bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Synthesis, Structure, and Photophysical Properties of the Di‐ and Trinuclear Phosphine‐Diimine Complexes of Copper(I)
Authors: Smirnova Ekaterina S. , Melekhova Anna A. , Gurzhiy Vladislav V. , Selivanov Stanislav I. , Krupenya Dmitrii V. , Koshevoy Igor O. , Tunik Sergey P.
Published: January 2012

Reactions of [Cu(NCMe)4]+ with stoichiometric amount of diphosphine R2P–(C6H4)n–PR2, (R = NC4H4, n = 1; R = Ph, n = 1, 2, 3) or tri‐phosphine 1, 3, 5‐(PPh2–C6H4–)3–C6H3 ligands give the corresponding di‐ or trinuclear copper(I) acetonitrile‐phosphine complexes 1–5. Substitution of the labile acetonitrile groups with chelating aromatic diimines – 2, 2′‐bipyridine (bpy), 1, 10‐phenanthroline (phen), 5, 6‐dimethyl‐1, 10‐phenanthroline (dmp), 5, 6‐dibromo‐1, 10‐phenanthroline (phenBr2) – gives the corresponding substituted compounds 6–16. In all complexes 1–16 each central CuI atom has tetrahedral configuration completed with two N‐ and two P‐donor groups. The compounds obtained were characterized using elemental analysis, ESI‐MS, X‐ray crystallography, and NMR spectroscopy. All phosphine‐diimine compounds 6–16 are photoluminescent at room temperature both in dichloromethane solution and in solid state (λex = 385 nm). In CH2Cl2 solution the maxima of emission bands are found in a range 540–640 nm, and in solid in a similar range 538–620 nm. Emission of 6–16 is assigned to the triplet excited state dominated by the charge transfer transitions with contribution of the MLCT character.
Zimbabwe's Guerrilla War
Authors: Kriger Norma J.
Published: January 2012

Studies of revolution generally regard peasant popular support as a prerequisite for success. In this study of political mobilization and organization in Zimbabwe's recent rural-based war of independence, Norma Kriger is interested in the extent to which ZANU guerrillas were able to mobilize peasant support, the reasons why peasants participated, and in the links between the post-war outcomes for peasants and the mobilization process. Hers is an unusual study of revolution in that she interviews peasants and other participants about their experiences, and she is able to produce fresh insights into village politics during a revolution. In particular, Zimbabwean peasant accounts direct our attention to the ZANU guerrillas' ultimate political victory despite the lack of peasant popular support, and to the importance that peasants attached to gender, generational and other struggles with one another. Her findings raise questions about theories of revolution.
Law and Politics in Jacobean England
Authors: Knafla Louis A.
Published: January 2012

This study is devoted chiefly to Ellesmere's career and writings as Lord Chancellor, 1603–1617. After an introduction to his life and career from 1541 to 1603, Part One is a study of his role in the legal and political history of Jacobean England. In order to place the analysis of law and politics in a broader context, topics discussed include economics, religion, social customs and thought, in addition to questions concerning the forms of action at common law, disputes between the courts, law and equity, and the political activities of Parliament, the Privy Council, and the Crown. Part Two consists of a critical edition of eight of Ellesmere's little known or unidentified tracts on the royal prerogative, Anglo-Scots Union, the Parliament of 1604–1610, the administration of government, law reform, the ecclesiastical courts, Coke's Law Reports and the Chancery-Common Law conflict.
Symbols of Defeat in the Construction of National Identity
Authors: Mock Steven
Published: January 2012

If nationalism is the assertion of legitimacy for a nation and its effectiveness as a political entity, why do many nations emphasize images of their own defeat in understanding their history? Using Israel, Serbia, France, Greece and Ghana as examples, the author argues that this phenomenon exposes the ambivalence that lurks behind the passions nationalism evokes. Symbols of defeat glorify a nation's ancient past, while reenacting the destruction of that past as a necessary step in constructing a functioning modern society. As a result, these symbols often assume a foundational role in national mythology. Threats to such symbols are perceived as threats to the nation itself and consequently are met with desperation difficult for outsiders to understand.
A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome
Authors: Burton Richard Francis
Published: January 2012

Sir Richard Burton (1821–1890) the famous Victorian explorer, began his career in the Indian army in 1842. While in India he developed his linguistic talent, mastering more than forty different languages and dialects. He turned to writing books in the 1850s and, over the remaining forty years of his life, published dozens of works and more than one hundred articles. He spent part of his career as British consul in Fernando Po (present-day Equatorial Guinea) in West Africa, and used this as an opportunity to explore the region. In 1861, he was sent on a mission, recounted in this two-volume work of 1864, to Dahomey (present-day Benin) to urge the king to put a stop to the local slave trade. In Volume 2 Burton discusses the human sacrifices that were taking place while he was there, and the negotiations with the king about slavery.
Journal of a Tour in Iceland, in the Summer of 1809
Authors: Hooker William Jackson
Published: January 2012

Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785–1865) was an eminent British botanist, best known for expanding and developing the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew into a leading centre of botanic research and conservation. At the age of nineteen he undertook an expedition to Iceland, his first outside Britain. Unfortunately, all his specimens and notes were destroyed in a fire on the return voyage (described in Volume 1), but he was able, with the help of the notes made by Sir Joseph Banks on an earlier expedition, to write this account. His work was first published privately in 1811, but a second edition was published in 1813 and is reproduced here. In 1809 England and Denmark-Norway were at war, and Iceland was a Danish dependency. Volume 2 offers Hooker's first-hand observations on the relationship between the two countries, and also includes detailed descriptions of the many volcanoes on the island.
Ideology in Language Use
Authors: Verschueren Jef
Published: January 2012

The relationship between language and ideology has long been central to research in discourse analysis, pragmatics, sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology, and has also informed other fields such as sociology and literary criticism. This book, by one of the world's leading pragmatists, introduces a new framework for the study of ideology in written language, using the tools, methods and theories of pragmatics and discourse analysis. Illustrations are drawn systematically from a coherent corpus of excerpts from late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century history textbooks dealing with episodes of colonial history and in particular the 1857 'Indian Mutiny'. It includes the complete corpus of excerpts, allowing researchers and students to evaluate all illustrations; at the same time, it provides useful practice and training materials. The book is intended as a teaching tool in language-, discourse- and communication-oriented programs, but also for historians and social and political scientists.
Multiscale Modeling of the Skeletal System
Authors: Viceconti Marco
Published: January 2012

Integrative approaches to biomedical research promise to advance our understanding of the human body and physiopathology of diseases. In this book, the author focuses on the skeletal system, demonstrating how multiscale modeling can determine the relationship between bone mechanics and disease. Introductory chapters explain the concept of integrative research, what a model is, predictive modeling, and the computational methods used throughout the book. Starting with whole body anatomy, physiology and modeling, subsequent chapters scale down from bone and tissue levels to the cellular level, where the modeling of mechanobiological processes is addressed. Finally, the principles are applied to address truly complex, multiscale interactions. Special attention is given to real-world clinical applications: one in pediatric skeletal oncology and one on the prediction of fracture risks in osteoporotic patients. This book has wide interdisciplinary appeal and is a valuable resource for researchers in mechanical and biomedical engineering, quantitative physiology and computational biology.
An Introduction to Karl Marx
Authors: Elster Jon
Published: January 2012

A concise and comprehensive introduction to Marx's social, political and economic thought for the beginning student. Jon Elster surveys in turn each of the main themes of marxist thought: methodology, alienation, economics, exploitation, historical materialism, classes, politics, and ideology; in a final chapter he assesses 'what is living and what is dead in the philosophy of Marx'. The emphasis throughout is on the analytical structure of Marx's arguments and the approach is at once sympathetic, undogmatic, and rigorous.
Rotation of spheroidal particles in Couette flows
Authors: Huang Haibo , Yang Xin , Krafczyk Manfred , Lu Xi-Yun
Published: January 2012

The rotation of a neutrally buoyant spheroidal particle in a Couette flow is studied by a multi-relaxation-time (MRT) lattice Boltzmann method. We find several new periodic and steady rotation modes for a prolate spheroid for Reynolds numbers ($\mathit{Re}$) exceeding 305. The simulations cover the regime up to $\mathit{Re}\leq 700$. The rotational behaviour of the spheroid appears to be not only sensitive to the Reynolds number but also to its initial orientation. We discuss the effects of initial orientation in detail. For $305\lt \mathit{Re}\lt 345$ we find that the prolate spheroid reaches a periodic mode characterized by precession and nutation around an inclined axis which is located close to the middle plane where the velocity is zero. For $345\lt \mathit{Re}\lt 385$, the prolate spheroid precesses around the vorticity direction with a nutation. For $\mathit{Re}$ close to the critical ${\mathit{Re}}_{c} \approx 345$, a period-doubling phenomenon is observed. We also identify a motionless mode at higher Reynolds numbers ($\mathit{Re}\gt 445$) for the prolate spheroid. For the oblate spheroid the dynamic equilibrium modes found are log rolling, inclined rolling and different steady states for $\mathit{Re}$ increasing from 0 to 520. The initial-orientation effects are studied by simulations of 57 evenly distributed initial orientations for each $\mathit{Re}$ investigated. Only one mode is found for the prolate spheroid for $\mathit{Re}\lt 120$ and $385\lt \mathit{Re}\lt 445$. In other $\mathit{Re}$ regimes, more than one mode is possible and the final mode is sensitive to the initial orientation. However, the oblate spheroid dynamics are insensitive to its initial orientation.
Antioxidant content and activity of the Indian fresh-water pearl mussel in the prevention of arthritis in an experimental animal model
Authors: Chakraborty Mousumi , Bhattacharya Sourav , Mishra Raghwendra , Mukherjee Debarati , Mishra Roshnara
Published: January 2012

