bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Hooke's Cyclic Theory of the Earth in the Context of Seventeenth Century England
Authors: Ito Yushi
Published: January 2009

In his discussion of Robert Hooke's geological ideas, David R. Oldroyd has suggested that ‘Hooke's daring cyclic earth theory may have seemed absurd to his contemporaries’. Following Oldroyd's suggestion, A. J. Turner has claimed that it is entirely understandable that Hooke's geological theories had no followers, ‘for, however plausible in themselves, they were quite implausible in the context of seventeenth century knowledge’. Gordon L. Davies has asserted that Hooke was too advanced for his time and that his geological ‘ideas made no impact on his contemporaries’, and Rhoda Rappaport has said that ‘Hooke's geological work made virtually no impression on the writings of his British contemporaries’.
Particles and Eighteenth Century Concepts of Chemical Combination
Authors: Duncan Alistair M.
Published: January 2009

In trying to understand why a chemist thought as he did, and drew one set of conclusions rather than another, probably the most important thing we need to know is what picture he had in mind of the way in which chemical reactions take place. There are, of course, many other things we need to know. For example, we need to know his social, economic and cultural circumstances, how he was educated and his ideas of the social function of science and in particular of chemistry; we need to know what scientific societies and institutions he belonged to and how they influenced him; and we need to know what he hoped to get out of his work in chemistry—fame or a living or personal satisfaction or a combination of two or three of those results. Indeed, it has become fashionable in recent years to consider those aspects rather than the nature of his actual chemical thought. Yet in the end, his mental picture of chemical change is surely the most important factor in determining what the chemist's results will be, and is therefore the most important factor for historians to understand.
‘O tempera, O magnes!’: A sociological analysis of the discovery of secular magnetic variation in 1634
Authors: Pumfrey Stephen
Published: January 2009

As sociologists learn more about how scientific knowledge is created, they give historians the opportunity to rework their accounts from a more contextual perspective. It is relatively easy to do so in areas with large theoretical, cosmological or overtly ideological components. It is more difficult, but equally necessary, to open up very empirical accomplishments, and recent sociological analysis of the process of science gives us some interesting insights. This paper employs some of these on the apparently unpromising subject of the ‘discovery of secular magnetic variation’ in 1634 by the Gresham professor Henry Gellibrand.
Darwin's search for a theory of the earth: symmetry, simplicity and speculation
Authors: Rhodes Frank H. T. , Rhodes Frank H. T.
Published: January 2009

1990 marked the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's first major scientific theory. The paper, first presented by Darwin to the Geological Society of London on 7 March 1838, was entitled ‘On the Connexion of Certain Volcanic Phenomena and on the Formation of Mountain-Chains and the Effects of Continental Elevations.’ The paper was a remarkable attempt to develop a global tectonic synthesis. It was the culmination of a period of intensive geological activity by Darwin – then twenty-nine – who had returned from the Beagle voyage only eighteen months previously. The present article reviews the development of Darwin's views, their impact upon his contemporaries, their role in shaping his later views on the origin of species, and their significance in scientific theory-making. It draws, in part, on Darwin's unpublished geological notes and jottings. This paper, and the papers by Sandra Herbert and James Secord that accompany it, were delivered at a symposium which I organized at the Geological Society of London on 31 October 1988 to mark the 150th anniversary of the reading of Darwin's paper.
Geology and industrial consultancy: Sir William Boyd Dawkins (1837–1929) and the Kent Coalfield
Authors: Tweedale Geoffrey
Published: January 2009

In Britain's development as the first industrial nation, the crucial importance of surveyors, mining engineers and geologists in prospecting and exploiting minerals and raw materials seems self-evident. Yet historians of geology have yet to take proper account of this aspect of geological science. Why is this ? One reason may simply be that the historiography of the subject itself is only relatively recent and many areas, besides industrial geology, await coverage. Or perhaps the nature of the source material is to blame. While scientific geologists filled museums with their fossils and notebooks, engaged in well-publicized controversies of the day, and wrote numerous books and articles, industrial geologists often left relatively few papers and sometimes never published their results. On the other hand, it has been suggested that the neglect of economic geology may be due to a rapidly developing bias in the subject itself. A recent study has highlighted the fact that the history of British geology, as seen through the eyes of historians at least, appears to comprise two different but closely interconnected strands. The first relates to natural history and looks toward the scientific or ‘pure’ front; the second connects with mining and the search for raw materials and is slanted towards the industrial or ‘applied’ horizon. In the same way that the scientific branch of geology brought fame and fortune in Victorian times, so the protagonists of ‘pure’ geology have so far been the chief interest of historians – so much so that the literature so far lacks detailed case studies of the careers and work of applied geologists.
Tropical medicine in nineteenth-century India
Authors: Harrison Mark
Published: January 2009

