bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Human Relation With Nature and Technological Nature
Authors: Kahn Peter H. , Severson Rachel L. , Ruckert Jolina H.
Published: February 2009

Two world trends are powerfully reshaping human existence: the degradation, if not destruction, of large parts of the natural world, and unprecedented technological development. At the nexus of these two trends lies technological nature—technologies that in various ways mediate, augment, or simulate the natural world. Current examples of technological nature include videos and live webcams of nature, robot animals, and immersive virtual environments. Does it matter for the physical and psychological well-being of the human species that actual nature is being replaced with technological nature? As the basis for our provisional answer (it is “yes”), we draw on evolutionary and cross-cultural developmental accounts of the human relation with nature and some recent psychological research on the effects of technological nature. Finally, we discuss the issue—and area for future research—of “environmental generational amnesia.” The concern is that, by adapting gradually to the loss of actual nature and to the increase of technological nature, humans will lower the baseline across generations for what counts as a full measure of the human experience and of human flourishing.
Phenylketonuria in Children and Mothers
Authors: Widaman Keith F.
Published: February 2009

Phenylketonuria (PKU) is an inborn metabolic error in which metabolism of phenylalanine into tyrosine is disrupted. If the diet of an infant with PKU is not restricted, blood phenylalanine levels are elevated, leading to irremediable brain damage and severe mental retardation. Children with PKU who are placed early and continuously on a low-phenylalanine diet develop normal levels of intelligence, and brain damage is largely prevented. However, if the diet of a mother with PKU is unrestricted during her pregnancy, high phenylalanine levels in her blood can cross the placental barrier and damage the developing fetus in multiple ways. These results demonstrate how genes and environmental factors combine to create prenatal environments that can have profound effects on the growth and development of offspring during infancy and childhood.
Core Self-Evaluations and Work Success
Authors: Judge Timothy A.
Published: February 2009

Core self-evaluations (CSE) is a broad, integrative trait indicated by self-esteem, locus of control, generalized self-efficacy, and (low) neuroticism (high emotional stability). While only a decade old, research on CSE suggests that it explains much of the overlap among these trait measures, while also predicting many work and other applied outcomes better than the individual traits. Individuals with high levels of CSE perform better on their jobs, are more successful in their careers, are more satisfied with their jobs and lives, report lower levels of stress and conflict, cope more effectively with setbacks, and better capitalize on advantages and opportunities. Though research on individual self-concept traits such as self-esteem and locus of control should continue, researchers interested in these traits should consider the advantages of CSE in its relation to success in work and in life.
Voluntary Attention Enhances Contrast Appearance
Authors: Liu Taosheng , Abrams Jared , Carrasco Marisa
Published: February 2009

Voluntary (endogenous, sustained) covert spatial attention selects relevant sensory information for prioritized processing. The behavioral and neural consequences of such selection have been extensively documented, but its phenomenology has received little empirical investigation. We asked whether voluntary attention affects the subjective appearance of contrast—a fundamental dimension of visual perception. We used a demanding rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task to direct endogenous attention to a given location and measured perceived contrast at the attended and unattended locations. Attention increased perceived contrast of suprathreshold stimuli and also improved performance on a concurrent orientation discrimination task at the cued location. We ruled out response bias as an alternative account of the pattern of results. Thus, this study establishes that voluntary attention enhances perceived contrast. This phenomenological consequence links behavioral and neurophysiological studies on the effects of attention.
About Turn
Authors: Lawson Rebecca P. , Clifford Colin W.G. , Calder Andrew J.
Published: February 2009

Body orientation provides an important cue to other individuals' focus of attention, particularly when one is viewing them at a distance. Single-cell recording in macaques has identified cells in the superior temporal sulcus that show a view-selective response to particular body orientations. Whether similar separable coding is found in humans is not known, and there is currently no functional account of the visual representation of seen body orientation. This study addressed this issue using visual adaptation. Experiment 1 demonstrated distinct channels that code left- and right-oriented bodies. Experiment 2 investigated whether the visual representation of body orientation is best accounted for by an opponent-coding system, which has been shown to account for the visual representation of facial identity, or by a multichannel system, which provides the optimal account of coding line orientation and direction of motion. Our results provide evidence for multichannel coding of seen body orientation, with separate channels (or neuronal populations) selectively tuned to different body directions.
Contagion and Differentiation in Unethical Behavior
Authors: Gino Francesca , Ayal Shahar , Ariely Dan
Published: February 2009

In a world where encounters with dishonesty are frequent, it is important to know if exposure to other people's unethical behavior can increase or decrease an individual's dishonesty. In Experiment 1 , our confederate cheated ostentatiously by finishing a task impossibly quickly and leaving the room with the maximum reward. In line with social-norms theory, participants' level of unethical behavior increased when the confederate was an in-group member, but decreased when the confederate was an out-group member. In Experiment 2 , our confederate instead asked a question about cheating, which merely strengthened the saliency of this possibility. This manipulation decreased the level of unethical behavior among the other group members. These results suggest that individuals' unethicality does not depend on the simple calculations of cost-benefit analysis, but rather depends on the social norms implied by the dishonesty of others and also on the saliency of dishonesty.
Buyer Concentration in Markets for Developing Country Exports
Authors: Deardorff Alan V. , Rajaraman Indira
Published: February 2009

