bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Molecular Physiology of Bestrophins: Multifunctional Membrane Proteins Linked to Best Disease and Other Retinopathies
Authors: Hartzell H. Criss , Qu Zhiqiang , Yu Kuai , Xiao Qinghuan , Chien Li-Ting
Published: April 2008

This article reviews the current state of knowledge about the bestrophins, a newly identified family of proteins that can function both as Cl−channels and as regulators of voltage-gated Ca2+channels. The founding member, human bestrophin-1 (hBest1), was identified as the gene responsible for a dominantly inherited, juvenile-onset form of macular degeneration called Best vitelliform macular dystrophy. Mutations in hBest1 have also been associated with a small fraction of adult-onset macular dystrophies. It is proposed that dysfunction of bestrophin results in abnormal fluid and ion transport by the retinal pigment epithelium, resulting in a weakened interface between the retinal pigment epithelium and photoreceptors. There is compelling evidence that bestrophins are Cl−channels, but bestrophins remain enigmatic because it is not clear that the Cl−channel function can explain Best disease. In addition to functioning as a Cl−channel, hBest1 also is able to regulate voltage-gated Ca2+channels. Some bestrophins are activated by increases in intracellular Ca2+concentration, but whether bestrophins are the molecular counterpart of Ca2+-activated Cl−channels remains in doubt. Bestrophins are also regulated by cell volume and may be a member of the volume-regulated anion channel family.
Mechanisms Underlying Acute Protection From Cardiac Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury
Authors: Murphy Elizabeth , Steenbergen Charles
Published: April 2008

Mitochondria play an important role in cell death and cardioprotection. During ischemia, when ATP is progressively depleted, ion pumps cannot function resulting in a rise in calcium (Ca2+), which further accelerates ATP depletion. The rise in Ca2+during ischemia and reperfusion leads to mitochondrial Ca2+accumulation, particularly during reperfusion when oxygen is reintroduced. Reintroduction of oxygen allows generation of ATP; however, damage to the electron transport chain results in increased mitochondrial generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Mitochondrial Ca2+overload and increased ROS can result in opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore, which further compromises cellular energetics. The resultant low ATP and altered ion homeostasis result in rupture of the plasma membrane and cell death. Mitochondria have long been proposed as central players in cell death, since the mitochondria are central to synthesis of both ATP and ROS and since mitochondrial and cytosolic Ca2+overload are key components of cell death. Many cardioprotective mechanisms converge on the mitochondria to reduce cell death. Reducing Ca2+overload and reducing ROS have both been reported to reduce ischemic injury. Preconditioning activates a number of signaling pathways that reduce Ca2+overload and reduce activation of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore. The mitochondrial targets of cardioprotective signals are discussed in detail.
Ca2+-Operated Transcriptional Networks: Molecular Mechanisms and In Vivo Models
Authors: Mellström Britt , Savignac Magali , Gomez-Villafuertes Rosa , Naranjo Jose R.
Published: April 2008

Calcium is the most universal signal used by living organisms to convey information to many different cellular processes. In this review we present well-known and recently identified proteins that sense and decode the calcium signal and are key elements in the nucleus to regulate the activity of various transcriptional networks. When possible, the review also presents in vivo models in which the genes encoding these calcium sensors-transducers have been modified, to emphasize the critical role of these Ca2+-operated mechanisms in many physiological functions.
Lack of iNOS Impairs Endothelial Function in Endothelin-1 Transgenic Mice
Authors: Quaschning Thomas , Voss Florian , Herzfeld Sophia , Relle Katharina , Kalk Philipp , Godes Michael , Pfab Thiemo , Kraemer-Guth Annette , Bonz Andreas W. , Theuring Franz , Galle Jan , Hocher Berthold
Published: April 2008

Background: Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is one of the most potent biologic vasoconstrictors. Nevertheless, transgenic mice overexpressing ET-1 exhibit normal blood pressure. We hypothesized that in states of ET-1 overproduction, the lack of counterregulatory mediators such as nitric oxide (NO), produced by the inducible NO synthase (iNOS), may critically impair endothelial function and may result in blood pressure elevation. Methods: We generated crossbred animals of ET transgenic mice (ET+/+) and iNOS knockout mice (iNOS–/–) and evaluated blood pressure and endothelial function in these animals. Endothelium-dependent and -independent vascular function was assessed as relaxation/contraction of isolated preconstricted aortic rings to acetylcholine, sodium nitroprusside, and ET-1, alone or in the presence of BQ123 or BQ788. Results: Systolic blood pressure was similar in ET+/+, iNOS–/– and wild-type mice, but was significantly elevated in ET+/+ iNOS–/– crossbred animals versus ET+/+ mice. Maximum endothelium-dependent relaxation was enhanced in ET+/+ mice (95 ± 5 vs. 78 ± 5% of preconstriction in wild-type littermates; p < 0.05). Additional knockout of iNOS led to a significant decrease of endothelium-dependent relaxation in combined ET+/+ iNOS–/– animals (75 ± 6%; p < 0.05 vs. ET+/+ mice). Endothelium-independent relaxation was comparable among all groups. Maximum vascular contraction to ET-1 was reduced in ET+/+ mice (33 ± 4%), iNOS–/– mice (38 ± 5%) and ET+/+ iNOS–/– mice (44 ± 4%) to a similar extent as compared with wild-type littermates (66 ± 4%; p < 0.05). Conclusions: Our data show for the first time that in transgenic mice overexpressing human ET-1, additional knockout of iNOS results in impaired endothelium-dependent vasodilatation thus contributing to elevated blood pressure in ET+/+ iNOS–/– animals.
Length Range, Morphology and Mechanical Behaviour of Rat Gastrocnemius Muscle During Isometric Contraction At the Level of the Muscle and Muscle Tendon Complex
Authors: Woittiez R.D. , Huijing P.A.
Published: April 2008

