bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Frequency selectivity in Old-World monkeys corroborates sharp cochlear tuning in humans
Authors: Joris Philip X. , Bergevin Christopher , Kalluri Radha , Mc Laughlin Myles , Michelet Pascal , van der Heijden Marcel , Shera Christopher A.
Published: October 2011

Frequency selectivity in the inner ear is fundamental to hearing and is traditionally thought to be similar across mammals. Although direct measurements are not possible in humans, estimates of frequency tuning based on noninvasive recordings of sound evoked from the cochlea (otoacoustic emissions) have suggested substantially sharper tuning in humans but remain controversial. We report measurements of frequency tuning in macaque monkeys, Old-World primates phylogenetically closer to humans than the laboratory animals often taken as models of human hearing (e.g., cats, guinea pigs, chinchillas). We find that measurements of tuning obtained directly from individual auditory-nerve fibers and indirectly using otoacoustic emissions both indicate that at characteristic frequencies above about 500 Hz, peripheral frequency selectivity in macaques is significantly sharper than in these common laboratory animals, matching that inferred for humans above 4–5 kHz. Compared with the macaque, the human otoacoustic estimates thus appear neither prohibitively sharp nor exceptional. Our results validate the use of otoacoustic emissions for noninvasive measurement of cochlear tuning and corroborate the finding of sharp tuning in humans. The results have important implications for understanding the mechanical and neural coding of sound in the human cochlea, and thus for developing strategies to compensate for the degradation of tuning in the hearing-impaired.
Rapid expansion of oceanic anoxia immediately before the end-Permian mass extinction
Authors: Brennecka Gregory A. , Herrmann Achim D. , Algeo Thomas J. , Anbar Ariel D.
Published: October 2011

Periods of oceanic anoxia have had a major influence on the evolutionary history of Earth and are often contemporaneous with mass extinction events. Changes in global (as opposed to local) redox conditions can be potentially evaluated using U system proxies. The intensity and timing of oceanic redox changes associated with the end-Permian extinction horizon (EH) were assessed from variations in
238
U/
235
U (
δ
238
U) and Th/U ratios in a carbonate section at Dawen in southern China. The EH is characterized by shifts toward lower
δ
238
U values (from -0.37‰ to -0.65‰), indicative of an expansion of oceanic anoxia, and higher Th/U ratios (from 0.06 to 0.42), indicative of drawdown of U concentrations in seawater. Using a mass balance model, we estimate that this isotopic shift represents a sixfold increase in the flux of U to anoxic facies, implying a corresponding increase in the extent of oceanic anoxia. The intensification of oceanic anoxia coincided with, or slightly preceded, the EH and persisted for an interval of at least 40,000 to 50,000 y following the EH. These findings challenge previous hypotheses of an extended period of whole-ocean anoxia prior to the end-Permian extinction.
Insensitivity to social reputation in autism
Authors: Izuma Keise , Matsumoto Kenji , Camerer Colin F. , Adolphs Ralph
Published: October 2011

People act more prosocially when they know they are watched by others, an everyday observation borne out by studies from behavioral economics, social psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. This effect is thought to be mediated by the incentive to improve one's social reputation, a specific and possibly uniquely human motivation that depends on our ability to represent what other people think of us. Here we tested the hypothesis that social reputation effects are selectively impaired in autism, a developmental disorder characterized in part by impairments in reciprocal social interactions but whose underlying cognitive causes remain elusive. When asked to make real charitable donations in the presence or absence of an observer, matched healthy controls donated significantly more in the observer's presence than absence, replicating prior work. By contrast, people with high-functioning autism were not influenced by the presence of an observer at all in this task. However, both groups performed significantly better on a continuous performance task in the presence of an observer, suggesting intact general social facilitation in autism. The results argue that people with autism lack the ability to take into consideration what others think of them and provide further support for specialized neural systems mediating the effects of social reputation.
CA1 neurons in the human hippocampus are critical for autobiographical memory, mental time travel, and autonoetic consciousness
Authors: Bartsch Thorsten , Döhring Juliane , Rohr Axel , Jansen Olav , Deuschl Günther
Published: October 2011

Autobiographical memories in our lives are critically dependent on temporal lobe structures. However, the contribution of CA1 neurons in the human hippocampus to the retrieval of episodic autobiographical memory remains elusive. In patients with a rare acute transient global amnesia, highly focal lesions confined to the CA1 field of the hippocampus can be detected on MRI. We studied the effect of these lesions on autobiographical memory using a detailed autobiographical interview including the remember/know procedure. In 14 of 16 patients, focal lesions in the CA1 sector of the hippocampal cornu ammonis were detected. Autobiographical memory was significantly affected over all time periods, including memory for remote periods. Impairment of episodic memory and autonoetic consciousness exhibited a strong temporal gradient extending 30 to 40 y into the past. These results highlight the distinct and critical role of human hippocampal CA1 neurons in autobiographical memory retrieval and for re-experiencing detailed episodic memories.
Distant Mimivirus relative with a larger genome highlights the fundamental features of Megaviridae
Authors: Arslan Defne , Legendre Matthieu , Seltzer Virginie , Abergel Chantal , Claverie Jean-Michel
Published: October 2011