The authors explore the implications of buyer concentration in markets for primary commodity exports of developing countries. Simple partial equilibrium models of monopsony and oligopsony show that the best available policy for the exporting country may be to tax exports so as to extract some of the profits of the monopsonist, even though doing so will actually worsen the distortion caused by the buyer's market power. They also explore the general equilibrium implications of these results for factor markets and for patterns of trade.
Why Isn't the Doha Development Agenda more Poverty Friendly?
Authors: Hertel Thomas W. , Keeney Roman , Ivanic Maros , Winters L. Alan
Published: February 2009

Critics of the Doha Development Agenda rightly point to the lack of aggressive reform in wealthy countries for its role in dampening developing country gains. The authors find that the absence of tariff cuts on staple food products in developing countries also critically limits poverty reduction in those countries. Based on their analysis of the impacts of multilateral trade policy reforms in a sample of 15 developing countries, they find there is some evidence of poverty increases amongst the poor who work in agriculture when they lose protection for their earnings. However, these effects are minimized when agricultural tariffs are cut in all developing countries, and when the impact of lower food prices on low income consumers is taken into account in their 15 country sample.
Option Values, Switches, and Wages: An Analysis of the Employment Guarantee Scheme in India
Authors: Scandizzo Pasquale , Gaiha Raghav , Imai Katsushi
Published: February 2009

Consistent with real option theory, the authors argue that the value of the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) in rural India and its impact on workers' behavior does not depend so much on its income supplementation as on enlargement of opportunities in the uncertain local labor market. The choice between the EGS and other activities is modeled in a dynamic optimization framework, taking into account a fixed wage rate and certainty of employment under the EGS and a stochastic wage rate under other activities. Specifically, volatility of wages in the rural labor markets has important implications for switches into the EGS and for concomitant welfare effects. Under such conditions, the higher the EGS wage, the greater is its attractiveness to relatively skilled and affluent workers, and for those already in it to continue. These and related predictions of the model are validated by panel data estimation.
Foreign Aid and Recurrent Cost: Donor Competition, Aid Proliferation, and Budget Support
Authors: Arimoto Yutaka , Kono Hisaki
Published: February 2009

Recent empirical studies reveal that effectiveness of aid on growth is ambiguous. The authors consider aid proliferation—excess aid investment relative to recurrent cost—as a potential cause that undermines aid effectiveness, because aid projects can only produce sustainable benefits when sufficient recurrent costs are disbursed. They consider the donor's budget support as a device to supplement the shortage of the recipient's recurrent cost and to alleviate the misallocation of inputs. However, when donors have self‐interested preferences for the success of their own projects over those conducted by others, they provide insufficient budget support relative to aid, which results in aid proliferation. Moreover, aid proliferation is shown to be worsened by the presence of more donors.
Dutch Disease in the Labor Market: Women, Services, and Industrialization
Authors: Van Pham Hoang
Published: February 2009

The light manufacturing export industries have been a springboard for sustained growth in many newly industrializing countries. Women have played an important role in those industries. The author presents a theory linking women's work and industrialization. The theory fits the observation that, in low‐growth developing countries, women work mostly in household services, while, in higher‐growth developing countries, women work in manufacturing. In the model, the existence of a services equilibrium or an industrialization equilibrium, or multiple equilibria, depends on an economy's endowment of land relative to labor.
International Trade and Inter‐Industry Wage Structure in Swedish Manufacturing: Evidence from Matched Employer–Employee Data*
Authors: Lundin Nannan , Yun Lihong
Published: February 2009

This study examines the inter‐industry wage structure in Swedish manufacturing, using matched employer–employee data for the period 1996 to 2000. First, we used detailed individual and job characteristics to estimate industry‐specific and time‐varying wage premiums. Secondly, we investigated the impact of international trade on wage premiums, controlling for effects of domestic competition and technical progress. Our results suggest that industries that face intensive import competition from low‐income countries have lower wage premiums. Surprisingly, the wage premiums are not related to export intensities. Furthermore, technical progress, measured by investment in R&D activity, appears to enhance inter‐industry wage premiums.
International Specialization and Labor Unions: Evidence from OECD Countries
Authors: Belloc Marianna
Published: February 2009