Fibre length, fibre angle and muscle length were quantified for rat m. gastrocnemius medialis with the muscle passive as well as fully activated during isometric contraction. This was done with the muscle in situ still attached with intact origin and insertion as well as with the calcaneus cut for simultaneous force measurements. Comparison of muscle lengths in maximal plantar and dorsal flexion with the physiological length range of the muscle, as defined by the limits of the length force relation, indicated that approximately the lower 75% of this range may be used between the extreme ankle angles, while the knee is kept at 90° of flexion. It is likely that simultaneous knee extentension would take the muscle through the remainder of its physiological length range. During isometric contractions at the level of the muscle, fibres shorten and fibre angles increase (with values exceeding 12 % and 45 % respectively at short muscle lengths). At short lengths fibre angle may reach values exceeding 40°, thereby creating sizable differences between force exerted by the muscle and that of its fibres. Changes of fibre length and fibre angle increase with decreasing muscle length and are ascribed to compliance effects of the aponeuroses above muscle equilibrium length while below muscle equilibrium length a taking up of slack present in these structures occurs prior to these compliance effects. During isometric contractions at the level of the muscle-tendon complex work will be performed by the muscle on the achilles tendon. This work was estimated from tendon length-force characteristics. Its peak value does not exceed 1.35 mJ for any of the muscles at anv length, which is small ( < 2 % ) relative to estimated total energv expenditure of the isometric contractions.
Growing Up Malay in Singapore
Authors: Stimp Joseph
Published: April 2008

This article discusses the specific articulations of Malay identity for Malay secondary school students in one housing estate in Singapore. It focuses on the tensions and cultural processes in national identity formation as they affect Malay students. This discussion is facilitated through the juxtaposition of the concepts of Malay and non-Malay identity in Singapore. The article also deals with the issue of lower levels of achievement by Malay students. Schools in Singapore provide a myriad combination of choices for many students that result in interpretations and reinterpretations of identity based on situations that vary in place, participation and purpose. Being Malay in Singapore is a complex process that requires a negotiation of identity in the context of competing and sometimes conflicting models which change according to the situation. The choices presented to Malay school students reflect the same choices available in broader society; however, the school provides a common venue for those identity forms to interact. Being a Malay in Singapore is a compromise. The instances of this compromise are articulated on a continuum that runs from the hegemony of an overarching Malay ethnicity to the dissolution of this Malayness into a hybrid cultural identity. Lower performance may be an adaptive response for Malays in Singapore. The real issue may be that for many Malays, co-operation in the system of schooling means an acknowledgment of social inferiority.
Contextualizing a Vision: Psalmanaazaar, Formosa and Anthropology
Authors: Stauth Georg
Published: April 2008

This paper takes off on Rodney Needham's exemplar of Psalmanaazaar to compare fake ethnography with theory construction. Needham claims that Psalmanaazaar's exotic ethnography of Formosa was initially not discovered as fake because it was based on factual description and avoided theory. The writer argues that in exploring anthropological theorizing on Bali, that similar to fake ethnography, theory needs an indissolvable core of the all-too-human reality. Engaged with deep issues of civilizing processes, anthropological theory necessarily panders to human existence as such, exoticizing it into a type of "counter-culture". From Bateson to Geertz to Wikan and Barth, the case of Bali is worked out with respect to the intricacies of human existence, exploring ever deeper forms of everydayness which we all share.
Imagined Proximities: The Making and Unmaking of Southeast Asia as a Region
Authors: Acharya Amitav
Published: April 2008

This essay adopts an international relations perspective in understanding Southeast Asia as a region and stresses regionalism as the chief agent in regional construction. It argues that the modern, post-Second World War concept of Southeast Asia resulted from a deliberate effort by a group of governments in the region to develop a regional identity based on political and strategic considerations. Regionalism and regional identity were seen by these governments as an important way of furthering nationalism and national interests. This, in effect represented a shift from the colonial, orientalist and geopolitical views of Southeast Asia's regionness to a more indigenous and essential political idea of Southeast Asia emerging out of the evolution of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). "Nations come and go - why shouldn't regions?" Don Emmerson (Emmerson, 1984:20)
To See Is To Assume: Whose Love Is Celebrated in the Song of Songs?1
Authors: Brenner Athalya
Published: April 2008

