bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
High mobility group protein HMGI(Y) enhances tumor cell growth, invasion, and matrix metalloproteinase‐2 expression in prostate cancer cells
Authors: Takaha Natsuki , Resar Linda M.S. , Vindivich Don , Coffey Donald S.
Published: May 2004

BACKGROUND

The high mobility group protein HMGI(Y) has oncogenic properties and correlates with an aggressive phenotype in prostate cancer. The molecular mechanisms involved in transformation associated with HMGI(Y) overexpression remain unknown.

METHODS

The HMG‐I isoform was transfected and overexpressed in nonmetastatic Dunning prostate cancer cells (G cells) without detectable HMGI(Y). The assays of cell proliferation, tumor formation, in vitro invasion, and cDNA microarray were performed to assess the effect of HMGI(Y) overexpression in the transfected G cells.

RESULTS

Overexpression of HMG‐I in G cells significantly increases cell proliferation and tumor growth and also modestly enhances in vitro invasion compared to mock transfectant. cDNA microarray revealed that expression of the matrix metalloproteinase‐2 (MMP‐2) proform was increased eightfold in G cells overexpressing HMG‐I.

CONCLUSIONS

Overexpression of HMG‐I in prostate cancer cells enhances cell growth, invasion, and expression of the proform of MMP‐2, which may initiate early steps involved in the metastatic cascade. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Interleukin‐8 expression is increased in senescent prostatic epithelial cells and promotes the development of benign prostatic hyperplasia
Authors: Castro Patricia , Xia Chen , Gomez Lori , Lamb Dolores J. , Ittmann Michael
Published: May 2004

BACKGROUND

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is an extremely common disease of older men characterized by increased growth of prostatic epithelial and stromal cells. Previously we showed that senescent epithelial cells accumulate in the prostate of aging men and secrete interleukin‐1α (IL‐1α). IL‐8 is also present at increased levels in BPH tissues and induces expression of FGF2, a potent stromal growth factor. Therefore, we sought to determine if IL‐8 is also expressed at increased levels by senescent epithelial cells and if this secreted IL‐8 plays a role in the pathogenesis of BPH.

METHODS

Expression of IL‐8 in human BPH tissue and primary cultures of prostatic epithelial cells was analyzed using an enzyme‐linked immunoabsorption assay (ELISA). Tissue senescence was assessed by a quantitative assay for senescence‐associated β galactosidase (SA‐β gal). Proliferation of primary and immortalized prostatic epithelial cells in response to IL‐8 was determined by counting of cells at intervals after addition of IL‐8.

RESULTS

Expression of IL‐8 is significantly increased in vitro when cultured prostatic epithelial cells undergo senescence. Quantitative assay of BPH tissue extracts revealed that tissue IL‐8 levels are correlated with both SA‐β gal activity and prostate weight. IL‐8 promotes proliferation of primary and immortalized prostfatic epithelial cells in culture.

CONCLUSIONS

Senescence of prostatic epithelial cells results in increased expression of IL‐8, which can promote proliferation of non‐senescent epithelial and stromal cells by direct and indirect mechanisms, and in this manner contributes to the increased tissue growth seen in BPH. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) in the human prostate and prostate cancer cells: Expression, distribution, and calcium binding activity
Authors: Arcuri Felice , Papa Stefania , Carducci Antonietta , Romagnoli Roberta , Liberatori Sabrina , Riparbelli Maria Giovanna , Sanchez Jean‐Charles , Tosi Piero , del Vecchio Maria Teresa
Published: May 2004

BACKGROUND

The translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) is an abundantly expressed protein found in a wide range of organisms from both the animal and plant kingdom. Initially described as a growth‐related protein, knowledge of the biological actions of TCTP has been recently extended to include calcium binding, regulation of apoptosis, and microtubules stabilization. This report describes expression, distribution, and characterization of TCTP in human prostatic tissues and cell lines.