Mimivirus, a DNA virus infecting acanthamoeba, was for a long time the largest known virus both in terms of particle size and gene content. Its genome encodes 979 proteins, including the first four aminoacyl tRNA synthetases (ArgRS, CysRS, MetRS, and TyrRS) ever found outside of cellular organisms. The discovery that Mimivirus encoded trademark cellular functions prompted a wealth of theoretical studies revisiting the concept of virus and associated large DNA viruses with the emergence of early eukaryotes. However, the evolutionary significance of these unique features remained impossible to assess in absence of a Mimivirus relative exhibiting a suitable evolutionary divergence. Here, we present
Megavirus chilensis,
a giant virus isolated off the coast of Chile, but capable of replicating in fresh water acanthamoeba. Its 1,259,197-bp genome is the largest viral genome fully sequenced so far. It encodes 1,120 putative proteins, of which 258 (23%) have no Mimivirus homologs. The 594 Megavirus/Mimivirus orthologs share an average of 50% of identical residues. Despite this divergence, Megavirus retained all of the genomic features characteristic of Mimivirus, including its cellular-like genes. Moreover, Megavirus exhibits three additional aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase genes (IleRS, TrpRS, and AsnRS) adding strong support to the previous suggestion that the Mimivirus/Megavirus lineage evolved from an ancestral cellular genome by reductive evolution. The main differences in gene content between Mimivirus and Megavirus genomes are due to (
i
) lineages specific gains or losses of genes, (
ii
) lineage specific gene family expansion or deletion, and (
iii
) the insertion/migration of mobile elements (intron, intein).
Kisspeptin neurons mediate reflex ovulation in the musk shrew (
Suncus murinus
)
Authors: Inoue Naoko , Sasagawa Karin , Ikai Kotaro , Sasaki Yuki , Tomikawa Junko , Oishi Shinya , Fujii Nobutaka , Uenoyama Yoshihisa , Ohmori Yasushige , Yamamoto Naoyuki , Hondo Eiichi , Maeda Kei-ichiro , Tsukamura Hiroko
Published: October 2011

The present study investigated whether kisspeptin–G protein-coupled receptor 54 (GPR54) signaling plays a role in mediating mating-induced ovulation in the musk shrew (
Suncus murinus
), a reflex ovulator. For this purpose, we cloned suncus
Kiss1
and
Gpr54
cDNA from the hypothalamus and found that suncus kisspeptin (sKp) consists of 29 amino acid residues (sKp-29). Injection of exogenous sKp-29 mimicked the mating stimulus to induce follicular maturation and ovulation. Administration of several kisspeptins and GPR54 agonists also induced presumed ovulation in a dose-dependent manner, and
Gpr54
mRNA was distributed in the hypothalamus, showing that kisspeptins induce ovulation through binding to GPR54. The sKp-29–induced ovulation was blocked completely by pretreatment with a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist, suggesting that kisspeptin activates GnRH neurons to induce ovulation in the musk shrew. In addition, in situ hybridization revealed that
Kiss1
-expressing cells are located in the medial preoptic area (POA) and arcuate nucleus in the musk shrew hypothalamus. The number of
Kiss1
-expressing cells in the POA or arcuate nucleus was up-regulated or down-regulated by estradiol, suggesting that kisspeptin neurons in these regions were the targets of the estrogen feedback action. Finally, mating stimulus largely induced c-Fos expression in
Kiss1
-positive cells in the POA, indicating that the mating stimulus activates POA kisspeptin neurons to induce ovulation. Taken together, these results indicate that kisspeptin–GPR54 signaling plays a role in the induction of ovulation in the musk shrew, a reflex ovulator, as it does in spontaneous ovulators.
Minichromosome maintenance helicase paralog MCM9 is dispensible for DNA replication but functions in germ-line stem cells and tumor suppression
Authors: Hartford Suzanne A. , Luo Yunhai , Southard Teresa L. , Min Irene M. , Lis John T. , Schimenti John C.
Published: October 2011

Effective DNA replication is critical to the health and reproductive success of organisms. The six MCM2–7 proteins, which form the replicative helicase, are essential for high-fidelity replication of the genome. Many eukaryotes have a divergent paralog, MCM9, that was reported to be essential for loading MCM2–7 onto replication origins in the
Xenopus
oocyte extract system. To address the in vivo role of mammalian MCM9, we created and analyzed the phenotypes of mice with various mutations in
Mcm9
and an intronic DNA replication-related gene
Asf1a
. Ablation of
Mcm9
was compatible with cell proliferation and mouse viability, showing that it is nonessential for MCM2–7 loading or DNA replication.
Mcm9
mutants underwent p53-independent embryonic germ-cell depletion in both sexes, with males also exhibiting defective spermatogonial stem-cell renewal. MCM9-deficient cells had elevated genomic instability and defective cell cycle reentry following replication stress, and mutant animals were prone to sex-specific cancers, most notably hepatocellular carcinoma in males. The phenotypes of mutant mice and cells suggest that MCM9 evolved a specialized but nonessential role in DNA replication or replication-linked quality-control mechanisms that are especially important for germ-line stem cells, and also for tumor suppression and genome maintenance in the soma.
Autoantibodies recognizing carbamylated proteins are present in sera of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and predict joint damage
Authors: Shi Jing , Knevel Rachel , Suwannalai Parawee , van der Linden Michael P. , Janssen George M. C. , van Veelen Peter A. , Levarht Nivine E. W. , van der Helm-van Mil Annette H. M. , Cerami Anthony , Huizinga Tom W. J. , Toes Rene E. M. , Trouw Leendert A.
Published: October 2011