Three characteristic features of the Song of Songs are its (a) disjointed or absent plot, (b) gynocentrism and (c) lack of theocentrism. Recognition of these features facilitates a reassessment of the book's allegorical readings, be they ancient or modern, Jewish or Christian, religious or ostensibly secular. The principal readings discussed are Rabin's reconsideration of the Song's intrinsic allegorical properties with reference to Tamil love poetry; M. Cohen's on the Song and Jewish mystical literature (the Shiur Qomah and Hekhalot Rabbati); Murphy's position of reading mutually reflected human love and divine love in the Song; Pope's identification of the Song's assumed, single female protagonist as a black goddess; and Fox's rejection of allegory because of his definitions of metaphor, metaphoric distance and meaning. In conclusion, some reflections on the (ancillary) development of the Jewish allegorical tradition and its links with the Song's cannonization are offered.
The Cult of the Dead and the Theme of Entry Into the Land
Authors: Cooper Alan , Goldstein Bernard R.
Published: April 2008

In a number of biblical texts, including both prescriptive texts and narratives, the erection of stones, pillars, or altars commemorates entry into the land of Israel. The present paper is an investigation of the mythic and cultic basis for this action. It is suggested that the erection of the or together with accompanying ritual actions, may be traced to the Israelite ancestor cult. The underlying ritual pattern constitutes the ceremonial installation of the ancestors on the land, and manifests an assertion of ownership in perpetuity.
Love and Footwashing: John 13:1 - 20 and Luke 7:36 - 50 Read Intertextually
Authors: Rosa Kitzberger Ingrid
Published: April 2008

This paper presents three intertextual readings of John 13:1-20 and/or Luke 7:36-50, starting from a feminist hermeneutic. The focus is on reader response, i.e., on the reading-process as an experience, on the effects texts have on a reader (Stanley Fish), and on the response to the response—the reflection on the reading-process. Intertextuality as applied in this paper comprises two aspects: intertextuality as a relationship between written texts, activated by a reader, and intertextuality as a dialogue between written texts and the reader as text (referring to her/his life-experience). John 13:1-20 is read intertextually by a first reader who is female, critical and informed, i.e., a woman in the Johannine community who is familiar
In the Wilderness of Speech: Problems of Metaphor in Hosea
Authors: Landy Francis
Published: April 2008

My concern in this essay is with integrative and disintegrative aspects of metaphor. Metaphor, in current theory, is less the transfer of the properties of one semantic field onto another than a process towards an ideal object, wherewith we establish our sense of identity (Lakoff, Kristeva). I draw on psychoanalytic theory, especially Kristeva and Winnicott, to discuss the origins of metaphor in the relations of mother and child, and, in particular, the growth of a "play space," composed of transitional objects, as the nucleus of culture and creativity. Metaphors are generally metaphors for others, linked on complex chains of displacement and deferment. Hence they are unstable; each metaphor will be replaced or countermanded by others. Metaphor, in its integrative aspect, seeks to make sense of a fragmented world; by connecting disparate terms, it risks nonsense. Metaphorical language, especially in Hosea, is often fractured, baffling, and claims a status verging on madness. In Hosea, it seeks mimetically both to depict social and political entropy, and to interpret it, thus reconstructing and repairing its world. The principal analyses undertaken are of the ambiguous clause, "I am/where are your words/plagues, O Death," in 13:14, and of God's nostalgic fantasy of courting Israel in the wilderness in 2:16—17. The former either subordinates God to death, as the all-encompassing reality of the book, or renders death unreal, inarticulate. The latter turns on the paradoxes of speech and silence, communicated by the pun between wilderness word
The Seduction of Eve and the Exegetical Politics of Gender
Authors: Kimelman Reuven
Published: April 2008

This reading of the Eve and Adam story focuses on the consequential role of the woman and her linkage to the serpent. Her rapid switch from defender to transgressor of the divine command shows that the idea of disobeying God was not instigated exclusively by the serpent. Since the serpent does not get her to act out of character, he does not function outside of her, but provides a rationale for her to extend previous inklings. This function of the serpent is based on the differences between the original divine command and her rendering. It is supported by the reader's awareness that her Hebrew name Havva sounds like its cognates hivyah and hivvah which mean serpent and speech, respectively. The talking serpent becomes the inner Eve. Thus, the story is not one of humanity coming of age but a parable of the human condition. Our heroine is nothing less than Every(wo)man. Her representative status explains why the story features both woman and serpent, why the serpent talks specifically to woman, why of all the ancient epics of origins Genesis alone gives the creation of woman separate billing, and why Genesis underscores the commonality between man and woman. By highlighting the significance of the woman, this reading makes for the remarkable combination of authoritarian theology and egalitarian anthropology.
Why You Should Poison Your Husband: a Note On Liability in Hanafī Law in the Ottoman Period
Authors: Imber Colin
Published: April 2008

