bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Causal Mechanical and Unificationist Models of Explanation
Authors: Woodward James
Published: April 2005

This chapter compares my model of causal explanation with two of the most prominent competing models in the philosophical literature: the causal mechanical model due to Salmon and the unificationist model due to Kitcher.
Certifying Eugenic Purity in the Churches
Authors: Rosen Christine
Published: April 2005

This chapter further places religious leaders’ enthusiasm for eugenics in the context of both Progressivism and the Social Gospel movement. As eugenic ideas gained in popularity, religious leaders such as Rev. Walter Taylor Sumner, a Protestant Episcopal Dean in Chicago, began crafting their own eugenic proposals, which they administered in their churches. Dean Sumner’s eugenic “marriage health certificate” plan garnered publicity and many imitators. This chapter describes such proposals and places them in the context of the growing social service movement in the Protestant churches in particular, and the public’s increasing interest in eugenics in general. It also discusses the many “eugenic family studies” published in the 1910s.
Sterilization, Birth Control, and the Catholic Confrontation with Eugenics
Authors: Rosen Christine
Published: April 2005

Although engaged in questioning the precepts of the eugenics movement from its inception, Catholic leaders’ interest in the movement reached its apogee in the late 1920s, when the twin issues of compulsory sterilization and birth control came to dominate the debate over eugenics. Through an examination of the work of Rev. John A. Ryan and Rev. John M. Cooper, two Catholic leaders who were once members of the American Eugenics Society, this chapter describes the intellectual journey of the Catholics who eventually became the eugenics movement’s most fervent opponents. It reviews Catholic debate about eugenic sterilization, the reaction to Margaret Sanger’s fledgling birth control movement, and the lay and clerical reaction to Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Casti Connubi.
Assessing the Value of IT
Authors: Luftman Jerry N. , Koeller C. Timothy
Published: April 2005

The value management approach provides organizations seeking an IT-leveraged path to competitiveness with a model to help identify improvements in customer-focused processes. It begins by understanding business objectives and value. Next, it reviews the business process changes necessary to obtain the business value. Finally, the information technologies necessary to change the business process that will bring the business value are defined.
Chief Information Officers: Strategic Roles and Peer Influence
Authors: Huff Sid L. , Enns Harvey G. , Schneberger Scott L.
Published: April 2005

This chapter examines the ways in which chief information officers (CIOs) influence peer executives within an organization regarding strategic IT objectives and plans. It presents the results of a field study based on in-depth interviews with 14 CIOs and their executive peers. CIOs today are involved in shaping and supporting business strategy, and exerting their influence in more than just IT technical projects. The CIO who exercises influence well can be more effective in future IT strategy planning and implementation, and business strategy planning efforts.
Information Technology Human Resource Strategies
Authors: McLean Ephraim R. , Schneberger Scott L.
Published: April 2005

Competitive advantage in future business environments will come from applying the right human capital to information technology. This human capital includes all IT professionals as well as corporate users of IT. Successful IT strategies will rely on how IT is applied rather than to what. This chapter discusses the five fundamental challenges in selecting, acquiring, and utilizing human IT capital.
Guests of God
Authors: Bianchi Robert R.
Published: April 2005

Each year, more than two million pilgrims from over 100 countries converge on the holy city of Mecca to reenact the ritual dramas that Muslims have been performing for centuries. While it is first and foremost a religious festival, the hajj is also a major political event. The Muslim world's leading multinational organization, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, has established the first international regime explicitly devoted to pilgrimage. Every large Muslim nation has developed a comprehensive hajj policy and a powerful bureaucracy to enforce it. Yet no authority–secular or religious, national or international–can really control the hajj. Pilgrims believe that they are entitled to travel freely to Mecca as "Guests of God"–not as guests of any nation or organization that might wish to restrict or profit from their efforts to fulfill a fundamental religious obligation. Blending social science with the humanities and international law,Guests of God tells the stories of hajjis and hajj managers from Nigeria, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia to Pakistan, Malaysia, and Indonesia exploring one of the greatest human experiences of our time.
Pilgrimage and Power
Authors: Bianchi Robert R.
Published: April 2005

Debates over the politics of pilgrimage revolve around three key questions. Do pilgrimages tend to fall under the control of entrenched authorities–secular and religious–or do they remain independent social movements inherently hostile to hierarchy and hegemony? Do pilgrimages encourage universal and egalitarian identities or do they harden parochial loyalties already dividing nations, sects, and social groups? And are modernization and globalization destroying pilgrimages or making them more vigorous than ever–reducing them to quasi-secular tourism or turning them into truly worldwide expressions of spiritual revivals? Although there is truth in both explanations, Western narrators tend to view the hajj as a bulwark of the status quo whereas Muslims overwhelmingly see it as embodying irrepressible demands for equality and universal community–a vision that inevitably contradicts parochial identities, including nationalism.
Indonesia
Authors: Bianchi Robert R.
Published: April 2005