Autoimmune responses against posttranslationally modified antigens are a hallmark of several autoimmune diseases. For example, antibodies against citrullinated protein antigens (ACPA) have shown their relevance for the prognosis and diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and have been implicated in disease pathogenesis. It is conceivable that other autoantibody systems, recognizing other posttranslationally modified proteins, are also present in RA. Here, we describe the presence of an autoantibody system that discriminates between citrulline- and homocitrulline-containing antigens in the sera of RA-patients. IgG antibodies recognizing carbamylated (homocitrulline-containing) antigens were present in sera of over 45% of RA-patients. Likewise, anticarbamylated protein (anti-CarP) IgA antibodies were observed in 43% of RA-sera. ACPA and anti-CarP antibodies are distinct autoantibodies because, in selected double-positive patients, the anti-CarP antibody binding to carbamylated antigens could be inhibited by carbamylated antigens, but not by control or citrullinated antigens. Similarly, ACPA-binding to citrullinated antigens could only be inhibited by citrullinated antigens. In line with this observation, 16% of ACPA-negative RA-patients, as measured by a standard ACPA assay, harbored IgG anti-CarP antibodies, whereas 30% of these patients tested positive for IgA anti-CarP antibodies. The presence of anti-CarP antibodies was predictive for a more severe disease course in ACPA-negative patients as measured by radiological progression. Taken together, these data show the presence of a unique autoantibody system recognizing carbamylated, but not citrullinated, protein antigens. These antibodies are predictive for a more severe clinical course in ACPA-negative RA-patients, indicating that anti-CarP antibodies are a unique and relevant serological marker for ACPA-negative RA.
Mutations in Orai1 transmembrane segment 1 cause STIM1-independent activation of Orai1 channels at glycine 98 and channel closure at arginine 91
Authors: Zhang Shenyuan L. , Yeromin Andriy V. , Hu Junjie , Amcheslavsky Anna , Zheng Hongying , Cahalan Michael D.
Published: October 2011

Stim and Orai proteins comprise the molecular machinery of Ca
2+
release-activated Ca
2+
(CRAC) channels. As an approach toward understanding the gating of Orai1 channels, we investigated effects of selected mutations at two conserved sites in the first transmembrane segment (TM1): arginine 91 located near the cytosolic end of TM1 and glycine 98 near the middle of TM1. Orai1 R91C, when coexpressed with STIM1, was activated normally by Ca
2+
-store depletion. Treatment with diamide, a thiol-oxidizing agent, induced formation of disulfide bonds between R91C residues in adjacent Orai1 subunits and rapidly blocked STIM1-operated Ca
2+
current. Diamide-induced blocking was reversed by disulfide bond-reducing agents. These results indicate that R91 forms a very narrow part of the conducting pore at the cytosolic side. Alanine replacement at G98 prevented STIM1-induced channel activity. Interestingly, mutation to aspartate (G98D) or proline (G98P) caused constitutive channel activation in a STIM1-independent manner. Both Orai1 G98 mutants formed a nonselective Ca
2+
-permeable conductance that was relatively resistant to block by Gd
3+
. The double mutant R91W/G98D was also constitutively active, overcoming the normal inhibition of channel activity by tryptophan at the 91 position found in some patients with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), and the double mutant R91C/G98D was resistant to diamide block. These data suggest that the channel pore is widened and ion selectivity is altered by mutations at the G98 site that may perturb α-helical structure. We propose distinct functional roles for G98 as a gating hinge and R91 as part of the physical gate at the narrow inner mouth of the channel.
The yeast Batten disease orthologue Btn1 controls endosome–Golgi retrograde transport via SNARE assembly
Authors: Kama Rachel , Kanneganti Vydehi , Ungermann Christian , Gerst Jeffrey E.
Published: October 2011

