bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Competing Visions for America – Popular Discourses of Grand Strategy on the New York Times Best-Sellers List
Authors: Löfflmann Georg
Published: January 2018

This chapter focuses on the New York Times best sellers list as the preeminent account of best-selling books in the United States to engage in a wider mapping of grand strategy discourses in American popular culture, beyond the realm of movie entertainment. Analyzing non-fiction books that have achieved the status of national bestseller illustrates how debates over grand strategy, American identity and national security are products of both political and popular culture, constructed in the public sphere at the multi-medial intersection of entertainment, journalism, academia and political commentary. The chapter details how competing discourses of American grand strategy have defined the past, present and future role and position of the United States in the popular imagination, reflecting a fractured public consensus over the ‘big picture.’ In this chapter, the analytical focus is on the cultural construction of a geopolitical identity of American leadership, military supremacy and national exceptionalism in popular works of non-fiction, and how key representations have confirmed or contested this dominant social construction of the American ‘Self’.
The ‘Obama Doctrine’ – Vision for Change?
Authors: Löfflmann Georg
Published: January 2018

The chapter explores how as President of the United States, Barack Obama was in a constant exchange with both political opponents and diverging voices within his own administration over defining America’s world political role and the purpose behind American power. The chapter describes how Obama’s strategic vision not only informed the political debate and determined policy, but also represented the central hub in an intertextual network of grand strategy discourses, providing the focus for the policy advice and criticism of Washington think tanks, the reporting and commentary of the media, and the intellectual attention of academic researchers interested in the study of US foreign and security policy. The chapter examines how Obama reconfirmed a national and bipartisan consensus, -the ideational dimension of American exceptionalism, liberal hegemony, and military supremacy-, while linking this identity to a pragmatic policy course of cooperative engagement and military restraint that large segments of the Washington establishment rejected for challenging the elite consensus on liberal hegemony.
Gendered Intimacies of the Nationalist Archive
Authors: Athanasiou Athena
Published: January 2018

This chapter is about the ways in which the performative practices of the Women in Black movement of Belgrade come to inhabit and trouble such sovereign accounts of archival discursivity as a vehicle for authenticating and accommodating an incomplete past. If these activists keep something about the archive, this is what is “not yet”, in Jacques Derrida’s terms: namely, the event of an “other” archive. The concern of this chapter is with how national myths and public spectacles, which aim to manage the conditions of appropriate commemoration, draw on imageries and imaginaries of proper gender. At the same time, it is concerned with how these activists trouble the sedimented intimacies of the nationalist archive, by occupying the position of the internal enemy in ways that replot the gendered and ethnicized apparatus of belonging.
Conclusion
Authors: Snir Reuven
Published: January 2018

The Conclusion discusses the recent changes in Arabic literature following the wide migration, globalization, the deconstruction and fragmentization of the concept of identity, and the speedy development of Internet technologies (such as Facebook), that have done much to change the way culture is perceived and have changed dramatically the way literature in general – Arabic literature included – is created and consumed. The conclusion includes as well a discussion of the relevance of the notion of republic of letters to Arabic literature and the role of the modernist Arab intellectuals, such as Aḥmad Ḥasan al-Zayyāt (1885-1968), Salāma Mūsā (1887-1958), and Ṭāhā Ḥusayn (1889-1973), in the Arab Nahḍa (Renaissance).
Historic Background
Authors: Suleiman Camelia
Published: January 2018

This chapter lists the major events of Palestinian history. It also discusses what each of the following groups of people considers most significant in the history of the conflict. These groups are: Palestinians in Israel, Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Jordanians and the Israeli Jews. There is no doubting the fact that the ‘Israeli-Arab’ conflict has shaped the history and the identity of the people in Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and to a lesser but still significant extent, the history and identity of the people in the Arab world for much of the past century. The chapter also discusses the Arab Nahḍa and the role of Palestine in it. It juxtaposes the Nahḍa project with Zionism as a national movement.
Introduction
Authors: Suleiman Camelia
Published: January 2018

Palestinian poet laureate, Mahmoud Darwish writes that land is inherited like language. Most accounts of Arabs in Israel focus on the lost inheritance of Arab lands. This book investigates the problematic place of the Arabic language in Israel. While Arabic is an official language of Israel, according to a law which goes back to the year 1922, during the British Mandate, it is at the same time the language of the ‘Arab’ enemies surrounding and infiltrating Israel, the language of the Palestinians who remained in Israel after 1948 and who constitute today about 20 per cent of the total population, and also the language of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It is, moreover, the language of a dwindling number of speakers from the Mizrachi Jewish community. How are these seemingly contradictory positions of Arabic resolved, and what space is given to Arabic in the state? That is what this book is trying to answer.
Introduction
Authors: Simone Emma
Published: January 2018

The Introduction includes an overview of the content of each of the following chapters. This chapter explores the context of war and modernity that provided a shared backdrop for Woolf and Heidegger. An explication of Woolf’s sustained engagement in the critique of the social order throughout her writings is included, and is compared with Heidegger’s largely apolitical approach to Being-in-the-world in his 1927 book, Being and Time. A review of potential philosophical influences upon Woolf’s writings is provided, as well as a survey of published literature that touches upon the connections between Woolf’s writings and Heidegger’s Being and Time.
Being-at-home and Homelessness
Authors: Simone Emma
Published: January 2018