When Suharto began losing support in the military, he tried to shore up popularity by making the Indonesian hajj the largest in the world and dragging his whole family to Mecca to deflect outrage over their business scandals. His gesture put the pilgrimage in play as a legitimate subject for political debate and manipulation. After Suharto’s downfall, the hajj quickly became one of the most attractive battlegrounds for Muslim politicians competing for votes in Indonesia’s new democracy. All the major Muslim leaders have made the hajj–some of them several times–and all have written about their experiences in ways that are calculated to market their political personas. Indonesia’s current debates over the hajj and its meanings are a microcosm of power struggles in the world’s largest Islamic movements, particularly the Muhammadiyah and the Nahdlatul Ulama.
Introduction
Authors: FISHBANE MICHAEL
Published: April 2005

This introductory chapter begins with an exploration of the concept of myth and the influence of Greek myths on Jewish culture. It then explains the typological approach used to examine the texts in this book, as well as the principles of evaluation and analysis that will guide the present study. The tradition and transmission of myth, the place of myth in biblical scripture, and the role of Scripture in Jewish myth and mythmaking are discussed.
Combat Myths and Divine Actions: Prayers and Prophecies of Divine Might
Authors: FISHBANE MICHAEL
Published: April 2005

The psalms and prophecies where God’s victory over primordial sea monsters is recalled or invoked are characterized by situations of suffering or distress. Speakers recall to God His own past acts of power and salvation to induce their repetition in the present. It is argued that the standpoint of the speaker, and the urgency of the appeal are crucial for appreciating how each recitation or reference to the combat myth renews its actuality and truth in the present. Focus is given to matters of genre and form, as well as language and imagery to facilitate a comparative analysis of texts.
Introduction
Authors: FISHBANE MICHAEL
Published: April 2005

This chapter begins with discussion on rabbinic myths and mythmaking, tracing its permutations and preservation throughout the ages. It then provides an overview of the studies in the succeeding chapters (6-9) of this book. The studies focus on two main topics: divine strife with the sea; and divine involvement in the destiny of Israel.
The Primordial Serpent and the Secrets of Creation
Authors: FISHBANE MICHAEL
Published: April 2005

Biblical references of an ancient combat between God and a great sea dragon have gained prominence in Jewish texts. These images have migrated across time and have regenerated in new ways such as references to great sea serpents. This chapter presents an analysis of serpent myths and the mystery of evil. Parallels have been found between certain serpent traditions found in medieval Zoharic corpus and some Gnostic myths from late antiquity preserved by the Church Fathers in their attempt to rebut views deemed heretical or dangerous to Christianity.
Conclusions
Authors: FISHBANE MICHAEL
Published: April 2005

This chapter presents a synthesis of the studies in the preceding Chapters (10-12), focusing on a number of mystical tracts, particularly the book of Zohar — an heir of these prior layers of tradition and their transformation. The book of Zohar attempts to read and disclose the hidden myth in the words of the Torah and other passages of the sacred canon. Myth is considered an inward and spiritual reality of the divine being, is unsayable and unknowable on its own terms, and only becomes knowable and sayable in the terminology of Scripture.
The Impact of Active Leverage I: Making Political Systems More Competitive, 1994–8
Authors: Vachudova Milada Anna
Published: April 2005

Once the EU developed its active leverage, noncompliance with EU membership requirements became visible and costly for governments in candidate states. This chapter illustrates the effectiveness of the EU’s active leverage in compelling Hungary to moderate its foreign policy towards neighbouring states, and it explores the EU’s vigorous attempts to improve the treatment of ethnic minorities in Romania and Slovakia. The EU’s active leverage was usually ineffective in directly pressuring ruling elites in Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia to change key domestic policies. But the relationship between the EU and credible future members gradually changed the domestic balance of power in illiberal states against rent-seeking elites by making the political systems more competitive. It did so by working through society to change the information environment and the institutional environment to the advantage of more liberal political forces. This helped undermine the ‘democratic monopoly’ that had allowed rent-seeking elites to use ethnic nationalism and economic populism to win and maintain power. In states where no united, organized liberal opposition existed before 1989, the EU’s active leverage—in cooperation with other international actors and in synergy with domestic forces—helped to create one, shaping the more liberal political parties that took power in 1996 in Romania, in 1997 in Bulgaria and in 1998 in Romania.
Moral Scepticism 10
Authors: Shafer-Landau Russ
Published: April 2005

Presents and tries to defuse some classic arguments for moral scepticism, and against the possibility of moral knowledge. Considers the regress argument, an argument from relevant alternatives, and a vicious circle argument, and tries to show why we can continue to justifiably believe moral claims even in the absence of a decisive means of undermining these sceptical arguments.
The Justification of Moral Principles 11
Authors: Shafer-Landau Russ
Published: April 2005

Defends the existence of self‐evident moral principles. Considers a number of objections to a moral epistemology that is based on classical intuitionism, and finds each such objection wanting.
3 Naturalism Characterized
Authors: Rea Michael C.
Published: April 2005

Argues that characterizing naturalism as a view rather than a research programme and inevitably portrays naturalism either as a self‐defeating thesis or as a view commitment to which would be inconsistent with the core dispositions of the tradition. Thus, the fairest and most plausible characterization of naturalism treats it as a research programme – in particular, a research programme wherein one treats the methods of science and those methods alone as basic sources of evidence.
Introduction
Authors: Brekke Torkel
Published: April 2005

