bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Platinum black electrodeposited thread based electrodes for dielectrophoretic assembly of microparticles
Authors: Fernandez Renny Edwin , Koklu Anil , Mansoorifar Amin , Beskok Ali
Published: April 2016

We report dielectrophoretic (DEP) assembly of biological cells and microparticles using platinum-black electrodeposited conductive textile fiber. The three-dimensional conductive structures with high aspect ratios were found to facilitate high electric field regions, as revealed by scanning electron microscope characterization. The effective conducting area (Aeff) and its stability of thread electrodes were estimated using electrochemical methods. Potential of platinum black electrodeposited thread as 3-D electrodes for creating high gradient electrical field for dielectrophoretic assembly of microspheres and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast cells) into 1D and two-dimensional structures over long ranges under the application of low voltages (4–10 Vpp) has been demonstrated. The formation of highly ordered pearl chains of microparticles using thread electrodes when subjected to dielectrophoresis (DEP) has been discussed in detail.
Carnitine-mediated antioxidant enzyme activity and Bcl2 expression involves peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator-1α in mouse testis
Authors: Roy Vikas Kumar , Verma Rachna , Krishna Amitabh
Published: April 2016

The protective effects of carnitine have been attributed to inhibition of apoptosis, alleviating oxidative stress and DNA repair mechanism by decreasing oxidative radicles. Carnitine also increases mitochondrial biogenesis via peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator-1α (PGC1α). The role of carnitine in testicular PGC1α expression has not been documented. We hypothesised that the effects of carnitine as an antioxidant, inhibitor of apoptosis and controller of steroidogenesis in mouse testis may involve PGC1α as a regulator. The present study was designed to evaluate the localisation of PGC1α and the effects of carnitine treatment on the expression of PGC1α, Bcl2 and antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx)) in mouse testis and serum testosterone concentrations. PGC1α was primarily immunolocalised to the Leydig cells and primary spermatocytes. Western blot analysis showed that carnitine (50 mg kg–1 and 100 mg kg–1 for 7 days) significantly increased PGC1α and Bcl2 expression in the testis in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, carnitine treatment significantly increased antioxidant enzyme (CAT, SOD and GPx) levels. The carnitine-induced changes in PGC1α in the testis were significantly correlated with changes in serum testosterone concentrations, as well as with changes in Bcl2 expression and antioxidant enzyme activity in the testis, as evaluated by electrophoresis. Therefore, the results of the present study suggest that carnitine treatment of mice increases PGC1α levels in the testis, which may, in turn, regulate steroidogenesis by increasing expression of Bcl2 and antioxidant enzymes.
Using Hierarchical Bayesian Multispecies Mixture Models to Estimate Tandem Hoop‐net‐Based Habitat Associations and Detection Probabilities of Fishes in Reservoirs
Authors: Stewart David R. , Long James M.
Published: April 2016

Species distribution models are useful tools to evaluate habitat relationships of fishes. We used hierarchical Bayesian multispecies mixture models to evaluate the relationships of both detection and abundance with habitat of reservoir fishes caught using tandem hoop nets. A total of 7,212 fish from 12 species were captured, and the majority of the catch was composed of Channel Catfish Ictalurus punctatus (46%), Bluegill Lepomis macrochirus (25%), and White Crappie Pomoxis annularis (14%). Detection estimates ranged from 8% to 69%, and modeling results suggested that fishes were primarily influenced by reservoir size and context, water clarity and temperature, and land‐use types. Species were differentially abundant within and among habitat types, and some fishes were found to be more abundant in turbid, less impacted (e.g., by urbanization and agriculture) reservoirs with longer shoreline lengths; whereas, other species were found more often in clear, nutrient‐rich impoundments that had generally shorter shoreline length and were surrounded by a higher percentage of agricultural land. Our results demonstrated that habitat and reservoir characteristics may differentially benefit species and assemblage structure. This study provides a useful framework for evaluating capture efficiency for not only hoop nets but other gear types used to sample fishes in reservoirs.

Received October 14, 2014; accepted December 23, 2015 Published online April 11, 2016
The Limits of Sasanian History: Between Iranian, Islamic and Late Antique Studies
Authors: Daryaee Touraj
Published: April 2016

This essay discusses the position of Sasanian Studies from its inception in the late nineteenth century, to its reinvigoration at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The work also discusses the development of the field of Sasanian history and civilization vis-à-vis the three fields of Iranian, Islamic and Late Antique Studies. It is posited that Sasanians have benefited from cross-disciplinary and new historical frameworks that go beyond the traditional field of Iranian Studies, which was never as interested in the history of the period.
Writing the History of the “Persian Arabs”: The Pre-Islamic Perspective on the “Naṣrids” of al-Ḥīrah
Authors: Fisher Greg , Wood Philip
Published: April 2016

