bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Health and Medicine on Display
Authors: Brown Julie K.
Published: October 2013

How international expositions, through their exhibits and infrastructures, attempted to increase public awareness of advances in health and medicine.

International expositions, with their massive assembling of exhibits and audiences, were the media events of their time. In transmitting a new culture of visibility that merged information, entertainment, and commerce, they provided a unique opportunity for the public to become aware of various social and technological advances. With Health and Medicine on Display, Julie Brown offers the first book-length examination of how international expositions, through their exhibits and infrastructures, sought to demonstrate innovations in applied health and medical practice. Brown investigates not only how exhibits translated health and medical information into visual form but also how exposition sites in urban settings (an exposition was “a city within a city” sometimes in conflict with municipal authorities) provided emergency medical treatment, access to safe water, and protection against infectious diseases. Brown looks at four expositions held in Philadelphia, Chicago, Buffalo, and St. Louis between 1876 and 1904, spanning the Gilded Age and the early reform years of the Progressive Era. She describes the 1904 St. Louis exposition in particular detail, looking closely at the sites and services as well as selected exhibits (including working model playground, live X-ray demonstrations, and a rescue film by the U.S. Navy). Many carefully researched illustrations, most never before published (with supplementary images available on the MIT Press website), vividly demonstrate the role that these exhibitions played in framing and shaping health issues for their audiences.
Combinatorics of Genome Rearrangements
Authors: Fertin Guillaume , Labarre Anthony , Rusu Irena , Tannier Eric , Vialette StÃ©phane
Published: October 2013

A comprehensive survey of a rapidly expanding field of combinatorial optimization, mathematically oriented but offering biological explanations when required.

From one cell to another, from one individual to another, and from one species to another, the content of DNA molecules is often similar. The organization of these molecules, however, differs dramatically, and the mutations that affect this organization are known as genome rearrangements. Combinatorial methods are used to reconstruct putative rearrangement scenarios in order to explain the evolutionary history of a set of species, often formalizing the evolutionary events that can explain the multiple combinations of observed genomes as combinatorial optimization problems. This book offers the first comprehensive survey of this rapidly expanding application of combinatorial optimization. It can be used as a reference for experienced researchers or as an introductory text for a broader audience. Genome rearrangement problems have proved so interesting from a combinatorial point of view that the field now belongs as much to mathematics as to biology. This book takes a mathematically oriented approach, but provides biological background when necessary. It presents a series of models, beginning with the simplest (which is progressively extended by dropping restrictions), each constructing a genome rearrangement problem. The book also discusses an important generalization of the basic problem known as the median problem, surveys attempts to reconstruct the relationships between genomes with phylogenetic trees, and offers a collection of summaries and appendixes with useful additional information.
Systematics as Cyberscience
Authors: Hine Christine
Published: October 2013

An exploration of the use of information and communication technologies by biologists working in systematics (taxonomy) and the dynamics of change and continuity with past practices in the development of systematics as a cyberscience.

The use of information and communication technology in scientific research has been hailed as the means to a new larger-scale, more efficient, and cost-effective science. But although scientists increasingly use computers in their work and institutions have made massive investments in technology, we still have little idea how computing affects the way scientists work and the kind of knowledge they produce. In Systematics as Cyberscience, Christine Hine explores these questions by examining the developing use of information and communication technology in one discipline, systematics (which focuses on the classification and naming of organisms and exploration of evolutionary relationships). Her sociological study of the ways that biologists working in this field have engaged with new technology is an account of how one of the oldest branches of science transformed itself into one of the newest and became a cyberscience.

Combining an ethnographic approach with historical review and textual analysis, Hine investigates the emergence of a virtual culture in systematics and how that new culture is entwined with the field's existing practices and priorities. Hine examines the policy perspective on technological change, the material culture of systematics (and how the virtual culture aligns with it), communication practices with new technology, and the complex dynamics of change and continuity on the institutional level. New technologies have stimulated reflection on the future of systematics and prompted calls for radical transformation, but the outcomes are thoroughly rooted in the heritage of the discipline. Hine argues that to understand the impact of information and communication technology in science we need to take account of the many complex and conflicting pressures that contemporary scientists navigate. The results of technological developments are rarely unambiguous efficiency gains, and are highly discipline-specific.
Food and the Mid-Level Farm
Authors: Carrillo Loretta
Published: October 2013

Practitioners and scholars from a range of disciplines discuss how midsize farms can better connect with consumers, organize collectively to develop markets for their products, and promote public policies that address agriculture-of-the-middle issues.