In Chapter 3, the previous focus upon place is narrowed to that of ‘home’, an element of Being-in-the-world that is granted particular significance throughout Woolf’s writings. Heideggerian understandings of ‘not-Being-at-home’, ‘thrownness’, and ‘theyness’ are drawn upon in order to explore Woolf’s representations of women in the private space as ‘homeless at home.’ From her autobiographical accounts, to her essays and her fiction, Woolf emphasises the ways in which the physical spaces of the home – including its objects, and architectural features such as doors and rooms – are representative of the social order. Reflecting a recurrent preoccupation throughout her writings, Woolf also explores the sense of homelessness and deep unease experienced by social ‘outsiders’ such as Septimus Smith in Mrs Dalloway, and Louis and Rhoda in The Waves, each of whom unveil, question and reject society’s call for conformity and compliance.
Confluences, Divergences and Future Directions
Authors: Simone Emma
Published: January 2018

This chapter explores the confluences and divergences in the approaches of Woolf and Heidegger to the notion of Being-in-the-world. Throughout this study, textual representations of the connections between self, world and the Other are afforded a perspective that has been largely unexamined in previous Woolfian studies. In Woolf and Heidegger’s textual representations of Being-in-the-world, the central concern for both is the question of how each of us responds to those influences and forces that direct members of a society to order their lives in a particular manner. The question for each of us is not how we might permanently evade these forces; rather, as Woolf and Heidegger both attest, each individual’s mode of Being-in-the-world is ultimately measured by the balance that he or she finds between the inevitable sway of societal requirements and restrictions, and the pursuit of his or her personal aspirations and convictions.
Introduction
Authors: Wheeler Deborah L.
Published: January 2018

There’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless’. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard. (Roy 2004)

My taxi driver just said he hates Mubarak. What am I supposed to say? Is this guy crazy? Does he want to be imprisoned? Is he trying to get me to say something that will get me arrested or thrown out of the country? The location was Cairo; the year was 2004, yet the conversation seems like yesterday. This was the first time I sensed a loss of fear and discursive inhibition among Egyptians – a new communication pattern?...
A Brief History of Internet Diffusion and Impact in the Middle East
Authors: Wheeler Deborah L.
Published: January 2018

Artefacts and data with which to understand the diffusion and impact of new media in the Middle East collected between 1996-2014, are explored in this chapter. Data on diffusion is provided by charts and tables; while evidence of emerging Internet cultures and their impact are documented with political cartoons, photographs, advertisements, resistance literature, ethnographic insights and conversations with Internet users. This brief history explains why states in the region may be increasingly confronted with restive publics demanding more responsive governance, and provides four distinct lenses through which to view communication and change in the region. Fear, IT4D, Resistance, and Revolution.
Fear the State: Repression and the Risks of Resistance in the Middle East
Authors: Wheeler Deborah L.
Published: January 2018

In the authoritarian state system that characterizes Kuwait, Jordan and Egypt, digital citizen activism has been met with increasingly stiff penalties. Egypt has more than 40,000 people in jail for political crimes. Kuwait has revoked the citizenship of individuals who have overtly challenged the state. And Jordan has had a sharp down turn in freedom of expression and civil liberties. In Jordan, new election rules have disempowered Islamist political parties. In all three of these countries, states are fighting to secure increasingly volatile public spheres. But can security and stability be achieved through repression. As so many political thinkers have stressed, states that use violence to maintain legitimacy show signs of increased fragility. This chapter will explore state responses to citizen empowerment in Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait in order to add a more complete analysis of the costs of citizen resistance, both to individuals and the state.
Brutal Thoughts: Laruelle and Deleuze on Human Animal Stupidity
Authors: Ó Maoilearca John
Published: January 2018

Using François Laruelle’s non-philosophy of definitional mutation, this chapter examines Deleuze’s theory of stupidity (in Difference and Repetition) in order to deconstruct the difference between the ‘wise’ philosopher and the ‘idiot’ as his transcendental stooge. The result is a non-philosophical ‘unlearning’ which involves something more radical, namely the idea that thought is not the intrinsic property of humans that serves to define their essence, an essence that would then indeed be ‘local’; rather it is a universal milieu. By emphasizing animality, bringing it within the sphere of culture, we can emphasise the most elevated humanity, so as to bring it into the universe; and, through a paradoxical example, re-examine its links with animality, of which it will then be a matter of knowing whether it, also, is universal. Ultimately, the chapter enquires as to whether Laruelle is entirely fair to Deleuze’s account of the idiot in respect to philosophy and non-philosophy. In particular, it asks whether Deleuze’s notion of becoming-animal can be used outside of its Deleuzian philosophical context – one that disrupts the differences (set out in What is Philosophy?) between philosophy, science, and art.
Mister V and the Unmournable Animal Death
Authors: Rickels Laurence A.
Published: January 2018

