bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer in Japanese kidney transplant recipients: a single center experience
Authors: Kato Taigo , Kakuta Yoichi , Yamanaka Kazuaki , Okumi Masayoshi , Abe Toyofumi , Imamura Ryoichi , Ichimaru Naotsugu , Takahara Shiro , Nonomura Norio
Published: April 2015

Background

The incidence of malignancies in kidney transplant recipients is increasing. Breast cancer is a common malignancy after kidney transplantation and can be more aggressive in kidney transplant recipients than in the general population. In this study, we evaluated the incidence and prognosis of breast cancer in kidney transplant recipients.

Findings

Between 1993 and 2013, 750 kidney transplant patients were followed-up at our center. Since 1999, annual physical examination, mammography, and breast ultrasonography have been performed for such patients. Diagnostic studies, including core needle or mammotome biopsy, were performed for suspected malignancies. Patients with malignant neoplasm were administered the appropriate treatment and followed-up to assess tumor response and symptoms.

Nine patients were diagnosed with breast cancer during the follow-up period. The mean age at the initial detection of the breast cancer was 47.7 ± 8.4 years. The mean interval from transplantation to diagnosis was 148.7 ± 37.1 months. Of the 9 patients, 8 were detected through the screening test; 7 were treated with breast conservative surgery and 1 was treated with modified radical mastectomy. The cancer stages were 0 (n = 2), I (n = 6), and II (n = 1). The incidence of breast cancer tended to be unchanged with time between transplantation and diagnosis, inconsistent with the increase in the duration of immunosuppression.

Conclusion

Annual screening tests are crucial in the early diagnosis of breast cancer. Early treatment of breast cancer can result in an excellent prognosis in kidney transplant recipients.
Fatigue crack growth in a nickel-based superalloy at elevated temperature - experimental studies, viscoplasticity modelling and XFEM predictions
Authors: Farukh Farukh , Zhao Liguo , Jiang Rong , Reed Philippa , Proprentner Daniela , Shollock Barbara
Published: April 2015

Background

Nickel-based superalloys are typically used as blades and discs in the hot section of gas turbine engines, which are subjected to cyclic loading at high temperature during service. Understanding fatigue crack deformation and growth in these alloys at high temperature is crucial for ensuring structural integrity of gas turbines.

Methods

Experimental studies of crack growth were carried out for a three-point bending specimen subjected to fatigue at 725°C. In order to remove the influence of oxidation which can be considerable at elevated temperature, crack growth was particularly tested in a vacuum environment with a focus on dwell effects. For simulation, the material behaviour was described by a cyclic viscoplastic model with nonlinear kinematic and isotropic hardening rules, calibrated against test data. In combination with the extended finite element method (XFEM), the viscoplasticity model was further applied to predict crack growth under dwell fatigue. The crack was assumed to grow when the accumulated plastic strain ahead of the crack tip reached a critical value which was back calculated from crack growth test data in vacuum.

Results

Computational analyses of a stationary crack showed the progressive accumulation of strain near the crack tip under fatigue, which justified the strain accumulation criterion used in XFEM prediction of fatigue crack growth. During simulation, the crack length was recorded against the number of loading cycles, and the results were in good agreement with the experimental data. It was also shown, both experimentally and numerically, that an increase of dwell period leads to an increase of crack growth rate due to the increased creep deformation near the crack tip, but this effect is marginal when compared to the dwell effects under fatigue-oxidation conditions.

Conclusion

The strain accumulation criterion was successful in predicting both the path and the rate of crack growth under dwell fatigue. This work proved the capability of XFEM, in conjunction with advanced cyclic viscoplasticity model, for predicting crack growth in nickel alloys at elevated temperature, which has significant implication to gas turbine industries in terms of “damage tolerance” assessment of critical turbine discs and blades.
Psychosocial morbidity associated with bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder in psychiatric out-patients: Comparative study
Authors: Zimmerman Mark , Ellison William , Morgan Theresa A. , Young Diane , Chelminski Iwona , Dalrymple Kristy
Published: April 2015

Background

The morbidity associated with bipolar disorder is, in part, responsible for repeated calls for improved detection and recognition. No such commentary exists for the improved detection of borderline personality disorder. Clinical experience suggests that it is as disabling as bipolar disorder, but no study has directly compared the two disorders.

Aims

To compare the levels of psychosocial morbidity in patients with bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder.

Method

Patients were assessed with semi-structured interviews. We compared 307 patients with DSM-IV borderline personality disorder but without bipolar disorder and 236 patients with bipolar disorder but without borderline personality disorder.

Results

The patients with borderline personality disorder less frequently were college graduates, were diagnosed with more comorbid disorders, more frequently had a history of substance use disorder, reported more suicidal ideation at the time of the evaluation, more frequently had attempted suicide, reported poorer social functioning and were rated lower on the Global Assessment of Functioning. There was no difference between the two patient groups in history of admission to psychiatric hospital or time missed from work during the past 5 years.