The aim of this paper is to explore the role of the institutional determinants of international comparative advantage. Starting from a theoretically well‐founded general‐equilibrium framework, where specialization depends on relative factor endowments and technological differences, we study the possible additional effect of labor unions. Using country–year panel data, we obtain that they are an important determinant of relative economic performance for a sample of manufacturing sectors. In particular low wages–labor‐intensive industries turn out to be relatively disadvantaged, while high wages–capital‐intensive sectors are relatively advantaged by stronger labor unions. We also allow for different institutional scenarios, letting unionization patterns interact with different regimes of bargaining coordination and social security systems. Our main conclusions are not substantially altered.
Financial Market Imperfections and the Impact of Exchange Rate Movements on Exports*
Authors: Berman Nicolas , Berthou Antoine
Published: February 2009

This paper analyzes empirically the role of financial market imperfections in the way countries’ exports react to a currency depreciation. Using quarterly data for 27 developed and developing countries over the period 1990–2005, we find that the impact of a depreciation on exports will be less positive—or even negative—for a country if: (i) firms borrow in foreign currency; (ii) they are credit constrained; (iii) they are specialized in industries that require more external capital; (iv) the magnitude of depreciation or devaluation is large. This last result emphasizes the existence of a nonlinear relationship between an exchange rate depreciation and the reaction of a country's exports when financial imperfections are observed. This offers a new explanation for the consequences of recent currency crises in middle‐income countries.
Currency Misalignments and Exchange Rate Regimes in Emerging and Developing Countries*
Authors: Coudert Virginie , Couharde Cécile
Published: February 2009

Pegged exchange rates are often pointed out as more prone to risk of overvaluation, because their real exchange rates have a tendency to appreciate. We check this assumption empirically over a large sample of emerging and developing countries, by using two databases for de facto classifications by Levy‐Yeyati and Sturzenegger (2003) and by Reinhart and Rogoff (2004). We assess currency misalignments by estimating real equilibrium exchange rates taking into account a Balassa effect and the impact of net foreign assets. Pegged currencies are shown to be more overvalued than floating ones.
Fiscal Trends and Self‐Fulfilling Crises
Authors: Doblas‐Madrid Antonio
Published: February 2009

This paper develops a second‐generation currency crisis model with endogenously changing fundamentals. Previous second‐generation models are static, e.g. Obstfeld (1994), or dynamic with exogenous paths of fundamentals, e.g. Obstfeld (1986). In our model, the government weighs the disutility of making fundamentals consistent with a peg against a penalty for floating. If the former dominates, the government runs expansionary policies, precipitating a crisis. For some parameters, self‐fulfilling speculation affects when the crisis happens, but not whether it happens. For other values, there are “purely self‐fulfilling” crises, where a peg that could have survived forever collapses if attacked in the first few periods.
Asian University Rankings in International and Development Economics: An Application of Zipf's Law
Authors: Jin Jang C.
Published: February 2009

This paper ranks Asian universities in two related economics fields: international economics and development economics. A key finding is that new latecomers rank atop the two specialty areas of economics. The results of the university ranking also establish that Zipf's law applies to research‐based school ranks.
Long‐Run PPP under the Presence of Near‐to‐Unit Roots: The Case of the British Pound–US Dollar Rate*
Authors: Pittis Nikitas , Christou Christina , Kalyvitis Sarantis , Hassapis Christis
Published: February 2009

Empirical tests typically provide evidence that the British pound–US dollar exchange rate and the relative wholesale price index contain exact unit roots and exhibit cointegration. However, the cointegrating vector is significantly different from [1, −1], thus raising doubts on the validity of the purchasing power parity (PPP) hypothesis. Following Elliott (1998), we show that if the exchange rate and relative price series contain near‐to‐unit roots in the context of a bivariate system, then any inference on the “cointegrating” vector and consequently on PPP, which is based on standard cointegration estimation methods, will be misleading. We then argue that the existing evidence against the PPP hypothesis in the British pound–US dollar market can be attributed to the finite sample bias of the standard cointegration estimators, arising from an endogenous and “nearly” nonstationary regressor. We also show that when robust procedures are employed the evidence favors the PPP hypothesis.
FROM A MAGAZINE FOR ‘PRACTICAL GENTLEMEN’ TO AN ACADEMIC JOURNAL: ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF TESG
Authors: DE PATER BEN
Published: February 2009

Dr. H. Blink (1852–1931) founded the Nederlandsche Vereeniging voor Economische Geographie in December 1909. The primary objective of this Dutch Association for Economic Geography was to publish a monthly magazine. Bearing the name Tijdschrift voor Economische Geographie, this periodical was the first in the world to be devoted exclusively to the field. It was launched in January 1910 with an issue filled almost entirely by Blink himself. The magazine was to become his life's work. Its name was expanded in 1948 to the current title, Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie. Then, a more profound change occurred in 1966 when Blink's Association merged with the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, its long‐standing rival. In the resulting shake‐up of geographic periodicals published by the newly styled association KNAG, the Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, better known ever since by the acronym TESG, emerged as its flagship academic journal. This change was readily visible in its masthead, where the addition of the name Journal of Economic and Social Geography marked the evolution from a Dutch‐language professional magazine into an international academic journal.
GROUNDING GEOGRAPHIES OF ECONOMIC GLOBALISATION: GLOBALISED SPACES IN CHILE'S NON‐TRADITIONAL EXPORT SECTOR, 1980–2005
Authors: BARTON JONATHAN R. , MURRAY WARWICK E.
Published: February 2009

