bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Trend Estimation in Extremes of Synthetic North Sea Surges
Authors: Butler Adam , Heffernan Janet E. , Tawn Jonathan A. , Flather Roger A.
Published: August 2007

Mechanistic models for complex atmospheric and hydrological processes are often used to simulate extreme natural events, usually to quantify the risks that are associated with these events. We use novel extreme value methods to analyse the statistical properties of output from a numerical storm surge model for the North Sea. The ‘model data’ constitute a reconstruction of the storm surge climate for the period 1955–2000 based on a high quality meteorological data set and constitute the only available source of information on surge elevations at offshore and unmonitored coastal locations over this period. Previous studies have used extreme value methods to analyse storm surge characteristics, but we can extend and improve on these analyses by using a local likelihood approach to provide a non-parametric description of temporal and spatial variations in the magnitude and frequency of storm surge events.
Non-Parametric Estimation of Population Size from Capture–Recapture Data When the Capture Probability Depends on a Covariate
Authors: Huggins Richard , Hwang Wen-Han
Published: August 2007

In capture–recapture experiments the capture probabilities may depend on individual covariates such as an individual's weight or age. Typically this dependence is modelled through simple parametric functions of the covariates. Here we first demonstrate that misspecification of the model can produce biased estimates and subsequently develop a non-parametric procedure to estimate the functional relationship between the probability of capture and a single covariate. This estimator is then incorporated in a Horvitz–Thompson estimator to estimate the size of the population. The resulting estimators are evaluated in a simulation study and applied to a data set on captures of the Mountain Pygmy Possum.
A Three-Dimensional Object Point Process for Detection of Cosmic Filaments
Authors: Stoica Radu S. , Martínez Vicent J. , Saar Enn
Published: August 2007

We propose to apply an object point process to delineate filaments of the large scale structure in red shift catalogues automatically. We illustrate the feasibility of the idea on an example of the recent 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, describe the procedure and characterize the results.
Program Characteristics and Enrollees' Outcomes in the Program of All‐Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE)
Authors: MUKAMEL DANA B. , PETERSON DERICK R. , TEMKIN‐GREENER HELENA , DELAVAN RACHEL , GROSS DIANE , KUNITZ STEPHEN J. , WILLIAMS T. FRANKLIN
Published: August 2007

The Program of All‐Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) is a unique program providing a full spectrum of health care services, from primary to acute to long‐term care for frail elderly individuals certified to require nursing home care. The objective of this article is to identify program characteristics associated with better risk‐adjusted health outcomes: mortality, functional status, and self‐assessed health. The article examines statistical analyses of information combining DataPACE (individual‐level clinical data), a survey of direct care staff about team performance, and interviews with management in twenty‐three PACE programs. Several program characteristics were associated with better functional outcomes. Fewer were associated with long‐term self‐assessed health, and only one with mortality. These findings offer strategies that may lead to better care.
Population Health: Challenges for Science and Society
Authors: MECHANIC DAVID
Published: August 2007

The emphasis on risk factor intervention at the individual level has predominated in efforts to reduce mortality and promote health. Interest in social and other nonmedical interventions, particularly socioeconomic status (SES) influences, has increased in recent years. This article focuses on the interaction of social structure and socioeconomic status with other influences in complex pathways to affect health, and their contribution to health disparities. It examines both social class as an explanation of health differences and competing hypotheses concerning prenatal and early nutrition and cognitive capacity. Although education is associated with income, wealth, occupation, and other SES indicators and may not be the most important SES determinant, it influences a variety of pathways to health outcomes and offers strategic leverage for intervention because of social and political consensus on its value beyond health.
Do We Know How Happy We Are? On Some Limits of Affective Introspection and Recall
Authors: Haybron Daniel M.
Published: August 2007

This paper aims to show that widespread, serious errors in the self‐assessment of affect are a genuine possibility—one worth taking very seriously. For we are subject to a variety of errors concerning the character of our present and past affective states, or “affective ignorance.” For example, some affects, particularly moods, can greatly affect the quality of our experience even when we are unable to discern them. I note several implications of these arguments. First, we may be less competent pursuers of happiness than is commonly believed, raising difficult questions for political thought. Second, some of the errors discussed ramify for our understanding of consciousness, including Ned Block's controversial distinction between access consciousness and phenomenal consciousness. Third, empirical results based on self‐reports about affect may be systematically misleading in certain ways.
Against Propositionalism
Authors: Montague Michelle
Published: August 2007

‘Propositionalism’ is the widely held view that all intentional mental relations—all intentional attitudes—are relations to propositions or something proposition‐like. Paradigmatically, to think about the mountain is ipso facto to think that it is F, for some predicate ‘F’. It seems, however, many intentional attitudes are not relations to propositions at all: Mary contemplates Jonah, adores New York, misses Athens, mourns her brother. I argue, following Brentano, Husserl, Church and Montague among others, that the way things seem is the way they are, and that propositionalism must be abandoned.
PROBABILISTIC ARGUMENTS FOR MULTIPLE UNIVERSES
Authors: DRAPER KAI , DRAPER PAUL , PUST JOEL
Published: August 2007