It is customary to regard ‘tropical medicine’ as a product of the late nineteenth century, ‘its instrument the microscope, its epistemology the germ theory of disease’. The accepted interpretation is that tropical medicine was a European concept: originating in Britain and France and exported to the colonies by pioneering medical scientists. This interpretation is useful inasmuch as ‘tropical medicine’ as a discipline with its own journals, institutions, qualifications, and an exclusive discourse did not emerge until the last decade of the nineteenth century, and partly in response to metropolitan imperatives. But the European perspective of existing histories of ‘tropical medicine’ has obscured important developments in the understanding of diseases in the tropics which took place prior to 1890; most of which occurred in the colonies themselves – and especially in India. In order to distinguish this body of knowledge from its later, institutional incarnation, it will be referred to here as ‘tropical hygiene’: the term most commonly used by medical men in India until the 1890s.
Images of the sun: Warren De la Rue, George Biddell Airy and celestial photography
Authors: Rothermel Holly
Published: January 2009

By the early years of the twentieth century, astronomers regarded photography as one of the most valuable tools at their disposal, a technique which not only provided an accurate and reliable representation of astronomical phenomena, but also radically changed the role of the astronomical observer. Herbert Hall Turner, professor of astronomy at Oxford, wrote in 1905: ‘The wonderful exactness of the photographic record may perhaps best be characterised by saying that it has revealed the deficiencies of all our other astronomical apparatus – object-glasses and prisms, clocks, even the observer himself.’ H. C. Russell, government astronomer in Sydney, suggested that photography might in the future make the observer redundant: ‘In many cases the observer must stand aside while the sensitive photographic plate takes his place and works with the power of which he is not capable… I feel sure that in a very few years the observer will be displaced altogether.’ Such visions were not uncommon at the time, emanating from the trust invested in the photographic process after the spectacular achievements of the late nineteenth century.
Philosophical threads: natural philosophy and public experiment among the weavers of Spitalfields
Authors: Stewart Larry , Weindling Paul
Published: January 2009

In the overwhelmingly public world of the twentieth century, science often seems simultaneously remote and ubiquitous. There are many complex reasons for this, of course, not the least being the capacity of technology for material transformation and the apparent inability of scientific discourse to communicate its practice to the unanointed. In some ways, our current predicament appears similar to that of the late eighteenth century when so many promises had already been made of what natural philosophy might accomplish, and when many clamoured for access to the power of natural philosophical practice. At that point, on the verge of the stunning dislocations of the industrial revolution, many of the literate and mechanical public took considerable steps to bridge the gap otherwise policed by social distinction.
The role of Rothmann in the dissolution of the celestial spheres
Authors: Goldstein Bernard R. , Barker Peter
Published: January 2009

At the end of the sixteenth century astronomers and others felt compelled to choose among different cosmologies. For Tycho Brahe, who played a central role in these debates, the intersection of the spheres of Mars and the Sun was an outstanding problem that had to be resolved before he made his choice. His ultimate solution was to eliminate celestial spheres in favour of fluid heavens, a crucial step in the abandonment of the Ptolemaic system and the demise of Aristotelian celestial physics. These debates involved issues that had not previously been part of astronomy, and had the effect of undermining the traditional hierarchy of the sciences. While this complicated story involves many scientific personalities of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in the present paper we will concentrate on one figure who has been assigned an unnecessarily minor role in most histories of science: Christoph Rothmann. In the present paper we show that ‘the dissolution of the celestial spheres’ depends on arguments about the substance of the heavens, following a mistaken argument of Gemma Frisius, elaborated by Joannes Pena and appropriated by Rothmann. We next consider the status and origin of the doctrine, as presented by Brahe, that the heavenly spheres are solid, and the impact on Brahe of Rothmann's treatise on the comet of 1585. Rothmann provided several key ideas that enabled Brahe to develop his system, and we suggest in passing that Rothmann may also have precipitated Brahe's re-evaluation of his attempt to detect the parallax of Mars during the opposition of 1582–83. We offer a new account of this central piece of evidence for the Tychonic system.
‘Kriegsgeologen and practical men’: military geology and modern memory, 1914–18
Authors: Macleod Roy
Published: January 2009

By 1918, four years of total war had produced a complete mobilization of scientists, scholars and their institutions throughout Europe, the British Empire, and the United States. Public men spoke freely of the implications of a ‘technological war’ run by engineers and chemists. And in the years following the Armistice, historians were eager to record the achievements of the professions, and the effects of the war on their self-image. Memories of the First World War, as Paul Fussell reminds us, remain and shape the texture of our daily life. The parapet, wire and mud have become permanent features of human existence. In a similar way, the war of 1914–18 had enduring consequences for science and scientists, rarely appreciated until the end of the Second World War. Scholars and savants deserted their classrooms for the trenches, industries and war offices, while professional bodies turned themselves into useful extensions of military departments. By October 1914, the infamous Professors' Manifesto, with its Appeal to the Cultured Peoples of the World had identified German science with German war aims, and the natural sciences were fully at war. Scientific knowledge applied to the war was – at one and the same time – a fulfilment of the Enlightenment project of reason, and a violation of the Enlightenment ethos of humanism and internationalism.
Court and controversy: patenting science in the nineteenth century
Authors: Lucier Paul
Published: January 2009