Agriculture in the United States today increasingly operates in two separate spheres: large, corporate-connected commodity production and distribution systems and small-scale farms that market directly to consumers. As a result, midsize family-operated farms find it increasingly difficult to find and reach markets for their products. They are too big to use the direct marketing techniques of small farms but too small to take advantage of corporate marketing and distribution systems. This crisis of the midsize farm results in a rural America with weakened municipal tax bases, job loss, and population flight. Food and the Mid-Level Farm discusses strategies for reviving an “agriculture of the middle” and creating a food system that works for midsize farms and ranches. Activists, practitioners, and scholars from a variety of disciplines, including sociology, political science, and economics, consider ways midsize farms can regain vitality by scaling up aspects of small farms' operations to connect with consumers, organizing together to develop markets for their products, developing food supply chains that preserve farmer identity and are based on fair business agreements, and promoting public policies (at international, federal, state, and community levels) that address agriculture-of-the-middle issues. Food and the Mid-Level Farm makes it clear that the demise of midsize farms and ranches is not a foregone conclusion and that the renewal of an agriculture of the middle will benefit all participants in the food system—from growers to consumers.
Relationscapes
Authors: Manning Erin
Published: October 2013

A new philosophy of movement that explores the active relation between sensation and thought through the prisms of dance, cinema, art, and new media.

With Relationscapes, Erin Manning offers a new philosophy of movement challenging the idea that movement is simple displacement in space, knowable only in terms of the actual. Exploring the relation between sensation and thought through the prisms of dance, cinema, art, and new media, Manning argues for the intensity of movement. From this idea of intensity—the incipiency at the heart of movement—Manning develops the concept of preacceleration, which makes palpable how movement creates relational intervals out of which displacements take form.

Discussing her theory of incipient movement in terms of dance and relational movement, Manning describes choreographic practices that work to develop with a body in movement rather than simply stabilizing that body into patterns of displacement. She examines the movement-images of Leni Riefenstahl, Étienne-Jules Marey, and Norman McLaren (drawing on Bergson's idea of duration), and explores the dot-paintings of contemporary Australian Aboriginal artists. Turning to language, Manning proposes a theory of prearticulation claiming that language's affective force depends on a concept of thought in motion.

Relationscapes takes a “Whiteheadian perspective,” recognizing Whitehead's importance and his influence on process philosophers of the late twentieth century—Deleuze and Guattari in particular. It will be of special interest to scholars in new media, philosophy, dance studies, film theory, and art history.
Instrumental Community
Authors: Mody Cyrus C. M.
Published: October 2013

How networked structures of collaboration and competition within a community of researchers led to the invention, spread, and commercialization of scanning probe microscopy.

The scanning tunneling microscope (STM) has been hailed as the “key enabling discovery for nanotechnology,” the catalyst for a scientific field that attracts nearly $20 billion in funding each year. In Instrumental Community, Cyrus Mody argues that this technology-centric view does not explain how these microscopes helped to launch nanotechnology—and fails to acknowledge the agency of the microscopists in making the STM and its variants critically important tools. Mody tells the story of the invention, spread, and commercialization of scanning probe microscopy in terms of the networked structures of collaboration and competition that came into being within a diverse, colorful, and sometimes fractious community of researchers. By forming a community, he argues, these researchers were able to innovate rapidly, share the microscopes with a wide range of users, and generate prestige (including the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics) and profit (as the technology found applications in industry).

Mody shows that both the technology of probe microscopy and the community model offered by the probe microscopists contributed to the development of political and scientific support for nanotechnology and the global funding initiatives that followed. In the course of his account, Mody charts the shifts in U.S. science policy over the last forty years—from the decline in federal basic research funding in the 1970s through the rise in academic patenting in the 1980s to the emergence of nanotechnology discourse in the 1990s—that have resulted in today's increasing emphasis on the commercialization of academic research.
Dyslexia, Learning, and the Brain
Authors: Nicolson Roderick , Fawcett Angela
Published: October 2013

A unique overview of research on dyslexia and an account of the underlying causes at cognitive, brain, and neural system levels that provides a framework for significant progress in the understanding of dyslexia and other related learning disabilities.

Dyslexia research has made dramatic progress since the mid-1980s. Once discounted as a “middle-class myth,” dyslexia is now the subject of a complex—and confusing—body of theoretical and empirical research. In Dyslexia, Learning, and the Brain, leading dyslexia researchers Roderick Nicolson and Angela Fawcett provide a uniquely broad and coherent analysis of dyslexia theory. Unlike most dyslexia research, which addresses the question “what is the cause of the reading disability called dyslexia?” the authors' work has addressed the deeper question of “what is the cause of the learning disability that manifests as reading problems?” This perspective allows them to place dyslexia research within the much broader disciplines of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience and has led to a rich framework, including two established leading theories, the automatization deficit account (1990) and the cerebellar deficit hypothesis (2001).

Nicolson and Fawcett show that extensive evidence has accumulated to support these two theories and that they may be seen as subsuming the established phonological deficit account and sensory processing accounts. Moving to the explanatory level of neural systems, they argue that all these disorders reflect problems in some component of the procedural learning system, a multiregion system including major components of cortical and subcortical regions. The authors' answer to the fundamental question “what is dyslexia?” offers a challenge and motivation for research throughout the learning disabilities, laying the foundations for future progress.
Power Struggles
Authors: Schiffer Michael Brian
Published: October 2013

The development of electrical technologies that laid the foundation for Edison's work: their invention, commercialization, and adoption.

