bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Gender differences in mathematics anxiety and the relation to mathematics performance while controlling for test anxiety
Authors: Devine Amy , Fawcett Kayleigh , Szűcs Dénes , Dowker Ann
Published: July 2012

Background

Mathematics anxiety (MA), a state of discomfort associated with performing mathematical tasks, is thought to affect a notable proportion of the school age population. Some research has indicated that MA negatively affects mathematics performance and that girls may report higher levels of MA than boys. On the other hand some research has indicated that boys’ mathematics performance is more negatively affected by MA than girls’ performance is. The aim of the current study was to measure girls’ and boys’ mathematics performance as well as their levels of MA while controlling for test anxiety (TA) a construct related to MA but which is typically not controlled for in MA studies.

Methods

Four-hundred and thirty three British secondary school children in school years 7, 8 and 10 completed customised mental mathematics tests and MA and TA questionnaires.

Results

No gender differences emerged for mathematics performance but levels of MA and TA were higher for girls than for boys. Girls and boys showed a positive correlation between MA and TA and a negative correlation between MA and mathematics performance. TA was also negatively correlated with mathematics performance, but this relationship was stronger for girls than for boys. When controlling for TA, the negative correlation between MA and performance remained for girls only. Regression analyses revealed that MA was a significant predictor of performance for girls but not for boys.

Conclusions

Our study has revealed that secondary school children experience MA. Importantly, we controlled for TA which is typically not controlled for in MA studies. Girls showed higher levels of MA than boys and high levels of MA were related to poorer levels of mathematics performance. As well as potentially having a detrimental effect on ‘online’ mathematics performance, past research has shown that high levels of MA can have negative consequences for later mathematics education. Therefore MA warrants attention in the mathematics classroom, particularly because there is evidence that MA develops during the primary school years. Furthermore, our study showed no gender difference in mathematics performance, despite girls reporting higher levels of MA. These results might suggest that girls may have had the potential to perform better than boys in mathematics however their performance may have been attenuated by their higher levels of MA. Longitudinal research is needed to investigate the development of MA and its effect on mathematics performance.
Assessment of the structural and functional impact of in-frame mutations of the DMD gene, using the tools included in the eDystrophin online database
Authors: Nicolas Aurélie , Lucchetti-Miganeh Céline , Yaou Rabah Ben , Kaplan Jean-Claude , Chelly Jamel , Leturcq France , Barloy-Hubler Frédérique , Le Rumeur Elisabeth
Published: July 2012

Background

Dystrophin is a large essential protein of skeletal and heart muscle. It is a filamentous scaffolding protein with numerous binding domains. Mutations in the DMD gene, which encodes dystrophin, mostly result in the deletion of one or several exons and cause Duchenne (DMD) and Becker (BMD) muscular dystrophies. The most common DMD mutations are frameshift mutations resulting in an absence of dystrophin from tissues. In-frame DMD mutations are less frequent and result in a protein with partial wild-type dystrophin function. The aim of this study was to highlight structural and functional modifications of dystrophin caused by in-frame mutations.

Methods and results

We developed a dedicated database for dystrophin, the eDystrophin database. It contains 209 different non frame-shifting mutations found in 945 patients from a French cohort and previous studies. Bioinformatics tools provide models of the three-dimensional structure of the protein at deletion sites, making it possible to determine whether the mutated protein retains the typical filamentous structure of dystrophin. An analysis of the structure of mutated dystrophin molecules showed that hybrid repeats were reconstituted at the deletion site in some cases. These hybrid repeats harbored the typical triple coiled-coil structure of native repeats, which may be correlated with better function in muscle cells.

Conclusion

This new database focuses on the dystrophin protein and its modification due to in-frame deletions in BMD patients. The observation of hybrid repeat reconstitution in some cases provides insight into phenotype-genotype correlations in dystrophin diseases and possible strategies for gene therapy. The eDystrophin database is freely available: http://edystrophin.genouest.org/.
Vector capacity of Anopheles sinensis in malaria outbreak areas of central China
Authors: Pan Jia-Yun , Zhou Shui-Sen , Zheng Xiang , Huang Fang , Wang Duo-Quan , Shen Yu-Zu , Su Yun-Pu , Zhou Guang-Chao , Liu Feng , Jiang Jing-Jing
Published: July 2012

Background

Both falciparum and vivax malaria were historically prevalent in China with high incidence. With the control efforts, the annual incidence in the whole country has reduced to 0.0001% except in some areas in the southern borders after 2000. Despite this, the re-emergence or outbreak of malaria was unavoidable in central China during 2005–2007. In order to understand the role of the vector in the transmission of malaria during the outbreak period, the vector capacity of An. sinensis in Huanghuai valley of central China was investigated.

Findings

The study was undertaken in two sites, namely Huaiyuan county of Anhui province and Yongcheng county of Henan province. In each county, malaria cases were recorded for recent years, and transmission risk factors for each study village including anti-mosquito facilities and total number of livestock were recorded by visiting each household in the study sites. The specimens of mosquitoes were collected in two villages, and population density and species in each study site were recorded after the identification of different species, and the blood-fed mosquitoes were tested by ring precipitation test. Finally, various indicators were calculated to estimate vector capacity or dynamics, including mosquito biting rate (MBR), human blood index (HBI), and the parous rates (M). Finally, the vector capacity, as an important indicator of malaria transmission to predict the potential recurrence of malaria, was estimated and compared in each study site.