The human Batten disease gene CLN3 and yeast orthologue BTN1 encode proteins of unclear function. We show that the loss of BTN1 phenocopies that of BTN2, which encodes a retromer accessory protein involved in the retrieval of specific cargo from late endosomes (LEs) to the Golgi. However, Btn1 localizes to Golgi and regulates soluble N-ethyl-maleimide sensitive fusion protein attachment protein receptor (SNARE) function to control retrograde transport. Specifically, BTN1 overexpression and deletion have opposing effects on phosphorylation of the Sed5 target membrane SNARE, on Golgi SNARE assembly, and on Golgi integrity. Although Btn1 does not interact physically with SNAREs, it regulates Sed5 phosphorylation by modulating Yck3, a palmitoylated endosomal kinase. This may involve modification of the Yck3 lipid anchor, as substitution with a transmembrane domain suppresses the deletion of BTN1 and restores trafficking. Correspondingly, deletion of YCK3 mimics that of BTN1 or BTN2 with respect to LE–Golgi retrieval. Thus, Btn1 controls retrograde sorting by regulating SNARE phosphorylation and assembly, a process that may be adversely affected in Batten Disease patients.
Bcl-xL regulates mitochondrial energetics by stabilizing the inner membrane potential
Authors: Chen Ying-bei , Aon Miguel A. , Hsu Yi-Te , Soane Lucian , Teng Xinchen , McCaffery J. Michael , Cheng Wen-Chih , Qi Bing , Li Hongmei , Alavian Kambiz N. , Dayhoff-Brannigan Margaret , Zou Shifa , Pineda Fernando J. , O'Rourke Brian , Ko Young H. , Pedersen Peter L. , Kaczmarek Leonard K. , Jonas Elizabeth A. , Hardwick J. Marie
Published: October 2011

Mammalian Bcl-xL protein localizes to the outer mitochondrial membrane, where it inhibits apoptosis by binding Bax and inhibiting Bax-induced outer membrane permeabilization. Contrary to expectation, we found by electron microscopy and biochemical approaches that endogenous Bcl-xL also localized to inner mitochondrial cristae. Two-photon microscopy of cultured neurons revealed large fluctuations in inner mitochondrial membrane potential when Bcl-xL was genetically deleted or pharmacologically inhibited, indicating increased total ion flux into and out of mitochondria. Computational, biochemical, and genetic evidence indicated that Bcl-xL reduces futile ion flux across the inner mitochondrial membrane to prevent a wasteful drain on cellular resources, thereby preventing an energetic crisis during stress. Given that F1FO–ATP synthase directly affects mitochondrial membrane potential and having identified the mitochondrial ATP synthase β subunit in a screen for Bcl-xL–binding partners, we tested and found that Bcl-xL failed to protect β subunit–deficient yeast. Thus, by bolstering mitochondrial energetic capacity, Bcl-xL may contribute importantly to cell survival independently of other Bcl-2 family proteins.
Fumarates improve psoriasis and multiple sclerosis by inducing type II dendritic cells
Authors: Ghoreschi Kamran , Brück Jürgen , Kellerer Christina , Deng Caishu , Peng Haiyan , Rothfuss Oliver , Hussain Rehana Z. , Gocke Anne R. , Respa Annedore , Glocova Ivana , Valtcheva Nadejda , Alexander Eva , Feil Susanne , Feil Robert , Schulze-Osthoff Klaus , Rupec Rudolf A. , Lovett-Racke Amy E. , Dringen Ralf , Racke Michael K. , Röcken Martin
Published: October 2011

Fumarates improve multiple sclerosis (MS) and psoriasis, two diseases in which both IL-12 and IL-23 promote pathogenic T helper (Th) cell differentiation. However, both diseases show opposing responses to most established therapies. First, we show in humans that fumarate treatment induces IL-4–producing Th2 cells in vivo and generates type II dendritic cells (DCs) that produce IL-10 instead of IL-12 and IL-23. In mice, fumarates also generate type II DCs that induce IL-4–producing Th2 cells in vitro and in vivo and protect mice from experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Type II DCs result from fumarate-induced glutathione (GSH) depletion, followed by increased hemoxygenase-1 (HO-1) expression and impaired STAT1 phosphorylation. Induced HO-1 is cleaved, whereupon the N-terminal fragment of HO-1 translocates into the nucleus and interacts with AP-1 and NF-κB sites of the IL-23p19 promoter. This interaction prevents IL-23p19 transcription without affecting IL-12p35, whereas STAT1 inactivation prevents IL-12p35 transcription without affecting IL-23p19. As a consequence, GSH depletion by small molecules such as fumarates induces type II DCs in mice and in humans that ameliorate inflammatory autoimmune diseases. This therapeutic approach improves Th1- and Th17-mediated autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis and MS by interfering with IL-12 and IL-23 production.
The Central Committee's Ninth Plenum
Authors: MacFarquhar Roderick
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines the Ninth Plenum of the CCP's Central Committee held in Beidaihe, China on January 18, 1961. The objective of the meeting was to consider the diplomatic disasters suffered by China in the 17 months after the previous plenum at Lushan and to endorse the measures adopted to alleviate the economic crisis and food shortage. These measures, adopted on the eve of the plenum, included raising agricultural procurement prices and payment for peasants negatively affected by the GLF egalitarianism.
A New Course in the Countryside
Authors: MacFarquhar Roderick
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines the Sixty Articles on Agriculture launched by the Chinese government to relieve the famine, establish an incentive system in the commune system, and reinvigorate agriculture. Immediately after the Ninth Plenum, Chairman Mao gave detailed instructions for the immediate organization and dispatch of three seven-man teams to investigate communes in Guangdong, Hunan, and Zhejiang. After receiving the reports on the investigating teams, Mao already appeared to be willing to consider drastic reform of the communes.
Woman Warrior
Authors: MacFarquhar Roderick
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines the role of Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong's wife, on the Cultural Revolution in China. Mao's marriage to Jiang had caused considerable consternation among his colleagues because of her sexual mores and her possible Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) connections in Shanghai. Jiang's most significant political involvement during the 1950s was in the performing arts, where she held a number of different positions, including as chief of the secretariat of the Central Committee's General Office.
Logic and Punctuation
Authors: Jennings R. E.
Published: October 2011

