bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Opera, Musicology, and History
Authors: Rabb Theodore K.
Published: November 2005

The interactions between operas and the societies in which they were composed and first heard are of interest to both historians and musicologists, especially because operas since the seventeenth century have had significant connections with political and social change. The essays in this special double issue of the journal, entitled “Opera and History”, pursue the connection in six settings: seventeenth-century Venice; Handel's London; Revolutionary Europe from 1790 to 1830; Restoration and Risorgimento Italy; Europe during the birth of Modernism from 1890 to 1930; and twentieth-century America.
Commentary: Why Opera? The Politics of an Emerging Genre
Authors: Romano Dennis
Published: November 2005

The reason why opera became the preeminent musical form of the seventeenth century not only in Venice but also throughout Europe lies in the profound changes among European elites at the time, particularly regarding notions of nobility and individual roles within family strategies. The lyricism of operatic music became the ideal vehicle to express the era's social transformations.
Cosmopolitanism and the National Opera: Weber's Der Freischütz
Authors: Tusa Michael C.
Published: November 2005

Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz reflects competing definitions of national identity at a crossroads in German history. The historiography of the opera reveals a contrast between the opera's reception as quintessentially German and its interpretation as an example of cosmopolitanism, particularly in its dependence on French operatic models. Weber's own ideas about German opera represent a cosmopolitanism typical of the German Enlightenment, defining Germany's cultural mission as a universalist endeavor. For Weber, the “German” and the “cosmopolitan” were practically identical. The realization of these ideals in Der Freischütz supports multiple, even contradictory, intepretations of its status as “national opera.”
Censoring Eliogabalo in Seventeenth-Century Venice
Authors: Calcagno Mauro
Published: November 2005

Analysis of the opera Eliogabalo in its various incarnations, from the perspective of Venetian society and politics at the time, reveals a veiled story of censorship and dissimulation. The first version of the opera, set by Francesco Cavalli in 1667, was hastily abandoned in favor of a new treatment by Giovanni A. Boretti on a libretto by Aurelio Aureli, which managed to retain telling traces of its predecessor. The subsequent fate of this second version, variously rewritten and performed around Italy until 1687, confirms the ideological controversy that always seemed to surround this opera and the influence of theater owners and others over its content, providing an insight into the nature of Venetian operatic patronage.
Beethoven's Leonore and Fidelio
Authors: Lockwood Lewis
Published: November 2005

Ludwig van Beethoven's 1805/6 Leonore and its 1814 revision, Fidelio, had contrasting political, biographical, and cultural contexts. Leonore took form against the background of contemporary French rescue operas and of Beethoven's commitment to heroism as a personal and social ideal. The 1814 version shifted its perspective to celebrate the benevolence of rulers, in anticipation of the impending Congress of Vienna and the restoration of monarchies after Napoleon's downfall.
Commentary: Opera in the Age of Revolution
Authors: Grey Thomas S.
Published: November 2005

Despite the apparent political subject matter of nineteenth-century opera, the aesthetic elements remained in the forefront. Practitioners, no less than audiences, placed more of a premium on factors relating to the operatic medium (style, vocal character, dramaturgical effect, and spectacle) than on political or social messages. Alternatively, such messages may have been embedded in issues of national style, apart from the implications of the drama enacted.
Commentary: Seventeenth-Century Venetian Opera as Fondamente nuove
Authors: Rosand Ellen
Published: November 2005

Seventeenth-century Venice was the ideal center for the development of opera because of certain special conditions: regular demand from a broad and depend able audience of citizens and travelers alike, dependable financial backing from the many competing patrician families who constructed and operated theaters, a flourishing publishing industry that provided publicity, and a tradition in which the arts were designed specifically to enhance the self-image of the republic. These conditions combined to sustain a genre that appealed to its audience on multiple levels. The increasing demand for new works precipitated the development of new modes of production and communication, and the various musical and dramatic conventions that originated during this era have persisted to the present day.
Why Venice? Venetian Society and the Success of Early Opera
Authors: Muir Edward
Published: November 2005

Why did opera first succeed as a public art form in Venice between 1637 and 1650 when all the elements of the new form were fully evident? The answer is to be found in the conjunction between Venetian carnival festivity and the intellectual politics of Venetian republicanism during the two generations after the lifting of the papal interdict against Venice in 1607. During this extraordinary period of relatively free speech, which was unmatched elsewhere at the time, Venice was the one place in Italy open to criticisms of Counter Reformation papal politics. Libertine and skeptical thought flourished in the Venetian academies, the members of which wrote the librettos and financed the theaters for many of the early Venetian operas.
With Eyes on the East and Ears on the West: Handel's Orientalist Operas
Authors: Harris Ellen T.
Published: November 2005