This chapter focuses on the unmournable nature of animal death, turning to Heidegger, Freud and Melanie Klein (as advocates of both successful and unsuccessful mourning, first and second deaths) as entry points for an analysis of Emilie Deleuze’s 2003 film, Mister V. The film tracks the changes in relationality incurred when the eponymous psychotic horse escapes and tests not only the boundaries of the film’s diegesis but also its own discursive fabulation. Here man, as majority figure, is not an option for becoming. Man must be divested of his majoritarian status before he can become other. In this regard, ‘becoming-animal’ is the missing link between man and ‘becoming multiple’, so that the metamorphosis necessarily entails a ‘loss’ as initiation so that we can enter the substitutive order of becoming-other. This is not necessarily incompatible with Freud. Indeed, the two main trajectories of the latter’s thought: 1) totemic identification and 2) castration (as an initiation into the ‘management’ of loss or lack) also separate out as tendencies of unmourning and ‘successful mourning’, of first and second deaths, respectively. Both are compatible with the anti-Oedipal momentum of Deleuze and Guattari’s schizoanalysis.
Drinking Animals: Sobriety, Intoxication and Interspecies Assemblages
Authors: Genosko Gary
Published: January 2018

While Deleuze explored the temporalities of alcoholism in American literature in The Logic of Sense, and Jean Clet Martin, among others, has extended this inquiry by further extracting the alcoholic’s lines of flight from the same literature, this chapter breaks the mould by understanding alcohol, distilled and in its pure form of ethanol, as well as its imbibition, as a question of a component that passes through anthropocentric, and across multiple non-anthropocentric assemblages. The exploitation of ethanol fermentation, for example, exists across species. Indeed, as we entertain more overtly human cultural examples, such as ‘wine’ for cats, a recent Japanese pet trend, the metabolic communion of interspecies companionship requires that the material expressivity of the substance is overcoded because the ‘wine’ is not only non-alcoholic but liquid catnip in a ‘wine’ bottle. Indeed, theorization of the pursuit of shared pleasures – using Guattari’s ethological terms, we might say deterritorializing from deterministic biological factors yet also modifying these in some measure as well (Machinic Unconscious) – and engaging multiple species is this chapter’s goal, achievable by plotting the passages of alcohol and its related components across assemblages and their material and socio-cultural expressive trajectories beyond strictly anthropocentric and Western prerogatives.
Against Participation
Authors: Pfaller Robert
Published: January 2018

Just like the ‘theory’ of interactivity, also that of participation can be seen as one of the key theoretical foes of the theory of interpassivity. It can be demonstrated that these (at their respective times) highly fashionable yet little explicative theories do not contribute to a better understanding of the artistic practices they claim to describe. Rather, they have to be seen as ‘spontaneous philosophies’ (in the sense coined by Louis Althusser): due to their unquestioned philosophical premises, they form epistemological obstacles to a proper understanding of contemporary artistic practice. And such a failure can backfire: artists who start believing in what these theories say about their art are in danger to misrecognize its key points and, accordingly, to produce weaker works in the future.
Introduction: Migrations and Mutations
Authors: Hudson Dale
Published: January 2018

The introduction examines the figure of the vampire as it mutates and migrates between melodrama, romance, horror, comedy, soap opera, and science fiction. These mutations and migrations indicate the need for an approach that does not segregate vampire media into a subgenre of horror, dismiss it as apolitical entertainment, or understand it as unequivocally American. The figure of the vampire serves as both object and mode of analysis for more than eight decades of Hollywood film, television, and web production. The introduction also examines how and why vampires matter, arguing that vampire media engages our relationships to society. Vampires matter because they make clear that difference, particularly race, cannot be rejected (“we’re all human,” “all lives matter”) or minimized (“more unites than divides us,” “common humanity”) by well-intentioned liberal and conservative thinking alike.
Terrorist Vampires: Religious Heritage or Planetary Advocacy
Authors: Hudson Dale
Published: January 2018

This chapter unpacks depictions of US foreign policy in Hollywood blockbusters, franchises, and series, whose content was repurposed and production was often offshored. Vampire hunters perform the racialized warfare of the failed War on Drugs and ongoing War on Terror. Vampires advocate for planetary consciousness after neoliberalism’s ascendancy. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), From Dusk till Dawn (1995), and Vampires (1998) organize fears of so-called Islamic fundamentalists and Mexican border hoppers. Deterritorialized biological warfare also manifests in films that return to the historical trauma of mixed blood via stories of mixed species in franchises like Blade (1998–2004) and Underworld (2003–2016) and series like True Blood (2008–2014), The Vampire Diaries (2009–present), and The Originals (2013–present). Others examine resilience through multiple conquests, as in Cronos (1992) set in México’s federal district and released on the quincentennial of Columbus’s conquest. Meanwhile, the Twilight franchise (2008–2012) christianizes the figure of the vampire and, by extension, the concept of the US secular democracy, but also evokes indigenous rights to land. Films ask us to find a space for empathy amidst the terror of economic and military violence.
Other Vampires, Other Hollywoods: Serialized Citizenship and Narrowcast Difference
Authors: Hudson Dale
Published: January 2018