The flesh of the Indian fresh-water mussel,Lamellidens marginalis(LM; Lamarck, 1819), is the byproduct of pearl culture and a cheap protein source. The present study investigated the antioxidant content of this ethnomedicinally cited species to outline its importance in food security and disease prevention. LM was found to be rich in polyphenol antioxidants with good correlation with its reducing capacity. LM also showed a significant free-radical-scavenging activity, H2O2-scavenging activity and Fe-chelating activity. To study the effect of this dietary antioxidant against oxidative stress, we took inflammatory arthritis as a model. LM-treated arthritis rats showed a higher antioxidant defence system with elevated superoxide dismutase, total thiol, glutathioneStransferase, glutathione peroxidase, total antioxidant status and catalase concentration of haemolysate. Oxidative stress markers like serum thiobarbituric acid-reacting substances, methyl glyoxal, NO and total oxidant status levels were decreased in LM-treated arthritis rats. Hence, the dietary antioxidants of LM were found to be effective in the prevention of oxidative stress in inflammatory arthritis. In conclusion, LM, the cash-crop byproduct, provides a rare opportunity for income and nutrition, not only by providing cheap and available energy, protein and dietary factors, but also by providing antioxidants effective against chronic inflammatory disease.
Effect of vitamin D3in reducing metabolic and oxidative stress in the liver of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats
Authors: George Naijil , Peeyush Kumar T. , Antony Sherin , Jayanarayanan S. , Paulose C. S.
Published: January 2012

Diabetes mellitus is a growing health problem worldwide and is associated with severe liver complications. The aim of the present study is to analyse the status of metabolic and free-radical-scavenging enzymes and second messengers in the liver of streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats, and to determine the hepatoprotective role of vitamin D3. All studies were performed using the liver of adult male Wistar rats. Gene expression studies were carried out using real-time PCR with specific probes. Second messenger levels were determined using3H-labelled Biotrak assay kits, and glucose uptake assay withd-[14C]glucose. The present results show that there was a decrease in hepatic glucose uptake, malate dehydrogenase activity, glycogen content, inositol triphosphate (IP3) and cyclic GMP levels, and superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, phospholipase C, cyclic AMP-responsive element-binding protein, vitamin D receptor (VDR) and insulin receptor (INSR) gene expression in the diabetic rats when compared with the controls (allP < 0·05), while cyclic AMP levels and GLUT2 expression were increased (P < 0·05). Treatment of the diabetic rats with vitamin D3and insulin reversed the altered parameters to near control values. In conclusion, the data suggest a novel role of vitamin D3in restoring impaired liver metabolism in STZ-induced diabetic rats by regulating glucose uptake, storage and metabolism. We demonstrated that the restoring effect of vitamin D3is mediated through VDR modulation, thereby improving signal transduction and controlling free radicals in the liver of diabetic rats. These data suggest a potential role for vitamin D3in the treatment of diabetes-associated hepatic complications.
“As on a Darkling Plain”: Practitioners, Publics, Propagandists, and Ancient Historiography
Authors: McCaskie T. C.
Published: January 2012

I am a professor of the history of Africa. I have spent four decades researching and writing about the historic West African forest kingdom of Asante (or Ashanti, now in Ghana), the most richly documented and most complex state and society in all of sub-Saharan Africa. In recent years I have become intrigued by the ways in which African histories authored by academic practitioners have been subjected to an ever-rising tide of readings, and misreadings, by interested publics and partisan propagandists. This paper addresses the problematic but understudied interaction between practitioners, publics, and propagandists in the understanding of history today. However, it is not about Africa.
The Laws of War
Authors: Pictet Jean S.
Published: January 2012

Heraclites of Ephesus said that war is the mother of the law of nations. Nothing could be more true for, alas, war is first and foremost in the relations among peoples. In 3,400 years of recorded history, there have been only 250 years of world peace!
FACTORS AFFECTING SEX RATIO AT BIRTH IN CROATIA 1998–2008
Authors: PAVIC DARIO
Published: January 2012

This investigation aims to contribute to the existing literature on demographic and ecological factors affecting the sex ratio at birth, by analysing the births in Croatia from 1998 to 2008. Data from birth certificates for all Croatian births for the investigated period (n=420,256) were used to establish the link between parental ages, birth order, region of birth, parental occupation and parental education level, and sex of the child. The χ2 test and t-test were used to assess the significance of each of the factors, along with multiple logistic regression to control for possible confounding effects. The results suggest that a joint higher age of both parents significantly lowers the sex ratio at birth. There is also a regional variation in sex ratio at birth, the lowest value being in Central Croatia and the highest in the City of Zagreb. Changes in the reproductive physiology of older parents are most probably responsible for the lower sex ratio, although the limited sample size warns against widespread generalizations. The causes of the regional variation in sex ratio at birth are most likely the different regional levels of obesity and physical inactivity.
Transverse waves in numerical simulations of cellular detonations
Authors: SHARPE GARY J.
Published: January 2012