This chapter describes logic and the significance of punctuation to ‘or’ in a sentence. Axioms are primitive theorems. This is what is meant by ‘logic’, and in particular, a propositional logic is one that can be specified. Deontic logicians are by no means unanimous about their point of formal departure: whether it is the language of ‘ought’ and ‘may’ or the language of ‘obligation’ and ‘permissibility’. The punctuationist account takes ‘or’ as providing punctuation for lists and asks why we should punctuate a list with ‘or’ in certain contexts when we want it to receive a conjunctive reading. ‘Or’ can be replaced by ‘else’ or ‘otherwise’, ‘or’ is a relative adverb as well. ‘Or’ can be regarded as a modifier of a whole sentence.
General Noun Phrases
Authors: Jennings R. E.
Published: October 2011

This chapter looks at ‘any’ as a quantifier. If noun phrases with ‘any’ are to be construed quantificationally, they must sometimes be represented by a universal quantifier, and sometimes by an existential. Earlier philosophers, notably Quine and Geach, hoped that the existentially representable cases might, when considerations of scope are taken into account, prove to be universal after all. Nevertheless, there are ineluctably ‘existential’ uses. In addition, if there are cases that must be represented existentially, then it is useless to insist that all those cases that can be represented universally must be, even those for which a short-scope existential representation is available. However, the larger conclusion is that we should question the view that ‘any’ is essentially a quantifier in anything like the first-order logical understanding of that notion.
Country and Town
Authors: Ayers Edward L.
Published: October 2011

This chapter discusses the plights of a regular Southern farmer and his climb up the “agricultural ladder”. Merchants were of equal importance in the Southern agricultural scene and had even been blamed for the South's debilitating addiction to cotton for they served as links that tie isolated farms to commercial agriculture. This chapter also touches on the problems connected with cotton production such as more tenancy among races, fewer livestock, and less grain. It also looks at social issues like family planning, women's labor, and mobility. Teaching was one of the few professions that women were employed in. This chapter also touches on political battles regarding laws requiring livestock to be fenced leaving landless farmers no way of keeping their animals. Other issues regarding tenantry and landownership are also tackled in this chapter.
“Civilization,” Ottoman Intellectuals, and Western Ideas: Polarization Within the Bourgeoisie
Authors: Göçek Fatma Müge
Published: October 2011

This chapter focuses on the effects of Western ideas on the Ottoman social structure and the new visions it produced. New concepts of civilized society produced new organizational groups that emphasized the efficiency and allegiance to the Ottoman state instead of loyalty to the sultan and his household. These concepts was disparately interpreted and created a gap between Ottoman social groups. As a consequence of their differential location in the Ottoman social structure, the most significant divide emerged along religious lines as the Muslims and minorities developed separate visions. The establishment of newspapers in the 19th century illustrates the pattern of the circulation of Western ideas in the Ottoman society that polarized the Ottoman bourgeoisie along religious lines into bureaucrats and merchants.
‘There Are No Slaves in France’
Authors: Peabody Sue
Published: October 2011

This book examines the paradoxical emergence of political antislavery and institutional racism in the century prior to the French Revolution. The author shows how the political culture of late Bourbon France created ample opportunities for contestation over the meaning of freedom. Based on various archival sources, this work will be of interest not only to historians of slavery and France, but to scholars interested in the emergence of modern culture in the Atlantic world.
Consuming Desire
Authors: Lowry Richard S.
Published: October 2011

The author states three major cultural transformations which best describe Mark Twain's writing: capital, culture, and education. These three cultural transformations are emphasized separately in the second, third, and fourth chapters, respectively. This chapter returns to the earlier stages of the writing career of Mark Twain as a national author with The Innocents Abroad in 1869 and Roughing It in 1872. These resolve the contradictions between the discourses of popular entertainment and high culture with a comic embrace of a commodity aesthetic. The author explores Mark Twain's suggestion of a person whose desire is very much structured by fantasies of commodity speculation and whose cultural authority is certified by the ability of that person to transform language into valuable money.
A “Rightly Constructed Boys Life”
Authors: Lowry Richard S.
Published: October 2011