Modern scholarship on Arabs in the pre-Islamic period has focused on Rome's Arab allies—the so-called “Jafnids” or “Ghassānids,” with much less attention paid to Persia's Arab allies, the so-called “Naṣrid” or “Lakhmid” dynasty of Arab leaders at al-Ḥīrah in Iraq. This article examines select pre-Islamic sources for the Persian Arabs, showing that even with the meager evidence available to us, and the lack of archaeological material, it is possible to draw a relatively complex portrait of the Persian Arabs. This article situates the Persian Arabs as important figures in some key themes and phenomena of late antiquity, such as the growth of Christian communities, the conflict between Rome and Persia, and the struggle for influence in the Arabian peninsula.
A systematic review of education programmes to prevent concussion in rugby union
Authors: Fraas Michael R. , Burchiel Jessica
Published: April 2016

Background: There is a high incidence of concussion sustained by athletes participating in rugby union, many of which go unreported. A lack of sufficient knowledge about concussion injuries may explain athletes’ failure to report. Several rugby union‐playing countries have developed injury education and prevention programmes to address this issue. Objective: The aim of the current review was to systematically assess the content and level of evidence on concussion education/prevention programmes in rugby union and to make recommendations for the quality, strength, and consistency of this evidence. Methods: We searched PubMed, PsycInfo, MEDLINE, SPORTDiscuss, Webofscience, and conducted a manual search for articles. Results: Ten articles were included for review. Of these, six focused on the BokSmart injury prevention programme in South Africa, two focused on the RugbySmart injury prevention programme in New Zealand, one was an analysis of prevention programmes, and one was a systematic review of rugby injury prevention strategies. Conclusions: Despite the initiative to develop concussion education and prevention programmes, there is little evidence to support the effectiveness of such programmes. There is evidence to support education of coaches and referees. In addition, there is scant evidence to suggest that education and rule changes may have the benefit of changing athlete behaviours resulting in a reduction in catastrophic injury.
Tracking the Truth: The Effect of Face Familiarity on Eye Fixations during Deception
Authors: Millen Ailsa E. , Hope Lorraine , Hillstrom Anne P. , Vrij Aldert
Published: April 2016

In forensic investigations, suspects sometimes conceal recognition of a familiar person to protect co-conspirators or hide knowledge of a victim. The current experiment sought to determine whether eye fixations could be used to identify memory of known persons when lying about recognition of faces. Participants’ eye movements were monitored whilst they lied and told the truth about recognition of faces that varied in familiarity (newly learned, famous celebrities, personally known). Memory detection by eye movements during recognition of personally familiar and famous celebrity faces was negligibly affected by lying, thereby demonstrating that detection of memory during lies is influenced by the prior learning of the face. By contrast, eye movements did not reveal lies robustly for newly learned faces. These findings support the use of eye movements as markers of memory during concealed recognition but also suggest caution when familiarity is only a consequence of one brief exposure.
Maya Schuldiner: The systems that define us
Authors: Sedwick Caitlin
Published: April 2016

Schuldiner leverages high-throughput approaches to investigate novel protein functions.
IFN-γ receptor and STAT1 signaling in B cells are central to spontaneous germinal center formation and autoimmunity
Authors: Domeier Phillip P. , Chodisetti Sathi Babu , Soni Chetna , Schell Stephanie L. , Elias Melinda J. , Wong Eric B. , Cooper Timothy K. , Kitamura Daisuke , Rahman Ziaur S.M.
Published: April 2016

Spontaneously developed germinal centers (GCs [Spt-GCs]) harbor autoreactive B cells that generate somatically mutated and class-switched pathogenic autoantibodies (auto-Abs) to promote autoimmunity. However, the mechanisms that regulate Spt-GC development are not clear. In this study, we report that B cell–intrinsic IFN-γ receptor (IFN-γR) and STAT1 signaling are required for Spt-GC and follicular T helper cell (Tfh cell) development. We further demonstrate that IFN-γR and STAT1 signaling control Spt-GC and Tfh cell formation by driving T-bet expression and IFN-γ production by B cells. Global or B cell–specific IFN-γR deficiency in autoimmune B6.Sle1b mice leads to significantly reduced Spt-GC and Tfh cell responses, resulting in diminished antinuclear Ab reactivity and IgG2c and IgG2b auto-Ab titers compared with B6.Sle1b mice. Additionally, we observed that the proliferation and differentiation of DNA-reactive B cells into a GC B cell phenotype require B cell–intrinsic IFN-γR signaling, suggesting that IFN-γR signaling regulates GC B cell tolerance to nuclear self-antigens. The IFN-γR deficiency, however, does not affect GC, Tfh cell, or Ab responses against T cell–dependent foreign antigens, indicating that IFN-γR signaling regulates autoimmune, but not the foreign antigen–driven, GC and Tfh cell responses. Together, our data define a novel B cell–intrinsic IFN-γR signaling pathway specific to Spt-GC development and autoimmunity. This novel pathway can be targeted for future pharmacological intervention to treat systemic lupus erythematosus.
A single domain antibody fragment that recognizes the adaptor ASC defines the role of ASC domains in inflammasome assembly
Authors: Schmidt Florian I. , Lu Alvin , Chen Jeff W. , Ruan Jianbin , Tang Catherine , Wu Hao , Ploegh Hidde L.
Published: April 2016