Conclusions

The level of psychosocial morbidity associated with borderline personality disorder was as great as (or greater than) that experienced by patients with bipolar disorder. From a public health perspective, efforts to improve the detection and treatment of borderline personality disorder might be as important as efforts to improve the recognition and treatment of bipolar disorder.
Alone withTess
Authors: Christoff Alicia
Published: April 2015

This essay traces the connections between Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891) and the work of the twentieth-century psychoanalytic writer D. W. Winnicott, particularly his essay “The Capacity to Be Alone” (1958). It argues that reading Hardy alongside British object-relations psychoanalysis and its present-day inheritors helps to uncover the invention of modern solitude: a paradoxical state in which we are never truly alone because we have internalized the presence of others, whether they are persons or, this essay argues, literary characters. We, like Tess, imagine that others are with us, narrating and experiencing our lives alongside us, even when we are alone. Analyzing Tess alongside Winnicott's relational solitude reframes many of the perceived failures of the novel—its stylistic incongruities and particularly the often-criticized “uneven” characterization of Tess—as important acts of formal experimentation. In turn, the essay uncovers in Winnicott's work on psyche and subject-formation a theory of novel reading that allows us to rethink how nineteenth-century novels work on their readers—including how they gender us. Ultimately, the essay is interested in the way novelistic representation comes to shape both theories of the psyche and psyches themselves.
Henry James and Stupidity
Authors: Sussman Matthew
Published: April 2015

For many readers, “stupidity” in Henry James signifies mental slowness, poor taste, or even moral delinquency. However, James also conceived of stupidity as a positive virtue because it promises to deliver the individual from the “ordeal of consciousness” associated with intelligence and its exercise. At its heart, Jamesian intelligence is characterized by “appreciation,” or the ability to “get most” out of a situation or person; consequently, stupidity offers an alternative dynamic that suspends interest in order to protect persons and things from knowledge, exploitation, or use. The moral purity of stupidity explains why, in the later works, James values the sexually innocent and the willfully naive, providing a key to solving some of his more puzzling love plots; aesthetically, it accounts for his fascination with symbols and inanimate objects, rendered beautiful by their inscrutability or lack of perceptiveness. Consequently, we may understand the opacity of the later style as embodying stupidity in verbal form while also stupefying readers into the idealistic condition of disinterestedness. However, as a principle of either ethics or art, stupidity remains limited by its incompatibility with adult knowledge and location in nonnarratable forms.
Induction of stable ER–plasma-membrane junctions by Kv2.1 potassium channels
Authors: Fox Philip D. , Haberkorn Christopher J. , Akin Elizabeth J. , Seel Peter J. , Krapf Diego , Tamkun Michael M.
Published: April 2015

Junctions between cortical endoplasmic reticulum (cER) and the plasma membrane are a subtle but ubiquitous feature in mammalian cells; however, very little is known about the functions and molecular interactions that are associated with neuronal ER–plasma-membrane junctions. Here, we report that Kv2.1 (also known as KCNB1), the primary delayed-rectifier K+ channel in the mammalian brain, induces the formation of ER–plasma-membrane junctions. Kv2.1 localizes to dense, cell-surface clusters that contain non-conducting channels, indicating that they have a function that is unrelated to membrane-potential regulation. Accordingly, Kv2.1 clusters function as membrane-trafficking hubs, providing platforms for delivery and retrieval of multiple membrane proteins. Using both total internal reflection fluorescence and electron microscopy we demonstrate that the clustered Kv2.1 plays a direct structural role in the induction of stable ER–plasma-membrane junctions in both transfected HEK 293 cells and cultured hippocampal neurons. Glutamate exposure results in a loss of Kv2.1 clusters in neurons and subsequent retraction of the cER from the plasma membrane. We propose Kv2.1-induced ER–plasma-membrane junctions represent a new macromolecular plasma-membrane complex that is sensitive to excitotoxic insult and functions as a scaffolding site for both membrane trafficking and Ca2+ signaling.
Probing microtubule polymerisation state at single kinetochores during metaphase chromosome motion
Authors: Armond Jonathan W. , Vladimirou Elina , Erent Muriel , McAinsh Andrew D. , Burroughs Nigel J.
Published: April 2015

Kinetochores regulate the dynamics of attached microtubule bundles (kinetochore-fibres, K-fibres) to generate the forces necessary for chromosome movements in mitosis. Current models suggest that poleward-moving kinetochores are attached to depolymerising K-fibres and anti-poleward-moving kinetochores to polymerising K-fibres. How the dynamics of individual microtubules within the K-fibre relate to poleward and anti-poleward movements is poorly understood. To investigate this, we developed a live-cell imaging assay combined with computational image analysis that allows eGFP-tagged EB3 (also known as MAPRE3) to be quantified at thousands of individual metaphase kinetochores as they undergo poleward and anti-poleward motion. Surprisingly, we found that K-fibres are incoherent, containing both polymerising and depolymerising microtubules – with a small polymerisation bias for anti-poleward-moving kinetochores. K-fibres also display bursts of EB3 intensity, predominantly on anti-poleward-moving kinetochores, equivalent to more coherent polymerisation, and this was associated with more regular oscillations. The frequency of bursts and the polymerisation bias decreased upon loss of kinesin-13, whereas loss of kinesin-8 elevated polymerisation bias. Thus, kinetochores actively set the balance of microtubule polymerisation dynamics in the K-fibre while remaining largely robust to fluctuations in microtubule polymerisation.
Enhanced Chromogenic Sensitivity of Horseradish Peroxidase-Catalyzed Oxidative Reactions in the Presence of Betaine-Type Metabolite Analogs
Authors: Takagi Kotomi , Kashima Yasuhiro , Fujii Satoshi , Koumoto Kazuya
Published: April 2015

