bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Alternative approaches to electronic damage by ion‐beam irradiation: Exciton models
Authors: Agulló‐López F. , Climent‐Font A. , Muñoz‐Martin A. , Zucchiatti A.
Published: August 2016

The paper briefly describes the main features of the damage produced by swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiation. After a short revision of the widely used thermal spike concept, it focuses on cumulative mechanisms of track formation which are alternative to those based on lattice melting (thermal spike models). These cumulative mechanisms rely on the production of point defects around the ion trajectory, and their accumulation up to a final lattice collapse or amorphization. As to the formation of point defects, the paper considers those mechanisms relying on direct local conversion of the excitation energy into atomic displacements (exciton models). A particular attention is given to processes based on the non‐radiative recombination of excitons that have become self‐trapped as a consequence of a strong electron–phonon interaction (STEs). These mechanisms, although operative under purely ionizing radiation in some dielectric materials, have been rarely invoked, so far, to discuss SHI damage. They are discussed in this paper together with relevant examples to materials such as Cu3N, alkali halides, SiO2, and LiNbO3.
General approach for band gap calculation of semiconductors and insulators
Authors: Gusakova Julia , Tay Beng Kang , Gusakov Vasilii
Published: August 2016

We have proposed a new approach to the calculation of the band gap of solids. The suggested method does not use any adjustable parameters and is based on the DFT total energy calculation only. The calculated band gaps are in good agreement with experimental ones both for narrow‐gap semiconductors (Ge) and insulators with large band gap (Kr). Accurate band gap values were obtained when method was applied to two dimensional material such as MoS2 monolayer, as well as for bulk form of MoS2. For investigated materials, the mean absolute error (MAE) of the proposed method is about 0.056 eV, and is significantly lower than the MAE for the currently used most accurate methods such as GW (MAE is 0.54 eV) and HSE (MAE is 0.87 eV).
Synergistic Effect of SH003 and Doxorubicin in Triple‐negative Breast Cancer
Authors: Woo Sang‐Mi , Kim Ah Jeong , Choi Youn Kyung , Shin Young Cheol , Cho Sung‐Gook , Ko Seong‐Gyu
Published: August 2016

Triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC) is highly aggressive, resulting in poor prognosis. Chemotherapy of TNBC relies on anti‐cancer agents with strong cytotoxicity, but it causes several side effects with recurrence. While combinational approaches of chemotherapeutics have been highlighted as a new treatment strategy for TNBC to reduce side effects, combinations of anti‐cancer agents with herbal medicines have not been reported. We recently reported that newly modified traditional Chinese medicine named SH003 inhibited TNBC growth. Considering a combinational strategy for TNBC treatment, we further studied synergistic effects of SH003 with various anti‐cancer drugs in TNBC treatment. Here, we demonstrate that SH003 shows a synergistic effect with doxorubicin on TNBC treatment. Our in vitro cell viability assays revealed that SH003 and doxorubicin showed a synergistic effect in the well‐defined TNBC cell line, MDA‐MB‐231. Moreover, we found that the combinational treatment caused Caspase‐dependent apoptotic cell death. Our in vivo mouse xenograft tumor growth assays confirmed that combinational treatment of SH003 with doxorubicin repressed MDA‐MB‐231 tumor growth with no weight loss. Therefore, we conclude that the combinational treatment of SH003 with doxorubicin shows the synergism in TNBC treatment, and suggest that SH003 can be used together with conventional anti‐cancer drugs in chemotherapeutic approaches. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A Risk‐based Approach to Managing Performance‐based Maintenance Contracts
Authors: Jing Huayi , Tang Loon Ching
Published: August 2016

The global trend towards performance‐based maintenance contracting has presented new challenges to maintenance service providers as they are compensated or penalized based on performance outcomes instead of time and materials consumed during maintenance service. The problem becomes more complex when uncertainties exist in reliability performance and maintenance activities of technical systems.

In this paper, a general framework for managing performance‐based maintenance contract under risks is proposed. We illustrate our approach with an application in a multi‐echelon multi‐system spare parts control problem. Several different performance measures are considered and a probabilistic constrained optimization problem is formulated from the perspective of the service provider. Hybrid simulation/analytic heuristics are proposed to solve the problem based on the monotonic properties of performance measures. This approach is flexible and can be applied to a wide range of problems with similar properties. Numerical example shows that the probability of violating performance requirements is high if the risk is overlooked. We also provide guidelines on how to apply this approach in practice. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Characterisation of phosphorylated nucleotides by collisional and electron‐based tandem mass spectrometry
Authors: Ball Andrew T. , Prakash Aruna S. , Bristow Anthony W.T. , Sims Martin , Mosely Jackie A.
Published: August 2016

Rationale

Tandem mass spectrometry of phosphorylated ions can often yield a limited number of product ions owing to the labile nature of phosphate groups. Developing techniques to improve dissociation for this type of ion has implications for the structural characterisation of many different phosphorylated ions, such as those from nucleotides, pharmaceutical compounds, peptides and polymers.