In the autumn of 1851, on the occasion of the American Institute of New York's annual fair, the Boston chemist and geologist Charles Jackson chose as the subject of his address the ‘Encouragement and Cultivation of the Sciences in the United States’. Playing on popular enthusiasm for science and technology, Jackson rehearsed the wondrous progress of the arts and the role of science in that progress. Science was the ‘Hand-maiden of the Arts’, and most assuredly the ‘maid of honor’, he declared, for science was the ‘progressive power’ which inspired new inventions. These were commonplace assumptions of the time, and surely no one in his audience would have disputed them.
Humboldtian plant geography after Humboldt: the link to ecology
Authors: Nicolson Malcolm
Published: January 2009

In his classic textbook,The History of Biology, Erik Nordenskiöld suggested that there had existed, throughout the nineteenth century, not one but two distinct forms of plant geography. He designated one of these traditions of inquiry ‘floristic’ plant geography, tracing its origins back to the work of Carl Linnaeus on species and their distributions. The second form Nordenskiöld termed ‘morphological’, by which he meant that its practitioners concentrated upon the study of vegetation rather than flora. He located the origins of this tradition of inquiry within the botanical work of Alexander von Humboldt.
Darwin at Llanymynech: the evolution of a geologist
Authors: Roberts Michael B.
Published: January 2009

1831 was a momentous year for Charles Darwin. He passed his BA examination on 22 January, stayed up in Cambridge for two further terms and returned to The Mount, his home in Shrewsbury, in mid-June. On 6 August he left Shrewsbury with Adam Sedgwick for a geological field trip to North Wales, and after his lone traverse over the Harlech Dome returned to The Mount on Monday 29 August to find letters from John Stevens Henslow and George Peacock inviting him to joint HMSBeagle. This geological field trip was crucial for his work on theBeagle. For example, when he began his first geological work of the voyage on Quail Island, he was by that time a competent geologist. Though others have studied the North Wales tour in some detail, there is also another earlier and much briefer episode to consider. Darwin appears to have geologized on his own at Llanymynech in July. The contrast between his first recorded attempts at Llanymynech in July 1831 and then elsewhere in North Wales in August 1831 is most instructive, as his development as a geologist can be followed in his field notes. Retracing his steps today, and comparing his measurements and observations with new ones, throws light on what he might have learnt at different points during that summer.
Why monopoly failed: the rise and fall of Société La Fuchsine
Authors: Travis Anthony S. , Hornix Willem J. , Bud Robert , van den Belt Henk
Published: January 2009

Historians are invariably wiser after the event. Their approaches to the subject of this paper, the Société La Fuchsine, make no exceptions to this rule. That company was formed in December 1863 with the participation of the Crédit Lyonnais bank to exploit the patent monopoly on the synthetic dyestuff known as fuchsine, and its derivatives, of the Lyons firm of Renard frères et Franc. No one could have foreseen that before the close of the decade this whole adventure would end in utter failure. In the eyes of contemporaries La Fuchsine was one of the most impressive and awe-inspiring firms of the European dyestuffs industry in the 1860s. Yet by 1868 La Fuchsine was virtually bankrupt, although it dragged out its legal existence until 1875. However, in every other sense it was already dead well before that date.
Anti-atopic dermatitis effects and the mechanism of lactic acid bacteria isolated from Mongolian fermented milk
Authors: Hayashi Atsushi , Kimura Makoto , Nakamura Yusaku , Yasui Hisako
Published: January 2009

We investigated the anti-allergic effects of one strain (T120) of a lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolated from Mongolian fermented milk using atopic dermatitis (AD) model mice (NC/Nga mice). Strain T120 has already been identified asEnterococcus faeciumand shown to induce strong production of IL-12 (Kimura et al. 2006). In in vitro studies, strain T120 suppressed total IgE production and induced IL-12 and IFN-γ production by splenocytes of NC/Nga mice. The additional examination of various neutralization antibodies was performed to elucidate in detail the mechanism of depressed IgE production by strain T120. As a result, it became clear that IL-12 induced by strain T120 increased production of IFN-γ and total IgE production was mainly controlled by the IFN-γ. In order to define the cells which produce IL-12 powerfully by this strain, antigen-presenting cells (APCs) such as macrophages and dendritic cells (DCs) were removed from the splenocytes, and the reactivity of these cells to the strain was examined. Induction of IL-12 and IFN-γ by strain T120 became significantly very low by removal of APCs from splenocytes. Therefore, it was clear that strain T120 acted on APCs and induced production of IL-12. Further, this strain enhanced the production of IL-10 by splenocytes. In in vivo studies, intraperitoneal injection of strain T120 inhibited serum IgE elevation and atopic dermatitis symptoms in NC/Nga mice. These results suggest that an anti-allergic effect of strain T120 depends on the increased production of IL-12 by APCs activated by the strain and following the increased production of IFN-γ. Further, activation of regulatory T cells by strain T120 may inhibit atopic desease.
Crude goat whey fermentation by Kluyveromyces marxianus and Lactobacillus rhamnosus: contribution to proteolysis and ACE inhibitory activity
Authors: Hamme Vanessa , Sannier Frederic , Piot Jean-Marie , Didelot Sandrine , Bordenave-Juchereau Stephanie
Published: January 2009