Horseradish peroxidase (HRP), a well-known oxidase, is frequently used in the diagnostic field as a labeling enzyme, where it amplifies the substrate binding signal of antibodies. Though practical for detecting moderate amounts of substrate, there is strong demand for further development of its sensitivity to detect minuscule quantities of biomarkers. Recently, we found that betaine-type cellular metabolite analogs facilitate enzymatic hydrolysis just by dissolving them into the reaction buffer. In the present study, using the analog (2-(N,N,N-tri-n-butylammonium) acetate) and various colorimetric substrates of HRP, we investigated the activation behavior of HRP. As a result, the analog structure- and concentration-dependently facilitated the various HRP-catalyzed oxidative reactions. Interestingly, the analog facilitated not only the reaction rate but also the chromogenic sensitivity. Kinetic and structural analyses revealed that the increased chromogenic sensitivity is related to the enhancement of the conformational flexibility in the substrate binding site in HRP by addition of the analog, which diminishes the binding affinity between HRP and large substrates. The finding serves to create practical applications of the analogs for increased detection sensitivity of HRP-related clinical agents.
Internal Audit of Fixed Assets of an Enterprise
Authors: Бородина  , Borodina Valyentina
Published: April 2015

The article reviews the process of internal audit based on legal and statutory documents of separate lines or fixed assets record: fixed assets assessment;

depreciation; fixed assets recovery; rent; retirement; choosing and establishing general scheme of fixed assets record; document flow organization. The article also

provides recommendations on forming the Program of internal audit conduct.
Degenerate Whittaker functionals for real reductive groups
Authors: Gourevitch Dmitry , Sahi Siddhartha
Published: April 2015

In this paper we establish a connection between the associated variety of a representation and
the existence of certain {\it degenerate} Whittaker functionals, for both smooth and $K$-finite
vectors, for all quasi-split real reductive groups, thereby generalizing results of Kostant,
Matumoto and others.
The LS method for the classical groups in positive characteristic and the Riemann Hypothesis
Authors: Lomelí Luis Alberto
Published: April 2015

We provide a definition for an extended system of $\gamma$-factors for products of generic representations
$\tau$ and $\pi$ of split classical groups or general linear groups over a non-archimedean local field of
characteristic $p$. We prove that our $\gamma$-factors satisfy a list of axioms (under the assumption
$p\neq 2$ when both groups are classical groups) and show their uniqueness (in general). This allows us
to define extended local $L$-functions and root numbers. We then obtain automorphic $L$-functions
$L(s,\tau \times \pi)$, where $\tau$ and $\pi$ are globally generic cuspidal automorphic representations
of split classical groups or general linear groups over a global function field. In addition to rationality
and the functional equation, we prove that our automorphic $L$-functions satisfy the Riemann Hypothesis.
An arithmetic intersection formula for denominators of Igusa class polynomials
Authors: Lauter Kristin , Viray Bianca
Published: April 2015

In this paper we prove an explicit formula for the arithmetic intersection
number $({\rm CM}(K).{\rm G}_1)_{\ell}$ on the Siegel moduli space of
abelian surfaces, generalizing the work of Bruinier-Yang and Yang. These
intersection numbers allow one to compute the denominators of Igusa class
polynomials, which has important applications to the construction of genus
$2$ curves for use in cryptography. Bruinier and Yang conjectured a
formula for intersection numbers on an arithmetic Hilbert modular surface,
and as a consequence obtained a conjectural formula for the intersection
number $({\rm CM}(K).{\rm G}_1)_{\ell}$ under strong assumptions on the
ramification of the primitive quartic CM field $K$. Yang later proved this
conjecture assuming that $\cal{O}_K$ is freely generated by one element
over the ring of integers of the real quadratic subfield. In this paper,
we prove a formula for $({\rm CM}(K).{\rm G}_1)_{\ell}$ for more general
primitive quartic CM fields, and we use a different method of proof than
Yang. We prove a tight bound on this intersection number which holds for
{\it all} primitive quartic CM fields. As a consequence, we obtain a
formula for a multiple of the denominators of the Igusa class polynomials
for an arbitrary primitive quartic CM field. Our proof entails studying
the Embedding Problem posed by Goren and Lauter and counting solutions
using our previous article that generalized work of Gross-Zagier and
Dorman to arbitrary discriminants.
The Tate Conjecture for a family of surfaces of general type with p g = q = 1 and K 2 = 3
Authors: Lyons Christopher
Published: April 2015

We prove a big monodromy result for a smooth family of complex algebraic surfaces of general type, with
invariants $p_g=q=1$ and $K^2=3$, that has been introduced by Catanese and Ciliberto. This is accomplished
via a careful study of degenerations. As corollaries, when a surface in this family is defined over a finitely
generated extension of $\Bbb{Q}$, we verify the semisimplicity and Tate conjectures for the Galois representation on
the middle $\ell$-adic cohomology of the surface.
Time-analyticity of solutions to the Ricci flow
Authors: Kotschwar Brett
Published: April 2015