In this paper the structure of strong transverse waves in two-dimensional numerical
simulations of cellular detonations is investigated. Resolution studies are performed
and it is shown that much higher resolutions than those generally used are required to
ensure that the flow and burning structures are well resolved. Resolutions of less than
about 20 numerical points in the characteristic reaction length of the underlying steady
detonation give very poor predictions of the shock configurations and burning, with
the solution quickly worsening as the resolution drops. It is very difficult and dangerous
to attempt to identify the physical structure, evolution and effect on the burning of
the transverse waves using such under-resolved calculations. The process of transverse
wave and triple point collision and reflection is then examined in a very high-resolution
simulation. During the reflection, the slip line and interior triple point associated with
the double Mach configuration of strong transverse waves become detached from the
front and recede from it, producing a pocket of unburnt gas. The interaction of a forward
facing jet of exploding gas with the emerging Mach stem produces a new double
Mach configuration. The formation of this new Mach configuration is very similar to
that of double Mach reflection of an inert shock wave reflecting from a wedge.
Study on stability and growth rate of the dust acoustic waves in vortex-like ion distribution
Authors: ZHENG SHAO-SHAN , CHEN YAN
Published: January 2012

For vortex-like ion distribution dusty plasmas, the modified KP equation is obtained by using the traditional perturbation method. The growth rate of a solitary wave solution for a higher order disturbance propagating in an arbitrary direction is obtained. We find that the solitary wave is stable under higher order disturbance in this system. However, the growth rate is different with different propagating direction.
Transcriptional changes inTeladorsagia circumcinctaupon encountering host tissue of differing immune status
Authors: HALLIDAY AILEEN M. , LAINSON F. ALEX , YAGA RAJA , INGLIS NEIL F. , BRIDGETT STEPHEN , NATH MINTU , KNOX DAVE P.
Published: January 2012

The aim of this study was to elucidate transcriptional changes in the parasitic nematodeTeladorsagia circumcinctaupon encountering either naïve or immune ovine hosts. Pools of 100 000 exsheathed 3rd- stageT. circumcinctalarvae were exposedin vitroto either an immune or naïve ovine abomasal environment, RNA was extracted from the larvae and sequenced using the Roche 454 platform. Each sample produced approximately 82 000 reads that assembled to give approximately 5500 Isotigs (contigs). The two sequence datasets were clustered together to give a total of 6969 clusters of which 18 were differentially expressed (P<0·001) between the two groups. Clusters with a predominance of reads in larvae exposed to the immune abomasal environment encoded homologues of peptidyl-glycine alpha-amidating monooxygenase, heat shock-protein 16-2 and IDA-1, a tyrosine phosphatase-like receptor protein. Clusters with a predominance of reads in the naïve environment encoded homologues of cytochrome b, EGg Laying defective family member 21 and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 5. Gene ontology analyses indicated that larvae exposed to the immune environment showed an increase in expression of genes involved in ‘carbon utilization’, ‘response to stimulus’ and ‘developmental process’. These data suggest thatT. circumcinctamodulates gene expression in response to the immune status of the host.
Crystalloid body, refractile body and virus-like particles in Apicomplexa: what is in there?
Authors: LEMGRUBER LEANDRO , LUPETTI PIETRO
Published: January 2012

The phylum of Apicomplexa comprises parasitic protozoa that share distinctive features such as the apical complex, the apicoplast, specialized cytoskeletal components and secretory organelles. Other unique cytoplasmic inclusions sharing similar features have been described in some representatives of Apicomplexa, although under different denominations. These are the crystalloid body, present for example inCryptosporidium, PlasmodiumandCystoisospora; the refractile body inEimeriaandLankesterella; and virus-like particles, also present inEimeriaandCryptosporidium. Yet, the specific role of these cytoplasmic inclusions in the cell cycle of these protozoa is still unknown. Here, we discuss their morphology, possible inter-relatedness and speculate upon their function to bring these organelles back to the attention of the scientific community and promote new interest towards original research on these elusive structures.
Nestling development and the timing of tick attachments
Authors: HEYLEN D. J. A. , WHITE J. , ELST J. , JACOBS I. , VAN DE SANDE C. , MATTHYSEN E.
Published: January 2012

Parasites exposed to fast-developing hosts experience a variety of conditions over a short time period. Only few studies in vertebrate-ectoparasite systems have integrated the timing of ectoparasite infestations in the host's development into the search for factors explaining ectoparasite burden. In this study we examined the temporal pattern of attachment in a nidicolous tick (Ixodes arboricola) throughout the development of a songbird (Parus major). In the first experiment, we exposed bird clutches at hatching to a mix of the 3 tick instars (larvae, nymphs and adults), and monitored the ticks that attached in relation to the average broods' age. In a complementary experiment we focused on the attachment in adult female ticks – the largest and most significant instar for the species' reproduction – after releasing them at different moments in the nestlings’ development. Our observations revealed a positive association between the size of the attached instar and the broods' age. Particularly, adult females were less likely to be found attached to recently hatched nestlings, which contrasts with the smaller-sized larvae and nymphs. These differences suggest either an infestation strategy that is adapted to host physiology and development, or a result of selection by the hosts' anti-tick resistance mechanisms. We discuss the implications of our results in terms of tick life-history strategies.
Douglas Campbell, The Deliverance of God
Authors: Torrance Alan
Published: January 2012