This introductory chapter begins with an overview of historical links between Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. According to Western indology, Buddhism and Jainism sprang from the great tree of Hinduism. Religious identity in India, the need for a new type of religious identity, and religious authority in India are discussed.
Defining Buddhism
Authors: Brekke Torkel
Published: April 2005

Anagarika Dharmapala was the most important reformer of Buddhism in Sri Lanka in the 19th century. He espoused a Protestant Buddhism that blurred the traditional roles of monk and layman. It advocated right of lay people to engage in the high soteriological religion, and to strive for nirvana. One of his foremost legacies is inventing the role of the Anagarika, the person between the order of monks and the laity.
Defining Jainism
Authors: Brekke Torkel
Published: April 2005

Jainism in India began as a religious movement for individuals wishing to renounce society and strive towards release from the cycle of rebirth. Jain identity was a matter of membership in the community of religious renouncers who were followers of Mahavira. The sense of Jains as a unified community separate from the Hindus and Muslims first emerged in the 19th century, when organisations for the propagation of Jainism were established. One of the most important figures in Jainism was Vijaya Dharma Suri, who worked towards its revitalisation.
War, Responsibility, and Law Enforcement
Authors: Rodin David
Published: April 2005

This chapter argues that military action against an aggressive state may be justified as a form of law enforcement rather than self-defence. The establishment of something like a minimal universal state is needed for such a justification to be effective. It is also argued that the justification of any form of military action requires a moral explanation of why the soldiers against whom one fights are appropriate objects of violence.
Supervenience and Causation 4
Authors: Shafer-Landau Russ
Published: April 2005

Addresses two outstanding worries about ethical non‐naturalism. The first, developed primarily by Simon Blackburn, is that this form of moral realism cannot provide an adequate account of the supervenience of the moral upon the non‐moral. The second, prompted by Gilbert Harman, is that moral facts lack any independent causal power, and so we have excellent reason to regard them as unreal.
The Johannine Corpus in the Early Church
Authors: Hill Charles E.
Published: April 2005

Traditionally associated with John the apostle (the Gospel of John, the three Letters of John and the Revelation of John) make up a major portion of the Christian New Testament and have had an immense influence both on Christianity and on Western culture. Yet the consensus of scholarship has long held that one member of this Johannine corpus, the Gospel of John, endured a long struggle before it was deemed acceptable to the mainstream of orthodox Christianity. This consensus maintains that the Fourth Gospel was accepted first and most enthusiastically by gnostic and other heterodox groups while suffering disregard or opposition by the orthodox until about the 180s, when Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, ‘rescued’ it by showing how it could be used against the heretics. This study chronicles the rise of this ‘orthodox Johannophobia paradigm’ (OJP) in scholarship, then mounts a thorough investigation of the primary sources to ascertain its viability. The examination of all second-century sources, both orthodox and heterodox, both literary and material, places every aspect of this paradigm in jeopardy. The extent of John’s early use has been routinely underestimated, and its reception among the gnostic schools largely (and surprisingly) misunderstood. Considering the Fourth Gospel in the second-century context also forces us not only to view it alongside other Gospel literature, but also alongside other writings with which it was widely associated, namely, the Johannine Epistles and Apocalypse. The book concludes with a summary and reflections on the implications for our understanding of Johannine origins and history.
The Making of a Consensus
Authors: Hill Charles E.
Published: April 2005

Details how the consensus position on orthodox Johannophobia evolved and gained its hegemony in the academy. Beginning with views promulgated by the German scholar Walter Bauer in 1934 in his highly influential book, Rechtgläubigkeit und Ketzerei im ältesten Christentum, reviews the work of major Johannine and early Christian scholars to the end of the twentieth century. After a brief stalemate in the early 1960s, due to the work of F.-M. Braun, and despite other noteworthy dissenters (Hengel, Nagel), the notion that the gnostics warmly received John while the orthodox ignored or resisted it until about the time of Irenaeus, has gained a general acceptance.
John among the Orthodox, c. ad 170–200
Authors: Hill Charles E.
Published: April 2005

As the period c. 170–200 is acknowledged by the proponents of the OJP to be the time in which the Fourth Gospel was quickly gaining acceptance among the orthodox (except in Rome), our study of the sources begins with this period. The 14 recognizably orthodox writers reviewed in this section indeed show this Gospel being used with ease and regularity and in an authoritative manner. It is linked with the three canonical Gospels and used as scripture by Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and the Muratorian Fragment. But remarkably, while there were, as there were with other Christian writings, battles over interpretation, there are no signs that Irenaeus or anyone else was engaged in an effort to wrest this Gospel from heterodox groups, including the Valentinians, who might have had a monopoly on it. Moreover, John’s Gospel is disproportionately well attested in surviving papyri of the early period, and this is strikingly paralleled by the high representation of its scenes among the images adorning the earliest Christian catacombs in Rome, the very city that was, according to Bauer, the stronghold of orthodox Johannophobia.
John and ‘the Gnostics’
Authors: Hill Charles E.
Published: April 2005

