bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Strongyloides stercoralis is a cause of abdominal pain, diarrhea and urticaria in rural Cambodia
Authors: Khieu Virak , Srey Sophanaroth , Schär Fabian , Muth Sinuon , Marti Hanspeter , Odermatt Peter
Published: May 2013

Background

We document clinical manifestations of 21 patients heavily infected with S. stercoralis (more than 250 larvae in a single Baermann test) from a community in rural Cambodia, both before and three weeks after ivermectin (200 μg/kg BW, single oral dose) treatment.

Findings

Out of 21 patients, 20 (95.2%), 18 (85.7%) and 14 (66.7%) reported frequent abdominal pain, diarrhea and periods of sensation of itching, respectively, during the previous six months; epigastric (11, 55.0%) and peri-umbilical (13, 65.0%) pains were most frequent. Five patients (23.8%) reported having experienced urticaria the week preceding the examination. One patient suffered from extended urticaria. Three weeks after treatment, most symptoms had been almost entirely resolved.

Conclusions

In rural communities of Cambodia, strongyloidiasis with high parasite load is endemic. It is associated with substantial symptoms and clinical signs, particularly abdominal pain, diarrhea and urticaria. Access to adequate diagnosis and treatment is a pressing issue that needs attention.
Diversity and function of bacterial microbiota in the mosquito holobiont
Authors: Minard Guillaume , Mavingui Patrick , Moro Claire Valiente
Published: May 2013

Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) have been shown to host diverse bacterial communities that vary depending on the sex of the mosquito, the developmental stage, and ecological factors. Some studies have suggested a potential role of microbiota in the nutritional, developmental and reproductive biology of mosquitoes. Here, we present a review of the diversity and functions of mosquito-associated bacteria across multiple variation factors, emphasizing recent findings. Mosquito microbiota is considered in the context of possible extended phenotypes conferred on the insect hosts that allow niche diversification and rapid adaptive evolution in other insects. These kinds of observations have prompted the recent development of new mosquito control methods based on the use of symbiotically-modified mosquitoes to interfere with pathogen transmission or reduce the host life span and reproduction. New opportunities for exploiting bacterial function for vector control are highlighted.
Detection of E2A-PBX1 fusion transcripts in human non-small-cell lung cancer
Authors: Mo Min-Li , Chen Zhao , Zhou Hai-Meng , Li Hui , Hirata Tomomi , Jablons David M , He Biao
Published: May 2013

Background

E2A-PBX1 fusion gene caused by t(1;19)(q23;p13), has been well characterized in acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL). There is no report on E2A-PBX1 fusion transcripts in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Methods

We used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect E2A-PBX1 fusion transcripts in human NSCLC tissue specimens and cell lines. We analyzed correlation of E2A-PBX1 fusion transcripts with clinical outcomes in 76 patients with adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS) and other subgroups. We compared mutation status of k-ras, p53 and EGFR in 22 patients with E2A-PBX1 fusion transcripts.

Results

We detected E2A-PBX1 transcripts in 23 of 184 (12.5%) NSCLC tissue specimens and 3 of 13 (23.1%) NSCLC cell lines. Presence of E2A-PBX1 fusion transcripts correlated with smoking status in female patients (P = 0.048), AIS histology (P = 0.006) and tumor size (P = 0.026). The overall survival was associated with gender among AIS patients (P = 0.0378) and AIS patients without E2A-PBX1 fusion transcripts (P = 0.0345), but not among AIS patients with E2A-PBX1 fusion transcripts (P = 0.6401). The overall survival was also associated with status of E2A-PBX1 fusion transcripts among AIS stage IA patients (P = 0.0363) and AIS stage IA female patients (P = 0.0174). In addition, among the 22 patients with E2A-PBX1 fusion transcripts, 12 (54.5%) patients including all four non-smokers, showed no common mutations in k-ras, p53 and EGFR.

Conclusions

E2A-PBX1 fusion gene caused by t(1;19)(q23;p13) may be a common genetic change in AIS and a survival determinant for female AIS patients at early stage.
Limoniastrum guyonianum aqueous gall extract induces apoptosis in human cervical cancer cells involving p16INK4A re-expression related to UHRF1 and DNMT1 down-regulation
Authors: Krifa Mounira , Alhosin Mahmoud , Muller Christian D , Gies Jean-Pierre , Chekir-Ghedira Leila , Ghedira Kamel , Mély Yves , Bronner Christian , Mousli Marc
Published: May 2013

Several reports have described the potential effects of natural compounds as anti-cancer agents in vitro as well as in vivo. The aim of this study was to evaluate the anti-cancer effect of Limoniastrum guyonianum aqueous gall extract (G extract) and luteolin in the human cervical cancer HeLa cell line, and, if so, to clarify the underlying mechanism. Our results show that G extract and luteolin inhibited cell proliferation and induced G2/M cell cycle arrest in a concentration and time-dependent manner. Both natural products induced programmed cell death as confirmed by the presence of hypodiploid G0/G1 cells. These effects are associated with an up-regulation of the expression of the tumor suppressor gene p16