This chapter explores an explosion of serialized vampires after television’s deregulation. Like newspapers and newscasts, serialized television can produce national audiences around topical issues about citizenship and difference. What cinema often excludes due to the financial risk, television can include by offshoring production and narrowcasting transmission. Although Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) ushered in “girl power” and a place for same-sex relationships, it was criticized for its racial insensitivity. With greater racial/ethnic diversity, True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, and The Originals explore legacies of racial oppression. Transnational Hollywood largely masks locations, prioritizing economic over cultural consideration. Some series are produced in southern California, others elsewhere—Gabriel, amor inmortal (2008) in Florida, The Vampire Diaries and The Originals in Georgia, True Blood in Louisiana, From Dusk till Dawn: The Series (2014–present) in Texas, The Strain (2014–present) in Ontario, and Penny Dreadful (2014–2016) in Ireland. Web series emerge as a means of narrative and economic experimentation, ranging from UGC in The Hunted (2001–present) to cross-platform marketing and narrative experiments of Valemont (2009) and Carmilla (2014–present) to videogames.
We’ll Keep the Red Flag Flying Here: Syndicalism, Jim Larkin and Irish Masculinity at the Abbey Theatre, 1911–1919
Authors: Cannon Harris Susan
Published: January 2018

This chapter examines the cultural impact of syndicalism, tracing its influence on representations of working-class masculinity in three strike plays staged at the Abbey Theatre during Ireland’s revolutionary period: St. John Ervine’s Mixed Marriage, Andrew Patrick Wilson’s The Slough, and Daniel Corkery’s The Labour Leader. All three plays were inspired by syndicalist labor actions in Irish cities organized by the labor leader James Larkin, whose agitational style incorporated aspects of queer socialism into a more normative masculinity founded on the capacity for violence. Larkin’s ability to inspire working-class men with his emotions alarmed Ervine, who focuses on the heterosexual ‘mixing’ named in his play’s title in order to suppress the disruptive potential of the homosocial ‘mixing’ of Catholic and Protestant men enabled by Larkin’s organizing. The counter-revolutionary family plot that Ervine constructs for Mixed Marriage includes an irresponsible working-class father and a strong but apolitical working-class mother, conventions which are replicated in A. Patrick Wilson’s Lockout play The Slough and amplified in O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock. Daniel Corkery’s The Labour Leader, by contrast, embraces Larkin’s self-dramatization in order to explore the emotional landscape of working-class masculinity and the potential of a revolutionary theatre capable of harnessing syndicalism’s passions.
Mobilising Maurya: J. M. Synge, Bertolt Brecht and the Revolutionary Mother
Authors: Cannon Harris Susan
Published: January 2018

This chapter examines the impact on modern drama of the establishment of the Soviet Union, through in-depth investigation of a special case: Bertolt Brecht’s transformation of J. M. Synge’s 1904 Riders to the Sea into a 1937 Spanish Civil War play called Señora Carrar’s Rifles. Synge and Ireland were not, for their own sakes, important to Brecht; he was drawn to Riders as a model which might help him solve the problem of how to radicalise the working-class mother. After the disastrous 1935 production of Brecht’s The Mother by the New York City-based Theatre Union, Brecht concluded that the technical demands of epic theater were beyond the capacity of these amateur ensembles. Synge’s unusual treatment of maternal grief in Riders helped Brecht envision a means of producing the effects of epic theater while using the techniques of realism. Helene Weigel’s performance as Teresa Carrar was crucial to his later thinking about acting and spectator emotion. Re-presenting Maurya’s refusal to grieve for Bartley in both Senora Carrar’s Rifles and Mother Courage helped Brecht refine his understanding of alienation in ways which made epic theater more pleasurable for spectators without requiring Brecht to acknowledge that pleasure as a desired effect.
Derrida's Secret
Authors: Barbour Charles
Published: January 2018

Against the backdrop of a series of recent political events (the Snowden Affair, the Manning Affair, Wikileaks, Clinton’s private email account, and so forth), this book argues that secrecy is a condition, rather than a negation, of the social bond – that we can only relate to one another insofar as, at the same moment, we separate from one another as well. It pursues this argument via a close consideration of Derrida’s thought, and especially his discussion of the concepts of perjury, testimony, and oath in his later work. It shows that, for Derrida, precisely because the other, or some crucial aspect of the other, remains absolutely other (unknown, opaque, a secret), every interaction presupposes an oath to say what one means and believe what the other says. Put differently, and paradoxically, our capacity for deception that compels us to trust or have faith in one another. This is an aspect of Derrida’s work that is often confused with a ‘religious’ or ‘theological turn’ in his later writings.
Between Two Solitudes: Self-Deception, Consciousness and the Other Mind
Authors: Barbour Charles
Published: January 2018

This chapter takes up a number of issues around the question of secrecy and deception that have vexed recent analytic philosophers, and shows how Derrida might contribute to the debates. In particular, if focuses on ‘the problem of other minds’, and takes Derrida’s reading of Gadamer as a way into that problem.
Modernism, Fashion and Interwar Women Writers
Authors: Plock Vike Martina
Published: January 2018