After the formal establishment of an Austrian competitor to the English East India Company (eic) in 1722, the English drew on every resource available to force the Austrian company to close down—not only political pressure and extensive pamphleteering but also the arts. Of the fifteen operas presented by the Royal Academy of Music from 1724 to 1728, twelve, including seven by George Frideric Handel, featured settings in the Orient. Chosen by the directors of the Academy, who were also eic directors and investors, these Oriental settings kept the image of the East in front of aristocratic audiences, including important Members of Parliament, who had the power to assist the East India effort.
The Myth of Venice in Nineteenth-Century Opera
Authors: Johnson James H.
Published: November 2005

Nineteenth-century operas reflected the changing views of Venice before its fall. Early in the century, depictions of a tyrannical political system, derived from French revolutionary and Napoleonic propaganda, dominated operatic plots. Later, when gothic melodrama was in full swing, the spy, the bravo, and the prostitute assumed central roles. During the fin-de-siècle, when the prevailing view of republican Venice's politics, as well as literary convention, had profoundly changed, operatic settings of eighteenth-century Venice tended to emphasize the liberating, sensual pleasures of Carnival.
Successes and Failures in Co-Present Situations
Authors: Heldal Ilona , Steed Anthony , Spante Maria , Schroeder Ralph , Bengtsson Sophia , Partanen Marja
Published: November 2005

Virtual environments systems based on immersive projection technologies (IPTs) offer users the possibility of collaborating intuitively in a 3D environment. While considerable work has been done to examine interaction in desktop-based collaborative virtual environments (CVEs), there are currently no studies for collaborative interaction using IPTs.

The aim of this paper is to examine how immersive technologies support interaction and to compare this to the experience with desktop systems. A study of collaboration is presented where two partners worked together using networked IPT environments. The data collected included observations, analysis of video and audio recordings, questionnaires and debriefing interviews from both IPT sites. This paper focuses on the successes and failures in collaboration through detailed examination of particular incidents during the interaction. We compare these successes and failures with the findings of a study by Hindmarsh, Fraser, Heath, & Benford (Computer Supported Collaborative Work, CSCW'98, 1998, pp. 217–226) that examined object-focused interaction on a desktop-based CVE system.

Our findings identify situations where interaction is better supported with the IPT system than the desktop system, and situations where interaction is not as well supported. We also present examples of how social interaction is critical to seamless collaboration.
Methodology for the Iterative Evaluation of Prototype Head-Mounted Displays in Virtual Environments: Visual Acuity Metrics
Authors: Fidopiastis Cali , Fuhrman Christopher , Meyer Catherine , Rolland Jannick
Published: November 2005

Head-mounted display design is an iterative process. As such, a standardized user-centered assessment protocol of head-mounted performance during each phase of prototype development should be employed. In this paper, we first describe a methodology for assessing prototype head-mounted displays and virtual environments using visual performance metrics. We then present an application of the methodology using a prototype of a projection head-mounted display and the first module of our assessment: resolution visual acuity as a function of contrast. To evaluate the total system, we also used three different light levels and two different types of projection materials. Results from both studies indicate that the visual acuity metric resolution accurately identified reductions in user visual acuity caused by parameters of the projection display and those of the phase conjugate material. Results further support the need for benchmark metrics that allow comparison of prototype head-mounted performance through each stage of design.
The Binding Problem in Presence Research
Authors: Harvey Michael A. , Sanchez-Vives Maria V.
Published: November 2005

An important contributor to the feeling of being present is the unity of one's perceptual experience. That is, the constellation of sensorial cues in a virtual environment must be in accord with some basic rules which, in the real world, govern the relationship between sensory events. A similar and long standing problem in neuroscience is how is it that the temporally and spatially segregated activity in neuronal ensembles is reassembled in order to generate a seamless conscious experience. This issue, which was first addressed by the Gestalt psychologists, is commonly referred to as the binding problem. In this paper we will discuss how the problem of binding is related to the problem of presence, and how the study of the neurophysiological substrates subserving this process may lead to an understanding of contextual relationships critical to generating presence in virtual environments.
Rapidly Deployable Multiprojector Immersive Displays
Authors: Jaynes Christopher , Steele R. Matt , Webb Stephen
Published: November 2005

Immersive, multiprojector systems are a compelling alternative to traditional head-mounted displays and have been growing steadily in popularity. However, the vast majority of these systems have been confined to laboratories or other special purpose facilities and have had little impact on general human—computer and human—human communication models. Cost, infrastructure requirements, and maintenance are all obstacles to the widespread deployment of immersive displays. We address these issues in the design and implementation of the Metaverse. The Metaverse system focuses on a multiprojector scalable display framework that supports automatic detection of devices as they are added/removed from the display environment. Multiple cameras support calibration over wide fields of view for immersive applications with little or no input from the user.