I have been invited to assess Douglas Campbell's door-stopper of a tome from a theological perspective. Given that this is a work in Pauline scholarship by a leading New Testament scholar, what is the justification for involving a theologian? Clearly, it is because the argumentation of this book is driven by a theological critique of certain key methodological, epistemological and, indeed, ontological suppositions which have functioned to sustain what Campbell calls ‘justification discourse’ – an approach to Pauline interpretation that Campbell argues is outmoded, confused and ultimately incoherent.
Four- and six-year-olds use pragmatic competence to guide word learning
Authors: VÁZQUEZ MARIA D. , DELISLE SARAH S. , SAYLOR MEGAN M.
Published: January 2012

The present study investigates whether four- and six-year-old children use pragmatic competence as a criterion for learning from someone else. Specifically, we ask whether children use others' adherence to Gricean maxims to determine whether they will offer valid labels for novel objects. Six-year-olds recognized adherence to the maxims of quality and relation and subsequently trusted the labels provided by a maxim adherer. Four-year-olds displayed this pattern when judging adherence to quality but not relation. A linear regression revealed that children's ability to identify maxim adherers predicted their ability to choose the correct object during word-learning trials. This research demonstrates that children use others' pragmatic history when judging the reliability of the information they offer.
Charting the Course of Uyghur Unrest
Authors: Hastings Justin V.
Published: January 2012

What explains the course of Uyghur-related violence in Xinjiang and Central Asia since 1990? Using data derived from a variety of sources, I argue that the locations and types of violent incidents were influenced by a combination of Chinese government policies and the political geography of Xinjiang. Specifically, 1990 to 1996 were dominated by logistically complex incidents in a low-level violent campaign in Xinjiang. The Strike Hard campaign in 1996 brought about an increase in logistically simple incidents in Xinjiang and some violence in Central Asia as Uyghur separatists had trouble moving people, information and weapons across the well-guarded, difficult terrain of Xinjiang's borders. China's rapprochement with Central Asian countries in the late 1990s led after 2001 to a dramatic decrease in Uyghur-related violence in general, but also signalled the appearance of logistically creative attacks that required little planning or materials. My findings suggest that Uyghur rebels will have a difficult time mounting a large-scale violent campaign as long as China retains even minimal control of Xinjiang.
Multimedia Quake Poetry: Convergence Culture after the Sichuan Earthquake
Authors: Inwood Heather
Published: January 2012

This article examines a wave of Chinese poetry sparked by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. “Quake Poetry” was published online before being re-circulated through digital, print and live media. Multimedia adaptations of one poem are examined to investigate the relationship between the authors of Quake Poetry, the different media platforms, and the people and institutions involved in its proliferation. Media convergence enabled Quake Poetry to fulfil several functions in the aftermath of the earthquake. Most prominently, it served as an emotional outlet for those affected by the quake, while giving its netizen-producers a sense of creative agency as they engaged in participatory cultural production. Members of the contemporary poetry scene cited Quake Poetry as evidence of poetry's ongoing hold over the Chinese national consciousness. Finally, certain poems were appropriated and promoted by China's state-controlled media to propagate a politically expedient image of Chinese unity in the face of tragedy.
Agency and Famine in China's Sichuan Province, 1958–1962
Authors: Bramall Chris
Published: January 2012

A revisionist literature on the Great Chinese Famine has emerged in recent years. These revisionists focus primarily on the question of agency. They claim that that neither poor weather nor the excesses of local cadres can explain the extent of mortality; rather, responsibility lies squarely with Mao and the CCP leadership. Using county-level data on mortality, output, rainfall and temperature for Sichuan province, I argue that this revisionist view is unconvincing. Weather admittedly played only a minor role, and the zealotry of the Party centre contributed significantly to the death toll. However, variations in mortality between Sichuan's counties appear to have been essentially random – suggesting that differences in local cadre responses to central government policy were decisive in determining the scale of famine.
The Role of the International Court of Justice in the Enforcement of Its Judicial Decisions
Authors: Al-Qahtani Mutlaq
Published: January 2012

Together with the Security Council and the General Assembly, the International Court of Justice is one of the most important guarantors of peace, security and co-operation among states. The role of the ICJ in the enforcement of its decisions has received little attention in the existing literature. Although international courts, regional courts and national courts do not physically enforce their decisions, they have various levels of enforcement mechanism procedures. Nevertheless, it has been widely and mistakenly believed that it is not the business of the ICJ to enforce its decisions, but rather this is the business of other political bodies of the United Nations. It is argued in this paper that this proposition is not accurate and, instead, the ICJ has at its disposal various enforcement procedures and is, moreover, under statutory obligations to participate actively in policing and enforcing its decisions.
The use and meaning of the continuous performance test in schizophrenia
Authors: Bellani Marcella , Brambilla Paolo
Published: January 2012