Abstract:  In this paper, we discuss three probabilistic arguments for the existence of multiple universes. First, we provide an analysis of total evidence and use that analysis to defend Roger White's “this universe” objection to a standard fine‐tuning argument for multiple universes. Second, we explain why Rodney Holder's recent cosmological argument for multiple universes is unconvincing. Third, we develop a “Cartesian argument” for multiple universes. While this argument is not open to the objections previously noted, we show that, given certain highly plausible assumptions about evidence and epistemic probability, the proposition which it treats as evidence cannot coherently be regarded as evidence for anything. This raises the question of whether to reject the assumptions or accept that such a proposition cannot be evidence.
A NEW REVISABILITY PARADOX
Authors: ELSTEIN DANIEL Y.
Published: August 2007

Abstract:  In a recent article, Mark Colyvan has criticized Jerrold Katz's attempt to show that Quinean holism is self‐refuting. Katz argued that a Quinean epistemology incorporating a principle of the universal revisability of beliefs would have to hold that that and other principles of the system were both revisable and unrevisable. Colyvan rejects Katz's argument for failing to take into account the logic of belief revision. But granting the terms of debate laid down by Colyvan, the universal revisability principle still commits Quineans to holding that one belief is both revisable and unrevisable: the belief that some beliefs are revisable.
NONDOMINATION AND NORMATIVITY
Authors: MCMAHON CHRISTOPHER
Published: August 2007

Abstract:  In an earlier paper, “The Indeterminacy of Republican Policy,” I argued that in an important class of cases, republican political theory, as formulated by Philip Pettit, does not have determinate implications for policy. Pettit has replied that my argument was based on a conception of freedom as nondomination that is not his own. In the present paper, I explore the two ways of understanding republican freedom. I first suggest that they may not, in the end, be very different. I then note that if a sharp difference is restored, my conception may have some desirable features.
BLURRED VISION AND THE TRANSPARENCY OF EXPERIENCE
Authors: PACE MICHAEL
Published: August 2007

Abstract:  This paper considers an objection to intentionalism (the view that the phenomenal character of experience supervenes on intentional content) based on the phenomenology of blurred vision. Several intentionalists, including Michael Tye, Fred Dretske, and Timothy Crane, have proposed intentionalist explanations of blurred vision phenomenology. I argue that their proposals fail and propose a solution of my own that, I contend, is the only promising explanation consistent with intentionalism. The solution, however, comes at a cost for intentionalists; it involves rejecting the “transparency of experience”, a doctrine that has been the basis for the central argument in favor of intentionalism.
SPINOZA'S THEORY OF MOTIVATION
Authors: YOUPA ANDREW
Published: August 2007

Abstract:  On the basis of 3p9s and 3p39s of the Ethics, it might seem that, for Spinoza, a judgment about something's goodness or badness is motivationally inert and, moreover, that value judgments essentially reflect an individual's pre‐existing motivational states. However, in this paper I show that Spinoza holds that under certain conditions a motivational state results from a value judgment. Spinoza's theory of motivation consists of two accounts of the psychological order of value judgments and motivational states: an account of their order in those in bondage as well as an account of their order in those who are free.
BRING BACK THE MAGIC
Authors: ZARAGOZA KEVIN
Published: August 2007

Abstract:  Magical ersatzism is the view that possible worlds are primitive abstract entities. In On the Plurality of Worlds, David Lewis presented what appeared to many to be a devastating argument against magical ersatzism. In this paper, I show that Lewis’ central argument does not succeed. Magical ersatzism remains a viable theory of possible worlds.
What have we learned? Themes from the literature on best‐practice benchmarking
Authors: Francis Graham , Holloway Jacky
Published: August 2007

The aim of this paper is to review the important themes in the literature on benchmarking, and to assess the contribution to knowledge provided thus far. Four themes from the literature are highlighted: studies of the nature of benchmarking practice; criticisms of benchmarking; evaluating the effectiveness of benchmarking; and the notion of best practice. The authors argue that, while the literature does include a few critical analyses of the practice and impacts of benchmarking, it is dominated by relatively descriptive, and even prescriptive, accounts of the ‘realities’ of benchmarking. The longer‐term (qualitative and quantitative) effects and perspectives of diverse stakeholders on benchmarking are largely neglected. This selective focus has implications for the contribution of benchmarking research to practice, for example, in terms of the role of internal organizational capabilities in analysing the performance of processes and managing communications and change. The authors advocate areas of future research to improve theoretical understanding of benchmarking and thoroughly evaluate its impact within the context of performance management.
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: A Critical Reflection on the Trinitarian Theologies of Religion of S. Mark Heim and Gavin D'Costa
Authors: FLETT JOHN G.
Published: August 2007