The approach is demonstrated on a 24-projector display environment that can be scaled on the fly, reconfigured, and redeployed according to user needs. Using our method, subpixel calibration is possible with little or no user input. Because little effort is required by the user to either install or reconfigure the projectors, rapid deployment of large, immersive displays in somewhat unconstrained environments is feasible.
Development of Head-Mounted Projection Displays for Distributed, Collaborative, Augmented Reality Applications
Authors: Rolland Jannick P. , Biocca Frank , Hamza-Lup Felix , Ha Yanggang , Martins Ricardo
Published: November 2005

Distributed systems technologies supporting 3D visualization and social collaboration will be increasing in frequency and type over time. An emerging type of head-mounted display referred to as the head-mounted projection display (HMPD) was recently developed that only requires ultralight optics (i.e., less than 8 g per eye) that enables immersive multiuser, mobile augmented reality 3D visualization, as well as remote 3D collaborations. In this paper a review of the development of lightweight HMPD technology is provided, together with insight into what makes this technology timely and so unique. Two novel emerging HMPD-based technologies are then described: a teleportal HMPD (T-HMPD) enabling face-to-face communication and visualization of shared 3D virtual objects, and a mobile HMPD (M-HMPD) designed for outdoor wearable visualization and communication. Finally, the use of HMPD in medical visualization and training, as well as in infospaces, two applications developed in the ODA and MIND labs respectively, are discussed.
Evaluating Effectiveness of Interaction Techniques across Immersive Virtual Environmental Systems
Authors: Steed Anthony , Parker Chris
Published: November 2005

This paper presents the results of a formal experiment to compare different interaction techniques across two types of immersive display: an immersive projection technology (IPT) and a head-mounted display (HMD). Our aim is to investigate the effectiveness of two widely used interaction metaphors, virtual hand and ray casting, on these two display technologies. Our motivation is that design and evaluation of interaction techniques for immersive egocentric display systems has been undertaken almost exclusively on HMDs. We argue that basing interaction for IPTs on techniques developed for other types of immersive systems is a flawed approach, as there are some categorical differences between the experience given by an IPT and an HMD. For example, an IPT user has a much wider field of view than an HMD user.

We have chosen two types of interaction tasks to study: simple selection of objects both near to and at some distance from the user, and manipulation of objects involving a change of both position and orientation. As previous studies have found, we find that ray casting is preferable for selection and virtual hand is preferable for manipulation for a HMD. We show that this is also the case for the IPT. More interestingly, while we find performance on selection tasks is much better on the IPT, for manipulation tasks there is little difference between the two display technologies.
The Effect of Memory Schemas on Object Recognition in Virtual Environments
Authors: Mania Katerina , Robinson Andrew , Brandt Karen R.
Published: November 2005

Prior theoretical work on memory schemas, an influential concept of memory from the field of cognitive psychology, is presented for application to fidelity of computer graphics simulations. The basic assumption is that an individual's prior experience will influence how he or she perceives, comprehends, and remembers new information in a scene. Schemas are knowledge structures; a scene could incorporate objects that fit into a specific context or schema (e.g., an academic's office) referred to as consistent objects. A scene could also include objects that are not related to the schema in place referred to as inconsistent objects. In this paper, we describe ongoing development of a rendering framework related to scene perception based on schemas. An experiment was carried out to explore the effect of object type and rendering quality on object memory recognition in a room. The computer graphics simulation was displayed on a Head Mounted Display (HMD) utilizing stereo imagery and head tracking. Thirty-six participants across three conditions of varied rendering quality of the same space were exposed to the computer graphics environment and completed a memory recognition task. Results revealed that schema consistent elements of the scene were more likely to be recognized than inconsistent information. Overall higher confidence ratings were assigned for consistent objects compared to inconsistent ones. Total object recognition was better for the mid-quality condition compared to the low-quality one. The presence of shadow information, though, did not affect recognition of either consistent or inconsistent objects. Further explorations of the effect of schemas on spatial awareness in synthetic worlds could lead to identifying areas of a computer graphics scene that require better quality of rendering as well as areas for which lower fidelity could be sufficient. The ultimate goal of this work is to simulate a perceptual process rather than to simulate physics.
Movement Around Real and Virtual Cluttered Environments
Authors: Lessels Simon , Ruddle Roy A.
Published: November 2005

Two experiments investigated participants' ability to search for targets in a cluttered small-scale space. The first experiment was conducted in the real world with two field of view conditions (full vs. restricted), and participants found the task trivial to perform in both. The second experiment used the same search task but was conducted in a desktop virtual environment (VE), and investigated two movement interfaces and two visual scene conditions. Participants restricted to forward only movement performed the search task quicker and more efficiently (visiting fewer targets) than those who used an interface that allowed more flexible movement (forward, backward, left, right, and diagonal). Also, participants using a high fidelity visual scene performed the task significantly quicker and more efficiently than those who used a low fidelity scene. The performance differences among all the conditions decreased with practice, but the performance of the best VE group approached that of the real-world participants. These results indicate the importance of using high fidelity scenes in VEs, and suggest that the use of a simple control system is sufficient for maintaining one's spatial orientation during searching.
Land-Tenure in Mycenaean Greece and the Hittite Empire: Linear B Land-surveys from Pylos and Middle Hittite Land-Donations
Authors: Uchitel Alexander
Published: November 2005