The continuous performance test (CPT) is a behavioural assessment of attentional modulation of the motor system (Rosvold et al., 1956). It has firstly been used in patients with brain injuries and then applied to assess sustained attention and vigilance in epilepsy, brain tumor, dementia, schizophrenia and other psychiatric diseases, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and anxiety disorders (Rosvold et al., 1956; Honey et al., 2005; Kanaka et al., 2008). There are several versions of the test. For instance, the X-CPT version presents randomly different stimuli and subjects are asked to push a button only on presentation of the target stimuli (X). In the AX-CPT version, the subjects are required to push the button only when a cue stimulus is presented before the target one (A before X). The following items are measured for the X and AX tasks: omission errors (number of times subjects fail to respond to target stimulation), commission errors (number of times subjects respond to non target stimulation), average reaction time and coefficient of variance for both correct reactions and commission errors (Suwa et al., 2004). There are other versions, such as the CPT-not X version where the subjects are asked not to push a button when the target stimulus (X) is presented; the Degraded Stimuli (DS)-CPT (Nuechterlein, 1983); the CPT playing card version (Rutschmann et al., 1977); and the CPT Identical Pairs version (Cornblatt et al., 1988), which is a more difficult task prepared to assess high risk population. Interestingly, the Identical Pairs version has been included in the Matrics neurocognitive assessment, a consensus cognitive battery for clinical trials of cognition in schizophrenia (Nuechterlein et al., 2008).
Cross-cultural studies of personality traits and their relevance to psychiatry
Authors: Terracciano Antonio , McCrae Robert R.
Published: January 2012

Aims – This article provides a brief review of recent cross-cultural research on personality traits at both individual and culture levels, highlighting the relevance of recent findings for psychiatry. Method – In most cultures around the world, personality traits can be clearly summarized by the five broad dimensions of the Five-Factor Model (FFM), which makes it feasible to compare cultures on personality and psychopathology. Results – Maturational patterns and sex differences in personality traits generally show cultural invariance, which generates the hypothesis that age of onset, clinical evolution, and sex differences in the prevalence of psychiatric disorders might follow similar universal patterns. The average personality profiles from 51 cultures show meaningful geographical distributions and associations with culture-level variables, but are clearly unrelated to national character stereotypes. Conclusions – Aggregate personality scores can potentially be related to epidemiological data on psychiatric disorders, and dimensional personality models have implications for psychiatric diagnosis and treatment around the world.

Declaration of Interest: This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, National Institute on Aging. Robert R. McCrae receives royalties from the Revised NEO Personality Inventory.
Magnesium intake and prevalence of metabolic syndrome in adults: Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study
Authors: Mirmiran Parvin , Shab-Bidar Sakineh , Hosseini-Esfahani Firoozeh , Asghari Golaleh , Hosseinpour-Niazi Somayeh , Azizi Fereidoun
Published: January 2012

Objective

We examined the association of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components with dietary intakes of Mg in Tehran adults.

Design

In a cross-sectional study, dietary intakes were assessed using a valid and reliable FFQ. MetS was defined according to the modified guidelines of the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III. Waist circumference (WC) was coded according to the newly introduced cut-off points for Iranian adults (≥95 cm for both genders).

Setting

Participants of the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study (2006–2008).

Subjects

Adults (n2504; 1120 men and 1384 women) aged 18–74 years.

Results

The mean age of participants was 40·8 (sd14·6) years and 38·2 (sd13·5) years for men and women, respectively. The reported mean intake of Mg was 349 (sd109) mg/d. After adjustment for confounding factors, dietary Mg intake was inversely associated with fasting blood glucose (β= −0·08,P= 0·006), TAG (β= −0·058,P= 0·009) and WC (β= −0·013,P= 0·006); however, there were no associations between dietary Mg and diastolic blood pressure, systolic blood pressure or HDL cholesterol. An association was observed between MetSZ-score and Mg intake (crudeβ= −0·017,P= 0·001), independent of age, gender, smoking, physical activity and BMI; this association was attenuated following further adjustment for dietary factors and menopausal status (β= −0·034,P= 0·061).

Conclusions

Our findings suggest a significant inverse association between dietary Mg, MetS and its components.
Neurobehavioural activation during peripheral immunosuppression
Authors: Pacheco-López Gustavo , Doenlen Raphael , Krügel Ute , Arnold Myrtha , Wirth Timo , Riether Carsten , Engler Andrea , Niemi Maj-Britt , Christians Uwe , Engler Harald , Schedlowski Manfred
Published: January 2012