Abstract:  S. Mark Heim and Gavin D'Costa are two significant contemporary authors grounding a theology of religions in the doctrine of the Trinity. This article critically examines their respective interpretations of the doctrine of the Trinity, and their deployment of this doctrine in appreciation of religious difference. Heim, in his attempt to provide a theological validation for the world religions, departs from more traditional formulations of the Trinity. Ironically, this departure means that he fails to describe the world religions in their own particularity, that is, as they would describe themselves. D'Costa, by contrast, maintains a sound trinitarian position, and raises the question of Christian responsibility toward the world religions from precisely this theological grounding. He does not conceptualize the religions within a theological framework, but does demonstrate that engagement with the religions constitutes an obedient ecclesial response to the Trinity.
Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Variability as Possible Causes for Different Drug Responses in Migraine. A Comment
Authors: Tfelt-Hansen P , Edvinsson L
Published: August 2007

The pharmacokinetics of antimigraine drugs zolmitriptan and sumatriptan varied considerably with a fourfold to 10-fold variation in plasma levels. In addition, the pharmacodynamics of triptans as investigated in vitro also varied considerably. In theory, there should probably be a 10-fold variation in doses available, but in clinical practice a fourfold difference in doses will probably cover the needs of most patients.
Funding of Headache Research in Europe
Authors: Olesen J , Lekander I , Andlin-Sobocki P , Jönsson B
Published: August 2007

Migraine costs European Society ¬27 billion per year. Other headaches may account for a similar amount. Given this enormous impact, the question arises as to whether the funding of research efforts in this field are sufficient. A recent European study called the Resource Allocation to Brain Research in Europe (RABRE) examined funding of brain research. Identified charities and Government agencies in Europe filled out a questionnaire regarding their funding of brain diseases. Industry spending was evaluated by three different previously validated methods. In the present report, detailed results are presented for migraine and other headaches. In 2004, migraine research was funded by nearly €315 million. Of this, €308 million was invested by the pharmaceutical industry, whereas public funding was estimated at €7 million. No funding was identified for non-migraine headache disorders. Of the public spending, €714 000 came from private foundations. There was a very large difference between different European countries in the funding of headache research. When public funding was compared with the cost of different brain disorders, migraine funding was in the middle range. This was due to relatively large industry funding. Compared with societal costs, migraine received the least public funds amongst all brain disorders, i.e. 0.025%. We conclude that migraine attracts reasonable interest from the pharmaceutical industry, but Governmental and charity funding is extremely low and no funding was identified for non-migraine headache disorders. Considering the huge economic impact of these disorders, public funding of research into migraine and other headaches should be greatly increased in the future.
Role of BKCaChannels in Cephalic Vasodilation Induced by CGRP, NO and Transcranial Electrical Stimulation In The Rat
Authors: Gozalov A , Jansen-Olesen I , Klaerke D , Olesen J
Published: August 2007

Both calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and nitric oxide (NO) are potent vasodilators that have been shown to induce headache in migraine patients. Their antagonists are effective in the treatment of migraine attacks. In the present study, we hypothesize that vasodilation induced by the NO donor glyceryltrinitrate (GTN) or by CGRP is partially mediated via large conductance calcium-activated potassium (BKCa) channels. The effects of the BKCachannel selective inhibitor iberiotoxin on dural and pial vasodilation induced by CGRP, GTN and endogenously released CGRP by transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) were examined. Iberiotoxin significantly attenuated GTN-induced dural and pial artery dilation in vivo and in vitro, but had no effect on vasodilation induced by CGRP and TES. Our results show that GTN- but not CGRP-induced dural and pial vasodilation involves opening of BKCachannels in rat.
Dry skin in dermatology: a complex physiopathology
Authors: Pons‐Guiraud A
Published: August 2007

Dry skin (xerosis) is a common dermatosis affecting people of varying skin types and ages and various areas of the body. It is associated with both skin thickening and skin thinning and is triggered by both exogenous (e.g. climate, environment, lifestyle) and endogenous (e.g. medication, hormone fluctuations, organ diseases) factors.

Skin requires a water content of 10–15% to remain supple and intact. This water is either ‘static’ (i.e. bound) or ‘dynamic’. The predominance of hydrophobic substances in intercellular constituents is a means of regulating the humidity of the skin. Emollients, highly effective treatment adjuncts in the management of all dry skin disorders, help to restore damaged intercorneocyte lipid structures and increase the water content of the skin, helping to reduce scaling and improving its barrier function.
How the skin reacts to environmental factors
Authors: Misery L.
Published: August 2007

The skin is one of the main points of contact with the environment. Usually, interactions between skin and environmental factors are harmonious. But sometimes, the skin barrier is modified (dry or greasy skin) or skin inflammation can occur (irritated, reactive, allergic or atopic skin).
Evaluation of the effect of Dardia® Lipo Line on skin inflammation induced by surfactants using the repeated open‐application test
Authors: Ortonne J‐P , Queille‐Roussel C
Published: August 2007

Background  Medical skin care products are topical preparations with mainly moisturizing properties. A new line of medical skin products with an excellent tolerability profile and improved hydration for dry skin has been developed, but beneficial effects have not yet been investigated on damaged skin.

Aim  To investigate if these products maintain barrier function and hydration status, improve subjective symptoms due to irritant contact dermatitis and to prove their tolerability on damaged skin.