The author suggests three major cultural transformations which best describe the writing of Mark Twain: capital, culture, and education. The second one is tackled in detail in this chapter. This is aided by a discussion on one of the novels of Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). This chapter shows how this novel brings into collision the commodity aesthetic with a narrative voice built in response to one of the earliest languages of the expert. A discourse on boyhood in emerging forms of middle-class manhood is also presented. Subchapters include a discussion on nostalgia and play, on how to rightly construct boys, and talking about Injun Joe. The “problem of Injun Joe” as a sign of Twain's own ambivalence is given light, as is his role as a domestic entertainer.
Picturing Jews: Iconography and Racial Science
Authors: Hart Mitchell
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines the role of visual images of Jews in social scientific texts produced by Jewish and non-Jewish writers, and illuminates the continuities and discontinuities in approaches to the question of race and collective identity. It focuses on the way in which Zionists employed iconography and racial science as one means of providing what they viewed as scientific justification for Jewish nationalist efforts. Jewish social science was far from monolithic; it encompassed liberal integrationists as well as nationalists. However, Zionists did take a particularly intense interest in the science of race, and they appeared comfortable embracing it. The racial identification of Jewry, in their view, was a scientific confirmation of the assertion that Jews constituted a distinct Volk, or nation. The interpretative strategy analyzed in this chapter looked to iconography, among other things, to help establish an essential identity or sameness among Jews, despite temporal and geographic differences.
Introduction: What Is Magic?
Authors: Glucklich Ariel
Published: October 2011

What is magic? What does magic do? Why do people believe in magic in the face of experience? After living in the Indian city of Banaras and making several trips to tribal areas in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Orissa, the author of this chapter discovered a surprising fact: magic is rarely a simple matter of belief. Few magicians and clients in Banaras ever ask themselves why their magic works or what it means. Without belief, the supernatural aspect of magic becomes moot. Magic is based on a unique type of consciousness: the awareness of the interrelatedness of all things in the world by means of simple hut refined sense perception. This awareness can be called “magical consciousness” or, less ambiguously, the “magical experience.” In Banaras, mind reading depends on subtle forms of nonverbal communication that skilled or intuitive practitioners can read like an open book. The magician is the man or woman who creates the context in which minds enter a relationship, and this is often experienced as an “occult” event.
Miraculous Powers and False Advertising
Authors: Glucklich Ariel
Published: October 2011

For a variety of reasons, the topic of magic has become dominated by speculation about supernatural causality and miraculous achievements and, following closely on the heels of these, mischiefmakers and scroundrels. Some magicians in Banaras boast about miraculous acts they have performed or cures they have effected. The magician's need to advertise locally, matched sometimes by a desire to impress a foreign scholar, is understandable. Miraculous claims therefore accompany magical practice as a matter of course. Furthermore, magic goes hand in hand with the paranormal by its very nature. A magician is successful if he can either demonstrate or effectively advertise miraculous accomplishments. The simplest reason for associating magic with miracles is not truly intrinsic to either, but it is predictable. It is simple public relations based on sound business thinking. But like all overzealous advertising, it carries risks. When the focus of research shifts to the “magical consciousness”—to the experience of magical interrelatedness—then the question of miracles becomes irrelevant.
Women in the Qur'an, Traditions, and Interpretation
Authors: Stowasser Barbara Freyer
Published: October 2011

Islamic ideas about women and their role in society spark considerable debate both in the Western world and in the Islamic world itself. Despite the popular attention surrounding Middle Eastern attitudes toward women, there has been little systematic study of the statements regarding women in the Qur'an. This book fills the void with a study on the women of Islamic sacred history. By telling their stories in Qur'an and interpretation, the book introduces Islamic doctrine and its past and present socio-economic and political applications. It establishes the link between the female figure as cultural symbol, and Islamic self-perceptions from the beginning to the present time.
The Chapter of Zulaykha
Authors: Stowasser Barbara Freyer
Published: October 2011

Among the many female characters that Qur'anic sacred history depicts for the faithful, the image of Joseph's mistress, the wife of his Egyptian master, stands out by its intricacy. In the story, the themes of female desire and craftiness and combined with fidelity, love, honesty, and repentance. As a Qur'anic metaphor, this tale represents the best and the worst in woman's nature on the terrestrial plain. It may be the most penetrating in terms of female psychology of all the Qur'anic women's stories. In this story, the protagonist represents the unwavering power of female unselfish love and faithfulness, and is rewarded with bliss and joy with the beloved.
The Women in the Life of the Prophet Moses
Authors: Stowasser Barbara Freyer
Published: October 2011

The Qur'an cites the stories of women which are associated with Moses: mother, sister, foster mother, as well as wife. His foster mother was the faithful wife of the dictator Pharaoh; she was the one who saved Moses' life and raised him from infancy “under God's eye” in the house of God's enemy. Moses' wife was the daughter of an old flock herder in whose service he spent several years before being initiated to prophethood. The revelations on the events in Moses' life in which these women contributed a portion belongs to the middle and late Meccan periods. Only the verse on Pharaoh's wife whose faithfulness is revealed as “an example to the believers” is dated to the late Medinan period and there she is associated with the Virgin Mary.
Beginning
Authors: Talalay Kathryn
Published: October 2011