We prove that if $g(t)$ is a smooth, complete solution to the Ricci flow of uniformly bounded curvature on
$M\times[0, \Omega]$, then the correspondence $t\mapsto g(t)$ is real-analytic at each $t_0\in (0, \Omega)$.
The analyticity is a consequence of classical Bernstein-type estimates on the temporal and spatial derivatives
of the curvature tensor, which we further use to show that, under the above global hypotheses, for any $x_0\in M$
and $t_0\in (0,\Omega)$, there exist local coordinates $x = x^i$ on a neighborhood $U\subset M$ of $x_0$ in which
the representation $g_{ij}(x, t)$ of the metric is real-analytic in both $x$ and $t$ on some cylinder
$U\times (t_0 -\epsilon, t_0 + \epsilon)$.
On the boundedness of the bilinear Hilbert transform along “non-flat” smooth curves
Authors: Lie Victor
Published: April 2015

We are proving $L^2({\Bbb R})\times L^2({\Bbb R})\rightarrow L^1({\Bbb
R})$ bounds for the bilinear Hilbert transform $H_{\Gamma}$ along curves
$\Gamma=(t,-\gamma(t))$ with $\gamma$ being a smooth ``non-flat'' curve
near zero and infinity.
Why Is There No Cheese in Horace’s Satires?: And Related Questions for Vergil and Varro
Authors: Jaeger Mary
Published: April 2015

Horace’s satires include a variety of foods but make little reference to cheese and milk. This absence is understandable: they are products—and symbols—of the pastoral world. Vergil’s Georgics and Eclogues claim cheese for the country, yet make it a link via commerce to the city. Varro’s De re rustica places cheese on the margins: its proper place now is away from Rome; and the right time for it at Rome was before the city’s foundation. Taken together these three texts show that the presence or absence of cheese at Rome is a matter of place and time, genre and ideology.
Sound and Silence in Calpurnius Siculus
Authors: Baraz Yelena
Published: April 2015

This article examines the rupture of pastoral exchange between human music and natural sound, familiar from Theocritus and Vergil, as well as the later Western pastoral, in the Eclogues of Calpurnius Siculus. Calpurnius’ focus on nature as obstructive, and on the importance of silence to composition of song, is a distinctive feature of his pastoral poetics that builds on moments of discord between man and nature in Vergil’s Eclogues . The appearance of the motif in the poetry of Calpurnius’ successor, Nemesianus, alongside the better-known motif of cooperation between man and nature in creating music, sheds light on the alternative trajectory in the development of the pastoral tradition.
Who Was Watching Whom?: A Reassessment of the Conflict between Germanicus and Piso
Authors: Drogula Fred K.
Published: April 2015

Despite Tacitus’ insinuations to the contrary, Cn. Calpurnius Piso (cos. 7 b.c.e. ) was no friend and loyal supporter of Emperor Tiberius. The emperor offered Piso the command of Syria in an effort to win over the political support of this prestigious-but-recalcitrant senator. As a safeguard should Piso attempt something treacherous in this powerful command, Tiberius gave Piso the province at a time when Germanicus Caesar—the emperor’s loyal adopted son and heir— would be in the East resolving a number of economic problems in the eastern provinces. Thus Piso was not sent to watch the prince, but to be watched by him.
Speech from Tree and Rock: Recovery of a Bronze Age Metaphor
Authors: Forte Alexander S. W.
Published: April 2015

Interpreters of archaic Greek epic poetry have long labored to explain the meaning of the semantically ambiguous phrase involving “tree (δρῦς) and/or rock (πέτρη).” The idiom appears three times in archaic epic: in the proem of Hesiod’s Theogony , during Hector’s deliberation about negotiating a truce in Iliad 22, and in Penelope’s speech to a disguised Odysseus in Odyssey 19. A tantalizingly similar, and equally unsolved idiom, rgm ‘ṣ w lḫšt ’abn, appears in the thirteenth-century Ugaritic Ba’al Cycle found at Ras Shamra. Current scholarship agrees that this phrase connotes ideas of prophecy. This article argues that the phrase’s history can be traced further back to a metaphor describing the audio-visual phenomenon of lightning and thunder as the storm-god’s oracular speech. Crucial evidence for this account is found in Bronze Age material culture.
Dreams and Other Fictions: The Representation of Representation in Republic 5 and 6
Authors: Miller Paul Allen
Published: April 2015

This article offers a close reading of the passages leading up to the myth of the cave and contends that the Republic frames this famous passage less as the illustration of a transcendental truth than as a problematic and self-referential meditation on the simultaneous necessity and impossibility of distinguishing between being and seeming. It contends that the myth when read in context not only asks us to distinguish between shadows on the wall and things themselves, it also forces us to interrogate this distinction. How does the world beyond appearance appear? What is it like? How does the truth seem?
Back Talk in New England: Dickinson and Revolution
Authors: Crumbley Paul
Published: April 2015