Design and methods  Single‐centre, blinded, randomized, controlled study in 20 healthy Caucasian women. 5% sodium lauryl sulphate solution was used to induce skin irritation. Two sites on the inside surface of both forearms of each subject were treated daily for 5 days (irritation period). Lipo Cream, Lipo Milk (water‐in‐oil emulsions) and Lipo Ointment (water‐free formulation) were applied twice daily to three of the four test sites on days 1–5. The fourth site was used as a control. Visual readings, subjective symptom assessments, transepidermal water loss (TEWL) and colorimetric measurements, corneometry and skin microrelief macrophotographies were done on days 1–6.

Results  On day 6, TEWL was increased vs baseline on all sites; however, TEWL with Lipo Cream or Lipo Ointment was significantly lower than control. At day 6, skin capacitance was 94%, 100% and 85% of baseline value for the cream, milk and ointment, respectively, versus 72% for control. All test products were well tolerated.

Conclusions  Lipo Line products showed both protective properties against epidermal dysfunction and significant hydrating effect.
Cognitive‐Behavioural Therapy for Command Hallucinations and Intellectual Disability: A Case Study
Authors: Barrowcliff Alastair L.
Published: August 2007

Background  There is a paucity of literature detailing cognitive‐behavioural therapy (CBT) for psychosis in people with intellectual disability. Of the available literature, only two case studies involve people with command hallucinations and these do not address specific issues of intervention indicated in the wider literature for this type of presentation.

Methods  The present paper reports a case study documenting the successful application of CBT targeting the treatment of command hallucinations for mild intellectual disability.

Results  A range of measures (including positive and negative syndrome scale, beliefs about voices questionnaire and psychotic symptom rating scale for auditory hallucinations) collected at pre‐ and post‐intervention indicates successful reduction in positive symptoms, with 3‐ and 6‐month follow‐up data indicating maintenance of improvements. Critically, positive clinical changes in core beliefs regarding the power of the hallucinatory voice are also observed.

Conclusions  Cognitive‐behavioural therapy for command hallucinations can be successfully adapted and applied to people with a mild disability.
On evading analysis by becoming an analyst
Authors: Meredith‐Owen William
Published: August 2007

Abstract:  This paper considers what implications Bion's famous anecdote about ‘some patients getting better and others going on to become psycho‐analysts’ might have in clinical practice. It explores key stages in the post‐qualification analyses of three practitioners whose training analyses had left them qualified but restless and dissatisfied with their ongoing work. It suggests that a significant common factor in these unsatisfactory outcomes was the weakness of these analysands' egos, understood as their inability to enjoy coniunctios, and their profound fear of accessing the source of the problem. This had led to an unwitting investment in spurious super‐ego driven alternatives such as professional qualification rather than face the initially bleak realization (of ‘nameless dread’) that could initiate analysis and individuation. Because of the containment and reward implicit in the training environment it is argued that training analysts—despite their experience and expertise—remain vulnerable to being recruited into an ameliorative fantasy that blocks the transference and inhibits development.
Black holes, uncanny spaces and radical shifts in awareness
Authors: Hinton Ladson
Published: August 2007

Abstract: The ‘black hole’ is a signifier that pervades contemporary experience, conveying the ‘gaps’ and ‘voids’ in Western culture and psyche. Depth psychology stemmed from the growing uncanniness of city and psychic spaces during the 19thcentury. There was an emerging fascination with the ‘dark Thing’—the ‘It’ of many names.

Like a pandemic, depictions of the ‘black hole’ experience have continually emerged in the tragic events and cultural malaise of the twentieth and twenty‐first centuries. Art, philosophy, science, psychoanalysis, literature, and cultural studies have variously articulated this frighteningly potent, yet endlessly elusive signifier. A many‐sided, dialogical process best provides acquaintance with such a complex phenomenon. Multiple examples and perspectives, as well a detailed case study, will delineate some of its dimensions. They will show that such ‘black hole’ encounters are not merely negative, but are often the enigmatic source of new awareness and creation.
Emergence of the bipolar cultural complex in Walt Whitman
Authors: Herrmann Steven B.
Published: August 2007

Abstract:  My main hypothesis in this paper1 is that America's seminal poet, Walt Whitman, was trapped—like so many of his contemporaries—in ‘cultural complexes’ (Singer & Kimbles 2004) that he internalized, but that he found a way to transcend the splits inherent in these ‘bipolar’ (Perry 1970) organizations through his art. One way he accomplished this was through his aesthetic method of ‘holding the opposites’ between two poles of a slavery is wrong/white supremacy is justified cultural complex. In my paper, I provide evidence for some of the contradictions inherent in Whitman's character by examining the political splits of his times and explore how various Self symbols he produced through his poetry, particularly the figures he called ‘Black Lucifer’ and the Deus Quadriune—a quaternity symbol—facilitated his personal and cultural transformation. Finally, I demonstrate the relevance of my hypothesis to contemporary racism during the pre‐Civil Rights period in the South through a clinical example, and I show how the Jungian method of ‘holding the opposites’ can be effectively practised in the transference/countertransference field of psychotherapy in general.
The hunger to fill an empty space An investigation of primordial affects and meaning‐making in the drive to conceive through repeated use of ART
Authors: Barone‐Chapman Maryann
Published: August 2007

Abstract:  This research aims to investigate the drive to conceive through repeated use of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) in relation to the affective and meaning‐making processes related to this drive, through the use of the participants’ memories of mother and being mothered, the choices they made regarding sex, intimacy and non‐uterine activity in early adulthood and their fantasies of how a child would change their lives.