About 93.0% of 80 households in Huaiyuan and 89.3% of 192 households in Yongcheng had anti-mosquito facilities. No cattle or pigs were found, only less than 10 sheep were found in each study village. A total of 94 and 107 Anopheles spp. mosquitos were captured in two study sites, respectively, and all of An. sinensis were morphologically identified. It was found that mosquito blood-feeding peak was between 9:00 pm and 12:00 pm. Man biting rate of An. sinensis was 6.0957 and 5.8621 (mosquitoes/people/night) estimated by using half-night human bait trap method and full-capture method, respectively. Human blood indexes (HBI) were 0.6667 (6/9) and 0.6429 (18/28), and man-biting habits were 0.2667 and 0.2572 in two sites, respectively. Therefore, the expectation of infective life and vector capacity of An. sinensis was 0.3649-0.4761 and 0.5502-0.7740, respectively, in Huanhuai valley of central China where the outbreak occurred, which is much higher than that in the previous years without malaria outbreak.

Conclusions

This study suggests that vivax malaria outbreak in Huanhuai valley is highly related to the enhancement in vector capacity of An. sinensis for P. vivax, which is attributed to the local residents’ habits and the remarkable drop in the number of large livestock leading to disappearance of traditional biological barriers.
Utilization of vinasse for production of poly-3-(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) by Haloferax mediterranei
Authors: Bhattacharyya Anirban , Pramanik Arnab , Maji Sudipta Kumar , Haldar Saubhik , Mukhopadhyay Ujjal Kumar , Mukherjee Joydeep
Published: July 2012

Vinasse, a highly polluting waste of the ethanol industry was utilized for the production of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) by the extremely halophilic archaeon, Haloferax mediterranei in shake-flasks. Following pre-treatment through adsorption on activated carbon, 25%-50% (v/v) pre-treated vinasse was utilized leading to 70% maximum accumulation of PHA. Maximum PHA concentration of 19.7 g/l, product yield coefficient (based on total carbohydrates) of 0.87 and 0.21 g/l h volumetric productivity were achieved. Concomitant lowering of BOD5 of pre-treated vinasse by at least 78% and COD by at least 80% was attained at the end of this process. The PHA was recovered by osmotic lysis of the cells and purification by sodium hypochlorite and organic solvents. Through UV–vis spectroscopy, gas chromatography, differential scanning calorimetry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, the PHA was identified as poly-3-(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate). The 3-hydroxyvalerate content was 12.36 mol % (utilizing 25% pre-treated vinasse) and 14.09 mol % (utilizing 50% pre-treated vinasse). High salt concentration in the medium allowed this process without sterile conditions and thus reduction in costs of sterilization can be envisaged. Activated charcoal pre-treatment of vinasse is economical than competing processes such as ultrafiltration of whey, extrusion and enzymatic treatment of rice and corn starch. Without impacting sugar prices, this process can easily be integrated into a distillery that has fermentation equipment and trained personnel. High PHA content, productivity, zero-cost carbon source, low-cost isolation of a high-purity product and potential integration into ethanol manufacturing unit with concomitant wastewater treatment should merit further development of this process to higher scales.
Clonal relatedness between lobular carcinoma in situ and synchronous malignant lesions
Authors: Andrade Victor P , Ostrovnaya Irina , Seshan Venkatraman E , Morrogh Mary , Giri Dilip , Olvera Narciso , De Brot Marina , Morrow Monica , Begg Colin B , King Tari A
Published: July 2012

Introduction

Lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) has been accepted as a marker of risk for the development of invasive breast cancer, yet modern models of breast carcinogenesis include LCIS as a precursor of low-grade carcinomas. We provide evidence favoring a clonal origin for LCIS and synchronous estrogen receptor-positive malignant lesions of the ductal and lobular phenotype.

Methods

Patients with prior LCIS undergoing mastectomy were identified preoperatively from 2003 to 2008. Specimens were widely sampled, and frozen blocks were screened for LCIS and co-existing malignant lesions, and were subject to microdissection. Samples from 65 patients were hybridized to the Affymetrix SNP 6.0 array platform. Cases with both an LCIS sample and an associated ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) or invasive tumor sample were evaluated for patterns of somatic copy number changes to assess evidence of clonal relatedness.

Results

LCIS was identified in 44 of the cases, and among these a DCIS and/or invasive lesion was also identified in 21 cases. A total of 17 tumor pairs had adequate DNA/array data for analysis, including nine pairs of LCIS/invasive lobular cancer, four pairs of LCIS/DCIS, and four pairs of LCIS/invasive ductal cancer. Overall, seven pairs (41%) were judged to be clonally related; in five (29%) evidence suggested clonality but was equivocal, and five (29%) were considered independent. Clonal pairs were observed with all matched lesion types and low and high histological grades. We also show anecdotal evidence of clonality between a patient-matched triplet of LCIS, DCIS, and invasive ductal cancer.