Methods

Solutions of adenosine monophosphate, diphosphate and triphosphate (AMP, ADP and ATP) were studied in a hybrid linear ion trap–Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometer. Precursor ions with an overall single positive charge, including protonated nucleotides or nucleotide cations containing one, two or three sodium atoms, were isolated for tandem mass spectrometry. Collision‐induced dissociation (CID) was performed in the linear ion trap, with electron‐induced dissociation (EID) being conducted in the FTICR cell.

Results

EID resulted in many product ions not seen in CID. EID product ion spectra were seen to vary for AMP, ADP and ATP when the nucleotide cation contained zero, one, two or three sodiums. Precursor cations that contain two or three sodiums mainly formed product ions derived from the phosphate group. Conversely, when a precursor ion containing no sodium underwent EID, product ions mainly relating to the non‐phosphate end of the ion were observed. The number of phosphate groups was not seen to greatly affect either CID or EID product ion spectra.

Conclusions

The presence of sodium in a precursor ion directs electron‐induced bond dissociation, thus enabling targeted, and therefore tuneable, fragmentation of groups within that precursor ion. For all precursor ions, the most useful product ion spectra were obtained by EID for a precursor ion containing one sodium, with bond dissociation occurring across the entire nucleotide cation. The findings of this study can be used to improve the structural elucidation of many phosphorylated molecules by broadening the range of product ions achievable. © 2016 The Authors. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Prior event rate ratio adjustment for hidden confounding in observational studies of treatment effectiveness: a pairwise Cox likelihood approach
Authors: Lin Nan Xuan , Henley William Edward
Published: August 2016

Observational studies provide a rich source of information for assessing effectiveness of treatment interventions in many situations where it is not ethical or practical to perform randomized controlled trials. However, such studies are prone to bias from hidden (unmeasured) confounding. A promising approach to identifying and reducing the impact of unmeasured confounding is prior event rate ratio (PERR) adjustment, a quasi‐experimental analytic method proposed in the context of electronic medical record database studies. In this paper, we present a statistical framework for using a pairwise approach to PERR adjustment that removes bias inherent in the original PERR method. A flexible pairwise Cox likelihood function is derived and used to demonstrate the consistency of the simple and convenient alternative PERR (PERR‐ALT) estimator. We show how to estimate standard errors and confidence intervals for treatment effect estimates based on the observed information and provide R code to illustrate how to implement the method. Assumptions required for the pairwise approach (as well as PERR) are clarified, and the consequences of model misspecification are explored. Our results confirm the need for researchers to consider carefully the suitability of the method in the context of each problem. Extensions of the pairwise likelihood to more complex designs involving time‐varying covariates or more than two periods are considered. We illustrate the application of the method using data from a longitudinal cohort study of enzyme replacement therapy for lysosomal storage disorders. © 2016 The Authors. Statistics in Medicine Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Synergies and tradeoffs in software reuse – a systematic mapping study
Authors: Bombonatti Denise , Goulão Miguel , Moreira Ana
Published: August 2016

Software reuse is a broadly accepted practice to improve software development quality and productivity. Although an object of study in software engineering since the late sixties, achieving effective reuse remains challenging for many software development organizations. This paper reports a systematic mapping study on how reusability relates to other non‐functional requirements and how different contextual factors influence the success of a reuse initiative. The conclusion is that the relationships are discussed rather informally, and that human, organizational, and technological domain factors are extremely relevant to a particular reuse context. This mapping study highlights the need for further research to better understand how exactly the different non‐functional requirements and context factors affect reusability. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Untersuchungen zum Allgemeinen Nachweisverfahren gegen Biegedrillknicken nach EN 1993‐1‐1
Authors: Timmers Ralph , Wieser Aaron , Lener Gerhard
Published: August 2016

Im Zuge der Einführung der Eurocodes wurden einige der bis dahin üblichen Nachweisverfahren der ÖNORMEN bzw. DIN‐Normen durch neue Nachweisverfahren ersetzt bzw. ergänzt. Dies war auch beim Nachweisverfahren gegen Biegedrillknicken der Fall. In der Norm EN 1993‐1‐1, Abschnitt 6.3.4 findet sich das “Allgemeine Verfahren für Knick‐ und Biegedrillknicknachweise für Bauteile”. Der Anwendungsbereich dieses “Allgemeinen Verfahrens” wird von der EN 1993‐1‐1 relativ großzügig definiert, von den nationalen Dokumenten ÖNORM B 1993‐1‐1 und DIN EN 1993‐1‐1/NA aber wieder stark eingeschränkt. Die praktische Anwendung des Verfahrens wird zudem durch diese Einschränkungen erschwert. Es ist daher das Ziel dieses Beitrages, eine möglichst anwenderfreundliche Vorgehensweise festzulegen und den großzügigen Anwendungsbereich dieses “neuen” Verfahrens bzw. die Einschränkungen der Nationalen Dokumente anhand ausgewählter Beispiele zu verifizieren. Zum direkten Vergleich werden dazu vorab Traglasten mit der FEM bestimmt.