In 1882, Thomas Edison and his Edison Electric Light Company unveiled the first large-scale electrical system in the world to light a stretch of offices in a city. This was a monumental achievement, but it was not the beginning of the electrical age. The first electric generators were built in the 1830s, the earliest commercial lighting systems before 1860, and the first commercial application of generator-powered lights (in lighthouses) in the early 1860s. In Power Struggles, Michael Brian Schiffer examines some of these earlier efforts, both successful and unsuccessful, that paved the way for Edison. After laying out a unified theoretical framework for understanding technological change, Schiffer presents a series of fascinating case studies of pre-Edison electrical technologies, including Volta's electrochemical battery, the blacksmith's electric motor, the first mechanical generators, Morse's telegraph, the Atlantic cable, and the lighting of the Capitol dome. Schiffer discusses claims of “practicality” and “impracticality” (sometimes hotly contested) made for these technologies, and examines the central role of the scientific authority—in particular, the activities of Joseph Henry, mid-nineteenth-century America's foremost scientist—in determining the fate of particular technologies. These emerging electrical technologies formed the foundation of the modern industrial world. Schiffer shows how and why they became commercial products in the context of an evolving corporate capitalism in which conflicting judgments of practicality sometimes turned into power struggles.
Currency Boards in Retrospect and Prospect
Authors: Wolf Holger C. , Ghosh Atish R. , Berger Helge , Gulde Anne-Marie
Published: October 2013

An authoritative analysis that employs economic theory, cross-country empirical comparison, and case studies to analyze the effect of currency boards on inflation, output growth and macroeconomic performance.

Currency boards, more so than other exchange rate regimes, have come in and out of fashion. Defined by a fixed exchange rate with full convertibility, central bank liabilities backed with foreign exchange reserves, and a high cost of exiting the regime, currency boards were common in colonial times—until most were cast off as countries gained independence after World War II. In the 1990s, currency boards enjoyed a revival as the cornerstone of various macroeconomic stabilization programs—including many in central and eastern European transition economies—only to fall into disfavor again with the collapse of the Argentine regime in 2002. The authors of Currency Boards in Retrospect and Prospect take a balanced look at the effects of currency board regimes on inflation, output growth, and macroeconomic performance more generally. Drawing on historical experience, economic theory, cross-country empirical analysis, and case studies of currency boards in Argentina, Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the authors conclude that currency boards deliver significant reductions in inflation compared to other regimes and do not seem to result in slower growth or a markedly higher vulnerability to crisis.
Adaptive Governance
Authors: Webster D. G.
Published: October 2013

Develops and applies an innovative theoretical framework that links domestic economic vulnerabilities to national policy positions and international management in the context of Atlantic fisheries.

The rapid expansion of the fishing industry in the last century has raised major concerns over the long-term viability of many fish species. International fisheries organizations have failed to prevent the overfishing of many stocks, but succeeded in curtailing harvests for some key fisheries. In Adaptive Governance, D. G. Webster proposes a new perspective to improve our understanding of both success and failure in international resource regimes. She develops a theoretical approach, the vulnerability response framework, which can increase understanding of countries' positions on the management of international fisheries based on linkages between domestic vulnerabilities and national policy positions. Vulnerability, mainly economic in this context, acts as an indicator for domestic susceptibility to the increasing competition associated with open access and related stock declines. Because of this relationship, vulnerability can also be used to trace the trajectory of nations' positions on fisheries management as they seek political alternatives to economic problems. Webster tests this framework by using it to predict national positions for eight cases drawn from the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). These studies reveal that there is considerable variance in the management measures ICCAT has adopted—both between different species and in dealing with the same species over time—and that much of this variance can be traced to vulnerability response behavior. Little attention has been paid to the ways in which international regimes change over time. Webster's innovative approach illuminates the pressures for change that are generated by economic competition and overexploitation in Atlantic fisheries. Her work also identifies patterns of adaptive governance, as national responses to such pressures culminate in patterns of change in international management.
The Nature of Love, Volume 1
Authors: Singer Irving
Published: October 2013

An analysis of concepts of bestowal, appraisal, imagination, and idealization followed by explorations into the writings of thinkers that include Plato, Ovid, and Martin Luther.

Irving Singer's trilogy The Nature of Love has been called "majestic" (New York Times Book Review), "monumental" (Boston Globe), "one of the major works of philosophy in our century" (Nous), "wise and magisterial" (Times Literary Supplement), and a "masterpiece of critical thinking [that] is a timely, eloquent, and scrupulous account of what, after all, still makes the world go round" (Christian Science Monitor).