Conclusion

Our results support the role of LCIS as a precursor in the development of both high-grade and low-grade ductal and lobular cancers.
Inter-rater reliability of the Full Outline of UnResponsiveness score and the Glasgow Coma Scale in critically ill patients: a prospective observational study
Authors: Fischer Michael , Rüegg Stephan , Czaplinski Adam , Strohmeier Monika , Lehmann Angelika , Tschan Franziska , Hunziker Patrick R , Marsch Stephan C
Published: July 2012

Introduction

The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is the most widely used scoring system for comatose patients in intensive care. Limitations of the GCS include the impossibility to assess the verbal score in intubated or aphasic patients, and an inconsistent inter-rater reliability. The FOUR (Full Outline of UnResponsiveness) score, a new coma scale not reliant on verbal response, was recently proposed. The aim of the present study was to compare the inter-rater reliability of the GCS and the FOUR score among unselected patients in general critical care. A further aim was to compare the inter-rater reliability of neurologists with that of intensive care unit (ICU) staff.

Methods

In this prospective observational study, scoring of GCS and FOUR score was performed by neurologists and ICU staff on 267 consecutive patients admitted to intensive care.

Results

In a total of 437 pair wise ratings the exact inter-rater agreement for the GCS was 71%, and for the FOUR score 82% (P = 0.0016); the inter-rater agreement within a range of ± 1 score point for the GCS was 90%, and for the FOUR score 92% (P = ns.). The exact inter-rater agreement among neurologists was superior to that among ICU staff for the FOUR score (87% vs. 79%, P = 0.04) but not for the GCS (73% vs. 73%). Neurologists and ICU staff did not significantly differ in the inter-rater agreement within a range of ± 1 score point for both GCS (88% vs. 93%) and the FOUR score (91% vs. 88%).

Conclusions

The FOUR score performed better than the GCS for exact inter-rater agreement, but not for the clinically more relevant agreement within the range of ± 1 score point. Though neurologists outperformed ICU staff with regard to exact inter-rater agreement, the inter-rater agreement of ICU staff within the clinically more relevant range of ± 1 score point equalled that of the neurologists. The small advantage in inter-rater reliability of the FOUR score is most likely insufficient to replace the GCS, a score with a long tradition in intensive care.
Delirium epidemiology in critical care (DECCA): an international study
Authors: Salluh Jorge I , Soares Márcio , Teles José M , Ceraso Daniel , Raimondi Nestor , Nava Victor S , Blasquez Patrícia , Ugarte Sebastian , Ibanez-Guzman Carlos , Centeno José V , Laca Manuel , Grecco Gustavo , Jimenez Edgar , Árias-Rivera Susana , Duenas Carmelo , Rocha Marcelo G
Published: July 2012

Introduction

Delirium is a frequent source of morbidity in intensive care units (ICUs). Most data on its epidemiology is from single-center studies. Our aim was to conduct a multicenter study to evaluate the epidemiology of delirium in the ICU.

Methods

A 1-day point-prevalence study was undertaken in 104 ICUs from 11 countries in South and North America and Spain.

Results

In total, 975 patients were screened, and 497 fulfilled inclusion criteria and were enrolled (median age, 62 years; 52.5% men; 16.7% and 19.9% for ICU and hospital mortality); 64% were admitted to the ICU because of medical causes, and sepsis was the main diagnosis (n = 76; 15.3%). In total, 265 patients were sedated with the Richmond agitation and sedation scale (RASS) deeper than -3, and only 232 (46.6%) patients could be evaluated with the confusion-assessment method for the ICU. The prevalence of delirium was 32.3%. Compared with patients without delirium, those with the diagnosis of delirium had a greater severity of illness at admission, demonstrated by higher sequential organ-failure assessment (SOFA (P = 0.004)) and simplified acute physiology score 3 (SAPS3) scores (P < 0.0001). Delirium was associated with increased ICU (20% versus 5.7%; P = 0.002) and hospital mortality (24 versus 8.3%; P = 0.0017), and longer ICU (P < 0.0001) and hospital length of stay (LOS) (22 (11 to 40) versus 7 (4 to 18) days; P < 0.0001). Previous use of midazolam (P = 0.009) was more frequent in patients with delirium. On multivariate analysis, delirium was independently associated with increased ICU mortality (OR = 3.14 (1.26 to 7.86); CI, 95%) and hospital mortality (OR = 2.5 (1.1 to 5.7); CI, 95%).

Conclusions

In this 1-day international study, delirium was frequent and associated with increased mortality and ICU LOS. The main modifiable risk factors associated with the diagnosis of delirium were the use of invasive devices and sedatives (midazolam).
Conserved chromosomal clustering of genes governed by chromatin regulators in Drosophila
Authors: Blanco Enrique , Pignatelli Miguel , Beltran Sergi , Punset Adrià , Pérez-Lluch Silvia , Serras Florenci , Guigó Roderic , Corominas Montserrat
Published: July 2012

Background

The trithorax group (trxG) and Polycomb group (PcG) proteins are responsible for the maintenance of stable transcriptional patterns of many developmental regulators. They bind to specific regions of DNA and direct the post-translational modifications of histones, playing a role in the dynamics of chromatin structure.

