bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Repeated ketamine administration altersN-methyl-d-aspartic acid receptor subunit gene expression: Implication of genetic vulnerability for ketamine abuse and ketamine psychosis in humans
Authors: Xu Ke , Lipsky Robert H
Published: September 2014

For more than 40 years following its approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an anesthetic, ketamine, a non-competitive N-methyl-d-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptor antagonist, has been used as a tool of psychiatric research. As a psychedelic drug, ketamine induces psychotic symptoms, cognitive impairment, and mood elevation, which resemble some symptoms of schizophrenia. Recreational use of ketamine has been increasing in recent years. However, little is known of the underlying molecular mechanisms responsible for ketamine-associated psychosis. Recent animal studies have shown that repeated ketamine administration significantly increases NMDA receptor subunit gene expression, in particular subunit 1 (NR1 or GluN1) levels. This results in neurodegeneration, supporting a potential mechanism where up-regulation of NMDA receptors could produce cognitive deficits in chronic ketamine abuse patients. In other studies, NMDA receptor gene variants are associated with addictive behavior. Here, we focus on the roles of NMDA receptor gene subunits in ketamine abuse and ketamine psychosis and propose that full sequencing of NMDA receptor genes may help explain individual vulnerability to ketamine abuse and ketamine-associated psychosis.
General Strain Theory for LGBQ and SSB Youth
Authors: Button Deeanna M. , Worthen Meredith G. F.
Published: September 2014

This study applies an intersectional general strain theory (GST) framework to understand the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning (LGBQ) youth, and youth involved in same-sex sexual behavior (SSB). Using a statewide probability sample of LGBQ and SSB youth ( N = 539) in grades 9 to 12, results show that understanding LGBQ and SSB youths’ experiences with victimization (feeling unsafe, threatened/injured, property stolen) and negative outcomes (poor academic performance, substance use, suicidality) must be underscored with the significance of and intersections between gender, sexual identity, and sexual behavior. Implications for the importance of intersectionality in GST and the future of feminist criminology are offered.
Eleanor Roosevelt as “Ordinary” Citizen and “Expert” on Radio in the Early 1950s
Authors: Luscombe Anya
Published: September 2014

Eleanor Roosevelt, former First Lady of the United States, used radio to communicate on a wide variety of issues that she felt the American public, and women in particular, should know or think about. She had been a radio pioneer, broadcasting from the 1920s onward and starting with her own radio show in 1932. By the 1950s, radio as a technology began facing increasing competition from television. Yet, as a medium to reach mass audiences and women in particular, radio continued to play a vital role. From October 1950 until August 1951, Eleanor Roosevelt together with her son Elliott hosted a daily show on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) called The Eleanor Roosevelt Program. Focusing on this 1950-1951 program, this article seeks to examine the way in which Mrs. Roosevelt communicated with her listeners and successfully blended that which at first sight might seem opposites: the domestic with the global, the informal mode of address with the serious topics, the public with the private, and the ordinary woman’s view with that of the expert international stateswoman.
Sociological Innovation through Subfield Integration
Authors: Leahey Erin , Moody James
Published: September 2014

Is domain-spanning beneficial? Can it promote innovation? Classic research on recombinant innovation suggests that domain-spanning fosters the accumulation of diverse information and can thus be a springboard for fresh ideas—most of which emanate from the merger of extant ideas from distinct realms. But domain-spanning is also challenging to produce and to evaluate. Here, the domains of interest are subfields. We focus on subfield spanning in sociology, a topically diverse field whose distinct subfields are still reasonably permeable. To do so, we introduce two measures of subfield integration, one of which uniquely accounts for the novelty of subfield combinations. We find (within the limits of observable data) the costs to be minimal but the rewards substantial: Once published, sociology articles that integrate subfields (especially rarely spanned subfields) garner more citations. We discuss how these results illuminate trends in the discipline of sociology and inform theories of recombinant innovation.
A1C Testing and its Sociodemographic Predictors
Authors: Nepal Vishnu , Banerjee Deborah
Published: September 2014

Background:

One of the Healthy People (2020) goals related to the glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C) test is to increase the percentage of adults (aged 18 years and older) with diabetes who have had an HbA1C test at least twice in the past 12 months from 64.6% percent in 2008 to 71.1% by 2020. However, Texas has historically trailed behind several other states in achieving this goal. Targeted interventions for demographic subgroups of population could be a strategy to increase testing. However, little is known about the sociodemographic predictors of A1C test.

Method:

Texas Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data (2011 and 2012) were used to identify sociodemographic predictors of having had at least one A1C test in the past 12 months among diabetic patients. The sociodemographic predictors examined included age, sex, race/ethnicity, marital status, educational attainment, insurance status, whether or not the respondents had a primary care physician, and age when diabetes was diagnosed. A logistic model was developed to predict the membership.

Results:

Multivariate logistic regression indicated that insurance status and educational attainment are predictors of adherence to an annual A1C test. Those with insurance were nearly 3 times more likely than those without insurance to report adherence to annual A1C test (odds ratio [OR] = 2.82, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.47-5.42, P = .002), when controlled for all other sociodemographic variables. Likewise, those with more than college-level education were also nearly 3 times more likely than those with less than high school level education to report adherence (OR = 2.74, 95% CI, 1.27-5.89, P = .010).

