bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
How Animals Work
Authors: Schmidt-Nielsen Knut
Published: March 2013

An elegant analysis of how animals work and function. Professor Schmidt-Nielsen's incisive account gives a clear understanding of comparative physiology in relation to body size, form and function, energy supply, and environment. The author is concerned with principles. For example, he explains how difficult it may be to lose heat and water from the respiratory tract. This leads to a consideration of the mechanism of panting as a means of heat loss. The author describes the centuries-old problem of how birds breathe, which now has been solved in his laboratory. He then discusses energy expenditure for swimming, running, and flying, and the effects of activity on heat balance. The ability of mammals to maintain different parts of the body at different temperatures is explained on the basis of counter-current heat exchange; a related mechanism permits the fast-swimming tuna to enjoy some of the advantages of being warm-blooded. The problems raised by being small in size, or large, are considered in detail. It is shown that many physiological variables can be placed on a scale which permits the derivation of non-dimensional numbers to describe the interrelations between different parameters. This interesting and stimulating account was written primarily for students, but since it brings together and synthesizes much new and up-to-date information it will interest all biologists and physiologists.
Machine Vision
Authors: Snyder Wesley E. , Qi Hairong
Published: March 2013

This 2004 book is an accessible and comprehensive introduction to machine vision. It provides all the necessary theoretical tools and shows how they are applied in actual image processing and machine vision systems. A key feature is the inclusion of many programming exercises that give insights into the development of practical image processing algorithms. The authors begin with a review of mathematical principles and go on to discuss key issues in image processing such as the description and characterization of images, edge detection, restoration and feature extraction, segmentation, texture and shape. They also discuss image matching, statistical pattern recognition, clustering, and syntactic pattern recognition. Important applications are described, including optical character recognition and automatic target recognition. Software and data used in the book can be found at www.cambridge.org/9780521830461. A useful reference for practitioners, the book is aimed at graduate students in electrical engineering, computer science and mathematics.
Medical Physiology
Authors: Applin David
Published: March 2013

Medical Physiology is a concise introductory textbook for advanced school and beginning university students. It discusses a range of medical issues that affect the way we live our lives including infectious and inherited diseases, cancer, and diseases of the respiratory system and kidneys. The functions of the immune system and the brain are studied in some detail, as are the effects on our health of ageing, diet and exercise. The text concludes by discussing recent advances in genetics and biotechnology and their impact on the treatments available for many diseases.
Contact Mechanics
Authors: Johnson K. L.
Published: March 2013

This treatise is concerned with the stresses and deformation of solid bodies in contact with each other, along curved surfaces which touch initially at a point or along a line. Examples are a railway wheel and rail, or a pair of gear wheel teeth. Professor Johnson first reviews the development of the theory of contact stresses since the problem was originally addressed by H. Hertz in 1882. Next he discusses the influence of friction and the topographical roughness of surfaces, and this is incorporated into the theory of contact mechanics. An important feature is the treatment of bodies which deform plastically or viscoelastically. In addition to stationary contact, an appreciable section of the book is concerned with bodies which are in sliding or rolling contact, or which collide.
Partial Differential Equations
Authors: Wloka J.
Published: March 2013

This book is a rigorous introduction to the abstract theory of partial differential equations. The main prerequisite is familiarity with basic functional analysis: more advanced topics such as Fredholm operators, the Schauder fixed point theorem and Bochner integrals are introduced when needed, and the book begins by introducing the necessary material from the theory of distributions and Sobolev spaces. Using such techniques, the author presents different methods available for solving elliptic, parabolic and hyperbolic equations. He also considers the difference process for the practical solution of a partial differential equation, emphasising that it is possible to solve them numerically by simple methods. Many examples and exercises are provided throughout, and care is taken to explain difficult points. Advanced undergraduates and graduate students will appreciate this self-contained and practical introduction.
Stationary ideal flow on a free surface of a given shape
Authors: Tophøj L. , Bohr T.
Published: March 2013

We study the stationary, ideal flow on a free fluid surface with a prescribed shape. It is demonstrated that the flow is governed by a self-contained set of equations for the surface flow field without any reference to the bulk flow. To write down these equations for arbitrary surfaces, we apply a covariant formulation using Riemannian geometry and we show how to include surface tension and velocity-dependent forces such as the Coriolis force. We write down explicitly the equations for cases where the surface elevation can be written as function of either Cartesian or polar coordinates in the plane, and we obtain solutions for the important case of rotational symmetry and the perturbed flow when this symmetry is slightly broken. To understand the general character and solubility of the equations, we introduce the associated dynamical system describing the motion along the streamlines. The existence of orbits with transversal intersections, as well as quasi-periodic and chaotic solutions, show that not all boundary value problems are well-posed. In the particular case of unforced motion the streamlines are geodesic curves and in this case the existence of a non-trivial surface velocity field requires that the surface can be foliated by a family of non-intersecting geodesic curves.
Do Local Institutions Affect All Foreign Investors in the Same Way? Evidence from the Interwar Chinese Textile Industry
Authors: Zeitz Peter
Published: March 2013