METHODS

Samples were analyzed by Western blot, RT‐PCR, immunohistochemistry, and confocal microscopy. Calcium binding activity of the recombinant human prostatic protein was evaluated on a calcium overlay assay. A public SAGE database was analyzed to determine TCTP expression levels in normal and cancer tissues.

RESULTS

TCTP protein and mRNA were detected in all the specimens and cell lines analyzed. The protein was mainly expressed by the secretory luminal epithelial and basal layer cells. A significant amount of protein was present in the prostatic fluids. Subcellular distribution studies in prostate epithelial cells detected the protein in the cytoplasm in interphase and colocalized with tubulin during mitosis. The calcium binding capacity of prostatic TCTP was shown in vitro. Finally, SAGE data indicated TCTP as the calcium binding protein with the highest expression levels among those examined.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of the present study demonstrate, for the first time, the expression of TCTP in the human prostate and in prostate cancer cells, and suggest the involvement of the protein in key‐processes such as apoptosis, cellular differentiation, and in the control of sperm functions. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Interleukin‐6 is responsible for drug resistance and anti‐apoptotic effects in prostatic cancer cells
Authors: Pu Yeong‐Shiau , Hour Tzyh‐Chyuan , Chuang Shuang‐En , Cheng Ann‐Lii , Lai Ming‐Kuen , Kuo Min‐Liang
Published: May 2004

BACKGROUND

Interleukin (IL)‐6‐mediated anti‐apoptotic effects and drug‐resistance mechanisms in prostate cancer cells were investigated.

METHODS

IL‐6 levels of PC‐3 and LNCaP cells were studied by using ELISA. Protective effects of IL‐6 on cytotoxic agent‐induced apoptosis were studied by exogenous IL‐6 in serum‐starved PC‐3 cells and by anti‐sense IL‐6 strategy. Western blotting and reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) were used to determine IL‐6 effects on Bcl‐2 family proteins. Tetracycline‐regulated Bcl‐xL expression system and dominant negative STAT3 transfectants were used to study IL‐6 signaling pathways and its anti‐apoptosis effects.

RESULTS

Exogenous IL‐6 and anti‐sense IL‐6 oligonucleotide treatment conferred resistance to cytotoxic agent‐induced apoptosis. Among Bcl‐2 family proteins, only Bcl‐xL was evidently increased by IL‐6 stimulation. The anti‐apoptotic effect of IL‐6 can be significantly attenuated by anti‐sense bcl‐xL transfection and partially abrogated in dominant negative STAT3 transfectants.

CONCLUSIONS

IL‐6 is a survival factor against cytotoxic agent‐induced apoptosis through both STAT3 and bcl‐xL pathways in prostate cancer cells. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Characterization of Lys‐698 to met substitution in human plasminogen catalytic domain
Authors: Terzyan Simon , Wakeham Nancy , Zhai Peng , Rodgers Karla , Zhang Xuejun C.
Published: May 2004

Streptokinase (SK) is a human plasminogen (Pg) activator secreted by streptococci. The activation mechanism of SK differs from that of physiological Pg activators in that SK is not a protease and cannot proteolytically activate Pg. Instead, it forms a tight complex with Pg that proteolytically activates other Pg molecules. The residue Lys‐698 of human Pg was hypothesized to participate in triggering activation in the SK–Pg complex. Here, we report a study of the Lys‐698 to Met substitution in the catalytic domain of Pg (μPg) containing the proteolytic activation‐resistant background (R561A). While it remains competent in forming a complex with SK, maintaining a comparable equilibration dissociation constant (KD), the recombinant protein shows a nearly 60‐fold reduction in amidolytic activity relative to its R561A background when mixed with native SK. A 2.3 Å crystal structure of this mutant μPg confirmed the correct folding of this recombinant protein. Combined with other biochemical data, these results support the premise that Lys‐698 of human Pg plays a functional role in the so‐called N‐terminal insertion activation mechanism by SK. Proteins 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Molecular determinants of thapsigargin binding by SERCA Ca2+‐ATPase: A computational docking study
Authors: Paula Stefan , Ball William James
Published: May 2004