Investigates the chief empirical basis for the OJP, the use of the Fourth Gospel among ‘gnostic’ and Valentinian authors and groups that can be plausibly dated to the second century. The works of individual teachers and surviving texts, including a number of texts from the Nag Hammadi library, are examined to determine not only their knowledge of the Fourth Gospel (along with the Johannine Letters and Apocalypse) but also the ways in which they used it. The most striking discovery of this study is that the Fourth Gospel was seen by many of these writers not chiefly as an ally but as a text, which simply had to be reckoned with, adapted, and sometimes contradicted. Surprisingly, the only Johannophobia of the period is found not in orthodox writers, but in heterodox works such as the Trimorphic Protennoia, the Second Apocalypse of James, the Apocryphon of James, the Acts of John, Gospel of Truth, and perhaps the Gospel of Thomas.
Coordination and Externalities in Macroeconomics
Authors: Bagliano Fabio-Cesare , Bertola Giuseppe
Published: April 2005

Focusses on the macroeconomic effects of strategic interactions among optimizing agents in several contexts. Trading externalities are introduced in a non‐monetary economy and the possibility of multiple equilibria is discussed. A search model of money is then presented, which formalizes the use of money as a medium of exchange. Finally, a model of the labour market characterized by a process of search on the part of workers and firms is studied, and the dynamics of frictional unemployment, vacancies, and wages are discussed.
Prelude: The New Philosophy of Vision
Authors: Matthen Mohan
Published: April 2005

Traditional theories of perception treat sensation as an image projected from the state of sensory receptors; more recently, cognitive scientists have focussed on how it is the result of data extraction. There are philosophical problems about how to accommodate the new paradigm: notably how to describe perceptual content in such a way as to preserve the epistemic innocence and egocentric perspective of the perceiver. The way to address this problem is to look at how perception is instinctively used, in particular, how it is used in order to gain knowledge about the world.
The Sources of Sensory Similarity
Authors: Matthen Mohan
Published: April 2005

In the Cartesian paradigm, similarity of sensation is explained by the similarity of receptor state; it is shown that this is empirically mistaken. C. R. Gallistel has suggested that sensory similarity reflects topological proximity in a neural feature map; this sort of thesis explains why similarity with respect to a single parameter is invariant (see Ch. 4). The system constructs such maps because it needs to resolve imprecision in neural representations and to determine a precise response to the situations represented. Such internal origins of sensory similarity do not preclude realism. Sense features are physically specifiable; in addition, they serve some purpose in the organism by signalling similarities of functional relevance: thus, it is possible for an organism to be wrong about similarity.
Perceptual Specialization and the Definition of Colour
Authors: Matthen Mohan
Published: April 2005

Because of perceptual specialization in different species of animals, colour cannot be defined in terms of either the physical properties that human colour vision captures or the sense experiences that it produces in humans. Thus, there is no ecologically characterized class of properties such that colour vision must consist (in whatsoever kind of organism it may occur) in the capture of some or all of the members of this class. Nor is there any subjectively characterized class of experiences such that colour vision must consist (in whatsoever kind of organism it may occur) of having some or all of these experiences.
The Semantic Theory of Colour Experience
Authors: Matthen Mohan
Published: April 2005

A standard philosophical approach to defining colour associates it with a ‘colour look‘ in standard circumstances. All extant plausible versions of this theory violate the condition that we should possess instinctive knowledge of colour. A more promising approach is a ‘semantic‘specification of the meaning of colour experiences, elaborated along the lines of Tarski=s semantic theory of truth: something is a particular colour if it really is the colour something looks to be when it presents the associated look. The semantic theory is elaborated by means of an analogy between sensory systems and measuring instruments. The proposal is that sensory systems provide measurements in an ‘auto-calibrated‘ scale: in terms, that is, of something like a re-identifiable pointer position that is not specified by reference to an independently defined scale.
Visual Reference
Authors: Matthen Mohan
Published: April 2005

The visual guidance of bodily motion is conducted by a system, here entitled ‘motion-guiding vision‘, that is separate from the system that furnishes us with visual qualia. The latter is called ‘descriptive vision‘. Vision scientists commonly hold that motion-guiding vision makes no contribution to sensory consciousness. Here it is argued that by giving us the wherewithal physically to make contact with external objects, motion-guiding vision supports perceptual demonstratives and accounts for the ‘feeling of presence‘ that distinguishes seen physical objects from those that are merely pictured or imagined. In this way, motion-guiding vision contributes to our experience of seeing something, though sensory qualia such as colour or shape cannot be traced to it. The visual representation of space is assembled from descriptive and motion-guiding vision.
Hegel as a Theologian of the Spirit
Authors: Hodgson Peter C.
Published: April 2005