The debate around neoliberal globalisation and its impacts on economically peripheral countries has been waged by partisan forces to the right and left since the early 1990s. Much of this debate focuses at the scale of the nation‐state, or of the whole globe, and, while often sophisticated in an ideological sense, is scant in terms of consideration of the ‘grounded’ outcomes of the processes and discourses of globalisation. This paper argues that an appreciation of the contingent economic geography and political economy of any given local and regional transformation is essential for understanding the outcomes of economic globalisation. In order to illustrate this, the paper analyses two regional non‐traditional agricultural export (NTAX) complexes in the highly globalised Chilean economy. By focusing on ‘hotspots’ or ‘globalised spaces’ at the regional and local scales we are able to cut through the rhetoric associated with generalised arguments for and against economic globalisation and illustrate that both the roots and impacts of the insertion into global commodity complexes are highly geographically contingent. Our analysis concludes that NTAX development in Chile over the past 25 years has radically restructured local and regional economies, has concentrated wealth ‘extra‐regionally’, has exacerbated social differentiation, and threatens environmental sustainability. We argue that policy that seeks to address these trends requires more grounded consideration of the complex and uneven geography of economic globalisation that does not privilege analysis at any one scale and that seeks to elucidate the links between the ‘global’ and the ‘local’.
RETURN MIGRATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN GHANA AND CÔTE D’IVOIRE: THE ROLE OF CAPITAL TRANSFERS
Authors: BLACK RICHARD , CASTALDO ADRIANA
Published: February 2009

This paper explores the relationship between international migration and entrepreneurship, drawing on data on around 300 return migrants to two West African states, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. The paper reviews existing evidence on the role of entrepreneurship and small firm formation in promoting development in Sub‐Saharan Africa, before setting out a model of factors that influence whether migrants contribute to entrepreneurial activity by registering a business after their return. Factors tested for their association with entrepreneurship include a range of individual characteristics, duration of stay and reasons for return, and the acquisition of financial, human and social capital while abroad. The analysis suggests that work experience abroad is the most significant predictor of entrepreneurial activity among the return migrants interviewed, although savings accumulated while abroad, reasons for return and the frequency of visits home while abroad are also significant factors.
UKRAINIAN MIDDLEMAN SYSTEM OF LABOUR ORGANISATION IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
Authors: ČERMÁKOVÁ DITA , NEKORJAK MICHAL
Published: February 2009

Since the early 1990s, due to increasing immigration to the Czech Republic, a middleman system has been established in order to organise (irregular) labour of migrants mostly from Ukraine. Due to its extent, the breadth of activities involved and interconnection with Mafia structures, this system is relatively specific and plays a significant role within the labour migration environment. With respect to the fact that the middlemen and the migrant workers are mostly from Ukraine, we regard the entire system as a type of ethnic economy. This system has two hierarchic levels, the first of which deals with the procurement of irregular migrant labour. The second level is based on the relations between middlemen and organised crime. The paper tries to explain the causes for the establishment of the middleman system of labour organisation, to describe its operation, and the roles and mutual links among individual actors.
BEYOND CONVERGENCE: SPACE, SCALE, AND REGIONAL INEQUALITY IN CHINA
Authors: WEI Y.H. DENNIS , YE XINYUE
Published: February 2009

Since the late 1980s there has been a renewed interest in regional inequality, fuelled by the concern over the effects of globalisation and liberalisation, and facilitated by theoretical and methodological developments in geography and economics. In essence, the new convergence theory, like the old convergence theory, is another theory devoid of space and time. Research on China has unfolded a complex landscape of regional development, the existence of distinct models of regional development, and the significant role of institutions. This paper examines regional inequality in China, especially Zhejiang Province, and attempts to uncover the trend and driving forces of regional inequality. It adopts a top‐down and bottom‐up strategy and employs recent developments in exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) and geographically weighted regression (GWR). We have found that regional inequality is sensitive to geographic scales and spatial organisation, and that conventional approaches mask spatial agglomeration and the significance of regions in shaping trends of regional inequality. Overall, regional inequality in Zhejiang rose during the reform period and a division between coastal and interior Zhejiang formed, additionally sustained by weak linkages between the two regions and the significance of location and nonstate enterprises in development. This paper further reveals the emergence of Wenzhou, and discusses its effect on regional inequality.
THE CHANGING POSITION OF SOCIETY JOURNALS IN GEOGRAPHY
Authors: BOSMAN JEROEN
Published: February 2009

