that completed suicide and attempted suicide are both important. In terms of suicide method, they felt the focus should be on poisoning by drugs and hanging. They had mixed views about the target groups that should be afforded priority, although young people and people with mental health problems were frequently ranked highly. This paper presents a picture of the current focus with regard to suicide prevention research, identifying some areas where there are clear gaps and others where relatively greater efforts have been made. By combining this information with stakeholders views of where future priorities should lie, the paper provides some guidance as to the shape a future suicide prevention research agenda for Australia should take. A strategic approach to suicide prevention research will help fill internationally-identified gaps in knowledge about what works and what doesnt work in suicide prevention.
Influence of local photochemistry on isotopes of nitrate in Greenland snow
Authors: Jarvis Julia C. , Steig Eric J. , Hastings Meredith G. , Kunasek Shelley A.
Published: November 2008

To explore the seasonality in δ15N and δ18O of nitrate in Greenland snow, we describe a simple box model of local photochemistry. Isotope ratios of HNO3 are controlled by the nitrogen isotope fractionation between NO and NO2, the ratio of NO2 to NO, and seasonal variations in HNO3 production. The observed seasonal range in δ15N requires either a large net fractionation (∼70‰) associated with NOx cycling or a seasonal change in the δ15N of NOx sources. The observed range in δ18O of nitrate is smaller than that calculated from HNO3 production pathways, suggesting that seasonal transport may also be required to explain the seasonality in nitrate δ18O.
Oscillation of Saturn's southern auroral oval
Authors: Nichols J. D. , Clarke J. T. , Cowley S. W. H. , Duval J. , Farmer A. J. , Gérard J.‐C. , Grodent D. , Wannawichian S.
Published: November 2008

Near‐planetary‐period oscillations in the Cassini plasma and magnetic field data have been observed throughout Saturn's magnetosphere despite the fact that Saturn's internal magnetic field is apparently highly axisymmetric. In addition, the period of the Saturn kilometric radiation has been shown to vary over time. In this paper we present results from the recent Hubble Space Telescope observations of Saturn's southern ultraviolet auroral emission. We show that the center of the auroral oval oscillates with period 10.76 h ± 0.15 h for both January 2007 and February 2008, i.e., close to the periods determined for oscillations in other magnetospheric phenomena. The motion of the oval center is described for 2007 by an ellipse with semimajor axis ∼1.4° ± 0.3° oriented toward ∼09–21 h LT, eccentricity ∼0.93, and center offset from the spin axis by ∼1.8° toward ∼04 h LT. For 2008 the oscillation is consistent with an ellipse with semimajor axis ∼2.2° ± 0.3° oriented toward ∼09–21 h LT, eccentricity ∼0.99, and a center offset from the spin axis by ∼2.2° toward ∼03 h LT. The motion of the auroral oval is thus highly elliptical in both cases, and the major oscillation axis is oriented toward prenoon/premidnight. This result places an independent constraint on the magnitude of the planet's dipole tilt and may also indicate the presence of an external current system that imposes an asymmetry in the ionospheric field modulated close to the planetary period.
Comparison of six methods for the interpolation of daily, European climate data
Authors: Hofstra Nynke , Haylock Malcolm , New Mark , Jones Phil , Frei Christoph
Published: November 2008

We compare versions of six interpolation methods for the interpolation of daily precipitation, mean, minimum and maximum temperature, and sea level pressure from station data over Europe from 1961 to 1990. The interpolation methods evaluated are global and local kriging, two versions of angular distance weighting, natural neighbor interpolation, regression, 2D and 3D thin plate splines, and conditional interpolation. We first evaluated, using station cross‐validation and several skill scores, relative skill of each method at estimating point values, looking at spatial and temporal patterns and the frequency distribution of the variables. We then compared, for precipitation, gridded area averages from the candidate interpolation methods against existing high‐resolution gridded data sets for the UK and the Alps, which are derived from a much denser network of stations. In both point and area‐average cases, differences in skill between interpolation methods at any one point are smaller than the range in skill for a single method either across the domain, or in different seasons. The main control on spatial patterns of interpolation skill is density of the station network, with topographic complexity a compounding factor. The relative skill of different methods remains relatively constant through time, despite a varying station network. Skill in interpolating extreme events is lower than for average days, but relative skill of different methods remains the same. We select global kriging as the best performing method overall, for use in the development of a daily, high‐resolution, long‐term, European data set of climate variables as part of the EU funded ENSEMBLES project.
Characteristics of the optical pulses associated with a downward branched stepped leader
Authors: Lu W. , Wang D. , Takagi N. , Rakov V. , Uman M. , Miki M.
Published: November 2008