Thapsigargin (TG) is a potent and commonly used inhibitor of the ion transport activity of sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+‐ATPases (SERCA). Based on the recently published crystal structures of rabbit muscle SERCA1a in the Ca2+/E1 (E1) and TG/E2 (E2) conformations, we performed computational docking studies to characterize the molecular interactions that govern binding of TG and TG‐analogs by the enzyme. Using the program GOLD (genetic optimization for ligand docking) in combination with the scoring function ChemScore, TG was docked into the binding site of the E1 and E2 conformations of SERCA1a. The docking results revealed a consensus ligand‐binding mode consistent with the crystal structure and showed that hydrophobic interactions are the primary driving force of TG binding by SERCA. Moreover, it was shown that the conformational changes accompanying the E2 to E1 transition in the enzyme likely displace TG from its favored orientation in the binding site, thereby substantially reducing its binding affinity. This finding illustrates on the molecular level how TG may exert its inhibitory effect in binding tightly to the E2 form and preventing it from converting into its E1 form, a requirement for catalytic function. We also docked 9 TG analogs into the E2 conformation of the enzyme. Eight of the analogs adopted a binding mode very similar to that of TG, whereas one compound preferred a different orientation in the binding site. Analysis of the predicted binding affinities showed a good correlation with the experimentally observed inhibitory potencies of the analogs. Docking was also performed with several modeled mutants of SERCA1a, whose phenylalanine residue in position 256 (Phe256) had been modified. The experimentally observed declines in TG sensitivity in most of the Phe256 mutants was qualitatively accounted for and appears, at least in part, be due to a slightly altered TG‐binding mode. Proteins 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Cis/trans isomerization in HIV‐1 capsid protein catalyzed by cyclophilin A: Insights from computational and theoretical studies
Authors: Agarwal Pratul K.
Published: May 2004

A network of protein vibrations has recently been identified in the enzyme cyclophilin A (CypA) that is associated with its peptidyl‐prolyl cis/trans isomerization activity of small peptide substrates. It has been suggested that this network may have a role in promoting the catalytic step during the isomerization reaction. This work presents the results from the characterization of this network during the isomerization of the Gly89‐Pro90 peptide bond in the N‐terminal domain of the capsid protein (CAN) from human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV‐1), which is a naturally occurring, biologically relevant protein substrate for CypA. A variety of computational and theoretical studies are utilized to investigate the protein dynamics of the CypA‐CAN complex, at multiple time scales, during the isomerization step. The results provide insights into the detailed mechanism of isomerization and confirm the presence of previously reported network of protein vibrations coupled to the reaction. Conserved CypA residues at the complex interface and at positions distal to the interface form parts of this network. There is HIV‐1 related medical interest in CypA; incorporation of CypA, complexed with the capsid protein, into the virion is required for the infectious activity of HIV‐1. Interaction energy and dynamical cross‐correlation calculations are used for a detailed investigation of the protein–protein interactions in the CypA‐CAN complex. The results show that CAN residues His87‐Ala‐Gly‐Pro‐Ile‐Ala92 form the majority of the interactions with CypA residues. New protein–protein interactions distal to the active site (CypA Arg148‐CAN Gln95 and CypA Arg148‐CAN Asn121) are also identified. Proteins 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Markovian Backbone Negentropies: Molecular descriptors for protein research. I. Predicting protein stability in Arc repressor mutants
Authors: Ramos de Armas Ronal , González Díaz Humberto , Molina Reinaldo , Uriarte Eugenio
Published: May 2004