This chapter provides a brief survey of Hegel’s life and career, then examines the way that his speculative philosophy attempts to move through and beyond Kant’s critical philosophy to reestablish the possibility of knowing ultimate truth and reality. A logical deep structure underlies both thought and being, and it appears in a great diversity of shapes in the empirical world. Philosophy of religion is the culminating element of Hegel’s philosophical system, and he understood it to be a philosophical theology whose task is to know God and rethink the central theological doctrines in a more adequate conceptuality. For Hegel, ‘spirit’ designates the distinctive ontological quality of God as a living process of creating, communicating, and consummating.
Trinity: God as Absolute Spirit
Authors: Hodgson Peter C.
Published: April 2005

The specifically Christian idea of God is as absolute spirit, which means that the divine life takes on a trinitarian structure: immediacy or self-identity, self-differentiation or positing of otherness, and self-return or consummation. This is the life-process of spirit itself. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity articulates this insight in representational language that introduces numbers (three-in-one) and persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). In Hegel’s speculative reconstruction, God is to be understood not as three persons but as infinite personality or subjectivity, which constitutes distinctions within itself but suspends these distinctions and remains in unity with itself. Life, love, and friendship all exhibit this dialectical structure. Traces and anticipations of the Trinity are to be found in everything and everywhere—an insight grasped by a heterodox tradition going back to Pythagoreans, Neoplatonists, Gnostics, and German mystics such as Boehme.
Creation, Humanity, and Evil
Authors: Hodgson Peter C.
Published: April 2005

God creates by ‘releasing’ the otherness that is intrinsic to the divine life into actual, independent existence, which is the world vis-à-vis God. The world divides into the realms of nature and finite spirit (humanity). God’s wisdom is at work in both realms, but a free and conscious relationship to God is possible only in the latter. Estrangement, self-securing, and evil are the condition of possibility of free relationships, and thus Hegel’s view of human nature takes on a tragic aspect, as is evident from his interpretation of the story of the fall in the book of Genesis. Whether his understanding of evil as the distortion of knowledge is sufficiently radical is a question with which the chapter ends.
Christ and Reconciliation
Authors: Hodgson Peter C.
Published: April 2005

Hegel locates the focal point of reconciliation and redemption in the figure of Jesus Christ, in whom the unity of divine and human nature is believed to be definitively accomplished. He attempts to establish by philosophical arguments the possibility, necessity, and actuality of the incarnation of God in a single and specific human being. That Jesus of Nazareth is this person is a claim of faith, but it is a claim corroborated by the historical evidence of his life, teaching, and death. Viewed historically, his crucifixion is the death of a criminal; but viewed religiously, it is the death of God—a point on which Hegel places considerable emphasis since it is only by undergoing death (as the pinnacle of finitude) that God overcomes it. The resurrection of Christ symbolizes the triumph of highest love over deepest anguish and the transition from a single individual to the community of faith.
Private Values
Authors: Menezes Flavio M. , Monteiro Paulo K.
Published: April 2005

This chapter presents the Independent Private Values model, wherein bidders’ values for the object being auctioned off is a function of only their own types. The equilibrium bidding strategies and seller’s expected revenue in four distinct types of auctions (first- and second-price sealed-bid, English, and Dutch auctions) are computed. It is shown that bidders bid less than their valuations in the unique symmetric of a first-price auction, and bid their valuations in the unique symmetric equilibrium of the second-price auction.
Multiple Objects
Authors: Menezes Flavio M. , Monteiro Paulo K.
Published: April 2005

This chapter analyses the problems in developing a general theory of multiple-object auctions. Sequential second-price auctions and discriminatory and uniform auctions are examined. The optimal auction is characterized, and its expected revenue is compared with that of standard auction formats.
Stacking Faults in β‐SiC Formed during Carbothermal Reduction of SiO2
Authors: Seo Won‐Seon , Koumoto Kunihito
Published: April 2005

Factors affecting stacking fault formation during the synthetic fabrication of β‐SiC were investigated in the present study. Two main reaction routes in the carbothermal reduction of SiO2—solid–solid and solid‐gas reactions—led to the formation of β‐SiC, depending on the vapor pressure of the SiO gas. The β‐SiC formed by the solid‐gas (carbon‐SiO gas) reaction showed a whisker morphology with a high stacking fault density (SFD), whereas that formed by the solid‐solid (Si‐carbon) reaction exhibited spherical particles with a low SFD. The average size of the synthesized particles decreased with decreasing reaction temperature and time, and their stacking fault content, measured by X‐ray diffraction, was higher than the true value, possibly because of a size effect. The stacking fault density increased with increase in the heating rate because of an increased reaction rate.
Preparation of High‐Strength Calcium Phosphate Ceramics with Low Modulus of Elasticity Containing β‐Ca(PO3)2 Fibers
Authors: Kasuga Toshihiro , Ota Yoshio , Tsuji Kenji , Abe Yoshihiro
Published: April 2005