The article is a comparative study of Mycenaean Greek and Hittite land-tenure systems. It is based upon a systematic comparison of two groups of documents: land-registers (the so-called E-series) from Pylos and Middle Hittite land-donations. The traditional interpretation of both Mycenaean Greek and Hittite documents is challenged and alternative interpretations are offered. Thus, on the Mycenaean side, the construction with the preposition pa-ro is reinterpreted, and on the Hittite side an entirely new interpretation of a Hittite expression pir-sahhanas is offered. Both land-tenure systems are interpreted as two manifestations of compulsory labour service of small landholders attached to large agricultural estates. Cet article est une étude comparative des systèmes de tenue de la terre dans la Grèce mycénienne et l'empire hittite. Elle est fondée sur une comparaison systématique de deux groupes de documents : les registres de la terre (appelés la série E) de Pylos et les donations de terre moyenne hittite. L'interprétation traditionnelle des documents mycénien et hittite est ici remise en question et une nouvelle explication est offerte. Ainsi, du côté mycénien, la construction avec la préposition pa-ro est réinterprétée, et du côté hittite une interprétation entièrement nouvelle de l'expression pir-sahhanas est proposée. Les deux systèmes de tenue de la terre sont interprétés comme deux manifestations d'un service de travail obligatoire dus par des petits propriétaires attachés à des grandes propriétés agricoles.
Famine, Finance and Political Power: Crop Failure and Land-Tax Exemptions in Late Eighteenth-Century Chosôn Korea
Authors: Karlsson Anders
Published: November 2005

This study analyses Chosôn (1392-1910) state responses to protracted and severe crop failure in the late eighteenth century. Confucian ideology and an elaborate relief system made it difficult for the state to let its present tax needs override concerns for rural communities, and steadily increasing tax exemptions severely strained state finances. However, these exemptions were still far from sufficient, and this period saw constantly increasing numbers of starving people. This study argues that political considerations and socio-economic interests influenced the tax exemption process and that the resulting unequal allocation exacerbated the famine problem in the provinces disadvantaged by the system. Cette étude fait l'analyse des réponses du gouvernement Chosôn en vue de la faillite sévère et prolongée des moissons pendant plusieurs années vers la fin du dix-huitiême siècle. L'idéologie confucéenne, ainsi qu'un système d'allégements trop élaboré, rendait difficile pour l'État de donner la priorité à ses propres besoins fiscales au-dessus de son égard pour les besoins de la communauté campagnarde, si bien que les dispenses d'impôts allaient toujours en croissance, grevant sévèrement les ressources de l'État. Toutefois, ces dispenses ne suffisaient jamais aux besoins, tant bien qu'à cette époque le nombre de personnes affamées montait toujours. La présente étude prétend que les intérêts politiques et socio-économiques influençaient le procédé des dispenses d'impôts, et qu'en conséquence l'allocation inégale aggravait le problème de la famine dans les provinces désavantagées par ce système.
The Forgotten Prince: Mirza Hakim and the Formation of the Mughal Empire in India
Authors: Faruqui Munis
Published: November 2005

This paper examines the intense competition between Emperor Akbar (r. 1556-1605)—the effective founder of the Mughal Empire in India—and his Kabul-based half-brother, Mirza Hakim (d. 1585). A focus on this rivalry serves to highlight the critical but historically unacknowledged role played by Mirza Hakim in shaping the trajectory of Akbar's reign and also that of the Mughal Empire in India. It is also intended to underline the continued significance of connective links between Central Asia and South Asia decades after the founding of the Mughal Empire in 1526. Cet article examine la concurrence intense entre l'empereur Akbar (règne 1556-1605)—le fondateur véritable de l'empire Moghol en Inde—et son demi-frère, basé à Kaboul, Mirza Hakim (d. 1585). L'étude de cette rivalité sert à souligner le rôle crucial mais historiquement méconnu joué par Mirza Hakim dans la définition de la trajectoire du règne d'Akbar ainsi que dans celle de l'empire Moghol en Inde. Cet exposé vise aussi à relever l'importance continue des liens entre l'Asie centrale et l'Asie du sud pendant plusieurs décennies après la fondation de l'empire Moghol en 1526.
Crafts in Eighteenth-Century Jodhpur: Questions of Class, Caste and Community Identities
Authors: Sahai Nandita
Published: November 2005