Conclusion:

Population-based diabetes management programs should consider educational attainment level and insurance status of individuals when developing interventions to increase the rate of adherence to A1C testing recommendation among diabetic patients. Targeting interventions toward individuals with less than high school education and ensuring that diabetic individuals have some form of health insurance coverage may be helpful.
Importance of a Regular Source of Primary Care in Adolescents
Authors: Feldman Debbie Ehrmann , Beauséjour Marie , Da Silva Roxane Borgès , Diop Mamadou , Labelle Hubert , Goulet Lise
Published: September 2014

Aim:

Primary care practitioners should screen young adolescent patients for idiopathic scoliosis and refer those who could benefit from bracing to prevent curve progression and the need for surgery. Adolescents without a regular source of primary care may be at higher risk for not having their scoliosis diagnosed in time to benefit from bracing. We sought to determine whether adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis and a regular source of primary care are at lower risk of scoliosis surgery.

Methods:

We followed a cohort of 3722 adolescents (10-18 years) whose diagnosis of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis was confirmed by an orthopedist or physiatrist, using linked administrative data of physician visits and hospital admissions, from 2001 to 2010. We used survival analysis to compare those with and without a regular source of primary care with regard to having scoliosis surgery, adjusting for covariates.

Results:

Among the 3722 adolescents with scoliosis, 12% did not have a regular source of primary care and 158 had scoliosis surgery. Adolescents with a regular source of primary care had a lower risk of scoliosis surgery (hazard ratio 0.60, 95% confidence interval 0.40-0.89), especially those whose regular source of primary care was a pediatrician (hazard ratio 0.48, 95% confidence interval 0.30-0.76).

Conclusion:

Adolescents with scoliosis and a regular source of primary care were less likely to undergo scoliosis surgery. Policy makers need to be aware of the importance of primary health care for children and adolescents and ensure that they are not forgotten in their campaign for primary care improvement.
Anticoagulation Management of Atrial Fibrillation
Authors: Nantha Yogarabindranath Swarna
Published: September 2014

Objective:

To investigate the prevailing level of adherence to a dosing algorithm and a recall schedule and its relationship with the time in therapeutic range (TTR) among patients with atrial fibrillation.

Methods:

The study was carried out at a regional primary care clinic in Malaysia. Patients on anticoagulation therapy aged older than 18 years were included in the study. The participants have received continuation of their anticoagulation therapy at the primary care clinic for at least 6 months to 1 year after being discharged from a tertiary center. Correlation and multiple regression studies were performed to determine the significance of the predictors of TTR.

Results:

A majority (217) of patients with atrial fibrillation received anticoagulation therapy at the clinic followed by patients with mitral valve replacement and aortic valve replacement. The mean TTR for patients with atrial fibrillation was 57.6%. General practitioners (GPs) adhered to 75.5% of the dose protocol but fared poorly in adhering to the recall schedule (36.2%). The concordance to the dose algorithm and recall schedule were significantly related to TTR. Multiple regression analysis proved that the concordance to the dose algorithm and recall schedule were important predictors of the level of TTR in patients with atrial fibrillation.

Discussion:

The study provides preliminary evidence on the relationship between a validated dose algorithm that is integrated with a recall schedule in the control of TTR in patients with atrial fibrillation on anticoagulation treatment. A larger multicenter study is needed to confirm the results of this finding.
A comprehensive review of urologic complications in patients with diabetes
Authors: Arrellano-Valdez Fernando , Urrutia-Osorio Marta , Arroyo Carlos , Soto-Vega Elena
Published: September 2014

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a chronic disease characterized by hyperglycemia, as a result of abnormal insulin production, insulin function, or both. DM is associated with systemic complications, such as infections, neuropathy and angiopathy, which involve the genitourinary tract. The three most significant urologic complications include: bladder cystopathy, sexual dysfunction and urinary tract infections.

Almost half of the patients with DM have bladder dysfunction or cystopathy, which can be manifested in women as hypersensitivity (in 39–61% of the diabetic women) or neurogenic bladder. In males it can be experienced as lower urinary tract symptoms (in 25% of diabetic males with a nearly twofold increased risk when seen by age groups). Additionally, an increased prostate volume affects their micturition as well as their urinary tract.

Involving sexual dysfunction in women, it includes reduced libido, decreased arousal, clitoral erectile dysfunction and painful or non-sensitive intercourse; and in diabetic males it varies from low libido, ejaculatory abnormalities and erectile dysfunction. Globally, sexual disorders have a prevalence of 18–42%. Erectile dysfunction is ranked as the third most important complication of DM. Urinary tract infections are observed frequently in diabetic patients, and vary from emphysematous infections, Fournier gangrene, staghorn infected lithiasis to repetitive bacterial cystitis. The most frequent finding in diabetic women has been lower urinary tract infections. Because of the high incidence of obesity worldwide and its association with diabetes, it is very important to keep in mind the urologic complication associated with DM in patients, in order to better diagnose and treat this population.
Location of α-tocopherol and α-tocotrienol to heterogeneous cell membranes and inhibition of production of peroxidized cholesterol in mouse fibroblasts
Authors: Nakamura Toshiyuki , Noma Ayako , Terao Junji
Published: September 2014

Background

α-Tocopherol (α-T) and α-tocotrienol (α-T3) are well recognized as lipophilic antioxidants. Nevertheless, there is limited knowledge on their location in heterogeneous cell membranes. We first investigated the distribution of α-T and α-T3 to the cholesterol-rich microdomains (lipid rafts and caveolae) of heterogeneous cell membranes by incubating these antioxidants with cultured mouse fibroblasts.