Novel calcium phosphate ceramics were fabricated by hot‐pressing fibrous products extracted from crystallized products of calcium ultraphosphate glasses by aqueous leaching. The ceramics were dense materials with a relative density of >95%; these ceramics were composite materials that consisted of β‐Ca(PO3)2 fibrous crystals with CaO–P2O5 glass, which was formed during hot pressing, as the matrix phase. These ceramics showed a high bending strength of 150–220 MPa and a low Young's modulus of 30–60 GPa. The high toughness contributed to the high strength, with fiber pull‐out and crack deflection observed as the primary toughening mechanism.
Kinetics of Thermal Dehydroxylation and Carbonation of Magnesium Hydroxide
Authors: Butt Darryl P. , Lackner Klaus S. , Wendt Christopher H. , Conzone Samuel D. , Kung Harriet , Lu Yung‐Cheng , Bremser Julie K.
Published: April 2005

The kinetics of simultaneous dehydroxylation and carbonation of precipitated Mg(OH)2 were studied using isothermal and nonisothermal thermogravimetric analyses. Specimens were analyzed using X‐ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and through measurements of the volume of carbon dioxide evolved in a subsequent reaction with hydrochloric acid. From 275° to 475°C, the kinetics of isothermal dehydroxylation in helium were best fit to a contracting‐sphere model, yielding an activation energy of 146 kJ/mol, which was greater than values reported in the literature for isothermal dehydroxylation under vacuum (53–126 kJ/mol). The carbonation kinetics were complicated by the fact that dehydroxylation occurred simultaneously. The overall kinetics also could be fit to a contracting‐sphere model, yielding a net activation energy of 304 kJ/mol. The most rapid carbonation kinetics occurred near 375°C. At this temperature, Mg(OH)2 underwent rapid dehydroxylation and subsequent phase transformation, whereas thermodynamics favored the formation of carbonate. During carbonation, MgCO3 precipitated on the surface of disrupted Mg(OH)2 crystals acting as a kinetic barrier to both the outward diffusion of H2O and the inward diffusion of CO2.
Contact Damage in Plasma‐Sprayed Alumina‐Based Coatings
Authors: Pajares Antonia , Wei Lanhua , Lawn Brian R. , Berndt Christopher C.
Published: April 2005

A study of Hertzian contact damage in plasma‐sprayed alumina‐based ceramic coatings on steel substrates has been made. Presectioned specimens are used to identify subsurface micromechanical damage processes within the coating and substrate layers as a function of increasing contact load, from both postcontact and in situ observations. Damage occurs principally by cracking in the ceramic coating and plastic deformation in the metal substrate, along with delamination at the coating/substrate interface. Coating thickness, cycling loading (fatigue), and processing history (coating microstructure) are shown to be important factors in the damage patterns and ensuing modes of failure. Indentation stress‐strain curves are used to measure macroscopic mechanical responses, to quantify the maximum sustainable contact stresses and to determine the relative roles of coating and substrate in the net deformation.
Comment on “Diffraction Method Detection of Local Lattice Distortion in AlN Ceramics by Convergent Beam Electron”
Authors: Callahan Daniel L.
Published: April 2005

Having read with interest the paper by Nakahata et al. on the use of convergent beam electron diffraction (CBED) to examine lattice distortions in AlN,1 this author writes to elucidate several subtleties in the application of quantitative CBED analysis which may influence the conclusions drawn from the published report. In Nakahata et al.'s work, two primary structural observations were made, that the AlN crystal near the yttrium aluminate grainboundary phase was distorted and that the lattice near the AlN/AlN grain boundary was not distorted. Energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDS) could discern no compositional variation in the AlN. These observations were used to support the proposition that the observed lattice distortion is caused mainly by the thermal expansion mismatch between AlN and the grainboundary phase. However, close examination of the data presented indicates that solutionized oxygen may be the primary cause of the distortion.
Mineralocorticoid resistance
Authors: Geller David S.
Published: April 2005

The mineralocorticoid aldosterone plays a crucial role in regulation of volume and electrolyte homeostasis. In recent years there has been considerable progress in deciphering the role of aldosterone in human physiology by the study of monogenic disorders exhibiting mineralocorticoid resistance. Although these disorders are rare, the elucidation of their molecular basis has yielded many insights into aldosterone biology that are proving relevant to the care of patients with a wide variety of cardiovascular diseases. Recent advances in understanding the molecular basis of syndromes of mineralocorticoid resistance are reviewed with a view towards an improved understanding of the role of aldosterone in renal sodium transport and its relationship to cardiovascular disease.
Prevalence of hypopituitarism and growth hormone deficiency in adults long‐term after severe traumatic brain injury
Authors: Leal‐Cerro Alfonso , Flores Juan M. , Rincon Marilo , Murillo Francisco , Pujol Mercedes , Garcia‐Pesquera Felipe , Dieguez Carlos , Casanueva Felipe F.
Published: April 2005

Objective Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been associated with hypopituitarism and GH deficiency. However, TBI‐mediated hypopituitarism may be more frequent than previously thought. The present work, performed in patients with severe TBI at least 1 year before, had three aims: (i) to evaluate the prevalence of hypopituitarism, (ii) in particular to evaluate the prevalence of GH deficiency, and (iii) to compare three different tests of GH reserve in this cohort.