Through a case study of the artisanate in eighteenth-century Jodhpur, this paper explores the multiple identities among craft groups. It probes the matrix of factors that crystallised caste rather than class identities and solidarities, and enabled collective actions by craft castes in defence of their interests. It displays, however, that different contexts brought forth diverse forms of caste politics, and that behaving as unified blocs was as common as occasions that demonstrated fissures in caste identities. It therefore argues that multiple identities of individual craftsmen resulted in their perusal of heterogeneous competing agendas crosscutting caste and class affiliations. The paper thereby points to the contested character of all such aggregations. Cet article analyse la matrice des facteurs ayant permis la cristallisation des identités et des solidarités de la caste au lieu de la classe, ainsi que l'action collective des castes artisanales pour la défense de leurs intérêts à travers l'exemple de l'artisanat du Jodhpur au 18e siècle. Il met en lumière le fait que différents contextes engendrant différentes formes de politique des castes, les castes artisanales ne se comportaient pas comme un bloc unifié mais étaient aussi traversées par des fissures. Dès lors, les identités multiples portées par les artisans ont engendré des luttes politiques hétérogènes traversant les affiliations de caste et de classe. Cet article vise donc à mettre l'accent sur le caractère contesté de ces catégories.
The Total Meridional Heat Flux and Its Oceanic and Atmospheric Partition
Authors: Wunsch Carl
Published: November 2005

Atmospheric meridional heat transport is inferred as a residual from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) data and in situ oceanic estimates. Reversing the conventional approach of computing the ocean as an atmospheric model residual is done to permit calculation of a preliminary uncertainty estimate for the atmospheric flux. The structure of the ERBE errors is itself an important uncertainty. Total energy transport is almost indistinguishable from a hemispherically antisymmetric analytic function, despite the great asymmetry of the oceanic heat fluxes. ERBE data appear sufficiently noisy so that a considerable range of atmospheric transports remains possible: the maximum atmospheric value lies between 3 and 5 PW in the Northern Hemisphere, at one standard deviation, although the values are sensitive to the noise assumptions made here. The Northern Hemisphere ocean and atmosphere carry comparable poleward heat fluxes to about 28°N where the oceanic flux drops rapidly, but does not actually vanish until the oceanic surface area goes to zero. Within the estimated error bars, there is a remarkable antisymmetry about the equator of the combined ocean and atmospheric transports, despite the marked oceanic transport asymmetry.
Multicentury Changes to the Global Climate and Carbon Cycle: Results from a Coupled Climate and Carbon Cycle Model
Authors: Bala G. , Caldeira K. , Mirin A. , Wickett M. , Delire C.
Published: November 2005

A coupled climate and carbon (CO2) cycle model is used to investigate the global climate and carbon cycle changes out to the year 2300 that would occur if CO2 emissions from all the currently estimated fossil fuel resources were released to the atmosphere. By the year 2300, the global climate warms by about 8 K and atmospheric CO2 reaches 1423 ppmv. The warming is higher than anticipated because the sensitivity to radiative forcing increases as the simulation progresses. In this simulation, the rate of emissions peaks at over 30 Pg C yr−1 early in the twenty-second century. Even at the year 2300, nearly 50% of cumulative emissions remain in the atmosphere. Both soils and living biomass are net carbon sinks throughout the simulation. Despite having relatively low climate sensitivity and strong carbon uptake by the land biosphere, these model projections suggest severe long-term consequences for global climate if all the fossil fuel carbon is ultimately released into the atmosphere.
Multidecadal Variability of North Atlantic Temperature and Salinity during the Twentieth Century
Authors: Polyakov I. V. , Bhatt U. S. , Simmons H. L. , Walsh D. , Walsh J. E. , Zhang X.
Published: November 2005

Substantial changes occurred in the North Atlantic during the twentieth century. Here the authors demonstrate, through the analysis of a vast collection of observational data, that multidecadal fluctuations on time scales of 50–80 yr are prevalent in the upper 3000 m of the North Atlantic Ocean. Spatially averaged temperature and salinity from the 0–300- and 1000–3000-m layers vary in opposition: prolonged periods of cooling and freshening (warming and salinification) in one layer are generally associated with opposite tendencies in the other layer, consistent with the notion of thermohaline overturning circulation. In the 1990s, widespread cooling and freshening was a dominant feature in the 1000–3000-m layer, whereas warming and salinification generally dominated in the upper 300 m, except for the subpolar North Atlantic where complex exchanges with the Arctic Ocean occur. The single-signed basin-scale pattern of multidecadal variability is evident from decadal 1000–3000-m temperature and salinity fields, whereas upper-ocean temperature and salinity distributions have a more complicated spatial pattern. Results suggest a general warming trend of 0.012° ± 0.009°C decade−1 in the upper-3000-m North Atlantic over the last 55 yr of the twentieth century, although during this time there are periods in which short-term trends are strongly amplified by multidecadal variability. Since warming (cooling) is generally associated with salinification (freshening) for these large-scale fluctuations, qualitatively tracking the mean temperature–salinity relationship, vertical displacement of isotherms appears to play an important role in this warming and in other observed fluctuations. Finally, since the North Atlantic Ocean plays a crucial role in establishing and regulating global thermohaline circulation, the multidecadal fluctuations of the heat and freshwater balance discussed here should be considered when assessing long-term climate change and variability, both in the North Atlantic and at global scales.
Judaism and the Politics of Enlightenment
Authors: Sutcliffe Adam
Published: November 2005