Myeloid cells assemble inflammasomes in response to infection or cell damage; cytosolic sensors activate pro–caspase-1, indirectly for the most part, via the adaptors ASC and NLRC4. This leads to secretion of proinflammatory cytokines and pyroptosis. To explore complex formation under physiological conditions, we generated an alpaca single domain antibody, VHHASC, which specifically recognizes the CARD of human ASC via its type II interface. VHHASC not only impairs ASCCARD interactions in vitro, but also inhibits inflammasome activation in response to NLRP3, AIM2, and NAIP triggers when expressed in living cells, highlighting a role of ASC in all three types of inflammasomes. VHHASC leaves the Pyrin domain of ASC functional and stabilizes a filamentous intermediate of inflammasome activation. Incorporation of VHHASC-EGFP into these structures allowed the visualization of endogenous ASCPYD filaments for the first time. These data revealed that cross-linking of ASCPYD filaments via ASCCARD mediates the assembly of ASC foci.
Causal Inference with Complex Survey Designs
Authors: Levin Ines , Sinclair Betsy
Published: April 2016

This article discusses methods that combine survey weighting and propensity score matching to estimate population average treatment effects. Beginning with an overview of causal inference techniques that incorporate data from complex surveys and the usefulness of survey weights, it then considers approaches for incorporating survey weights into three matching algorithms, along with their respective methodologies: nearest-neighbor matching, subclassification matching, and propensity score weighting. It also presents the results of a Monte Carlo simulation study that illustrates the benefits of incorporating survey weights into propensity score matching procedures, as well as the problems that arise when survey weights are ignored. Finally, it explores the differences between population-based inferences and sample-based inferences using real-world data from the 2012 panel of The American Panel Survey (TAPS). The article highlights the impact of social media usage on political participation, when such impact is not actually apparent in the target population.
Theory and Measurement of Foreigner Objectification
Authors: Lee Joyce P. , Lee Richard M. , Tran Alisia G. T. T.
Published: April 2016

This chapter investigates the phenomenon of foreigner objectification, or the labeling (implicit or otherwise) of members of racial/ethnic minority groups as foreigners regardless of citizenship, migration status, or length of residence. As the majority of research on foreigner objectification has emerged out of the United States, the chapter focuses on the foreigner objectification experiences of two rapidly growing US racial/ethnic groups: Latinos/as and Asian Americans. It first contextualizes foreigner objectification within the larger literature on attitudes toward racial/ethnic minority groups. It then discusses how foreigner objectification has been measured in psychological research and examines the limited but growing literature on the association between foreigner objectification and mental and physical health.
Axel Honneth,The Struggle for Recognition
Authors: Mark D. Clifton
Published: April 2016

Axel Honneth’s The Struggle for Recognition develops an empirically anchored theory of social conflict based on Hegel’s theory of recognition. In this book, he argues for an intersubjective view of identity and a moral interpretation of social conflict. According to Honneth, social struggles may be normatively evaluated by the extent to which they provide the preconditions for self-realization in the form of three distinct types of recognition: love, respect, and social esteem. Honneth’s normative ideal aims to occupy a middle ground between overly abstract Kantian theories and potentially parochial communitarian theories. Although the book has been subject to a variety of criticisms, it provides the most systematic and ambitious social theory of recognition available today.
Will Kymlicka,Multicultural Citizenship
Authors: Spinner-Halev Jeff
Published: April 2016

By finding a way to incorporate people’s cultural attachment in a liberal framework, Will Kymlicka’s Multicultural Citizenship changed the way liberal political theorists look at identity. Kymlicka argued that culture, and in particular language, could not be a private matter as liberals assumed, since every state must pick one official language (or a small number of them). Yet official languages were unfair to those who spoke a different language; additionally Kymlicka argued that individual self-respect was an important liberal value, and was tied to a secure cultural context. Critics argued that culture was hard to define, and cultural attachments were much more malleable than Kymlicka suggested. While these criticisms did undermine the power of some of Kymlicka’s arguments, one of Kymlicka’s lasting contributions is the now widely accepted idea that certain kinds of identities cannot be assumed to be a private matter.
Ethical Leadership for Psychiatry
Authors: Moffic H. Steven , Sabin James
Published: April 2016