This article analyzes the impact of employment institutions on Japanese-, British-, and Chinese-owned textile firms in China during the 1920s and 1930s. Despite Britain's domestic position as a world productivity leader, Japanese firms enjoyed a 70 percent productivity advantage over both British and Chinese competitors. The divergent performance of Japanese and British investments in China is explained by differences in management practice. Japanese firms had domestic experience with employment institutions similar to China's and applied labor management strategies that functioned well under these institutions. British firms lacked the institutional experience necessary to adapt management strategies to Chinese institutions.
The Economic Benefits of Political Connections in Late Victorian Britain
Authors: Braggion Fabio , Moore Lyndon
Published: March 2013

The late Victorian era was characterized by close links between politicians and firms in the United Kingdom, with up to half of all members of Parliament serving as company directors. We analyze 467 British companies over the period 1895 to 1904. An analysis of election results shows that the election of a new tech director is associated with a 2 percent to 2.5 percent increase in that firm's share price, whereas old tech firms were unaffected by the electoral fortunes of their directors. New technology firms with political directors were more likely to undertake seasoned issues of both equity and debt.
ThePennyles Pilgrimageof John Taylor: Poverty, Mobility and Performance in Seventeenth-Century Literary Circles
Authors: SANDERS JULIE
Published: March 2013

In this article I ask what it means for cartographical, social, economic and political understandings of poverty and mobility when the ‘geography of vagrancy’, as A. L. Beier termed it, is re-staged and reconfigured in specific acts of writing and even specific acts of walking. Invoking a range of public performances as well as print and manuscript publications by recognised literary figures of the day, including work by Ben Jonson and John Taylor, I concentrate on one particular literary remaking of the everyday experiences of the mobile poor in Taylor's 1618 published pamphletThe Pennyles Pilgrimage or The Money-lesse perambulation, of Iohn Taylor, Alias the Kings Majesties Water-Poet. What Taylor understood when engaging with the ‘geography of vagrancy’ in his challenging text was that the act of mapping the spatial world of the itinerant poor required considerable thought not only about the spaces inhabited, albeit temporarily, or travelled through, but also the ways in which the mobile poor performed such spaces. In turn, Taylor's own performance can be understood as a contradictory act of commercial enterprise and self-promotion as well as one that gives literary historians significant access to contemporary imaginings of the specific socioeconomic and spatial conditions of poverty and mobility.
Irus and his Jovial Crew: Representations of Beggars in Vincent Bourne and other Eighteenth-Century Writers of Latin Verse
Authors: GILMORE JOHN T.
Published: March 2013

Alastair Fowler has written, with reference to the time of Milton, of ‘Latin's special role in a bilingual culture’, and this was still true in the early eighteenth century. The education of the elite placed great emphasis on the art of writing Latin verse and modern, as well as ancient, writers of Latin continued to be widely read. Collections of Latin verse, by individual writers such as Vincent Bourne (c. 1694–1747) or by groups such as Westminster schoolboys or bachelors of Christ Church, Oxford, could run into multiple editions, and included poems on a wide range of contemporary topics, as well as reworkings of classical themes. This paper examines a number of eighteenth-century Latin poems dealing with beggars, several of which are here translated for the first time. Particular attention is paid to the way in which the Latin poems recycled well-worn tropes about beggary which were often at variance with the experience of real-life beggars, and to how the specificities of Latin verse might heighten negative representations of beggars in a genre which, as a manifestation of elite culture, appealed to the very class which was politically and legally responsible for controlling them.
BROUWER’S WEAK COUNTEREXAMPLES AND TESTABILITY: FURTHER REMARKS
Authors: MCCARTY CHARLES
Published: March 2013

Straightforwardly and strictly intuitionistic inferences show that the Brouwer– Heyting–Kolmogorov (BHK) interpretation, in the presence of a formulation of the recognition principle, entails the validity of the Law of Testability: that the form ¬ f V ¬¬ f is valid. Therefore, the BHK and recognition, as described here, are inconsistent with the axioms both of intuitionistic mathematics and of Markovian constructivism. This finding also implies that, if the BHK and recognition are suitably formulated, then Brouwer’s original weak counterexample reasoning was fallacious. The results of the present article extend and refine those of McCarty, C. (2012). Antirealism and Constructivism: Brouwer’s Weak Counterexamples. The Review of Symbolic Logic. First View. Cambridge University Press.
Cell Size and Velocity of Injection are Major Determinants of the Safety of Intracarotid Stem Cell Transplantation
Authors: Janowski Miroslaw , Lyczek Agatha , Engels Charla , Xu Jiadi , Lukomska Barbara , Bulte Jeff WM , Walczak Piotr
Published: March 2013