This article explores the political and philosophical significance of Judaism in the thought of the European Enlightenment and the resonance of these debates in Western thought since the 18th century. Judaism and the Jews persistently served as a troublesome limit case, a destabilizing challenge, and a probing test for enlightenment rationalism. Attempts to divide the Enlightenment into “anti-Semitic” and “philosemitic” strands are doomed to failure; rather, the intellectual relationship is inescapably complex and unstable. Because of this, Judaism can provide a unique bulwark against univocal rationalist authoritarianism.
Bonhoeffer and the Bible in Christian Ethics: Psalm 119, The Mandates, and Ethics as a 'Way'
Authors: Brock Brian
Published: November 2005

This paper elucidates Bonhoeffer's understanding of Christian ethics as a `way'. The concept is prominent in his unfinished exegesis of Psalm 119 and shapes his Ethics, written during the same time period. This reading of Bonhoeffer's ethics yields the claim that he gave a much more central role to biblical exegesis in his ethical framework than is typically granted. It concludes that much of the criticism of his concept of the mandates reveals not the weakness of the concept, but a misunderstanding of both his conception of Christian ethics as a way, and the importance of theological exegesis in his thought.
Pacifism and Tyrannicide: Bonhoeffer's Christian Peace Ethic
Authors: Green Clifford J.
Published: November 2005

This article offers a new interpretation of Bonhoeffer's Christian peace ethic, a more penetrating description of what is usually called his `pacifism'. This peace ethic does not rest on a principle of non-violence — Bonhoeffer rejects an ethic of principles — but is rooted in his distinctive reading of Scripture, especially the Sermon on the Mount, and his understanding of Christ, discipleship, the gospel and the church. Consequently he does not abandon his peace ethic to participate in the anti-Hitler conspiracy and attempted tyrannicide. Theological analysis and historical information both support this conclusion.
The Cost of Citizenship: Disciple and Citizen in Bonhoeffer's Political Ethics
Authors: Heuser Stefan
Published: November 2005

The author suggests that a synchronic reading of Bonhoeffer's major works yields a typology of the two main images around which Bonhoeffer's political ethics orbit: disciple and citizen. Concentrating on the latter, the author shows the centrality of the question of power for Bonhoeffer's political ethics, and how it relates to responsibility and vocation. He argues that Bonhoeffer's ethics follows a christological grammar which constitutes its specific realism and provides its focus on institutions and good works. The essay concludes that the call to citizenship, the vocation of co-operative, representative and vicarious action, forms the central idea of Bonhoeffer's political ethics, which is still highly relevant for political ethics today.
The Sacrament of Ethical Reality: Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Ethics for Christian Citizens
Authors: Plant Stephen
Published: November 2005

The paper explicates Bonhoeffer's dense statement, made in a 1932 lecture, that `Reality is the sacrament of [the ethical] command'. It begins with a summary of William T. Cavanaugh's rich description of the Eucharist as that act which makes the Church Christ's body, thereby constituting the true res publica. A comparison is drawn with Bonhoeffer's account of the sacramental foundation of the Church's public proclamation of God's ethical command. Bonhoeffer differs from Cavanaugh, I suggest, not only in his conviction that the Church speaks God's command penultimately and with humility, but in regarding the state as one of the means by which God acts within the penultimate to preserve creation.
Healing the Rift between the Sermon on the Mount and Christian Ethics
Authors: Stassen Glen Harold
Published: November 2005

The Sermon on the Mount guided Bonhoeffer's ethics in his decisive early opposition to Hitler. His interpretation was guided by a hermeneutic of renunciation. But the Sermon is strangely missing in his Ethics. The context had shifted; he needed to confront a massive concentration of power — crucial in our context as well. We need to see that the structure of the Sermon is not dyadic antitheses of renunciation, but triadic transforming initiatives of confrontation — significantly more helpful in confronting power, and in recovering its original meaning. We need to heal the historic split between the Sermon and Christian ethics.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Decisions in the Crisis Years 1929-33
Authors: Tödt Heinz Eduard
Published: November 2005

How can we explain Bonhoeffer's clear-sightedness in leading against National Socialism from the beginning of the Third Reich, by contrast with experienced theologians? Around 1930 he experienced his personal turning through the Bible, `especially the Sermon on the Mount'. He replaced the dominating position of the nation in God's historical order, and the social-Darwinist struggle for the survival of the fittest nation, with the task of preventing wars through an international order of peace, including international law. He saw the mission of the church on a new, transnational political horizon as one people of God that has a mission of peace in the world through the gospel.
'Responsible Living' or 'Responsible Self'? Bonhoefferian Reflections on a Vexed Moral Notion
Authors: Wannenwetsch Bernd
Published: November 2005