An unprecedented sartorial revolution occurred at the beginning of the twentieth century when the tight-laced silhouettes of Victorian women gave way to the figure of the Flapper. Modernism, Fashion and Interwar Women Writers demonstrates how five female novelists of the interwar period engaged with an emerging fashion discourse that concealed capitalist modernity’s economic reliance on mass-manufactured, uniform-looking productions by ostensibly celebrating originality and difference. For Edith Wharton, Jean Rhys, Rosamond Lehmann, Elizabeth Bowen and Virginia Woolf fashion was never just the provider of guidelines on what to wear. Rather, it was an important concern, offering them opportunities to express their opinions about identity politics, about contemporary gender dynamics and about changing conceptions of authorship and literary productivity. By examining their published work and unpublished correspondence, this book investigates how the chosen authors used fashion terminology to discuss the possibilities available to women to express difference and individuality in a world that actually favoured standardised products and collective formations.
Patterns: Rosamond Lehmann
Authors: Plock Vike Martina
Published: January 2018

This chapter analyzes the role of fashion as a discursive force in Rosamond Lehmann’s 1932 coming-of-age novel Invitation to the Waltz. Reading the novel alongside such fashion magazines as Vogue, it demonstrates Lehmann’s awareness that 1920s fashion, in spite of its carefully stylized public image as harbinger of originality, emphasized the importance of following preconceived (dress) patterns in the successful construction of modern feminine types. Invitation to the Waltz, it argues, opposes the production of patterned types and celebrates difference and disobedience in its stead. At the same time, the novel’s formal appearance is nonetheless dependent on the very same tenets it criticizes. On closer scrutiny, it is seen to reveal its resemblance to Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse (1927). A tension between imitation and originality determines sartorial fashion choices. This chapter shows that female authorship in the inter-war period was subjected to the same market forces that controlled and sustained the organization of the fashion industry.
Thermal Growth of Graphene: A Review
Authors: Tan Hai , Wang Deguo , Guo Yanbao
Published: January 2018

A common belief proposed by Peierls and Landau that two-dimensional material cannot exist freely in a three-dimensional world has been proved false when graphene was first synthesized in 2004. Graphene, which is the base structure of other carbon materials, has drawn much attention of scholars and researchers due to its extraordinary electrical, mechanical and thermal properties. Moreover, methods for its synthesis have developed greatly in recent years. This review focuses on the mechanism of the thermal growth method and the different synthesis methods, where epitaxial growth, chemical vapor deposition, plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition and combustion are discussed in detail based on this mechanism. Meanwhile, to improve the quality and control the number of graphene layers, the latest research progress in optimizing growth parameters and developmental technologies has been summarized. The strategies for synthesizing high-quality and large-scale graphene are proposed and an outlook on the future synthesis direction is also provided.
Antimicrobial Double-Layer Coating Prepared from Pure or Doped-Titanium Dioxide and Binders
Authors: Li Ran , Jin Tony Z. , Liu Zengshe , Liu LinShu
Published: January 2018

Fruit and vegetable containers with microbe-free surfaces can be made by coating with titanium dioxide (TiO2) particles or nonmetal (C, N, B, F) doped-TiO2 particles, using wear resistant polymers, such as zein, and paint, as the binders and to form a continuous binding phase. The doped-TiO2 powders absorb visible light radiation, and thus possess a higher antibacterial effect than non-modified TiO2 particles in environmental conditions. The study also presents a double-layer coating to use less TiO2 particles in coating, while achieving higher antimicrobial activity. Containers with microbe-free surfaces can stop cross-contamination from infected workers or spoiled/decayed/contaminated fruits or vegetables, and thus are expected to be able to reduce the risk from microbiological contamination of fruits and vegetables during harvest in fields, and postharvest storage or transportation.
Oxidation Characteristics and Electrical Properties of Doped Mn-Co Spinel Reaction Layer for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Metal Interconnects
Authors: Guo Pingyi , Lai Yongbiao , Shao Yong , Zhang Yu , Sun Hang , Wang Yuxin
Published: January 2018

To prevent Cr poisoning of the cathode and to retain high conductivity during solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) operation, Cu or La doped Co-Mn coatings on a metallic interconnect is deposited and followed by oxidation at 750 °C. Microstructure and composition of coatings after preparation and oxidation is analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). High energy micro arc alloying process, a low cost technique, is used to prepare Cu or La doped Co-Mn coatings with the metallurgical bond. When coatings oxidized at 750 °C in air for 20 h and 100 h, Co3O4 is the main oxide on the surface of Co-38Mn-2La and Co-40Mn coatings, and (Co,Mn)3O4 spinel continues to grow with extended oxidation time. The outmost scales of Co-33Mn-17Cu are mainly composed of cubic MnCo2O4 spinel with Mn2O3 after oxidation for 20 h and 100 h. The average thickness of oxide coatings is about 60–70 μm after oxidation for 100 h, except that Co-40Mn oxide coatings are a little thicker. Area-specific resistance of Cu/La doped Co-Mn coatings are lower than that of Co-40Mn coating. (Mn,Co)3O4/MnCo2O4 spinel layer is efficient at blocking the outward diffusion of chromium and iron.
Analysis of Ultraviolet Radiation Wavelengths Causing Hardening and Reduced Elasticity of Collagen Gels In Vitro
Authors: Maeda Kazuhisa
Published: January 2018