In the first volume, Singer begins by studying love as appraisal and bestowal as well as imagination and idealization. He then examines the contrasting views of Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Ovid, Lucretius, Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas, and Martin Luther. After having described the nature of erotic idealization, Singer analyzes the religious idealization in Judeo-Christian concepts of eros, philia, nomos, and agape. Medieval Catholicism sought to combine these four ideas of love in the "caritas synthesis." Luther repudiated that attempt on the grounds that love exists only in God's agapastic bestowal of unlimited goodness upon humanity and all of nature. In relation to the different modes of theorizing, Singer explores the humanistic implications of each.
Vision
Authors: Marr David
Published: October 2013

Available again, an influential book that offers a framework for understanding visual perception and considers fundamental questions about the brain and its functions.

David Marr's posthumously published Vision (1982) influenced a generation of brain and cognitive scientists, inspiring many to enter the field. In Vision, Marr describes a general framework for understanding visual perception and touches on broader questions about how the brain and its functions can be studied and understood. Researchers from a range of brain and cognitive sciences have long valued Marr's creativity, intellectual power, and ability to integrate insights and data from neuroscience, psychology, and computation. This MIT Press edition makes Marr's influential work available to a new generation of students and scientists.

In Marr's framework, the process of vision constructs a set of representations, starting from a description of the input image and culminating with a description of three-dimensional objects in the surrounding environment. A central theme, and one that has had far-reaching influence in both neuroscience and cognitive science, is the notion of different levels of analysis—in Marr's framework, the computational level, the algorithmic level, and the hardware implementation level.

Now, thirty years later, the main problems that occupied Marr remain fundamental open problems in the study of perception. Vision provides inspiration for the continuing efforts to integrate knowledge from cognition and computation to understand vision and the brain.
Adopting Open Source Software
Authors: Fitzgerald Brian , Kesan Jay P. , Russo Barbara , Shaikh Maha , Succi Giancarlo
Published: October 2013

A rich case-study analysis of open source software adoption by public organizations in different countries and settings.

Government agencies and public organizations often consider adopting open source software (OSS) for reasons of transparency, cost, citizen access, and greater efficiency in communication and delivering services. Adopting Open Source Software offers five richly detailed real-world case studies of OSS adoption by public organizations. The authors analyze the cases and develop an overarching, conceptual framework to clarify the various enablers and inhibitors of OSS adoption in the public sector. The book provides a useful resource for policymakers, practitioners, and academics.

The five cases of OSS adoption include a hospital in Ireland; an IT consortium serving all the municipalities of the province of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy; schools and public offices in the Extremadura region of Spain; the Massachusetts state government's open standards policy in the United States; and the ICT department of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. The book provides a comparative analysis of these cases around the issues of motivation, strategies, technologies, economic and social aspects, and the implications for theory and practice.
Psychological Distress Among Young Norwegian Health Professionals
Authors: Nerdrum Per , Geirdal Amy Østertun
Published: October 2013

In this study, we present longitudinal data on psychological distress among 169 young Norwegian health professionals. Psychological distress was measured at the end of their studies, and three years later on, when being professional nurses, physiotherapists and occupational therapists. Psychological distress was assessed by applying the 12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ 12). Twenty-seven percent of the nursing students scored higher than the GHQ 12 case score at the end of the study, but as nurses, they became significantly less distressed three years later (13 percent). The other two professions showed relatively small and non-significant reductions in psychological distress during the first three years as a professional. Hierarchical multiple analyses showed that the level of psychological distress when finishing the study, the young professionals’ experience of personal support from colleagues, the experience of work-home conflicts and the experience of methodological coping at work were significant predictors of psychological distress three years after working as young health professionals. These four predictors explained together 29 percent in the variance in GHQ 12 three years after graduation. Belonging to any of the three professions did not contribute to the explained variance in psychological distress three years after graduation.
New Species of Pertusaria (Pertusariaceae) from Australia
Authors: Archer Alan W. , Elix John A.
Published: October 2013

Four new species, Pertusaria ambigua, P. humilis, P. queenslandica and P. submalvinae, are reported from Australia and two new species, Pertusaria allosorodes and P. wirthii, are reported from New Zealand.
A Review of Reagents for Fluorescence Microscopy of Cellular Compartments and Structures, Part II: Reagents for Non‐Vesicular Organelles
Authors: Kilgore Jason A. , Dolman Nick J. , Davidson Michael W.
Published: October 2013

A wide range of fluorescent dyes and reagents exist for labeling organelles in live and fixed cells. Choosing between them can sometimes be confusing, and optimization for many of them can be challenging. Presented here is a discussion on the commercially‐available reagents that have shown the most promise for each organelle of interest, including endoplasmic reticulum/nuclear membrane, Golgi apparatus, mitochondria, nucleoli, and nuclei, with an emphasis on localization of these structures for microscopy. Included is a featured reagent for each structure with a recommended protocol, troubleshooting guide, and example image. Curr. Protoc. Cytom. 66:12.31.1‐12.34.24. © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Predictive Microbiology in Food Packaging Applications
Authors: Sheen Shiowshuh
Published: October 2013