Findings

Levels of cellular uptake for α-T and α-T3 were adjusted to the same order, as that of the latter was much more efficient than that of the former in the cultured cells. After ultracentrifugation, α-T and α-T3 were partitioned to the microdomain fractions. When the distribution of α-T and α-T3 was further confirmed by using methyl-β-cyclodextrin (which removes cholesterol from membranes), α-T was suggested to be distributed to the microdomains (approx. 9% of the total uptake). The same treatment did not affect α-T3 content in the microdomain fractions, indicating that α-T3 is not located in these cholesterol-rich domains. However, α-T and α-T3 significantly inhibited the production of peroxidized cholesterol when cells were exposed to ultraviolet-A light.

Conclusions

These results suggest that α-T and α-T3 can act as membranous antioxidants against photo-irradiated cholesterol peroxidation irrespective of their distribution to cholesterol-rich microdomains.
DiffVar: a new method for detecting differential variability with application to methylation in cancer and aging
Authors: Phipson Belinda , Oshlack Alicia
Published: September 2014

Methylation of DNA is known to be essential to development and dramatically altered in cancers. The Illumina HumanMethylation450 BeadChip has been used extensively as a cost-effective way to profile nearly half a million CpG sites across the human genome. Here we present DiffVar, a novel method to test for differential variability between sample groups. DiffVar employs an empirical Bayes model framework that can take into account any experimental design and is robust to outliers. We applied DiffVar to several datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas, as well as an aging dataset. DiffVar is available in the missMethyl Bioconductor R package.
Impaired Endothelium-Mesenchymal Stem Cells Cross-talk in Systemic Sclerosis: a Link Between Vascular and Fibrotic Features
Authors: Cipriani Paola , Di Benedetto Paola , Ruscitti Piero , Campese Antonio Francesco , Liakouli Vasiliki , Carubbi Francesco , Pantano Ilenia , Berardicurt Onorina , Screpanti Isabella , Giacomelli Roberto
Published: September 2014

Introduction

To assess if an impaired cross-talk between endothelial cells (ECs) and perivascular/multipotent mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) might induce a perturbation of vascular repair and leading to a phenotypic switch of MSC toward myofibroblast in Systemic Sclerosis (SSc).

Methods

We investigated different angiogenic and profibrotic molecules in a tridimentional matrigel assay, performing co-cultures with endothelial cells (ECs) and bone marrow derived MSCs from patients and healthy controls (HC). After 48 hours of co-culture, cells were sorted and analyzed for mRNA and protein expression.

Results

ECs-SSc showed a decreased tube formation ability which is not improved by co-cultures with different MSCs. After sorting, we showed: i. an increased production of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) in SSc-MSCs when co-cultured with SSc-ECs; ii. an increased level of transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) and platelet growth factor BB (PDGF-BB) in SSc-ECs when co-cultured with both HC- and SSc-MSCs; iii. an increase of TGF-β, PDGF-R, alpha smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and collagen 1 (Col1) in both HC- and SSc-MSCs when co-cultured with SSc-ECs.

Conclusion

We showed that during SSc, the ECs-MSCs crosstalk resulted in an altered expression of different molecules involved in the angiogenic processes, and mainly SSc-ECs seem to modulate the phenotypic switch of perivascular MSCs toward a myofibroblast population, thus supporting the fibrotic process.
Prevalence, Management, and Clinical Consequences of QT Interval Prolongation During Treatment With Arsenic Trioxide
Authors: Roboz Gail J. , Ritchie Ellen K. , Carlin Rebecca F. , Samuel Michael , Gale Leanne , Provenzano-Gober Juliette L. , Curcio Tania J. , Feldman Eric J. , Kligfield Paul D.
Published: September 2014

Purpose

Arsenic trioxide (ATO) is a highly effective agent for the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). QT interval prolongation is common with ATO and can pose a barrier to effective administration. The objective of this study was to characterize the prevalence, management, and clinical consequences of QT prolongation in a large cohort of patients treated with ATO.

Patients and Methods

We analyzed 3,011 electrocardiograms from 113 patients with non-APL acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome who were treated on a previously reported clinical trial. QT intervals were assessed using four different correction formulas, and data were correlated with clinical parameters and treatment with ATO.

Results

There were no clinically significant cardiac events in the study population. Of those receiving ATO therapy, 29 patients (26%) had rate-uncorrected QT values above 470 ms and 13 (12%) had values exceeding 500 ms. With the commonly used Bazett rate correction formula, 102 patients (90%) had QTc greater than 470 ms, including 74 (65%) above 500 ms. By using alternative rate correction formulas, only 24% to 32% of patients had rate-corrected QT intervals above 500 ms.