Hanafi legal doctrine contains an implicit analogy (although not one that the jurists themselves make) between ordering an agent to kill and killing someone by poison. In the former case, it is not the principal but the agent who is liable, unless the agent acted under compulsion. Similarly, a poisoner is liable only when he forces the poisonous substance down the victim's throat, not when the victim consumes the poison voluntarily. A victim who accepts the poison is like an agent who has received an order to kill and carries out the order voluntarily; but if the poisoner forces the substance down the victim's throat, the victim is in the position of an agent who kills under compulsion, and the poisoner becomes liable. This rule suggested to Ottoman jurists an unusual solution to the problem of how to prevent an ex-husband from fornicating with his divorced wife. The ex-wife could, without incurring any liability, poison him.
Women and Dower Property in Twentieth-Century Palestine: the Case of Jabal Nablus
Authors: Moors Annelies
Published: April 2008

An analysis of legal texts, marriage contracts, divorce registrations, court cases, and women's narratives points to a shift in women's access to dower property in Jabal Nablus, Palestine, between the 1930s and the 1980s. This shift is related to transformations in property relations and changing attitudes toward the meaning of gender. As husbands increasingly have come to be viewed as "providers," women have lost access to, and control over, dower property. At the same time, ambiguities and contradictions in the sources suggest that the trend toward conjugality and female dependency is neither complete nor a direct expression of women's greater subordination to men. Different categories of women take up different positions. Some women regard "giving up property" as an advantage.
From Fatwās To Furü: Growth and Change in Islamic Substantive Law
Authors: Hallaq Wael B.
Published: April 2008

Modem Islamicist scholarship maintains that after the formative period Islamic substantive law became increasingly rigid, eventually losing touch with political, social, and economic developments. This view has remained in force despite the fact that some scholars have acknowledged that fatwās dealing with new issues were incorporated into subsequent manuals of substantive law. Against this view, I argue that primary and secondary fatwās not only were incorporated on a regular basis into these manuals, but also were instrumental in bringing about legal change by updating the corpus of substantive law. Drawing on a wide range of legal texts emanating from the Hanafi, Mālikī, and Shāfiī schools, I establish a strong connection between fatwās and their social background; define the methods and procedures by which fatwās were incorporated into positive law; and analyze the reasons for their selective incorporation. In the conclusion, I tentatively suggest that the evidence of the muftī's and the proto-mufti's activity in early Islamic times tends to undermine Schacht's thesis regarding the relatively late origins of Islamic jurisprudence.
The Chronology of Anaxagoras' Athenian Period and the Date of His Trial
Authors: Mansfeld J.
Published: April 2008

In the first part of this paper, I shall argue that Apollodorus of Athens, in his Chronica, dated Anaxagoras' arrival at Athens to 456/5, following Demetrius of Phalerum (Record of Archons). Rejecting the divergent opinion of others, he also followed Demetrius' estimation of the Athenian period as having lasted 20 years, which makes 437/6 Anaxagoras' last year at Athens 1). In the second part I shall argue that the trial of Anaxagoras, about which no information survives in the remains of Apollodorus but which is reported by several other sources, should probably be dated to 437/6. This second argument is independent of the first; both run counter to the view, still rather popular among historians of ancient philosophy, which favours a date for the trial either immediately preceding or even following upon the beginning of the Peloponnesian War (spring 431 B.C.), as well as to the communis opinio according to which the Athenian period lasted 30 years. What is common to both parts of this inquiry is a refusal to study the chronology of Anaxagoras' career in isolation. In part I, which is chiefly concerned with an analysis of the relevant passage in Diogenes Laertius qua specimen of Apollodorean reasoning, the problem is discussed against the background of Apollodorus' synchronistic matrices. In part II, the trial and the decree of Diopeithes which made it possible are studied in connection with the plot against Pericles and certain members of his circle.-A suggestion regarding the date of 'publication' of Anaxagoras' treatise will be appended to part II.
Shifting Boundaries: Gender in Pinhua Baojian
Authors: Starr Chloe
Published: April 2008

Gender transformations in Pinhua baojian reveal a much broader examination of gender and sexuality than allowed for by discussions of the work as a homosexual novel. This paper examines some of the complexities of the gendered representations of boy actors in the novel, seen in their marriage unions, in cross-dressing episodes, and particularly in parallels with female prostitutes of other nineteenth-century courtesan fiction. The coerced adoption of a feminine gender identity and homosexual sexual role by the boy actors, together with their gradual remasculination during the course of the novel, expose masculinity and femininity as highly socialized constructions and act as comment on the wider nineteenth-century marriage economy.
But i nEver Learned To Waltz: the "Real" and Imagined Education of a Courtesan in the Late Qing
Authors: Zamperini Paola
Published: April 2008