The chapter introduces and discusses mathematical modeling of microbial behaviors in foods, known as “predictive microbiology,” which helps describe and predict bacterial growth, inactivation, stress impact, interaction, survival, etc., and may be applied to select proper packaging and enhance food safety.
Design of improved‐reliability nanocircuits with mixed NBTI‐ and HCI‐aware gate‐sizing formulation
Authors: Amini‐sheshdeh Zhila , Nabavi Abdolreza
Published: October 2013

Negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) and hot carrier injection (HCI) are two important processes of reliability concern in nano‐scale integrated circuits. A circuit‐level design technique to combat NBTI degradation is gate oversizing. This paper presents a new technique based on PMOS and NMOS resistance variation for the NBTI‐ and HCI‐aware gate‐sizing problem for the first time. In this technique, the area of the circuit is minimized with constraints on degraded delay due to NBTI and HCI and the transitor size. Expreimental results for several gates and ISCAS'85 benchmark circuits show that this technique imposes an area overhead of less than 1% with respect to baseline design in most cases. © 2013 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Constrained energy minimization and orbital stability for the NLS equation on a star graph
Authors: Adami Riccardo , Noja Diego , Cacciapuoti Claudio , Finco Domenico
Published: October 2013

On a star graph

\mathcal{G}

, we consider a nonlinear Schrödinger equation with focusing nonlinearity of power type and an attractive Dirac's delta potential located at the vertex. The equation can be formally written as

i\partial _{t}\Psi (t) = −\mathrm{\Delta }\Psi (t)−|\Psi (t)|^{2\mu }\Psi (t) + \alpha \delta _{0}\Psi (t)

, where the strength

α

of the vertex interaction is negative and the wave function

Ψ

is supposed to be continuous at the vertex. The values of the mass and energy functionals are conserved by the flow. We show that for

0 < \mu ⩽2

the energy at fixed mass is bounded from below and that for every mass

m

below a critical mass

m^{⁎}

it attains its minimum value at a certain

\hat \Psi _{m} \in H^{1}(\mathcal{G})

.

Moreover, the set of minimizers has the structure

\mathcal{M} = \{e^{i\theta }\hat \Psi _{m},\:\theta \in \mathbb{R}\}

. Correspondingly, for every

m < m^{⁎}

there exists a unique

\omega = \omega (m)

such that the standing wave

\hat \Psi _{\omega }e^{i\omega t}

is orbitally stable. To prove the above results we adapt the concentration-compactness method to the case of a star graph. This is nontrivial due to the lack of translational symmetry of the set supporting the dynamics, i.e. the graph. This affects in an essential way the proof and the statement of concentration-compactness lemma and its application to minimization of constrained energy. The existence of a mass threshold comes from the instability of the system in the free (or Kirchhoff's) case, that in our setting corresponds to

\alpha = 0

.
Exposure to caregiver maltreatment alters expression levels of epigenetic regulators in the medial prefrontal cortex
Authors: Blaze Jennifer , Roth Tania L.
Published: October 2013

Quality of maternal care experienced during infancy is a key factor that can confer vulnerability or resilience to psychiatric disorders later in life. Research continues to indicate that early‐life experiences can affect developmental trajectories through epigenetic alterations capable of affecting gene regulation and neural plasticity. Previously, our lab has shown that experiences within an adverse caregiving environment (i.e. maltreatment) produce aberrant DNA methylation patterns at various gene loci in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of developing and adult rats. This study aimed to determine whether caregiver maltreatment likewise affects expression levels of several genes important in regulating DNA methylation patterns (Dnmt1, Dnmt3a, MeCP2, Gadd45b, and Hdac1). While we observed minimal changes in gene expression within the mPFC of developing rats, we observed expression changes for all genes in adult animals. Specifically, exposure to maltreatment produced a significant decrease in mRNA levels of all epigenetic regulators in adult males and a significant decrease in Gadd45b in adult females. Our results here provide further empirical support for the long‐term and sex‐specific epigenetic consequences of caregiver maltreatment on the mPFC.
What caused the low-water phase of glacial Lake Agassiz?
Authors: Lowell Thomas V. , Applegate Patrick J. , Fisher Timothy G. , Lepper Kenneth
Published: October 2013

First-order modeling suggests that a low-water phase in late-glacial Lake Agassiz can be explained through changes in the balance between evaporation, precipitation, and runoff, rather than drainage. The low-water Moorhead Phase is often attributed to drainage through outlets opened by isostatic depression and retreat of the Laurentide ice margin. However, new data indicate that the proposed outlets were ice-covered during the Moorhead Phase. Instead, the lake water levels dropped to the Moorhead Phase before the start of the Younger Dryas chronozone and remained there until 11.3 ka. Thus, drainage seems to be an implausible explanation for Younger Dryas-aged low water levels in Lake Agassiz. An alternative explanation is that evaporation equaled or exceeded water inputs from the adjacent ice margin and the deglaciated parts of the drainage basin. To evaluate whether this hypothesis is plausible, we constructed a simple model that considers the paleo-basin geometry, hydrology, and meltwater production from the adjacent ice margin. Modest hydrologic changes (within the range of present-day variability), coupled with low meltwater production, produce a closed basin. Shifts in the location of the polar jet, driven by increased Arctic albedo, may explain our inferred hydrologic changes.
MODELING THE MORTALITY TREND UNDER MODERN SOLVENCY REGIMES
Authors: Börger Matthias , Fleischer Daniel , Kuksin Nikita
Published: October 2013