Though prepared for an MSc dissertation it is a pilot empirical study using interpretative phenomenological analysis and applications of Jungian analytic and psychoanalytical theory. The collected data consists of three semi‐structured interviews analysed through recurrent themes and amplification. Developmental and archetypal thinking has been suggested as a means of understanding. The results are strongly suggestive of two main themes across the interviews and further research is underway. The first theme is the importance of the relationship to mother and the quality of the mothering received in contributing to a woman's availability to become a mother at a time in her life when she is most fertile. The second theme of the pilot suggested that the crisis of infertility is a mask for another crisis of identity that also had links to the personal mother. At the core of these issues with mother there is an absence of father and an intra‐psychic couple. Repeated infertility treatment becomes a transformative process necessitating repetition until something new can be created.
Aquatic versus terrestrial locomotion: comparative performance of two ecologically contrasting species of European natricine snakes
Authors: Isaac L. A. , Gregory P. T.
Published: August 2007

One indicator of ecological differences between species is differential locomotory performance in different media. In this study, we compare locomotory speed of two species of natricine snakes on land and in water at a range of temperatures in the laboratory. As expected, both species moved more quickly at higher temperatures and both swam faster than they moved on land. However, the difference between aquatic and terrestrial speed was much greater for the aquatic species, Natrix maura, than for the semi‐aquatic Natrix natrix. Furthermore, although N. maura was significantly faster than N. natrix in water, the opposite was true on land. In fact, N. maura was reluctant to move very far on land at all and would not complete a 2 m terrestrial course. Although we found no evidence of a negative correlation between the aquatic and terrestrial speeds of individual N. natrix, this interspecific comparison is consistent with the notion of a tradeoff between performance abilities on land and in water.
Sperm dumping in a haplogyne spider
Authors: Burger M.
Published: August 2007

The present study shows that females of Silhouettella loricatula (Arachnida: Araneae: Oonopidae) manage to process sperm in an unusual and previously unknown way. The male ejaculate consisting of spermatozoa and globular secretion is enclosed in a secretory sac. This may avoid the mixing of sperm from different males and at least severely limit sperm competition. The process of sperm enclosure occurs within the female's sperm storage site (receptaculum) as the ejaculate is not surrounded by a sac inside the male's sperm‐transferring organs (palpal bulbs). The secretion forming the sac is produced by glands adjoining the receptaculum. The possibility that globular secretions in the male palpal bulbs partly contribute to the sac cannot be ruled out completely. It is suggested that in S. loricatula, the main function of sperm enclosure in a sac is enabling females to dump the ejaculate of a male. The present study represents the first report on sperm dumping in the family Oonopidae. During five first and three second copulations in the laboratory, the dumping of a sac was observed. One dumped sac was sectioned and contained spermatozoa. Two couples were flash‐fixed with liquid nitrogen early during copulation, which revealed the mechanism of the sac dumping. By muscle contractions, the receptaculum is bent backwards and the sac moved into the genital opening. The actual sac dumping occurs most probably in cooperation with the male, which moves his pedipalps rhythmically during the entire copulation. Extensions and furrows on the emboli suggest that they may additionally be used as copulatory courtship devices. The enclosure of sperm from the current male in secretion takes place during or immediately following copulation as all mated females sacrificed after copulation had a new sac containing spermatozoa in the receptaculum. Dumping sperm of a previous male during the next copulation may allow females to bias sperm precedence.
Skeletal and dental growth and development in chimpanzees of the Taï National Park, Côte D'Ivoire
Authors: Zihlman A. L. , Bolter D. R. , Boesch C.
Published: August 2007

An extraordinary collection of 22 immature skeletons from Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire, has provided a rare opportunity to establish the timing of dental eruption and its correlation with skeletal fusion and morphometrics in wild chimpanzees of known chronological ages. Comparison of the immature Taï chimpanzeesPan troglodytes veruswith adults from the same population show that sex differences in skeletal maturation apparently appear during the Juvenile II stage, about age 8. A few skeletons from other chimpanzee field sites conform to the dental and skeletal growth in Taï chimpanzees. The tempo of wild chimpanzee growth contrasts sharply with the rate demonstrated for captive individuals. Captive chimpanzees may mature as much as 3 years earlier. The ability to link physical development with field observations of immature chimpanzees increases our understanding of their life‐history stages. These data provide an improved dataset for comparing the rates of growth among chimpanzees,Homo sapiensand fossil hominids.
When east met west: the sub‐fossil footprints of the west European hedgehog and the northern white‐breasted hedgehog during the Late Quaternary in Europe
Authors: Sommer R. S.
Published: August 2007