The position of geography journals published by learned societies has undergone major changes over the last decades. Growth of scientific output, specialisation, the growing importance of English as the common language for scientific publication and changes in the science publishing industry due to the rise of the Internet have challenged and continue to challenge the classic geography journals from the various national geography societies. This paper shows how these journals perform in terms of numbers of citations, internationalisation of authorship and exposure in libraries, databases and on the web, compared to some key journals from commercial publishers. It discusses choices made by these journals and the threats and opportunities they are confronted with. The paper concludes that although the conditions for non‐UK and non‐US society journals in geography have become less favourable, there are viable routes forward. On the occasion of its publication centennial, the position of the Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie (TESG) is highlighted.
VISUALISING THE EFFECT OF PRIVATE‐SECTOR INVOLVEMENT ON REDEVELOPED PUBLIC SPACES IN THE NETHERLANDS
Authors: VAN MELIK RIANNE
Published: February 2009

Many squares in Dutch city centres have been redeveloped in recent years. Their design and management have often changed, resulting in places characterised by dimensions of ‘fear’ and ‘fantasy’ such as the rise of camera surveillance and sidewalk cafés. The private sector is increasingly involved in these redevelopment projects. This paper visualises to what extent private‐sector involvement affects redeveloped public spaces. Six‐dimensional diagrams are set up as an analytical tool that enables the comparison of public spaces on a number of criteria. Eight squares are examined in the city centres of Rotterdam, Dordrecht, Enschede and 's‐Hertogenbosch. Four are solely redeveloped by the local government; the other four are the result of public‐private partnership. The diagrams show that the private sector mainly participates in the redevelopment of retail squares, but its involvement does not result in more fear or fantasy in public space.
GOD INCARNATE AND THE DEFEAT OF EVIL
Authors: MACDONALD JR. PAUL A.
Published: February 2009

In this essay, I assess Marilyn McCord Adams's important and provocative incarnation‐centered approach to the problem of evil. In particular, I examine the central theological components of her approach: her novel but also problematic conceptions of creation, sin, redemption, grace, and eschatological consummation. My further goal is to use my critical analysis of Adams's approach in order to begin to articulate and defend an alternative incarnation‐centered approach, based on a more classically orthodox conception of divine defeat of evil, which is both immune to the criticisms I raise against Adams's approach and possesses a higher degree of explanatory power.
REPARATIVE REASONING: FROM PEIRCE'S PRAGMATISM TO AUGUSTINE's SCRIPTURAL SEMIOTIC
Authors: OCHS PETER
Published: February 2009

A genealogical study that traces a “broadly Cartesian” pattern of argumentation: from Augustine's scriptural semiotic to the “narrowly Cartesian” practice of foundationalism to Charles Peirce's pragmatic and reparative semiotic. The essay argues (1) that Augustine transformed Stoic logic into a scriptural semiotic; (2) that this semiotic breeds both Cartesian foundationalism and the pragmatic semiotic that repairs it; (3) that Peirce's semiotic displays the latter. In sum, Augustine's inquiry risks foundationalism but also breeds a self‐corrective “reparative reasoning.” This reasoning is at once scriptural and philosophic.
SIMONE WEIL'S CONCEPT OF GRACE1
Authors: ESTELRICH BARTOMEU
Published: February 2009

This article explores three models used by Simone Weil to describe the concept of grace. In these models grace is depicted as a divine movement that (a) persuades the person to look for transcendent unity behind contradictions; that (b) redirects human attention to God; and that (c) transforms the soul through a process of passivity and waiting. By analyzing the differences and similarities of these three models and by connecting them to two geometric figures (triangle and cross), this article points out the noetic, cosmological, theological, phenomenological, and mystical implications of Weil's philosophy.
“OPENNESS TO THE WORLD”: KARL BARTH'S EVANGELICAL THEOLOGY OF CHRIST AS THE PRAY‐ER1
Authors: McDOWELL JOHN C.
Published: February 2009

What is at stake in accounts of “prayer” is reflection on a practice that cannot be readily spoken of free from the most important considerations of God, world, human identity and the shape of its performance. Instead, if prayer “is not to become a harmless game and an endlessly babbling chatter” (Karl Rahner), attention needs to be paid to the god or gods that practices of so‐called “prayer” encounter, and it may be that much of what moves in the name of the God of Jesus Christ is, in Barth's terms, no‐god. For Barth not only has the knowledge of the practice of prayer, in a sense, been taken out of our hands in its Christ‐grounding, but its Christ‐shaped performance involves the determination of Christian life and its self‐reflective thought in the pattern of the new life that might be characterised as the properly ordered freedom of self‐dispossessing obedience.
RULE‐GOVERNED CHRISTIAN GNOSIS: HANS URS VON BALTHASAR ON VALENTIN TOMBERG'S MEDITATIONS ON THE TAROT
Authors: MONGRAIN KEVIN
Published: February 2009