Stochastic modeling of mortality/longevity risks is necessary for internal models of (re)insurers under the new solvency regimes, such as Solvency II and the Swiss Solvency Test. In this paper, we propose a mortality model which fulfills all requirements imposed by these regimes. We show how the model can be calibrated and applied to the simultaneous modeling of both mortality and longevity risk for several populations. The main contribution of this paper is a stochastic trend component which explicitly models changes in the long-term mortality trend assumption over time. This allows to quantify mortality and longevity risk over the one-year time horizon prescribed by the solvency regimes without relying on nested simulations. We illustrate the practical ability of our model by calculating solvency capital requirements for some example portfolios, and we compare these capital requirements with those from the Solvency II standard formula.
Multifluid Eulerian model of an electrospray in a host gas
Authors: Higuera F. J.
Published: October 2013

An Eulerian multifluid model is used to describe the evolution of an electrospray plume and the flow induced in the surrounding gas by the drag of the electrically charged spray droplets in the space between an injection electrode containing the electrospray source and a collector electrode. The spray is driven by the voltage applied between the two electrodes. Numerical computations and order-of-magnitude estimates for a quiescent gas show that the droplets begin to fly back toward the injection electrode at a certain critical value of the flux of droplets in the spray, which depends very much on the electrical conditions at the injection electrode. As the flux is increased toward its critical value, the electric field induced by the charge of the droplets partially balances the field due to the applied voltage in the vicinity of the injection electrode, leading to a spray that rapidly broadens at a distance from its origin of the order of the stopping distance at which the droplets lose their initial momentum and the effect of their inertia becomes negligible. The axial component of the electric field first changes sign in this region, causing the fly back. The flow induced in the gas significantly changes this picture in the conditions of typical experiments. A gas plume is induced by the drag of the droplets whose entrainment makes the radius of the spray away from the injection electrode smaller than in a quiescent gas, and convects the droplets across the region of negative axial electric field that appears around the origin of the spray when the flux of droplets is increased. This suppresses fly back and allows much higher fluxes to be reached than are possible in a quiescent gas. The limit of large droplet-to-gas mass ratio is discussed. Migration of satellite droplets to the shroud of the spray is reproduced by the Eulerian model, but this process is also affected by the motion of the gas. The gas flow preferentially pushes satellite droplets from the shroud to the core of the spray when the effect of the inertia of the droplets becomes negligible, and thus opposes the well-established electrostatic/inertial mechanism of segregation and may end up concentrating satellite droplets in an intermediate radial region of the spray.
The two classes of primary modal instability in laminar separation bubbles
Authors: Rodríguez Daniel , Gennaro Elmer M. , Juniper Matthew P.
Published: October 2013

The self-excited global instability mechanisms existing in flat-plate laminar separation bubbles are studied here, in order to shed light on the causes of unsteadiness and three-dimensionality of unforced, nominally two-dimensional separated flows. The presence of two known linear global mechanisms, namely an oscillator behaviour driven by local regions of absolute inflectional instability and a centrifugal instability giving rise to a steady three-dimensionalization of the bubble, is studied in a series of model separation bubbles. These results indicate that absolute instability, and consequently a global oscillator behaviour, does not exist for two-dimensional bubbles with a peak reversed-flow velocity below$12\hspace{0.167em} \% $of the free-stream velocity. However, the three-dimensional instability becomes active for recirculation levels as low as${u}_{rev} \approx 7\hspace{0.167em} \% $. These findings suggest a route to the three-dimensionality and unsteadiness observed in experiments and simulations substantially different from that usually found in the literature of laminar separation bubbles, in which two-dimensional vortex shedding is followed by three-dimensionalization.
Alcohol Consumption and Political Ideology: What's Party Got to Do with It?
Authors: Yakovlev Pavel A. , Guessford Walter P.
Published: October 2013

Recent research in psychology and sociology has established a connection between political beliefs and unhealthy behaviors such as excessive alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drug consumption. In this study, we estimate the relationship between political ideology and the demand for beer, wine, and spirits using a longitudinal panel of fifty U.S. states from 1952 to 2010. Controlling for various socioeconomic factors and unobserved heterogeneity, we find that when a state becomes more liberal politically, its consumption of beer and spirits rises, while its consumption of wine may fall. Our findings suggest that political beliefs are correlated with the demand for alcohol. (JEL Classifications: D3, D12, I1)
Tectonic affinity and reworking of the Archaean Jiaodong Terrane in the Eastern Block of the North China Craton: evidence from LA-ICP-MS U–Pb zircon ages
Authors: WU MEILING , ZHAO GUOCHUN , SUN MIN , BAO ZHIAN , TAM PUI YUK , HE YANHONG
Published: October 2013