Intracarotid transplantation has shown potential for efficient stem cell delivery to the brain. However, reported complications, such as compromised cerebral blood flow (CBF), prompted us to perform further safety studies. Glial-restricted precursors (GRPs) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were transplanted into the internal carotid artery of rats ( n = 99), using a microcatheter. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to detect post-transplantation complications, including the development of stroke, for the following experimental variables: cell size, cell dose, cell infusion velocity, delay between artery occlusion and cell infusion, discordant versus concordant xenografting, and intracarotid transplantation with preserved versus compromised blood flow. Immunocompatibility and delayed infusion did not affect the number of complications. An infusion velocity over ≥1 mL/minute often resulted in stroke (27 out of 44 animals), even with an infusion of vehicle, whereas a lower velocity (0.2 mL/minute) was safe for the infusion of both vehicle and smaller cells (GRPs, diameter = 15 μm). Infusion of larger cells (MSCs, diameter = 25 μm) resulted in a profound decrease (75 ± 17%) in CBF. Stroke lesions occurred frequently (12 out of 15 animals) when injecting 2 × 10 6 MSCs, but not after lowering the dose to 1 × 10 6 cells. The present results show that cell size and infusion velocity are critical factors in developing safe protocols for intracarotid stem cell transplantation.
Irradiation to the Young Mouse Brain Caused Long-Term, Progressive Depletion of Neurogenesis but did not Disrupt the Neurovascular Niche
Authors: Boström Martina , Kalm Marie , Karlsson Niklas , Erkenstam Nina Hellström , Blomgren Klas
Published: March 2013

We investigated the effects of ionizing radiation on microvessel structure and complexity in the hippocampus. We also assessed neurogenesis and the neurovascular niche. Postnatal day 14 male C57BL/6 mice received a single dose of 8 Gy to the whole brain and were killed 6 hours, 1 week, 7 weeks, or 1 year later. Irradiation decreased the total number of microvessels and branching points from 1 week onwards and decreased the total microvessel area 1 and 7 weeks after irradiation. After an initial increase in vascular parameter densities, concomitant with reduced growth of the hippocampus, the densities normalized with time, presumably adapting to the needs of the surrounding nonvascular tissue. Irradiation decreased the number of neural stem and progenitor cells in the hippocampus. The relative loss increased with time, resulting in almost completely ablated neurogenesis (DCX+ cells) 1 year after irradiation (77% decreased 1 week, 86% decreased 7 weeks, and 98% decreased 1 year after irradiation compared with controls). After irradiation, the distance between undifferentiated stem cells and microvessels was unaffected, and very few dying endothelial cells were detected. Taken together, these results indicate that the vasculature adjusts to the surrounding neural and glial tissue after irradiation, not vice-versa.
TgrC1 mediates cell–cell adhesion by interacting with TgrB1 via mutual IPT/TIG domains during development of Dictyostelium discoideum
Authors: Chen Gong , Wang Jun , Xu Xiaoqun , Wu Xiangfu , Piao Ruihan , Siu Chi-Hung
Published: March 2013

Cell–cell adhesion plays crucial roles in cell differentiation and morphogenesis during development of Dictyostelium discoideum. The heterophilic adhesion protein TgrC1 (Tgr is transmembrane, IPT, IG, E-set, repeat protein) is expressed during cell aggregation, and disruption of the tgrC1 gene results in the arrest of development at the loose aggregate stage. We have used far-Western blotting coupled with MS to identify TgrB1 as the heterophilic binding partner of TgrC1. Co-immunoprecipitation and pull-down studies showed that TgrB1 and TgrC1 are capable of binding with each other in solution. TgrB1 and TgrC1 are encoded by a pair of adjacent genes which share a common promoter. Both TgrB1 and TgrC1 are type I transmembrane proteins, which contain three extracellular IPT/TIG (immunoglobulin, plexin, transcription factor-like/transcription factor immunoglobulin) domains. Antibodies raised against TgrB1 inhibit cell reassociation at the post-aggregation stage of development and block fruiting body formation. Ectopic expression of TgrB1 and TgrC1 driven by the actin15 promoter leads to heterotypic cell aggregation of vegetative cells. Using recombinant proteins that cover different portions of TgrB1 and TgrC1 in binding assays, we have mapped the cell-binding regions in these two proteins to Lys537–Ala783 in TgrB1 and Ile336–Val360 in TgrC1, corresponding to their respective TIG3 and TIG2 domain.
Advances in our understanding of diabetic retinopathy
Authors: Stitt Alan W. , Lois Noemi , Medina Reinhold J. , Adamson Peter , Curtis Timothy M.
Published: March 2013