INK4A
and a down-regulation of the expression of the anti-apoptotic actor UHRF1 and its main partner DNMT1. Moreover, G extract- and luteolin-induced UHRF1 and DNMT1 down-regulation is accompanied with a global DNA hypomethylation in HeLa cell line. Altogether our results show that G extract mediates its growth inhibitory effects on human cervical cancer HeLa cell line likely via the activation of a p16INK4A -dependent cell cycle checkpoint signalling pathway orchestrated by UHRF1 and DNMT1 down-regulation.
Clinal distribution of human genomic diversity across the Netherlands despite archaeological evidence for genetic discontinuities in Dutch population history
Authors: Lao Oscar , Altena Eveline , Becker Christian , Brauer Silke , Kraaijenbrink Thirsa , van Oven Mannis , Nürnberg Peter , de Knijff Peter , Kayser Manfred
Published: May 2013

Background

The presence of a southeast to northwest gradient across Europe in human genetic diversity is a well-established observation and has recently been confirmed by genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data. This pattern is traditionally explained by major prehistoric human migration events in Palaeolithic and Neolithic times. Here, we investigate whether (similar) spatial patterns in human genomic diversity also occur on a micro-geographic scale within Europe, such as in the Netherlands, and if so, whether these patterns could also be explained by more recent demographic events, such as those that occurred in Dutch population history.

Methods

We newly collected data on a total of 999 Dutch individuals sampled at 54 sites across the country at 443,816 autosomal SNPs using the Genome-Wide Human SNP Array 5.0 (Affymetrix). We studied the individual genetic relationships by means of classical multidimensional scaling (MDS) using different genetic distance matrices, spatial ancestry analysis (SPA), and ADMIXTURE software. We further performed dedicated analyses to search for spatial patterns in the genomic variation and conducted simulations (SPLATCHE2) to provide a historical interpretation of the observed spatial patterns.

Results

We detected a subtle but clearly noticeable genomic population substructure in the Dutch population, allowing differentiation of a north-eastern, central-western, central-northern and a southern group. Furthermore, we observed a statistically significant southeast to northwest cline in the distribution of genomic diversity across the Netherlands, similar to earlier findings from across Europe. Simulation analyses indicate that this genomic gradient could similarly be caused by ancient as well as by the more recent events in Dutch history.

Conclusions

Considering the strong archaeological evidence for genetic discontinuity in the Netherlands, we interpret the observed clinal pattern of genomic diversity as being caused by recent rather than ancient events in Dutch population history. We therefore suggest that future human population genetic studies pay more attention to recent demographic history in interpreting genetic clines. Furthermore, our study demonstrates that genetic population substructure is detectable on a small geographic scale in Europe despite recent demographic events, a finding we consider potentially relevant for future epidemiological and forensic studies.
Systematic review and stratified meta-analysis of the efficacy of RhoA and Rho kinase inhibitors in animal models of ischaemic stroke
Authors: Vesterinen Hanna M , Currie Gillian L , Carter Samantha , Mee Sarah , Watzlawick Ralf , Egan Kieren J , Macleod Malcolm R , Sena Emily S
Published: May 2013

Background

There is currently only one clinically approved drug, tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), for the treatment of acute ischaemic stroke. The RhoA pathway, including RhoA and its downstream effector Rho kinase (ROCK), has been identified as a possible therapeutic target. Our aim was to assess the impact of study design characteristics and study quality on reported measures of efficacy and to assess for the presence and impact of publication bias.

Methods

We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis on publications describing the efficacy of RhoA and ROCK inhibitors in animal models of focal cerebral ischaemia where outcome was assessed as a change in lesion size or neurobehavioural score, or both.

Results

We identified 25 published papers which met our inclusion criteria. RhoA and ROCK inhibitors reduced lesion size by 37.3% in models of focal cerebral ischaemia (95% CI, 28.6% to 46.0%, 41 comparisons), and reduced neurobehavioural data by 40.5% (33.4% to 47.7%, 30 comparisons). Overall study quality was low (median=4, interquartile range 3–5) and measures to reduce bias were seldom reported. Publication bias was prevalent and associated with a substantial overstatement of efficacy for lesion size.

Conclusions

RhoA and ROCK inhibitors appear to be effective in animal models of stroke. However the low quality score, publication bias and limited number of studies are areas which need attention prior to conducting clinical trials.
Evidence for new targets and synergistic effect of metronomic celecoxib/fluvastatin combination in pilocytic astrocytoma
Authors: Mercurio Sandy , Padovani Laetitia , Colin Carole , Carré Manon , Tchoghandjian Aurélie , Scavarda Didier , Lambert Sally , Baeza-Kallee Nathalie , Fernandez Carla , Chappé Céline , André Nicolas , Figarella-Branger Dominique
Published: May 2013

Background

Pilocytic astrocytomas occur predominantly in childhood. In contrast to the posterior fossa location, hypothalamo-chiasmatic pilocytic astrocytomas display a worse prognosis often leading to multiple surgical procedures and/or several lines of chemotherapy and radiotherapy to achieve long-term control. Hypothalamo-chiasmatic pilocytic astrocytomas and cerebellar pilocytic astrocytomas have a distinctive gene signature and several differential expressed genes (ICAM1, CRK, CD36, and IQGAP1) are targets for available drugs: fluvastatin and/or celecoxib.