Solutions for the current challenges in mental health care worldwide require improved ethical leadership and administration. Though psychiatrists have the broadest training for stewardship, other disciplines and patient consumers provide their own potential. Business leadership and ethics also need consideration. How to meld the strengths and ethical principles of the various mental health care constituencies is a major global task, but one that can be met. Possible ethical ways to do so are to use emotional intelligence and a culture of compassionate love to prioritize the professional and personal needs of the staff, and to have more leadership provided by formerly disenfranchised prosumers and/or leaders from marginalized cultures. Those responsible for mental health care systems must include the representative viewpoints of all stakeholders. One country, the USA, is highlighted for what can be generalized to other countries, supplemented by some important differences found in other societies.
Conflicts of Interest in Clinical Practice
Authors: Gold Azgad
Published: April 2016

Physicians confront situations in which there is a risk that their professional judgment or actions concerning the treatment of their patients will be unduly influenced by self-serving financial interests. These situations predominantly derive from physicians’ relationships with industry and their payment method. The chapter begins with the definition of conflicts of interest in clinical practice accompanied by an explanation of the difference between conflicts of interest and other moral dilemmas that physicians encounter in their clinical practice. The different approaches toward the conflicts of interest problem are presented, including the underlying philosophical–ideological aspects that relate to opposing views concerning medical professionalism. A discussion pertaining to the merits and disadvantages of the four main types of solutions to the conflicts of interest problem follows. Finally, I outline suggestions for several future directions that could deepen our understanding concerning the conflicts of interest problem and in turn lead to new practical solutions.
Acoustic Remote Sensing in Maritime Archaeology
Authors: Quinn Rory
Published: April 2016

This article offers an introduction to acoustic remote sensing. In shipwreck studies, acoustic remote sensing has traditionally been used for reconnaissance surveys and for site relocation. With the advent of higher-resolution sonar systems, the focus in shipwreck studies has shifted toward site reconstruction and studies of site formation. Acoustic systems provide baseline data at rates higher than those of experienced dive teams. This article describes how acoustic data is generated. It describes the profiling methods such as single-beam echo-sounders and sub-bottom profilers, and swath methods such as side-scan sonar and multibeam echo-sounders. The last few years have seen developments of multielement sonar platforms, which allow for the acquisition of true concurrent sonar data sets from one platform. Every phase of development in sonar technology brings an increase in sensors' resolving capability and therefore the ability to image smaller and smaller artifacts in greater detail.
Excavation Planning and Logistics: The HMS Swift Project
Authors: Underwood Chris
Published: April 2016

For research projects, it is important to understand the relationship between the aims of the project and the resources available to complete the project. The HMS Swift project is a project that involves excavation, finds handling, conservation, and protection of the excavated areas. This article describes the preparation and procedure of excavation projects, the equipment used in excavation, technique, and safety considerations. A recovery operation depends on the size and number of the artifacts recovered. On completion of the excavation of a particular area or at the end of each field season, the exposed area is covered, but the method varies depending on whether the area has been finished or further excavation is planned. The complete archaeological collection is held in the museum's conservation and storage facilities. The local population plays an active role in the site's protection; therefore the archaeological site is not threatened by looting.
Deep-Submergence Archaeology
Authors: Wachsmann Shelley
Published: April 2016

Coastal waters represent the greatest danger to ships and seafarers, as ships are most commonly lost at the intersection of water and shore. Ships sinking in deep water undergo a gradual transition. Deep-submergence archaeology refers to the archaeological study of cultural resources beyond the limits of traditional diving. The totality of archaeological exploration at great depths—discovering, recording, excavating, and recovering—requires function-specific tools. Deep Submergence Archaeological Excavations (DSAE) takes advantage of a remarkable existent toolkit, designed for a variety of oceanographic purposes other than the study of ancient shipwrecks. What is lacking at present is a comprehensive methodology for deepwater excavation. The ultimate goal of DSAE is to develop the technologies and the skills that permit expeditions to excavate and safely raise the contents and hull of an entire ship for conservation, study, and display.
Mediterranean Ship Design in the Middle Ages
Authors: Rieth Eric
Published: April 2016

‘Design’ is associated with the act of creation. The design of a ship encompasses the various ways of thinking about a ship according to its method and materials of construction, and according to the economic conditions of the period, the social context, the status of the shipbuilder, and so on. This article examines the characteristics of medieval naval architecture. The architectural approach to understand the design of the ship is marked on two principal levels: the actual structure of the hull, and the processes of building it. It explores the design methods used by the Mediterranean shipbuilders of the Middle Ages. The knowledge of design of a ship relies on collective dimension and through the restitution of the history of remains, the process of archaeological study leads to the history of the ship or the boat, to the point of its design.
A Survey of East Asian Shipbuilding Traditions during the Era of Chinese Maritime Expansion
Authors: Sasaki Randall J.
Published: April 2016