As more and more protein structures are determined and applied to drug manufacture, there is increasing interest in studying their stability. In this sense, developing novel computational methods to predict and study protein stability in relation to their amino acid sequences has become a significant goal in applied Proteomics. In the study described here, Markovian Backbone Negentropies (MBN) have been introduced in order to model the effect on protein stability of a complete set of alanine substitutions in the Arc repressor. A total of 53 proteins were studied by means of Linear Discriminant Analysis using MBN as molecular descriptors. MBN are molecular descriptors based on a Markov chain model of electron delocalization throughout the protein backbone. The model correctly classified 43 out of 53 (81.13%) proteins according to their thermal stability. More specifically, the model classified 20/28 (71.4%) proteins with near wild‐type stability and 23/25 (92%) proteins with reduced stability. Moreover, the model presented a good Mathew's regression coefficient of 0.643. Validation of the model was carried out by several Jackknife procedures. The method compares favorably with surface‐dependent and thermodynamic parameter stability scoring functions. For instance, the D‐FIRE potential classification function shows a level of good classification of 76.9%. On the other hand, surface, volume, logP, and molar refractivity show accuracies of 70.7, 62.3, 59.0, and 60.0%, respectively. Proteins 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Resource‐seeking agglomeration: a study of market entry in the lodging industry
Authors: Kalnins Arturs , Chung Wilbur
Published: May 2004

We analyze whether firms prefer collocating with incumbent firms when choosing among markets to enter, highlighting the role of resource‐seeking as a motivation for collocation. We propose that entrants will locate near others possessing resources that can spill over, but will avoid locations where existing firms will exploit spillovers without contributing. To test these propositions, we analyze the location decisions of 570 new hotels in Texas between 1992 and 2000. We find that hotels are attracted to markets with branded upscale hotels. Further, we find that owners of upscale hotels avoid markets with hotels without similar resources. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Believing one's own press: the causes and consequences of CEO celebrity
Authors: Hayward Mathew L. A. , Rindova Violina P. , Pollock Timothy G.
Published: May 2004

This theoretical article introduces the construct of CEO celebrity in order to explain how the tendency of journalists to attribute a firm's actions and outcomes to the volition of its CEO affects such firm. In the model developed here, journalists celebrate a CEO whose firm takes strategic actions that are distinctive and consistent by attributing such actions and performance to the firm's CEO. In so doing, journalists over‐attribute a firm's actions and outcomes to the disposition of its CEO rather than to broader situational factors. A CEO who internalizes such celebrity will also tend to believe this over‐attribution and become overconfident about the efficacy of her past actions and future abilities. Hubris arises when CEO overconfidence results in problematic firm decisions, including undue persistence with actions that produce celebrity. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Incumbent strategic behavior in financial markets and the exit of entrepreneurial start‐ups
Authors: Huyghebaert Nancy , Van de Gucht Linda M.
Published: May 2004

This paper empirically investigates the forces that shape the post‐entry exit probability of entrepreneurial start‐ups, with an emphasis on the impact of incumbents' strategic behavior in financial markets. We find that entrepreneurial start‐ups in highly competitive industries are more likely to exit and that leverage compounds this exit risk. However, the latter result only holds when potential adverse selection and moral hazard problems in financial markets are large at start‐up. Under these circumstances, competitors can negatively influence creditors' perceptions on entrepreneurial quality or behavior through aggressive strategic actions to impede future financing and induce the start‐up's exit. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
JAPANESE COMPOSERS OF THE POST-TAKEMITSU GENERATION
Authors: Long Stephen
Published: May 2004

The towering international reputation of Toru Takemitsu has dominated the West's perceptions of contemporary Japanese music, a situation resulting in the relative neglect of other worthy composers. This phenomenon has parallels in other countries, such as France, where Boulez's and Messiaen's overshadowing reputations were factors in the delayed international recognition of Barraqué and Ohana. Accordingly, various important composers who have established significant profiles within Japan during the last 40 years have struggled to achieve attention beyond Asian borders. Some have established cult reputations within contemporary music circles, but more widespread recognition through recordings has been compromised by limited Western distribution of the two Japanese labels that have promoted the post-Takemitsu generations: Camerata and Fontec. Fortunately, the websites for these labels have provided an opportunity for curious Westerners to directly purchase much important music that is ripe for discovery in Western concert halls. Another positive development is the recent release of European recordings of important new Japanese works.
RANGING OVER THE FOREST: A CONVERSATION WITH ANTHONY POWERS
Authors: Jones Nicholas
Published: May 2004