Results

Quantification by RT-Q-PCR of the expression of these genes was performed in a series of 51 pilocytic astrocytomas and 10 glioblastomas: they were all significantly overexpressed in hypothalamo-chiasmatic pilocytic astrocytomas relative to cerebellar pilocytic astrocytomas, and CRK and ICAM1 were significantly overexpressed in pilocytic astrocytomas versus glioblastomas.

We used two commercially available glioblastoma cell lines and three pilocytic astrocytoma explant cultures to investigate the effect of celecoxib/fluvastatin alone or in combination. Glioblastoma cell lines were sensitive to both drugs and a combination of 100 μM celecoxib and 240 μM fluvastatin was the most synergistic. This synergistic combination was used on the explant cultures and led to massive cell death of pilocytic astrocytoma cells.

As a proof of concept, a patient with a refractory multifocal pilocytic astrocytoma was successfully treated with the fluvastatin/celecoxib combination used for 18 months. It was well tolerated and led to a partial tumor response.

Conclusion

This study reports evidence for new targets and synergistic effect of celecoxib/fluvastatin combination in pilocytic astrocytoma. Because it is non-toxic, this new strategy offers hope for the treatment of patients with refractory pilocytic astrocytoma.
Tailoring fungal morphology of Aspergillus niger MYA 135 by altering the hyphal morphology and the conidia adhesion capacity: biotechnological applications
Authors: Colin Verónica Leticia , Baigorí Mario Domingo , Pera Licia María
Published: May 2013

Current problems of filamentous fungi fermentations and their further successful developments as microbial cell factories are dependent on control fungal morphology. In this connection, this work explored new experimental procedures in order to quantitatively check the potential of some culture conditions to induce a determined fungal morphology by altering both hyphal morphology and conidia adhesion capacity. The capacity of environmental conditions to modify hyphal morphology was evaluated by examining the influence of some culture conditions on the cell wall lytic potential ofAspergillus nigerMYA 135. The relative value of the cell wall lytic potential was determined by measuring a cell wall lytic enzyme activity such as the mycelium-bound β-N-acetyl-D-glucosaminidase (Mb-NAGase). On the other hand, the quantitative value of conidia adhesion was considered as an index of its aggregation capacity. Concerning microscopic morphology, a highly negative correlation between the hyphal growth unit length (lHGU) and the specific Mb-NAGase activity was found (r = -0.915, P < 0.001). In fact, the environment was able to induce highly branched mycelia only under those culture conditions compatible with specific Mb-NAGase values equal to or higher than 190 U gdry.wt-1. Concerning macroscopic morphology, a low conidia adhesion capacity was followed by a dispersed mycelial growth. In fact, this study showed that conidia adhesion units per ml equal to or higher than 0.50 were necessary to afford pellets formation. In addition, it was also observed that once the pellet was formed the lHGUhad an important influence on its final diameter. Finally, the biotechnological significance of such results was discussed as well.
Sleeping at Walden Pond: Thoreau, Abnormal Temporality, and the Modern Body
Authors: Reiss Benjamin
Published: May 2013

This essay explores Henry David Thoreau's Walden in relation to the history of sleep, considered as a medical, biological, social, and spiritual phenomenon. Attention to Thoreau's striving for “awakening” and “alertness” has veiled his running rhetoric of dormancy: scenes and tropes of sleeping, nodding off, sleepwalking, snoring, dreaming, napping, exhaustion, and catalepsy recur throughout the text, while factory bells, the shrieks of trains, cries of newsboys, and addiction to caffeine all perturb his slumber or that of his neighbors. The first three sections of this essay situate Thoreau's portrayal of a disrupted sleep-world in relation to the incursions of nineteenth-century patterns of labor and consumption, the spread of psychoactive substances and phenomena, and the rise of neurological science and psychiatry; a fourth considers his efforts to conceive alternative valuations of the sleep-waking continuum as a spiritual and bodily mandate. Using the lens of disability studies to link Thoreau's own private sleep disturbances to his broader critique of modernity, I argue that a reading of Walden can help uncover the origins of how sleep has become a problem in our contemporary world.
Deep Thought, Shallow Aesthetic: Reading Surface Meaning in Thoreau
Authors: Faflik David
Published: May 2013

American author Henry David Thoreau's transcendental writings are aesthetically “shallow.” To read Thoreau's signature works is to locate interpretive meaning elsewhere than the resonant “depths” with which we long have associated the transcendental text. These are the implications for literary transcendentalism generally in the wake of our recent critical turn toward “surface reading.” Stephen Best and Sharon Marcus write on the one hand in the journal Representations of the weakening hold that “symptomatic reading” now has on critics who, from the 1970s forward, have accepted the “metalanguages” of psychoanalysis and Marxism as interpretive bases for seeking the “hidden, repressed, deep” meaning of texts. On the other hand, Best and Marcus contend that, “in the last decade or so, we have been drawn to modes of reading that attend to the surfaces of texts rather than plumb their depths.” Whether we can or should agree with their proffered explanation for this “depth”-evading turn—“at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century,” they write, “so much seems to be on the surface”—is a matter that resides beyond the scope of this essay. This article's informing concern instead is how students of nineteenth-century American romanticism negotiate a surface reading practice that denies the very “depths” of subjectivity, interiority, and symbolic, transcendent correspondence that long have been thought to constitute Romantic meaning.
Talking to Bessie: Richard Wright's Domestic Servants
Authors: Ulin Julieann Veronica
Published: May 2013