This article briefly describes East Asian shipbuilding technology, as well as maritime history, based on the archaeological remains of vessels. The era of China's maritime expansion ran from the tenth to the fourteenth century. China was heavily influenced by the outside creating a rich and diverse maritime tradition. The archaeological remains of boats combined with textual and iconographic data, provide a clear picture of the development of the earliest forms of naval architecture in China. Various shapes and construction techniques can be seen on these vessels. This article gives an overview through the era, beginning from before maritime expansion, to the era of maritime expansion during the Song and Yuan dynasties, to the decline of shipping, during the Ming dynasty. Many aspects of maritime traditions in China require further research.
Coastal Archaeology
Authors: Ford Ben
Published: April 2016

The coast is the area where marine processes such as erosion, deposition, and storm surge influence terrestrial processes and vice versa. This article introduces the concept of coastal archaeology as a growth field for maritime archaeology in terms of the data that can be gathered and also as a realm for the development of archaeological theory. Terrestrial and underwater archaeology, combined and connected by coastal archaeology, allow for a fully developed maritime archaeology. This article illustrates the history and development of coastal archaeology and highlights coastal archaeology as a facet of maritime archaeology. It gives information on the theory and the method of coastal archaeology. The data gathered from coastal archaeology answers a lot of questions about maritime cultures. It bridges the gap between underwater archaeology and terrestrial archaeology, therefore is an important aspect to be studied to understand maritime archaeology.
Management of Maritime Cultural Resources: An American Perspective
Authors: Runyan Timothy
Published: April 2016

The management of a maritime cultural resource suggests control by a manager for appropriate treatment of the resource, with the objective of its protection and prevention. The advances in the technology have made underwater cultural heritage available not only to archaeologists and other scientists, but also to treasure salvors and the public. Underwater cultural heritage is protected to lesser or greater extents by various laws at the local, regional, state, national, and international levels. The United States has not ratified any of the conventions meant for the conservation of maritime heritage but has asserted sovereign rights in its territorial sea. The United States has nearly 1,800 areas in the marine environment that are reserved by federal, state, territorial, tribal, or local laws or regulations with the aim of long lasting protection of these areas. The effective management of submerged cultural resources is still a challenge to many communities and nations.
The Growth of Maritime Archaeology in Mexico: A Case Study
Authors: Erreguerena Pilar Luna
Published: April 2016

Mexico's underwater cultural heritage represents a vast and splendid universe varying from prehistoric to modern remains. But one of its main cultural riches is contained in its coastal and open-sea waters, where hundreds of ships have wrecked since the sixteenth century. Most of the underwater archaeological work undertaken since the 1980s has been in marine waters, especially the Gulf of Mexico. This article explains the discourse of maritime archaeology in Mexico through various phases such as the pre Colombian navigation, the European navigation, and stages of underwater recovery and underwater archaeology in the Mexican waters. In Mexico, the effective management of submerged heritage sites has proved difficult. Although it has no specific laws, Mexico has gained a better awareness regarding the importance of preserving its submerged cultural heritage and has signed and ratified diverse international treaties and the future looks promising.
Maritime Archaeology and Industry
Authors: Søreide Fredrik
Published: April 2016

This article establishes the link between maritime archaeology and the industry. Many countries have laws and acts that insist that underwater cultural heritage belongs to the state, with few rewards to the finder. It is argued that this approach discourages responsible private companies from even looking, while individuals are still clandestinely pillaging the coastlines. This article presents a case study from Norway, that shows the archaeological and the industrial sector working together in the country. The pressure on underwater cultural heritage will only increase in the years to come, so more emphasis should be placed on the applications of underwater technology and that marine archaeological studies be performed as an important part of industrial projects. Marine archaeologists, companies involved in underwater construction projects, and cultural resource management agencies should start addressing this challenge as soon as possible to conserve the cultural heritage.
Introduction
Authors: Kleespies Phillip
Published: April 2016

This book is about behavioral emergencies and the association between interpersonal victimization and subsequent suicidality and/or risk for violence toward others. Section I focuses on the differences between behavioral crises and behavioral emergencies and presents an integrative approach to crisis intervention and emergency intervention. Section II discusses the evaluation of suicide risk, risk of violence, and risk of interpersonal victimization in children and adolescents. Sections III and IV explore behavioral emergencies with adults and the elderly, while Section V deals with certain conditions or behaviors that may either need to be differentiated from a behavioral emergency, or understood as relevant to possibly heightening risk. Section VI describes treatments for patients with recurrent or ongoing risks, and Section VII is devoted to legal, ethical, and psychological risks faced by clinicians who work with patients who might be at risk to themselves or others.
Cultural Neuroscience Studies of the Self-Reflection
Authors: Han Shihui , Ma Yina
Published: April 2016

Self-reflection characterizes human thoughts. How the brain reflects on the self and relevant emotional consequences, however, varies significantly across individuals. This chapter discusses whether and how sociocultural/sensory experiences and biological factors, such as genes, influence the neural correlates of reflection on the self and close others. By presenting the findings of transcultural and cultural priming neuroimaging studies and the findings of imaging genetics, we suggest that both sensory and sociocultural experiences shape the pattern of neural activity involved in the cognitive processes during self-reflection. Genetic makeup, however, produces novel effects on the neural activity underlying the emotional consequences of self-reflection. The findings provide a cultural neuroscience framework for understanding of self-reflection and its relationship with mental health.
The Cultural Neuroscience of Intergroup Bias
Authors: Cheon Bobby K. , Hong Ying-yi
Published: April 2016