The distinct distribution of the west European hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus and the northern white‐breasted hedgehog Erinaceus roumanicus and their separate refugial origins after the Pleistocene is a well‐known example in the zoogeography of the Holarctic. Among the Late Quaternary faunal assemblages, the west European hedgehog is recorded at 269 sites whereas the northern white‐breasted hedgehog is recorded only at 52 sites in Europe. The distribution patterns of the temporal and spatial Glacial records of the west European hedgehog show a general trend: a strong restriction to glacial refugia (the Iberian and Italian Peninsulas) during the Weichselian Glacial until the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, and a colonization of southern France during the early Late Glacial between 14 000 and 125 00 14C years BP (15 000–12 800 cal. BC). Whereas the British Isles could have already been colonised by the end of the Pre‐Boreal, in the rest of Central Europe E. europaeus was clearly distributed there in the Boreal for the first time. The west European hedgehog is an absolute Holocene faunal element in Central Europe. It appears in most parts of Central Europe during the Early Holocene, when the west European hedgehog met its eastern relative, which probably was similarly sensitive. After meeting each other, the distribution limit of both Erinaceus species in Central Europe seems to have been relatively constant in its geographic extent. Because of the clear climatic correlation, E. europaeus should be considered as an indicator species for temperate climatic conditions of the Holocene fauna. This should be considered during the reconstruction of climatic conditions with the help of the analysis of quaternary faunal material.
Trafficking and potential assembly patterns of ε‐containing GABAA receptors
Authors: Jones Brian L. , Henderson Leslie P.
Published: August 2007

Incorporation of the ε subunit into the GABAA receptor has been suggested to confer unusual, but variable, biophysical and pharmacological characteristics to both recombinant and native receptors. Due to their structural similarity with the γ subunits, ε subunits have been assumed to substitute at the single position of the γ subunit in assembled receptors. However, prior work suggests that functional variability in ε‐containing receptors may reflect alternative sites of incorporation and of not just one, but possibly multiple ε subunits in the pentameric receptor complex. Here we present data indicating that increased expression of ε, in conjunction with α2 and β3 subunits, results in expression of GABAA receptors with correspondingly altered rectification, deactivation and levels of spontaneous openings, but not increased total current density. We also provide data that the ε subunit, like the β3 subunit, can self‐export and data from chimeric receptors suggesting that similarities between the assembly domains of the β3 and the ε subunits may allow the ε subunit to replace the β, as well as the γ, subunit. The substitution of an ε for a β, as well as the γ subunit and formation of receptors with alternative patterns of assembly with respect to ε incorporation may underlie the observed variability in both biophysical and pharmacological properties noted not only in recombinant, but also in native receptors.
TRPV1 expression‐dependent initiation and regulation of filopodia
Authors: Goswami C. , Hucho T.
Published: August 2007

Transient receptor potential vanilloid subtype 1 (TRPV1), a non‐selective cation channel, is present endogenously in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons. It is involved in the recognition of various pain producing physical and chemical stimuli. In this work, we demonstrate that expression of TRPV1 induces neurite‐like structures and filopodia and that the expressed protein is localized at the filopodial tips. Exogenous expression of TRPV1 induces filopodia both in DRG neuron‐derived F11 cells and in non‐neuronal cells, such as HeLa and human embryonic kidney (HEK) cells. We find that some of the TRPV1 expression‐induced filopodia contain microtubules and microtubule‐associated components, and establish cell‐to‐cell extensions. Using live cell microscopy, we demonstrate that the filopodia are responsive to TRPV1‐specific ligands. But both, initiation and subsequent cell‐to‐cell extension formation, is independent of TRPV1 channel activity. The N‐terminal intracellular domain of TRPV1 is sufficient for filopodial structure initiation while the C‐terminal cytoplasmic domain is involved in the stabilization of microtubules within these structures. In addition, exogenous expression of TRPV1 results in altered cellular distribution and in enhanced endogenous expression of non‐conventional myosin motors, namely myosin IIA and myosin IIIA. These data indicate a novel role of TRPV1 in the regulation of cellular morphology and cellular contact formation.
A proposed structural basis for picrotoxinin and picrotin binding in the glycine receptor pore
Authors: Yang Zhe , Cromer Brett A. , Harvey Robert J. , Parker Michael W. , Lynch Joseph W.
Published: August 2007