The speaker in Dickinson’s poem “Had I not This, or This, I said” (Fr828) may be interpreted as a poet who confronts a rebellious poem that speaks back to her by declaring, “Thou hast not Me.” This revolution in roles, whereby the author of the poem becomes the reader of a poem that has proclaimed its independence from her, reflects Dickinson’s awareness of the importance of revolution as an essential requirement for the writer’s growth. Writing at a time when Americans were particularly aware of the national myth of revolutionary origins and contemplating the application of that narrative to the revolutionary potential of the Civil War, Dickinson enacted in personal and artistic terms what it meant to bring about productive revolutions. For both poet and nation, revolution had to yield progressive historical change and not result in alterations that were merely circular and repetitive. This is a point Dickinson makes in “Revolution is the Pod” (Fr1004), where her speaker challenges readers to activate the national will and produce evidence that revolution still blooms in America. For the poet, revolution connects with fame when she sees that her work has entered the writing and thinking of others, providing evidence that her art has achieved independence by entering and altering the forward flow of language. This is the position Dickinson expresses with particular clarity in “To earn it by disdaining it” (Fr1445).
Scarlet Experiments: Dickinson’s New English and the Critics
Authors: Kilcup Karen L.
Published: April 2015

“Scarlet Experiments” frames Dickinson’s poetic practice and later reputation within the context of elite nineteenth-century reviewing and the norms that evaluators established; it focuses on such publications as the North American Review and on judgments concerning her regional contemporaries. Critics’ agitation suggests they felt that potentially unruly poets might defy their normative pronouncements, and that such disruptive writers required explicit chastisement and remediation. Dickinson clearly represents extreme intractability. How does her “New English” speak to the reviewers, particularly to their criterion of originality? How might we understand Dickinson’s perspective and practice differently when we contemplate these evaluations? Examining critics’ views on New England poets and poetry during three moments—1848, the early 1860s, and the decade following her death—illuminates how aesthetic standards may have informed Dickinson’s early development, her most intensely productive period, and her posthumous reputation, especially in relation to how gender informed (and deformed) critics’ responses to female poets, of whom they typically demanded greater conventionality. Reading reviews, Dickinson might have feared significant critical chastisement for her aesthetic experiments and for exploring troubling psychological states, yet she might also have seen reason to feel encouraged. I show how the transforming critical climate finally ensured the poet’s audibility and even popularity; responses to her work illuminate particularly the 1890s period of interpretive innovation. Dickinson’s appearance was perfectly timed to provoke controversy, and her work upended both poetry and criticism, ultimately helping transform the standards for what counted as original American poetry.
Disavowing Elegy: “That Pause of Space” and Emily Dickinson’s Discourse of Mourning
Authors: Mahoney Cate L.
Published: April 2015

After Emily Dickinson’s father died in 1874, she wrote to her editor T.W. Higginson to thank him for his poem “Decoration”: it had, she claimed, “assisted that Pause of Space which I call ‘Father’- .” But just how did “Decoration,” a traditional elegy that reaffirmed the location of the dead in the graveyard and the literary work, inspire Dickinson to coin this mesmerizing construct, a phrase which reflects upon the temporal and spatial absences of the dead? That “Pause of Space,” I argue, functions as a rebuke to the ideas that inform Higginson’s poem and as a catalyst for Dickinson’s idiosyncratic discourse of mourning. I first examine theories of elegy, which define it as a form that enacts a consolatory turn from the lost beloved to the creation of a poem, a move that mirrors what Freud called “the work of mourning” and that Dickinson does not accept. I compare Higginson’s “Decoration” with Dickinson’s own version (written three years later), in which Dickinson refutes Higginson’s premise in an attack on elegy’s fixation with spatial locality. I then focus on the temporal aspect of Dickinson’s “Pause of Space” construct, analyzing “While we were fearing it, it came” (Fr1317), in which Dickinson creates a vocabulary that repeatedly undoes itself over the course of the poem and, in the process, generates a new form of elegy.
Millennials and East Asia’s Democratic Future
Authors: Chu Yun-han , Welsh Bridget
Published: April 2015

This essay examines how millennials are shaping democracy in East Asia, drawing from the third wave of the Asia Barometer Survey (2010-2013). The essay looks at how millennials engage and participate in politics, their support for democracy and conceptualization of democracy and compares these factors to older cohorts. The findings show that millennials do participate and support democracy, but do so in paradoxical ways that differ from older generations in East Asia.
The Authoritarian Resurgence: Saudi Arabia’s Anxious Autocrats
Authors: Wehrey Frederic
Published: April 2015

Abstract: Since the 2011 Arab uprisings, Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy in the Middle East has been nonideological, realist, and defensive in intent, but negative in its implications for democracy. To contain Iran, quarantine the Muslim Brotherhood, and combat jihadism, Riyadh has backed local actors that are mostly authoritarian and antiliberal—and the net effect has been damaging for political pluralism and civil society. While the succession to King Salman has produced a more temperate approach to the Brotherhood, such shifts are ultimately tactical. At its core the Kingdom remains an autocratic state wedded to monarchical privilege at home and bent on enforcing political quietism abroad.
Exits from Military Rule: Lessons for Burma
Authors: Barany Zoltan
Published: April 2015