The essay examines Hans Urs von Balthasar's little‐known Foreword to the Christian esoteric text, Meditations on the Tarot by Valentin Tomberg. It argues that von Balthasar respected and advocated this ostensibly occult text because he found its capacious understanding of Christian faith as true gnosis similar to his own. The essay explains that both Tomberg and von Balthasar practice a rule‐governed Christian esotericism whose goal is support for a fruitful ecclesial spirituality and resistance to non‐ecclesial esoteric Gnosticism. Both Tomberg and von Balthasar believe that esotericism without prayer and institutional grounding can become narcissistic and self‐righteous to the point of megalomania, and consequently it tends to become manipulative and coercive to the point of violence. Both authors maintain that authentic esotericism, by contrast, is marked by radical humility and non‐violence; it is biblical, ecclesial, and committed to the unity of metaphysical reason and prayerful faith. The essay also draws attention to Tomberg's innovatively irenic approach to Christian anti‐Gnosticism.
SOME RECENT WORKS BY CHRISTOS YANNARAS IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION1
Authors: LOUTH ANDREW
Published: February 2009

This article reviews four recent English translations of works by the Greek thinker, Christos Yannaras. It sets Yannaras' work in its historical context, and draws out some of his fundamental themes: the centrality of the notion of the person, which is fulfilled in the self‐transcendence of love, the place of the apophatic, and the use of imagery and poetry in theology. It also seeks to contextualize the sometimes quite strident anti‐Westernism of Yannaras' thought, and show how he draws on themes from patristic theology to provide a viable solution to the problems caused by Western individualism and consumerism.
Revisiting Error‐Autocorrelation Correction: Common Factor Restrictions and Granger Non‐Causality*
Authors: McGuirk Anya , Spanos Aris
Published: February 2009

The paper questions the appropriateness of the practice known as ‘error‐autocorrelation correcting’ in linear regression, by showing that adopting an AR(1) error formulation is equivalent to assuming that the regressand does not Granger cause any of the regressors. This result is used to construct a new test for the common factor restrictions, as well as investigate – using Monte Carlo simulations – other potential sources of unreliability of inference resulting from this practice. The main conclusion is that when the Granger cause restriction is false, the ordinary least square and generalized least square estimators are biased and inconsistent, and using autocorrelation‐consistent standard errors does not improve the reliability of inference.
Reversible Cerebral Vasoconstriction Syndrome: A Complicated Clinical Course Treated with Intra-Arterial Application of Nimodipine
Authors: Elstner M , Linn J , Müller-Schunk S , Straube A
Published: February 2009

Thunderclap headache (TCH) is a neurological emergency that warrants immediate and comprehensive diagnostic determination. When no pathology can be identified the condition is classified as primary TCH, which is considered benign and self-limiting. TCH has also been reported as the initial symptom of reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome (RCVS), which subsumes a variety of conditions, inconsistently coined Call-Flemming syndrome, benign angiopathy of the central nervous system, drug-induced arteritis, or migrainous vasospasm. Serious complications such as borderline ischaemic stroke have been reported. Although no standardized treatment regime exists, one commonly described but unproven therapy is parenteral or oral application of the calcium channel blocker nimodipine. Here, we report on a case of RCVS, where a progressive course prompted intra-arterial application of nimodipine, which resolved vasoconstriction immediately. We discuss the use of intra-arterial nimodipine application as a potential emergency treatment for a complicated or treatment-refractory course of RCVS.
Validity and Reliability of the Migraine-Treatment Optimization Questionnaire
Authors: Lipton RB , Kolodner K , Bigal ME , Valade D , Láinez MJA , Pascual J , Gendolla A , Bussone G , Islam N , Albert K , Parsons B
Published: February 2009

Our aim was to establish the validity and reliability of a patient-rated Migraine Treatment Optimization Questionnaire (M-TOQ in primary care. Patients who met International Classification of Headache Disorders, 2nd edn criteria for migraine completed a 19-item questionnaire containing candidate items for the M-TOQ and three questionnaires designed to test convergent/construct validity [Migraine Disability Assessment Scale (MIDAS), Headache Impact Test (HIT)-6 and Migraine-Specific Quality of Life Scale (MSSQoL)]. A 15-item (M-TOQ15) and a five-item (M-TOQ-5) questionnaire were derived. Two hundred and fifty-three adult patients were recruited. Five treatment optimization domains were identified: functioning, rapid relief, consistency of relief, risk of recurrence and tolerability; with Cronbach alphas of 0.70-0.84. The Cronbach α for M-TOQ-15 was 0.85, and it correlated well with MIDAS, HIT-6 and MSQoL (r = 0.33-0.44). The Cronbach α for M-TOQ-5 was 0.66, and it also correlated well with the three questionnaires (r = 0.33-0.41). The utility of the M-TOQ for assessing treatment benefit in research (M-TOQ-5) and primary care (M-TOQ-5) should be further validated.
Depression, Migraine With Aura and Migraine Without Aura: Their Familiality and Interrelatedness
Authors: Ball HA , Samaan Z , Brewster S , Craddock N , Gill M , Korszun A , Maier W , Middleton L , Mors O , Owen MJ , Perry J , Preisig M , Rice J , Rietschel M , Jones L , Jones I , Farmer AE , McGuffin P
Published: February 2009