Unsupplemented acid goat whey containing 0·96% protein and 2·76% lactose was fermented aerobically with 32 microflora extracted from various raw milk cheeses and dairy products. These microflora were screened for their ability to hydrolyse whey proteins (α-lactalbumin and/or β-lactoglobulin) and to generate peptides inhibitors of Angiotensin I Converting Enzyme. Five microflora were able to degrade whey protein. The most efficient microflora was able to fully hydrolyse α-lactalbumin and to a lesser extend β-lactoglobulin. It was extracted from Bamalou des Pyrenées cheese. Micro-organisms involved consisted of yeast Kluyveromyces marxianus and lactobacillus Lactobacillus rhamnosus. Both were able to produce ACE inhibitory peptides after whey fermentation.
Haikuas a discourse regulation device: A stanza analysis of Japanese children's personal narratives
Authors: Minami Masahiko , McCabe Allyssa
Published: January 2009

Conversational narratives of 17 Japanese children aged 5 to 9 were analyzed using stanza analysis (Gee 1985; Hymes 1982). Three distinctive features emerged: (1) the narratives are exceptionally succinct; (2) they are usually free-standing collections of three experiences; (3) stanzas almost always consist of three lines. These features reflect the basic characteristics ofhaiku, a commonly practiced literary form that often combines poetry and narrative, and an ancient, but still ubiquitous game calledkaruta, which also displays three lines of written discourse. These literacy games may explain both the extraordinary regularity of verses per stanza and the smooth acquisition of reading by a culture that practices restricted, ambiguous, oral-style discourse. The structure of Japanese children's narratives must be understood within the larger context ofomoiyari“empathy” training of Japanese children. Empathy training may account for the production, comprehension, and appreciation of ambiguous discourse in Japanese society. (Cultural differences in discourse style, the relationship among oral language, literacy, and literature)
Olson on literacy
Authors: Halverson John
Published: January 2009

Continuing a line of thought begun by Havelock and Goody, often called the “literacy thesis,” Olson has proposed in a series of articles several new ideas about how literacy may have altered human cognition to make modern scientific thinking possible. He attributes to literacy the development of explicit, autonomous prose, the ability to distinguish data from interpretation, and the growth of metalanguage, all of which are held to be essential to systematic thought. An examination of these proposals indicates that they lack sufficient evidence, coherence, and substance to support a case for any significant “cognitive consequences“ of literacy. (Literacy and cognition, orality and literacy)
An Investigation of Treatment Scheduling for Phonemic Awareness With Kindergartners Who Are at Risk for Reading Difficulties
Authors: Ukrainetz Teresa A. , Ross Catherine L. , Harm Heide M.
Published: January 2009

Purpose

This study examined 2 schedules of treatment for phonemic awareness.

Method

Forty-one 5- to 6-year-old kindergartners, including 22 English learners, with low letter-name and first-sound knowledge received 11 hr of phonemic awareness treatment: concentrated (CP, 3x/wk to December), dispersed (DP, 1x/wk to March), and dispersed vocabulary control (CON).

Results

English learners performed similarly to native English speakers. Participants with moderate deficits in letter-names and first sounds showed significant benefits after both treatment conditions. Three times the intensity had no additional effect on phonemic awareness. CP continued to increase significantly during the no-treatment interval. In March, CP and DP were significantly greater than CON, but the 2 conditions did not differ other than with a minor DP advantage on last sounds. By May, there were no significant differences among the 3 conditions in meeting grade-level expectations for phoneme segmenting.

Conclusion

For phonemic awareness, over the course of a school year, with concomitant classroom instruction, the gains made from short, intense treatment were similar to those made from continuous weekly treatment. At-risk kindergartners with moderate deficits benefited more than those with mild deficits. Children, particularly those with mild deficits, may improve substantially with only classroom instruction and incidental self-regulatory gains from treatment for another area.
Physics in the Great Depression
Authors: Weiner Charles
Published: January 2009

In the spirit of the soul-searching seventies, physicists are now uneasily questioning the pace of physics and its proper place in society. They view with foreboding the changes in slope of the funding and employment curves that, along with assessments of changes in public attitudes, are the major social indicators of the health of the physics community. The immediate impact and long-range threat of reduced research funds, slackening employment opportunities and lower public esteem for physics are the apparent causes for concern. Threatened or imminent hard times are especially difficult to take on the heels of the high expectations that good times engender. This public statement by a distinguished physicist aptly characterizes the situation:
Physicists teach minority students
Authors: Levi Barbara G.
Published: January 2009