Culture defines how groups, and the individuals situated within them, conceptualize and navigate relationships with in-group and out-group members. How diversity in these group processes and their neural substrates emerge remains an open question. Diversity in intergroup processes may have arisen from perceived threats from the environment. Groups in environments that present greater collective uncertainties and threats may have been more likely to adopt shared norms, practices, and institutions that promote and reinforce cohesion, coordination, and the prioritization of the welfare of in-groups over out-groups—contributing to cultural diversity in intergroup bias. This cultural diversity is proposed to be supported by differential pressure across environments on neurobiological systems that regulate responsiveness to threats and facilitate affiliation with in-groups. These two processes may mutually reinforce and co-construct one another, functioning to translate perceived threats from the environment into the cultural variations observed in the neural and behavioral manifestations of intergroup bias.
The Encultured Genome
Authors: Chen Chuansheng , Moyzis Robert K. , Lei Xuemei , Chen Chunhui , Dong Qi
Published: April 2016

This chapter aims to stipulate a line of research on the role of culture in recent human evolution. We discuss and evaluate several common arguments against recent human evolution. Second, we summarize empirical evidence for recent human evolution from classic examples to recent genome-wide searches. Third, using three data sets, we present detailed analyses of the extent of universal and group-specific selection of genes that are most relevant to human behaviors, namely neurotransmitter genes. We found that (1) a large number of neurotransmitter genes expressed in the central nervous system showed evidence of recent selection; (2) approximately one-fourth of these selection events appeared to be common among the four groups studied (i.e., Africans, Europeans, East Asians, and Australian Aborigines); and (3) selected gene variants were generally associated with better school-related skills but poorer performance on some cognitive and socioemotional traits, which seemed consistent with the human self-domestication hypothesis.
Conclusion—Oxford Handbook of Cultural Neuroscience
Authors: Chiao Joan Y. , Li Shu-Chen , Seligman Rebecca , Turner Robert
Published: April 2016

The chapters in this scholarly collection represent the foundations of the conceptual and empirical approaches in cultural neuroscience and the potential for this field to address outstanding questions in population health disparities. Closing the gap in population health disparities represents an important opportunity and challenge for scholars and public policy makers. To provide equity in access and quality of health care irrespective of culture, race and ethnicity across geography, it is important to understand both 1) the etiology underlying population disparities in mental health and 2) the factors that contribute to access and quality of health care and treatment. Cultural neuroscience is a field that contributes to both endeavors.
Cultural Neuroscience and Neurophilosophy
Authors: Northoff Georg
Published: April 2016

Many studies show the cultural dependence of the brain’s neural activity, but the underlying mechanisms of such “enculturation of brain” are unclear. How it is possible for the neural activity to be so strongly dependent on and shaped by the cultural context? Conceptually, this raises the question for the concept of culture and its relationship to the brain and what exactly is meant by “enculturation of brain.” Empirically, the enculturation of brain raises the more general and basic question of how stimuli and their respective cultural context are encoded into neural activity. I suggest a statistically based coding strategy that encodes the stimuli’s statistical frequency distribution rather than the single stimuli into neural activity. The cultural dependence of neural activity may be traced back to the brain’s neural code and its particular encoding strategy, the encoding of the stimuli’s natural and sociocultural statistics, which may account for the enculturation of brain.
Cultural Values Modulate Emotional Processing in Human Amygdala
Authors: Iidaka Tetsuya , Harada Tokiko
Published: April 2016

This chapter reviews how cultural values modulate emotional processing in the amygdala? Here we discuss a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment whereby Japanese participants performed an emotional dot-probe task in which they were presented with an unpleasant picture (insect) and a neutral picture (chair). The unpleasant picture condition evoked a greater amygdala response. Between-condition differences in amygdala response were negatively correlated with individualism and collectivism cultural value scores, indicating that individuals who were more collectivistic showed a greater amygdala response. In a second experiment, we modulated individual cultural differences (individualism vs. collectivism) with a cultural priming task in Japanese participants, half of whom were primed with an individualistic scenario and half with a collectivistic scenario. Significant activation of the right amygdala was observed in the collectivistic-primed group. Biological variability in responses to emotional stimuli exists in individuals living in a relatively unitary culture, such as Japan; the neural response of the amygdala was significantly associated with the cultural values of individualism and collectivism.
Intrasexual Mate Competition and Breakups
Authors: Morris Craig Eric , Beaussart Melanie L. , Reiber Chris , Krajewski Linda S.
Published: April 2016