Regular exposure of facial skin to sunlight promotes wrinkle formation; ultraviolet (UV) radiation causes the skin to harden and lose its elasticity. To study UV damage to the skin in vitro, a short-term in vitro photoaging model is required. Hence, the UV transmittance of excised human skin was measured. Changes in elasticity in the cheeks of humans of different ages were investigated. Moreover, changes in the hardness and elasticity of collagen gels following UV exposure were investigated. UV rays penetrated the upper layer of the dermis and UVA (330 nm) rays penetrated approximately 1.6 times farther than UVB (310 nm) rays. A correlation between age and lower cheek elasticity was observed. Upon exposure to UV rays, collagen gels hardened and their elasticity decreased; UVA rays exhibited a stronger effect than UVB rays. Wavelengths of 300–340 nm caused hardening and reduced elasticity of collagen gels; 330-nm radiation showed the most pronounced effect. These effects were not observed upon exposure to UV wavelengths over 350 nm. Investigating the UV-hardening mechanism of collagen showed increased tyrosine crosslinks (dityrosines) in the in vitro model of photodamage to collagen, suggesting that dityrosine formation contributes to hardening and reduced elasticity of collagen in photoaged skin.
On the Cryptographic Features of a VoIP Service
Authors: Alvanos Dimitrios , Limniotis Konstantinos , Stavrou Stavros
Published: January 2018

Security issues of typical Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications are studied in this paper; in particular, the open source Linphone application is being used as a case study. An experimental analysis indicates that protecting signalling data with the TLS protocol, which unfortunately is not always the default option, is needed to alleviate several security concerns. Moreover, towards improving security, it is shown that a VoIP application may operate over a virtual private network without significantly degrading the overall performance. The conclusions of this study provide useful insights to the usage of any VoIP application.
Amorphous Phase Mediated Crystallization: Fundamentals of Biomineralization
Authors: Jin Wenjing , Jiang Shuqin , Pan Haihua , Tang Ruikang
Published: January 2018

Many biomineralization systems start from transient amorphous precursor phases, but the exact crystallization pathways and mechanisms remain largely unknown. The study of a well-defined biomimetic crystallization system is key for elucidating the possible mechanisms of biomineralization and monitoring the detailed crystallization pathways. In this review, we focus on amorphous phase mediated crystallization (APMC) pathways and their crystallization mechanisms in bio- and biomimetic-mineralization systems. The fundamental questions of biomineralization as well as the advantages and limitations of biomimetic model systems are discussed. This review could provide a full landscape of APMC systems for biomineralization and inspire new experiments aimed at some unresolved issues for understanding biomineralization.
Evaluation of Conspecific Attraction as a Management Tool across Several Species of Anurans
Authors: Buxton Valerie , Ward Michael , Sperry Jinelle
Published: January 2018

Amphibian populations are declining worldwide, with habitat loss and alteration being a primary driver of many declines. Management strategies to mitigate these declines include translocation and creation or restoration of breeding habitats, yet these techniques are not always effective. We examined whether conspecific attraction—a management tool frequently used in avian conservation—would be similarly valuable in management and conservation of anuran amphibians (i.e., frogs and toads). We broadcast conspecific chorus sounds at unoccupied, artificial breeding ponds for six anuran species across three field sites. We documented when frogs arrived at each pool and when eggs were laid. We compared differences in number of pools found with adults and egg masses between playback and control pools and examined latency to first colonization. We found that Mexican spadefoots colonized playback ponds faster and more often than control ponds, while Cope’s gray treefrogs, Arizona treefrogs, green frogs, spring peepers, and wood frogs exhibited weak or non-existent responses. We discuss why breeding ecology may influence tendency to exhibit conspecific attraction and how this behavior could be used in amphibian management and conservation.
Numerical Study of Bubble Coalescence and Breakup in the Reactor Fuel Channel with a Vaned Grid
Authors: Cong Tenglong , Zhang Xiang
Published: January 2018

The characteristics of bubbles of different sizes in fuel assembly are vital to two-phase flow resistance and heat transfer capacity. However, due to the swirl flow caused by the mixing vane, bubbles can crowd at the heated surface, which may anticipate the occurrence of departure from nucleation boiling. In the current work, the adiabatic two-phase flow in a simplified fuel assembly was analyzed by using the Eulerian two-fluid model and the MUSIG (MUltiple SIze Group) model. This computational domain consists of two coolant channels and two sets of vaned spacers, with three sets of periodic boundary conditions at the side faces of the domain. The distributions of vapor phase and bubble diameters were obtained, based on which the effects of mixing vanes on the bubble characteristics were analyzed. Vapor phase crowded at the rod surface in the higher inlet vapor fraction case, but crowded in the channel center in the lower inlet vapor fraction cases. This work can be used as a reference for the design of mixing vanes to avoid the anticipation of departure of nucleation boiling that may be caused by unreasonable design.
Detecting Shoot Beetle Damage on Yunnan Pine Using Landsat Time-Series Data
Authors: Yu Linfeng , Huang Jixia , Zong Shixiang , Huang Huaguo , Luo Youqing
Published: January 2018

