bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Historiographical Characteristics of the Gospel of John
Authors: BAUCKHAM RICHARD
Published: January 2007

While presupposing the widely accepted conclusion that the Gospel of John, like the other Gospels, is generically a bios, this article examines more distinctive features of this Gospel which it shares with ancient historiography: precise topography, precise chronology, selectivity, narrative asides, and claims to eyewitness testimony. In these respects the Gospel of John would have appeared to contemporary readers more like historiography than the Synoptics would. The problem of historiographical representation of speeches is solved differently by John from the way the Synoptics deal with it, but John's method of composing discourses and dialogues conforms to good historiographical practice as well as does that of the Synoptics.
Acts 2.36 and the Continuity of Lukan Christology
Authors: ROWE C. KAVIN
Published: January 2007

Acts 2.36 has caused problems for biblical interpreters both ancient and modern. This article examines the various readings and different hermeneutical strategies in the history of interpretation in order to situate the verse within its requisite interpretive context, Luke–Acts. Subsequently, an interpretation of Acts 2.36 is offered in which the verse is seen to express, rather than contradict, Lukan christology.
The ‘Transgressor’ and the ‘Curse of the Law’: The Logic of Paul's Argument in Galatians 2–3
Authors: GOMBIS TIMOTHY G.
Published: January 2007

The nearly three decades since the publication of E. P. Sanders's work on Paul and Judaism have witnessed a spate of new proposals for reading Gal 3.10, one of the most difficult and contested passages in Paul's letters. For some, the ‘traditional’ interpretation is still preferred, though the ‘exile/restoration’ reading has gained some momentum recently. The following article will critique both of these readings, proposing a new interpretation of this passage, one that regards Paul as citing Deut 27.26 in continuity with its meaning in its narrative setting and that finds an interpretive grid in the logic he unfolds in Gal 2.15–21.
The Fullness of Being: Thomas Aquinas and the Modern Critique of Natural Law
Authors: Zuckert Michael
Published: January 2007

Interest in natural law theory regularly revives but the question of whether Aquinas' classic version is viable depends on whether his doctrine has the resources to respond to the classic early modern critiques that were made of it. It is argued that he does have the resources to so respond, although the response pushes the ultimate philosophic question back to the issue of the validity of his natural theology.
Was Herder a Nationalist?
Authors: Eggel Dominic , Liebich Andre , Mancini-Griffoli Deborah
Published: January 2007

This article re-examines Herder's status as one of the founders of nationalism in the light of both older and more recent literature. The article focuses specifically on Herder's position with regard to the classical nationalist thesis that state and nationality should be coterminous. It argues that a close reading of Herder's oft cited and most explicit statement apparently lending support to this thesis has been misunderstood. The existing literature underestimates Herder's concern regarding the question of governance. For Herder there can be no case for statehood without just governance. As earlier drafts of his work confirm, Herder was deeply critical of the states he knew and denounced their overly bureaucratic and despotic character. He thought that nations could and should exist without being states. Depending on the circumstances, however, states might fulfil temporary functions to strengthen and preserve the national character, that most essential attribute of every nation. For Herder the diversity of nations is an insurance against despotism. It is not a licence for the creation of states.
In Defense of Herder on Cultural Diversity and Interaction
Authors: Spencer Vicki
Published: January 2007

Diversity and unity are pivotal to the thought of the eighteenth-century German philosopher, Johann Gottfried Herder. Yet despite the enormous influence of his thought on the late Isaiah Berlin in the development of his own pluralism and Berlin's urging for those interested in cultural diversity to learn from Herder, many commentators fail to heed Berlin's equal recognition of Herder's radical antidualism. Thus, while an increasing number of theorists now note Herder's contribution to philosophical and political thought in being one of the first to recognize the value of cultural diversity, many fail to grasp fully the complexity and subtlety of his understanding of culture. Contrary to what is becoming the orthodox view in Anglo-American political theory, Herder was fully aware of the diversity existing within any given cultural community and promoted cultural interaction and interchange in a spirit of cooperation. He only opposed the cultural domination of indigenous populations.
AI EDAM at 20: Artificial intelligence in designing
Authors: GERO JOHN S.
Published: January 2007

From its inception the journal Artificial Intelligence for
Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing recognized that
designing is the precursor to analysis and manufacturing by placing it at
the front of the list of areas it covers. Designing distinguishes itself
from other aspects of engineering by its goal of changing the world within
which it operates: designers are change agents. This characteristic makes
designing a difficult task even for humans let alone for machines, because
most of our knowledge and the means to acquire it assume that the world is
given to us and what we need to do is characterize it. The Journal
provided one of two continuing publication outlets for artificial
intelligence (AI) in engineering at the time. This created the opportunity
to have a focal point for the publication of archival research in the
area, research that had previously appeared in disparate locations. It
also offered the potential to develop a coherent research area where
future research could build on previously published research.
From PUFF to integrated concurrent engineering: A personal
evolution
Authors: KUNZ JOHN
Published: January 2007

