bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Silver of Laurion
Authors: Cunningham C. J. K.
Published: July 2013

‘Few provincial industrial towns have anything much to recommend them, but Laurion has a sinister ugliness that is all its own.…’ so Osbert Lancaster; nevertheless the dusty little town has a certain extra interest for those who take the long road to Sunion and so pass through it. For it was there that the famous silver of Athens was mined. But for all that the area has been remarkably little examined. There has been much work devoted to the boundary stones and demes, but the mining itself has been largely ignored since the Compagnie Française des Mines du Laurion began to rework the old mines at the end of the last century. At that time (1896), E. Ardaillon published the only book on the mines that has as yet been written, and apart from a few all too cursory reports little has been done either to check his findings or to extend his work.
The Dramas of T. S. Eliot and their Greek Models
Authors: Tanner R. G.
Published: July 2013

The death of T. S. Eliot removed from the world of English letters a staunch and resolute advocate of the Greek tradition in our modern literature. The precise interaction between this tradition in which the poet believed so firmly and his own five verse dramas therefore deserves some consideration.
Who were the Amazons?
Authors: Bisset K. A.
Published: July 2013

Legend informs us that the Amazons were women, that they were not only warlike but successful above average as warriors, and that they had no breasts. The masculinity of the second and third characteristics ought to make us highly suspicious of the accuracy of the first, and the explanations provided by the ancient Greeks do not bear any very close examination.
Was Cicero Aware of Natural Beauty?
Authors: Davies J. C.
Published: July 2013

It has long been fashionable to believe that the Romans had little conception of natural beauty, and to assume that any sympathetic awareness of nature which they displayed could be accounted for in terms of their moral or utilitarian preconceptions. The moral relationship which in much of classical Greek literature was assumed to exist between man and nature had been reflected in and strengthened by the philosophical theories of Plato and, later, the Stoics. Yet this conception was already an anachronism by the time of the appearance of Lucretius' theory of Voluptas, and appears to have been progressively weakened in the later Republic and early Empire until in Ovid natural processes become the mere backcloth of human activity and emotion. Professor Segal has recently illustrated the employment of nature by Ovid as a literary symbol for the reflection of human emotion, and earlier work had revealed the emotional and moral attitudes to nature of Virgil and other poets, but it is questionable whether awareness of natural beauty as such, unalloyed by moral or emotional symbolism, is to be detected in Roman poetry, much less in Roman prose writing. This view may be supported by a careful scrutiny of Roman literature, where the reader will find it difficult to locate any obvious similarity to some of the commonest modern reactions to natural beauty; and further practical confirmation of this attitude may perhaps be derived from the apparent disdain of the Roman road-builders for any of those concessions to natural contours made by twentieth-century rural conservationists.
The Cyclops of Euripides
Authors: Ussher R. G.
Published: July 2013

It might have been expected that the Cyclops, as our only complete surviving satyr-play, would attract wide attention among scholars. In fact, it has largely been neglected: no edition (and very little else) has appeared for over forty years in English. The present paper aims merely to suggest that the time may be ripe for reappraisal.
Disintegrated Assurances: The Contemporary American Response to the Satyricon
Authors: Wright John
Published: July 2013

In an essay published in a recent issue of Greece & Rome, P.G. Walsh examines the views of the American scholars Gilbert Highet, Helen Bacon, and William Arrowsmith and comes to the very sensible conclusion that they are wrong in believing that Petronius Arbiter had any moral purpose in writing the Satyricon. While ultimately it may prove impossible for one side in this debate to convince the other, Walsh's arguments, and the way he goes about propounding them, can provide us with some illuminating hints as to why the Petronius controversy arose in the first place. And there are unexplored aspects to the terms on which the argument is being conducted which, when examined and carefully considered, may point the way toward a possible resolution.
Fact, Imagination, and Memory in Horace: Odes 1.9
Authors: Catlow Laurence
Published: July 2013

Horace's Soracte Ode is a difficult poem. It begins in winter, apparently in the countryside, and concludes with the sketch of an urban incident in summer (or spring). This seeming inconsistency has provoked widely divergent critical comment. E. Fraenkel sums up one approach:

We like the Ode because it contains several passages of great beauty, among them some happy adaptations of Alcaean motifs. But we have to admit that as a whole the poem falls short of the perfection reached by Horace in many of his odes. Its heterogeneous elements have not merged into a harmonious unit. Line 18, nunc et campus et areae and what follows suggest a season wholly different from the severe winter at the beginning. This incongruity cannot be removed by any device of apologetic interpretation.
Horace, Odes iii. 14
Authors: Dyson M.
Published: July 2013

The major puzzle which confronts readers of Odes iii. 14 is the relationship between the public celebration described in the first half of the poem and the private party proposed in the second. Both are responses to the one event—news that Caesar is not, as feared, dead, but has won a victory and is returning home from Spain—but they do not quite harmonize. It is not just that the one response is public and Roman, while the other is private and somewhat Greek, for there is nothing objectionable in this combination. Rather the disharmony lies in a number of contrasts which, taken singly, are slight, but together create an effect which is hard to define but hard to deny.
Some Puns on Roman Cognomina
Authors: Matthews Victor J.
Published: July 2013