Like other physiological responses, immune functions are the subject of behavioural conditioning. Conditioned immunosuppression can be induced by contingently pairing a novel taste with an injection of the immunosuppressant cyclosporine A (CsA) in an associative learning paradigm. This learned immunosuppression is centrally mediated by the insular cortex and the amygdala. However, the afferent mechanisms by which the brain detects CsA are not understood. In this study we analysed whether CsA is sensed via the chemosensitive vagus nerve or whether CsA directly acts on the brain. Our experiments revealed that a single peripheral administration of CsA increases neuronal activity in the insular cortex and the amygdala as evident from increased electric activity, c-Fos expression and amygdaloid noradrenaline release. However, this increased neuronal activity was not affected by prior vagal deafferentation but rather seems to partially be induced by direct action of CsA on cortico-amygdaloid structures and the chemosensitive brainstem regions area postrema and nucleus of the solitary tract. Together, these data indicate that CsA as an unconditioned stimulus may directly act on the brain by a still unknown transduction mechanism.
Active behaviours produced by antidepressants and opioids in the mouse tail suspension test
Authors: Berrocoso Esther , Ikeda Kazutaka , Sora Ichiro , Uhl George R. , Sánchez-Blázquez Pilar , Mico Juan Antonio
Published: January 2012

Most classical preclinical tests to predict antidepressant activity were initially developed to detect compounds that influenced noradrenergic and/or serotonergic activity, in accordance with the monoaminergic hypothesis of depression. However, central opioid systems are also known to influence the pathophysiology of depression. While the tail suspension test (TST) is very sensitive to several types of antidepressant, the traditional form of scoring the TST does not distinguish between different modes of action. The present study was designed to compare the behavioural effects of classical noradrenergic and/or serotonergic antidepressants in the TST with those of opioids. We developed a sampling technique to differentiate between behaviours in the TST, namely, curling, swinging and immobility. Antidepressants that inhibit noradrenaline and/or serotonin re-uptake (imipramine, venlafaxine, duloxetine, desipramine and citalopram) decreased the immobility of mice, increasing their swinging but with no effect on their curling behaviour. No differences were observed between antidepressants that act on noradrenergic or serotoninergic transmission. While opioid compounds also decreased the immobility of the mice [morphine, codeine, levorphanol, (−)-methadone, (±)-tramadol and (+)-tramadol], they selectively increased curling behaviour. Blocking opioid receptors with naloxone prevented the antidepressant-like effect of codeine, and µ-opioid receptor knockout decreased normal curling behaviour and blocked (±)-tramadol-induced curling, further demonstrating the reliability and validity of this approach. These results show that at least two behaviourally distinct processes occur in the TST, highlighting the antidepressant-like effects of opioids evident in this test. Furthermore, our data suggest that swinging and curling behaviours are mediated by enhanced monoamine and opioid neurotransmission, respectively.
Théorème de Paley—Wiener pour les fonctions de Whittaker sur un groupe réductif p-adique
Authors: Delorme Patrick
Published: January 2012

Soit G un groupe réductif p-adique et U0 le radical unipotent d'un sous-groupe parabolique minimal de G. Nous introduisons une transformation de Fourier pour l'espace des fonctions de Whittaker lisses sur G et à support compact modulo U0. Nous en déterminons l'image. La preuve suit celle d'Heiermann pour les fonctions sur le groupe.

Au cours de la preuve, une formule d'inversion est prouvée. Celle-ci permet de montrer qu'une représentation lisse irréductible de G, qui possède modèle de Whittaker dans les fonctions de Whittaker à support compact modulo U0, est cuspidale.

Ce travail nous a donné l'opportunité de préparer un cadre pour l'analyse harmonique sur les espaces symétriques réductifs p-adiques: B-matrices et terme constant, propriétés des paquets d'ondes.
Response to John T. Sidel's review of Cultural Contestation in Ethnic Conflict
Authors: Ross Marc Howard
Published: January 2012

John T. Sidel's thoughtful review of my book raises two important, intertwined issues that I focus on here: the nature of group identity and the differences he sees between interpretivist and poststructuralist accounts of ethnic conflict. He offers two views of ethnic groups: One argues that strong identities and a sense of groupness precedes, and forms the basis for, conflict, and the other asserts that identities are necessarily incomplete, inadequate, and accompanied by anxiety, and that conflict is constitutive of ethnic identities. He attributes the former position to me while suggesting that I ignore the latter.
Reflections on the evolution of health technology assessment in Europe
Authors: Sorenson Corinna , Chalkidou Kalipso
Published: January 2012

Health technology assessment (HTA) has assumed an increasing role in health systems in recent years, with many countries establishing agencies or programmes to evaluate health technology and other interventions to inform policy decisions and clinical practice. This paper reflects upon its development and evolution in Europe over the last decade, with a focus on England, France, Germany and Sweden. In particular, we explore how HTA has evolved over time as well as its impact on policy and practice. While countries share many of the same objectives, there are differences in the way HTA agencies and programmes are organised, operate, and influence decision making. Despite these differences, all systems are faced with opportunities and challenges related to stakeholder involvement and acceptance, the suitability and transparency of assessment requirements and methods, balancing evidence and values in decision making, and demonstrating impact.
Paying for hospital care: the experience with implementing activity-based funding in five European countries
Authors: O'Reilly Jacqueline , Busse Reinhard , Häkkinen Unto , Or Zeynep , Street Andrew , Wiley Miriam
Published: January 2012