Artificial intelligence (AI) emerged from the 1956 Dartmouth
Conference. Twenty-one years later, my colleagues and I started daily
operational use of what we think became the first application of AI to be
used in practice: the PUFF pulmonary function system. We later described
the design and initial performance of that system (Aikins et al., 1983; Snow et al., 1998). Today, easily recognizable
descendants of that first “expert system” run on commercial
products found in medical offices around the world (http://www.medgraphics.com/datasheet_pconsult.html),
as do many other AI applications. My research now focuses on integrated
concurrent engineering (ICE), a computer and AI-enabled multiparticipant
engineering design method that is extremely rapid and effective (Garcia et
al., 2004). This brief note compares the early
PUFF, the current ICE work, and the modern AI view of neurobiological
systems. This comparison shows the dramatic and surprising changes in AI
methods in the past few decades and suggests research opportunities for
the future. The comparison identifies the continuing crucial role of
symbolic representation and reasoning and the dramatic generalization of
the context in which those classical AI methods work. It suggests
surprising parallels between animal neuroprocesses and the multihuman and
multicomputer agent collaborative ICE environment. Finally, it identifies
some of the findings and lessons of the intervening years, fundamentally
the move to model-based multidiscipline, multimethod, multiagent systems
in which AI methods are tightly integrated with theoretically founded
engineering models and analytical methods implemented as multiagent human
and computer systems that include databases, numeric algorithms, graphics,
human–computer interaction, and networking.
The need for a science of engineering informatics
Authors: REGLI WILLIAM
Published: January 2007

Why has integration and interoperability of design and manufacturing
knowledge proven so difficult? There is a common puzzle that appears in
your Sunday newspaper or The New Yorker magazine.
CHARACTERIZING THE FACTORY SYSTEM: FACTORY SUBJECTIVITY IN HOUSEHOLD WORDS
Authors: Farina Jonathan V.
Published: January 2007

Here, we had better stop, though we have not told half that might be related on the subject of buttons. It is wonderful, is it not? That on that small pivot turns the fortune of such multitudes of men, women, and children, in so many parts of the world; that such industry; and so many fine faculties, should be brought out and exercised by so small a thing as the Button.

—“What There Is in a Button,” Harriet Martineau (1852)
A SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM: RICHARD FEVEREL AND THE ACTRESS IN THE HOUSE
Authors: Allen Emily
Published: January 2007

“One of the very worst books of that abominable class!” exclaimed the old lawyer, opening at the coloured frontispiece, from which brazen Miss Random smiled bewitchingly out, as if she had no doubt of captivating Time and all his veterans on a fair field. “Pah!” he shut her to with the energy he would have given to the office of publicly slapping her face.

—George Meredith, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel

Promiscuous adj. 1. Consisting of diverse and unrelated parts or individuals; confused. 2. Lacking standards of selection; indiscriminate. 3. Indiscriminate in sexual relations. 4. Casual; random. [Latin promiscuus, mixed: pro (intensifier), thoroughly + miscere, to mix.]

—American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
SEMANTIC COUNTERPOINT AND THE POETRY OF GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS
Authors: Sobolev Dennis
Published: January 2007

IT IS WELL KNOWN that both traditional, historically orientated, literary criticism and new-critical studies were inseparable from a belief in the “unity” of meaning – a belief in the existence, below the multicolored surface of the literary text, of a single semantic center, which unifies the text and turns it into an “organic whole.” Similarly, Russian Formalists and Prague Structuralists, though critical of the notion of the “organic whole” and its use in art criticism by the Neo-Romantics and the Symbolists, never questioned the alleged semantic unity of the literary text. An alternative approach to the problem of meaning was developed in the early books of Michel Foucault and conceptualized in his Archeology of Knowledge; he described meaning as “dispersal” and “dissemination.” A little later, in Dissemination and On Grammatology, Jacques Derrida radicalized Foucault's position by questioning the existence of clear-cut boundaries for Foucault's semantic “dissemination,” and he applied this notion in both philosophy and literary criticism. The resultant polemics between the two major approaches to the problem of the organization of meaning in the literary text caused the extreme polarization of literary studies; moreover, this polemics was often based on the tacit assumption that there exist only these two possibilities of the formal description of such organization: it should be described as either “unity” or “dissemination.” At the same time, from the logical, a priori, point of view, these terms describe only the poles of possible organization of meaning; moreover, practical criticism tends to show that both pure “unity” of meaning and its pure “dissemination” are very rarely found in literary texts. Thus, it seems to me, that those scholars who work in the field of literary criticism and cultural theory should attempt to create more complex and more precise models of the organization of meaning, which will transcend the dichotomy of “unity” and “dissemination.” One of these such models, the model of “semantic counterpoint,” is described and exemplified in this paper.
ROSA PRAED AND THE VAMPIRE-AESTHETE
Authors: McCann Andrew
Published: January 2007