Conclusion

QT interval prolongation is common with ATO treatment, but clinically significant arrhythmias are rare and can be avoided with appropriate precautions. Use of the Bazett correction may result in unnecessary interruptions in ATO therapy, and alternative rate correction formulas should be considered for routine electrocardiographic monitoring.
Impact of Adjuvant Radiotherapy on Survival of Patients With Node-Positive Prostate Cancer
Authors: Abdollah Firas , Karnes R. Jeffrey , Suardi Nazareno , Cozzarini Cesare , Gandaglia Giorgio , Fossati Nicola , Vizziello Damiano , Sun Maxine , Karakiewicz Pierre I. , Menon Mani , Montorsi Francesco , Briganti Alberto
Published: September 2014

Purpose

The role of adjuvant radiotherapy (aRT) in treating patients with pN1 prostate cancer is controversial. We tested the hypothesis that the impact of aRT on cancer-specific mortality (CSM) in these individuals is related to tumor characteristics.

Methods

We evaluated 1,107 patients with pN1 prostate cancer treated with radical prostatectomy and anatomically extended pelvic lymph node dissection between 1988 and 2010 at two tertiary care centers. All patients received adjuvant hormonal therapy with or without aRT. Regression tree analysis stratified patients into risk groups on the basis of their tumor characteristics and the corresponding CSM rate. Cox regression analysis tested the relationship between aRT and CSM rate, as well as overall mortality (OM) rate in each risk group separately.

Results

Overall, 35% of patients received aRT. At multivariable analysis, aRT was associated with more favorable CSM rate (hazard ratio [HR], 0.37; P < .001). However, when patients were stratified into risk groups, only two groups of men benefited from aRT: (1) patients with positive lymph node (PLN) count ≤ 2, Gleason score 7 to 10, pT3b/pT4 stage, or positive surgical margins (HR, 0.30; P = .002); and (2) patients with PLN count of 3 to 4 (HR, 0.21; P = .02), regardless of other tumor characteristics. These results were confirmed when OM was examined as an end point.

Conclusion

The beneficial impact of aRT on survival in patients with pN1 prostate cancer is highly influenced by tumor characteristics. Men with low-volume nodal disease (≤ two PLNs) in the presence of intermediate- to high-grade, non–specimen-confined disease and those with intermediate-volume nodal disease (three to four PLNs) represent the ideal candidates for aRT after surgery.
Asexual Inverts and Sexual Perverts
Authors: Palmer Seth
Published: September 2014

At the turn of the twentieth century, a series of troublesome encounters unfolded between several French colonial medical doctors and gender-variant, male-bodied persons (sarimbavy in Malagasy). Medico-ethnographic texts were published in academic journals in the French metropole based upon these doctor-sarimbavy interactions. This article reveals how sarimbavy were situated within the biopolitics of colonial penal, labor, and medical infrastructures in Madagascar. Additionally, by following the bibliographic trail of the sarimbavy figure in documents published in England and the United States, this article exposes how initial encounters in the colony were entextualized and deployed as evidence for sexological arguments in Europe and North America. Throughout, sarimbavy were read variously as asexual and sexual, as externally perverted and internally inverted, as artistic, degenerate, and ill. The ways in which the spectral figure of the sarimbavy moved across multiple empires highlights the colonial impulse at the heart of the Euro-American endeavor to further sexological theory.
Involvement of Wnt, Eda and Shh at defined stages of sweat gland development
Authors: Cui Chang-Yi , Yin Mingzhu , Sima Jian , Childress Victoria , Michel Marc , Piao Yulan , Schlessinger David
Published: September 2014

To maintain body temperature, sweat glands develop from embryonic ectoderm by a poorly defined mechanism. We demonstrate a temporal cascade of regulation during mouse sweat gland formation. Sweat gland induction failed completely when canonical Wnt signaling was blocked in skin epithelium, and was accompanied by sharp downregulation of downstream Wnt, Eda and Shh pathway genes. The Wnt antagonist Dkk4 appeared to inhibit this induction: Dkk4 was sharply downregulated in β-catenin-ablated mice, indicating that it is induced by Wnt/β-catenin; however, its overexpression repressed Wnt target genes and significantly reduced gland numbers. Eda signaling succeeded Wnt. Wnt signaling was still active and nascent sweat gland pre-germs were still seen in Eda-null mice, but the pre-germs failed to develop further and the downstream Shh pathway was not activated. When Wnt and Eda were intact but Shh was ablated, germ induction and subsequent duct formation occurred normally, but the final stage of secretory coil formation failed. Thus, sweat gland development shows a relay of regulatory steps initiated by Wnt/β-catenin – itself modulated by Dkk4 – with subsequent participation of Eda and Shh pathways.
The mammalian Doublesex homolog DMRT6 coordinates the transition between mitotic and meiotic developmental programs during spermatogenesis
Authors: Zhang Teng , Murphy Mark W. , Gearhart Micah D. , Bardwell Vivian J. , Zarkower David
Published: September 2014