Since so many Roman cognomina are derived from physical peculiarities and personal idiosyncrasies, it is not surprising that the unfortunate bearers were often the butt of laughter. As Cicero says (de Or. ii. 236), ‘Locus autem, et regio quasi ridiculi (nam id proxime quaeritur) turpitudine et deformitate quadam continetur: haec enim ridentur vel sola, vel maxime, quae notant et designant turpitudinem aliquam non turpiter.’ Cicero remarks that there is need for restraint and good taste in such jokes, and he adds (247) that it is not enough just to get a laugh, a man must also derive some benefit from the remark. Cicero's qualifying comments are in reference to an occasion when a man called Vargula was embraced by A. Sempronius, a candidate for office, and the latter's brother Marcus, whereupon he shouted to his slave ‘Puer, abige muscas’ (‘Boy, chase away the flies’), Musca being a cognomen of the Sempronii.
Euripides and the Unexpected
Authors: Arnott Geoffrey
Published: July 2013

I should like to begin like a preacher in his pulpit, by citing two texts. In a lecture given at Harvard University in 1950 on the subject of ‘Poetry and Drama’ T. S. Eliot said: ‘I tried to keep in mind that in a play, from time to time, something should happen; that the audience should be kept in the constant expectation that something is going to happen; and that when it does happen, it should be different, but not too different, from what the audience had been led to expect.’ My second text comes from the paper that has most effectively influenced my own ideas on the subject of Euripides' clever exploitation of the unexpected in his plays: R. P. Winnington-Ingram's ‘Euripides: Poietes Sophos’, published in the second volume of Arethnsa. Winnington-Ingram ends his paper with these words: ‘It makes me wonder whether, in the words of Oscar Wilde, Euripides was not capable of resisting everything except temptation—the temptation to be clever.’
Caper Exstat in Ansa
Authors: Griffith John G.
Published: July 2013

Juvenal's rhetorical recipe is characteristically simple: a finelychiselled sententia to summarize the chilly treatment accorded to honest men, followed by a catalogue in asyndeton of the luxuries which come as the rewards of wickedness. The impact of the passage does not depend on the precise details of the items listed: in consequence it is hardly surprising that commentators have been lax in their duty over the last five words of line 76, and left the picture blurred when regard for a well-known art-fashion would have instantly sharpened the focus. Thus Friedländer, as conscientious as he was unimaginative, tells us (ad loc.) that Juvenal meant a cup adorned with a goat in high relief (‘einen Pokal mit einem Bock in Hochrelief’). The usually more percipient Duff acquiesces, while Mayor, Ruperti, and the rest chime in with words of similar import. Passages to show that the verb exstare is appropriate to describe relief-work are duly paraded: Ovid, Met. v. 80–2 has altis exstantem signis … cratera, and in a later book of the same poem (xii. 235–6) signis exstantibus asper / antiquus crater: Martial may also be cited to the same effect (viii. 51.9, al.).
Empire in the Greco-Roman World
Authors: Finley M. I.
Published: July 2013

Historians, we are told on all sides, have signally failed to clarify the terms ‘empire’ and ‘imperialism’, though they employ them all the time. The man in the street, curiously enough, sees no great problem, and I shall argue that he is right. Much of the trouble in the professional literature stems from a elementary confusion between a definition and a typology. It would not be a useful definition of empire, for example, that excluded either the Athenian or the Persian empire because Athens was a democratic city-state or Persia an autocratic monarchy; whereas that distinction might be important in both a typology and an analysis.
On First Reading Pindar: The Fifth Isthmian
Authors: Willcock M. M.
Published: July 2013

There has been a revolution in Pindaric studies in the last twenty years; hardly an issue of a classical periodical now appears without a new treatment of one of the forty-five epinician odes, the author putting into practice the genre-centred approach which began (more or less) with W. Schadewaldt's Der Aufbau des pindarischen Epinikion (Halle) in 1928, and had its greatest forward impulse from E. L. Bundy's Studia Pindarica (Berkeley and Los Angeles) in 1962.
Odysseus and the Axes: Homeric Ballistics Reconstructed
Authors: Brain Peter , Skinner D. D.
Published: July 2013

The celebrated trick with the arrow and the axes, described in the twenty-first book of the Odyssey, has been extensively discussed; but there is little agreement on how, if at all, it was performed. We report here an attempt at a practical reconstruction.
The Philosopher and the Cave
Authors: Davies J. C.
Published: July 2013

In the Republic (519 E ff.), having finished his account of the education of the philosopher king, and having described the ideal life of pure contemplation in the Simile of the Cave, Plato makes Socrates say:

Then it will be our function as founders, I said, to compel the best natures to undertake the study which we previously declared to be the highest, to observe the good, and to make that ascent we mentioned, and when they have done so and looked their fill, then we must not allow them that freedom which they now possess.
Peisistratus on the Strymon
Authors: Cole J. W.
Published: July 2013