Picrotoxin, an antagonist of structurally‐rated GABAA receptors (GABAARs) and glycine receptors (GlyRs), is an equimolar mixture of picrotoxinin (PTXININ) and picrotin (PTN). These compounds share a common structure except that PTN contains a slightly larger dimethylmethanol in place of the PTXININ isopropenyl group. Although the homomeric α1 GlyR is equally sensitive to both compounds, we show here that homomeric α2 and α3 GlyRs, like most GABAARs, are selectively inhibited by PTXININ. As conservative mutations to pore‐lining 6′ threonines equally affect the sensitivity of the α1 GlyR to both compounds, we conclude that PTXININ and PTN bind to 6′ threonines by hydrogen bonding with exocyclic oxygens common to both molecules. In contrast, substitution of the 2′ pore‐lining glycine by serine selectively reduces PTN sensitivity, whereas the introduction of 2′ alanines selectively increases PTXININ sensitivity. These results define the orientation of PTXININ and PTN binding in the α1 GlyR pore and allow us to conclude that the relatively reduced sensitivity of PTN at GABAARs and α2 and α3 GlyRs is due predominantly to its larger size and reduced ability to form hydrophobic interactions with 2′ alanines.
Subtype selective antagonism of substantia nigra pars compacta Group I metabotropic glutamate receptors protects the nigrostriatal system against 6‐hydroxydopamine toxicityin vivo
Authors: Vernon Anthony C. , Zbarsky Virginia , Datla Krishna P. , Croucher Martin J. , Dexter David T.
Published: August 2007

Evidence suggests that increased glutamatergic input to the substantia nigra pars compacta as a result of hyperactivity of subthalalmic nucleus output pathways may contribute to the progressive degeneration of nigral dopaminergic neurones in Parkinson’s disease (PD), a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder which affects ∼1% of people aged over 65. Substantial electrophysiological evidence suggests that the excitation of nigral dopaminergic neurones is regulated by the activation of Group I metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluR), comprising mGluR1 and mGluR5 subtypes. As activation of these receptors by endogenous glutamate may promote multiple cascades leading to excitotoxic neuronal death, it may be hypothesised that functional antagonism of Group I mGluR should be neuroprotective and could form the basis of a novel neuroprotective treatment for PD. To investigate this hypothesis, the neuroprotective potential of the selective competitive mGlu1 antagonist (+)‐2‐methyl‐4‐carboxyphenylglycine ((S)‐(+)‐α‐amino‐4‐carboxy‐2‐methlybenzeneacetic acid; LY367385) and the selective allosteric mGlu5 antagonist 2‐methyl‐6‐(phenylethynyl)‐pyridine (MPEP) was tested in a rodent 6‐hydroxydopamine (6‐OHDA) model of PDin vivo. Both acute and subchronic intranigral administration of either LY367385 or MPEP resulted in significant neuroprotection of nigral tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactive cell bodies, which correlated closely with prevention of striatal monoamine depletion following 6‐OHDA lesioning. This neuroprotective action of LY367385 and MPEP displayed a clear concentration‐dependent effect, suggesting a receptor‐mediated mechanism of action. LY367385 produced robust neuroprotection at all concentrations tested (40, 200 and 1000 nmol in 4 μL), whilst MPEP displayed a bell‐shaped neuroprotective profile with significant neuroprotection at low concentrations (2 and 10 nmol in 4 μL) but not at higher concentrations (50 nmol). Importantly, subchronic intranigral administration of MPEP and LY367385 appeared to slow the degeneration of remaining nigral dopaminergic neurones and prevented further striatal dopamine depletion in animals with established 6‐OHDA induced nigrostriatal lesions, suggesting that these compounds may significantly influence disease progression in this model.
PERMANENT GENETIC RESOURCES: Isolation of microsatellite loci from the endangered plant Sibara filifolia (Brassicaceae)
Authors: MCGLAUGHLIN MITCHELL E. , WALLACE LISA E. , HELENURM KAIUS
Published: August 2007

Sibara filifolia (Brassicaceae) is a federally endangered annual herb found on two of the California Channel Islands. Previous studies based on allozymes revealed little genetic variability on San Clemente Island. Nine polymorphic microsatellite loci were isolated from individuals on San Clemente Island. We found low levels of allelic variation (mean NA = 2.3), with seven loci exhibiting significant deviations from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium (P < 0.01) and 10 pairs of loci exhibiting significant linkage disequilibrium (P < 0.01). Most of the observed variability (mean HO = 0.003) occurred among populations or in rare homozygous individuals.
Chemical reactivity of microbe and mineral surfaces in hydrous ferric oxide depositing hydrothermal springs
Authors: LALONDE S. V. , AMSKOLD L. , MCDERMOTT T. R. , INSKEEP W. P. , KONHAUSER K. O.
Published: August 2007

The hot springs in Yellowstone National Park, USA, provide concentrated microbial biomass and associated mineral crusts from which surface functional group (FG) concentrations and pKa distributions can be determined. To evaluate the importance of substratum surface reactivity for solute adsorption in a natural setting, samples of iron‐rich sediment were collected from three different springs; two of the springs were acid‐sulfate‐chloride (ASC) in composition, while the third was neutral‐chloride (NC). At one of the ASC springs, mats of Sº‐rich Hydrogenobaculum‐like streamers and green Cyanidia algae were also collected for comparison to the sediment. All samples were then titrated over a pH range of 3–11, and comparisons were made between the overall FG availability and the concentration of solutes bound to the samples under natural conditions. Sediments from ASC springs were composed of hydrous ferric oxides (HFO) that displayed surface FGs typical of synthetic HFO, while sediments from the NC spring were characterized by a lower functional group density, reflected by decreased excess charge over the titration range (i.e., lower surface reactivity). The latter also showed a lower apparent point of zero charge (PZC), likely due the presence of silica (up to 78 wt. %) in association with HFO. Variations in the overall HFO surface charge are manifest in the quantities and types of solutes complexed; the NC sediments bound more cations, while the ASC sediments retained significantly more arsenic, presumably in the form of arsenate (H2AsO4−). When the microbial biomass samples were analyzed, FG concentrations summed over the titratable range were found to be an order of magnitude lower for the Sº‐rich mats, relative to the algal and HFO samples that displayed similar FG concentrations on a dry weight basis. A diffuse‐layer surface complexation model was employed to further illustrate the importance of surface chemical parameters on adsorption reactions in complex natural systems.
Women, wax and anatomy in the ‘century of things’
Authors: Dacome Lucia
Published: August 2007