Following the US experience, activity-based funding has become the most common mechanism for reimbursing hospitals in Europe. Focusing on five European countries (England, Finland, France, Germany and Ireland), this paper reviews the motivation for introducing activity-based funding, together with the empirical evidence available to assess the impact of implementation. Despite differences in the prevailing approaches to reimbursement, the five countries shared several common objectives, albeit with different emphasis, in moving to activity-based funding during the 1990s and 2000s. These include increasing efficiency, improving quality of care and enhancing transparency. There is substantial cross-country variation in how activity-based funding has been implemented and developed. In Finland and Ireland, for instance, activity-based funding is principally used to determine hospital budgets, whereas the models adopted in the other three countries are more similar to the US approach. Assessing the impact of activity-based funding is complicated by a shortage of rigorous empirical evaluations. What evidence is currently available, though, suggests that the introduction of activity-based funding has been associated with an increase in activity, a decline in length of stay and/or a reduction in the rate of growth in hospital expenditure in most of the countries under consideration.
The importance of slab pull and a global asthenosphere to plate motions
Authors: van Summeren Joost , Conrad Clinton P. , Lithgow‐Bertelloni Carolina
Published: January 2012

Earth's subducting plates move 3–4 times faster than its overriding plates, but it remains unclear whether these contrasting plate speeds are caused by additional pull from subducting slabs or by increased viscous drag on the lithosphere‐asthenosphere boundary beneath deeply‐protruding continental roots. To investigate the relative importance of plausible controls, we predicted global patterns of plate motions using numerical models that incorporate the influence of subducting slabs, convective mantle flow, and continental roots. From the mantle convection models, we computed a set of dynamically consistent plate velocities by balancing forces that drive and resist the motion of each plate. When deep continental roots anchor to the sub‐asthenospheric upper mantle, the calculated patterns of plate motions are close to the observations if only ∼20% of (excess) upper mantle slab weight contributes to the slab pull force. However, this small contribution causes plates to move too slowly on average unless mantle viscosity is a factor of ∼2 lower than expected from post‐glacial rebound. In contrast, we show that predicted and observed plate motions are more easily reconciled if even the deepest continental roots are underlain by a low‐viscosity layer and at least half of (excess) upper mantle slab weight contributes to the slab pull force. This preferred scenario agrees with recent seismological evidence for a global asthenosphere and previously proposed mechanisms for partial decoupling of slabs from surface plates.
Abrupt onset of the Little Ice Age triggered by volcanism and sustained by sea‐ice/ocean feedbacks
Authors: Miller Gifford H. , Geirsdóttir Áslaug , Zhong Yafang , Larsen Darren J. , Otto‐Bliesner Bette L. , Holland Marika M. , Bailey David A. , Refsnider Kurt A. , Lehman Scott J. , Southon John R. , Anderson Chance , Björnsson Helgi , Thordarson Thorvaldur
Published: January 2012

Northern Hemisphere summer temperatures over the past 8000 years have been paced by the slow decrease in summer insolation resulting from the precession of the equinoxes. However, the causes of superposed century‐scale cold summer anomalies, of which the Little Ice Age (LIA) is the most extreme, remain debated, largely because the natural forcings are either weak or, in the case of volcanism, short lived. Here we present precisely dated records of ice‐cap growth from Arctic Canada and Iceland showing that LIA summer cold and ice growth began abruptly between 1275 and 1300 AD, followed by a substantial intensification 1430–1455 AD. Intervals of sudden ice growth coincide with two of the most volcanically perturbed half centuries of the past millennium. A transient climate model simulation shows that explosive volcanism produces abrupt summer cooling at these times, and that cold summers can be maintained by sea‐ice/ocean feedbacks long after volcanic aerosols are removed. Our results suggest that the onset of the LIA can be linked to an unusual 50‐year‐long episode with four large sulfur‐rich explosive eruptions, each with global sulfate loading >60 Tg. The persistence of cold summers is best explained by consequent sea‐ice/ocean feedbacks during a hemispheric summer insolation minimum; large changes in solar irradiance are not required.
A modeling study of the longitudinal dependence of storm time midlatitude dayside total electron content enhancements
Authors: Sojka J. J. , David M. , Schunk R. W. , Heelis R. A.
Published: January 2012

Large‐scale storm time enhancements of total electron content (TEC) have often been observed at Millstone Hill and other locations in the United States and have been less frequently reported from other stations around the globe. This has raised the question of whether the formation of such enhancements may have a longitudinal dependence and whether the North American continent might occupy a favored longitude sector for the appearance of such effects. We examine two mechanisms for producing storm time dayside TEC enhancements. Heelis et al. (2009) showed that a high‐latitude electric field that has expanded to midlatitudes can enhance the dayside TEC by as much as 300 units. We use such an electric field as a driver for the TDIM ionospheric model, studying its effect across a range of longitudes, and we find that there is indeed a longitudinal asymmetry that favors the enhancement of TEC in the American sector. Second, we examine the role of the thermospheric wind during storm conditions and find that it has potentially an equally large effect, with a longitudinal dependence of its own that may either enhance or counteract the effect of the expanded electric field. In both cases, the effect is of the order of a 10% to 20% change in TEC.