Both Herodotus and Aristotle record the first known contact between Athens and the Macedonian area. It occurs in the time of Peisistratus, specifically during his second (?) exile. Herodotus refers briefly to revenues which Peisistratus collected from the Strymon region, which helped him recover his power (i. 64. 1). Aristotle in more detail states: ‘Peisistratus joined with others in the settlement of Rhaecelus in the Thermaic Gulf area. From there he went to the Pangaion region from which he raised money …’ (A.P. 15. 2).
Sophocles: Electra, Doom or Triumph?
Authors: Stevens P. T.
Published: July 2013

The return of Orestes to avenge his father's death was good material for tragedy since it provided at any rate the possibility of a tragic dilemma. Thus in the Oresteia Orestes cannot deny the duty to avenge his father, a duty imposed by public opinion and divine command; but he cannot do this without killing his mother, an act that involves pollution and is also repugnant to the deepest instincts. In mythological terms he will inevitably be pursued either by the Erinyes of his father or by those of his mother. Aeschylus stresses the divine command, repeated at a crucial moment when Pylades breaks silence at Cho. 900, and presents Orestes as essentially guiltless, caught in a tragic dilemma, and eventually after much suffering purified and absolved. In Euripides the divine command is still there, though its validity is questioned both before and after the matricide, and Orestes is still faced with a dilemma, though he and Electra (who now becomes much more prominent) are presented in a less sympathetic light; in the main part of the play Euripides clearly invites us to condemn their action, and it is only in the epilogue that the mitigating circumstance of Apollo's command is emphasized and ultimate acquittal on Aeschylean lines is foreshadowed. In Sophocles the killing of Clytemnestra is approved even if not expressly commanded by Apollo, and it is not surprising that Orestes should be presented as justified. What has surprised many critics is that the dilemma seems to have disappeared: Orestes never has any doubts or qualms, nor indeed has anybody else in the play, and some have felt that this leaves Sophocles open to the charge of ‘moral obtuseness’. In 1927 J. T. Sheppard came to the rescue with an article entitled ‘In Defence of Sophocles’ (CR 41 (1927), 2–9) containing a new interpretation, which has now been revived and persuasively argued by J. H. Kells in his valuable edition of the play (Cambridge, 1973). Briefly it is that Sophocles is actually condemning the act of matricide quite as strongly as Euripides, not as explicitly but rather by means of ‘a series of subtle but forceful dramatic touches’, and that the play is ‘a continuous exercise in dramatic irony’. By this means Sophocles is inviting his audience not of course to condone the crime of Clytemnestra, but to condemn Orestes and Electra as murderers, and to see Electra, before the killing of her mother, as overwrought to the point of mental derangement and delusion, but ‘like many mad people hard-headed and cunning in achieving her ends’.
The End of an Epoch
Authors: Williams E. Watson
Published: July 2013

‘The last two centuries of the second millennium saw the disappearance of the highly developed civilisations which had, up to then, been flourishing in several lands in the near East, including Egypt, the Aegean area, and Anatolia. Their place was taken by other cultures, none of which seems to have been on the high level which had been maintained previously, and it would be far from the truth to suggest that the peoples who had been dominant earlier in the eastern Mediterranean area merely lost ground culturally. For they did, in fact, do much more. They almost faded out of sight, at least for a time. Such a deep change, simultaneous in several lands, is not likely to have been due to purely local causes. Consequently, the presence of some overriding factor may be suspected, a political event of such magnitude that it could affect a vast area.’
The Return of Ancient Science
Authors: Haarhoff T. J.
Published: July 2013

It has been said: ‘The Classics can be scrapped because of the advance of modern science.’ But, apart from the timeless values in the aesthetic and the moral spheres, we now have the amazing fact that in the realm of science itself, Nobel Prizewinners like Heisenberg and Schrödinger have been pleading for a return to the ancient Greeks; and that, too, in the most modern of scientific fields—atomic physics.
Primus, Murena, and Fides: Notes On Cassius Dio Liv. 3
Authors: Levick Barbara
Published: July 2013

The trial (undoubtedly for maiestas) of Marcus Primus, former proconsul of Macedonia, is described only by Cassius Dio—and his account is unsatisfactory in more than one respect. According to Dio, Primus was accused of making war upon the Odrysae, a friendly Thracian tribe, during his governorship. His defence was that he had acted at the behest of Augustus, though sometimes he named Marcellus. When Augustus of his own accord came into court and, asked by the presiding praetor whether he had given the order, denied it, Primus' advocate Licinius Murena demanded what he was doing there and asked who had summoned him. Augustus' brief reply—‘the interest of the state’—won him the approval of people of good sense; but a considerable number of jurymen voted for Primus' acquittal all the same, and the trial was followed by the conspiracy of Fannius Caepio, in which Murena was alleged to be implicated.
Classics in the Schools
Authors: Baty C. W.
Published: July 2013