Studies to the general method against lateral torsional buckling according to EN 1993‐1‐1. With the introduction of the Eurocodes, compared to the proof methods of the ÖNORM and the DIN‐standards, new proof methods were included. This happened also in the case of the proof methods against lateral torsional buckling. In section 6.3.4 of EN 1993‐1‐1, there is the “general method for lateral and lateral torsional buckling of structural components”. The application field of these “general method” is defined in a relatively generous way by the EN 1993‐1‐1; however, the national documents ÖNORM B 1993‐1‐1 and DIN EN 1993‐1‐1/NA place limits on it. In addition, the practical application is made more difficult by these restrictions. Therefore, the aim of this article is to define a user‐friendly approach, to examine the application limits of these “new” method and to check the limitations imposed by the national documents based on selected systems. For direct comparison ultimate loads were determined first by use of the FEM.
Density‐dependent population regulation detected in short time series of saproxylic beetles
Authors: Andow David A. , Kiritani Keizi
Published: August 2016

Understanding the regulation of natural populations has been a long‐standing problem in ecology. Here we analyze the population dynamics of 17 species of saproxylic beetles in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan collected over 11–12 years using autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models. We first examined the dynamics for indications of the order of the ARIMA models and evaluated the time series to determine that it was not simply a random, white noise sequence. All species dynamics were not mere random noise, and ARIMA models up to lag 3 were considered. The best model was selected from the possible ones using several criteria: model convergence, weak residual autocorrelation, the small sample AIC must be among the smallest that were not significantly different, and the lag indicated by the cutoff values in the detrended partial autocorrelation function. We found significant and nearly significant direct density‐dependence for 14 of the 17 species, varying from −0.709 and stronger. The characteristic return rates were strong and only one species had a weak return rate (>0.9), implying that these species were strongly regulated by density‐dependent factors. We found that populations with higher order ARIMA models (lag 2 and 3) had weaker return rates than populations with ARIMA models with only one lag, suggesting that species with more complex dynamics were more weakly regulated. These results contrast with previous suggestions that 20+ years are needed to detect density dependence from population time series and that most populations are weakly regulated.
Reversal of 3‐day losers and continuation of 3‐day winners on the NASDAQ
Authors: Gutierrez Jose
Published: August 2016

Using only the 200 large‐cap securities that make up the NYSE 100 and NASDAQ 100, this study investigates 130 randomly selected formation periods from January 2000 through December 2012. During these formation periods, the three worst and three best performing stocks (based on excess return) are flagged. Once flagged, the subsequent 10‐day holding period excess returns are calculated. Results indicate that NYSE securities demonstrate significant return reversal, but not return momentum. Conversely, the worst performing NASDAQ securities demonstrate return reversal, whereas the best performing NASDAQ securities demonstrate return momentum. Results are robust to the number of best and worst stocks that are flagged. Results are also robust to other combinations of formation and holding period lengths.
Dance, Embodiment, and Cultural Ecology: The Reflexive Relationship Between Bodies and Space
Authors: Baines Lauren
Published: August 2016

A dynamic, reflexive relationship exists between bodies and space as humans both respond to and mold the world around them, and vice versa. Demonstrating this body–space relationship as one of embodiment, site dance holds great potential for engaging community, activating public space, and affecting change. By placing dance within the lived experience, site dance empowers audiences to recognize their roles as active agents shaping the non-static entity of space, and thereby it can be used to engender new relationships to places within a community.
Popular Dance as the Embodied Expression of Musical Patterns and of Costume Design: The Case of Rallou Manou's Choreography on Hadjidakis’ Music and Yiannis Moralis’ Costumes
Authors: Dalianoudi Renata
Published: August 2016

Does music “embody” the dancing movement? Or does (and if yes, how does) popular dance embody musical patterns and costume designs? On the one hand, dance and music curricula in universities and schools of dance in Greece consider music and dance mostly as coexisting and—in a superficial way—collaborating arts. They rarely refer to the “corporalization” of music, nor do they examine the relation between dance and other involving arts of a performance, such as painting and costume design. It should also be noticed that interdisciplinary creative collaboration between music and dance (and also other arts) was achieved in 1950s. This paper will try to explain how popular dance can reflect costume design and the patterns of music, and lead to a creative collaboration among these arts. For the performances of the Greek Chorodrama (Manou's Dancetheater Company), the composer, the painter, the writer, and the choreographer worked at the same time, interactively; Rallou Manou “translated” the traditional and modern elements of each art into movement, while Manos Hadjidakis (Oscar awarded composer) and Yiannis Moralis (well-known Greek painter) gave to the music, sets, and costumes a “corporal dimension,” correspondingly. As a result, the final “product” was a united, inseparable cultural event, which exceeded the dance performance and became a cultural product, with further aesthetic, artistic, pedagogical, and social value.
The Beginning of Dance Studies in Greece (1900–1974)
Authors: Barboussi Vasso
Published: August 2016