A stepped leader that preceded a natural first return stroke was recorded using a high‐speed optical imaging system with a time resolution of 0.1 μs and a spatial resolution of about 40 m. Within the view of the imaging system, 440 m × 480 m just above ground level, the leader produced one ground termination (main channel for the return stroke) and six ungrounded branches. A total of 153 optical pulses associated with the leader were identified for analysis, with 61 originating from the main channel and 92 from the six branches. The pulses originating from the main channel and from the branches are almost identical in terms of geometric mean (GM) values of 10–90% risetime and half‐peak width, near 0.4 μs and 1.1 μs, respectively. The pulses from the main channel show smaller interpulse intervals than those from the branches. When the interpulse intervals for pulses from both the main channel and all branches are combined, of a total of 152 intervals, five are essentially 0 and 58 are between 0 and 1 μs. Thus a significant percentage of optical pulses occurred almost simultaneously in different channel sections separated by distances up to several hundred meters. The light intensity just prior to each pulse exhibited a tendency to increase as the leader approached ground, while the other parameters, such as pulse peak, risetime, half‐peak width, and interpulse intervals, showed no systematic changes with time.
Activation of the transient receptor potential vanilloid‐1 (TRPV1) channel opens the gate for pain relief
Authors: Jancsó G , Dux M , Oszlács O , Sántha P
Published: November 2008

Pharmacological modulation of the transient receptor potential vanilloid‐1 (TRPV1) receptor function offers a promising means of producing pain relief at the level of the primary sensory neuron. In this issue of the BJP, the pharmacological approaches and the available experimental data that focus on the TRPV1 receptor to achieve therapeutically useful alleviation of pain and inflammation are reviewed. The potentials to inactivate TRPV1 receptor function by site‐ and modality‐specific TRPV1 antagonists, uncompetitive TRPV1 blockers and drugs interfering with TRPV1 sensitization, are evaluated. A crucial issue of producing pain relief at the level of the nocisensor remains whether it can be achieved solely through inactivation of the TRPV1 receptor or TRPV1 agonist‐induced defunctionalization of the whole primary afferent neuron is required. The accumulated evidence indicates that both pharmacological modulation of the intracellular trafficking of the TRPV1 receptor and defunctionalization of the nocisensors by TRPV1 agonists are promising novel approaches to tame the TRPV1 receptor.

British Journal of Pharmacology (2008) 155, 1139–1141; doi:fn1; published online 10 November 2008
Acute Stress‐related Changes in Eating in the Absence of Hunger
Authors: Rutters Femke , Nieuwenhuizen Arie G. , Lemmens Sofie G.T. , Born Jurriaan M. , Westerterp‐Plantenga Margriet S.
Published: November 2008

Obesity results from chronic deregulation of energy balance, which may in part be caused by stress. Our objective was to investigate the effect of acute and psychological stress on food intake, using the eating in the absence of hunger paradigm, in normal and overweight men and women (while taking dietary restraint and disinhibition into account). In 129 subjects (BMI = 24.5 ± 3.4 kg/m2 and age = 27.6 ± 8.8 years), scores were determined on the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (dietary restraint = 7.2 ± 4.4; disinhibition = 4.5 ± 2.6; feeling of hunger = 3.9 ± 2.6) and State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory (trait score = 31.7 ± 24.2). In a randomized crossover design, the “eating in absence of hunger” protocol was measured as a function of acute stress vs. a control task and of state anxiety scores. Energy intake from sweet foods (708.1 kJ vs. 599.4 kJ, P < 0.03) and total energy intake (965.2 kJ vs. 793.8 kJ, P < 0.01) were significantly higher in the stress condition compared to the control condition. Differences in energy intake between the stress and control condition were a function of increase in state anxiety scores during the stress task (Δ state anxiety scores) (R2 = 0.05, P < 0.01). This positive relationship was stronger in subjects with high disinhibition scores (R2 = 0.12, P < 0.05). Differences in state anxiety scores were a function of trait anxiety scores (R2 = 0.07, P < 0.05). We conclude that acute psychological stress is associated with eating in the absence of hunger, especially in vulnerable individuals characterized by disinhibited eating behavior and sensitivity to chronic stress.
A common African polymorphism abolishes tyrosine sulfation of human anionic trypsinogen (PRSS2)
Authors: Rónai Zsolt , Witt Heiko , Rickards Olga , Destro-Bisol Giovanni , Bradbury Andrew R. M. , Sahin-Tóth Miklós
Published: November 2008