Among those who have little direct experience of grammar schools, whose opinions are formed by chatty articles and cranky correspondence in the more light-hearted newspapers, it is an accepted view—a dogma in the proper sense of the word—that Latin is on its rapid way out of the schools and that Greek is already virtually extinct. If I explain to the curious outsider that, besides a general interest in schools, I have a special concern for the Latin and Greek taught in them, the almost invariable response is, ‘I shouldn't think you have much to do, then, nowadays’. Whether my own time is properly filled or not, it would be inappropriate to discuss in public; but the implication is worth considering. A few facts may be given, for without them opinions are of little value.
The Person of Penelope
Authors: MacKay L. A.
Published: July 2013

What sort of person was Penelope? If Homer were consulted about the casting for a dramatization of the story, what type would he choose to play her part? What sort of person was this Penelope, for whom her husband abandoned a goddess—more than one goddess, indeed—but in whom he yet felt so little confidence on his return that she was almost the last person in the household to learn his identity? One hundred and eight suitors, according to Telemachos' careful count, buzzed about her; either she could not or she would not dismiss them entirely, but she put them off year after year, while she wept for her absent husband, and looked after the housekeeping, and managed the estate, with no help at all from her father-in-law—managed it pretty successfully too, one would think, for all Telemachos' dissatisfaction, or the house could hardly have stood the drain of such continuous entertainment. In all her appearances in the story she seems irreproachably circumspect; yet her own son, a rather staid and solemn fellow, said to a complete stranger, ‘My mother says I am Odysseus' son, but how should I know?’ Even allowing for a conventional reference to a proverbial saying, it is a strange remark from a modest, unsophisticated young man who did not set himself up for a wit, and who, as he justly remarked to his father, was ‘not in the habit of behaving like a light-headed fool’. It is certainly not the sort of answer that Homeric heroes customarily give about their lineage.
The Oracle of Dodona
Authors: Nicol D. M.
Published: July 2013

The true site of the oracle of Dodona was discovered only in comparatively recent years. Christopher Wordsworth was the first to identify it, and the Greek archaeologist Carapanos the first to explore it. It lies to the south-west of Ioannina, at a spot most easily accessible from the coast of Thesprotiaby way of the valley of the Thyamis (Fig. 1). It is reached today by a branch road some ten miles to the south of loannina. The long, narrow valley in which it stands is completely dominated on its western side, and for much of the day overshadowed, by the almost precipitous mountain Tomaros (Olitzika), which rises to a height of 6,500 feet. This mountain bears a chain of craggy peaks, and its flank is scarred with gorges and torrents, fed by the snow which lasts some four months of the year on the upper slopes. The climate of the district is severe and well substantiates Homer's description of Δωδώνη δυσχωί-μερος. The valley is remarkable for its violent thunderstorms, which bring torrential rain to fill the mountain cataracts in the summer, and its soil is thus unusually swampy. The foothills of Tomaros are covered with pine trees, while in the plain below a few rather ragged oaks are still to be seen. The rivers of the district are the Acheron and the Kokytos, both associated with the underworld; and not far away is the Acheloos which makes its way down into Akarnania. (See Pl. VI.)
The ΓΡΥΛΛΟΣ Papyrus
Authors: Maas P.
Published: July 2013

Γρ⋯λλος, Lat. gryllus, is the ancient technical term for a kind of caricature (iocosa tabella) as opposed to serious painting or drawing. No monument of art to which this term could be applied with any probability was known up to a few years ago. But in the last number of the Classical Review Professor D. L. Page has pointed out that in an illustrated literary papyrus published recently the word γρ⋯λλῳ must refer to the drawings transmitted in that same text. With this I agree; and I should like to put before the readers of Greece & Rome the main facts about that strange document as I now see them.
Virgil's Migrating Birds
Authors: Macdonald H. F.
Published: July 2013

In this famous picture of the migrating birds, what precisely had Virgil in mind? In his note on the passage Conington writes: ‘the birds are apparently supposed to have accomplished their voyage over the sea, and to be just alighting in a mass in the warmer clime that is to receive them.’ Conington was evidently dissatisfied with this explanation, and so was Long, whom he quotes as remarking that ‘the flocking together of the birds before departure would be a fitter and more natural comparison’. There is further awkwardness involved if we take both terram and terris as referring to the same place.
Geographica Vergiliana
Authors: Thomson J. O.
Published: July 2013

A Few words first to explain the origin of this paper, and to excuse its rather forbidding title. Those responsible are your Hon. Treasurer and Hon. Secretary. They had come across some remarks on Virgil in my History of Ancient Geography, and they suggested that a fuller treatment on these lines might be of interest to this Society. I accepted the task willingly, not quite knowing then how it would work out, but hoping that it might at least throw some sidelights on Virgil. Will you bear with me if I pursue the matter where it leads, though well aware that this is not the only or the best way of studying a very great poet?
Greek in Our Schools
Authors: Elliot Francis
Published: July 2013

When the B.B.C. were about to broadcast excerpts from Euripides' Electra spoken by a Greek actress, they judged it advisable to warn listeners that ‘the modern Greek pronunciation of the ancient language is somewhat different from that prevailing elsewhere’ (Radio Times, 19 September 1952). Listening to that broadcast, I wondered how any man could find it in his heart to exchange for the exquisite delicacy of the native pronunciation of that most poetic of languages the clumsy makeshift which we call our ‘reformed’ pronunciation.
Legendary Genealogies in Late-Republican Rome
Authors: Wiseman T. P.
Published: July 2013