A MEXICAN—AMERICAN high-school student in southern California is a member of a minority group with no academic tradition. He is likely to drop out of school through lack of personal and parental interest, and even if he does finish high school he will probably not go to college. Some physics and mechanical-engineering faculty members at Stanford University are doing what they can to persuade these students to continue their education. At a four-week program, held each summer at Stanford, Mexican–American students attend lectures, do some laboratory work, and socialize with staff members; thus they get a taste of college life and a feeling for modem science that is not available to them elsewhere. The budget is low, the results are mixed, yet the idea is spreading to other campuses in the US.
Genetic analysis of milk production and composition in crossbred ewes from different maternal genotypes
Authors: Afolayan R. A. , Fogarty N. M. , Morgan J. E. , Gaunt G. M. , Cummins L. J. , Gilmour A. R. , Nielsen S.
Published: January 2009

Milk production and milk composition were measured in 1056 crossbred ewes managed under pasture grazing in a lamb production system. Most ewes were milked on three occasions at ~3, 4 and 12 weeks of lactation. The ewes were the progeny of mainly Merino dams and 91 sires from several maternal crossing breeds including Border Leicester, East Friesian, Finnsheep and Coopworth. The ewes were born over 3 years and run at three sites where they were joined naturally to meat rams. Most of the ewes were first parity (autumn-joined at 7 months of age and spring-joined at 14–17 months of age), with the remainder second or third parity. The cohorts of ewes and sites were linked genetically by three common maternal sires. The 4-h oxytocin-induced milking procedure was used to estimate daily milk production and milk samples were analysed for composition (fat%, protein% and lactose%). Daily milk yield and milk composition traits were analysed using restricted maximum likelihood mixed models procedures. The sire breed of crossbred ewes was significant for milk yield (P < 0.01), fat% (P < 0.01) and lactose% (P < 0.05). There was a significant (P < 0.01) interaction of sire breed × days of lactation, mainly due to the relatively higher milk yield of the East Friesian and White Suffolk cross ewes compared with the other crosses, at the end of the lactation. The East Friesian cross ewes had lower milk fat% than the other cross ewes. Ewes suckling multiple lambs had 29% higher peak milk yield than those bearing and suckling single lambs (P < 0.001). There was an increase in peak milk yield of the ewes from first to second parity, and third parity ewes had a greater decline to the end of lactation causing a significant interaction (P < 0.001). The overall decline in milk yield from peak to late lactation was –21.2 ± 0.7 g/day. Separate analysis showed a significant increase in milk yield with ewe pre-joining weight (regression 6.1 ± 1.8 g/day.kg). The estimate of heritability for daily milk yield was 0.24 ± 0.04 at 90 days of lactation and 0.10 ± 0.02 at 21 days of lactation. The estimates of heritability for the milk composition traits were generally moderate. Estimates of genetic correlations between measurements early and late in the lactation for milk yield and most composition traits were high. The within ewe by stage variance component estimates of repeatability were moderate to high for milk yield, fat% and protein%, with lactose% being low.
Treatment of erectile dysfunction reduces psychological distress
Authors: Bocchio Massimo , Pelliccione Fiore , Mihalca Radu , Ciociola Francesco , Necozione Stefano , Rossi Alessandro , Francavilla Felice , Francavilla Sandro
Published: January 2009

Mental stress is a risk factor for cardiovascular events in men with vascular risk factors (VRFs) and is also associated with erectile dysfunction (ED), a frequent complaint of men with VRFs. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of inhibition of phosphodiesterase‐5 or of placebo in men with ED and VRFs on self‐evaluated psychological distress, erectile function and quality of sexual life. Thirty‐six men with ED and VRFs were randomized to 4 weeks of tadalafil (20 mg/every other day) or placebo treatment. Sexual Health Inventory for Men (SHIM), questions 1–3 of Life Satisfaction (LiSat) questionnaire, Symptom Check‐List‐90R, a multidimensional inventory exploring psychological dimensions were applied before and after treatment. The SHIM score improved after treatment with tadalafil compared with baseline and with placebo (F = 10.38; p = 0.0030). Sexual life satisfaction (LiSat‐2) was significantly improved after tadalafil and after placebo, but a strong positive correlation was observed between LiSat‐2 and SHIM score after tadalafil treatment (r = 0.59, p = 0.0003) and not after placebo (r = 0.22, p = 0.189). Psychological features were significantly changed after treatment, although a specific effect of tadalafil vs. placebo was observed only for interpersonal sensitivity (F = 4.48; p = 0.042). Obsessive–compulsive dimension, depression, anxiety, psychoticism were significantly improved in the tadalafil group and in the placebo group, although the improvement was always more relevant after treatment with tadalafil. These preliminary data suggest that a short treatment of ED reduced psychological distress and improved quality of sexual life in men with VRFs.
Facies analysis and palaeoenvironmental interpretation of the Late Oligocene Attard Member (Lower Coralline Limestone Formation), Malta
Authors: BRANDANO MARCO , FREZZA VIRGILIO , TOMASSETTI LAURA , PEDLEY MARTYN , MATTEUCCI RUGGERO
Published: January 2009