Diabetic retinopathy remains the most common complication of diabetes mellitus and is a leading cause of visual loss in industrialized nations. The clinicopathology of the diabetic retina has been extensively studied, although the precise pathogenesis and cellular and molecular defects that lead to retinal vascular, neural and glial cell dysfunction remain somewhat elusive. This lack of understanding has seriously limited the therapeutic options available for the ophthalmologist and there is a need to identify the definitive pathways that initiate retinal cell damage and drive progression to overt retinopathy. The present review begins by outlining the natural history of diabetic retinopathy, the clinical features and risk factors. Reviewing the histopathological data from clinical specimens and animal models, the recent paradigm that neuroretinal dysfunction may play an important role in the early development of the disease is discussed. The review then focuses on the molecular pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy with perspective provided on new advances that have furthered our understanding of the key mechanisms underlying early changes in the diabetic retina. Studies have also emerged in the past year suggesting that defective repair of injured retinal vessels by endothelial progenitor cells may contribute to the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy. We assess these findings and discuss how they could eventually lead to new therapeutic options for diabetic retinopathy.
Anisotropy in amorphous films of cross-shaped molecules with an accompanying effect on carrier mobility: Ellipsometric and sum-frequency vibrational spectroscopic studies
Authors: Oh-e Masahito , Ogata Hidenori , Fujita Yoshimasa , Koden Mitsuhiro
Published: March 2013

Variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry and sum-frequency vibrational spectroscopy have been used to study molecular orientations in thin films used in an organic light-emitting-diode. The films consist of sterically bulky and cross-shaped molecules that have small anisotropy in shape, 2-methyl-9,10-di(2-naphthyl)anthracene (MADN). As a result, anisotropic molecular orientation in the amorphous films has been observed with respect to the surface normal. The short axis of anthracene in MADN molecules, more or less, slightly tilts from the surface plane but preferentially close to the surface with a certain orientational distribution, while the long axis of anthracene is, on average, oriented close to the magic angle from the surface normal. This anisotropic molecular orientation gives rise to better carrier transportation properties than the isotropic orientation.
An atomic force microscopy-based method for line edge roughness measurement
Authors: Fouchier M. , Pargon E. , Bardet B.
Published: March 2013

With the constant decrease of semiconductor device dimensions, line edge roughness (LER) becomes one of the most important sources of device variability and needs to be controlled below 2 nm for the future technological nodes of the semiconductor roadmap. LER control at the nanometer scale requires accurate measurements. We introduce a technique for LER measurement based upon the atomic force microscope (AFM). In this technique, the sample is tilted at about 45° and feature sidewalls are scanned along their length with the AFM tip to obtain three-dimensional images. The small radius of curvature of the tip together with the low noise level of a laboratory AFM result in high resolution images. Half profiles and LER values on all the height of the sidewalls are extracted from the 3D images using a procedure that we developed. The influence of sample angle variations on the measurements is shown to be small. The technique is applied to the study of a full pattern transfer into a simplified gate stack. The images obtained are qualitatively consistent with cross-section scanning electron microscopy images and the average LER values agree with that obtained by critical dimension scanning electron microscopy. In addition to its high resolution, this technique presents several advantages such as the ability to image the foot of photoresist lines, complex multi-layer stacks regardless of the materials, and deep re-entrant profiles.
Investigation of charge states and multiferroicity in Fe-doped h-YMnO3
Authors: Namdeo Sonu , Sinha A. K. , Singh M. N. , Awasthi A. M.
Published: March 2013

Polycrystalline YMn1−xFexO3 (YMFOx) (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.1) compounds have been prepared in single phase and characterized by synchrotron X-ray diffraction, X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy, magnetization, and dielectric measurements. Iron-substitution in hexagonal YMnO3 causes intra-lattice changes exceeding those of the lattice cell. X-ray absorption near edge structure provides mixed-valence Mn3+/Mn4+ and Fe4+ charge states in these manganites, consistent with the observed decrease of the effective magnetic moment with Fe-doping. Magnetization M(T) evidence antiferromagnetic ordering of the specimens with little weak ferromagnetism, and the metrices of exchange interaction suppress with Fe-doping, attributed to the lengthening of the Mn–O planar bond lengths. Dielectric ε′(T) results showing highly doping-dependent anomaly at TN indicate linear magneto-electric coupling.
Rashba plasmon polaritons in semiconductor heterostructures
Authors: Iorsh I. V. , Kovalev V. M. , Kaliteevski M. A. , Savenko I. G.
Published: March 2013

We propose a concept of surface plasmon-polariton amplification in the structure comprising interface between dielectric, metal, and asymmetric quantum well. Due to the Rashba spin-orbit interaction, minima of dispersion relation for electrons in conduction band are shifted with respect to the maximum of dispersion dependence for holes in Γ-point. When energy and momentum intervals between extrema in dispersion relations of electrons and holes match dispersion relation of plasmons, indirect radiative transition can amplify the plasmons; excitation of leaky modes is forbidden due to the selection rules. Efficiency of the indirect radiative transition is calculated and design of the structure is analysed.
Single-domain shape anisotropy in near-macroscopic Ni80Fe20 thin-film rectangles
Authors: Li Yi , Lu Yiran , Bailey W. E.
Published: March 2013