Tomicus yunnanensis and Tomicus minor have caused serious shoot damage in Yunnan pine forests in the Yunnan Province of China. However, very few remote sensing studies have estimated the shoot damage ratio (SDR). Thus, we used multi-date Landsat satellite imagery to quantify SDRs and assess the possibility of using spectral indices to determine the beetle outbreak time and spread direction. A new threshold-based classification method was proposed to identify damage levels (i.e., healthy, slightly to moderately infested, and severely infested forests) using time series of moisture stress index (MSI). Permanent plots and temporal field inspection data were both used as references for training and evaluation. Results show that a single threshold value can produce a total classification accuracy of 86.38% (Kappa = 0.80). Furthermore, time series maps detailing damage level were reconstructed from 2004 to 2016. The shoot beetle outbreak year was estimated to be 2013. Another interesting finding is the movement path of the geometric center of severe damage, which is highly consistent with the wind direction. We conclude that the time series of shoot damage level maps can be produced by using continuous MSI images. This method is very useful to foresters for determining the outbreak time and spread direction.
Assessing the Impact of Forest Change and Climate Variability on Dry Season Runoff by an Improved Single Watershed Approach: A Comparative Study in Two Large Watersheds, China
Authors: Hou Yiping , Zhang Mingfang , Meng Zuozhu , Liu Shirong , Sun Pengsen , Yang Taoli
Published: January 2018

Extensive studies on hydrological responses to forest change have been published for centuries, yet partitioning the hydrological effects of forest change, climate variability and other factors in a large watershed remains a challenge. In this study, we developed a single watershed approach combining the modified double mass curve (MDMC) and the time series multivariate autoregressive integrated moving average model (ARIMAX) to separate the impact of forest change, climate variability and other factors on dry season runoff variation in two large watersheds in China. The Zagunao watershed was examined for the deforestation effect, while the Meijiang watershed was examined to study the hydrological impact of reforestation. The key findings are: (1) both deforestation and reforestation led to significant reductions in dry season runoff, while climate variability yielded positive effects in the studied watersheds; (2) the hydrological response to forest change varied over time due to changes in soil infiltration and evapotranspiration after vegetation regeneration; (3) changes of subalpine natural forests produced greater impact on dry season runoff than alteration of planted forests. These findings are beneficial to water resource and forest management under climate change and highlight a better planning of forest operations and management incorporated trade-off between carbon and water in different forests.
Using Y-Chromosomal Haplogroups in Genetic Association Studies and Suggested Implications
Authors: Erzurumluoglu A. , Baird Denis , Richardson Tom , Timpson Nicholas , Rodriguez Santiago
Published: January 2018

Y-chromosomal (Y-DNA) haplogroups are more widely used in population genetics than in genetic epidemiology, although associations between Y-DNA haplogroups and several traits, including cardiometabolic traits, have been reported. In apparently homogeneous populations defined by principal component analyses, there is still Y-DNA haplogroup variation which will result from population history. Therefore, hidden stratification and/or differential phenotypic effects by Y-DNA haplogroups could exist. To test this, we hypothesised that stratifying individuals according to their Y-DNA haplogroups before testing for associations between autosomal single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and phenotypes will yield difference in association. For proof of concept, we derived Y-DNA haplogroups from 6537 males from two epidemiological cohorts, Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) (n = 5080; 816 Y-DNA SNPs) and the 1958 Birth Cohort (n = 1457; 1849 Y-DNA SNPs), and studied the robust associations between 32 SNPs and body mass index (BMI), including SNPs in or near Fat Mass and Obesity-associated protein (FTO) which yield the strongest effects. Overall, no association was replicated in both cohorts when Y-DNA haplogroups were considered and this suggests that, for BMI at least, there is little evidence of differences in phenotype or SNP association by Y-DNA structure. Further studies using other traits, phenome-wide association studies (PheWAS), other haplogroups and/or autosomal SNPs are required to test the generalisability and utility of this approach.
PGC1α: Friend or Foe in Cancer?
Authors: Mastropasqua Francesca , Girolimetti Giulia , Shoshan Maria
Published: January 2018