ROSA CAMPBELL PRAED left Australia for London in 1876. In the decade or so subsequent to her arrival in the metropolis she forged a successful career as a writer of occult-inspired novels that drew on both theosophical doctrine and a nineteenth-century tradition of popular fiction that included Edward Bulwer-Lytton and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. A string of novels published in the 1880s and the early 1890s, including Nadine: the Study of a Woman (1882), Affinities: A Romance of Today (1885), The Brother of the Shadow: A Mystery of Today (1886), and The Soul of Countess Adrian: A Romance (1891), produced a sort of popular aestheticism that melded an interest in fashionable society, a market-oriented Gothicism, and speculations on the philosophy of art that were indicative of Praed's relationship to a fin-de-siècle Bohemia and its literary circles. There is no doubt that these novels can be located in terms of the numerous popular genres – the art novel, the aesthetic novel, the occult novel – that form the literary background to much better known texts such as Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, Bram Stoker's Dracula and George du Maurier's Trilby. But to account for Praed's ephemerality in terms of a series of generic categories elides too easily the pressures – economic, political, and aesthetic – impinging on a colonial, female novelist quickly forging a career at the centre of an imperial culture. Praed's novels are hybrid, polysemic creations, over-determined by these pressures, which in turn, no doubt, have contributed to her invisibility in contemporary literary studies. Their Gothicism and their appropriation of theosophical doctrine are both manifest in themes like mesmerism, telepathy, duel personality, and the recurring figure of the spiritual or “moral vampire.” Yet these obviously commercial novels are also intensely invested in aesthetic questions, in the dislocated character of imperial experience, in the accrual of cultural capital, and in their own relationship to the vexed question of their originality vis-à-vis the market for popular fiction.
“SPIRITS IN THE MATERIAL WORLD”: SPIRITUALISM AND IDENTITY IN THE FIN DE SIÈCLE
Authors: Gomel Elana
Published: January 2007

BOOKS ARE SOMETIMES published posthumously. In the nineteenth century, books were occasionally written posthumously when spiritualist mediums claimed to receive communications from the spirits of famous writers anxious to keep in touch with their public from beyond the grave. Oscar Wilde wrote his last book twenty-six years after his death, Oscar Wilde from Purgatory: Psychic Messages (1926), edited by Hester Travers Smith, the medium who received the messages while in trance and inscribed them through the process known as “automatic writing.” The book was highly regarded in the spiritualist community, boasting a preface by Sir William Barrett, a famous physicist, a member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and – along with a number of other illustrious men of science such as physicists Sir William Crookes and Oliver Lodge as well as biologist Alfred Russell Wallace – a convert to spiritualism.
“A LITTLE POLITICAL WORLD OF MY OWN”: THE NEW WOMAN, THE NEW LIFE, AND NEW AMAZONIA
Authors: Beaumont Matthew
Published: January 2007

“I READ THE PAPERS and have a little political world of my own.” So Margaret Harkness confided to her second cousin Beatrice Potter (who would later marry the Fabian Sidney Webb) in a letter sent in February 1880 (qtd. in Hapgood 130). Subsequently disavowed by her repressive father, an Anglican priest, because she was insufficiently subordinate to him, Harkness was still living at home at this time. Her social isolation, as well as her political frustration, is palpable. But if the tone of this apparently resigned statement is poignant, it is at the same time too defiant to be dismissed as self-pitying. Later in the 1880s she worked among the poor and unemployed in the East End of London, the environment that she explored in some seven novels written under the pseudonym “John Law,” from A City Girl (1887) to George Eastmont, Wanderer (1905). In this decade she also circulated, uneasily enough, in the Social Democratic Federation, a socialist organization dominated by the acolytes of Friedrich Engels, vainly searching for a progressive model of friendship that might alleviate her sense of alienation. Indeed, Harkness became a formidable activist as well as an impressive novelist. She seems however to have grown disillusioned with socialist politics in the 1890s and to have drifted into philanthropic activities instead (see Ledger 144).
“THAT THERE BRUTUS”: ELITE CULTURE AND KNOWLEDGE DIFFUSION IN THE INDUSTRIAL NOVELS OF ELIZABETH GASKELL
Authors: Thiele David
Published: January 2007

ELIZABETH GASKELL SCHOLARS are well aware of the anger that Mary Barton evoked in some quarters of Manchester's industrial bourgeoisie. These scholars are also certainly familiar with the central document of this anger, a wide-ranging critique in which an anonymous “Correspondent” of the Manchester Guardian accuses the anonymous novelist not only of ignorance but also of distortions that amount to “a libel on the masters, merchants, and gentlemen of this city.” The correspondent, W. R. Greg, offers several lines of argument in support of this charge. I would like to take one of these as the opening evidence in my own argument. “In a truthful ‘tale of Manchester, or factory life,’” he remarks, “it appears very strange that no notice whatever is taken of what has been done by the masters for improving the condition of the workmen”; instead of “mechanics' institutions,” “libraries founded expressly for [the workers'] benefit,” and other “institutions [where] every stimulus is given to self-culture, to the expansion of the mind … to whatever will elevate the taste, refine the manners, [and] improve the moral character,” the reader sees only the harsh effects of “comparatively uneducated and ignorant” factory masters. The author of Mary Barton, Greg asserts, may be counted among “the hosts of humanity-mongers” who are determined to depict leaders of industry as “upstarts from the very dregs of society” (“Mary Barton”). (See Figures 8 and 9.)
THE WOMAN IN WHITE AND GRAPHIC SEX
Authors: McKelvy William R.
Published: January 2007