The essay explains why, for Christians, responsible acting and living means responding to Christ and neighbour, and not to a `responsible self'. The history of the concept, `responsibility', is traced from its origin in Roman juridical language, by way of its being theologised in medieval times, up to the peculiar moral slant it acquired in modernity. The author challenges the mainstream understanding of `responsibility as accountability' by demonstrating that it rests on a theological mistake which ultimately invites moral self-justification. This is demonstrated by critically contrasting H. R. Niebuhr's `responsible self' with Bonhoeffer's account of' responsible action'.
After-Rape Among Three Populations in the Southwest
Authors: Bletzer Keith V. , Koss Mary P.
Published: November 2005

Narrative analysis of open-ended interviews with 62 female survivors of rape from three populations in the Southwest (Native American, Mexican American, Anglo) uncovered commonalities and dissimilarities in women's description of their experience of afterrape (rape survival). Although all three groups reported experiences that confirm aspects of prior analyses of reactions to rape, the narrative analysis highlights variations in reactions to rape across the three groups. These variations, and more established commonalities, provide baseline material for strengthening primary and secondary interventions for women who have experienced sexual violence.
Understanding and Modeling Health Behavior
Authors: Lippke Sonia , Ziegelmann Jochen P.
Published: November 2005

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Multi-Stage Model (MSM). The MSM proposes eight different stages that are distinguished by cognitions and behavior and concepts of habituation as well. The MSM stages were assessed in 835 rehabilitation patients with a questionnaire. People in the different stages were compared and trends across the means of individuals in the different stages were evaluated to test for discontinuity patterns. Discontinuity patterns across the stages were found in social-cognitive variables such as intention, self-efficacy, outcome expectancies and social support. Most predictions according to stage differences were empirically found. This supported the validity of the MSM. Implications for further investigations and stage-specific interventions are discussed.
Autonomy and Control
Authors: Brickell Tracey A. , Chatzisarantis Nikos L. D. , Pretty Grace M.
Published: November 2005

This study examined the utility of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) along with additional constructs in predicting exercise, and explored the motivational antecedents of exercise intentions. Participants included 162 Canadian University College students (61% females). Measures of TPB, autonomous and controlling intention, perceived autonomy support and core autonomous intention were completed during phase 1 of data collection. Two and three weeks later behaviour was assessed. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that: (a) attitude and perceived behavioural control significantly predicted TPB intention and core autonomous intention; (b) subjective norm predicted controlling intention; and (c) perceived autonomy support predicted autonomous and core autonomous intention. TPB intention significantly predicted behaviour. TPB is a fairly useful model for predicting behaviour and important information can be gained when other measures of intention are explored.
Income and separation
Authors: Bradbury Bruce , Norris Kate
Published: November 2005

What factors are associated with marital separation? In particular, is there a ‘social class gradient’ for separation? This article addresses these questions using data from two large Australian longitudinal data sets. The main focus is on the association between income support status/family income and the probability of separation. We find that recipients of income support from government are more than twice as likely to separate as non-recipients of income support. De facto couples are more likely to separate than legally married couples, though separation rates within the de facto married population have more variation with income than among legally married couples. The relationship between separation and demographic and health characteristics is also explored and we find that couples where the husband has depressive symptoms are more likely to separate. The article concludes by discussing the potential explanations for the association between income and separation.
The language of lineage: reading Irish court tomb design
Authors: Powell Andrew B.
Published: November 2005

The Neolithic court tombs of Ireland display variation in the ways that their component parts – concave courts, linear galleries and individual cells – were combined and arranged. This variation has been interpreted in the past in terms of both the diffusion of ideas and the design requirements of their builders. In this article it is suggested that the analysis of these formalized components points to central themes of the social and ritual discourse that accompanied the tombs' construction and use, the symbolism of the tombs expressing alleged lineage relationships between the living community, its ancestors and the land. It is suggested that these communities were based on one or more corporate descent groups, in some cases combining with other social units to appropriate and exploit territory, the relationships between them being symbolized and idealized in the spatial layout of the tombs' orthostatic structures.
Transnational social fields and imperialism
Authors: Schiller Nina Glick
Published: November 2005

Transnational Studies have allowed scholars to move beyond a methodological nationalism that conflates society and the nation-state. Yet rather than addressing globe-spanning systems of power, Transnational Studies that focus on transnational communities or diasporas obscure important relations of power. More recently there has been a spate of publishing on the ‘new’ imperialism that offers global theories of power. However, much of the emerging scholarship on imperialism fails to examine the processes that legitimate and assist imperial control. By theorizing transnational social fields, transnational migration studies offer insights into the social and cultural processes of imperialist intervention. Drawing from ethnographic research with fundamentalist Christians and Haitian long-distance nationalists, the article argues that our scholarship must examine the relationship between the transnational social fields and imperialist power.
Writing theory
Authors: Chun Allen
Published: November 2005