The Oligocene represents a key interval during which coralline algae became dominant on carbonate ramps and luxuriant coral reefs emerged on a global scale. So far, few studies have considered the impact that these early reefs had on ramp development. Consequently, this study aimed at presenting a high‐resolution analysis of the Attard Member of the Lower Coralline Limestone Formation (Late Oligocene, Malta) in order to decipher the internal and external factors controlling the architecture of a typical Late Oligocene platform. Excellent exposures of the Lower Coralline Limestone Formation occurring along continuous outcrops adjacent to the Victoria Lines Fault reveal in detail the three‐dimensional distribution of the reef‐associated facies. A total of four sedimentary facies have been recognized and are grouped into two depositional environments that correspond to the inner and middle carbonate ramp. The inner ramp was characterized by a very high‐energy, shallow‐water setting, influenced by tide and wave processes. This setting passed downslope into an inner‐ramp depositional environment which was colonized by seagrass and interfingered with adjacent areas containing scattered corals. The middle ramp lithofacies were deposited in the oligophotic zone, the sediments being generated from combined in situ production and sediments swept from the shallower inner ramp by currents. Compositional characteristics and facies distributions of the Attard ramp are more similar to the Miocene ramps than to those of the Eocene. An important factor controlling this similarity may be the expansion of the seagrass colonization within the euphotic zone. This expansion may have commenced in the Late Oligocene and was associated with a concomitant reduction in the aerial extent of the larger benthonic foraminifera facies. Stacking‐pattern analysis shows that the depositional units (parasequences) at the study section are arranged into transgressive–regressive facies cycles. This cyclicity is superimposed on the overall regressive phase recorded by the Attard succession. Furthermore, a minor highstand (correlated with the Ru4/Ch1 sequence) and subsequent minor lowstand (Ch2 sequence) have been recognized. The biota assemblages of the Attard Member suggest that carbonate sedimentation took place in subtropical waters and oligotrophic to slightly mesotrophic conditions. The apparent low capacity of corals to form wave‐resistant reef structures is considered to have been a significant factor affecting substrate stability at this time. The resulting lack of resistant mid‐ramp reef frameworks left this zone exposed to wave and storm activity, thereby encouraging the widespread development of coralline algal associations dominated by rhodoliths.
Liberating Effects of Losing Executive Control
Authors: Apfelbaum Evan P. , Sommers Samuel R.
Published: January 2009

Across numerous domains, research has consistently linked decreased capacity for executive control to negative outcomes. Under some conditions, however, this deficit may translate into gains: When individuals' regulatory strategies are maladaptive, depletion of the resource fueling such strategies may facilitate positive outcomes, both intra- and interpersonally. We tested this prediction in the context of contentious intergroup interaction, a domain characterized by regulatory practices of questionable utility. White participants discussed approaches to campus diversity with a White or Black partner immediately after performing a depleting or control computer task. In intergroup encounters, depleted participants enjoyed the interaction more, exhibited less inhibited behavior, and seemed less prejudiced to Black observers than did control participants—converging evidence of beneficial effects. Although executive capacity typically sustains optimal functioning, these results indicate that, in some cases, it also can obstruct positive outcomes, not to mention the potential for open dialogue regarding divisive social issues.
Maternal Autonomy‐ and Connectedness‐oriented Parenting Behaviors as Predictors of Children's Social Behaviors in China
Authors: Liu Mowei , Chen Xinyin , Zheng Shujie , Chen Huichang , Wang Li
Published: January 2009

The purpose of the study was to examine the contributions of maternal encouragement of autonomy and maternal encouragement of connectedness to the prediction of children's social behaviors. A sample of children (N = 94), initially aged two years, and their mothers in China participated in the two‐year longitudinal study. Child autonomy and connectedness and maternal goal‐oriented behaviors were assessed at two years of age through the observation of mother–child interactions. Data on children's social participation, prosocial behavior, aggression, and organization/leadership in peer interactions were collected in a follow‐up study when the children were four years of age. It was found that maternal encouragement of connectedness significantly predicted children's sociability and organization/leadership behavior, especially for children who were relatively high on autonomy. The results indicated the developmental significance of socialization goal‐oriented behaviors in cultural context.
Children's Perception of Relations between Anger or Anxiety and Coping: Continuity and Discontinuity of Relational Structures
Authors: Vierhaus Marc , Lohaus Arnold
Published: January 2009

The main research question of this study is whether children's emotional responses to specific stress‐evoking situations (anger or anxiety) and the coping strategies they would use are related. Furthermore, it is asked if these relationships are consistent over a specific age range. A total sample of 432 second graders participated in a longitudinal study with repeated measurements at grades 3, 4 and 5. The children were presented with four short descriptions of everyday stressors. They were requested to indicate the intensity of their feelings of anger and anxiety, and to assess the coping strategies they would use in each of the four situations. The results show that anxiety is related to the use of seeking social support, palliative coping, and avoidant coping, whereas anger is associated to externalizing emotional coping. Problem solving appears to be unrelated to the experience of both anxiety and anger. This structure proved to be invariant for grades 2, 3, 4 and 5, and thus may be generalized for the focused age range. Limitations and implications of the study are discussed.
Fourier Analysis of Irregularly Spaced Data onRd
Authors: Matsuda Yasumasa , Yajima Yoshihiro
Published: January 2009