Results

We have performed genome-wide expression studies of trx and ash2 mutants in Drosophila melanogaster. Using computational analysis of our microarray data, we have identified 25 clusters of genes potentially regulated by TRX. Most of these clusters consist of genes that encode structural proteins involved in cuticle formation. This organization appears to be a distinctive feature of the regulatory networks of TRX and other chromatin regulators, since we have observed the same arrangement in clusters after experiments performed with ASH2, as well as in experiments performed by others with NURF, dMyc, and ASH1. We have also found many of these clusters to be significantly conserved in D. simulans, D. yakuba, D. pseudoobscura and partially in Anopheles gambiae.

Conclusion

The analysis of genes governed by chromatin regulators has led to the identification of clusters of functionally related genes conserved in other insect species, suggesting this chromosomal organization is biologically important. Moreover, our results indicate that TRX and other chromatin regulators may act globally on chromatin domains that contain transcriptionally co-regulated genes.
Characterization of taxonomically restricted genes in a phylum-restricted cell type
Authors: Milde Sabine , Hemmrich Georg , Anton-Erxleben Friederike , Khalturin Konstantin , Wittlieb Jörg , Bosch Thomas CG
Published: July 2012

Background

Despite decades of research, the molecular mechanisms responsible for the evolution of morphological diversity remain poorly understood. While current models assume that species-specific morphologies are governed by differential use of conserved genetic regulatory circuits, it is debated whether non-conserved taxonomically restricted genes are also involved in making taxonomically relevant structures. The genomic resources available in Hydra, a member of the early branching animal phylum Cnidaria, provide a unique opportunity to study the molecular evolution of morphological novelties such as the nematocyte, a cell type characteristic of, and unique to, Cnidaria.

Results

We have identified nematocyte-specific genes by suppression subtractive hybridization and find that a considerable portion has no homologues to any sequences in animals outside Hydra. By analyzing the transcripts of these taxonomically restricted genes and mining of the Hydra magnipapillata genome, we find unexpected complexity in gene structure and transcript processing. Transgenic Hydra expressing the green fluorescent protein reporter under control of one of the taxonomically restricted gene promoters recapitulate faithfully the described expression pattern, indicating that promoters of taxonomically restricted genes contain all elements essential for spatial and temporal control mechanisms. Surprisingly, phylogenetic footprinting of this promoter did not reveal any conserved cis-regulatory elements.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that taxonomically restricted genes are involved in the evolution of morphological novelties such as the cnidarian nematocyte. The transcriptional regulatory network controlling taxonomically restricted gene expression may contain not yet characterized transcription factors or cis-regulatory elements.
Fast approximate 2D inversion of airborne TEM data: Born approximation and empirical approach
Authors: Guillemoteau Julien , Sailhac Pascal , Behaegel Mickael
Published: July 2012

Airborne transient electromagnetic surveying provides data sections with a sufficient coverage to perform 2D imaging of electrical conductivity within the ground. Full 2D inversion using numerical modeling with finite differences or finite elements is still a time-consuming method to process the large amount of data acquired during an airborne survey. Two-dimensional structures increase the complexity of eddy current patterns within the ground. Consequently, fast approximate imaging using 2D sensitivities of equivalent homogeneous media is not sufficient, and causes strong artifacts in the resulting model. To overcome this problem, one prefers to use 1D inversion or 3D inversion using local sensitivity to process this kind of data. However, we consider a fast 2D inversion to be reachable. By estimating numerically the 2D sensitivity caused by 2D perturbations and showing that it differs considerably from the ones derived from homogeneous media, we propose an empirical model for in-loop configuration which describes the numerical 2D sensitivity. We applied this method to synthetic data; it eliminated 2D artifacts which are often encountered when using approximate inverse methods based on the theory of equivalent homogeneous half-space. An application to real in-loop data illustrates this improvement for imaging a dipping layer of conductive graphite deposits in Canada. This method is relatively fast. It could provide a better understanding of the ground during the survey, and would allow geophysicists to better manage the whole campaign.
Electromagnetic induction in subsurface metal targets: Cluster analysis using local point-pattern spatial statistics
Authors: de Smet T. S. , Everett M. E. , Pierce C. J. , Pertermann D. L. , Dickson D. B.
Published: July 2012

The detection and localization of statistically significant spatial clustering of buried metal artifacts for applications, including archaeological, environmental site assessment, and civil infrastructure mapping, can be performed reliably, inexpensively, and noninvasively using transient electromagnetic (EM) geophysics. The local [Formula: see text] statistic based on a weighted spatial autocorrelation were used to detect and localize statistically significant clustering of buried metal objects from gridded electromagnetic responses acquired at a seeded control site and at an active historical archaeological site in Paint Rock, Texas. This statistic compares the local EM millivolt response values about point [Formula: see text] radially to the global mean and variance to calculate the [Formula: see text] statistic as a standard variate at various length scales, which can therefore be assessed for significance. Because the local [Formula: see text] statistic compares local to global averages, it spatially compacts the amplitude response signal of the EM data. The resulting spatial cluster maps conformed well to the known distribution of metal targets buried at the control site, and enabled a successful excavation strategy with a significant reduction in false positives encountered at the archaeological site, when compared with more traditional methods.
Self-Esteem, Family Climate, and Communication Patterns in Relation to Deafness
Authors: Desselle Debra D.
Published: July 2012