This article illustrates the complex web of agency, voice, compliance, and resistance that men and women alike wove and unraveled in (re)presenting fictional and nonfictional versions of the education and the life-cycle of courtesans at the turn of last century. On the one hand, it shows how Chinese male novelists appropriate the long-standing cliche of the courtesan to expand (albeit in a limited way) and exoticize the horizons of female subjectivity. On the other hand, it reveals how, thanks to the explosive development of print culture begun in the late nineteenth century, the courtesan herself could step in to redefine those horizons and to problematize her role as a "modern" heroine.
The Dragon and the Dog: Two Symbols of Time in Nahuatl Religion
Authors: Neumann Franke J.
Published: April 2008

Working where possible from the known to the unknown, I have attempted to discuss two symbols that relate to time in Nahuatl religion: the "dragon" and the dog. In so doing it was possible, indeed necessary, to point out a series of interlocking complexes which comprise both representations. I have tried to show that the "dragon" or earth monster as a symbol goes far beyond its more obvious association with the surface of the earth, and is in fact connected with many other related kinds of symbols-in particular those having to do with such ideas as beginning, creation, the East, and (as the serpents Quetzalcóatl and Xiuhcoatl) with both time and the cosmos. Similarly, in the case of the dog, the series of complexes included such things as the underworld, the night sun, fire and movement, the Pleiades, and the West. I have suggested that the Quetzalcóatl/Xiuhcoatl serpents are connected with both the solar year and the sacred calendar round of 260 days, and that the figure of Quetzalcóatl/Xólotl indicates yet a further connection with the cycles involving the planet Venus. We have thus explored, albeit in somewhat brief compass, two ways in which the sense of time has manifested itself in Nahuatl culture: the structure of that meaning, and the response to it.
When Biographical Narratives Disagree: the Death of Krsna Caitanya
Authors: Stewart Tony K.
Published: April 2008

The conflicting death narratives of Krsna Caitanya (1486-1533), who was the inspiration for the Vaisnava movement of Bengal, provide insights into the way members of a believing community reveal historical information about themselves and the way that they think, rather than about their ostensible subject. According to the mainstrean theologians of this group, it is improper to speak of Caitanya's death because he is Krsna, svayam bhagavān, and as such he only descends to earth and ascends back to heaven. Four of the hagiographers underscore this by refusing to speak of the event, making clear that it carries no soteriological significance. Fourteen other authors, however, provide four alternatives: Caitanya disappears into the temple of Jagannātha, into the temple of Gopīnātha, or into the waters of the sea, or he dies from a foot infection. In spite of the obvious differences, the surface narratives follow a distinct pattern of action: devotional action, transition or separation in the locale of an axis mundi, and reintegration to heaven. The pattern, in turn, parallels basic Gaudiya Vaisnava conceptions of ontology, the steps of devotional sādhana, and the progression of devotional consciousness, which suggests that the tripartite structure is more than a coincidence, that it is endemic to their conceptual worlds. Because all of these explicit narratives curtail Caitanya's divinity by depicting his death, they are theologically heterodox, yet the underlying pattern demonstrates that their vision is conditioned by conceptualizations consistent with orthodox thought.
Protecting Strangers: Establishing a Fundamental Value in the Religions of the Ancient Near East and Ancient Greece
Authors: Auffarth Christoph
Published: April 2008

(1) In the current discussions about the rights of asylum on one hand there is urgency for decisions and actions of the politicians, on the other hand these actions must not erode the human right of asylum. It is not a question of the quantity of applicants but of the quality of their rights. Religionists are asked for the foundation of the rights of strangers, because the roots of these rights reach into the archaic past, when there was not yet a state with institutionalized laws ("Rechtsstaat"). The treatment of the stranger was both in (2) Ancient Israel and (3) Ancient Greece the test of the righteousness of the people. Not the exact and continuing performance of the cult of the Gods demonstrates the piety of the people, but the treatment of the poor and weak. In pre-state societies the right of the strongest does not rule. However, the pride of the citizens and the token of the richness of a city is the granting of protection to outcasts. The sacrality of the holy place ("sanctuary") does not automatically grant protection. The talk of divine protection enables the protectors to gain the advantage of wide acceptance which compensates for a deficit of actual power. (4) Human rights have to be defended against attempts of political administrations to cut them short, that is, in consequence: to take away an individual's right to enjoy asylum.
Vivekananda's Ramakrsna: an Untold Story of Mythmaking and Propaganda
Authors: Sil Narasingha P.
Published: April 2008

The author argues that the familiar Vedantin and messiah image of Rāmakrsna Paramahamsa was created deliberately by his great disciple Svāmā Vivekananda. The Svāmī's global Hindu evangelical mission called for the master's respectable image. Hence he rejected the sincere rendering of the Paramahamsa's biographies by others and, in place of the rustic ecstatic but authentic Gadadhar, fabricated the awesome figure of a modern messiah-the Vedantin Paramahamsa. This paper documents the history of this purposive distortion.
The Harmonia of Bow and Lyre in Heraclitus Fr. 51 (DK)
Authors: Mcintosh Snyder Jane
Published: April 2008