Shape anisotropy provides a simple mechanism to adjust the local bias field in patterned structures. It is well known that for ellipsoidal particles <1 μm in size, a quasi-single domain state can be realized with uniform anisotropy field. For larger patterned ferromagnetic thin-film elements, domain formation is thought to limit the effectiveness of shape anisotropy. In our work, we show that very soft lithographically patterned Ni80Fe20 films with control of induced magnetic anisotropy can exhibit shape anisotropy fields in agreement with single-domain models, for both hysteresis loop measurements at low field and ferromagnetic resonance measurements at high field. We show the superiority of the fluxmetric form over the magnetometric form of anisotropy estimate for thin films with control dimensions from 10 μm to 150 μm and in-plane aspect ratios above 10.
Direct observation of the lattice precursor of the metal-to-insulator transition in V2O3 thin films by surface acoustic waves
Authors: Kündel J. , Pontiller P. , Müller C. , Obermeier G. , Liu Z. , Nateprov A. A. , Hörner A. , Wixforth A. , Horn S. , Tidecks R.
Published: March 2013

A surface acoustic wave (SAW) delay line is used to study the metal-to-insulator (MI) transition of V2O3 thin films deposited on a piezoelectric LiNbO3 substrate. Effects contributing to the sound velocity shift of the SAW which are caused by elastic properties of the lattice of the V2O3 films when changing the temperature are separated from those originating from the electrical conductivity. For this purpose the electric field accompanying the elastic wave of the SAW has been shielded by growing the V2O3 film on a thin metallic Cr interlayer (coated with Cr2O3), covering the piezoelectric substrate. Thus, the recently discovered lattice precursor of the MI transition can be directly observed in the experiments, and its fine structure can be investigated.
Brønsted-Lewis acidic ionic liquid for the “one-pot” synthesis of biodiesel from waste oil
Authors: Liu Shiwei , Wang Zhiping , Li Kesheng , Li Lu , Yu Shitao , Liu Fusheng , Song Zhanqian
Published: March 2013

Brønsted–Lewis acidic ionic liquids were employed for the preparation of biodiesel using waste oil as the feedstock. It was found that (3–sulfonic acid)–propyltriethylammonium chloroironinate [HO3S–(CH2)3–NEt3]Cl–FeCl3 (molar fraction of FeCl3 x = 0.67) was an efficient catalyst for the reaction, and a synergetic effect of Brønsted and Lewis acid sites enhanced the catalytic performance of ionic liquid (IL). Using the waste oil with 34.6 mg KOH/g acidic value, the yield of biodiesel was even more than 95% at 120 °C for 4 h. The reusability of IL was good after it was used seven times. Therefore, an efficient and environmentally friendly catalyst is provided for the synthesis of biodiesel from waste oil with high acid value by “one-pot” method.
Applications of extended F-expansion and projective Ricatti equation methods to (2+1)-dimensional soliton equations
Authors: Kumar Hitender , Chand Fakir
Published: March 2013

The (2+1)-dimensional Maccari and nonlinear Schrödinger equations are reduced to a nonlinear ordinary differential equation (ODE) by using a simple transformation, various solutions of the nonlinear ODE are obtained by using extended F-expansion and projective Ricatti equation methods. With the aid of solutions of the nonlinear ODE more explicit traveling wave solutions expressed by the hyperbolic functions, trigonometric functions and rational functions are found out. It is shown that these methods provides a powerful mathematical tool for solving nonlinear evolution equations in mathematical physics.
Bioaccumulation of heavy metals in Spartina
Authors: Redondo-Gómez Susana
Published: March 2013

The Spartina Schreb. genus is composed of C4 perennial grasses in the family Poaceae. They are native to the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean in western and southern Europe, north-west and southern Africa, the Americas and the southern Atlantic Ocean islands. Most species are salt tolerant and colonise coastal or inland saltmarshes. The available literature on heavy metal bioaccumulation by Spartina sp. was compiled and compared. Spartina alterniflora Loisel. and Spartina maritima (Curtis) Fernald were the most commonly researched species of the genus, whereas many species were not represented at all. In contrast, Cu and Zn are the most intensively researched heavy metals. The few studies dealing with the physiological impacts of heavy metals or the mechanisms of metal accumulation, which involve extracellular and intracellular metal chelation, precipitation, compartmentalisation and translocation in the vascular system, were documented. Bioaccumulation of metals in roots and tillers of some species of the Spartina genus (e.g. S. maritima and Spartina densiflora Brongn.) has been described as a feasible method for remediating waters and soils contaminated with heavy metals. One such example is Spartina argentinensis Parodi, which has been found to be a Cr-hyperaccumulator; it can concentrate chromium in its tissues to levels far exceeding those present in the soil.
Possible relation of water structural relaxation to water anomalies
Authors: Mallamace Francesco , Corsaro Carmelo , Stanley H. Eugene
Published: March 2013