Over the course of the debate concerning Wright's depiction of black women, critics have ignored the manuscript and extensive body of research to which Wright immediately turned after Native Son, a project Wright explicitly identified as female-centered and for which his publisher suggested the title “Native Daughter.” To concentrate an assessment of Wright's black female domestic servants solely on the portrayal of Bessie Mears in Native Son obscures the radical evolution in his construction of the black female domestic servant from Mears to Ollie Knight (“Black Hope”) to Carl “Lucy” Owens (“Man of All Work”) as a result of Wright's extensive interviews with and research on the female domestic servants in the Bronx and Brooklyn in the 1930s and 1940s. Wright's decision to meet and talk directly with the women of the so-called modern slave markets results in a remarkable oral history of these spaces and in a novel that should transform the critical conversation surrounding Wright and women.
Logarithmic abelian varieties, III: Logarithmic elliptic curves and modular curves
Authors: Kajiwara Takeshi , Kato Kazuya , Nakayama Chikara
Published: May 2013

We illustrate the theory of log abelian varieties and their moduli in the case of log elliptic curves.
Products of pairs of Dehn twists and maximal real Lefschetz fibrations
Authors: Degtyarev Alex , Salepci Nermin
Published: May 2013

We address the problem of existence and uniqueness of a factorization of a given element of the modular group into a product of two Dehn twists. As a geometric application, we conclude that any maximal real elliptic Lefschetz fibration is algebraic.
Estimates forF-jumping numbers and bounds for Hartshorne–Speiser–Lyubeznik numbers
Authors: Mustaţă Mircea , Zhang Wenliang
Published: May 2013

Given an ideal a on a smooth variety in characteristic zero, we estimate theF-jumping numbers of the reductions of a to positive characteristic in terms of the jumping numbers of a and the characteristic. We apply one of our estimates to bound the Hartshorne–Speiser–Lyubeznik invariant for the reduction to positive characteristic of a hypersurface singularity.
Austen and Translation: National Characters, Translatable Heroines, and the Heroine as Translator
Authors: Saglia Diego
Published: May 2013

The nexus “Austen and translation” is among the most recurrent in contemporary studies of the author's reception and has generated a significant body of research on renditions of the novels in other languages. This essay contends that, however relevant and valuable, this approach stands in need of critical and methodological revision. Moving beyond a notion of translation as interlinguistic and intertextual transposition, it explores the novelist's canon in light of the emergent concept of “cultural translation.” In this perspective, the essay examines such categories as patriotism and national character, translation of self, translatable heroines, and the heroine as translator, with reference to Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, and Persuasion. Through this multiple approach, Austen's fiction becomes visible as deeply involved in metaphorical forms of translation, particularly those concerning the transformation of individuals and selves. The challenge that this essay sets itself, as well as any further reflection on “Austen and translation,” is to verify what happens when we take this nexus beyond an exclusive concern with intertextual transference and questions of adequacy in order to reassess the presence of translation and translatability within the novelist's output.
Rumor, Reputation, and Sensation inTess of the D'urbervilles
Authors: Williams Daniel
Published: May 2013

This essay considers the significance of rumor in the work of Thomas Hardy, anchoring its claims in a reading of Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891). I argue that rumor conditions the narrative movement of this novel through its linked operations in social space and bodily sensation. First, I examine the relationship between the movements of characters and their attendant social reputations, tracking the way in which hearsay and opinion intersect narrative spaces in the novel. I then move to the level of internal, bodily registration—to the physiology and sensation of rumor—and investigate its wide-ranging visual and aural manifestations. I emphasize here how bodily awareness provides rumor with a domain where it can forge the verifiability it constitutively lacks in the realm of social knowledge. Finally, I turn to attacks on character and name, invoking comparisons with Hardy's poetry and suggesting that even external indexes of social presentation come to be felt within the contours of bodily sensation, further expanding the scope and narrative pressure of hearsay. I conclude by outlining the wider interest of rumor as a category for thinking about the representation of moral psychology in novels and for evaluating the varieties of evidence at work in novels and criticism.
Biopolitics: From Tribes to Commodity Fetishism
Authors: Kordela A. Kiarina
Published: May 2013