The purpose of the paper is to propose a frequency domain approach for irregularly spaced data on Rd. We extend the original definition of a periodogram for time series to that for irregularly spaced data and define non-parametric and parametric spectral density estimators in a way that is similar to the classical approach. Introduction of the mixed asymptotics, which are one of the asymptotics for irregularly spaced data, makes it possible to provide asymptotic theories to the spectral estimators. The asymptotic result for the parametric estimator is regarded as a natural extension of the classical result for regularly spaced data to that for irregularly spaced data. Empirical studies are also included to illustrate the frequency domain approach in comparisons with the existing spatial and frequency domain approaches.
Parameter Estimation for Partially Observed Hypoelliptic Diffusions
Authors: Pokern Yvo , Stuart Andrew M. , Wiberg Petter
Published: January 2009

Hypoelliptic diffusion processes can be used to model a variety of phenomena in applications ranging from molecular dynamics to audio signal analysis. We study parameter estimation for such processes in situations where we observe some components of the solution at discrete times. Since exact likelihoods for the transition densities are typically not known, approximations are used that are expected to work well in the limit of small intersample times Δt and large total observation times N Δt. Hypoellipticity together with partial observation leads to ill conditioning requiring a judicious combination of approximate likelihoods for the various parameters to be estimated. We combine these in a deterministic scan Gibbs sampler alternating between missing data in the unobserved solution components, and parameters. Numerical experiments illustrate asymptotic consistency of the method when applied to simulated data. The paper concludes with an application of the Gibbs sampler to molecular dynamics data.
What are dynamic capabilities and are they a useful construct in strategic management?
Authors: Ambrosini Véronique , Bowman Cliff
Published: January 2009

The dynamic capability perspective extends the resource‐based view argument by addressing how valuable, rare, difficult to imitate and imperfectly substitutable resources can be created and how the current stock of valuable resources can be refreshed in changing environments. The concept of dynamic capabilities emerged in the 1990s, and the field has advanced considerably since. This paper presents a review as well as a synthesis of the extant literature. This synthesis first highlights, that dynamic capabilities are shaped by enabling and inhibiting variables within and outside the firm, including the perceptions and motivations of managers; secondly, it identifies processes that create dynamic capabilities; and thirdly, it explains that dynamic capabilities do not automatically lead to performance improvements. Finally, the paper addresses some areas of confusion and contradiction that hamper the development of the literature.
The use of an intermittent terbinafine regimen for the treatment of dermatophyte toenail onychomycosis
Authors: Gupta AK , Lynch LE , Kogan N , Cooper EA
Published: January 2009

Objective  To compare the efficacy and safety of intermittent terbinafine with standard courses of terbinafine and itraconazole for dermatophyte toenail onychomycosis.

Design  Data from a Canadian study of continuous terbinafine (CTERB) and intermittent itraconazole (III) was compared to an intermittent terbinafine regimen (TOT) using similar protocol to the randomized study.

Interventions  Terbinafine 250 mg/day for 4 weeks followed by 4 weeks of no terbinafine and then an additional 4 weeks of terbinafine 250 mg/day (TOT); terbinafine 250 mg/day for 12 weeks (CTERB); itraconazole pulse of 200 mg twice daily for 7 days on, 21 days off, three pulses given (III).

Results  At 72 weeks, mycological cure rates (negative KOH and culture) were 36 of 43 (83.7%), 25 of 32 (78.1%), and 17 of 30 (56.7%), for the TOT, CTERB, and III groups, respectively (P = 0.01 for TOT vs. III). Effective cure rates (simultaneous mycological cure and ≤10% nail plate involvement) were 34 of 43 (79.1%), 21 of 32 (65.6%), and 11 of 30 (36.7%), respectively (P < 0.001 for TOT vs. III; P = 0.02 for CTERB vs. III). No significant differences in effective and mycological cure rates were noted between the two terbinafine groups. Adverse events reported were similar to those reported in the respective package inserts. Most adverse events were mild to moderate, transient, and did not require interruption of the drug regimens. No serious adverse events were reported.

Conclusions  A TOT intermittent terbinafine regimen provided similar efficacy and safety to the gold standard continuous terbinafine regimen and better effective cure rates than pulse itraconazole therapy.

Conflicts of interest

None declared
Dietary patterns in infancy and cognitive and neuropsychological function in childhood
Authors: Gale Catharine R. , Martyn Christopher N. , Marriott Lynne D. , Limond Jennifer , Crozier Sarah , Inskip Hazel M. , Godfrey Keith M. , Law Catherine M. , Cooper Cyrus , Robinson Siân M. ,   the Southampton Women’s Survey Study Group
Published: January 2009

Background:  Trials in developing countries suggest that improving young children’s diet may benefit cognitive development. Whether dietary composition influences young children’s cognition in developed countries is unclear. Although many studies have examined the relation between type of milk received in infancy and subsequent cognition, there has been no investigation of the possible effect of variations in the weaning diet.