The purpose of the study presented in this article was to determine the effect that family communication patterns have on the self-esteem of deaf children. Deaf students at a southern residential school, ranging in age from 13 to 19, were administered the Modified Self-Esteem Inventory (MSEI) and the Subject Communication Questionnaire. The subjects' parents answered 10 questions about their communication patterns with their deaf child. The parents were not deaf themselves. Analysis of the data revealed that there is a positive relationship between the family's communication method and the deaf child's self-esteem such that parents who use total communication (speech, fingerspelling, and sign) have children whose self-esteem scores are higher than those of children whose parents use an oral-only method of communication (speech). The parents who were best able to communicate by using sign language had children whose self-esteem scores were higher than those of children whose parents were less skilled in sign language. Also, a positive relationship was found between student self-esteem and reading level.
A Pilot Study of SPINE Test Scores and Measures of Tongue Deviancy in Speakers with Severe-to-Profound Hearing Loss
Authors: Wold Donald C. , Evans Christy R. , Montague James C. , Dancer Jesse E.
Published: July 2012

Two developments show promise in the assessment and remediation of defective speech production in persons with hearing loss. A perceptual speech-intelligibility test, the SPINE (for Speech Intelligibility Evaluation), is a simple, clinician-administered instrument which is valid, reliable, and clinically efficient. In addition, the development of acoustic measures of tongue deviancy, computed from formant frequencies, makes possible a direct lateral visualization of tongue placement in relation to standard vowel placement. In this study, SPINE test scores of 28 persons with severe-to-profound hearing loss were correlated with two measures of tongue deviancy during production of the vowels \i\, \a\, and \u\. For both measures of tongue deviancy, correlations with the SPINE were significant for the three vowels combined and for the isolated vowel \i\. These findings suggest that clinicians may ultimately have two different but complementary means of assessing speech production in persons with hearing loss.
Fibred surfaces, varieties isogenous to a product and related moduli spaces
Authors: Catanese Fabrizio
Published: July 2012

A fibration of an algebraic surface S over a curve B , with fibres of genus at least 2, has constant moduli iff it is birational to the quotient of a product of curves by the action of a finite group G . A variety isogenous to a (higher) product is the quotient of a product of curves of genus at least 2 by the free action of a finite group. Theorem B gives a characterization of surfaces isogenous to a higher product in terms of the fundamental group and of the Euler number. Theorem C classifies the groups thus occurring and shows that, after fixing the group and the Euler number, one obtains an irreducible moduli space. The result of Theorem B is extended to higher dimension in Theorem G, thus generalizing (cf. also Theorem H) results of Jost-Yau and Mok concerning varieties whose universal cover is a polydisk. Theorem A shows that fibrations where the fibre genus and the genus of the base B are at least 2 are invariants of the oriented differentiable structure. The main Theorems D and E characterize surfaces carrying constant moduli fibrations as surfaces having a Zariski open set satisfying certain topological conditions (e.g., having the right Euler number, the right fundamental group and the right fundamental group at infinity).
The classification of the surfaces with parallel mean curvature vector in two-dimensional complex space forms
Authors: Kenmotsu Katsuei , Zhou Detang
Published: July 2012

In this paper we find new surfaces with parallel mean curvature vectors in two-dimensional complex space forms that are not of constant Kähler angles and then classify all of them. The surface can be isometrically deformed preserving both the length of the mean curvature vector and the Kähler angle. From this classification, the deformations appear only when the curvature of the ambiant space is nonpositive.
Foliations of Hilbert modular surfaces
Authors: McMullen Curtis T
Published: July 2012

The Hilbert modular surface XD is the moduli space of Abelian varieties A with real multiplication by a quadratic order of discriminant D > 1. The locus where A is a product of elliptic curves determines a finite union of algebraic curves XD(1) â XD. In this paper we show the lamination XD(1) extends to an essentially unique foliation FD of XD by complex geodesics. The geometry of FD is related to TeichmÂ¨uller theory, holomorphic motions, polygonal billiards and Lattès rational maps. We show every leaf of FD is either closed or dense, and compute its holonomy. We also introduce refinements TN(Î½) of the classical modular curves on XD, leading to an explicit description of XD(1).
L p regularity of averages over curves and bounds for associated maximal operators
Authors: Pramanik M , Seeger Andreas
Published: July 2012

We prove that for a finite type curve in â3 the maximal operator generated by dilations is bounded on Lp for sufficiently large p. We also show the endpoint Lp â Lp1/p regularity result for the averaging operators for large p. The proofs make use of a deep result of Thomas Wolff about decompositions of cone multipliers.
On the focusing critical semi-linear wave equation
Authors: Krieger J , Schlag W
Published: July 2012

The wave equation ∂ttψ − Δψ − ψ5 = 0 in ℝ3 is known to exhibit finite time blowup for data of negative energy. Furthermore, it admits the special static solutions φ(x, a) = (3a) ¼ (1 + a|x|2)−½ for all a > 0 which are linearly unstable. We view these functions as a curve in the energy space ˙H1 ×L2. We prove the existence of a family of perturbations of this curve that lead to global solutions possessing a well-defined long time asymptotic behavior as the sum of a bulk term plus a scattering term. Moreover, this family forms a co-dimension one manifold M of small diameter in a suitable topology. Loosely speaking, M acts as a center-stable manifold with the curve Φ(·, a) as an attractor in M.
Pseudo-Documentarism and the Limits of Ancient Fiction
Authors: Mheallaigh Karen Ní
Published: July 2012