The Archaean Jiaodong Terrane is located in the southern segment of the Palaeoproterozoic Jiao-Liao-Ji Belt, which separates the Eastern Block of the North China Craton into the Longgang and Langrim blocks. Controversy has long surrounded the issue of whether the Jiaodong Terrane is part of the North China Craton or an exotic terrane. This study presents new zircon U–Pb ages for the major lithologies of the Jiaodong Terrane, and the results indicate that the terrane underwent two main magmatic events at ~2.89 Ga and 2.62–2.56 Ga and two metamorphic events at ~2.5 Ga and 1.9–1.8 Ga. These ages are consistent with those of other metamorphic complexes in the Eastern Block, suggesting that the Jiaodong Terrane was part of the Neoarchaean basement of the Eastern Block, which was reworked at 1.9–1.8 Ga in association with the development of the Palaeoproterozoic Jiao-Liao-Ji Belt.
The cognitive science of religion and theism again: a reply to Leo Näreaho
Authors: LEECH DAVID , VISALA AKU
Published: October 2013

In this article we respond to Leo Näreaho's critique of our position on the relationship of the cognitive science of religion (CSR) and theism, arguing that he misrepresents our position and assimilates our views to ones we do not in fact hold. The central issue we address has to do with how Näreaho construes what he takes to be our commitment to a ‘world-view neutrality’ thesis regarding the ‘assumptions and results’ of the new bio-psychological theories of religion (in the case at hand, CSR). We suggest that Näreaho has misconstrued us on what the neutrality thesis actually is and what follows from it. We conclude that his own proposal for compatibility is not an alternative to ours but rather one permissible metaphysical reading of CSR among others.
Screendance: Inscribing the Ephemeral Image by Douglas Rosenberg; Dancefilm: Choreography and the Moving Image by Erin Brannigan
Authors: Bench Harmony
Published: October 2013

Over the years, screendance has generated flurries of interest within the scholarly dance community, only to watch that interest wane again and again with shifting academic trends. The past decade, however, has seen a slow-churning energy that may result in a more sustainable conversation around dance onscreen, much of which has been fueled by screendance artists and programmers themselves. A number of volumes of interest to academia have emerged as screendance artists have made homes for themselves in university settings. For makers of dance onscreen, Katrina McPherson's Making Video Dance: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Dance for the Screen (2006) and Karen Pearlman's Cutting Rhythms: Shaping the Film Edit (2009) are especially noteworthy. After Sherril Dodds's important historical and analytical book Dance on Screen: Genres and Media from Hollywood to Experimental Art (2001), however, screendance scholarship was not positioned to capitalize and build on Dodds's provocation. Liz Aggiss and Billy Cowie's edited collection Anarchic Dance (2006) offers a wonderful model for gathering together the creative work of a team of artists and scholarly writing about their work, but like Envisioning Dance on Film and Video (2002), a collection that was pulled together under Judy Mitoma's direction, the tone is somewhat self-congratulatory and the analysis is tepid. Finally, two books have come out that will stand alongside Dodds's to re-ignite conversations in the screendance field and in Dance Studies generally, and will do so in a generative and critical way: Douglas Rosenberg's Screendance: Inscribing the Ephemeral Image (2012) and Erin Brannigan's Dancefilm: Choreography and the Moving Image (2011).
EMPIRICAL LIKELIHOOD TEST FOR CAUSALITY OF BIVARIATE AR(1) PROCESSES
Authors: Li D. , Chan N. H. , Peng L.
Published: October 2013

Testing for causality is of critical importance for many econometric applications. For bivariate AR(1) processes, the limit distributions of causality tests based on least squares estimation depend on the presence of nonstationary processes. When nonstationary processes are present, the limit distributions of such tests are usually very complicated, and the full-sample bootstrap method becomes inconsistent as pointed out in Choi (2005, Statistics and Probability Letters 75, 39–48). In this paper, a profile empirical likelihood method is proposed to test for causality. The proposed test statistic is robust against the presence of nonstationary processes in the sense that one does not have to determine the existence of nonstationary processes a priori. Simulation studies confirm that the proposed test statistic works well.
Synthesis and X-ray diffraction data of 2-ethyl-6-(pyridin-4-yl)-7H-indeno[2,1-c]quinoline
Authors: Camargo H.A. , Sánchez A. , Henao J.A. , Romero Bohórquez Arnold R. , Kouznetsov Vladimir V.
Published: October 2013