In mammals, a key transition in spermatogenesis is the exit from spermatogonial differentiation and mitotic proliferation and the entry into spermatocyte differentiation and meiosis. Although several genes that regulate this transition have been identified, how it is controlled and coordinated remains poorly understood. Here, we examine the role in male gametogenesis of the Doublesex-related gene Dmrt6 (Dmrtb1) in mice and find that Dmrt6 plays a crucial role in directing germ cells through the mitotic-to-meiotic germ cell transition. DMRT6 protein is expressed in late mitotic spermatogonia. In mice of the C57BL/6J strain, a null mutation in Dmrt6 disrupts spermatogonial differentiation, causing inappropriate expression of spermatogonial differentiation factors, including SOHLH1, SOHLH2 and DMRT1 as well as the meiotic initiation factor STRA8, and causing most late spermatogonia to undergo apoptosis. In mice of the 129Sv background, most Dmrt6 mutant germ cells can complete spermatogonial differentiation and enter meiosis, but they show defects in meiotic chromosome pairing, establishment of the XY body and processing of recombination foci, and they mainly arrest in mid-pachynema. mRNA profiling of Dmrt6 mutant testes together with DMRT6 chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing suggest that DMRT6 represses genes involved in spermatogonial differentiation and activates genes required for meiotic prophase. Our results indicate that Dmrt6 plays a key role in coordinating the transition in gametogenic programs from spermatogonial differentiation and mitosis to spermatocyte development and meiosis.
Like father, like daughter: a story of selfless kidney donation
Authors: Ramage Ian
Published: September 2014

When Ian Ramage was first diagnosed with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) soon after his daughter Abby was born, little did he know that 26 years later she would donate one of her kidneys to save his life. In his patient story, Ian shares this life-changing experience
Recruitment and retention in the renal unit: finding the right candidate
Authors: Ellis Peter , Abbott Jane
Published: September 2014

Effective recruitment in the renal unit begins by deciding which sort of person to employ. In the first article of a new series exploring recruitment and retention, Peter Ellis and Jane Abbott highlight the factors renal managers should take into consideration when they find themselves with a vacancy to fill within in their team.
Use the best picture books to draw them in
Authors: White Hilary
Published: September 2014

Use your performance skills to bring first books to life for children. Once they have developed the love of a good story, you can go on to highlight different narrative elements. By Hilary White.
Find the dancing chicks
Authors: Mckeown Sal
Published: September 2014

With its lively animal graphics and levels targeted at different age groups, Early Years World software is ‘all encompassing and meets all children's needs’, according to one nursery. By Sal Mckeown
Why re-think is welcomed
Authors: Faux Karen
Published: September 2014

Ofsted's decision to change the way it handles complaints-driven inspections is a significant move for the early years sector and has helped to quell unrest. But further action is required, says Karen Faux.
Direct Support Workforce Supporting Individuals With IDD: Current Wages, Benefits, and Stability
Authors: Bogenschutz Matthew D. , Hewitt Amy , Nord Derek , Hepperlen Renee
Published: September 2014

Direct support professionals (DSPs) and frontline supervisors (FLSs) play an integral role in the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and are often the individuals directly responsible for assisting people with IDD to live and fully participate in their communities. These two groups of workers have typically been employed at lower wages with limited access to fringe benefits, contributing to high rates of turnover compared to a similarly skilled worker in the United States. This article summarizes findings and is the first investigation in several years to systematically examine the wages, fringe benefits, and stability of the DSP and FLS workforces supporting individuals with IDD. Findings suggest that a typical DSP may expect to earn about $11.25 per hour, while FLSs may expect wages of about $15.45 hourly. Of concern, however, is that fringe benefit provision was quite limited in this sample. Implications, including relation to past reports of DSP workforce development, are discussed.
Changing Attitudes Toward Disabilities Through Unified Sports
Authors: Sullivan Emma , Masters Glidden Laraine
Published: September 2014

A cognitive/affective/behavioral intervention was implemented to change attitudes of college students towards individuals with disabilities. College swim team members were randomly assigned to intervention (N  =  16), and no-intervention control groups (N  =  17), with intervention group students and 8 Special Olympics swimmers working together to pursue swimming-related goals in 4 sessions over a 6-week period. Results indicated that on a revision of the Symons, Fish, McGuigan, Fox, and Akl (2012) attitudes inventory, the intervention group participants displayed significant increases in positive attitudes from pre- to posttest, whereas the control group participants did not. Written participant comments corroborated this improvement. A key element in the improved attitudes was the increased comfort level experienced by the college swimmers in their interactions with the Special Olympics swimmers.
Psychometric Properties of the Portuguese Version of the Adaptive Behavior Scale
Authors: Santos Sofia , Morato Pedro , Luckasson Ruth
Published: September 2014

The adaptive behavior construct has gained prominent attention in human services over the last several years in Portugal, and its measurement has become an integral part of the assessment of populations with intellectual disability. In Portugal, diagnosis remains exclusively based on IQ measures, although some attention recently has been given to the adaptive behavior concept. In this article, we explain the adaptation and validation process of the Portuguese version of the Adaptive Behavior Scale (PABS) on a sample of 1,875 people with and without intellectual disability. Results of the study are discussed in terms of the reliability and validity of PABS on the sample. The PABS appears to be a valid and reliable assessment of adaptive behavior in individuals in Portugal with intellectual disability.
In Their Own Words: The Place of Faith in the Lives of Young People With Autism and Intellectual Disability
Authors: Liu Eleanor X. , Carter Erik W. , Boehm Thomas L. , Annandale Naomi H. , Taylor Courtney E.
Published: September 2014