This essay advances a new theory of biopolitics by first showing that the shortcomings of both Michel Foucault's and Giorgio Agamben's theories are due to the fact that they do not approach biopolitics as both a historically specific and a transhistorical phenomenon. Based on a synthetic reading of Karl Marx's analysis of capital, labor-power, and commodity fetishism; Spinozian monism; Lacanian psychoanalysis; Claude Lévi-Strauss's analysis of the incest prohibition and the relation between nature and culture; Georges Bataille's theory of religion; and Étienne Balibar's differentiation of state capitalism as the era of ideology and market capitalism as the era of commodity fetishism, this new theory argues that biopolitical mechanisms are organized around the transhistorical prohibition of self-referentiality—a prohibition that constitutes the very precondition for any society to function. It then traces the concrete historical manifestations of this prohibition from archaic societies through the state and sovereignty to capitalism and its distinct phases. After showing that the primary referent of the prohibition of self-referentiality is blood—as in the incest prohibition of archaic societies, that is, the interdiction of same-blood marriage—the essay follows the subsequent historical “transubstantiations” of blood through theocracy and sovereignty to state and market capitalism. It concludes by addressing the contemporary biopolitical need for a racism—defined, following Foucault, as the break between those worth living and those who must die—that is based on a radical reconceptualization of humans as immortal beings.
On the Indispensability of Consent to Politics: A Qualified Defense
Authors: Gordon Jane Anna
Published: May 2013

Revisiting Carole Pateman's classic discussion of women and consent, this essay advances a qualified defense of consent through defending a second, less hegemonic model of it as articulated most forcefully by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Although difficult to realize, the author argues, consent is indispensable to the very project of a coherent and legitimately democratic politics, especially in the distinction it offers between those differences that can and cannot be politically negotiated. In a context in which the very conditions of politics are under assault, to write off consent as a failed liberal fiction without trying to create actual alternatives is to serve as organic intellectuals to an antipolitical ethos that does not deserve support. As Pateman was arguing against elitist models of the 1970s, the author aims to counter the dangerous excesses of progressive-sounding theoretical models, most especially those fundamentally informed by poststructuralism.
Against Nature, against Consent: A Sexual Politics of Debility
Authors: Fischel Joseph
Published: May 2013

This essay argues that the “consenting adult,” while politically seductive and exonerative, is ultimately a perverted figure for progressive sexual politics. Valorized, the “consenting adult” generates a moralized portraiture of good and bad sexual personae rather than propelling political engagement. The author proposes supplanting (temporarily, partially) the consenting adult with comparatively unsexy, less parsimonious elucidations of fairness and debility as provisional first principles of progressive sexual politics. Taking fairness and debility seriously would rightly extend our political sympathies and energies without triggering the quarantining moralism—the liberal logic—of the figure of the consenting adult. The first part of this essay, “Offending Sex in Orleans Parish,” describes a legal peculiarity and its ensuing politicization that is the motivating case study of the project. The second part, “The Political Perversity of the Consenting Adult,” more carefully contemplates how and to what effect the sexual politics and rhetorics of sexuality observed in New Orleans are contoured by an apotheosis of the consenting adult. The final section, “Fairness, Debility, and Sexual Justice Politics,” considers how sex workers (or persons convicted of soliciting sex), sex offenders, and other queers might find points of political solidarity irreducible to sexual identities subsumed under the consenting adult. Fairness and debility, the author submits, could hold out more promising political visions and arrangements.
Feeling Cold: Phenomenology, Spatiality, and the Politics of Sensation
Authors: Clare Stephanie
Published: May 2013

Contemporary scholarship on emotion and feeling tends to fold bodily sensations such as feeling cold into emotions, like fear. In contrast, this essay slows down to consider the contours of cold itself, showing how Maurice Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception offers a method for thinking of the sensation of cold without reducing it to symbolic meaning or assuming it is autonomic. Although Merleau-Ponty's account of spatiality begins from the body, however, his work does not consider the sensation of temperature. Turning to Rashmika Pandya's phenomenological essay “The Borderlands of Culture and Identity,” the author argues that the sensation of cold is dense with the politics of race, class, and gender, demonstrating how the sensation is entangled with a shrinking sense of spatiality. This helps to explain why Frantz Fanon and Sandra Bartky describe the feeling of being objectified through the sensation of cold. Ultimately, the essay contributes to feminist cultural theory by calling on the field to revise its understandings of embodiment, subjectivity, and identity: we are dependent not simply on human others but also on a more-than-human world, a world captured in the thermal energy of particles.
Unrest and State Response in Arab Monarchies
Authors: Barany Zoltan
Published: May 2013

The turmoil associated with the Arab Spring in the region’s eight monarchies has received comparatively modest attention because, aside from Bahrain, the demonstrations were mostly small and nonconfrontational, there were few calls to overthrow the regimes, and states’ coercive powers were applied with relative moderation. Behind these generalizations, however, lies a more complex reality: the extent of the strife was quite different, as were state actions to counter them across the eight cases. What explains these disparities? This essay argues that the differences in the levels of unrest are largely illuminated by varying degrees of societal support for monarchical regimes, deep-seated societal cleavages, and the deficiencies of political mobilization. The variation in state responses, in turn, is mainly explained by divergent financial resources, the quality of political leadership, and external diplomatic, financial, and security assistance.
Introduction: Collectivism in Twentieth-Century Japanese Art with a Focus on Operational Aspects of Dantai
Authors: Tomii Reiko
Published: May 2013