The compound 2-ethyl-6-(pyridin-4-yl)-7H-indeno[2,1-c]quinoline (2) (chemical formula C23H22N2) was synthesized through the free-solvent oxidation reaction mediated by elemental sulfur from the corresponding 2-ethyl-6-(pyridin-4-yl)-5,6,6a,11b-tetrahidro-7H-indeno[2,1-c]quinoline (1), an adduct easily obtained, using the Lewis acid-promoted [4 + 2] cycloaddition reaction. Preliminary molecular characterization was performed by Fourier transform-infrared and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) pattern for the title compound was analyzed and found to be crystallized in monoclinic system, space groupP21/n(N° 14) with refined unit-cell parametersa = 20.795 (8) Å,b = 7.484 (2) Å,c = 10.787 (2) Å andß = 93.96° (2). The volume of the unit cell isV = 1674.8 (6) Å3.
X-ray powder diffraction data for levetiracetam
Authors: Xu Kai Lin , Liang Bing , Wu Xiao Qing , Zhang Li Li , Tang Pei Xiao , Li Hui
Published: October 2013

Experimental X-ray powder diffraction data, unit-cell parameters, and space group for levetiracetam, C8H14N2O2, are reported [a = 9.197(5) Å,b = 8.006(0) Å,c = 6.289(3) Å,β = 108.457(3)°, unit-cell volumeV = 439.261 Å3,Z = 2, and space groupP21]. All measured lines were indexed and are consistent with theP21space group. No detectable impurity was observed.
X-ray powder diffraction data for schisanhenol
Authors: Zhang Li Li , Xiao Dan , Lin Xia , Luo Wei , Li Si , Li Hui
Published: October 2013

Experimental X-ray powder diffraction data, unit-cell parameters and space group for schisanhenol, C23H30O6, are reported [a = 14.6157 Å,b = 12.8801 Å,c = 11.4907 Å, unit-cell volumeV = 2163.14 Å3,Z = 4, and space groupP212121]. All of the measured lines were indexed and are consistent with theP212121space group. No detectable impurities were observed.
Linking structure and function: Development of lateral spatial interactions in macaque monkeys
Authors: LI DA-PENG , HAGAN MAUREEN A. , KIORPES LYNNE
Published: October 2013

Lateral spatial interactions among elements of a scene, which either enhance or degrade visual performance, are ubiquitous in vision. The neural mechanisms underlying lateral spatial interactions are a matter of debate, and various hypotheses have been proposed. Suppressive effects may be due to local inhibitory interactions, whereas facilitatory effects are typically ascribed either to the function of long-range horizontal projections in V1 or to uncertainty reduction. We investigated the development of lateral spatial interactions, facilitation and suppression, and compared their developmental profiles to those of potential underlying mechanisms in the visual system of infant macaques. Animals ranging in age from 10 weeks to 3 years were tested with a lateral masking paradigm. We found that suppressive interactions are present from very early in postnatal life, showing no change over the age range tested. However, facilitation develops slowly over the first year after birth. Our data suggest that the early maturation of suppressive interactions is related to the relatively mature receptive field properties of neurons in early visual cortical areas near birth in infant macaques, whereas the later maturation of facilitation is unlikely to be explained by development of local or long-range connectivity in primary visual cortex. Instead our data favor a late developing feedback or top-down cognitive process to explain the origin of facilitation.
Factors associated with not using folic acid supplements preconceptionally
Authors: Manniën Judith , de Jonge Ank , Cornel Martina C , Spelten Evelien , Hutton Eileen K
Published: October 2013

Objective

Neural tube defects are among the most common birth defects worldwide. Folic acid intake from one month before to three months after conception reduces the likelihood of neural tube defects by at least 50 %. Since 1995, several campaigns have been organised in the Netherlands which resulted in 51 % of pregnant women using folic acid supplements during the entire recommended period in the northern part of the Netherlands in 2005. Our research question was to gain insight into the current prevalence and factors associated with inadequate pregnancy-related use of folic acid supplements.

Design

Data from the DELIVER study were used, which is a population-based cohort study.

Setting

Twenty midwifery practices across the Netherlands in 2009 and 2010.

Subjects

In total 5975 pregnant women completed a questionnaire covering items on sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, including folic acid intake.

Results

Of our study population, 55·5 % (3318/5975) used folic acid supplements before conception. Several sociodemographic and lifestyle factors were associated with no preconception use of folic acid, of which non-Western ethnicity and not having a partner had the largest effect size.

Conclusions

In the Netherlands, the folic acid intake before conception is suboptimal and has not improved over recent years. Fortification of staple foods with folic acid should be reconsidered as it would provide a more effective means of ensuring an adequate intake, especially for those groups of women who are unlikely to plan their pregnancies or to receive or respond to health promotion messages.
SOME INEQUALITIES FOR THEORETICAL SPATIAL ECOLOGY
Authors: SLADE PAUL F.
Published: October 2013

Inequalities for spatial competition verify the pair approximation of statistical mechanics introduced to theoretical ecology by Matsuda, Satō and Iwasa, among others. Spatially continuous moment equations were introduced by Bolker and Pacala and use a similar assumption in derivation. In the present article, I prove upper bounds for the$k\mathrm{th} $central moment of occupied sites in the contact process of a single spatial dimension. This result shows why such moment closures are effective in spatial ecology.