WALTER HARTRIGHT, THE primary narrator of The Woman in White (1859–60), commences the novel with a declaration – “This is the story of what a Woman's patience can endure, and what a Man's resolution can achieve” – followed by a complaint that relative poverty drove that “story” out of the courts because “the machinery of the Law” relies so heavily on “the lubricating influences of oil of gold” (5). Despite this beginning, the novel's concern with legal procedure is playfully opportunistic. Here Hartright grumbles about the Law's avaricious practice, but Collins will make a lawyer, Mr Wansborough, the key agent in Hartright's enrichment and social elevation. By contrast the novel is deeply engaged with its own historical moment as a time when creative endeavors of all kinds were being transformed by the laws of machinery. And thus it is the vehicle for Collins's metaphorical legal system – the creaking and covetous machine – that points to my present argument: that The Woman in White is English literature's first industrialized kunstlerroman, a portrait of the artist which seeks to reconcile representation and reproduction by equating modern modes of illustration with the primal goals of biological creation.
Epidemiology of Obesity in Spain. Dietary Guidelines and Strategies for Prevention
Authors: Pérez-Rodrigo  , Aranceta Bartrina  , Serra Majem  , Moreno  , Delgado Rubio
Published: January 2007

Obesity is considered a major Public Health issue in most developed countries nowadays for its wide spread across population groups, as well as its contribution to the development of chronic diseases, particularly cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Available population data in Spain from the SEEDO’2000 study show a prevalence of obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m²) of 14,5% in adults aged 25–60 years, estimates based on individual measurement of body weight and height. Obesity rates are higher among women aged 45 years and older, low social class, living in semi-urban places. Geographical distribution of the problem shows a trend for higher rates towards the South- SouthEast of the country, i.e. Andalucía, Murcia and the Canary Islands. Population data for Spanish children and young people based on the enKid study – cross-sectional study on a random national sample of the population aged 2–24 years – estimate a prevalence of obesity of 13,9% for the whole group. Geographical distribution draws a similar pattern to that described for adults. Higher peaks of the problem are identified between 9–13 years among boys from a low socioeconomical background. The analysis of determinants of obesity in Spanish children and young people show that overweight and obesity is related to absence of breastfeeding, low consumption of fruit and vegetables; high consumption of cakes and buns, softdrinks and butchery products, low physical activity levels and a positive association with time spent watching TV. The joint consensus document produced by the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP), Spanish Society of Community Nutrition (SENC) and Spanish Society for the Study of Obesity (SEEDO) considers a global strategy for the prevention of obesity from early stages in life. The important role of the family and the school setting as well as the responsibility of the Health Administration and Pediatric care in the prevention of obesity is highlighted in the document.
Genetics of Obesity: Gene × Nutrient Interactions
Authors: Marti  , Martinez
Published: January 2007

Obesity results from a long-term positive energy balance, in which gene-related differences may account for some of the disparities found in weight gain among populations. However, the rising prevalence of obesity in developed and developing societies must reflect lifestyle changes. Despite that the genetic background remains stable over many generations, obesity may be derived from a failure on the homeostasis systems, as a consequence of a dysfunction at the genetic level, which may be affected by changing environmental exposure (dietary habits, sedentarism, etc). In practice, obesity risk at least depends on two important factors, which mutually interact: 1) genetic variants and gene expression changes in candidate genes and 2) exposure to environmental risk factors. Disagreements among studies involving gene-nutrient interactions may reflect the difficulty of accurate measurement of specific types of dietary macro and micronutrients intake as well of phenotype assessment rather than a discrepancy in biological relevance. Identification of individuals who are genetically more likely to respond to particular dietary changes may be important for successful intervention in obesity treatment, since gene screening will allow health professionals to tailor-design weight management and dietary guidance in individuals with a genetic predisposition to become obese.
How to Maintain a Healthy Body Weight
Authors: Astrup
Published: January 2007

The epidemic of both obesity and type 2 diabetes is due to environmental factors, but the individuals developing the conditions possess a strong genetic predisposition. Observational surveys and intervention studies have shown that excess body fatness is the major environmental cause of type 2 diabetes, and that even a minor weight loss can prevent its development in high-risk subjects. Maintenance of a healthy body weight in susceptible individuals requires 45–60 minutes physical activity daily, a fat-reduced diet with plenty of fruit, vegetables, whole grain, and lean meat and dairy products, and moderate consumption of calorie containing beverages. The use of table values to predict the glycemic index of meals is of little – if any – value, and the role of a low-glycemic index diet for body weight control is controversial. The replacement of starchy carbohydrates with protein from lean meat and lean dairy products enhances satiety, and facilitate weight control. It is possible that dairy calcium also promotes weight loss, although the mechanism of action remains unclear. A weight loss of 5–10% can be induced in almost all obese patients providing treatment is offered by a professional team consisting of a physician and dieticians or nurses trained to focus on weight loss and maintenance. Whereas increasing daily physical activity and regular exercise does not significantly effect the rate of weight loss in the induction phase, it plays an important role in the weight maintenance phase due to an impact on daily energy expenditure and also to a direct enhancement of insulin sensitivity.
Oils and Fats: Changes due to Culinary and Industrial Processes
Authors: Sanchez-Muniz
Published: January 2007