Design and patients From a nonselected group of 249 patients admitted to our Clinical Centre for severe TBI over the last 5 years, 200 of them answered a custom made questionnaire of symptoms of hypopituitarism enclosed in the invitation letter to participate in the study. A total of 170 (99 men and 14 women), accepted to participate in the study (study cohort); 57 had normal questionnaires and were not further studied, 14 discontinued the study, and 99 attended the hospital for dynamic tests of pituitary hormone deficiencies. From these, 44 subjects with IGF‐I in the lower range were tested with GHRH+GHRP‐6; ITT; and glucagon tests of GH reserve, on three different occasions.

Measurements Pituitary hormones plus IGF‐I and target gland hormones were analysed.

Results With regard to the initial cohort of 170 subjects (100%), three (1·7%) showed diabetes insipidus; 10 (5·8%) TSH deficiency, 11 (6·4%) ACTH deficiency and 29 (17%) gonadotrophin deficiency. In 10 subjects (5·8%), GH deficiency was diagnosed by strict criteria. Finally, 15 (8·8%) showed combined deficit of several hormones.

Conclusion After severe head trauma, gonadotrophin deficiency was the most common pituitary deficit. GH deficiency showed a prevalence similar to ACTH and TSH deficits, i.e. near 6% of the cohort. Taken together, 24·7% of the subjects studied showed any type of pituitary hormone deficiency.
Expression of growth hormone‐releasing hormone receptor splicing variants in human primary adrenocortical tumours
Authors: Freddi Simona , Arnaldi Giorgio , Fazioli Francesca , Scarpelli Marina , Appolloni Gloria , Mancini Tatiana , Kola Blerina , Bertagna Xavier , Mantero Franco , Collu Robert , Boscaro Marco
Published: April 2005

Objective Several splice variants (SVs) of GHRH receptor (GHRH‐R) have been identified in various human cancers through which GHRH antagonists may exert their IGF‐II‐mediated antiproliferative action. Because the overexpression of the IGF‐II gene is a frequent feature of adrenal carcinoma, we searched for the presence of GHRH‐R SVs in these tumours.

Methods and Results The expression of GHRH‐R SVs was assessed by nested PCR in 45 human adrenocortical tumours. We have amplified 720‐, 566‐ and 335‐bp PCR products only in carcinomas. Their sequence revealed three open reading frames, corresponding to SV1, SV2 and SV4 of GHRH‐R. SV2 was detected in five of 24 cancers examined, whereas the incidence of SV1 and SV4 was lower. Their simultaneous expression was observed in one carcinoma. No PCR products for SV3 or wild‐type GHRH‐R were found in carcinomas; mRNA for wild‐type GHRH‐R or SVs of GHRH‐R were not observed either in adenomas or in normal adrenal or in NCI‐H295R cells. Interestingly, all carcinomas which expressed SVs were also positive for the presence of GHRH mRNA.

Conclusion This is the first time that the expression of splice variants of GHRH‐R has been demonstrated in human adrenal carcinoma. This study raises the possibility that splice variants might play a role in adrenal carcinogenesis and might offer the possibility for new therapeutic strategies at least in a subgroup of adrenal carcinomas.
Mutational analysis of PPARG as a candidate tumour suppressor gene in enteropancreatic endocrine tumours
Authors: Costa‐Guda Jessica , Rosen Evan D. , Jensen Robert T. , Chung Daniel C. , Arnold Andrew
Published: April 2005

Objectives  Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) or deletion of chromosome 3p is a frequent finding in enteropancreatic endocrine tumours (EPETs), suggesting the pathogenetic involvement of one or more tumour suppressor genes on 3p. PPARG, the gene encoding the gamma isoform of the peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor (PPARγ), is highly expressed in normal human pancreatic islet cells, is located at 3p25, and has been reported to sustain loss‐of‐function mutations in human colorectal carcinomas. Additionally, the development of islet cell hyperplasia in an islet cell‐specific pparg knockout mouse has further emphasized the attractiveness of PPARG as a candidate gene important in the pathogenesis of EPETs. Therefore, we sought to examine PPARG for intragenic inactivating mutations, the evidence needed to rigorously establish it as a tumour suppressor in EPETs.

Patients and design  Twenty‐three EPETs from 20 patients were examined for coding region mutations in PPARG and for LOH on 3p at microsatellite markers flanking PPARG.

Results  LOH on 3p was detected in tumours from six patients (30%), but no intragenic mutations were detected in PPARG, whether or not LOH was present.

Conclusion  These findings strongly suggest that PPARG does not commonly function as a classical tumour suppressor gene in the pathogenesis of EPETs.
Glycodelin responses to hyperinsulinaemic clamp vary according to basal serum glycodelin concentration
Authors: Seppälä Markku , Mandelin Erik , Koistinen Riitta , Bergholm Robert , Tiikkainen Mirja , Yki‐Järvinen Hannele
Published: April 2005

Objective Treatment with metformin, an insulin‐lowering agent, increases serum glycodelin, a progesterone‐regulated lipocalin protein of the reproductive axis that may play a role in foeto‐maternal defence mechanisms. This finding led to the hypothesis that insulin might decrease serum glycodelin concentration.