Pseudo-documentarism is a strategy in which an author claims—with varying degrees of irony—to have discovered an authentic document which he transmits to his readers. This article explores three texts of pseudo-documentary fiction from the Imperial period (Dictys’ Journal of the Trojan War , Antonius Diogenes’ The Wonders Beyond Thule , and Lucian’s True Histories ). By suggesting ways in which the implied readers of these texts may be relatable to “real,” exodiegetic readers, the article illustrates how pseudo-documentarism reflects aspects of the contemporary literary and cultural Zeitgeist .
The Comparative Spectrum in Homer
Authors: Ready Jonathan L.
Published: July 2012

This article posits three categories of Homeric figures-similes, comparisons, and likenesses-in exploring the various implications of and goals behind saying "A (is) like B" in the Homeric poems. Attention to modern research in the field of psycholinguistics on the differences between simile and metaphor, as well as to Aristotle's discussions of metaphor, brings into focus the spectrum of degree of likeness between tenor and vehicle in the epics. The Odyssey poet in particular exploits the existence and nature of this comparative spectrum for thematic and rhetorical effects. The spectrum emerges most clearly when one focuses on the words that introduce Homeric figures.
Virgil's Eclogues and Social Memory
Authors: Meban David
Published: July 2012

This article analyzes the Eclogues from the perspective of social memory. Discussion begins with examination of the anxieties regarding memory expressed by different authors in the late Republic. Subsequent analysis argues that similar concerns about memory and its relationship with social and political stability, cohesion and community are key elements of Eclogues 1, 5, and 9. In these poems, Virgil similarly taps into important contemporary debates about memory connected with figures such as Caesar and Octavian. The depiction of memory in the collection is, the article argues, shifting and fluid and is consequently representative of the triumviral period.
Incohat Ismene : The Dream Narrative as a Mode of Female Discourse in Epic Poetry
Authors: Scioli Emma
Published: July 2012

This article examines Ismene's nightmare in book 8 of Statius's Thebaid by contextualizing it within the epic's narrative, comparing it with the dream narrations of other female characters in epic poetry, and aligning it with other typically female modes of subjective expression in epic, such as weaving, teichoscopy, and lamentation. My analysis shows that by exposing the difficulties inherent in retelling a dream, Statius demonstrates sympathy with the female perspective on the horrific war that constitutes the central action of his poem and foreshadows the subsequent inadequacy of words in reaction to such horror.
Mezentius the Epicurean
Authors: Kronenberg Leah
Published: July 2012

This paper argues that Mezentius, the contemptor divum ("scorner of the gods") in Virgil's Aeneid, can be read as an allegorical Epicurean. His Epicurean element helps to explain his dramatic transformation from a symbol of impietas to one of pietas in Books 7–10, as well as pius Aeneas' reverse transformation into an impious Giant figure. These transformations parallel the inversion of the traditional meanings of pietas and impietas in Lucretius and other Epicurean writers; in addition, the Giant-like Mezentius evokes the subversive Gigantomachy of Lucretius, which celebrates the archetypal scorners of the gods as positive symbols of Epicureanism. The "redeemed" Mezentius allows for an Epicurean reading of the Aeneid, in which impietas is redefined as true piety.
5. The TLL and the Sustaining of Scholarship
Authors: Corbeill Anthony
Published: July 2012

DTP Notes 1. When there is a greek extract followed by the english translation remove the space below the greek extract.
Germany Gets the Blues: Negotiations of “Race” and Nation at the American Folk Blues Festival
Authors: Adelt Ulrich
Published: July 2012

In this essay, I focus on the emergence of a transatlantic blues culture by analyzing the work of two German concert promoters, Horst Lippmann and Fritz Rau. Lippmann and Rau organized the American Folk Blues Festival in both Germanys and other European countries beginning in 1962. I argue that Lippmann and Rau supported attempts to claim middle-class respectability for jazz and the blues and saw a potential for modernizing West and East Germany through black music and tapped into Romantic constructions of authenticity and blackness that posited the blues as the premodern or “primitive” root of jazz. They aligned jazz and blues in the earlier years of the festival but gradually began to cater to the less “respectable” young fans of the emerging rock culture in the latter half of the 1960s who saw the blues as the “primitive” root of rock and roll. Lippmann’s and Rau’s claim that listening to blues music could serve as an antiracist strategy in the larger context of German denazification was undercut by their deployment of racialist ideology and their ignorance of then-current black civil rights politics. Despite its specific localized meanings in the postwar Germanys, the American Folk Blues Festival revealed the more ubiquitous problematic construction of blackness that has informed white countercultural discourses of the 1960s and beyond.
The American Folk Blues Festival employed a specific German primitivism, which had been developed through German colonialism, scientific racism, and German Expressionist art, and other factors and which implicitly negated the history of Afro-Germans and other black people in Germany. By invoking this history, I argue that in their conceptualization of the American Folk Blues Festival Lippmann, Rau and their stage designer Günther Kieser relied on a conservative or preservative approach to blues. The organizers of the American Folk Blues Festival made no references to civil rights struggles in the U.S. until 1965, and then only did so from the safe distance of an ostentatiously liberated, anti-racist West Germany. However, conceptualizations of blues as simple, raw and uninhibited but ultimately non-threatening were occasionally challenged on and off stage by the participating musicians. It is important to acknowledge the local specificity of the blues in both Germanys and the way in the music has been used in efforts to overcome the Nazi past and, to a lesser degree, to resist East German authorities while simultaneously adhering to colonialist and primitivist traditions. Although I emphasize the specific localized context for the American Folk Blues Festival, I argue that its authentication of blues worked strikingly similarly to other Eurocentric discourses. The American Folk Blues Festival helps us to understand that what other scholars have carved out for a specific U.S. context was (and is) a transatlantic phenomenon in which problematic racial conceptions easily travel from the United States to Europe and back.
“And Whatever It Is, It Is You”: The Autochthonous Self in Aeschylus’s Seven Against Thebes
Authors: Rader Richard
Published: July 2012