Female competition for male attention is multifaceted. Typically psychological and relational in nature, this competition may be no less damaging than physical violence more commonly used between males. Research on female–female mate competition has examined short-term effects, yet how women cope with long-term effects of romantic relationship dissolution has been little explored. If negative emotions exist because they provide an evolutionary advantage (attuning physiological processes, thoughts, and behaviors to deal with situations that have frequently incurred high fitness costs), then emotions arising from the loss of a mate to a sexual rival may potentially motivate actions that could make one avoid this scenario in the future. This essay argues that there are consequences of female intrasexual mate competition that may be both evolutionarily adaptive and also beneficial in terms of personal growth and that may expand beyond mating and into other realms of personal development.
‘High-Piled Books, in Charactr’y’
Authors: Meskill Lynn S.
Published: April 2016

This chapter explores Ben Jonson’s court masques, suggesting that they may well have constituted a kind of epic project on the poet’s part. The masque was a spectacle of music, costume, choreography, songs, and recited poetry performed before the King and other important spectators such as foreign ambassadors. Jonson’s long career as poet to the kings and queens of the Stuart and Caroline courts led to his being commissioned to write some twenty-eight masques between 1605 and 1631. This chapter considers the extent to which Jonson exploited the masque performance in print, his masque texts as exercise in ekphrasis, the significance of the anti-masque, the role of poets and poetry in the founding of stable government and order, and Jonson’s borrowings from epic.
Evil, Suffering, and Original Sin
Authors: Lombardo Nicholas E.
Published: April 2016

For early Christians, the revelation of Jesus Christ brought more than hope and ecstatic expectation. It also sharpened their sense of the disjunction between who we are and who we are meant to be. Working backwards from their experience of the risen Christ, they came to see Christ’s death and resurrection as proof not only of God’s love but also of the existential need for a saviour. Gradually, early Christian reflection coalesced into the doctrine of the fall or the doctrine of original sin. The Catholic theological tradition has always embraced this doctrine as a necessary tool for balancing appreciation for the goodness of creation with unblinking realism about the human condition. Its precise theological formulation, however, has varied considerably over the centuries. This chapter discusses the historical origins of Catholic teaching, the classical synthesis solidified by the Council of Trent, and recent developments in theology and magisterial teaching.
The Laws of Gortyn and their Cretan Context
Authors: Maffi Alberto
Published: April 2016

This chapter discusses the Gortyn Code within the wider context of Cretan law. It provides a comprehensive account of the laws of Gortyn as they can be reconstructed from the Great Code and from other legal inscriptions. It also offers an overview of the relevant source material and of its specificities. The areas discussed are personal and family relations (for example marriage, adoption, slavery), commercial law and economic transactions, and legal procedure in Gortyn. The chapter also integrates the discussion of the Gortyn code within the wider research question of the unity and diversity of Greek law, and compares Cretan procedures with those attested in other poleis.
An “Epistolary Reformation”
Authors: Greengrass Mark
Published: April 2016

Letter exchange occupies a significant and growing role in the activities of the Protestant Reformers. This chapter offers explanations for its growing significance in the evolution of the Protestant Reformation. It analyses what over a century of investment in editing the correspondence of the magisterial Reformers has achieved. It offers a yearly profile of the surviving editorial correspondence. At the same time, it underlines the limitations of our concentration on the letters of magisterial Reformers by examining the role of letter exchange in the political evolution of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, and especially in the context of the coalitions at a distance that sustained it. It ends by evoking martyr letters, as found in the martyrologies of John Foxe and Jean Crespin, but also in a devotional context in Hutterite and Anabaptist dissenting traditions.
Landscaping, Landscape Legacies, and Landesque Capital in Pre-Columbian Amazonia
Authors: Arroyo-Kalin Manuel
Published: April 2016

How do human and landscape histories reciprocally affect each other? Can we distinguish between deliberate and unintended anthropic transformations of the landscape? This chapter summarizes evidence from pre-Columbian Amazonia in order to discuss the relation between three dimensions of anthropic landscape transformations: landscaping, landscape legacies, and landesque capital. Conflation between these three categories can lead to theoretical road closures and certainly risks oversimplifying both causality and consequence when anthropic landscape modifications are considered. On the other hand, paying attention to their differences defines a rich field of research in which historical ecology, earth-scientific thinking, and human niche construction theory converge.
From Narratives to Algorithms
Authors: Barton C. Michael
Published: April 2016

The static, fragmentary nature of the archaeological record requires us to construct models of past human dynamics. Traditionally, these have been in the form of narratives that can make compelling stories but are difficult to evaluate. Recent advances in numerical and computational modelling offer the potential to create quantitative representations of human systems and carry out experiments in social dynamics that would otherwise be impossible. These new approaches challenge us to learn to conceive of human societies in ways that can be expressed in algorithmic form. Besides making our own explanations more rigorous, integrating quantitative modelling into archaeological practice helps us produce more robust accounts of human systems and their long-term changes that can be more useful to other disciplines and policy-makers than compelling narratives.
Influences of the Control of Fire on the Energy Value and Composition of the Human Diet
Authors: Wrangham Richard , Carmody Rachel
Published: April 2016