When the quaestor C. lulius Caesar began his aunt's funerary laudatio with these words in 69 B.c., he was not claiming any unique glory appropriate only to ‘imperial Caesar’, but indulging a form of family pride shared by many aristocrats in the late Republic.
Effects of straw incorporation onRhizoctonia solaniinoculum in paddy soil and rice sheath blight severity
Authors: ZHU H. , WANG Z. X. , LUO X. M. , SONG J. X. , HUANG B.
Published: July 2013

Incorporation of rice straw into soil has traditionally been an important method of recycling nutrients and improving soil productivity. Currently, although the effects of straw incorporation on disease severity have been documented, the dynamics of the pathogen in soil after straw incorporation are poorly understood. In the present study, rice straw with various proportions of diseased straw was incorporated at three separate locations (SuPu town, SuSong County and FengYang County) in Anhui province, China. The pathogen dynamics in paddy soil and disease severity of sheath blight during two continuous years from April 2010 to April 2012 were investigated. For all three locations, the amount of pathogen inoculum that persisted in the soil increased with increases in the proportion of diseased straw incorporated. Incorporation of 0·3 and 0·5 diseased straw into soil increased the amount of pathogen inoculum in the soil significantly, whereas incorporation of 0·1 diseased straw into soil had no significant effect on the pathogen inoculum compared with the control (no straw incorporated) or disease severity. Incorporation of healthy rice straw (no disease) resulted in a significant decrease in disease severity, whereas proportions of 0·3 and 0·5 diseased straw resulted in a significant increase of disease severity compared with the control. These results suggested that incorporation of diseased straw enhanced pathogen numbers in soil during the whole decomposition period and increased disease severity. To avoid soil-borne disease accumulation, severely diseased straw should be removed from the field or pre-treated before incorporation.
Effect of discharge voltage on bi-Maxwellian electrons in the diffusion plasma region of a double plasma device
Authors: MISHRA M. K. , PHUKAN A. , CHAKRABORTY M.
Published: July 2013

The effect of discharge voltage on bi-Maxwellian electrons in the diffusion region of a double plasma device has been studied. The increase in discharge voltage enhances the flux of ionizing electrons to the diffusion region separated by a mesh grid. This energetic electron flux in turn affects other important parameters such as density, electron temperature, plasma potential and floating potential in the diffusion region. Furthermore, the dependence of density and temperature of both ionizing and plasma electrons on discharge voltage is investigated. The electron energy probability function obtained from probe data also indicates the bi-Maxwellian nature of electrons.
Temporal and farm-management-associated variation in faecal pat prevalence ofArcobacterspp. in ruminants
Authors: GROVE-WHITE D. H. , LEATHERBARROW A. J. H. , CRIPPS P. J. , DIGGLE P. J. , FRENCH N. P.
Published: July 2013

In a 2-year longitudinal study of adult animals on 15 dairy farms and four sheep farms in Lancashire, UK,Arcobacterspp. were isolated from all farms although not at every sampling occasion. Faecal samples were collected and cultured using standard techniques for isolation of campylobacters. Assignment to species was via PCR assays. Apparent prevalence ofArcobacterspp. was higher in dairy cattle compared to sheep (40·1%vs.8%,P < 0·001) and in housed cattle compared to cattle at pasture (50·1%vs.20·9%,P < 0·001). This was reflected in the higher prevalence observed in herds that were housed (n = 4) all year compared to herds that grazed cattle on pasture in the summer and housed cattle in the winter (n = 11) (55·5%vs. 36%,P < 0·001). In the case of sheep, peak prevalence was observed in autumn with increased prevalence also being associated with improving pasture quality. There was an apparent inverse association between the faecal pat prevalence ofArcobacterspp. andCampylobacter jejunialthough this may in part be an artefact of laboratory test method sensitivity, whereby a relative increase in the frequency of one bacterial species would reduce the sensitivity of detecting the other.
Nourishing Gods: Birth and Personhood in Highland Mexican Codices
Authors: Eberl Markus
Published: July 2013

Humans define themselves through personhood as agents in society. To become persons, children differentiate their self from others. They take, as George Mead (1934) says, the other and self-objectify by predicating a sign-image or trope upon themselves. Birth rituals realize these tropes with the child's body as tool and raw material. Birth almanacs in Highland Mexican codices depict, as I argue, the transformation of a child into a person. Patron gods pierce the child, display it, manipulate its umbilical cord and nurse it. Gods provide the child with vital life forces while the child and future adult nourishes the gods through sacrifice. The birth almanacs situate Aztec personhood in a covenant of humans with gods. As children mature, bodily changes metonymically express the metaphoric relationship of the children with their patron gods. In the bathing ceremony, fellow humans — especially the child's parents and the midwife — step into the roles of the patron gods and perform the above activities on the child. Aztec children other themselves in gods through ritual practices. By connecting the ideology and practice of personhood, the birth almanacs are a theory of social action.
The reliability and relative validity of a diet index score for 4–11-year-old children derived from a parent-reported short food survey
Authors: Hendrie Gilly A , Viner Smith Elizabeth , Golley Rebecca K
Published: July 2013

Objective

To assess the reliability and relative validity of a diet index score derived from a Short Food Survey (SFS).