(People do not understand how what is borne in different directions comes to be in agreement with itself; [for] a framework like that of the bow and the lyre turns back [on itself].)
Assessment of the Effectiveness of a Pet Facilitated Therapy Program in a Nursing Home Setting
Authors: Perelle Ira B. , Granville Diane A.
Published: April 2008

In the past twenty years Pet Facilitated Therapy (PFT) has been used, apparently successfully, with several populations, including nursing home residents. Studies report positive behavior changes as a result of PFT intervention, but little effort has been made to quantify such behavior changes. This study presents the results of a PFT program in a nursing home setting. Results were positive, and were measured using the Patient Social Behavior Scale, designed for this study. Nursing home residents showed an increase of social behaviors from pretest to midpoint and from midpoint to post test, but these behaviors declined four weeks after post test. Although both males and females showed an increase in social behaviors, males' and females' response patterns differed.
The Ambiguous Terrain of Petkeeping in Children's Realistic Animal Stories
Authors: Johnson Kathleen R.
Published: April 2008

A content analysis of 48 children's realistic animal stories shows an emphasis on pets and petkeeping that can both challenge and support traditional human-animal boundaries. The genre's sympathetic portrayal of pet animals and the condemnation of theirmistreatment invite the reader to challenge such boundaries. Yet the genre's stereotypical portrayal of these animals also constrains our conceptualization of the human-animal bond. The author discusses these and other narrative elements which render this form of popular culture ambiguous terrain for negotiating an ethic of respect for nonhuman others which goes beyond most contemporary arrangements.
Child-Animal Interaction: Nonverbal Dimensions
Authors: MyersOlin Eugene
Published: April 2008

Examples of child-animal interactions from a year-long ethnographic study of preschoolers are examined in terms of their basic nonverbal processes and features. The contingency of interactions, the nonhuman animal's body, its patterns of arousal, and the history of child-animal interactions played important roles in determining the course of interactions. Also, the children flexibly accommodated their interactive capacities to the differences in these features which the animals presented. Corresponding to these observable features of interaction, we argue that children respond to variations in animals' agency, coherence, affectivity, and continuity. Recent research shows infants also respond to these dimensions in interactants. The implications are that for the young child, animals are social others that present intrinsically engaging degrees of discrepancy from human social others; and that the child's sense of self takes shape in the available interspecies community. Interacting with animals may be more primary than human-centered factors (such as cultural meanings, anthropomorphism, social facilitation, or psychodynamic processes) in the child's experience and developing understanding of self and animal other. Implications for the theories of social development are discussed.
Exploring the Gender Gap in Young Adults' Attitudes about Animal Research
Authors: Pifer Linda K.
Published: April 2008

Young adults' attitudes toward the use of animals in scientific research were examined by using data from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSA Y). A structural equation model was estimated using LISREL8 to examine the development of these attitudes. Gender was found to have the greatest total effect on opposition to animal research, while feminist attitudes had the second greatest total effect. Feminist attitudes, 10th grade science achievement, adult scientific literacy, general attitudes toward science, partisan affiliation, anda numberof early home influences each explained part, but not all of the gender difference in attitudes about scientific research.
The Loss of Animal Companions: A Humanistic and Consumption Perspective
Authors: Stephens Debra Lynn , Hill Ronald Paul
Published: April 2008

This research project examines the dispossession of animal companions by loving owners. The results of two data collections reveal six highly interrelated themes: Love and Friendship, Joy in Life versus Sorrow in Death, Pets as Family Members, Vividness of Unexpected Death, Good-bye Rituals, and Return to Nature. The article closes with a brief discussion of the implications of these themes for service providers and for the education of potential pet owners.
Socially Constructing Pacific Salmon
Authors: Scarce Rik
Published: April 2008

What does "nature" mean? This general question, central to the social construction of nature, is addressed here by examining one of nature's particulars, Pacific salmon, and by looking at how one group of people, salmon biologists, imbue the fish with meaning. Based upon historical, comparative, and qualitative data, it appears that nature is socially constructed through both cognitive and physical processes. "Salmon"- and indirectly nature - emerges not as a monolithic, timeless, certain entity, but rather as one that is manipulable, fleeting, and the product of a variety of social relations. In particular, public policy and economics appear to have profoundly influenced salmon biologists' cognitive and physical constructions of salmon.
Framing Cruelty: The Construction of Duck Shooting as a Social Problem
Authors: Munro Lyle
Published: April 2008