Diets of developed countries contain substantial quantities of fat subjected to different processing and heat treatments. Heating in the presence of air produces oxidative and thermal degradations in the unsaturated acyl groups of triacylglycerols and in other unsaturated compounds present in the oils and fats. These changes modify the nutritional properties of culinary fat and lead to the formation of many oxidized and polymerized compounds that present higher polarity than that of the original triacylglycerols. Some aspects of lipid peroxidation that occur in heated and used frying oils will be briefly presented and discussed. This paper will focus on appropriate methodology for the assessment of fat alteration (e.g. chromatography) and the point at which any oil used for frying should be discarded. Polar material (PM) and triacylglycerol oligomer content (TOC) determinations constitute the basis of legislation for oil discarding in some European countries; we will try to open some debate on whether PM or TOC is preferred for oil discarding assessment. Correct frying performance helps to lengthen oil frying-life and to decrease the alteration content in the fried food. Because many factors are present in the culinary and industrial frying, the effect of the process itself and that of the food and the type of oil used will be reviewed. The present report analyses and describes a wide variety of topics related to frying performance, and their nutritional implications with a special focus on the behavior during frying of most consumed oils in Mediterranean countries.
Epidemiology and Management of Obesity in Portugal
Authors: Amorim Cruz
Published: January 2007

Although new studies are needed, the combination of the results of several studies in adults, adolescents and children suggests that the prevalence of obesity is increasing and is close to that of the developed countries with the highest prevalence. A public health approach against obesity has started only very recently
The Fixed-Links Model for Investigating the Effects of General and Specific Processes on Intelligence
Authors: Schweizer Karl
Published: January 2007

This article presents a model for investigating the effects of general and specific processes on intelligence as criterion variable. The model enables the representation of the processes as exogenous latent variables that predict the criterion, that is, the endogenous latent variable. The representation of these processes is achieved by the decomposition of the variances of the manifest variables. The decomposition presupposes the constraint of the loadings of the manifest variables on the latent variables. Smooth functions obtained on the basis of mean scores aid the attainment of constraints for the specific processes. Several alternative types of constraints for the general process are considered. The results of an empirical investigation demonstrate that constraints according to weighted uniformity are most appropriate. An example is provided.
Field measurements of heat loss from skylights and lava tube systems
Authors: Witter Jeffrey B. , Harris Andrew J. L.
Published: January 2007

We present temperature measurements made at skylights in the active flow field of Kilauea Volcano between 1995 and 2000. Spot temperature measurements of the lava stream within the lava tube revealed surface temperatures of 1017–1132°C. This compared with lava core temperatures of 1161 ± 3°C. The difference is the result of surface cooling due to radiation at the skylights. A FLIR thermal imager recorded a down‐tube lava surface temperature decrease followed by a surface temperature recovery due to entrainment of the crust down flow of the skylight. The temperature of hot air expelled from skylights reached a maximum of 600°C. From these field data, we place constraints on heat loss from the skylight and lava tube. Heat losses due to conduction and circulation of air in wall rocks around the tube are 103–104 and 104–106 W m−1 down tube, respectively. At skylights, heat losses due to radiation and forced convection are 1.5 × 105 W m−1 over the skylight length and 5 × 105 W per skylight, respectively. For a 10‐km‐long tube, the total heat loss is between 5 × 108 and 1 × 1010 W for a fully roofed tube with an additional 1.1 × 106 W lost per 4 m × 1 m skylight. In terms of cooling rates, 1.2°C km−1 is a minimum resulting from heat losses at fully roofed tubes with no skylights. Heat loss and cooling rate will, however, increase with skylight area.
Exhumation history of the southern Altiplano plateau (southern Bolivia) constrained by apatite fission track thermochronology
Authors: Ege H. , Sobel E. R. , Scheuber E. , Jacobshagen V.
Published: January 2007