The anomalous behavior of thermodynamic response functions is an unsolved problem in the physics of water. The mechanism that gives rise to the dramatic indefinite increase at low temperature in the heat capacity, the compressibility, and the coefficient of thermal expansion, is unknown. We explore this problem by analyzing both new and existing experimental data on the power spectrum
S
(
Q
, ω) of bulk and confined water at ambient pressure. When decreasing the temperature, we find that the liquid undergoes a structural transformation coinciding with the onset of an extended hydrogen bond network. This network onset seems to give rise to the marked viscoelastic behavior, consistent with the interesting possibility that the sound velocity and response functions of water depend upon both the frequency and wave vector.
Psychological and socioeconomic health of community‐dwelling older adults
Authors: Chen Kuei‐Min , Lin Mei‐Hui , Wang Yueh‐Chin , Li Chun‐Huw , Huang Hsin‐Ting
Published: March 2013

Different dimensions of health are intertwined. The purposes of this study were: (1) to investigate the psychological and socioeconomic health status of community‐dwelling older adults in Taiwan, and (2) to compare the psychological and socioeconomic health differences among people of different age groups, gender, marital status, and exercise habits. Using stratified random sampling, 384 Taiwanese community‐dwelling older adults were recruited for this survey research. Based on the Health Model of Older Adults, seven constructs were measured: (1) psychological health: sleep quality, emotional health, cognitive functioning, and health promotion behaviors; (2) socioeconomic health: social engagement, social support, and financial status. Results showed that most participants were in a good state of psychological and socioeconomic health, except that 38.02% of them suffered from sleep disruptions, and the majority of them were not involved in any social group, nor engaged in any volunteer work. Young‐old older adults had better psychological and socioeconomic health than middle‐old and old‐old older adults. Male older adults had better psychological health than female older adults; however, they had less social engagement and social support than female older adults. Married older adults and exercisers performed better in most of the psychological and socioeconomic health indicators than single/widowed older adults and non‐exercisers.
Reproducing kernel for a class of weighted Bergman spaces on the symmetrized polydisc
Authors: Misra Gadadhar , Shyam Roy Subrata , Zhang Genkai
Published: March 2013

A natural class of weighted Bergman spaces on the symmetrized polydisc is isometrically embedded as a subspace in the corresponding weighted Bergman space on the polydisc. We find an orthonormal basis for this subspace. It enables us to compute the kernel function for the weighted Bergman spaces on the symmetrized polydisc using the explicit nature of our embedding. This family of kernel functions includes the Szegö and the Bergman kernel on the symmetrized polydisc.
The value of asking questions
Authors: Vale Ronald D.
Published: March 2013

Science begins by asking questions and then seeking answers. Young children understand this intuitively as they explore and try to make sense of their surroundings. However, science education focuses upon the end game of “facts” rather than the exploratory root of the scientific process. Encouraging questioning helps to bring the true spirit of science into our educational system, and the art of asking good questions constitutes an important skill to foster for practicing scientists.
The Prehistory of the Internet and its Traces in the Present: Implications for Defining the Field
Authors: Elton Martin C. J. , Carey John
Published: March 2013

This chapter describes how relevant the study of new media and telecommunication innovations, such as videotex, has been to research on developments around the Internet and the Web. It elaborates the distinctions between the Internet and the Web. Additionally, some of the more interesting links between research issues from long ago (in Internet time!) and those of significance today are explained. Online databases developed the initial designs for information services that would appear on the Web. CompuServe and The Source are the best-known ASCII videotex services. These videotex services provide links to other organisations with which the companies did business. The Internet was initially an infrastructure that efficiently transmitted data and at very low cost; fairly soon, it also became able to transmit asynchronous and real-time voice and video. The Internet community resolved the problem of interlinking disparate computer systems so as to produce new and synergistic wholes.
Web Science
Authors: O'Hara Kieron , Hall Wendy
Published: March 2013

This chapter introduces the important technologies and protocols that make up the Web and the social regularities that have helped it flourish. Next, it investigates the foundational assumptions of Web Science. An example that illustrates the role of Web Science in the development of a Web of Linked Data is reported. Web Science, which can help determine which practices and conventions are important, and how they associate to people's willingness to behave in a cooperative fashion, must be related with topography and also the dynamics of the Web. It also needs to take into account the variance of scale between intervention and outcome. Linking data permits the development of an extremely rich context for an inquiry. In general, the aim of Web Science is to develop a research and engineering community within which diverse methods of analysis and synthesis are routinely incorporated.
Sociality Through Social Network Sites
Authors: Ellison Nicole B. , Boyd Danah M.
Published: March 2013

This chapter reports authoritative insights into one of the most significant developments related to social interaction – social network sites – and offers an analytic framework for exploring these new sites, while underscoring the centrality of social interaction since the Internet's earliest days, such as through email. Social network sites (SNSs) presented several characteristics that made it possible for individuals to easily update their profiles. The implicit role of communication and information sharing has become the driving motivator for participation. The concept of ‘Web 2.0’ was an industry-driven phenomenon, hyped by the news media and by business analysts alike. Social network sites emerged out of the Web 2.0 and social media phenomena, mixing new technologies and older computer-mediated communication practices infused by tech industry ideals. Server-level data offer a unique opportunity to access elaborated behavioural data about what people are doing on SNSs.
Games, Online and off
Authors: Williams Dimitri , Kahn Adam S.
Published: March 2013