Australia's Coalition Against Duck Shooting (CADS) sees duck-shooting as a social problem and as an injustice with moral, legal and environmental consequences. The small animal liberationist group has succeeded in dramatically reducing the numbers of duck shooters in Victoria, which is the home of duck-shooting in Australia. The Coalition's framing work with the public via the electronic media involves three parts: a diagnosis (assembling claims), a prognosis (presenting claims) and a motivational frame (contesting claims), all of which construct hunting as a cruel, antisocial blood sport that ought to be banned. In this article, television news bulletins and feature stories from the 1993 and 1994 campaigns are analyzed to show how CADS makes and sustains its claims. In addition to 90 pages of transcripts of news commentaries and descriptive accounts of the visuals, the data include tape-recorded interviews with some of the duck liberationists involved in the campaign.
Issues for Veterinarians in Recognizing and Reporting Animal Neglect and Abuse
Authors: Patronek Gary J.
Published: April 2008

This article discusses issues relevant to recent efforts to increase veterinary reporting of cases of animal mistreatment in the USA. These issues include mandatory vs. voluntary reporting, client confidentiality obligations, the legal definitions of animal cruelty, abuse, and neglect in state laws, ethical conflicts between a veterinarian's obligations to animals and clients, perceived vs. real barriers to reporting, the circumstances under which a veterinarian is likely to encounter animal mistreatment in practice, and the lack of accepted diagnostic criteria for the "battered pet."
Attitudes and Dispositional Optimism of Animal Rights Demonstrators
Authors: Galvin Shelley L. , Herzog Harold A.
Published: April 2008

Mail-in surveys were distributed to animal activists attending the 1996 March for the Animals. Age and genderdemographic characteristics of the 209 activists who participated in the study were similar to those of the 1990 March for the Animals demonstrators. Most goals of the animal rights movement were judged to be moderately to critically important, although beliefs about their chances of being realized varied considerably. Movement tactics judged to be least effective included the liberation of laboratory animals and the harassment of researchers. Education was seen as being a particularly important instrument of future social change. Demonstrators' scores on the Life Orientation Test - a measure of dispositional optimism - were significantly greater than scores of comparison groups of college students and of patients awaiting coronary bypass surgery. There was a significant positive relationship between levels of optimism and activists' perceptions of the achievement of movement objectives.
Have a Heart: Xenotransplantation, Nonhuman Death and Human Distress
Authors: Woods Tania
Published: April 2008

An increasing shortage of transplant donor organs currently results in an escalating number of preventable human deaths. Xenotransplantation. the use of animal organs for transplantation into humans, is now heralded as medicine's most viable answer to the urgent and insurmountable human organ scarcity. Although claimed to be a biomedical prerogative, xenotransplantation is a cultural phenomenon - a procedure engaging both the physical and symbolic manipulation of human and nonhuman bodies, thereby transforming corporeality, identity, and culture. Biomedical and scientific discourses about xenografts have obscured issues related to nonhuman animals and also could be distressful to human organ recipients, revealing that the xenograft may not be widely embraced.
Animal Domestication in Geographic Perspective
Authors: Anderson Kay
Published: April 2008

What, exactly, makes humans human? A close look at nonhuman animal domestication practices reveals how people came to view their own uniqueness in western cultural process. The study of domestication across time shows the multiple human impulses underlying acts of animal enclosure and domestication. Animals can be beloved companions or eaten for a meal. These impulses involve contradictory moralities-a rich subject for inquiries into the dynamics of power and possession, at scales ranging from local to global.
Kangaroos: The Non-Issue
Authors: Thorne Lorraine
Published: April 2008

The international trade in kangaroo skin and meat has been contested on ecological and ethical grounds for several decades. Yet, it continues unabated. This article reviews the constitutive practices of the kangaroo network, drawing on Actor Network Theory to provide insights into why and how this trade continues. Questions of agency, network, and space are explored in this account, which looks at the real and imagined geographies of the kangaroo trade.
Race, Place, and the Bounds of Humanity1
Authors: Elder Glen , Wolch Jennifer , Emel Jody
Published: April 2008

The idea of a human-animal divide as reflective of both differences in kind and in evolutionary progress, has retained its power to produce and maintain racial and other forms of cultural difference. During the colonial period, representations of similarity were used to link subaltern groups to animals and thereby racialize and dehumanize them. In the postcolonial present, however, animal practices of subdominant groups are typically used for this purpose. Using data on cultural conflicts surrounding animal practices collected from media sources, we show that such practices have become a key aspect of the human-animal boundary due to the radically changing time-space relations of postmodernity. Drawing on Spivak's notion of "wild practice, " we propose a radical democracy that includes animals as well as subaltern peoples, and argue for the rejection of dehumanization as a basis for cultural critique, given its role in perpetuating racialization and violence toward both human and non-human animals.
Poetic Animals and Animal Souls
Authors: Malamud Randy
Published: April 2008