In eighteenth‐century Italy, anatomical waxworks were considered particularly apt to represent the human body. Life‐size, coloured, three‐dimensional and soft and moist‐looking, they could offer compelling replicas of the living body. This essay explores the significance of material properties of wax, such as softness and malleability, in the fashioning of anatomical wax‐modelling as a reliable source of medical knowledge. It does so by focusing on the case of two eighteenth‐century Bolognese women, the anatomist Anna Morandi Manzolini and the holy woman Laura Chiarini, who became famous as skilled wax‐modellers. Attention is drawn to the gendering of wax‐modelling as an activity that resonated with long‐standing views linking generation with the impression of soft matter. The shifting meaning of wax in the context of the fluid boundaries of early modern domains of the natural, preternatural and supernatural is also considered in the light of Morandi's and Chiarini's different practices of wax‐modelling. (pp. 522–550)
Medical competence, anatomy and the polity in seventeenth‐century Rome
Authors: De Renzi Silvia
Published: August 2007

At the centre of this article are two physicians active in Rome between 1600 and 1630 who combined medical practice with broader involvement in the dynamic cultural, economic and political scene of the centre of the Catholic world. The city's distinctive and very influential social landscape magnified issues of career‐building and allows us to recapture physicians’ different strategies of self‐fashioning at a time of major social and religious reorganization. At one level, reconstructing Johannes Faber and Giulio Mancini's medical education, arrival in Rome and overlapping but different career trajectories contributes to research on physicians’ identity in early modern Italian states. Most remarkable are their access to different segments of Roman society, including a dynamic art market, and their diplomatic and political role, claimed as well as real. But following these physicians from hospitals to courts, including that of the Pope, and from tribunals to the university and analysing the wide range of their writing – from medico‐legal consilia to political essays and reports of anatomical investigations – also enriches our view of medical practice, which included, but went beyond, the bedside. Furthermore, their activities demand that we reassess the complex place of anatomical investigations in a courtly society, and start recovering the fundamental role played by hospitals – those quintessential Catholic institutions – as sites of routine dissections for both medical teaching and research. (pp. 551–567)
Malpighi and the holy body: medical experts and miraculous evidence in seventeenth‐century Italy
Authors: Pomata Gianna
Published: August 2007

In this article I use the records of the canonization proceedings of Caterina Vigri (Saint Catherine of Bologna) to examine the role of physicians in assessing miraculous evidence, and more broadly the relationship between religious and secular views of the body in early modern Italy. Medical men – including the prominent anatomist Marcello Malpighi – were important expert witnesses in the final denouement of Caterina Vigri's canonization process, in the 1660s and 70s. Their opinion was crucial in the evaluation of the Beata's healing miracles, as well as in the assessment of her body's ‘incorruption’. I examine how the doctors involved in the canonization proceedings viewed Caterina's healing miracles and I compare it with their attitude to her allegedly undecayed body. The way these doctors handled the touchy issue of Caterina's ‘holy body’ is particularly interesting, as it betrays a strong note of scepticism, which is absent, in contrast, in their reaction to her healing miracles. The doctors’ sceptical view of the ‘holy body’ played a major role in the Roman stage of the canonization proceedings, leading the Congregation of Rites to exclude the miracle of the ‘incorrupt’ body from the two miracles necessary for canonization. This episode indicates a new significance of medical testimony in the evaluation of miraculous evidence, and the emerging of a tension between the medical and the religious views of the body, which was destined to become a serious problem for modern Catholicism. (pp. 568–586)
Using Spatial Analysis to Study the Values of Variable Rate Technology and Information
Authors: Bullock David S. , Lowenberg‐DeBoer James
Published: August 2007

For adoption of variable rate technology to increase, more knowledge of how crop yields respond to inputs is needed. As the necessary agronomic research involves approximating site‐specific yield response functions, data used inherently lend themselves to spatial analysis. We discuss the different types of spatial analyses that may be appropriate. Then we present a taxonomy for the discussion of the economics of technology and information, and use it to review studies that have contributed significantly to the literature over the past few years. We contend that longer‐term, multilocation agronomic experiments are needed for the estimation of site‐specificex anteoptimal variable input rates, and of expected profitability of variable rate technology and information.