The following is an edited transcript of a conversation between Nicholas Jones and Anthony Powers in Lower Breinton, Hereford, on 28 April 2003. Square-bracketed dates and other parentheses are editorial.
London, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Brighton Dome: Big Noise Tour
Authors: Godfrey John
Published: May 2004

Big Noise – heard in London on 21 November and repeated at the Dome (Corn Exchange) in Brighton on the 22nd – was a collaboration between the highly idiosyncratic New Music ensembles Orkest de Volharding (Holland) and Icebreaker (UK). The former was established by the amazingly influential Dutch composer Louis Andriessen: reacting against the elitist music of his youth, he saw the need for a new type of Art-music ensemble which could travel into the streets and play music with a broad appeal. Borrowing from the model of Dutch street bands (the equivalent, perhaps, of the UK's brass bands), jazz of the 1920s, Minimal music coming out of America and the European avant-garde, Andriessen created an ensemble and a language with an overt non-elitist agenda.
Boston: Gunther Schuller's ‘Encounters’
Authors: Lister Rodney
Published: May 2004

Boston's Symphony Hall is celebrated as one of the finest concert halls in the world. It is generally less well known that Boston also has the smaller and equally fine Jordan Hall, located in the New England Conservatory. A fixture of Boston's musical life, Jordan Hall is also literally the heart of the Conservatory, being the venue not only of visiting celebrity solo and chamber music recitals, but of a multitude of the whole range of the Conservatory's student concert activity.
Manchester, RNCM: Robin Holloway's String Quartet, op. 97
Authors: Venn Edward
Published: May 2004

The world première of Robin Holloway's String Quartet, given by the Endellion Quartet at the RNCM on 13 October 2003, came in the midst of a number of concerts around the country marking the composer's 60th birthday. (Let us not forget, too, Claridge Press's publication of Holloway's writings, also coinciding with this anniversary.) Clever programming between Haydn's quartet op. 76 no. 4 and Brahms's op. 51 no. 2, enabled one to appreciate Holloway's first essay in this genre in the context (on the one hand) of a composer for whom the string quartet was seemingly an effortless medium, and (on the other) of a composer on whom the quartet tradition weighed heavily. For Holloway too, the string quartet proved problematic, and almost unassailable – his highly biographical programme-note revealed an initial inability to engage with ‘this most hallowed of the classic media, with its incomparably rich literature’. This inhibition threatened to stifle work altogether, for it was only a final attempt in August 2003, after three ‘sterile years’ of trying, that Holloway found a way through the problems the string quartet posed him.
London, Wigmore Hall: Maxwell Davies's new ‘Naxos Quartets’ (and earlier works on CD)
Authors: Conway Paul
Published: May 2004

In a project that will be completed in 2007, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has been commissioned by the Naxos recording company to write ten string quartets. Large-scale ambitions already realized, the intimacy of chamber music offers an opportunity not only to consolidate but also to probe and quest with the precision of scaled-down forces. It is timely, then, to be reminded that, although it has not been a major preoccupation such as opera, concerto and symphony writing, the quartet form has drawn from him some significant examples evincing an original approach. A recent Metier release usefully gathers together on one disc all Max's works for string quartet prior to the Naxos series. In these persuasive recordings, the members of the Kreutzer Quartet display a keen understanding of the individual character of each piece, the circumstances of its creation and the purpose for which it was intended.
St Albans: ‘Messiah Preludes’
Authors: Barlow Jill
Published: May 2004