How to turn an army that ruled over the state into a loyal servant of a democratic state? This essay answers this question by examining three different experiences—South Korea’s unqualified success, Thailand’s failure, and Indonesia’s partial success—in order to ascertain their usefulness for Burmese democracy activists. Although Indonesia’s path seems the most reasonable and promising, all three of these countries were in many respects—e.g., vulnerability of the regime; economic development; strength and unity of the opposition; engagement with the outside world —far better off at the time of their transition than Burma. Therefore, the Burmese generals’ willingness to exit the country’s political stage in the foreseeable future is highly doubtful.
Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement: Beijing’s Broken Promises
Authors: Davis Michael C.
Published: April 2015

Abstract: China’s “one country, two systems” model elaborated in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration and the 1990 Hong Kong Basic Law promise Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy, universal suffrage, human rights and the rule of law. The June 2014 Chinese White Paper on the “one country, two systems” model and the August 2014 NPC Standing Committee decision on democratic development undermined both the rule of law and Hong Kong’s democratic development. This essay argues Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” model is broken. A high degree of autonomy and the rule of law can no longer be maintained without democracy.
The Authoritarian Resurgence: Forward to the Past in Russia
Authors: Shevtsova Lilia
Published: April 2015

Abstract: The Russian system of personalized power has demonstrated the ability to reproduce itself by both imitating and containing the West. In its quest for survival, the system has used foreign policy to a) compensate for the Kremlin’s diminishing resources, and b) contain the West’s impact inside and outside of Russia. The Kremlin’s continued experiments with new “technology” to prolong the system’s life include not only repression but also information warfare, as is seen in the development of a pro-Kremlin lobbyist network in the West to support the left-right “International.”
Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement: Authoritarianism Goes Global: The Protests and Beyond
Authors: Hui Victoria Tin-bor
Published: April 2015

Abstract: Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement occupied commercial districts for 79 days, from September 28 to December 15, 2014. The movement is so named because protestors opened umbrellas to shield themselves from the police’s pepper spray and tear gas. The sudden explosion of public outrage had deep roots. This essay examines how the Hong Kong government fueled dissent through its hardline rejection of democracy and use of excessive police force. The movement demanded “genuine universal suffrage” because successive chief executives unaccountable to the public have eroded Hong Kong’s freedoms. Protestors will persist on or off streets if the root causes are unresolved.
The Authoritarian Resurgence: Autocratic Legalism in Venezuela
Authors: Corrales Javier
Published: April 2015

Abstract: This paper contributes to the literature on dynamics of hybrid regimes, i.e., whether these regimes stay stable, or instead, turn more democratic or more autocratic with time. Venezuela since the mid-2000s is an example of the latter. I first focus on how this happened in Venezuela. I posit that the turn toward greater authoritarianism occurred through autocratic legalism. This refers to the use, abuse, and disuse of the law to disempower veto players. I then focus on the “why” question. The main cause of Venezuela’s regime dynamics is a combination of external factors (increasing tolerance from abroad) and the ruling party’s declining electoral competitiveness at home and institutional path dependence.
The Authoritarian Resurgence: Iran’s Paradoxical Regime
Authors: Milani Abbas
Published: April 2015

Abstract: Clerical authoritarianism in Iran is full of many paradoxes. The country has a dour, maledominated, undemocratic structure of power, yet pulsating beneath this mirthless authoritarianism pulsates a youthful, internet-savvy society bent on realizing more and more of its democratic rights. The women’s movement, fighting against misogynist laws, is a prime example of this political dissonance. A new kind of micro-political defiance, spread through myriad loci of life—from underground theater and art groups, to sexual ethics and social media—has begot talk of “culture wars” in Iran. While some dismiss the regime's tolerance of these acts of defiance as merely a form of “repressive tolerance” others see it as a new kind of cultural politics geared toward not a regime change but a change of regime through the gradual inexorable resistance to the regime’s failed and increasingly failing efforts at “social engineering.”
Patching Things Up in Mozambique
Authors: Azevedo-Harman Elisabete
Published: April 2015

The year 2015 marks the fortieth anniversary of Mozambique’s independence and its twenty-first consecutive year of official multiparty political competition. In a country long torn by war—first for independence from Portugal and then between rival domestic groups—the last two decades have seen four presidential and parliamentary elections. All of them have been held on schedule, most recently on 15 October 2014. Yet the 2014 voting occurred amid the sharpest political and security challenges Mozambique has faced since 1994, including the renewal of armed clashes between the long-ruling Frelimo forces and those of its main competitor, Renamo (the Mozambican National Resistance). The country’s stalled democratization is partly due to the ruling party’s dominance, but it owes something to Renamo’s choice as well—for whatever reason, that opposition formation has signed on to a system that makes the opposition’s leader a perennial outsider. A genuine debate on the design of the political system that considers the enhancement of local and regional powers could form part of a true reconciliation process, and it could be a force helping Mozambique to resume a climb up the ladder of democratization.
The Authoritarian Resurgence: Iran Abroad
Authors: Vatanka Alex
Published: April 2015