Although the prominence of spirituality and religious connections among the people of the United States is well documented, little is known about the place of faith in the lives of youth with developmental disabilities. In this qualitative interview study, we examined the perspectives of 20 young people with intellectual disability or autism on their faith, spiritual expressions, and disability. Participants identified key spiritual expressions and themes reflecting the importance of faith in their lives. They also shared perceptions of their disability in the context of their faith, highlighting affirmation and acceptance of their disability. We offer recommendations to families, faith communities, and service systems for supporting the spiritual formation, expression, and connections of young people with disabilities.
Isoperimetric inequality under Kähler Ricci flow
Authors: Tian Gang , Zhang Qi S.
Published: September 2014

Let $({\bf M},g(t))$ be a K\"ahler Ricci flow with positive first Chern class. First, we prove a uniform
isoperimetric inequality for all time. In the process, we also prove a Cheng-Yau type log gradient bound for
positive harmonic functions on $({\bf M},g(t))$ without assuming the Ricci curvature is bounded from below.
The Galois group of random elements of linear groups
Authors: Lubotzky Alexander , Rosenzweig Lior
Published: September 2014

Let $\Bbb {F}$ be a finitely generated field of characteristic zero and
$\Gamma\leq{\rm GL}_n(\Bbb {F})$ a finitely generated subgroup. For
$\gamma\in\Gamma$, let ${\rm Gal}(\Bbb {F}(\gamma)/\Bbb {F})$ be the
Galois group of the splitting field of the characteristic polynomial of
$\gamma$ over $\Bbb {F}$. We show that the structure of ${\rm Gal}(\Bbb
{F}(\gamma)/\Bbb {F})$ has a typical behavior depending on $\Bbb {F}$, and
on the geometry of the Zariski closure of $\Gamma$ (but not on $\Gamma$).
New Research on an Old Collection: Studies of the Philippine Expedition (“Guthe”) Collection of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan
Authors: Sinopoli Carla M.
Published: September 2014

This article introduces recent studies on an important collection of Southeast Asian archaeological materials curated by the Asian Division of the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology. The Philippine Expedition or Guthe Collection derives from archaeological research conducted at more than 500 sites in the southern and central Philippines in the early part of the last century—from 1922 to 1925. The collection consists of some 13,000 objects from some of the earliest systematic archaeological research in Southeast Asia. For more than 80 years, scholars from the Philippines, China, Japan, Europe, and North America have visited the collection to study the materials and ask new questions about the Southeast Asian past. The articles here continue this trajectory by presenting recent research on early modern trade in blue-on-white porcelains; technological style and the classification of large stoneware dragon jars; the cultural context of cranial deformation; and a sourcing study of indigenous earthenware ceramics using instrumental neutron activation. In this article, I provide some background on the Philippine Expedition and the remarkable museum collection that it generated, as well as some of this research, which continues to mine new knowledge from this nearly century-old museum collection.
Fragments of Globalization: Archaeological Porcelain and the Early Colonial Dynamics in the Philippines
Authors: Min Li
Published: September 2014

Archaeology provides a powerful lens for revealing the complex social processes and profound consequences of global encounters. This study of archaeological ceramics from the southern Philippines investigates patterns of quality, source variation, and spatial distribution for Chinese trade porcelain dating before and after Spanish colonization. It aims at placing archaeological research on ceramics trade into the broader context of trans-Pacific trade between East Asia and Spanish America, as well as the historical circumstances for the production, distribution, and consumption of commodities involved in the global exchange. The patterns documented reveal continuity and transformation of the Asiatic trade network and the diverse responses to the colonial condition by native communities. The ceramic trade and indigenous political development were juxtaposed with the global competition of empires and changing economic dynamics.
Two Clocks: A Comparison of Ceramic and Radiocarbon Dates at Macapainara, East Timor
Authors: Fenner Jack N. , Bulbeck David
Published: September 2014

Radiocarbon analysis and ceramic typology assessment are commonly used to date late Holocene archaeological sites in Island Southeast Asia. We apply both methods to date the site of Macapainara in East Timor, and they produce substantially different age ranges for this site. The radiocarbon dates are consistently later in time than ceramic typology dates from the same or adjacent stratigraphic levels. We assess the various sources of error for the two dating techniques that could produce this discrepancy, and conclude that the ceramic typology age ranges are misleadingly old due to concerted curation of fine ceramics by the site occupants. We discuss the implications of this for dating sites in East Timor and elsewhere within Island Southeast Asia.
Can Consumption Predict Advertising Expenditures?: The Advertising-Consumption Relation Before and After the Dot-Com Crisis in Germany
Authors: Lischka Juliane A. , Kienzler Stephanie , Mellmann Ulrike
Published: September 2014