The idea of commissioning modern preludes to preface well established pillars of the classical repertoire has apparently been done a few years ago with soft new sounds gracing the air as audiences picnicked as a lead up to performances of Mozart's operas at Glyndebourne. Conversely one hears of The Departure of the Queen of Sheba, and other novelties. However, when conductor George Vass, musical director of the Presteigne Festival, commissioned three modern preludes to Handel's Messiah, to celebrate his tenth anniversary at the festival (2002), this must qualify as a ‘first’, and his brainchild. The Presteigne Festival is well known for its commitment to contemporary classical music. This was an ideal opportunity to commission three major British composers, to make their own 21st century ‘commentaries’ on Messiah, using the same instrumental forces available to Handel. As he also directs St Albans Choral Society, they put on the Messiah 25 October 2003, at St Albans Cathedral, prefaced by the three new preludes in the presence of two of the composers, Cecilia McDowall and David Matthews, using Orchestra Nova from the Presteigne Festival.
London, Barbican: Vaughan Williams rarities
Authors: Doran Mark
Published: May 2004

Film music, often considered a ‘Cinderella’ art-form, is really more of a ‘Sleeping Beauty’: to a ‘first approximation’, its entire history exists on films which we are never shown. Prefatory to the 2003 Musicians Benevolent Fund Royal Concert on 4 November, however, the Barbican cinema presented an early-evening resuscitation of no fewer than four long-dormant items connected in some way with Vaughan Williams, two of whose orchestral works were programmed to follow.
London, St John's Smith Square: Malcolm Singer at 50
Authors: Miller Malcolm
Published: May 2004

For a composer to be able to have a fiftieth birthday concert of his own music is an achievement, but to have those works performed with dedication and enthusiasm by a host of different choirs, ensembles and soloists, including many children, students, as well as colleagues, and enjoyed by a capacity crowd, is an even greater tribute. Malcolm Singer's 50th Birthday Concert on 13 October 2003 was just such an occasion, featuring as it did a world première and second performance, in a programme that spanned from an early graduation work to recent choral and instrumental commissions. What emerged was a stylistic thread and aesthetic integrity, a predilection for quasi-minimalist processes, energetic rhythmic polyphony, and a keen sense of expressive shape that gives Singer a unique place in the pantheon of postmodernism. Above all the works radiated a practical expertise that derives from Singer's experience as an all-round musician. Currently Director of Music at the Yehudi Menuhin School, Surrey, he is an accomplished conductor and teacher who has produced a large oeuvre in almost every genre, including children's music.
London, Wigmore Hall: Erik Chisholm and Ronald Stevenson
Authors: Anderson Martin
Published: May 2004

Murray McLachlan's première of Erik Chisholm's Sonata in A minor on 4 January marked the centenary of Chisholm's birth (in Cathcart, outside Glasgow) to the day itself. Chisholm was a considerable force for good while he was busy in Scotland: the first British performances of Les Troyens, Béatrice et Bénédicte and Idomeneo; visits to his ‘Active Society for the Propagation of Contemporary Music’ in Glasgow from Bartók, Casella, Schmitt, Sorabji (a close friend), Szymanowski and other luminaries. But he could, apparently, be a difficult man, and with his posting to Singapore by ENSA in 1943, to conduct the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and subsequent nomination to the chair of the music department of the University of Cape Town in 1946, his native land seems to have been content to forget the outsized personality whom Arnold Bax called ‘the most progressive composer that Scotland has produced’.
London, Royal Academy of Music: Philippe Hersant
Authors: Barlow Jill
Published: May 2004

Philippe Hersant (b. 1948 in Rome, graduated Paris Conservatoire, studied with André Jolivet), has been working with the French national radio station France-Musique since 1973 and has received many honours as composer in France. In February 2004 Radio France presented a ‘retrospective’ of his prolific output as well as the première of his Violin Concerto, a Radio France commission. His new opera, Le Maine Noir, based on Anton Chekov's story, will be premièred in May 2005.
London, Royal Academy of Music, Pēteris Vasks Piano Quartet
Authors: Anderson Martin
Published: May 2004