This chapter focuses in the early life of Philippa Duke Schuyler. She was born during the Great Depression, on August 2, 1931, at her parent's home in Harlem. Her father, George Schuyler, was a black journalist for one of America's oldest black newspapers, making his absence a sad necessity to Philippa's early days. Her mother, Josephine Schuyler, however kept a detailed scrapbook of Philippa's development for George to see when he came home. Philippa's family lived in an apartment on the fourth floor of Park Lincoln, with Colonial Park near by and as a child, Philippa would spend many hours playing there. Philippa's birth was talked about in all the black newspapers. It was broadly known that she was the product of the first interracial celebrity marriage of the 20th century.
Black and Conservative
Authors: Talalay Kathryn
Published: October 2011

Philippa's 11th birthday theme was wartime, she and her mother entertained black soldiers and their dates. Many blacks at that time supported the “Double V” campaign: Victory at Home, Victory Abroad. However, unlike her daughter and wife, George didn't support the campaign and advised his countrymen not to join the European war. Philippa's parents had always shielded her from evident racism, and to balance a world of racial prejudice her parents tried to encourage a feeling of personal security by giving her a close family life. When her school books told her that Africans were savage, uncultured, and wild, Philippa would think about the books in her father's library that described been slave revolts where a quarter of a million Negroes served in the Union Army. She also read that Abraham Lincoln himself had said that the war could not have been won without them.
No Women's Country
Authors: Talalay Kathryn
Published: October 2011

At a very early age until her death, Philippa was an affirmed feminist. After reading Pearl Buck's Of Men and Women, she became fascinated and at the same time upset by the subject as the book reflected her own goal of bridging together her marriage and career. Philippa's response to the world's omnipresent unequal treatment of women was almost visceral after she saw abysmal examples of women being neglected, abused, and exploited through her many travels. This situation made her want to write a book on the topic, but she later discarded the idea. The more Philippa travelled around, the more radical her feminism became. She discovered that violence against women, though often hidden, crossed geographic boundaries and socioeconomic barriers.
Rhapsody of Youth
Authors: Talalay Kathryn
Published: October 2011

February 23, 1959, Philippa arrived in Paris and stayed with her recently acquired European godmother, the countess Goguet. All through the African leg of Philippa's journey, Josephine had argued with her over the date of her return. Philippa also spent intimate evenings with Andre Gascht, which she hoped would bring them closer together. Sometime between her Brussels and Amsterdam engagements, Philippa received a telegram asking her to give a command performance for Queen Elisabeth of Belgium on March 12. Nine days after the performance for the Queen, Philippa returned home and felt much anxiety for she was feeling weak and exhausted much of the time.
Postlude
Authors: Talalay Kathryn
Published: October 2011

On Tuesday morning, May 9, Josephine and George received a cable from Philippa informing them that she would arrive on Friday and on that same day they received a letter from her. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the phone rang and Josephine answered it, startled with the news she heard from the other side of the line, informing her that Philippa had died in a helicopter crash. Josephine screamed and hung up the phone, while George was in the state of shock too, not moving from his chair. The CBS Evening Radio News treated her death as a national story since Philippa was the tenth American correspondent and only the second woman journalist to die in Vietnam. Her mother didn't handle her daughter's death well at all and committed suicide before the first anniversary of Philippa's death. George was left alone and wished to follow his wife and daughter soon, but his agony was prolonged and he lived for another eight years.
Logic, Meaning, and Conversation
Authors: Atlas Jay David
Published: October 2011

This look at the philosophy of language focuses on the interface between a theory of literal meaning and pragmatics — a philosophical examination of the relationship between meaning and language use and its contexts. Here, the author develops the contrast between verbal ambiguity and verbal generality, works out a detailed theory of conversational inference using the work of Paul Grice on Implicature as a starting point, and gives an account of their interface as an example of the relationship between Chomsky's Internalist Semantics and Language Performance. He then discusses consequences of his theory of the Interface for the distinction between metaphorical and literal language, for Grice's account of meaning, for the Analytic/Synthetic distinction, for Meaning Holism, and for Formal Semantics of Natural Language.
Multinomial Choice with Social Interactions
Authors: Brock William A. , Durlauf Steven N.
Published: October 2011

This chapter shows how to develop an analysis of social interactions that builds the interdependencies that characterize complex systems into a framework consistent with individual decision making. They characterize both the theoretical implications of these interdependences and describe how to implement the model econometrically.
The Diffusion of Innovations in Social Networks
Authors: Young H. Peyton
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines the effects of network topology on the diffusion of behaviors. A key empirical question is, what is the expected length of time for a network to “switch over” from the old behavior to the new? It uncovers conditions on network topology the decision process that, surprisingly, bound the expected waiting time for diffusion to occur from above, independently of the size of the network.
Making the Best of It
Authors: Stackhouse John G.
Published: October 2011