This chapter, which discusses the evolution of innovative research on game playing in the household and online, such as in studies of massive multiplayer, three-dimensional Internet game environments, demonstrates the need for Internet Studies to deal with the ebbs and flows of the market and the rapid pace of technical change. The video game industry is one of the most profitable and dynamic industries in entertainment. Its future will possibly add a mix of social connectivity and continuing advances in technology as players seek each other as much as they seek games. Casual games are frequently incorporated into pre-existing social networks. Serious games did result in a change in knowledge, opinions, and possible future actions. The research community surrounding games comes from communication, psychology, cultural and critical studies, sociology, and now even business, economics, and computer science.
The Internet and Development: A Critical Perspective
Authors: Unwin Tim
Published: March 2013

This chapter extends a critical perspective on the economic impact of the Internet to the study of information and communications technologies (ICTs) for development, concentrating on the effects of the Internet on the lives of some of the poorest people and most marginalized communities. The distinction between absolute and relative poverty is central to an understanding of the role of technology, and the Internet in particular, in development. Furthermore, the implications of the relationships between the Internet and ‘development’ are assessed in terms of development as economic growth, development as social equality, and development as political freedom. The Internet has been shaped and developed explicitly by the commercial interests largely of US capital. The success of the Internet in delivering development objectives depends very much on how such objectives are defined.
Buddhist Traditions and Violence
Authors: Jerryson Michael
Published: March 2013

This chapter discusses the history of Buddhist traditions and violence, concentrating on the scriptural justifications, symbols, and actual manifestations of violence. It covers Theravada (Path of the Elders), Mahayana (Great Vehicle), and Vajrayana (Diamond Vehicle). Theravada scriptures present on occasion a categorical imperative to avoid violence. Mahayana scriptures condemn violence and hold murder as an unwholesome act (akushala). Vajrayana doctrine is perfused with texts and commentaries that reject the use of violence. The chapter then outlines the elements of violence with regard to war, punishment, and social control. Among the various examples in the scriptures lies one from its founder Siddhattha Gotama, who abandoned his own familial allegiance for the sake of reconciliation.
Apocalyptic Religion and Violence
Authors: Velji Jamel
Published: March 2013

This chapter offers a working definition of the apocalyptic, followed by some of the apocalyptic's most important constituent components. Then, it concentrates on associations between these components and violence, illuminating how structures of the apocalyptic can be deployed to serve violent ends. Apocalyptic texts and movements alike demonstrate a tendency to split the world and its contents into absolute good and absolute evil. Dualistic thinking has been noted by many scholars as a quintessential element of religious violence. Furthermore, the chapter examines three interrelated processes connected to duality that aid in the transformation of apocalyptic thinking into violence against others. Apocalyptic duality is deepened through a sense of temporality that envisions all of time having led up to the unique moment in history in which only the elect exclusively possess the truth. Duality and utopia coalesce as motive forces for foreign intervention to “free” those who are “oppressed.”
Christianity and Torture
Authors: King Karen L.
Published: March 2013

This chapter considers the religious justifications for and against torture. It also describes the torturous narratives at Christianity's foundations, the notion of redemptive martyrdom, and the various ways in which Christian ideology has challenged as well as supported the torturous suffering of fellows and foes. Torture functions in the absence of the facts or against the facts. Despite legal censure, torture and claims of torture are omnipresent. The violence of torture depends on sex/gender differentiation for much of its public communication. Opposition to torture on religious grounds will not be efficient without addressing the fact that enculturated ways of thinking and structures of feeling cultivated in Christian stories, images, and theological discourses are entailed in a wide variety of attitudes and behaviors, both for and against torture.
Rituals of Death and Remembrance
Authors: Shimazono Susumu , Kitts Margo
Published: March 2013

This chapter reviews death rituals from ancient times to the present, but is limited to corpse treatments across traditions. It is shown that death may be a drawn-out process, wherein several death rituals precede the final one. Grave monuments have more purposes than simply salutation of the dead. The Catholic communities show a form of funerary behaviors, from gathering at wakes to the performative displays of professional mourners. The spread of cremation is the most notable modern change. Conceptions of death and the etiquette of remembrance meet in ceremonies linked with corpse disposal. Death rituals remain the locus for a variety of cultural themes, unique to particular historical, religious, and social exigencies.
Religion and Violence from an Anthropological Perspective
Authors: Stewart Pamela J. , Strathern Andrew
Published: March 2013

This chapter reviews a variety of anthropological approaches to religion from the work of Emile Durkheim through the contemporary cognitive theory of mind. It specifically investigates the culturally vast interplay of imagination with divinatory processes that legitimate war, witch-hunting, and revenge, and with cosmic postulates which sanctify the imposition of suffering on others and on oneself. Rituals have an important role in either supporting or opposing violence, whether or not they have explicitly to do with spirit worlds. Durkheim has argued that religion was essentially social and founded on the expression of community values, the images of society itself. Religiously sanctioned or enjoined practices of inflicting harm on one's own body depend on cosmology. Tendencies to violence are counterposed to tendencies to benevolence.
Armageddon in Christian, Sunni, and Shia Traditions
Authors: Sells Michael A.
Published: March 2013