Although the structural geometry of the Cenozoic Altiplano‐Puna plateau in the central Andes is well defined, the temporal evolution of this contractile deformation is poorly constrained. To address this shortcoming, we used apatite fission track thermochronology (AFT) to quantify the cooling and exhumation history along a transect at 21°S in southern Bolivia, through the deformed intermontane Altiplano basin, the doubly vergent thrust belt of the Eastern Cordillera and the inner foreland thrust belt east of the plateau (Interandean Zone). Thermal history modeling combined with published balanced cross sections and stratigraphic data constrain exhumation histories. Exhumation started during the late Eocene (40–36 Ma) in the central Eastern Cordillera, possibly due to bivergent thrusting and Cretaceous rift structure inversion. During the early Oligocene (33–27 Ma), exhumation spread across the study area as the current boundary thrusts of the Eastern Cordillera were activated. The inner west vergent thrust system became active in irregular order until circa 20 Ma, whereas the east vergent Interandean thrust belt formed by eastward propagating deformation since circa 30 Ma. Plateau exhumation continued at ∼0.2 mm/yr until shortening terminated by 11–7 Ma. Shortening within the plateau since circa 30 Ma did not evolve by lateral accretion of thrust wedges; the propagating deformation style is spatially confined to the foreland thrust belt, which initiated coeval to plateau deformation (Interandean Zone) but propagated mainly after circa 10 Ma (Subandean Zone). Early Oligocene plateau‐wide tectonically driven exhumation suggests that subduction‐related processes had already thermally weakened the continental lithosphere prior to the 27–25 Ma onset of volcanic activity.
Groundwater–soil water–vegetation dynamics in a temperate forest ecosystem along a slope
Authors: Brolsma R. J. , Bierkens M. F. P.
Published: January 2007

Groundwater can have a profound effect on water availability to vegetation in temperate climate regions. Here we attempt to model groundwater, soil water, and vegetation dynamics in groundwater controlled ecosystems and to assess how these depend on climate and topography. We focus on the possible location of a boundary between two vegetation types on a slope. One vegetation type is adapted to wetter soil moisture conditions, and one is adapted to drier conditions. We hypothesized that the vegetation type boundary along the slope in climax state is located where the slope‐average evapotranspiration is highest and/or where vegetation stress is minimal. Vegetation stress is a combination of occurring water stress as defined by Porporato et al. (2001) and a newly defined oxygen stress, which results from anaerobic conditions. To study this system, we built a two‐dimensional model of saturated‐unsaturated flow along a slope in which the abundance of two vegetation types varied along the slope. The results show that boundary between the vegetation types based on maximum evapotranspiration occurs at approximately the same location as that is predicted based on minimum plant stress. When precipitation increases, the boundary between the two vegetation types moves up slope. Sensitivity of the location of the vegetation boundary to changes in precipitation decreases with increasing slope angle.
Subionospheric VLF observations of transmitter‐induced precipitation of inner radiation belt electrons
Authors: Inan U. S. , Golkowski M. , Casey M. K. , Moore R. C. , Peter W. , Kulkarni P. , Kossey P. , Kennedy E. , Meth S. , Smit P.
Published: January 2007

Ionospheric effects of energetic electron precipitation induced by controlled injection of VLF signals from a ground based transmitter are observed via subionospheric VLF remote sensing. The 21.4 kHz NPM transmitter in Lualualei, Hawaii is keyed ON‐OFF in 30 minute periodic sequences. The same periodicity is observed in the amplitude and phase of the sub ionospherically propagating signals of the 24.8 kHz NLK (Jim Creek, Washington) and 25.2 kHz NLM (LaMoure, North Dakota) transmitters measured at Midway Island. Periodic perturbations of the NLK signal observed at Palmer, Antarctica suggest that energetic electrons scattered at longitudes of NPM continue to be precipitated into the atmosphere as they drift toward the South Atlantic Anomaly. Utilizing a model of the magnetospheric wave‐particle interaction, ionospheric energy deposition, and subionospheric VLF propagation, the precipitated energy flux induced by the NPM transmitter is estimated to peak at L ∼ 2 and ∼ 1.6 × 10−4 ergs s−1 cm−2.
Improving model structure and reducing parameter uncertainty in conceptual water balance models through the use of auxiliary data
Authors: Son Kyongho , Sivapalan Murugesu
Published: January 2007

The use of uncertainty analysis is gaining considerable attention in catchment hydrological modeling. In particular, the choice of appropriate model structure, identifiability of parameter values, and the reduction of model predictive uncertainty are deemed as essential elements of hydrological modeling. The chosen model structure must be parsimonious, and the parameters used must either be derivable from field‐measured data or inferred unambiguously from analysis of catchment response data. In this paper, a long‐term water balance model for the Susannah Brook catchment in Western Australia has been pursued using the “downward approach,” which is a systematic approach to determine the model with the minimum level of complexity, with parameter values that, in theory, are derivable from existing physiographic data relating to the catchment. Through analysis of rainfall‐runoff response at three different timescales and exploring the climate, soil, and vegetation controls on the water balance response at these timescales, an initial model structure was formulated, and a priori model parameter values were estimated. Further investigation with the use of auxiliary data such as deuterium concentration in the streamflow exposed inadequacies in the chosen model structure. Two more model structures were then proposed and investigated through formulating alternative hypotheses regarding the underlying causes of observed variability, including those suggested by observed deuterium composition in the streamflows and observed groundwater level dynamics. Along the way, the resulting models were systematically evaluated in three dimensions: ability to reproduce observations, predictive uncertainty, and physical realism. The final model, which included an efficient but detailed representation of unsaturated zone time delay, was found to be superior on all three counts, i.e., improved performance, reduced predictive uncertainty, and improved physical realism. These improvements can be directly attributed to the use of the auxiliary data (deuterium composition and groundwater level dynamics), which identified weaknesses in previous model structures, and the multiple wetting front model of water movement in the unsaturated zone, which captured more effectively the time delay in the unsaturated zone.
The Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) Level 2 Version 2
Authors: Hucka Michael , Keating Sarah
Published: January 2007

The Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) is a machine-readable model representation language for software tools in computational systems biology. By supporting SBML as an input/output format, different tools can all operate on an identical representation of a model, removing opportunities for translation errors and assuring a common starting point for analyses and simulations. SBML is by no means a perfect format, but it has achieved widespread acceptance as a de facto standard. It is supported worldwide by over 100 software systems (both open-source and commercial). The broad acceptance of a common, open format for exchanging models between software tools is a crucial step towards wider use of quantitative modeling in biology, because it allows researchers to build upon each other's work with greater ease and accuracy.SBML can encode models consisting of biochemical entities (species) linked by reactions to form networks. An important principle is that models are decomposed into explicitly-labeled constituent elements, the set of which resembles a verbose rendition of chemical reaction equations. The representation deliberately does not cast the model directly into a set of differential equations or other specific interpretation of the model. The formalisms in SBML allows a wide range of biological phenomena to be modeled, including metabolism, cell signaling, gene regulation, and more. Significant flexibility and power comes from the ability to define arbitrary formulae for the rates of change of variables as well as the ability to express other constraints mathematically.This tutorial covered the latest edition of SBML, which is Level 2 Version 2, finalized in September 2006. Topics covered include the basic common principles in SBML as well the changes introduced in Level 2 Version 2. We also discussed software tools for programmers, in particular libSBML.
The Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML): Where It's Been and Where It's Going
Authors: Hucka Michael
Published: January 2007

A cornerstone of systems biology is the use of computational modeling, by which hypotheses can be cast into a quantitative form that can be tested systematically. The use of computational modeling by biologists promises to pave the way for more rigorous analyses of biological functions, and ultimately will lead to new and better treatments for disease.A crucial enabler for more widespread use of computational modeling in biology is reaching agreement on how to represent, store, and communicate models between software tools. The Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) project is an effort to create a machine-readable format for representing computational models in biology. By supporting SBML as an input and output format, different software tools can operate on the same representation of a model, removing chances for errors in translation and assuring a common starting point for analyses and simulations. SBML has become the most successful effort in this direction so far, with over 100 software systems supporting it today.In this presentation, I will discuss the current state of SBML, including recent developments such as this year's finalization of Version 2 of SBML Level 2. I will also survey some of the software tools that support SBML, and related projects that have arisen to support more effective use of computational models. Lastly, I will discuss expected future developments in SBML.
Alveolar Recruitment in Pulmonary and Extrapulmonary Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome
Authors: Thille Arnaud W. , Richard Jean-Christophe M. , Maggiore Salvatore M. , Ranieri V Marco , Brochard Laurent
Published: January 2007

Background

Alveolar recruitment in response to positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) may differ between pulmonary and extrapulmonary acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and alveolar recruitment values may differ when measured by pressure-volume curve compared with static compliance.

Methods

The authors compared PEEP-induced alveolar recruitment in 71 consecutive patients identified in a database. Patients were classified as having pulmonary, extrapulmonary, or mixed/uncertain ARDS. Pressure-volume curves with and without PEEP were available for all patients, and pressure-volume curves with two PEEP levels were available for 44 patients. Static compliance was calculated as tidal volume divided by pressure change for tidal volumes of 400 and 700 ml. Recruited volume was measured at an elastic pressure of 15 cm H2O.

Results

Volume recruited by PEEP (10 +/- 3 cm H2O) was 223 +/- 111 ml in the pulmonary ARDS group (29 patients), 206 +/- 164 ml in the extrapulmonary group (16 patients), and 242 +/- 176 ml in the mixed/uncertain group (26 patients) (P = 0.75). At high PEEP (14 +/- 2 cmH2O, 44 patients), recruited volumes were also similar (P = 0.60). With static compliance, recruitment was markedly underestimated and was dependent on tidal volume (226 +/- 148 ml using pressure-volume curve, 95 +/- 185 ml for a tidal volume of 400 ml, and 23 +/- 169 ml for 700 ml; P < 0.001).

Conclusion

In a large sample of patients, classification of ARDS was uncertain in more than one third of patients, and alveolar recruitment was similar in pulmonary and extrapulmonary ARDS. PEEP levels should not be determined based on cause of ARDS.
Increased Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor-1 Concentrations in Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluids Are Associated with Increased Mortality in a Cohort of Patients with Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Authors: Song Yuanlin , Lynch Susan V. , Flanagan Judith , Zhuo Hanjing , Tom Wynnson , Dotson Rachel H. , Baek Marshall S. , Rubio-Mills Amua , Singh Gaurav , Kipnis Eric , Glidden David , Brown Ron , Garcia Oscar , Wiener-Kronish Jeanine P.
Published: January 2007

Background

Increased plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) concentrations are found in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluids from patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome. The authors hypothesized that PAI-1 concentrations were associated with increased mortality in patients with either Pseudomonas aeruginosa-induced ventilator-associated pneumonia or tracheobronchial colonization.