Two contradictory schools of thought—the activists and the determinists—predict that either diffusion of knowledge (e.g., through advertising) leads to economic growth or that economic growth increases marketing and advertising activities. This study assesses the causal relation between corporate advertising expenditures and private consumption applying vector autoregressive (VAR) models to aggregate German quarterly data from 1991 to 2009. Results indicate a break in the advertising-consumption relation after the dot-com crisis. Hence, the macroeconomic advertising-consumption relation is not stable over time. Since 2001, consumption has Granger-caused advertising expenditures. This change suggests a higher relevance of consumer behavior for advertising budgeting decisions. ...
Participating in the Global Competition: Denaturalizing “Flair” in Samoan Rugby
Authors: Clément Julien
Published: September 2014

Sāmoa, Fiji, and Tonga have emerged as strong contenders in international rugby competitions in the last three decades. Meanwhile, rugby has been going through a period of “development” since the creation of the Rugby World Cup in 1987 and the introduction of professionalism in 1995. Here, I present an ethnography of rugby in Sāmoa that focuses on embodiment. Participant observation of practices as well as interviews illuminate how international norms and values are diffused within the sport structure, while a global sporting practice is indigenized and appropriated in the everyday practices of young Samoan men. In Samoan rugby, the emergence of “flair” appears as a category of analysis that naturalizes an embodied characteristic of Samoan village life. By denaturalizing “flair” in Samoan rugby, this article contributes to a critique of this notion, in addition to showing the assemblage that creates rugby in the Islands.
Whose Moon Is It Anyway?
Authors: Riederer Rachel
Published: September 2014

“I’ll give you the moon,” George Bailey tells his sweetheart in It’s a Wonderful Life. The romance of the promise comes from its very impossibility—we may gaze at the moon, write nursery rhymes about it, feel superstitious about its phases, but we cannot own it, whether to keep or give away. But it seems that the development of property rights on the moon—and in outer space in general—is on the horizon. At the end of last year Bigelow Aerospace, a space technology company into which founder and real estate developer Robert Bigelow has already poured $250 million, filed a request with the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation asking that the agency grant a “zone of non-interference” around their future lunar operations.
Japan’s Island Problem
Authors: Dudden Alexis
Published: September 2014

“Don’t get me wrong,” said Mr. Hasegawa, a fisherman. “I don’t think that the bombing of Hiroshima was a good thing.” Staring at the furious grey channel where the Pacific Ocean meets the Sea of Okhotsk off Hokkaido in northern Japan on a cold, clear day last March, he spoke like a trauma victim reliving the past: “But if the Americans had dropped the atomic bomb a month earlier, those islands out there would still be Japan’s.” Were I unaware of the chronology of the summer of 1945 and had we been anywhere else, such a comment would make the engaging 64-year-old seem insensitive or odd. Yet on the horizon three miles in the distance were the snow-covered banks of one of Russia’s Kuril Islands, known to the Japanese who lived there until 1945 as Suishojima of the Habomai group. Mr. Hasegawa’s father was among the 17,291 Japanese who called it and several other nearby islands home.
Deceased but Not Forgotten: Obituaries for Herman Melville in the Upstate Press
Authors: Broderick Warren
Published: September 2014

Obituaries of major writers are valuable documents sometimes revealing new information. For a number of years, the only newspaper obituaries of Melville known to scholars were those found in large city papers. Newspapers from Albany, Lansingburgh, and Troy, New York, or Pittsfield, Massachusetts—locations important in Melville’s biography—have rarely been consulted. I studied newspapers from these communities and others in a fifty-mile radius, resulting in the discovery of eleven newly identified obituaries. Some of these, particularly one found in a Troy newspaper, reveal new insights into Melville’s family activities and social life. We can now document that Melville revisited his boyhood home of Lansingburgh, meeting former Lansingburgh Academy schoolmates in 1886, a year when the contents of the Gansevoort mansion in Gansevoort, Saratoga County, were being inventoried, following the death of his sister Frances. In addition, we now know that young Herman was a frequent visitor to Waterford, New York, in the 1830s and 1840s, there to see his cousins, the family of the widow Mary [Chandonette] Gansevoort.
“Three smells exist in this world”: Literary Fiction and Animal Phenomenology in Italo Svevo’s “Argo and His Master”
Authors: Caracciolo Marco
Published: September 2014

By way of imaginative engagements with animal life, literature seems ideally positioned to address the gap between scientific knowledge and “what it is like” (in Thomas Nagel’s phrase) to be an animal. Yet my article argues that the differences between literary representations of animal experience and scientific methods for studying nonhuman consciousness should not be overlooked. No matter how plausible they are, literature’s animal phenomenologies play by hermeneutic—not scientific—rules. A 1927 short story by Italo Svevo, “Argo and His Master,” helps me interrogate the power as well as the limitations of literary figurations of nonhuman experience.
No Higher Life: Bio-aesthetics in J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace
Authors: Rohman Carrie
Published: September 2014

This essay theorizes the aesthetic in J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace as a tendency of the living-in-general through an emphasis on the protagonist’s devolving chamber opera. The bio-aesthetic in this articulation profoundly exceeds the domain of the human and should be viewed as a creaturely orientation of life to other life. The species barrier is therefore rendered porous through a becominganimal of art in the novel. This becoming leads the protagonist toward an eroticoartistic posture that is on the margins of a properly “human” world.
Backward/Forward: Thalia Field’s Metanarratives
Authors: Baetens Jan , Trudel Éric
Published: September 2014