Methods:  We studied 241 children aged 4 years, whose diet had been assessed at age 6 and 12 months. We measured IQ with the Wechsler Pre‐School and Primary Scale of Intelligence, visual attention, visuomotor precision, sentence repetition and verbal fluency with the Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment (NEPSY), and visual form‐constancy with the Test of Visual Perceptual Skills.

Results:  In sex‐adjusted analyses, children whose diet in infancy was characterised by high consumption of fruit, vegetables and home‐prepared foods (‘infant guidelines’ dietary pattern) had higher full‐scale and verbal IQ and better memory performance at age 4 years. Further adjustment for maternal education, intelligence, social class, quality of the home environment and other potential confounding factors attenuated these associations but the relations between higher ‘infant guidelines’ diet score and full‐scale and verbal IQ remained significant. For a standard deviation increase in ‘infant guidelines’ diet score at 6 or 12 months full‐scale IQ rose by .18 (95% CI .04 to .31) of a standard deviation. For a standard deviation increase in ‘infant guidelines’ diet score at 6 months verbal IQ rose by .14 (.01 to .27) of a standard deviation. There were no associations between dietary patterns in infancy and 4‐year performance on the other tests.

Conclusions:  These findings suggest that dietary patterns in early life may have some effect on cognitive development. It is also possible that they reflect the influence of unmeasured confounding factors.
Distribution models for the amphibian chytrid Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in Costa Rica: proposing climatic refuges as a conservation tool
Authors: Puschendorf Robert , Carnaval Ana C. , VanDerWal Jeremy , Zumbado‐Ulate Héctor , Chaves Gerardo , Bolaños Federico , Alford Ross A.
Published: January 2009

Aim  We use novel data on the occurrence of the amphibian chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in Costa Rica to model its potential distribution in that country.

Location  Lowland and montane areas of Costa Rica.

Methods  We use published and new data on the presence of B. dendrobatidis on 647 amphibians (35 species). Screening was performed through histological techniques by which 156 sites were surveyed. Of these, 21 were found to have the amphibian chytrid. Maxent, a presence‐only distribution modelling technique, was used to create 100 predictions of B. dendrobatidis occurrence, of which the most accurate 10 (based on area under the receiver‐operating characteristic curve) were chosen to create a composite distribution model. This approach increased confidence in model predictions, distinguishing areas of high probability of occurrence and low variability across model runs (higher confidence) from those with high probability but high variability (lower confidence).

Results  Predicted distribution patterns were not uniform along Costa Rica's mountains, where most amphibian declines have occurred. The pathogen was predicted to occur with greater probability on the Caribbean slopes than on the Pacific slopes. While high temperature seems to constrain the distribution of the pathogen, areas that also have small amounts of rainfall during the driest period of the year were predicted to have low probability of B. dendrobatidis occurrence.

Main conclusions  The model predicts that the Santa Elena Peninsula and the Central Valley have low probabilities of B. dendrobatidis occurrence, suggesting that they could function as refuges for amphibians. In such refugial areas, one could expect B. dendrobatidis to be absent, or to be present in low abundance (rendering an epidemic outbreak of chytridiomycosis unlikely). Craugastor ranoides, which belongs to a group of frogs particularly sensitive to chytridiomycosis outbreaks, persists in the hot and seasonally dry Santa Elena Peninsula but disappeared in the nearby colder and more humid Guanacaste Volcanic Chain. This information suggests that climatic refuges, where environmental conditions prevent disease outbreaks, could be an important component in amphibian conservation.
Inpatient Treatment of Status Migraine With Dihydroergotamine in Children and Adolescents
Authors: Kabbouche Marielle A. , Powers Scott W. , Segers Ann , LeCates Susan , Manning Paula , Biederman Shannon , Vaughan Polly , Burdine Danny , Hershey Andrew D.
Published: January 2009

Objective.— To assess the effectiveness of aggressive therapy of status migraine in children and adolescents.

Background.— Inpatient management of pediatric status migraine and intractable headache is limited because of a lack of studies and guidelines. Adult treatment is often based on anecdotal experience, although a few controlled studies have been reported. Added to that is the discomfort of general pediatricians and neurologists in using available effective treatments in pediatric patients (such as dihydroergotamine: DHE).

Methods.— Charts of all patients admitted to the neurology service, at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center—Department of Neurology, for inpatient treatment for intractable headache/status migraine over a 6‐week period were reviewed. Demographics, evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment used were tabulated. Data on the effectiveness of the treatments provided were evaluated. Thirty‐two total consecutive charts were retrospectively reviewed during that period.

Results.— Upon discharge, 74.4% of the patients were headache‐free. The mean severity of the pain upon discharge was 1.02 ± 2.22 (using the 0‐10 pain scale).

Conclusion.— From our review, DHE is very effective in treating and aborting an episode of status migraine and should be offered to children and adolescent patients who have failed their usual abortive therapy to prevent further severe disability that mainly affects their schooling and social activities.