Methods

In a prospective cohort study, daily aspirates from intubated patients were cultured for P. aeruginosa. Positive patients had blind BAL (bBAL) that was processed for biomarker concentrations. Secretion of type III secretion cytotoxins were also analyzed from the P. aeruginosa strains.

Results

Thirty-three patients were enrolled. Ten of the 33 patients died. bBAL PAI-1 concentrations were significantly increased in nonsurvivors compared with survivors (31.7 vs. 3.4 ng/ml, P = 0.001 for hospital mortality; 35.9 vs. 4.7 ng/ml, P = 0.02 for 28-day mortality). Even when acute respiratory distress syndrome patients were excluded, there was a significant difference between the survivors and nonsurvivors for bBAL PAI-1 concentrations (P = 0.005). Eighty-three percent of P. aeruginosa strains isolated from patients with high concentrations of bBAL PAI-1 also had strains that secreted cytotoxins.

Conclusions

PAI-1 concentrations in bBALs correlated with mortality in ventilated patients with positive cultures for P. aeruginosa. Elevated bBAL PAI-1 concentrations also correlated with the secretion of type III exotoxins by P. aeruginosa.
Accelerating the Washout of Inhalational Anesthetics from the Dräger Primus Anesthetic Workstation
Authors: Crawford Mark W. , Prinzhausen Heike , Petroz Guy C.
Published: January 2007

Background

To establish guidelines for the preparation of the Primus anesthetic workstation (Dräger, Lübeck, Germany) for malignant hyperthermia-susceptible patients, the authors evaluated the effect of replacing the workstation's exchangeable internal components on the washout of isoflurane.

Methods

Primus workstations were exposed to isoflurane, and contaminated internal components were replaced as follows: group 1, no replacement; group 2, new ventilator diaphragm; group 3, autoclaved ventilator diaphragm; group 4, autoclaved integrated breathing system; group 5, flushed integrated breathing system; group 6, autoclaved ventilator diaphragm and integrated breathing system. The fresh gas flow was set at 10 l/min, and subsequently reduced to 3 l/min when a concentration of 5 ppm was achieved. Isoflurane concentration was measured in the inspiratory limb of the circle circuit every minute.

Results

Washout times for isoflurane decreased in the following order: group 1 (67 +/- 6.5 min) > groups 2 and 3 (50 +/- 4.1 and 50 +/- 5.7 min, respectively) > group 5 (43 +/- 9.5 min) > group 4 (12 +/- 1.5 min) > group 6 (3.2 +/- 0.4 min). Isoflurane concentration increased approximately threefold when the fresh gas flow was reduced to 3 l/min.

Conclusion

Washout of isoflurane increased 20-fold with the use of an autoclaved ventilator diaphragm and integrated breathing system. To prepare the Primus for malignant hyperthermia-susceptible patients, the authors recommend replacing the ventilator diaphragm and integrated breathing system with autoclaved components, flushing the workstation for 5 min at a fresh gas flow of 10 l/min, and maintaining this flow for the duration of anesthesia.
Comparison of the Particle Sizes of Different Steroids and the Effect of Dilution
Authors: Benzon Honorio T. , Chew Teng-Leong , McCarthy Robert J. , Benzon Hubert A. , Walega David R.
Published: January 2007

Background

Central nervous system injuries after transforaminal epidural steroid injections have been ascribed to occlusion of the blood vessels supplying the spinal cord and brain by the particulate steroid.

Methods

The authors compared the sizes of the particles of the steroids methylprednisolone acetate, triamcinolone acetonide, dexamethasone sodium phosphate, betamethasone sodium phosphate/betamethasone acetate (both Celestone Soluspan; Schering-Plough, Kenilworth, NJ, the commercial betamethasone; and betamethasone repository, a betamethasone preparation that can be ordered from a compounding company), and betamethasone sodium phosphate. Both undiluted and diluted samples were examined. The samples were examined with a laser scanning confocal microscope, and images were analyzed and measured. The particles were categorized (or tabulated) into groups: 0-20, 21-50, 51-1000, and greater than 1000 mu. Chi-square analyses, with Bonferroni correction, were used to compare the proportion of particles among the undiluted and diluted drug formulations.

Results

Dexamethasone and betamethasone sodium phosphate were pure liquid. The proportion of larger particles was significantly greater in the methylprednisolone and the compounded betamethasone preparations compared with the commercial betamethasone. There was no statistical difference between the commercial betamethasone and triamcinolone, although betamethasone had a smaller percentage of the larger particles. Increased dilution of the compounded betamethasone with lidocaine decreased the percentage of the larger particles, whereas increased dilution of methylprednisolone 80 mg/ml with saline increased the proportion of larger particles.

Conclusion

Commercial betamethasone is the recommended preparation if a nonsoluble steroid is preferred. Dexamethasone is a nonparticulate steroid, but its routine use awaits further studies on its safety and efficacy.