Collectivism is a lively phenomenon in a rapidly globalizing world of contemporary art today. Artists' groups proliferate in many regions of the world, calling into question the modern myth of originality and individualism. These collectives actively explore new possibilities of expression and operation, while aspiring to break down the conventional boundaries that have long conditioned the production of art and its distribution in society. The global scope of artists' collectives makes the study of collectivism an integral part of “world art history,” providing a critical perspective in understanding the distinctive local developments of modernity and postmodernity worldwide. This issue focuses on twentieth-century Japan to examine some critical issues concerning collectivism and art, including the impetuses and origins of collectivism, the evolution of modern and contemporary collectivism, and the ways collectivism shapes artists' practices of making and showing art in an environment they operate. In particular, this introduction proposes a periodization of kindai (modern), gendai (contemporary), and kontemporarī (“contemporary” in a global sense) based on three different operational modes of collectivism and explores how modern collectivism that centered on bijutsu dantai (art associations) helped create the art establishment and disseminate the idea of modernism among the general public, while fostering vanguard experimentalism that foresaw the collectivism of postwar art.
Jikken Kōbō and Takiguchi Shūzō: The New Deal Collectivism of 1950s Japan
Authors: Tezuka Miwako
Published: May 2013

In post-1945 Japan, the government, guided by the occupation authority, reeducated the people with a democratic ideology. Belligerent nationalism was replaced by a national mission of enrichment of arts and culture. Takiguchi Shūzō (1903 – 79), a poet-critic and supporter of vanguard art since the prewar period, continued to cultivate the spirit of defiance against the establishment in the postwar art world. However, as a respected man of culture, he was also involved in a project of building the first national museum of modern art for the purpose of public enlightenment. This article explores how Takiguchi fostered independent art movements despite his conflicting engagement with the establishment.

In Takiguchi's mind, artistic collectivism had to be rooted in the public domain so that art and society would inform each other. His utopian vision paralleled many objectives of the historical avant-gardes of the West, and it was transmitted to the postwar generation of artists, most notably, to the artists' collective Jikken Kōbō (Experimental Workshop; active 1951 – 57). This group exemplified the postwar Japanese reception of the Bauhausian philosophy of unified art, and Takiguchi played an important role in fostering Jikken Kōbō's interest in the Bauhaus. By placing the transmission of utopianism from Takiguchi to Jikken Kōbō in a larger politicocultural context, this article analyzes the effect of the legacy of the US-led occupation on the idea of artistic collectivism in 1950s Japan.

The United States was already under the influence of the Bauhaus in the 1930s as evidenced in the establishments of Black Mountain College and the Chicago Bauhaus. The concept of progressive art education promoted by these schools eventually reached Japan through the postwar occupation, whose initial directive was fueled by New Deal liberalism. This article examines a work that revisited Bauhausian philosophy, Jikken Kōbō's 1955 The Future Eve (Mirai no ivu), an experimental ballet theater based on a science fiction novel written in 1886 by the French novelist Villiers de l'Isle-Adam. The Future Eve revealed Jikken Kōbō's affinity with the Bauhaus in its collective engagement with production of theater, its strong interest in merging art and technology, and ultimately, its belief in art's relevance to social and public issues of the time.
Gutai Chain: The Collective Spirit of Individualism
Authors: Tiampo Ming
Published: May 2013

This article is a theoretical investigation of the Gutai's collective enterprise, examining the creative process of Gutai Art Exhibitions from 1955 to 1962 and looking in particular at the Outdoor Exhibitions and Gutai Art on Stage. I will argue that the group's leader, Yoshihara Jiro, engendered a collective spirit of individualism that at once embraced utopian ideals of collectivism and was suspicious of any enterprise that encouraged a dissolution of self. Marked by this ambivalence, Yoshihara adapted the collective experience to create a community in which creativity became a dialogical enterprise based upon a foundation of subjective autonomy: subjective autonomy, that is, as an ethical concept propounded by postwar authors such as Sakaguchi Ango, who believed that authenticity and individualism were the only defenses against the mass psychology that enabled the militarism of the Second World War.

Despite this emphasis on the individual, I argue that the collective enterprise of the Gutai altered the creative process irrevocably, and that it is impossible to consider the work of any artist separate from the group. In his article “Gutai kusari” (“Gutai Chain”) on the tension between the individual and the collective, the artist Ukita Yôzô wrote, “The works at the Gutai Art Exhibition evolve from a state of mind and concentration exactly like that when aiming at a moving target.” It is precisely this experience of creation in dialogue with a community, aiming at a moving target that cannot be dismissed.
A Woman and Collectives: An Interview with Tabe Mitsuko
Authors: Yoshimoto Midori
Published: May 2013

Tabe Mitsuko (b. 1933) was one of the principal members of Kyūshū-ha (Kyūshū school), an avant-garde artist collective that was founded in Fukuoka in 1957 and lasted until about 1970. Tabe's early paintings, such as Anger of Fish Tribes (Gyozoku no Ikari, 1957), using asphalt and bamboo rings, reflect Tabe's concern about industrial pollution. While their thick texture followed the signature Kyūshū-ha style, Tabe's works often stood out for expressing strong social consciousness, including proto-feminist concerns in the early 1960s. During her pregnancy, she created a mixed-media installation titled Artificial Placenta (Jinkō Taiban, 1961), which consisted of three mannequin hips propped upside down on pedestals, each hip containing a radio vacuum tube in its opening. While Tabe's art developed with Kyūshū-ha, her career has long outlived it. This interview sheds light onto Tabe's experience as a woman artist in the male-dominant avant-garde environment in the southern region of Kyūshū from the mid-1950s to the 1980s. Gender and sociopolitical dynamics in various art collectives are the primary focus throughout the interview in order to reveal the less examined inner workings of these groups through an artist's recollection.
Convenient First Synthesis of Hydroxy- and Amino-γ,γ′-bisphosphonates via Reduction and Reductive Amination of γ,γ′-Diphosphonyl Ketones
Authors: Samarat Ali , Yahyaoui Marwa , Aouani Iyadh , Touil Soufiane
Published: May 2013