Migraine is frequently comorbid with depression. There appear to be common aetiological factors for both disorders, but the aetiology of migraine within depressed patients, in particular the significance of aura, has been little studied. A large sample of concordantly depressed sibling pairs [the Depression-Network (DeNT) sample] was assessed as having migraine with aura (MA), migraine without aura (MoA), probable migraine or no migraine according to International Headache Society guidelines. Correlations between siblings' migraine status were used to assess the nature of familial liability to migraine. A multiple threshold isocorrelational model fit best, in which different syndromes are conceptualized as different severities of one underlying dimension rather than as having separate aetiologies. Thus, MA and MoA were found to be different forms of the same disorder, with MA occupying the more extreme end of the spectrum of liability. Implications for our understanding of the relationship between migraine and depression are discussed.
In conversation with a family carer
Authors: Holman Andrew
Published: February 2009

The minister was too busy to be able to do an interview about Valuing People Now, instead this is a talk with a parent about her son’s story.

No one could give a good enough service to Donald.

In the end his parents got Direct Payments and organised it themselves, even though it was a lot of work for them.

It started to work and he was happy, but then the authority cut his money and they could not afford so many staff.

Donald is now doing less again and is being given more drugs.
Multi‐level analysis of cultural phenomena: The role of ERPs approach to prejudice
Authors: IBÁÑEZ AGUSTÍN , HAYE ANDRÉS , GONZÁLEZ RAMIRO , HURTADO ESTEBAN , HENRÍQUEZ RODRIGO
Published: February 2009

Brain processes and social processes are not as separated as many of our Social Psychology and Neuroscience departments. This paper discusses the potential contribution of social neuroscience to the development of a multi‐level, dynamic, and context‐sensitive approach to prejudice. Specifically, the authors review research on event related potentials during social bias, stereotypes, and social attitudes measurements, showing that electrophysiological methods are powerful tools for analyzing the temporal fine‐dynamics of psychological processes involved in implicit and explicit prejudice. Meta‐theoretical implications are drawn regarding the social psychological modeling of social attitudes, and for the integration of social neuroscience into a multi‐level account of cultural behavior.
Sex Differences in Reciprocal Altruism: Reply to Mower
Authors: GEARY DAVID C.
Published: February 2009

Mower questions some aspects of Geary's (2002) proposals regarding the nature of male‐male and female‐female relationships during human evolution and the implications for understanding the basis for same‐sex friendships. The core of this proposal is reviewed and Mower's challenges to the core are addressed.
Formalism, Behavioral Realism and the Interdisciplinary Challenge in Sociological Theory
Authors: LIZARDO OMAR
Published: February 2009

In this paper, I argue that recent sociological theory has become increasingly bifurcated into two mutually incompatible styles of theorizing that I label formalist and behavioral‐realist. Formalism favors mathematization and proposes an instrumentalist ontology of abstract processes while behavioral‐realist theory takes at its basis the “real” physical individual endowed with concrete biological, cognitive and neurophysiological capacities and constraints and attempts to derive the proper conceptualization of social behavior from that basis. Formalism tends to lead toward a conceptually independent sociology that in principle requires only minimal reference to the empirical and ontological storehouse of other disciplines, while behavioral‐realist theory leads to an interdisciplinary sociology that can be located within a hierarchy of behavioral sciences, leading to questions regarding the relationship between sociology and other disciplines as well as issues of transdisciplinary unification and possible interdisciplinary reduction. I explore the consequences of this split for the project of explanatory sociological theory within the context of how it has manifested itself in sociological network theory and social psychology. I close with a critique and assessment of formalist tendencies in sociological theorizing.
Sex Differences in Moral Interests: The Role of Kinship and the Nature of Reciprocity
Authors: MOWER DEBORAH
Published: February 2009

Although moral psychologists and feminist moral theorists emphasize males’ interest in justice or fairness and females’ interest in care or empathy, recent work in evolutionary psychology links females’ interests in care and empathy for others with interests in fairness and equality. In an important work on sex differences in cognitive abilities, David Geary (1998) argues that the evolutionary mechanism of sexual selection drives the evolution of particular cognitive abilities and selection for particular interests. I mount two main challenges to Geary's claims. First, I argue that female social and intrasexual competitive environments evolve, which challenges the assumption that such environments are largely nonkin‐based and characterized by reciprocity. Second, I grant Geary's entire characterization of female environments, but argue that the natures of reciprocal relationships themselves do not require and may not select for interests in fairness and equality. This analysis not only challenges claims regarding sex differences in moral interests, but also suggests the need for a diachronic model of male and female social and intrasexual competitive environments. In addition, I propose a return to Trivers's (1971) focus on the suite of emotions underlying reciprocal altruism as properties and features of individuals as fodder for selection.
Heterochrony and patterns of cranial suture closure in hystricognath rodents
Authors: Wilson Laura A. B. , Sánchez‐Villagra Marcelo R.
Published: February 2009