Design

The thirty-eight-item SFS was designed to assess recent dietary intake of 4–11-year-olds to enable calculation of the Dietary Guideline Index for Children and Adolescents. Reliability was assessed based on two online administrations of the SFS, one week apart. Relative validity was assessed by comparing intakes derived from the SFS with those from the mean of three 24 h recalls. Intra-class correlations, Bland–Altman plots and estimated biases were assessed. Cohen's κ coefficients were used to determine the level of agreement between the two methods.

Setting

Adelaide, Australia.

Subjects

Sixty-three parents reported on their children's intake (mean age 7·1 (sd 2·1) years).

Results

The intra-class correlation for reliability ranged from 0·43 for dairy foods to 0·94 for beverages, and was 0·92 for total diet index score (all P < 0·01). The intra-class correlation for validity ranged from 0·04 for meat and alternatives to 0·41–0·44 for fruit, beverages and extra foods, and was 0·44 for the total diet index score. The SFS overestimated the mean diet index score by 16 %, and the bias was consistent across levels of compliance. The percentage agreement into tertiles of index scores was 84% between the administrations of the two SFS, but only 43 % when comparing the SFS with the mean of the recalls.

Conclusions

The SFS can provide a consistent estimate of overall compliance to dietary guidelines for children aged 4–11 years, but overestimated the total diet index score by 16 % across all levels of compliance.
Biphasic effects of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol on brain stimulation reward and motor activity
Authors: Katsidoni Vicky , Kastellakis Andreas , Panagis George
Published: July 2013

Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC), the main psychoactive ingredient of marijuana, has led to equivocal results when tested with the intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) procedure or the open-field test for motor activity, two behavioural models for evaluating the reward-facilitating and locomotor stimulating effects of drugs of abuse, respectively. Therefore, in the present study, the effects of high and low doses of Δ9-THC were compared in the ICSS procedure and the open-field test. Moreover, the involvement of CB1 receptors in tentative Δ9-THC-induced effects was investigated by pre-treating the animals with the CB1 receptor antagonist SR141716A (rimonabant). The results obtained show that low doses of Δ9-THC induce opposite effects from high doses of Δ9-THC. Specifically, 0.1 mg/kg Δ9-THC decreased ICSS thresholds and produced hyperactivity, whereas 1 mg/kg increased ICSS thresholds and produced hypoactivity. Both effects were reversed by pre-treatment with SR141716A, indicating the involvement of CB1 receptors on these actions. Altogether, our results indicate that Δ9-THC can produce acute activating effects in locomotion that coincide with its reward-facilitating effects in the ICSS paradigm. The present findings provide further support that Δ9-THC induces behaviours typical of abuse and substantiate the notion that marijuana resembles other drugs of abuse.
Bacterial communities in Fe/Mn films, sulphate crusts, and aluminium glazes from Swedish Lapland: implications for astrobiology on Mars
Authors: Marnocha Cassandra L. , Dixon John C.
Published: July 2013

Rock coatings have been observed on Mars by Mars Pathfinder, Viking and the Mars Exploration Rovers. Although rock varnish has been studied for its potential as a biosignature, other types of rock coating have been largely ignored. In Kärkevagge, Swedish Lapland, sulphate crusts, aluminium glazes and Fe/Mn films occur with mineralogies mimicking those observed on the surface of Mars. Molecular analysis and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to investigate the bacterial communities associated with these rock coatings. Molecular techniques revealed differences in community structure and metabolisms associated with the production of secondary minerals between the three coating types. SEM analysis showed evidence of encrustation in mineral coatings in the Fe/Mn films and aluminium glazes, and evidence of abundant microbial communities in all three coating types. These observations provide evidence for bacterial participation in the genesis of rock coatings. For astrobiology on Mars, rock coatings are an attractive biosignature target scientifically and logistically: they are surface environments easily accessible by rovers, endoliths are afforded protection from surface conditions, and evidence of life could potentially be preserved through biomineralization and lithification. This study describes the bacterial communities from rock coatings compatible with martian mineralogy, explores the potential for biologically facilitated rock-coating formation, and supports rock coatings as targets of astrobiological interest on Mars.
Formation of assemblies on cell membranes by secreted proteins: molecular studies of free λ light chain aggregates found on the surface of myeloma cells
Authors: Hutchinson Andrew T. , Malik Ansha , Berkahn Mark B. , Agostino Mark , To Joyce , Tacchi Jessica L. , Djordjevic Steven P. , Turnbull Lynne , Whitchurch Cynthia B. , Edmundson Allen B. , Jones Darren R. , Raison Robert L. , Ramsland Paul A.
Published: July 2013