Thalia Field’s Bird Lovers, Backyard takes at its starting point the awareness that any attempt to represent the nonhuman has to account for the ways in which the existing forms of mediation determine the nature and scope of stories about animals. This awareness introduces a supplementary layer in storytelling, which transforms the narrative. Instead of telling stories about animals, a metanarrative such as Bird Lovers, Backyard is a montage and reworking of a wide range of existing forms of narrative as well as a critical engagement with the works and authors that exemplify them.
Sinologism in Language Philosophy: A Critique of the Controversy over Chinese Language
Authors: Gu Ming Dong
Published: September 2014

Sinologism is basically a cultural unconscious in China-West studies predicated on an inner logic that operates beyond our conscious awareness but controls the ways of observing China and producing China scholarship. Its logic has exerted a profound impact on studies of Chinese language and writing. Since medieval times the difference between Chinese and Western languages has been viewed as a conceptual divide that separates Chinese and Western traditions. It has motivated scholars to generate a considerable array of ideas, views, and arguments on Chinese language and writing. These dazzling views operate on the logic of Sinologism: conditions of Chinese language are to be investigated from the Western linguistic point of view, and the nature of Chinese writing is to be determined in terms of Western alphabetic languages. This article reexamines the enduring controversy over the nature of Chinese language, especially writing, with the aim to see why the long-lasting debates have come to no satisfactory conclusion. By demonstrating how the epistemology and methodology predicated on phonocentrism and logocentrism in Western metaphysics have evolved into the logic of a language philosophy that manages to misunderstand and misrepresent Chinese language, especially writing, it explores how we can move out of the war of discourse and come to an adequate understanding of the true nature of Chinese language. It suggests that to be self-consciously aware of the hidden logic of Sinologism is the sine qua non for going beyond the war of discourse over Chinese language.
Brahmānubhava as Überpramāṇa in Advaita Vedānta: Revisiting an Old Debate
Authors: Preti Alan A.
Published: September 2014

This article revisits a debate about the nature and function of anubhava or intuition in Advaita Vedānta. In their presentation of Indian thought to the West, neo-Vedāntins such as Vivekananda and Radhakrishnan emphasized intuitive experience as a unique means to brahmajñāna , or Brahman-realization. In so doing, they distanced themselves from the tradition’s emphasis on the role of scripture in revealing Brahman. Detractors claim that such an account misrepresented Śaṅkara’s epistemology and led to a facile characterization of Advaita as a form of mysticism. It is argued here that the issue rests upon a confusion about the function of anubhava , and an understanding is proposed of intuition as a distinctive mode of cognition that mitigates the neo-Vedāntin claim that it is an independent means to brahmajñāna , yet that does not undermine the common view of Advaita as a system of thought whose fundamental claims about the nature of reality can be realized only in mystical experience.
Fashionable Beards and Beards as Fashion: Beard Coats in Thomas Malory’s Morte d’Arthur
Authors: Clark Laura
Published: September 2014

In general, medieval literary beards represent a positive element of masculinity: the more magnificent the beard, the more magnificent the man. This link between physical attributes and masculine capability can be traced from the twelfth-century Holy Land to fifteenth-century England. Thomas Malory, in two separate episodes of the Morte d’Arthur , presents villainous figures who threaten King Arthur’s beard. These beard-related episodes both mark Arthur’s passage from an inexperienced boy-king to a proven leader and establish the Round Table as an ideal chivalric community.
Reassessing 27 Henry VIII, c.25 and Tudor Welfare: Changes and Continuities in Context
Authors: Brodie Nicholas Dean
Published: September 2014

The English Parish Rate for the relief of the poor was first instituted by statute in 1536. Scholars of English welfare have seen in this a great discontinuity with the statute of 1531, and have suggested the 1536 Act was the product of humanist thinking about the nature of poverty. Humanist features have long been attributed, in particular, to a draft bill of 1535, seemingly bolstering this argument. The bill was seen as ahead of its time, explaining the Act’s apparent failure. This article revises these interpretations of the 1530s legislation, seeking to align scholarly understanding of the 1530s legislation with continental scholarship of welfare reforms, scholarship of English humanism, and the growing body of research that shows continuities in local practices and attitudes from the late medieval period regarding poverty and the poor. It does this through a revision of the broader legislative context, and through situating the 1535 draft in closer relationship to the legislation passed and contemporary repair works underway at Dover harbour.
Ordericus Vitalis as Historian in the Europe of the Early Twelfth-Century Renaissance
Authors: Ward John O.
Published: September 2014

The following tries to establish what a leading historian of Europe’s early Twelfth-Century Renaissance thought his duty as an historian was, and challenges readers to consider how this differs from modern conceptions of the historian’s role. The strong moral and exemplary purpose of the medieval chronicler is stressed, in terms of the historical writings of Ordericus Vitalis who flourished in the first half of the twelfth century. Orderic’s relatively peripheral location allowed him the leisure to observe and collect historical observations about the major powers of the day (France, England, Normandy), and his monastic dedication instructed him to relate historical events to God’s purposes on earth.