This article investigates the theme of autochthony in Aeschylus’s Seven Against Thebes . Here I use Žižek’s conception of “ideological fantasy” to synthesize the two major critiques of autochthony: the ideological (Loraux) and the material (Cohen). With Žižek’s theory in mind, I argue that Seven critiques the notion of autochthony at the same time as it shows up the powerful roots it has planted in the lives of those who live by it—Eteocles, in particular. Aeschylus’s drama turns a critical eye on the idea of civic purity by drawing out autochthony’s darker implications; it illustrates simultaneously how the myth unconsciously influences and structures civic consciousness, exposing in the mix the potential danger of its grip on Eteocles and his citizens (as well as, potentially, us).
The Virgin, the Bear, the Upside-Down Strix : An Interpretation of Antoninus Liberalis 21
Authors: Cherubini Laura
Published: July 2012

Antoninus Liberalis tells us at Metamorphoses 21 about the misadventures of Poliphonte, who, having rejected Aphrodite in favor of Artemis and a virginal life in the wild, was cursed with becoming, first, the lover of a bear and, then, a nocturnal, ill-omened strix , which is curiously described as “upside-down.” This essay reconstructs the myth’s cultural meaning by exploring the relationship between its two central themes—sexual union between a maiden and a bear, and the metamorphosis of a woman into a strix . The interpretation focuses on the symbolic mechanisms underlying traditional Greek and Roman beliefs about both bears and striges , and examines how they (as well as other, related superstitions about witches) can clarify the ancient significance of girls’ transitions into women.
Regaining Continuity with the Past: Spirited Away and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Authors: Satoshi Ando
Published: July 2012

What can a classic of Victorian children's literature have in common with a recent Japanese film? ANDO Satoshi argues that they represent, respectively, the crisis of Victorian England and that of contemporary Japan, through their heroines' identity crises as they pass from childhood into adolescence
Between International and Local: Lene Kaaberbøl's Fantasy Literature
Authors: Skyggebjerg Anna Karlskov
Published: July 2012

Anna Karlskov Skyggebjerg introduces the work of a Danish writer of fantasy for children, some of whose books are also available in English. She locates Kaaberbøl in the tradition of contemporary Anglophone fantasies but also identifies the influence of classic Nordic children's literature on this popular and prolific writer
The Development of Puffin Books
Authors: Wright Kate
Published: July 2012

Puffin, the children’s imprint of the famous British publishing house Penguin Books, has been publishing children’s paperbacks for almost 70 years. With their distinctive colophon in the form of a black and white puffin, Puffin books are instantly recognisable all over the world. Kate Wright traces the development of this quality children’s list, which has encouraged several generations of readers
What Do We Tell the Children?: War in the Work of Roberto Innocenti
Authors: Myers Lindsay
Published: July 2012

What should we teach children about war? Hans Christian Andersen award-winning illustrator Roberto Innocenti firmly believes that children should be afforded access to history and, more importantly, that the child’s place in history should be acknowledged. This article analyzes Innocenti’s illustrations depicting the experiences that children have of war in Rose Blanche, Erika’s Story, and Leda e il mago.
When Children Die In War: Death in War Literature for Children and Youth
Authors: Šubrtová Milena
Published: July 2012

From the 19th century novel, The Heart of a Boy (1886) to the contemporary collection Stolen Voices: Young People’s War Diaries, from World War I to Iraq (2006), children have suffered the ravages of war and have been depicted in stories and accounts of war experiences. What do their voices tell us?
"Narigante escudero": Máscara y representación en Don Quijote
Authors: Lobato María Luisa
Published: July 2012

A partir de un episodio de Don Quijote con claras resonancias a las representaciones de la commedia dell'arte , se vuelve sobre la hipótesis del contacto de Cervantes (1547-1616) con grupos y actores italianos y, en concreto, con su contemporáneo, el actor Tristano Martinelli (1557-1630), quien en su papel de Arlecchino como caballero andante y enamorado, quedó inmortalizado en uno de los grabados que se conservan en la importante colección Fossard de hacia 1584, hoy en el Museo Baron Gérard de Bayeux (Francia). A partir del juego de máscaras presente en algunos episodios de la obra cervantina, se analiza la forma y función de este adminículo en el cambio de identidades para, a partir de lo concreto, llegar a la observación de don Quijote mismo como máscara intemporal. (MLL)
Queer Black Studies: An Annotated Bibliography, 1994-1999
Authors: Boggs Nicholas
Published: July 2012