Latvian Independence Day, 18 November (commemorating the day 85 years ago when Latvia proclaimed its independence from Russia), was marked in London by a mini-concert in the Royal Academy of Music: a handful of Romantic songs by Emils Dārziņş, delivered in the rich bass voice of Pauls Putninş, and the first UK performance of Pēteris Vasks's Piano Quartet, composed in 2000.
Introductory note
Authors: HELLER WENDY
Published: May 2004

This issue of Cambridge Opera Journal is devoted to Venice, opera, dance, and in particular the work of the late Irene Alm, Associate Professor of Music at Rutgers University. Alm's premature death in October of 2000 at the age of forty-four was deeply mourned by numerous friends, colleagues, and students, who had come to love her extraordinarily generous spirit, humour, grace, and discerning intellect. Her death also represents an incalculable loss to musicologists and dance historians.
Winged feet and mute eloquence: dance in seventeenth-century Venetian opera
Authors: ALM IRENE
Published: May 2004

This article shows how central dance was to the experience of opera in seventeenth-century Venice. The first part provides an introduction to the use of dance in Venetian opera and the primary sources – libretti, scores, treatises, and various eyewitness reports. The second section summarizes the extraordinary variety of subjects and style of the dances. A third section treats the musical sources, describing stylistic features of the dance music, as well as providing important insights as to how to identify which vocal or instrumental excerpts would likely have been danced.
Dancing desire on the Venetian stage
Authors: HELLER WENDY
Published: May 2004

This article proposes that dance was a central way in which Venetians reinvented the ancient world on the operatic stage. Focusing on Niccolò Bartolini's preface to Venere gelosa (1643) and his use of dance in that opera, this article explores how Venetian balli became a locus for expressing otherwise inexpressible passions and desires – ecstatic Bacchic rituals, the goat-dances of Pan, or the erotic games of nymphs and satyrs – that were integral to the early modern reception of antiquity. It concludes with a consideration of the balli in La Calisto (1652), demonstrating the significance of the dances for understanding the work as a whole.
Staging Venice
Authors: HARRIS-WARRICK REBECCA
Published: May 2004

Starting in 1697 a series of operatic works set in Venice during Carnival season appeared on the stage of the Paris Opéra, a phenomenon that marked a major shift in repertoire from a period that had been dominated by the Lullian tragédie en musique. This article investigates the implications of the sudden French fascination with things Venetian and explores the multiple agendas Venice served within the world of French opera.
She descended on a cloud ‘from the highest spheres’: Florentine monody ‘alla Romanina’
Authors: TREADWELL NINA
Published: May 2004

Taking the opening solo song from the Florentine intermedi of 1589 as its focus, this article engages with questions regarding musical ownership, authorship, and the culture of print as it relates to musico-theatrical performance. The song, ‘Dalle più alte sfere’, was performed by the Florentine court’s prima donna Vittoria Archilei and the version she ostensibly sang appeared two years later in a commemorative print. While calling into question rigid distinctions between performer and composer during this period, the article nonetheless suggests that Archilei likely ‘composed’ the song, for which there are conflicting attributions. Evidence for this assertion includes disjunctions between the song as it appeared in print, its likely mode of ‘composition’, and the song’s realisation through the process-oriented act of live performance. These issues stand in stark relief to the likely incentives for publishing the Medici-commissioned music: harnessing the possibilities of print technology, the Florentines could effectively distill – and thus claim as their own – a primarily Roman/Neapolitan-associated performance practice, at the same time as attempting to rival the female-centred musical traditions of competing courts.
‘Du jazz hot à La Créole’: Josephine Baker sings Offenbach
Authors: FRY ANDY
Published: May 2004

When African-American entertainer Josephine Baker first arrived in Paris in 1925, her dancing to the ‘jazz hot’ of La Revue nègre was, famously, perceived as ‘primitive’. But her 1934 performances in Offenbach’s La Créole completed the construction – and tested the limits – of a complex redefinition of Baker as French. Substantially revised, the operetta in effect staged her own assimilation, a new black character serving as a foil for the ‘creole’ Josephine and marking her as ‘in-between’. If most observers saw Baker’s transformation as an affirmation of France’s civilising mission, the few dissenters paradoxically risked insisting on her difference in terms of an essentialised blackness. Recognising both personas as ‘performative’ relocates Baker’s agency. It helps move beyond fixed racial categories to dynamic cultural processes: ‘creolisation’.
Framing to persuade. Sweden's decision to join the European Union
Authors: LEWIN LEIF
Published: May 2004