Abstract: The Islamist authorities in Tehran are committed to a two-pronged strategy: political survival at home and forming convenient international partnerships abroad. In recent years, the pursuit of these two goals have increasingly overlapped. In its attempts to veil its appalling human rights record, Tehran looks for diplomatic support from likeminded states such as Russia, China, Belarus and Cuba. Meanwhile, Tehran is increasingly dependent on these very same states for technology and repressive techniques to stifle political opposition that operates in cyberspace. The same spirit of cooperation is also evident in Iranian efforts to propagate an antidemocratic message though international broadcasting. These efforts by Tehran require heavy investments, a clear indication that the Iranian state is committed to a long-term strategy of challenging conventional international standards on human and political rights.
Into the Universe of the Hacienda: Lifestyle Migration, Individualism and Social Dislocation in Vilcabamba, Ecuador
Authors: Hayes Matthew
Published: April 2015

El artículo trata la migración de estilo de vida del norte global al valle rural de Vilcabamba en el sur de Ecuador. Los proyectos de vida de los migrantes son individualistas y utilitaristas, a pesar de ello, participan en relaciones sociales de dominación y subordinación en el lugar receptor, donde se reproducen desigualdades históricas. El análisis se centra en las relaciones sociales de la propiedad de la tierra. Los grandes terratenientes promueven la construcción de urbanizaciones para extranjeros y turistas, lo que reproduce sus intereses históricos en el valle, así como el desplazamiento de la población obrera.
Cultural Imaginaries in the Residential Migration to Cotacachi
Authors: Viteri María Amelia
Published: April 2015

¿Cómo se convierte Cotacachi, ciudad andina de Ecuador en “el paraíso al final del arcoíris” para Compañías como International Living e Internations y para inmobiliarias e inversionistas? A partir de un estudio etnográfico realizado en Cotacachi desde el año 2013, este artículo analiza los imaginarios que contribuyeron a moldear las motivaciones de los y las ciudadanos estadounidenses que se han traslado a vivir a Cotacachi en el marco de una escasa seguridad económica para los y las jubilados de clase trabajadora en los Estados Unidos. Argumento que la movilidad de clase forma una parte trascendental en la construcción de estos imaginarios.
Transnationality and Social Integration within Lifestyle Migration. A comparative study of two cases in Mexico and Spain
Authors: Lizarraga Omar , Mantecón Alejandro , Huete Raquel
Published: April 2015

La movilidad internacional en búsqueda de espacios de esparcimiento para estancias de larga duración es un fenómeno creciente. Los ciudadanos estadounidenses han practicado esta lifestyle migration –como se denomina en inglés- durante décadas hacia países de América Latina, especialmente a México. Los ciudadanos británicos se trasladan a España por razones similares. En este trabajo se hace un análisis comparativo de estos dos contextos internacionales con el fin de obtener un mayor conocimiento sobre la diversidad y amplitud de este tipo de migración. El estudio utiliza la encuesta como instrumento de recolección de información en cada campo. En primer lugar, se analiza el fenómeno de la movilidad de los ciudadanos de Estados Unidos a Mazatlán, México. En segundo lugar, analizamos los ciudadanos del Reino Unido en El Campello, España. En particular, se comparan sus perfiles sociodemográficos, las prácticas transnacionales y algunos patrones de integración social.
Class, Race, Privilege: Structuring the Lifestyle Migrant Experience in Boquete, Panama
Authors: Benson Michaela Caroline
Published: April 2015

En este artículo, tomo el caso de los migrantes de estilo de vida estadounidenses que viven en Boquete, Panamá para resaltar (1) cómo el privilegio de estos migrantes es reconstruido después de la migración, (2) la forma en que éste se experimenta a través de encuentros intersubjetivos en el lugar de destino, y (3) la forma en que este privilegio se interpreta de diversas maneras por los migrantes. Apoyado en la investigación etnográfica, el artículo muestra cómo se enmarca la experiencia subjetiva del privilegio y cómo es mediado por las relaciones de clase a nivel local y por lógicas culturales que los migrantes llevan consigo al destino. A través de su enfoque contextualizado en la formación del privilegio, y en particular, las intersecciones de éste con los conceptos de raza y la clase, el artículo ofrece una contribución única a un campo aún en maduración de la investigación sobre migración de estilo de vida.
Health Care Imaginaries and Retirement Migration to Cuenca, Ecuador
Authors: Miles Ann
Published: April 2015

Una preocupación importante para los jubilados estadounidenses que viven en América Latina es la calidad y el costo de los servicios de salud. De hecho, buenos servicios de salud, de bajo coste, están fuertemente promovidos como una amenidad importante para los migrantes. Este artículo analiza las percepciones de los jubilados estadounidenses acerca de los servicios de salud que reciben en el sistema privado en Cuenca, Ecuador, y considera cuando shadowing modernity es importante en la práctica médica y cuando no lo es (Ferguson 2006). En particular, las narrativas de los jubilados sobre la atención que reciben en Ecuador revelan que han construido un imaginario sobre la salud que privilegia el cuidado y la atención personal a través de la sofisticación tecnológica. El imaginario de cuidado medico expresado por los jubilados en Cuenca se basa, en parte, en sus experiencias como pacientes o como cuidadores de pacientes y, en parte, en su imaginación colectiva y la nostalgia por una época más simple.
En búsqueda de lo rural: Migración de amenidad en los Valles Calchaquíes, Argentina
Authors: Rainer Gerhard , Malizia Matilde
Published: April 2015