The PGC1 family (Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) coactivators) of transcriptional coactivators are considered master regulators of mitochondrial biogenesis and function. The PGC1α isoform is expressed especially in metabolically active tissues, such as the liver, kidneys and brain, and responds to energy-demanding situations. Given the altered and highly adaptable metabolism of tumor cells, it is of interest to investigate PGC1α in cancer. Both high and low levels of PGC1α expression have been reported to be associated with cancer and worse prognosis, and PGC1α has been attributed with oncogenic as well as tumor suppressive features. Early in carcinogenesis PGC1α may be downregulated due to a protective anticancer role, and low levels likely reflect a glycolytic phenotype. We suggest mechanisms of PGC1α downregulation and how these might be connected to the increased cancer risk that obesity is now known to entail. Later in tumor progression PGC1α is often upregulated and is reported to contribute to increased lipid and fatty acid metabolism and/or a tumor cell phenotype with an overall metabolic plasticity that likely supports drug resistance as well as metastasis. We conclude that in cancer PGC1α is neither friend nor foe, but rather the obedient servant reacting to metabolic and environmental cues to benefit the tumor cell.
Applications of Probe Capture Enrichment Next Generation Sequencing for Whole Mitochondrial Genome and 426 Nuclear SNPs for Forensically Challenging Samples
Authors: Shih Shelly , Bose Nikhil , Gonçalves Anna , Erlich Henry , Calloway Cassandra
Published: January 2018

The application of next generation sequencing (NGS) for the analysis of mitochondrial (mt) DNA, short tandem repeats (STRs), and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) has demonstrated great promise for challenging forensic specimens, such as degraded, limited, and mixed samples. Target enrichment using probe capture rather than PCR amplification offers advantages for analysis of degraded DNA since two intact PCR primer sites in the template DNA molecule are not required. Furthermore, NGS software programs can help remove PCR duplicates to determine initial template copy numbers of a shotgun library. Moreover, the same shotgun library prepared from a limited DNA source can be enriched for mtDNA as well as nuclear markers by hybrid capture with the relevant probe panels. Here, we demonstrate the use of this strategy in the analysis of limited and mock degraded samples using our custom probe capture panels for massively parallel sequencing of the whole mtgenome and 426 SNP markers. We also applied the mtgenome capture panel in a mixed sample and analyzed using both phylogenetic and variant frequency based bioinformatics tools to resolve the minor and major contributors. Finally, the results obtained on individual telogen hairs demonstrate the potential of probe capture NGS analysis for both mtDNA and nuclear SNPs for challenging forensic specimens.
MHC-Dependent Mate Selection within 872 Spousal Pairs of European Ancestry from the Health and Retirement Study
Authors: Qiao Zhen , Powell Joseph , Evans David
Published: January 2018

Disassortative mating refers to the phenomenon in which individuals with dissimilar genotypes and/or phenotypes mate with one another more frequently than would be expected by chance. Although the existence of disassortative mating is well established in plant and animal species, the only documented example of negative assortment in humans involves dissimilarity at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) locus. Previous studies investigating mating patterns at the MHC have been hampered by limited sample size and contradictory findings. Inspired by the sparse and conflicting evidence, we investigated the role that the MHC region played in human mate selection using genome-wide association data from 872 European American spouses from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). First, we treated the MHC region as a whole, and investigated genomic similarity between spouses using three levels of genomic variation: single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), classical human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles (both four-digit and two-digit classifications), and amino acid polymorphisms. The extent of MHC dissimilarity between spouses was assessed using a permutation approach. Second, we investigated fine scale mating patterns by testing for deviations from random mating at individual SNPs, HLA genes, and amino acids in HLA molecules. Third, we assessed how extreme the spousal relatedness at the MHC region was compared to the rest of the genome, to distinguish the MHC-specific effects from genome-wide effects. We show that neither the MHC region, nor any single SNPs, classic HLA alleles, or amino acid polymorphisms within the MHC region, were significantly dissimilar between spouses relative to non-spouse pairs. However, dissimilarity in the MHC region was extreme relative to the rest of genome for both spousal and non-spouse pairs. Despite the long-standing controversy, our analyses did not support a significant role of MHC dissimilarity in human mate choice.
Genome-Wide Identification and Characterization of the Potato bHLH Transcription Factor Family
Authors: Wang Ruoqiu , Zhao Peng , Kong Nana , Lu Ruize , Pei Yue , Huang Chenxi , Ma Haoli , Chen Qin
Published: January 2018

Plant basic/helix–loop–helix (bHLH) transcription factors participate in a number of biological processes, such as growth, development and abiotic stress responses. The bHLH family has been identified in many plants, and several bHLH transcription factors have been functionally characterized in Arabidopsis. However, no systematic identification of bHLH family members has been reported in potato (Solanum tuberosum). Here, 124 StbHLH genes were identified and named according to their chromosomal locations. The intron numbers varied from zero to seven. Most StbHLH proteins had the highly conserved intron phase 0, which accounted for 86.2% of the introns. According to the Neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree, 259 bHLH proteins acquired from Arabidopsis and potato were divided into 15 groups. All of the StbHLH genes were randomly distributed on 12 chromosomes, and 20 tandem duplicated genes and four pairs of duplicated gene segments were detected in the StbHLH family. The gene ontology (GO) analysis revealed that StbHLH mainly function in protein and DNA binding. Through the RNA-seq and quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR) analyses, StbHLH were found to be expressed in various tissues and to respond to abiotic stresses, including salt, drought and heat. StbHLH1, 41 and 60 were highly expressed in flower tissues, and were predicted to be involved in flower development by GO annotation. StbHLH45 was highly expressed in salt, drought and heat stress, which suggested its important role in abiotic stress response. The results provide comprehensive information for further analyses of the molecular functions of the StbHLH gene family.