We have described the presence of cell-membrane-associated κFLCs (free immunoglobulin light chains) on the surface of myeloma cells. Notably, the anti-κFLC mAb (monoclonal antibody) MDX-1097 is being assessed in clinical trials as a therapy for κ light chain isotype multiple myeloma. Despite the clinical potential of anti-FLC mAbs, there have been limited studies on characterizing membrane-associated FLCs at a molecular level. Furthermore, it is not known whether λFLCs can associate with cell membranes of myeloma cells. In the present paper, we describe the presence of λFLCs on the surface of myeloma cells. We found that cell-surface-associated λFLCs are bound directly to the membrane and in an aggregated form. Subsequently, membrane interaction studies revealed that λFLCs interact with saturated zwitterionic lipids such as phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine, and using automated docking, we characterize a potential recognition site for these lipids. Atomic force microscopy confirmed that membrane-associated λFLCs are aggregated. Given the present findings, we propose a model whereby individual FLCs show modest affinity for zwitterionic lipids, with aggregation stabilizing the interaction due to multivalency. Notably, this is the first study to image FLCs bound to phospholipids and provides important insights into the possible mechanisms of membrane association by this unique myeloma surface antigen.
Hybrid adaptive feedforward cancellation against time‐varying discrete systems with non‐stationary random periodic disturbance
Authors: Cho Hyun Cheol , Lim Jong Min
Published: July 2013

This study presents a novel hybrid adaptive feedforward cancellation (AFC) methodology in particular for time‐varying discrete systems with stochastic periodic disturbance. The proposed hybrid AFC framework is composed of conventional AFC modules and auxiliary PID control variables. The former is traditionally constructed with sinusoidal functions and parameters of the AFC system, and the latter is added for compensating perturbation because of non‐stationary random disturbance in practice. The authors derive an estimation algorithm of parameters in the hybrid AFC system by using a gradient descent based optimisation method. In addition, a theoretical investigation is conducted for verifying convergence property of the parameter estimation by means of a well‐known Lyapunov stability theory. Lastly, the authors achieve numerical simulation to prove reliability and superiority of the proposed AFC algorithm by comparing to a conventional AFC approach.
Overcoming passivity violations: closed‐loop stability, controller design and controller scheduling
Authors: Forbes James Richard , Damaren Christopher John
Published: July 2013

Control of systems that have had their passive input–output map partially violated is the motivation of this study. The hybrid passivity/finite‐gain systems framework is specifically well suited to systems that have experienced a passivity violation. The focus of this study is the extension and application of the hybrid passivity/finite‐gain systems framework to a multi‐input multi‐output (MIMO) control problem. Calculation of the hybrid passivity/finite‐gain parameters in a linear time‐invariant (LTI) MIMO context is considered. Additionally, we show that a set of hybrid very strictly passive/finite‐gain (VSP/finite‐gain) controllers gain‐scheduled in a particular way also possesses hybrid VSP/finite‐gain properties. To synthesise hybrid VSP/finite‐gain controllers a frequency‐weighted optimal control scheme is used to parameterise controllers that are then constrained and optimised within a numerical optimisation framework. The theoretical contributions of this work are validated experimentally using a two‐link flexible manipulator apparatus. Results highlight the utility of the hybrid passivity/finite‐gain framework, the scheduling scheme and controller design method.
Robust Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy control design for non‐linear networked control systems with asynchronous premise variables
Authors: Kim Sung Hyun
Published: July 2013

This study is devoted to controlling a class of non‐linear systems in the presence of packet transmission delays, packet losses and sampling‐related phenomena over a communication network. To increase the applicability of the Takagi–Sugeno (T–S) fuzzy approach for non‐linear networked control systems, this study sets the premise variables in T–S fuzzy plant and control to be asynchronous and then introduces a useful relaxation technique in a better position to handle the asynchronous problem. Moreover, this study provides a method capable of exploiting fully the induced delay term d (t) from the derivation of robust stabilisation condition.
Distributed event‐based control strategies for interconnected linear systems
Authors: Guinaldo María , Dimarogonas Dimos V. , Johansson Karl H. , Sánchez José , Dormido Sebástian
Published: July 2013

This study presents distributed event‐based control strategies for a networked dynamical system consisting of N linear time‐invariant interconnected subsystems. Each subsystem broadcasts its state over the network according to certain triggering rules that only depend on local information. The system can converge asymptotically to the equilibrium point under the proposed control design, and the existence of a lower bound for the broadcasting period is guaranteed. A novel model‐based approach is derived to reduce the communication between the agents. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed approaches and illustrate the theoretical results.
Robust linear matrix inequality‐based model predictive control with recursive estimation of the uncertainty polytope
Authors: Cavalca Mariana Santos Matos , Galvão Roberto Kawakami Harrop , Yoneyama Takashi
Published: July 2013