Simple and efficient methodologies have been developed for the synthesis of novel hydroxy- and aminobisphosphonate derivatives, through the reduction and reductive amination of γ,γ′-diphosphonyl ketones.
Reduced Graphene Oxide/CuI Nanocomposite: An Efficient and Recyclable Catalyst for the N-Phenylation of Indole
Authors: Fang Fang , Wu Kong-Lin , Li Xiang-Zi , Dong Chao , Liu Li , Wei Xian-Wen
Published: May 2013

In this letter, a reduced graphene oxide/CuI (rGO/CuI) nanocomposite was obatined by a facile chemical reduction route for the first time. The different reaction conditions that affected the catalytic properties of rGO/CuI nanocomposite were investigated. The catalytic activity of rGO/CuI nanocomposite for the N-phenylation of indole was much better than that of rGO and CuI.
Photocatalytic Reduction of Uranyl Ions over Anatase and Rutile Nanostructured TiO2
Authors: Zhang Lihua , Li Hui , Li Le , Deng Jian , Deng Weiyi , Zhao Yubao
Published: May 2013

Anatase and rutile nanostructured TiO2 semiconductor catalysts were prepared by wet-chemical methods and used for the photoreduction of uranyl ions under UV radiation. It was found that there is an obvious difference between their catalytic performances: rutile TiO2 nanorods give the highest activity per unit surface area, being over twice as active as P25 and 10 times more active than the anatase counterparts.
Morphological Control of Anodic TiO2 Nanotubes by the Modulation of Applied Potential
Authors: Lee So-Hee , Kim Hyun Sik , Ahn Kwang-soon , Kang Soon Hyung
Published: May 2013

Bamboo-type TiO2 nanotube (BT-TONT) arrays were developed by biasing the facile alternating voltage (AV, 80–20 V) and compared to smooth-walled TiO2 nanotube (SW-TONT) arrays grown by forcing a constant voltage (CV). The duration at 20 V in the AV mode had a considerable influence on the morphological properties such as the thickness, ridge spacing, and pore size for the same cycles. As the duration at 20 V was increased, the length and ridge spacing decreased, while the pore size increased. This is due to the formation of a thick blocking layer that blocks the growth of TONT. However, the repetitive formation of ridges in the BT-TONT arrays induced an enlargement of the surface area, resulting in an improvement of the short-circuit current (Jsc) in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) in comparison with that of the SW-TONT arrays. In particular, the 20 V (20 min dwell time) TONTs exhibited a photoconversion efficiency (η) of 0.20% per thickness, compared with 0.077% for the SW-TONTs. Therefore, the formation of BT-TONT arrays can give an increased surface area for dye uptake, leading to an improved photoconversion efficiency.
The Life-Cycle Profile of Time Spent on Job Search
Authors: Aguiar Mark , Hurst Erik , Karabarbounis Loukas
Published: May 2013

Using time use survey data we document a hump-shaped profile of job search time in the United States across the life-cycle. The middle-aged unemployed spend roughly three times as much time in job search as the youngest group of unemployed. The hump-shaped profile of job search time is relatively stable across demographic groups. However, the profile of job search time appears to be declining in non-US countries. We discuss how standard life-cycle models with incomplete markets have difficulty in accounting for the hump-shaped profile found in the US data.
Using State Pension Shocks to Estimate Fiscal Multipliers since the Great Recession
Authors: Shoag Daniel
Published: May 2013

Has government spending raised income and employment since 2008? I use new data on state pension returns during the Great Recession to recover exogenous changes in spending. Instrumenting with these return shocks, I estimate that each dollar of windfall-financed spending raised local incomes by $1.43 and every additional $22,011 of spending created one contemporaneous job. These estimates are similar to those found in Shoag (2010) despite the non-overlapping datasets. Unlike Shoag (2010), however, the bulk of the employment increase post-2008 stems from decreases in unemployment rather than increased labor force participation.
How Much Would US Style Fiscal Integration Buffer European Unemployment and Income Shocks? (A Comparative Empirical Analysis)
Authors: Feyrer James , Sacerdote Bruce
Published: May 2013

We examine the degree to which federal fiscal integration smoothes income and unemployment shocks across US States. We find that roughly 25 cents of every dollar of income shock at the state level is offset by federal fiscal policy. This stabilization comes entirely through the Federal tax system, not through spending stabilizers, automatic or otherwise. If we apply a comparable amount of cross country stabilization to European Union countries (as exists across US States), Greece and Spain would be receiving additional transfers of 2.5 percent of GDP.
The Mystique Surrounding the Central Bank's Balance Sheet, Applied to the European Crisis
Authors: Reis Ricardo
Published: May 2013