The following annotated bibliography includes selected works published from 1994 to 1999 in topics related to queer black studies. It is organized in four sections: journal articles, critical anthologies, book-length studies, and books and anthologies with single chapters relevant to queer black studies. Due to the increasingly interdisciplinary breadth of the field, the bibliography does not exhaust the scholarly work that has been completed within black gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender studies over the last five years. Rather, in accordance with Callaloo's attention to African-American Arts and Letters, the bibliographical texts are drawn primarily from literary criticism, cultural studies, and the study of visual culture, as well as limited entries from sociological studies.
Along the "Paragraphic Wires": Child–Adult Mediation in St. Nicholas Magazine
Authors: Phillips Michelle H.
Published: July 2012

Through an examination of two of St. Nicholas’s most popular departments, “Jack-in-the-Pulpit” and “The Letter-Box,” this paper explores the way the magazine and its editor resist conventions of adult-child separation and encourage instead generationally hybrid subjectivities, from the ambiguously aged “Jack” to the literate and literary child’s disidentification with childhood.
Elizabeth Enright and the Family Story as Genre
Authors: Attebery Brian
Published: July 2012

Since its zenith in the mid-twentieth century, the family story has largely disappeared from critical discussion, partly because it has been treated as merely a form of realism. Elizabeth Enright’s Melendy books show that family stories are both more formulaic and more interesting aesthetically than a purely realist reading allows.
Democratic Reading: Ideology and Genre in Pullman's I Was a Rat!
Authors: King Shelley
Published: July 2012

This essay argues that in I Was a Rat! Pullman adapts the fairy tale to construct reading as an ideological act. Combining Pullman’s concept of “democratic reading” with Bakhtinian theories of identity construction and dialogic truth, the essay explores the sophisticated textual awareness fostered by juxtaposing the competing truths of tabloid and fairy tale.
From Cold War Lesbian Pulp to Contemporary Young Adult Novels: Vin Packer's Spring Fire, M. E. Kerr's Deliver Us from Evie, and Marijane Meaker's Fight against Fifties Homophobia
Authors: Abate Michelle Ann
Published: July 2012

This essay unpacks the formerly overlooked links between the lesbian pulp fiction that Marijane Meaker wrote under various pseudonyms during the postwar period and the young adult novels that she has published in recent decades under the name M. E. Kerr. In particular, it reads her 1994 YA text Deliver Us From Evie as a type of retro retelling of her best-selling 1952 lesbian paperback, Spring Fire. Some elements of postwar pulp fiction may seem campy, ironic and even ridiculous to late-twentieth century readers. But, as Evie demonstrates, many of the messages that they communicate about same-sex love unfortunately endure. This essay demonstrates that Meaker is revisiting and revising her earlier pulp work in her 1994 YA novel, and she is doing so within the context of a 1990s-to-1950s retrospection that is campy and ironic, but also earnest.
Other Maps Showing Through: The Liminal Identities of Neverland
Authors: Fox Paul, Ph. D
Published: July 2012

J. M. Barrie's Peter and Wendy is portrayed by contemporary criticism as a politically subversive narrative resistant to the determinations of Empire. This essay will suggest that such an interpretation ignores the explicitly aesthetic character of Barrie's story: Neverland is a textual space in which reality is fictively recomposed to the benefit of its inhabitants, a ludic site whereon identity is contingent and provisional. The island is a map of aesthetic potentialities and, as such, affords readers themselves patterns for producing a world beyond the strictures of determinate typification.
Reconstructing Aristophanic Performance: Stage Properties in Acharnians
Authors: English Mary C
Published: July 2012

Nowhere is Aristophanes' use of stage properties more striking than in Acharnians. Drawing on recent work in performance theory, this article attempts to reexamine the staging of major scenes in Acharnians by focusing on Aristophanes' concern for sensational and symbolically charged stage properties. Physical objects in this play seem to have two primary functions: (a) they "animate" and "anchor" many of Aristophanes' jokes; and (b) they are often the major vehicle through which Aristophanes reinforces his political and cultural commentary on wartime Athens.
Entheogens and the Public Mystery: The Rhetoric of R. Gordon Wasson
Authors: Ceraso Antonio
Published: July 2012

This article explores the work of R. Gordon Wasson, who discovered the use of psilocybin mushrooms among indigenous people in Mexico. I argue that Wasson's writings on these and other psychedelic substances involve two primary moves. First, Wasson seeks to open up processes of scientific research beyond institutional and disciplinary boundaries, thereby constructing deinstitutionalized knowledge networks. At the same time, he recognizes that such openness leaves knowledge-making communities vulnerable to exploitation. Wasson's second move, then, is to draw on the tradition of the ancient mystery cults—particularly the Greek mysteries at Eleusis—in order to install protective silences within the open networks. This twofold structure of openness and mystery provides an alternative for thinking about and entering into information flows that can complicate and enrich current debates on intellectual property.