Human pancreatic trypsinogens undergo post-translational sulfation on Tyr154, catalysed by the Golgi-resident enzyme tyrosylprotein sulfotransferase 2. Sequence alignments suggest that the sulfation of Tyr154 is facilitated by a unique sequence context which is characteristically found in primate trypsinogens. In the search for genetic variants that might alter this sulfation motif, we identified a single nucleotide polymorphism (c.457G>C) in the PRSS2 (serine protease 2, human anionic trypsinogen) gene, which changed Asp153 to a histidine residue (p.D153H). The p.D153H variant is common in subjects of African origin, with a minor allele frequency of 9.2%, whereas it is absent in subjects of European descent. We demonstrate that Asp153 is the main determinant of tyrosine sulfation in anionic trypsinogen, as both the natural p.D153H variation and the p.D153N mutation result in a complete loss of trypsinogen sulfation. In contrast, mutation of Asp156 and Glu157 only slightly decrease tyrosine sulfation, whereas mutation of Gly151 and Pro155 has no effect. With respect to the biological relevance of the p.D153H variant, we found that tyrosine sulfation had no significant effect on the activation of anionic trypsinogen or the catalytic activity and inhibitor sensitivity of anionic trypsin. Taken together with previous studies, the observations of the present study suggest that the primary role of trypsinogen sulfation in humans is to stimulate autoactivation of PRSS1 (serine protease 1, human cationic trypsinogen), whereas the sulfation of anionic trypsinogen is unimportant for normal digestive physiology. As a result, the p.D153H polymorphism which eliminates this modification could become widespread in a healthy population.
Prediction of Pregnancy Outcome by Combined Analysis of the Fetal Electrocardiogram and Systolic Time Intervals
Authors: Lewinsky Reuven M. , Sharf Mordechai , Degani Shimon , Eibschitz Izu
Published: November 2008

A microcomputer-based system has been developed that continuously analyzes the fetal electrocardiogram (ECG) and Doppler cardiogram during labor by noninvasive means. Three systolic time intervals (preejection period [PEP], ventricular ejection time [VET], and isovolumetric contraction time), and four ECG parameters (P-R interval, QRS wave duration, T/QRS amplitude ratio, and S-T slope) are simultaneously measured and displayed. Normal values were derived from 126 uncomplicated pregnancies at term. A second group of 89 cases showing fetal heart rate patterns suggestive of fetal distress were subsequently studied: 64 had a good outcome (umbilical artery pH 7.20 or higher and a 5-minute Apgar score 7 or greater) and 25 were asphyxiated. Results were retrospectively analyzed. All asphyxiated fetuses had preejection period, PEP to VET ratio and T to QRS ratio values of more than 1 SD above the mean for the normal population. The PEP to VET ratio, which is an indicator of myocardial function independent of heart rate, proved to be the most sensitive predictor of fetal asphyxia. We conclude that analysis of systolic time intervals and ECG parameters of the fetal heart during labor improves the diagnostic accuracy of fetal heart rate monitoring.
The Interhemispheric Fissure: A Commonly Mislabeled Cranial Landmark
Authors: Jeanty Philippe , Romero Roberto , Crelin Edmund , Hobbins John C.
Published: November 2008

The bright midline echo observed in fetal cranial sonography has been termed by many authors the “falx cerebri.” Anatomic, embryologic, and sonographic evidence presented here suggests that this terminology is incorrect and that use of the term “interhemispheric fissure” is more appropriate.
Half-cylindrical far field superlens with coupled Fabry–Perot cavities
Authors: Li G. X. , Tam H. L. , Wang F. Y. , Cheah K. W.
Published: November 2008

In this work, we proposed a resonant half-cylindrical far field superlens by combining the strong hyperbolic dispersion relationship with the coupled Fabry–Perot cavities. The half-cylindrical far field superlens consisting of the resonant and nonresonant Ag/GaP multilayer are simulated and compared under red light illumination. The calculated results reveal that the resonant far field superlens with coupled Fabry–Perot cavities has much higher transmission efficiency than that of the nonresonant far field superlens and maintains a high resolution.
Toward a theory of the quantum Hall effect in graphene
Authors: Gorbar E. V. , Gusynin V. P. , Miransky V. A.
Published: November 2008