The present work is concerned with the recursive estimation of the uncertainty polytope in a robust model predictive control (RMPC) framework. For this purpose, the unknown but bounded error method is employed to update the uncertainty polytope on the basis of sensor measurements at each sampling period. The recursive feasibility and asymptotic stability properties of the proposed approach are demonstrated as an extension of previous results concerning the RMPC formulation. For illustration, a simulated example involving an angular positioning system is presented. The results show that the proposed scheme provides a performance improvement, as indicated by the resulting cost function values.
Cloning, functional characterisation and transgenic manipulation of vitamin E biosynthesis genes of wheat
Authors: Chaudhary Neetu , Khurana Paramjit
Published: July 2013

Tocochromanols are an important group of plastidic lipophilic antioxidants that form an essential part of human diet and play important functions in photosynthetic organisms by protecting them from photo-oxidation, lipid peroxidation and membrane damage. Molecular genetics and genomics-based approaches have revealed the genes required for synthesis of these compounds in model organisms like rice, Arabidopsis and Synechocystis. To create a positive impact on human nutrition and health, the levels of total and specific tocochromanols have been altered in various agricultural crops by metabolic engineering. To understand the mechanisms involved in higher tocochromanol levels of wheat seeds and its germ, the tocochromanol biosynthesis pathway was investigated in wheat. The focus of this research was towards isolation of genes involved in wheat tocochromanol biosynthesis, and homologous and heterologous transgenic manipulation to alter their content and composition. Functional characterisation of TaHydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase and Taγ-Tocopherol methyltransferase-overexpressing transgenic Arabidopsis plants revealed alterations in tocochromanol content and composition, which suggests better growth of these plants in the presence of sorbitol. TaHydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase-overexpressing transgenic wheat, Triticum aestivum L. plants also showed 2.4-fold increase in tocochromanol content, which may have nutritional as well as antioxidative roles. Further characterisation and field trials of these transgenic lines can provide us more insight about the antioxidative roles of tocochromanols.
Biology and management of the red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus.
Authors: Giblin-Davis R. M. , Faleiro J. R. , Jacas J. A. , Peña J. E. , Vidyasagar P. S. P. V.
Published: July 2013

This chapter summarizes the research developed during the last century on different aspects of the red palm weevil R. ferrugineus, including latest findings on its biology, morphotaxonomy, geographical distribution, economic impact and management and prevention options, including chemical, biological, cultural, biotechnological and legal/regulatory controls as well as sanitation. Future areas of research are mentioned.
Fruit flies Anastrepha ludens (Loew), A. obliqua (Macquart) and A. grandis (Macquart) (Diptera: Tephritidae): three pestiferous tropical fruit flies that could potentially expand their range to temperate areas.
Authors: Birke A. , Guillén L. , Midgarden D. , Aluja M.
Published: July 2013

This chapter concentrates on three pestiferous Anastrepha species considered highly polyphagous and identified as potential exotic invaders: A. ludens, A. obliqua and A. grandis. It provides a comprehensive overview of the published information on these three species to aid further research efforts and to facilitate decision-making processes in the areas of management and regulatory entomology. Emphasis is given on recent studies of behaviour, especially those related to oviposition and host selection (and use), life history (including variation on the duration of larval development according to type of host), ecology and population dynamics. This review also discusses traditional control methods such as field sanitation, chemical and biological control, sterile insect technique, more recent efforts on biorational management and use of new tools. Short- and long-term research needs are considered.
Gall midges (Cecidomyiidae) attacking horticultural crops in the Caribbean region and South America.
Authors: Goldsmith J. , Castillo J. , Clarke-Harris D.
Published: July 2013

Gall midges are a major problem of horticultural crops (tomatoes, potatoes, asparagus, pepper) in the Caribbean region and in South America. This chapter describes the hot pepper (Capsicum chinense) gall midge (HPGM) classified as Contarinia spp., undetermined species, and Prodiplosis longifila. Information is given on their distribution, biology, life history, host range, seasonality, damage, sampling and monitoring techniques, rearing, and control (including chemical, biological and quarantine methods).
Planococcus minor (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae): bioecology, survey and mitigation strategies.
Authors: Roda A. , Francis A. , Kairo M. T. K. , Culik M.
Published: July 2013

This chapter describes the host range, economic impact, pest status, origin and distribution, molecular identification, biology, life history, rearing techniques, sampling and monitoring, damage and economic thresholds, and control tactics (including chemical, biological, ant control, mating disruption, mass trapping, lure and kill, cultural, physical, mechanical, quarantine, and host plant resistance) of Planococcus minor.
Recent adventive scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) and whiteflies (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) in Florida and the Caribbean region.
Authors: Stocks I.
Published: July 2013

This chapter focuses on recent invasions of scales (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) and whiteflies (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) as a result of international trade among Florida and the countries and territories that comprise the Caribbean region. The data presented in table format are derived primarily from the extensive database maintained by the Florida Department of Agriculture, Division of Plant Industry, and ScaleNet, an online database that endeavours to maintain an exhaustive compendium of literature pertaining to scale insects. ScaleNet offers numerous database search options that enable the user to 'data-mine' under various parameters, such as distribution, host and literature citation information. Other information presented is derived from the primary literature, especially Miller et al. (2005), which is an excellent synopsis of the adventive Coccoidea fauna of the USA.