The educational system introduced in Greece during the liberation, a period known as the Bavarian Regency (1833–1862), had been, more or less, a copy of the corresponding German system of this period. Koula Pratsika (1899–1984), who established modern dance and professional dance studies in the country, participated in the Delphic festival in 1927 and was influenced by Eva Palmer. She also had been influenced by the 1930s Hellenistic ideology writers and artists. Pratsika was trying to find and develop a dance reflecting Greek tradition, revitalized and encouraged by the ancient spirit. She was inspired by Duncan regarding ancient dance as well as by many aesthetic movements, including German modern dance and the Dalcroze School where she studied. Pratsika invited German dancers to give seminars and performances in Athens. This paper will examine the birth of Greek modern dance since the beginning of the twentieth century and the influence of German culture and dance.
Screening Subjects: Transnational Dancehall Culture in a Social Media Age
Authors: Monteiro Celena
Published: August 2016

Dancehall, a popular dance style originating from downtown Kingston, Jamaica, now circulates across transnational spaces through digital media and postcolonial consumption systems. This presentation will study dancehall in the twenty-first century as an information age space for transcultural production, with a focus on female participation. It will interrogate the authoritative role of the video camera in the scene, and the impact that the use of screens has on the practitioners' cultural, phenomenological, and economic experience. The discussion will analyze the engagement of diversely situated females in relation to questions of mobility, visibility, and power.
Fantasmata and Presence: A Comparison Between Domenico da Piacenza (1455) and Simona Bertozzi
Authors: Bergonzoni Carolina
Published: August 2016

Simona Bertozzi is an Italian dancer, choreographer, and performer based in Bologna, Italy. From 2008 to 2012, she worked on the project Homo Ludens. I propose this project, composed of four performances, as a case study that will investigate the multifaceted term “presence” within the context of dance. As a result of my research, I make an argument that a definition of presence, defined as a tension between motion and stillness, can be founded on Domenico da Piacenza's treatise Dela Arte di Ballare et Danzare (c. 1455).
Ukrainian Hopak: From Dance for Entertainment to Martial Art
Authors: Pivtorak Yuliya
Published: August 2016

Hopak dance is one of the most visually recognizable symbols of Ukraine—either as a Soviet republic or an independent country. Men in bright colored sharovary pants performing virtuosic jumps in squatting position or effortless high leaps to stylized folk tunes is one of the most popular moving images that represent Ukrainian culture. During from the 1950s until recently, the hopak in Ukraine was performed almost exclusively as a stage dance art (unlike in diasporas where it has over time has taken on traits of social dance and event), connected with state celebrations.

Starting in 1985, a new kind of hopak has been formed and implemented in Ukraine—military hopak. Its tradition is claimed to descend from the martial art of Zaporizhian Kossaks, which was lost during Soviet times and later rediscovered and renewed as specifically a Ukrainian martial art. It gained lots of publicity, fans, and practitioners in the 2000s, and it seemed that military hopak strived to replace the old, representational stage dance version of its practice, which emphasized playfulness and light-hearted character of Ukrainian folk. Hopak as a martial art refers to the heroic past of Ukraine, its identity, and uniqueness.
Traces of a Tango: The Club Invites Me to Dance—a Study of Materiality in Movement
Authors: Silveira Paola Vasconcelos
Published: August 2016

This paper is based on my master's thesis, which was developed in 2013–2014 at the Graduation Program in Performing Arts at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil). This study aimed to reflect on the processes of developing an artistic experiment conducted from the encounter between my body and the club in transient places in the city of Porto Alegre. The starting point emerged from the experience of the artist in the practice of tango from a dialogue bias between peers. The object, in this proposal, becomes a present and active body—a lively piece that will enhance a one-to-one conversation. It is thus intended that the dance results from the relationship between two bodies, and not from the manipulation of one body over another. Therefore, the study finds resonance in the theoretical possibility of thinking of non-human bodies as vibrant matter with the capability to generate relationships and movements. In that way, this meeting would lead to a loss of the self. This study also contributes to a debate on proposals for dance training, as this research has chosen a path of building the danced relationship with the object from the kinesthetic perception of the body in motion. Finally, this study tenses the production of knowledge in the academic field, by assuming that the body produces a kind of knowledge—an embodied knowledge—which must be recognized and legitimized.
Isadora Duncan's Early Career in the United States
Authors: Yagishita Emi
Published: August 2016

Isadora Duncan indicates in The Art of the Dance the importance of her childhood experiences in the establishment of her own new dance style. However, her early dance career, before leaving the United States in 1899, is somewhat mysterious. Therefore, this paper examines what kind of dance she studied in her childhood and the process of how she created her own dance style. It discusses her early performances in the United States, especially in New York, by utilizing the unpublished memoir of her brother, Raymond Duncan, as well as newspapers of the time.
Codimension-one attracting sets in
Authors: DAURAT SANDRINE , TAFLIN JOHAN
Published: August 2016