What should be the Christian's attitude toward society? When so much of our contemporary culture is at odds with Christian beliefs and mores, it may seem that serious Christians now have only two choices: transform society completely according to Christian values or retreat into the cloister of sectarian fellowship. This book explores the history of the Christian encounter with society, the biblical record, and various theological models of cultural engagement to offer a more balanced and fruitful alternative to these extremes. The book argues that, rather than trying to root up the weeds in the cultural field, or trying to shun them, Christians should practice persistence in gardening God's world and building toward the New Jerusalem. Examining the lives and works of C. S. Lewis, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer for example and direction, it suggests that our mission is to make the most of life in the world in cooperation with God's own mission of redeeming the world he loves. This model takes seriously the pattern of God's activity in the Bible, and in subsequent history, of working through earthly means—through individuals, communities, and institutions that are deeply flawed but nonetheless capable of accomplishing God's purposes. Christians must find a way to live in this world and at the same time do work that honors God and God's plan for us. The model that the book develops discourages the “all or nothing” attitudes that afflict so much of contemporary Christianity.
Structures of Agency
Authors: Bratman Michael E.
Published: October 2011

This is a collection of published and unpublished chapters by distinguished philosopher Michael E. Bratman of Stanford University. They revolve around his influential theory, known as the “planning theory of intention and agency.” Bratman's primary concern is with what he calls “strong” forms of human agency—including forms of human agency that are the target of our talk about self-determination, self-government, and autonomy.
Introduction
Authors: Bratman Michael E.
Published: October 2011

We are planning agents; our agency extends over time; and, sometimes at least, we govern our own actions. These chapters aim at understanding important interrelations between these basic features of our agency— interrelations between our planning agency, our temporally extended agency, and our self-governance. A conjecture that underlies these chapters is that we can better understand at least one basic case of self-governed agency by reflecting on the roles of relevant planning attitudes in the cross-temporal organization of our action and practical thinking. This conjecture ties together earlier work on the planning theory of intention and the present foray into debates about autonomy and self-governance. Taken together, these chapters are a preliminary effort to see whether this link between the planning theory and issues of autonomy and self-governance can yield philosophical insight. Topics range from autonomy and self-governance to agential authority, subjective normative authority, temporally extended agency, intentions and the planning theory, policies, self-governing policies, conative hierarchy, identification and hierarchy, valuing and value judgment, metaphysics, will, and stability of intention.
Valuing and the Will
Authors: Bratman Michael E.
Published: October 2011

In “Free Agency,” Gary Watson argued that an account of free agency needs to distinguish what a person wants or desires—what a person is to some extent moved to do—from what a person values. Even when one values what one desires, the motivational strength of the desire may not correspond to the extent to which one values what the desire is for. This chapter describes a model of valuing as a higher-order policy of weights in practical reasoning. It makes a proposal that ties an important kind of reflective valuing to the will of an agent whose agency is temporally extended. Intentions, plans, and policies were initially introduced on top of prior structures of considered desires. The chapter proceeds by way of a project of Paul Grice's “creature construction”: such policies about weights are a further development of planning structures, planning structures introduced earlier in the “construction” to support cross-temporal and social organization. The chapter also discusses desires, considered desires, and deliberation as well as planning agents and hierarchy.
Introduction
Authors: Barnett Louise
Published: October 2011

Jonathan Swift's relations with women, and particular representations of women in his works, have obtained strong reactions and tempted assumption from his own generation to ours. Swift never married, and there is no proof that he ever had a sexual relationship. Sexual pleasure is not injected into his writing, much less valorized, and implied references to sex are negative. As a satirist, Swift is often instructive, but when he turns his focus to a couple's wedding night and discusses proper marital behavior, sex is concealed by excretion. At the same time that he criticized women as a sex and as a gender, Swift also collected a positive record of friendship with and admiration of individual women. The closest and most content of his relationships with women was with Esther Johnson, an intimate friendship that started from youth into middle age and ended only with her death.
Vanessa
Authors: Barnett Louise
Published: October 2011

Swift's observation to Knightley Chetwode manifests both his caution and his fear, characteristics that famously inform his association with Vanessa. She, in contrast, is linked with the fervent importuning and misery of the 1720 letter cited at the start, a description that deforms the Swift–Vanessa correspondence and by extension their long involvement. Because of the emotional and secret nature of the relationship Swift carried on with Vanessa, his efforts to marginalize and erase her are understandable. That, unlike Stella, she avoided his control was due as much to the difference in socioeconomic condition between the two women as to their difference of temperament. Vanessa not only saved and numbered Swift's letters to her, she made copies of her own letters to him, all that has survived of her side of their correspondence. In the many occasions where no reply of Swift's exists to one of these drafts, we cannot be certain that she actually sent the letter, or conversely, that Swift's reply has not been lost.
Music as Discourse
Authors: Agawu Kofi
Published: October 2011

The question of whether music has meaning has been the subject of sustained debate ever since music became a subject of academic inquiry. Is music a language? Does it communicate specific ideas and emotions? What does music mean, and how does this meaning manifest itself? Working at the nexus of musicology, ethnomusicology, and music philosophy and aesthetics, the book presents a synthetic and innovative approach to musical meaning which argues deftly for the thinking of music as a discourse in itself—composed not only of sequences of gestures, phrases, or progressions, but rather also of the very philosophical and linguistic props that enable the analytical formulations made about music as an object of study. The book provides demonstrations of the pertinence of a semiological approach to understanding the fully-freighted language of Romantic music, stresses the importance of a generative approach to tonal understanding, and provides further insight into the analogy between music and language.