Those of us in the ‘social sciences’ who take theory ‘seriously’ have been taught to treat ideas as ideas. The history of theory is thus the history of ideas as they have evolved from or in contradistinction to other ideas. Some disciplines even have ‘classical’ theory, a wellspring of concepts and frames of mind that have served to produce more contemporary ones. Theory may be seen as a special form of discourse in the sense that most authors appear to attach a certain degree of belief in the factual content of theory or theoretical explanation. At least, I do not know anyone who takes his theory seriously who would at the same time admit that it is a deliberate fiction or imagined narrative. On the contrary, I wish to argue that theories in the first instance are precisely that: imagined relations that are grounded in mindsets and experiences, which are socially and historically constituted. Moreover, I argue that these mindsets and experiences are unconsciously constituted in the context of changing institutions that have directly conditioned the subjectivity of theorists as agents. Academics in particular like to think that their writing is ‘free’ from strictures that define its form or content. I think this is an illusion that has ramifications, most of all for ‘theory’.
Invasive versus noninvasive measurement of allergic and cholinergic airway responsiveness in mice
Authors: Glaab Thomas , Ziegert Michaela , Baelder Ralf , Korolewitz Regina , Braun Armin , Hohlfeld Jens M , Mitzner Wayne , Krug Norbert , Hoymann Heinz G
Published: November 2005

Background

This study seeks to compare the ability of repeatable invasive and noninvasive lung function methods to assess allergen-specific and cholinergic airway responsiveness (AR) in intact, spontaneously breathing BALB/c mice.

Methods

Using noninvasive head-out body plethysmography and the decrease in tidal midexpiratory flow (EF50), we determined early AR (EAR) to inhaled Aspergillus fumigatus antigens in conscious mice. These measurements were paralleled by invasive determination of pulmonary conductance (GL), dynamic compliance (Cdyn) and EF50 in another group of anesthetized, orotracheally intubated mice.

Results

With both methods, allergic mice, sensitized and boosted with A. fumigatus, elicited allergen-specific EAR to A. fumigatus (p < 0.05 versus controls). Dose-response studies to aerosolized methacholine (MCh) were performed in the same animals 48 h later, showing that allergic mice relative to controls were distinctly more responsive (p < 0.05) and revealed acute airway inflammation as evidenced from increased eosinophils and lymphocytes in bronchoalveolar lavage.

Conclusion

We conclude that invasive and noninvasive pulmonary function tests are capable of detecting both allergen-specific and cholinergic AR in intact, allergic mice. The invasive determination of GL and Cdyn is superior in sensitivity, whereas the noninvasive EF50 method is particularly appropriate for quick and repeatable screening of respiratory function in large numbers of conscious mice.
Effects of cigarette smoke condensate on proliferation and wound closure of bronchial epithelial cells in vitro: role of glutathione
Authors: Luppi Fabrizio , Aarbiou Jamil , van Wetering Sandra , Rahman Irfan , de Boer Willem I , Rabe Klaus F , Hiemstra Pieter S
Published: November 2005

Background

Increased airway epithelial proliferation is frequently observed in smokers. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms leading to these epithelial changes, we studied the effect of cigarette smoke condensate (CSC) on cell proliferation, wound closure and mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) activation. We also studied whether modulation of intracellular glutathione/thiol levels could attenuate CSC-induced cell proliferation.

Methods

Cells of the bronchial epithelial cell line NCI-H292 and subcultures of primary bronchial epithelial cells were used for the present study. The effect of CSC on epithelial proliferation was assessed using 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation. Modulation of epithelial wound repair was studied by analysis of closure of 3 mm circular scrape wounds during 72 hours of culture. Wound closure was calculated from digital images obtained at 24 h intervals. Activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases was assessed by Western blotting using phospho-specific antibodies.

Results

At low concentrations CSC increased proliferation of NCI-H292 cells, whereas high concentrations were inhibitory as a result of cytotoxicity. Low concentrations of CSC also increased epithelial wound closure of both NCI-H292 and PBEC, whereas at high concentrations closure was inhibited. At low, mitogenic concentrations, CSC caused persistent activation of ERK1/2, a MAPK involved in cell proliferation. Inhibition of cell proliferation by high concentrations of CSC was associated with activation of the pro-apoptotic MAP kinases p38 and JNK. Modulation of intracellular glutathione (GSH)/thiol levels using N-acetyl-L-cysteine, GSH or buthionine sulphoximine (BSO), demonstrated that both the stimulatory and the inhibitory effects of CSC were regulated in part by intracellular GSH levels.

Conclusion

These results indicate that CSC may increase cell proliferation and wound closure dependent on the local concentration of cigarette smoke and the anti-oxidant status. These findings are consistent with increased epithelial proliferation in smokers, and may provide further insight in the development of lung cancer.