We are interested in attracting sets of $\mathbb{P}^{k}(\mathbb{C})$ which are of small topological degree and of codimension one. We first show that there exists a large family of examples. Then we study their ergodic and pluripotential theoretic properties.
SYLVESTER–GALLAI TYPE THEOREMS FOR APPROXIMATE COLLINEARITY
Authors: AI ALBERT , DVIR ZEEV , SARAF SHUBHANGI , WIGDERSON AVI
Published: August 2016

We study questions in incidence geometry where the precise position of points is ‘blurry’ (for example due to noise, inaccuracy or error). Thus lines are replaced by narrow tubes, and more generally affine subspaces are replaced by their small neighborhood. We show that the presence of a sufficiently large number of approximately collinear triples in a set of points in ${\mathbb{C}}^d$ implies that the points are close to a low dimensional affine subspace. This can be viewed as a stable variant of the Sylvester–Gallai theorem and its extensions. Building on the recently found connection between Sylvester–Gallai type theorems and complex locally correctable codes (LCCs), we define the new notion of stable LCCs, in which the (local) correction procedure can also handle small perturbations in the Euclidean metric. We prove that such stable codes with constant query complexity do not exist. No impossibility results were known in any such local setting for more than two queries.
A prebiotic galactooligosaccharide mixture reduces severity of hyperpnoea-induced bronchoconstriction and markers of airway inflammation
Authors: Williams Neil C. , Johnson Michael A. , Shaw Dominick E. , Spendlove Ian , Vulevic Jelena , Sharpe Graham R. , Hunter Kirsty A.
Published: August 2016

Gut microbes have a substantial influence on systemic immune function and allergic sensitisation. Manipulation of the gut microbiome through prebiotics may provide a potential strategy to influence the immunopathology of asthma. This study investigated the effects of prebiotic Bimuno-galactooligosaccharide (B-GOS) supplementation on hyperpnoea-induced bronchoconstriction (HIB), a surrogate for exercise-induced bronchoconstriction, and airway inflammation. A total of ten adults with asthma and HIB and eight controls without asthma were randomised to receive 5·5 g/d of either B-GOS or placebo for 3 weeks separated by a 2-week washout period. The peak fall in forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) following eucapnic voluntary hyperpnoea (EVH) defined HIB severity. Markers of airway inflammation were measured at baseline and after EVH. Pulmonary function remained unchanged in the control group. In the HIB group, the peak post-EVH fall in FEV1at day 0 (−880 (sd480) ml) was unchanged after placebo, but was attenuated by 40 % (−940 (sd460)v. −570 (sd310) ml,P=0·004) after B-GOS. In the HIB group, B-GOS reduced baseline chemokine CC ligand 17 (399 (sd140)v. 323 (sd144) pg/ml,P=0·005) and TNF-α(2·68 (sd0·98)v. 2·18 (sd0·59) pg/ml,P=0·040) and abolished the EVH-induced 29 % increase in TNF-α. Baseline C-reactive protein was reduced following B-GOS in HIB (2·46 (sd1·14)v. 1·44 (sd0·41) mg/l,P=0·015) and control (2·16 (sd1·02)v. 1·47 (sd0·33) mg/l,P=0·050) groups. Chemokine CC ligand 11 and fraction of exhaled nitric oxide remained unchanged. B-GOS supplementation attenuated airway hyper-responsiveness with concomitant reductions in markers of airway inflammation associated with HIB.
Oxidative stress and nitric oxide are increased in obese children and correlate with cardiometabolic risk and renal function
Authors: Correia-Costa Liane , Sousa Teresa , Morato Manuela , Cosme Dina , Afonso Joana , Areias José C. , Schaefer Franz , Guerra António , Afonso Alberto C. , Azevedo Ana , Albino-Teixeira António
Published: August 2016

Oxidative stress and nitric oxide (NO) appear to represent important links between obesity and cardiovascular, metabolic and/or renal disease. We investigated whether oxidative stress and NO production/metabolism are increased in overweight and obese prepubertal children and correlate with cardiometabolic risk and renal function. We performed a cross-sectional evaluation of 313 children aged 8–9 years. Anthropometrics, 24-h ambulatory blood pressure, pulse wave velocity (PWV), insulin resistance (homoeostasis model assessment index (HOMA-IR)), inflammatory/metabolic biomarkers, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), plasma total antioxidant status (TAS), plasma and urinary isoprostanes (P-Isop, U-Isop), urinary hydrogen peroxide (U-H2O2), and plasma and urinary nitrates and nitrites (P-NOx, U-NOx) were compared among normal weight, overweight and obese groups, according to WHO BMI z-score reference. U-Isop were increased in the obese group, whereas U-NOx were increased in both overweight and obese children. U-Isop were positively correlated with U-H2O2, myeloperoxidase (MPO), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, HOMA-IR and TAG. TAS correlated negatively with U-Isop and MPO and positively with PWV. HOMA-IR and U-H2O2 were associated with higher U-Isop, independently of BMI and eGFR, and total cholesterol and U-H2O2 were associated with U-NOx, independently of BMI, eGFR values and P-NOx concentration. In overweight and obese children, eGFR decreased across P-NOx tertiles (median: 139·3 (25th, 75th percentile 128·0, 146·5), 128·0 (25th, 75th percentile 121·5, 140·4), 129·5 (25th, 75th percentile 119·4, 138·3), Pfor linear trend=0·003). We conclude that oxidant status and NO are increased in relation to fat accumulation and, even in young children, they translate into higher values of cardiometabolic risk markers and affect renal function.
The Idea of ‘Method’ in Hegel's Science of Logic — a Method for Finite Thinking and Absolute Reason
Authors: Nuzzo Angelica
Published: August 2016