Mesoamericans' rich spiritual beliefs about the importance of animals and about the correlation between the well-being of animals and that of human beings contrast with a diminutive respect accorded to animals in industrialized cultures. Some vestige of a parallel sensibility, however - granting animals an aura of dignity relatively independent of anthropocentric constructions - may be detected in the animal poetry of selected Western writers including Marianne Moore, Gary Snyder, and José Emilio Pacheco. Such animal poetry, although possessing no explicit links to Mesoamerican spirituality, may represent an ethos extant (albeit rare) in industrial-world culture that quietly celebrates - as Mesoamerican culture does more unabashedly - the sanctity and parity of nonhuman animals.
Gender, Views of Nature, and Support for Animal Rights
Authors: Kruse Corwin R.
Published: April 2008

The last 20 years have witnessed the dramatic growth of the animal rights movement and a concurrent increase in its social scientific scrutiny. One of the most notable and consistent findings to emerge from this body of research has been the central role of women in the movement. This paper uses General Social Survey data to examine the influence of views of the relationship of humanity to nature on this gender difference. Holding a Romantic view of nature is associated with higher levels of support for extending moral rights to animals and lower levels of support for animal-based testing. A Darwinian view is associated with greater support for testing on animals but is unrelated to views on moral rights for animals. In general, views of nature affect animal rights advocacy to a greater extent among males than females.
Animals & Society Courses: A Growing Trend in Post-Secondary Education
Authors: Balcombe Jonathan
Published: April 2008

A survey of college courses addressing nonhuman animal ethics and welfare issues indicates that the presence of such courses has increased greatly since a prior survey was done in 1983. This paper provides titles and affiliations of 67 of 89 courses from the current survey. These courses represent 15 academic fields, and a majority are entirely devoted to animal issues. The fields of animal science and philosophy are proportionally well represented compared with biology and wildlife-related fields. An estimated 5000 or more North American students are now receiving instruction in these issues each year. While the availability of courses in animal issues is still sporadic, it is unprecedentedly high and seen as an important component of changing social values toward nonhuman animals.
Hmong-Mien (Miao-Yao) Loans in Chinese
Authors: Strecker David , Haudricourt André G.
Published: April 2008

Note d'introduction par Jacques Gernet André G. Haudricourt faisant allusion ici à un article que j'ai publié en 1952,1 il me paraît utile d'indiquer ce qui, trente-huit ans plus tard, pourrait en être retenu: 1°) l'importance de l'élevage et tout spécialement de l'élevage du mouton dans l'économie et la vie des ancêtres des populations han, importance démontrée par les restes d'animaux trouvés dans les fouilles, le nombre des graphies sur os et écailles relatives à l'élevage et plus particulièrement au mouton et à l'élevage du mouton (le Shuowen conserve encore nombre de caractères de ce type qui sont sortis de l'usage), ainsi que par les traditions historiques relatives aux époques les plus anciennes; 2°) l'opposition de sens entre un ensemble de caractères d'écriture-ensemble déjà remarqué par Wolfram Eberhard-du type yi , shan , mei qui comportaient la graphie du mouton et ont conservé une signification morale positive et deux caractères à signification morale négative (li et si ) qui comportaient la graphie des céréales, ce qui semblerait impliquer une distinction sociale liée aux genres de vie, une morale du don, propre à une société d'éleveurs, s'opposant aux comportements d'agriculteurs plus soucieux d'économie. D'après l'article ci-dessous, les termes pour acheter et vendre auraient précisément été empruntés à des populations de riziculteurs. Du point de vue de l'histoire des techniques, on notera que, s'il n'est question anciennement en Chine du Nord que de la culture du millet (Setaria italica et Panicum miliaceum attestés dès les environs de -6000), les ancêtres des han ont dû entrer très tôt en contact avec des populations de riziculteurs dans la région du bas Yangzi, les espèces Oryza sativa indica et japonica ayant été retrouvées dans cette région dès les environs de -5000.2
Indigenous Traditions and Ecological Ethics in Earth's Insights
Authors: Grim John A.
Published: April 2008

Using the term, lifeway, this article emphasises the cosmology-cum-economy coherence of indigenous traditions. It explores the role of indigenous traditions in the formation of a global ecological ethic as put forward by J. Baird Callicott in his work, Earth's Insights. Recommending a cosmological approach, the article makes connections to advocacy issues. Finally, the significance of ordinary life in indigenous societies is foregrounded as the arena for teaching local ecological ethics.
Identity, Community and the Natural Environment: Some Perspectives from Process Thinking
Authors: Palmer Clare
Published: April 2008

Alfred North Whitehead's and Charles Hartshorne's process thinking presents a complex and sophisticated metaphysical underpinning for a theory of self and self-identity. Their construction of the self has significant implications for understanding of the (human) community and the natural environment. Process thinking, I argue, undercuts the idea of self unity; of self-continuity over time; and of self-differentiation from the world. When combined, these three elements mean that it is hard to separate the individual, personal self from the community and the natural world. I compare these implications from process thinking with what might seem similar implications from radical ecological philosophies. Although there are ethical and metaphysical differences between process thinkers and deep ecologists, both kinds of theory need to be treated with caution in application to our thinking about the environment.