This chapter, which looks at the actual or alleged cases of apocalypticism within contemporary Iranian Shi'ite, Saudi Sunni, and American Christian circles, evaluates the issue of contemporary militant apocalypticism, emphasizing the competition between its American Christian and Islamic versions. The hadith collections present contradictory reports regarding the end-time struggle between the Messiah Jesus and Dajjal. Militant near-term apocalypticism summons the power of religion, imagination, and personal conviction against any serious peace endeavor; demonizes those who work toward such endeavors; and sanctifies those who, once the tribulation or endtimes conflict is underway, kill the peacemakers. The apocalyptic messianism of American dispensationalists, and of the Salafi Sunni figures Safar al-Hawali and Ali al-Timimi, feature scenarios of Middle Eastern and global carnage ending with messianic triumph and theologically grounded rejection of Middle East peacemaking.
Phenomenal Violence and the Philosophy of Religion
Authors: de Vries Hent
Published: March 2013

This chapter offers the example of a philosophy that began with Jacques Derrida, the genesis and structure of whose overall thinking, writing, and interpretative praxis it reviews. Derrida, who has played an influential role as a groundbreaking thinker, speaks of an unconditional affirmation, an absolute performative, whose contours are not established. The neologism mondialatinisation captures the old-new and new-old taken as a total social phenomenon and one that is “at the same time hegemonic and finite, ultra-powerful and in the process of exhausting itself.” Derrida determines that if religion was ever dead and overcome, in its resurrected form it is much less localizable and predictable than ever before, most manifestly in the “cyberspatialized or cyberspaced wars of religion” or “war of religions.” Religion, the political religions, and religious wars and terrorisms in the contemporary world resist their very own demise or rumors thereof.
Ritual, Religion, and Violence
Authors: Alcorta Candace S. , Sosis Richard
Published: March 2013

This chapter, which discusses the association between religion and violence, also addresses why suicide terrorists are willing to offer their lives for their life-affirming religions. Religious violence and “sacred pain” have long been significant components in the mythology and ritual of Western religious traditions. Religious rituals differ widely across cultures. Music intensifies the ritual experience itself, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary and laying the foundation for creation of the sacred. Religious ritual is an efficient tool for altering group cooperation and cohesion. The evolution of religion is closely linked with the emergence of large social groups in early human populations. It can be stated that understanding both the proximate and evolutionary mechanisms which link religion and violence is an important first step in understanding, and hopefully eradicating, the religious violence that has become so prevalent in the modern world.
A Sociotheological Approach to Understanding Religious Violence
Authors: Juergensmeyer Mark , Sheikh Mona Kanwal
Published: March 2013

This chapter tries to illustrate that there has been a “sociotheological turn” in contemporary scholarship which encourages social scientists to take stock of the religious justifications for social action, and theologians and scholars of religious studies to be more aware of the social significance of spiritual ideas and practices. Sociotheology takes religious thinking and social context seriously. The approximation of the fields of psychology and theology and sociology as poles in the same discursive dynamics contributes to eroding a stonewall dichotomy between theology and the social sciences. Guidelines for sociotheological studies include demarcating an epistemic worldview, bracketing assumptions about the truth of a worldview, entering into an epistemic worldview, conducting informative conversations, identifying narrative structures, and locating social contexts. The revival of religion in world politics and the rising value of transnational religious movements have offered an analytic dispute that sociotheology has risen to meet.
A novel method of rejection of brood parasitic eggs reduces parasitism intensity in a cowbird host
Authors: De Mársico María C. , Gloag Ros , Ursino Cynthia A. , Reboreda Juan C.
Published: March 2013

The hosts of brood parasitic birds are under strong selection pressure to recognize and remove foreign eggs from their nests, but parasite eggs may be too large to be grasped whole and too strong to be readily pierced by the host's bill. Such operating constraints on egg removal are proposed to force some hosts to accept parasite eggs, as the costs of deserting parasitized clutches can outweigh the cost of rearing parasites. By fitting microcameras inside nests, we reveal that the Neotropical baywing (Agelaioides badius), a host of the screaming cowbird (Molothrus rufoaxillaris) and shiny cowbird (Molothrus bonariensis), instead circumvents such constraints by kicking parasite eggs out of the nest. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a passerine bird using its feet to remove objects from the nest. Kick-ejection was an all-or-nothing response. Baywings kick-ejected parasite eggs laid before their own first egg and, if heavily parasitized, they ejected entire clutches and began again in the same nest. Few baywings were able to rid their nests of every parasite egg, but their novel ejection method allowed them to reduce the median parasitism intensity by 75 per cent (from four to one cowbird eggs per nest), providing an effective anti-parasite defence.