The acquisition of houses for recreational and lifestyle purposes has gained momentum in mountains areas of Argentina. This article analyses the origins and consequences of this residential-recreational economy for the case of the Calchaquí Valleys. Given the fact that the process is embedded in a global boom of amenity/lifestyle migration, the two respective concepts are introduced with a special emphasis on their discussion in the Latin American context. A categorization of amenity migrants is presented with the goal of differentiating between them and hence, elaborating national and regional particularities of the process. The results indicate that the ‘search for the rural’ leads to an increasing socio-spatial fragmentation in the Calchaquí Valleys.
Toward a Political Philosophy of Information
Authors: Mathiesen Kay
Published: April 2015

Many of the most pressing issues in information ethics—informational privacy, surveillance, intellectual property, access to information, and the distribution of information resources—can only be addressed at the level of global politics. This paper develops an approach to theorizing about political questions of concern to information ethics. It begins by situating a political philosophy of information within the broader field of ethics and defending a theoretical approach that is practical, person-centered, and pluralistic. The method of dialogic public reason, as articulated by John Rawls and supplemented with insights from Jürgen Habermas, is described and defended. It is argued that dialogic public reason provides a way to justify political principles in a diverse global context. The paper concludes by relating the idea of dialogic public reason to international human rights. The putative human right to intellectual property is criticized on the grounds that it does not pass the test of public reason.
Parallax Ontology and the Philosophy of Information
Authors: Compton Bradley W.
Published: April 2015

This paper discusses differing perspectives relevant to library and information studies (LIS) regarding the philosophy of information, primarily disparate accounts of ontology. The perspectives include, but are not limited to, those of Luciano Floridi, Raphael Capurro, Michael Eldred, applied ontologists like Pierre Grenon and Barry Smith, Fred Fonseca, and Bernd Frohmann. Slavoj Žižek’s parallax ontology is used as a leitmotif and theoretical frame to provide a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of differing standpoints on ontological issues within LIS and the philosophy of information. Parallax ontology is presented not as a replacement for any particular perspective but rather as a means to utilize the differing points of view. The antinomies within and between these perspectives are not overcome through some kind of synthesis but instead disclose the fundamentally irreconcilable nature of the topic of ontology itself, particularly within LIS and the philosophy of information. The paper concludes with an assessment of the importance of this type of research, and the topics of ontology and the philosophy of information in particular.
A New Perspective on Instantiation
Authors: Garbacz Pawel
Published: April 2015

This paper develops a new perspective on the relation of instantiation. This new perspective is based on recent research in cognitive psychology, or, more specifically, on the theory of frames, which was defined by Lawrence Barsalou to capture the common features of contemporary models of human concepts. I show how this new perspective may be applied to coordinate two rudimentary mental operations: categorization and conceptualization .
Contribution to the Ontological Status of Information: Development of the Structural-Attributive Approach
Authors: Morán-Reyes Ariel Antonio
Published: April 2015

This paper proposes to appeal to the structural-attributive approach to help establish a useful ontological categorization of information. Specifically, it argues that a framework for library and information science (LIS) based on Stonier’s theory of information would be helpful, with the intention to advance one of the unfinished dialogues of LIS, the so-called Wiener’s problem, or statutum ontologicum . This proposal advocates the possibility of developing a theory based on the assumption that information is a basic property of the universe. Stonier’s perspective is an evolutionary type, so the basis of this research is interdisciplinary, such that his ideas can help describe the development of society in the information age. It also explains the two main categories or forms of information, which Stonier called “applied,” for the library scope. In other words, there are the information contained in a system and the transformed and processed information. He argues that information is an ontological category that exists independently of being perceived. This paper asserts that information characterizes the world in itself, since it is through it that all knowledge is obtained.
Synoptic Reference: Introducing a Polymathic Approach to Reference Services
Authors: Scimeca Ross , Labaree Robert V.
Published: April 2015

Studies show that reaching beyond disciplinary boundaries can be an effective method for understanding complex research problems and enriching student learning. However, despite the increased attention given to interdisciplinary thinking in higher education, there is much that remains to be understood about the growing centrality of interdisciplinary practice and its assessment. This paper argues that a new, more robust conceptualization of nonsingular disciplinary thinking must be formulated around the philosophical foundation of synoptics. A critical point when this type of learning can take place is in reference services. The paper begins by outlining the emergence of interdisciplinary inquiry in higher education. After reviewing the literature on interdisciplinarity and noting the lack of scholarship concerning applied synoptics in current library literature, it discusses the ways is which synoptics establishes the foundation for a broader based understanding of knowledge that cultivates and encourages a polymathic perspective for the patron. The study concludes by describing how the concept of critical and integrative interdisciplinary thinking, rooted in the worldview philosophy of synoptics, can apply to the practice of reference services and inquiry-based transactions between the librarian and the learner.