Hegel's Science of Logic achieves its conclusion with a chapter on the ‘absolute Idea’ that parallels the ending of other works such as the ‘absolute Knowing’ chapter of the Phenomenology of Spirit and the ‘absolute Spirit’ chapter of the Encyclopedia. However, the ending of the Logic claims special systematic attention due to the fact that Hegel presents here the ‘discourse on method’ of his philosophy. The method of philosophy — of philosophical thinking and philosophical knowing — is the method of speculative logic. This logic “takes the place” of the old metaphysics — of the traditional metaphysica generalis and metaphysica specialis — going beyond Kant's own critique and proposing a new science that establishes itself as the “eigentliche Metaphysik”. The project of concluding this new speculative metaphysics with a theory of method is complicated by the double systematic placing that Hegel attributes to his logic which, at the same time, figures as the very first and very last science of the whole system of philosophy. In this perspective, the absolute Idea of the Logic gains its double relation to the phenomenological ‘absolute knowing’ and to the highest moment of ‘absolute spirit’.
Salvadoran Martyrs: A Love That Does Justice
Authors: Schubeck Thomas L.
Published: August 2016

Who are today's martyrs? Many Salvadorans call Archbishop Romero and the Jesuits and the two women killed at Central American University martyrs. Should they be numbered among the martyrs of the church? The author contends that it would be fitting for the Catholic Church to do so, based on the contemporary church teaching on martyrdom. Tracing the origin and development of the notion of Christian martyrdom from the New Testament to the present day, the author shows how Thomas Aquinas, the Second Vatican Council, Karl Rahner, and Pope John Paul II have contributed to the enlargement of the concept of the Christian martyr that fittingly describes the Salvadoran witnesses. Moved by love of God and neighbor, the martyr courageously endures death for bearing witness to the Christian faith that includes speaking the truth and doing justice.
Sex, Spirituality, and Pre-Modern Readings of the Song of Songs
Authors: Ryan Thomas F.
Published: August 2016

While unfamiliar to many today, the Song of Songs was once one of the most frequently interpreted books of the Bible. This article seeks to counter the current lack of familiarity by highlighting the significance for the classroom of pre-modern exegesis of the Song. As course content, it provides a starting point from which to examine Christian thought and practice over the last two millennia. In particular, it supplies evidence that Christians (and Jews) have expressed some of their most profound insights into spirituality in terms of the erotic poetry of the Song. This essay concludes with an examination of method. How can pre-modern exegesis contribute to contemporary debates about interpretation, particularly of biblical texts?
Native North American Religion: An Annotated Bibliography
Authors: Starkloff Carl F.
Published: August 2016

The present article does not purport to be an exhaustive study of literature on American Indian culture or even religion. Its purpose is to familiarize college religion and theology teachers with materials directly related to religion among North American Indian peoples, whose growing ethnic consciousness is making itself felt throughout the continent. Because of the pervasiveness of religion in every aspect of tribal life, many of these works are also cultural studies, but I have tried to concentrate chiefly on the religious, as it touches various sides of Indian life and white society. I have avoided listing histories and purely ethnological studies. Finally, I shall include several readings that may assist those who desire to offer courses on or including the subject, as I have done now for four years with some good results.
The Theology of Faith: A Bibliographical Survey (And More)
Authors: Mackey James P.
Published: August 2016

This study begins from a discussion of reason and faith, moves into a consideration of the theology of revelation, and then returns to treat the theology of faith which in the author's judgment is the more fundamental concept of Christian theology. How can one person find faith in history when another can only find probability? Perhaps we achieve what others enable us to achieve. The author suggests a transition from Jesus as man of faith, capable of acknowledging God and being hopeful in and through the ordinary stuff of human existence, and inspirer of faith to Jesus as himself drawn into the faith of his followers and given the titles they gave him.
The Search for Transcendence: A Humanistic Perspective
Authors: Tillman Mary Katherine
Published: August 2016

An interdisciplinary seminar focusing on various attempts to articulate the human aspiration toward transcendence. Through selected readings, reflection and discussion, this course will consider the personal and psychological odyssey towards relation, wholeness and health; the aesthetic quest for beauty and richness of meaning; the philosopher's search for clarity, understanding and ultimacy; and the historical and political struggle for purpose and direction—in terms of an underlying thematic unity which all of these expressions of the human spirit share: the human desire to transcend.
The Appearances of the Risen Lord: Faith, Fact, and Objectivity
Authors: Loewe William P.
Published: August 2016

The present decade has seen the publication of a large number of christologies. Chalcedon no longer sets the logic of these new works. Taking their cue from biblical studies, they assign the resurrection a key position as the swing-point from the earthly Jesus to the ensuing theological and dogmatic tradition of Christian faith. They likewise agree in locating the origin of faith in the resurrection in the events which gave rise to the Easter appearance tradition within the New Testament.