A central bank's resource constraint bounds the dividends it can distribute by the present value of seignorage, which is a modest share of GDP. This is in spite of the mystique behind a central bank's balance sheet. Moreover, the statutes of the Federal Reserve or the ECB make it difficult for it to redistribute resources across regions. In a simple model of sovereign default, where multiple equilibria arise if debt repudiation lowers fiscal surpluses, the central bank may help to select one equilibrium. The central bank's main lever over fundamentals is to raise inflation, but otherwise the balance sheet gives it little leeway.
Income Inequality, Mobility, and Turnover at the Top in the US, 1987–2010
Authors: Auten Gerald , Gee Geoffrey , Turner Nicholas
Published: May 2013

While cross-sectional data show increasing income inequality in the United States, it is also important to examine how incomes change over time. Using income tax data, this paper provides new evidence on long-term and intergenerational mobility, and persistence at the top of the income distribution. Half of those aged 35-40 in the top or bottom quintile in 1987 remain there in 2007; the others have moved up or down. While 30 percent of dependents aged 15-18 from bottom quintile households are themselves in the bottom quintile after 20 years, most have moved up. Persistence is lower in the highest income groups.
Measuring the Trends in Inequality of Individuals and Families: Income and Consumption
Authors: Fisher Jonathan D , Johnson David S , Smeeding Timothy M
Published: May 2013

We present evidence on the level of and trend in inequality from 1985-2010 in the United States, using disposable income and consumption for a sample of individuals from the Consumer Expenditure (CE) Survey. Differing from the findings in other recent research, we find that the trends in income and consumption inequality are broadly similar between 1985 and 2006, but diverge during the Great Recession with consumption inequality decreasing and income inequality increasing. Given the differences in the trends in inequality in the last four years, using both income and consumption provides useful information.
Immigration and Employer Transitions for STEM Workers
Authors: Kerr Sari Pekkala , Kerr William R
Published: May 2013

The firm is almost entirely absent from models of immigration, and yet firms play a central role for high-skilled immigration. The H-1B visa program, for example, is a firm-sponsored entry where firms are responsible for every stage: from identifying the immigrant, to employing them, to filing for permanent residency on behalf of the immigrant. This central role of firms for high-skilled immigration suggests the traditional lens for evaluating the impact of immigration on natives through local area labor markets or national age-education approaches may miss important dynamics. We analyze the employment and wage trajectories of high-skilled workers born in America when a high-skilled immigrant arrives at their work site. We use linked employer-employee data during the 1995-2008 period from the Census Bureau for this exercise, which identifies the immigration status and country-of-birth of workers. We follow the subsequent career path of workers after high-skilled immigration occurs to the employee's work site both within firms (e.g., changes in employee salary, relocation to other sites) and across firms (e.g., movements to new jobs or out of workforce, long-term salary adjustments). The richness and depth of the Census Bureau data allow for multiple comparison points: selection on observables (e.g., age, tenure, salary levels and recent growth), varying immigration treatments across different work sites for the same firm for otherwise comparable employees, and (for a subset of cases and short time period at the end of our sample) randomization in H-1B admission lotteries.
Why Do Programmers Earn More in Houston than Hyderabad? Evidence from Randomized Processing of US Visas
Authors: Clemens Michael A
Published: May 2013

Why do workers earn so much more in the United States than in India? This study compares the earnings of workers in the two countries in a unique setting. The product is perfectly tradable (software), technology differences are nil (they are members of the same work team), and the workers are identical in expectation (those who enter the United States are chosen by natural randomization). The results suggest that output tradability, technology, and human capital together explain much less than half of the earnings gap. Location itself may have large effects on individual workers' wages and productivity, for reasons poorly understood.
A Trapped-Factors Model of Innovation
Authors: Bloom Nicholas , Romer Paul M , Terry Stephen J , Reenen John Van
Published: May 2013

We explain a counterintuitive empirical finding: Firms facing more import competition do more innovation. In our model, factors are trapped inside a firm. An increase in import competition encourages a firm to innovate by reducing the opportunity cost of inputs. Without trapped factors, trade liberalization leads to a small permanent increase in the worldwide rate of growth. With trapped factors, firms that face more import competition do relatively more innovation. The extra innovation induced by trapped factors induces a small permanent increase in aggregate output, consumption, and welfare, generalizing the appropriate estimate of the gains from trade.
Sources of Wage Inequality
Authors: Akerman Anders , Helpman Elhanan , Itskhoki Oleg , Muendler Marc-Andreas , Redding Stephen
Published: May 2013

Recent theories of firm heterogeneity emphasize between-firm wage differences as a new mechanism through which trade can affect wage inequality. Using linked employer-employee data for Sweden, we show that many of the stylized facts about wage inequality found in Helpman et al. (2012) for Brazil also hold for Sweden. Much of overall wage inequality arises within sector-occupations and for workers with similar observable characteristics. One notable difference is a smaller contribution from between-firm differences in wages in Sweden, which could reflect the influence of Swedish labor market institutions in dampening the scope for variation in wages between firms through collective wage agreements.