Design, patients and measurements Euglycaemic hyperinsulinaemic clamp experiments (n = 50) were carried out on 28 women of reproductive age (range 25–47 years; mean ± SEM 39 ± 1·0 years), and the results were analysed with respect to their baseline serum progesterone (< 10 or ≥ 10 nmol/l) and glycodelin (< 10 or ≥ 10 µg/l, equivalent to < 357 or ≥ 357 pmol/l) concentrations at the onset of the clamp. Ten clamp experiments were performed on five women wearing a levonorgestrel‐releasing intrauterine device (IUD), and these were analysed as a separate group.

Results Contrary to the hypothesis, no acute glycodelin‐lowering effect of insulin was found in any of the groups studied. All the small rises in glycodelin levels detected during acute hyperinsulinaemia occurred in the comparisons of medians and not means, and all such changes took place within the limits seen in the women with no progesterone exposure. In the group with low progesterone/low glycodelin (n = 21), glycodelin showed a small but significant increase at 30 and 90 min of the clamp (P < 0·01). In the group with elevated progesterone/low glycodelin (n = 11), there was a slight glycodelin increase at 30 min (P < 0·05), whereas no increase was found in the group with elevated glycodelin levels (n = 8). In the clamp experiments on women with levonorgestrel‐releasing IUD, the basal glycodelin level was low in all cases and, as in the other women with low glycodelin levels, glycodelin was slightly increased at 30, 60 and 90 min of hyperinsulinaemia (P < 0·01).

Conclusions The results rule out any acute glycodelin‐reducing effects of insulin, although indirect long‐term effects mediated by insulin on glycodelin secretion cannot be excluded.
Growth hormone releasing hormone plus arginine stimulation testing in young adults treated in childhood with cranio‐spinal radiation therapy
Authors: Ham J. Nina , Ginsberg Jill P. , Hendell Christine D. , Moshang Thomas
Published: April 2005

Objective  Growth hormone deficiency (GHD) secondary to cranio‐spinal radiation therapy (CSRT) is a complication seen in medulloblastoma survivors. The standard for diagnosis of adult GHD is a peak GH < 3 µg/l by the insulin tolerance test (ITT). However, insulin tolerance testing exposes patients to the risks of hypoglycaemia. Recent studies suggest that the GH releasing hormone + arginine (GHRH + ARG) test can identify GHD in cranially irradiated patients at longer time intervals after radiation. We evaluated the GHRH + ARG stimulation test compared to the ITT in young adults diagnosed with medulloblastoma during childhood.

Patients  We evaluated 10 young adult patients (age range 17–26 years) who were treated with CSRT during childhood for medulloblastoma, and who had resultant childhood‐onset GHD.

Measurements  Subjects underwent GH provocative testing with the ITT and the GHRH + ARG test. IGF‐I and IGFBP3 levels were also measured at baseline.

Results  Insulin tolerance testing and GHRH + arginine stimulation were performed at a mean ± SD 14 ± 4·4 years after cranial radiation. All patients failed the ITT with median peak GH 0·40 µg/l (range < 0·05–2·2). GHRH + arginine gave higher peak GH levels with a mean of 7·9 ± 5·7 µg/l (P = 0·003). Four patients had peak GH > 9 µg/l and were between 7·8 and 19·6 years from cranial radiation. There was no correlation of peak GH levels with time interval since CSRT. Thirty‐three per cent of subjects had normal IGF‐I; neither IGF‐I nor IGFBP3 standard deviation scores (SDS) correlated with ITT results.

Conclusions  Using a GHRH + arginine cut‐off for GHD of 9 µg/l, four patients would have been misclassified as GH sufficient, despite being > 7 years (with two patients being nearly 20 years) out from CSRT. These findings suggest that the pituitary GH‐producing cells of young adults continue to maintain responsiveness to GHRH + arginine more than 5–10 years after cranial irradiation.
Could Species Segregation be a Consequence of Aggregation Processes? Example ofPeriplaneta americana(L.) andP. fuliginosa(Serville)
Authors: Leoncini Isabelle , Rivault Colette
Published: April 2005

Our aim was to show how interindividual interactions, based on specific recognition signals that induce aggregation, can lead to the emergence of a segregation pattern between species. Groups including two cockroach species,Periplaneta americana(L.) (P.a.) andPeriplaneta fuliginosa(Serville) (Dictyoptera: Blattidae) (P.f.) were tested. Behavioural choice tests between two resting sites demonstrated aggregation behaviour in the two species. Aggregation in both species is based on chemical cues.Periplaneta fuliginosahas a higher aggregation level thanP.a.and responds only to its conspecific odour.Periplaneta americanais attracted by the odour of both species presented alone. In the presence of the odours of both species,P.f.selects its own odour, butP.a.neither selects its own odour, nor aggregates under these conditions. This could mean that the perceived chemical signals impair the aggregation process. In mixed groups including larvae of these two species, segregation between species occurs. We assumed that the first species that happened to form an aggregate on one of the resting sites induced the other species to occupy the remaining site. The emergence of a segregation pattern between the two species could be a consequence of the aggregation processes.