At this point significant differences emerge. The present article offers a sample of representative positions in order to exhibit how they differ with regard to the kinds of question they are willing to entertain about the Easter appearances as well as with regard to the kinds of reality claim they wish to assert. The article concludes that the key issue dividing them is the philosophical question of the nature of objectivity.
In Memory of Catherine Mowry LaCugna (1952-97)
Authors: Dallavalle Nancy A.
Published: August 2016

Catherine Mowry LaCugna died on Saturday, May 3, 1997, at the age of forty-four, after a long battle with breast cancer. She was the Nancy Reeves Dreux Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, the recipient of the Sheedy award for excellence in teaching, and the author of God for Us: The Trinity and Christian Life, which won the First Place Award from the Catholic Press Association in 1992. She edited the collection Freeing Theology: The Essentials of Theology in Feminist Perspective, and published numerous articles as well as her dissertation on the methodology of Hans Küng. At the time of her death, she had received a Lilly grant to work on a book on the Holy Spirit during the academic year 1997-98.

As her doctoral student I had the privilege of listening to her think aloud over a number of years, and found that her formidable intellect and deep sense of pastoral compassion were not complementary powers but the fruits of a single-minded focus on the Holy. For Catherine, the movement of creation from God and to God (exitus-reditus) was no mere model, but a deeply held conviction about the origin and end of the world and its creatures, herself included. Her theological writings reflected the directness of her engagement with the reality of God and, indeed, her disposition before this mystery had a monastic familiarity in its combination of fearlessness and utter humility. Her view of the world was both precise and thoroughly undomesticated; despair, artifice, and sentiments were sins against the Spirit that ignored the factum of the abiding presence of God.
Believing and Seeing: The Roles of Faith, Reason, and Experience in Theravada Buddhism
Authors: Burford Grace G.
Published: August 2016

In early Buddhism, “seeing” means the direct apprehension of reality, when the senses operate undistorted by the mediating, corruptible influences of preconceived notions or cognitive analysis. To see in this way is to be wise, to be a buddha. Yet one reaches this ultimate achievement by cultivating analysis of one's sense perceptions, guided by preconceived notions accepted on the basis of faith. By looking at several Pāli texts that teach the fundamentals of the Buddhist path, one can see how the Theravāda Buddhists resolve this congruity between their goal (direct, unmediated seeing) and the means to reach it (faith and reason): they treat both faith and reason as useful tools to be discarded when one has outgrown the need for them.
Devotio Post-Moderna: On Using a “Spiritual Classic” as a Diagnostic Tool in a Freshman Christian Formation Course
Authors: Steele Richard B.
Published: August 2016

This article describes the reasons that a late medieval spiritual classic,The Imitation of Christby Thomas a Kempis, was recently adopted as a textbook for a freshman course in “Christian Formation” at a mid-sized Evangelical Protestant university (Seattle Pacific University in Seattle, WA) and how it is taught there. It enumerates seven objections which contemporary American Evangelicals might raise to Thomas' spirituality, but shows how these very objections reveal a great deal about the religious and cultural ethos of those who make them. Since one of the course objectives is precisely to help students evaluate and critique their own culture and spirituality theologically,The Imitationproves to be singularly useful as a textbook. Excerpts from student writing assignments are analyzed to demonstrate the effectiveness of this way of using a classic from theDevotio Modernawith “postmodern” collegians.
Suffering and Compassion: A Jewish-Buddhist-Christian Dialogue
Authors: Trapnell Judson B.
Published: August 2016

Theoretical reflection on interreligious questions can be deeply enriched by the praxis of dialogue. The article describes an undergraduate course in which the students and professor engaged self-critically in such dialogue both with texts and one another in the classroom and with local representatives of three religions in a public symposium. In the latter context, students' encounter of the religious “other” was sharpened by having students, rather than the outside experts, present the papers on the course themes—a feature that also stimulated broader interest among the college community. Such a course illustrates the value and the limitations of a dialogical pedagogy in which attention is simultaneously given to learning about both other religions and the students' points of view, in their distinctness and in their interaction.
Educating for Transformation: The Spiritual Task
Authors: Fox Matthew
Published: August 2016

I must be honest from the start and confess the summary of my six years of teaching undergrads and five years of graduate students: being a “creative teacher” of spirituality in a system of education that is destructive both of spirituality and creativity is impossible. Education, like religion itself, cannot afford to succumb to privatization as if a “loneranger” teacher in spirituality could endure or carry on without a structure and a program that is based in sound theory and practice that itself sustains creativity and spirituality.