We analyze a gap equation for the propagator of Dirac quasiparticles and conclude that in graphene in a magnetic field, the order parameters connected with the quantum Hall ferromagnetism dynamics and those connected with the magnetic catalysis dynamics necessarily coexist (the latter have the form of Dirac masses and correspond to excitonic condensates). This feature of graphene could lead to important consequences, in particular, for the existence of gapless edge states. Solutions of the gap equation corresponding to recently experimentally discovered novel plateaus in graphene in strong magnetic fields are described.
First-principles-based investigation of kinetic mechanism of SiC(0001) dry oxidation including defect generation and passivation
Authors: Gavrikov Alexey , Knizhnik Andrey , Safonov Andrey , Scherbinin Andrey , Bagatur’yants Alexander , Potapkin Boris , Chatterjee Aveek , Matocha Kevin
Published: November 2008

The key stages of the dry oxidation of the SiC(0001) surface are analyzed based on first-principles calculations. It is found that an abrupt SiC/SiO2 interface model results in a large activation barrier of oxygen penetration to the silicon carbide, and thus the penetration is probably the rate-limiting step for the entire dry-oxidation process. The subsequent reactions of SiC oxidation after oxygen penetration are investigated, and it is found that CO release is competing with carbon dimer formation. These dimers probably are responsible for near-interface traps in the silica layer generated during SiC oxidation. The possible passivation reactions of a carbon dimer defect by active species, such as O2, NO, and H2 are investigated. It is found that an oxygen molecule can break a Si–C bond via dissociation in the triplet state and finally can produce two CO molecules from the carbon dimer defect. The NO molecule can easily break a Si–C bond of a carbon dimer defect and form cyano groups –CN, which can finally recombine to form a C2N2 molecule. This molecule can hardly diffuse in silica matrix, and it is suggested that it is further oxidized by an NO molecule to CO and N2 molecules. It is suggested that the process of passivation by O2 and NO molecules is restricted by the incorporation of these molecules in small voids near the carbon defect. Based on the calculated results, a simple kinetic mechanism of dry SiC oxidation is proposed and kinetic modeling of the oxidation process is performed. It is found that in the framework of this mechanism, the carbon defect density should weakly depend on temperature.
Index of refraction of a photonic crystal of carbon nanotubes and homogenization of optically anisotropic periodic composites
Authors: Gumen L. N. , Krokhin A. A.
Published: November 2008

We consider the long-wavelength limit for a periodic arrangement of carbon nanotubes. Using the Fourier expansion method, we develop an effective-medium theory for a photonic crystal of aligned optically anisotropic cylinders. Exact analytical formulas for the effective dielectric constants for the E (TM) and H (TE) eigenmodes are obtained for arbitrary 2D Bravais lattice and arbitrary cross-section of anisotropic cylinders. It is shown that, depending on the symmetry of the unit cell, a photonic crystal of anisotropic cylinders behaves in the low-frequency limit like a uniaxial or biaxial optical crystal. The developed theory of homogenization is in a good agreement with existing experimental results for the dielectric tensor of photonic crystals of carbon nanotubes.
Nonlinear stationary solutions of the Wigner and Wigner–Poisson equations
Authors: Haas F. , Shukla P. K.
Published: November 2008

Exact nonlinear stationary solutions of the one-dimensional Wigner and Wigner–Poisson equations in the terms of the Wigner functions that depend not only on the energy but also on position are presented. In this way, the Bernstein–Greene–Kruskal modes of the classical plasma are adapted for the quantum formalism in the phase space. The solutions are constructed for the case of a quartic oscillator potential, as well as for the self-consistent Wigner–Poisson case. Conditions for well-behaved physically meaningful equilibrium Wigner functions are discussed.
Viscoelasticity of entangled λ-phage DNA solutions
Authors: Zhu Xiaoying , Kundukad Binu , van der Maarel Johan R. C.
Published: November 2008

The viscoelastic moduli of λ-phage DNA through the entanglement transition were obtained with particle tracking microrheology. With increasing frequency, the viscous loss modulus first increases, then levels off, and eventually increases again. Concurrently, the elastic storage modulus monotonously increases and eventually levels off to a constant high frequency plateau value. Once the DNA molecules become entangled at about ten times the overlap concentration, the elastic storage modulus becomes larger than the viscous loss modulus in an intermediate frequency range. The number of entanglements per chain is obtained from the plateau value of the elasticity modulus. The longest, global relaxation time pertaining to the motion of the DNA molecules is obtained from the low shear viscosity as well as from the lowest crossover frequency of the viscous loss and elastic storage moduli. The concentration dependencies of the low shear viscosity, the number of entanglements per chain, and the relaxation time agree with the relevant scaling laws for reptation dynamics of entangled polyelectrolytes in an excess of simple, low molecular weight salt with screened electrostatic interactions.