Cooking is unique to our species and a human universal, but until recently little has been known about its nutritional significance. This chapter reviews evidence that cooking predictably increases the net energy gained from food. The control of fire would therefore have supported rising energy budgets and novel adaptations, including reductions in digestive structures. Dietary composition would have been affected in two opposing ways. The control of fire would have allowed increased access to various food items, including honey and toxin-rich foods. However, because cooking increases dietary quality, a complementary effect would have been to narrow dietary breadth for a given population. Most archaeological evidence suggests that cooking became obligatory by the late Lower or Middle Palaeolithic (or African Stone Age), whereas biological evidence suggests that humans have relied on cooked food since the early Lower Palaeolithic.
Introduction
Authors: Huang Yan
Published: April 2016

Pragmatics is one of the most vibrant and rapidly growing fields in linguistics and the philosophy of language. It is a particularly complex subject with all kinds of disciplinary influences and few, if any, clear boundaries. This chapter provides an authoritative, comprehensive, and up-to-date overview of the contemporary landscape of pragmatics. It starts with the question of what is pragmatics. It then surveys the two main schools of thought in pragmatics: the Anglo-American and European Continental traditions. This is followed by a review of macro-pragmatics, which covers cognitively oriented macro-pragmatics, such as experimental, computational, and clinical pragmatics; socially and/or culturally oriented macro-pragmatics, such as politeness and impoliteness studies, cultural, cross- and intercultural, and interpersonal pragmatics; and those branches of macro-pragmatics that are not easily and/or neatly placed in the first two categories, such as historical, corpus, and literary pragmatics. The final section addresses the organization and content of this handbook.
America in 1492
Authors: Wesson Cameron B.
Published: April 2016

This chapter examines the nature of Native American societies immediately prior to the advent of sustained contacts with Europeans in the late fifteenth century. Touching on the broad issues of social organization, politics, trade, religion, and identity, the chapter provides a general framework for understanding the uniqueness of indigenous Native American cultures. The precontact Native cultures of North America were far more diverse and complex than any of the theories archaeologists have previously devised to understand them. In addition to the knowledge gained from ever new archaeological investigations of precontact sites in North America, there is ample evidence that an emphasis on scholarly engagement with descendant communities holds the potential to reveal even more about pre- and postcontact Native American experiences.
American Indians in Popular Culture
Authors: Tahmahkera Dustin
Published: April 2016

Contemporary scholars are shaping the field of indigenous popular cultural studies through multiple critical approaches and explorations of new areas of analysis. This scholarship seeks to emphasize narratives of Native agency, negotiation, contestation, and reconfiguration in interdisciplinary sites of cultural production, representation, and reception. These efforts have opened a space for critical dialogue about the formations of topics in American Indian popular culture studies that transcend mere description and surface analysis. The goal of this new approach is to place American Indians at the center of the complex politics of pop culture. This chapter provides an overview of scholarly approaches to pop cultural representations of American Indians. It examines critical issues in the field while surveying recent scholarship on the production, representation, and reception of American Indians in television, film, music, and other expressive mass media. The chapter concludes with a look at future scholarship on American Indian representations.
The Atlantic Northeast
Authors: Salisbury Neal
Published: April 2016

The Atlantic Northeast emerged as a distinctive region between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. Its largest tribal groupings were the Abenaki, Mi’kmaq, Penobscot, and other Wabanaki peoples; the Delaware and other Lenape peoples; and Mohegan, Mohican, Munsee, Narragansett, Pequot, and Wampanoag Indians. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, these peoples struggled to survive in the face of depopulation from diseases, warfare, emigration, and other effects of European, particularly English, colonization. Thereafter, they and their communities persisted, despite further marginalization in non-Native law, society, and discourse in the United States and Canada. Since the end of the nineteenth century, Native peoples have begun to resist such marginalization through greater public visibility as celebrities and activists, by regaining some lands and rights, and by proclaiming their own perspectives on their history.
Spirituality
Authors: Shorter David Delgado
Published: April 2016

This chapter traces theological and philosophical uses of the notion of “spirit” in studies of Native religious belief, and argues that these uses that have separated matter from the immaterial, and thus the knowable from the illogical. Such binaries fuel inaccurate ethnographic representations, the consumption of Native American spirituality, and indigenous claims for sacred sites. Rather than framing indigenous religious action in terms of “spirit” and “spirituality,” this chapter argues for the value of an ontological attention to indigenous intersubjectivity and the multiple ways indigenous people maintain practical, logical, and physical relations among humans and other-than-human persons. The chapter proposes replacing the term “spiritual” with the word “related” in describing indigenous world views.