A recent graduate of our Institute in Creation-Centered Spirituality is now pursuing doctoral studies in theology, and his comment after his first semester at a renowned university was: “There is no spirituality in upper academia.” What he was experiencing was the absence of sensitivity to both right and left brains as sources for learning; the absence of sensitivity to making connections and therefore to the artist in self and society; the absence of synthesis or interdependence on the part of curriculum or faculty. What he was also undergoing was a deep experience of the malaise that education finds itself in today in the West—a crisis that, if attended to, also reveals an opportunity of staggering dimensions.
Discipline and Influence: Newman on Teaching and Learning
Authors: Gaffney James
Published: August 2016

John Henry Newman's thoughts about education extend far beyond that philosophy of university education which is developed in his famous Idea of a University. He was acutely aware that the relationship between teachers and learners is fundamentally a social relationship, and one that can take various social forms. What he most admired was a highly personal and deeply sympathetic relationship, and what he most feared was its replacement by impersonal institutional structures. His convictions in this regard have deep roots in his personal experience, as well as in his interpretation of history and theology. To examine those roots both enlarges one's appreciation of Newman's educational wisdom and sharpens one's insight into his complex personality.
The End of Salvation History
Authors: Hinze Bradford E.
Published: August 2016

The debate about salvation history brings to the surface a variety of issues, problems, and proposals that can be designated with some justice postmodern. In an effort to explore these contested issues, I offer a composite portrait of the meaning and uses of the concept of salvation history, drawing attention to its importance for recent Roman Catholic theology. I then review the various kinds of criticism leveled against salvation history models in an attempt to show that Peter Hodgson's contention is warranted: that is, the concept salvation history is problematic both as a category for interpreting the scriptural witness and as a pivotal category for fundamental and systematic theology. Thus, postmodernity, understood in broad terms, should mean the end of salvation history. The final section will explore how the legitimate concerns that generated interest in salvation history models can be recast in light of these broader postmodern approaches.
Religious Experience, Human Finitude, and the Cultural-Linguistic Model
Authors: Allik Tiina
Published: August 2016

The article argues that the anthropology of the cultural-linguistic model elaborates the radical materiality, historicity, and contingency of religious experience in a way that the experiential-expressivist model does not. More specifically, the article argues that experiential-expressivist thinkers who conceptualize religious experience as having a nonconceptual core which is not constituted by the contingencies of a person's material, social, and historical environments implicitly compromise human finitude. The article also suggests that the cultural-linguistic model will seem threatening to our sense of human freedom as long as we share the modern assumption that material causes and human choices are competing kinds of “things” in the world, rather than being descriptions of the same concrete phenomena from different perspectives and for different purposes, and that the cultural-linguistic model will seem atheistic if one shares the modern view that this-worldly causal efficacy is in competition with God's agency.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church: An Appraisal
Authors: Buckley Francis J.
Published: August 2016

The format is a scholastic treatment of creed, sacraments, morality, and prayer with many allusions to Scripture, church Councils, and teachings of the magisterium, particularly in the social teachings of the church. This Catechism could have been written before the Second Vatican Council with references to Council documents added later, much as the biblical references were added as “proof-texts.” The biblical, liturgical, ecumenical, and catechetical movements have not had a substantial impact on the structure or content of the Catechism. There are many excellent features of the Catechism. It avoids the question-and-answer format. It dropped the major doctrinal errors. Its expanded development of prayer is superb. The greatest weakness of the Catechism is its steadfast refusal to distinguish teachings of the magisterium which demand an assent of faith from teachings which demand some other interior assent.
Merton's East-West Reflections
Authors: Carr Anne
Published: August 2016

While the writings of Thomas Merton sustain their popularity twenty-five years after his untimely death, his later reflections on Eastern religions have led some to believe he was no longer really a Christian in his last years. This article places the question within the current discussion of Christianity and other religions and then argues for the centrality of Merton's Christianity in his appropriation of other traditions of transformation. It does this by underscoring his focus on experience rather than doctrine and suggesting the abiding Christian center of that appropriation.
Christian Love for the Poor: Almsgiving and the “Preferential Option”
Authors: Pope Stephen J.
Published: August 2016

This article examines the understanding of Christian love for the poor as portrayed by Thomas Aquinas and Gustavo Gutiérrez. It intends (1) to reveal the misunderstandings underlying some current criticisms of both charity and the preferential option, (2) to clarify the real differences between these positions, and (3) to identify areas in which our understanding of the preferential option might be advanced through more conceptual elaboration. The article argues that Thomistic charity is not private, superfluous, and acceptable as a substitute for justice. It also maintains that the preferential option is not a replacement for charity or a distortion ofagapēthat eliminates love of enemies. The major difference between Thomistic charity and the preferential option is the latter's assumption of modern “historical consciousness.” The fundamental ethical task awaiting advocates of the preferential option is a systematic explication of the connection between solidarity and the order of love. The fundamental theological task is to account for the relation of God to nature as well as to history.