Sutures, joints that allow one bone to articulate with another through intervening fibrous connective tissue, serve as major sites of bone expansion during postnatal craniofacial growth in the vertebrate skull and represent an aspect of cranial ontogeny which may exhibit functional and phylogenetic correlates. Suture evolution among hystricognath rodents, an ecologically diverse group represented here by 26 species, is examined using sequence heterochrony methods, i.e. event pairing and parsimov. Although minor nuances in suture closure sequence exist between species, the overall sequence was found to be conserved both across the hystricognath group and, to an increasing degree, within selected clades. At species level, suture closure pattern exhibited a significant positive correlation with patterns previously reported for hominoids. Patterns for most clades revealed the first sutures to close are those contacting the exoccipital, interparietal, and palatine bones. Heterochronic shifts were found along 19 of 35 branches within the hystricognath phylogeny. The number of shifts per node ranged from one to seven events and, overall, involved 21 of 34 suture sites. The topology generated by parsimony analyses of the event pair matrix yielded only one grouping that was congruent with the evolutionary relationships, compiled from morphological and molecular studies, taken as framework. Sutures contacting the exoccipital displayed the highest levels of most complete closure across all species. Level of suture closure is negatively correlated with cranial length (P < 0.05). Differing life history and locomotory strategies are coupled in part with differing suture closure patterns among several species.
Peptidergic not monoaminergic fibers profusely innervate the young adult human testis
Authors: Gong Yong‐Guang , Feng Ming‐Ming , Hu Xiang‐Nong , Wang Yi‐Qiu , Gu Min , Zhang Wei , Ge Ren‐Shan
Published: February 2009

Numerous studies have reported that intratesticular nerves exert important regulatory effects on the functions of the male gonad; however, as yet little is known about their distribution in the young adult human testis. The purpose of this study was to explore whether peptidergic and adrenergic nerves occur in the male gonad of this age, and, if present, to depict their distribution further. Thirty testes were collected from 15 reproductively healthy donors aged 21–32 years. Antibodies against protein gene product 9.5 (PGP 9.5), neuropeptide Y (NPY), C‐terminal flanking peptide of NPY (CPON) and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) were employed for immunohistochemical detection of intratesticular peptidergic nerves, and those against dopamine‐beta‐hydroxylase (DBH) and 5‐hydroxytryptamine (5‐HT) for monoaminergic ones. The testicular parenchyma exhibited a rich innervation by PGP 9.5‐positive fibers, mainly associated with Leydig cell nests, blood vessels, and seminiferous tubules. Numerous NPY‐ and CPON‐immunoreactive (IR) nerves also appeared in the gonads, but the vast majority were confined to blood vessels. A small number of VIP‐IR fibers were detected in some arterioles. By contrast, however, no fibers displaying DBH or 5‐HT immunoreactivity were observed within the testis. Additionally, expression of PGP‐9.5, NPY, CPON, VIP, DBH and 5‐HT was found in Leydig cells, PGP 9.5 in spermatogonia, and NPY and CPON in peritubular myoid cells. Our results suggest that the young adult human testis is devoid of monoaminergic nerves but profusely innervated by peptidergic fibers, which may serve as major neuronal regulators for testicular functions at this age.
Influence of salinity on the localization and expression of the CFTR chloride channel in the ionocytes of Dicentrarchus labrax during ontogeny
Authors: Bodinier Charlotte , Boulo Viviane , Lorin‐Nebel Catherine , Charmantier Guy
Published: February 2009

The expression and localization of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) were determined in four osmoregulatory tissues during the ontogeny of the sea‐bass Dicentrarchus labrax acclimated to fresh water and sea water. At hatch in sea water, immunolocalization showed an apical CFTR in the digestive tract and integumental ionocytes. During the ontogeny, although CFTR was consistently detected in the digestive tract, it shifted from the integument to the gills. In fresh water, CFTR was not present in the integument and the gills, suggesting the absence of chloride secretion. In the kidney, the CFTR expression was brief from D4 to D35, prior to the larva–juvenile transition. CFTR was apical in the renal tubules, suggesting a chloride secretion at both salinities, and it was basolateral only in sea water in the collecting ducts, suggesting chloride absorption. In the posterior intestine, CFTR was located differently from D4 depending on salinity. In sea water, the basolateral CFTR may facilitate ionic absorption, perhaps in relation to water uptake. In fresh water, CFTR was apical in the gut, suggesting chloride secretion. Increased osmoregulatory ability was acquired just before metamorphosis, which is followed by the sea‐lagoon migration.