In September 2003, in a referendum, Sweden said ‘no’ to the euro. This might have shocked the European political establishments, but for Swedish observers the result came as no surprise. Swedish ordinary citizens were already sceptical of the whole EU project when Sweden applied for membership in 1991; thereafter, Sweden was the only member country with a EU-negative majority in its delegation to the European Parliament. For once the dominant Social Democratic Party in Sweden, otherwise so superbly skilful in forming opinion, had not anchored its EU-policy among the voters. Instead, the politics leading to Swedish membership were a rather Machiavellian process that – in the light of the assumption of politics as rational action – reveals a fascinating internal political game between central figures in the Social Democratic Party.
To what extent is moral judgement natural?
Authors: CHAPOUTHIER GEORGES
Published: May 2004

Is moral judgement a mere product of Darwinian evolution, similar to sexual behaviour and social exchanges, or is it a specific human privilege, as is the case for complex languages and mathematics? The answer is that it is both. Moral behaviour is the consequence of social practices useful to the group that mankind inherited from animal ancestors and which human culture has transformed into a discursive, and genuinely human, philosophical construct. These two sides of moral judgement affect the way we feel about our own existence as animals and the way we treat animals.
The provocative razor of William of Occam
Authors: PECKER JEAN-CLAUDE
Published: May 2004

A consideration of medieval astronomy and the views of the philosopher William of Occam leads to a consideration of the ambiguities in the application of the principle of Occam's razor as it applies to problems in science, including the constants applicable to Einstein's Theory of General Relativity and cosmology. The principle can both be used to eliminate unnecessary irrelevancies, but also to constrain the development of imaginative theories.
An explosive story
Authors: BURGEN ARNOLD
Published: May 2004

Gunpowder was developed in the 13th century, as a result of the discovery of how to purify saltpetre. This led to the isolation of amyl nitrite, which turned out to be an effective treatment for angina pectoris. Nitroglycerine is not only a high explosive but also effective in treating angina. The search for an understanding of how it works in the body has led to the astonishing discovery that nitric oxide gas is actually produced in the body and is involved in the control of a number of important functions, including blood pressure.
Gut feelings about appetite
Authors: DOCKRAY GRAHAM J.
Published: May 2004

The obesity epidemic is now widely recognized as a major threat to health in many different countries. Some surgical therapies for obesity are efficacious and indicate that signals from the gastrointestinal tract are capable of exerting beneficial long-term effects on food intake and body weight. The development of non-surgical therapies targeting this system depends on understanding how food, and the absence of food, in the gastrointestinal tract signals to those parts of the brain that regulate feeding behaviour. What can be called gastrointestinal surveillance systems include both nervous pathways linking the gut and brain, and some gut hormones. Nutrient sensing mechanisms within the gastrointestinal tract determine the release of satiety hormones such as cholecystokinin (CCK), or appetite stimulating hormones such as ghrelin, and offer potential therapeutic targets. It seems that CCK and ghrelin both act on the vagus nerve that links the gut to the brain. Examples of interactions between different factors regulating this pathway are discussed. It is argued that sufficient is now known to indicate that this signalling system can provide new targets for the treatment of obesity.
Windows with a view on language evolution
Authors: BOTHA RUDOLF
Published: May 2004

Accounts of the evolution of human language must, by their very nature, express claims of a historical sort: claims about why, when, where or how human language emerged and/or developed in some distant past. What is more, it is of the essence of those claims that they are put forward in the absence of direct evidence about the events and factors that may or may not have been involved in the evolution of language. In modern work on language evolution, however, scholars have come up with various strategies aimed at lessening or even solving this problem of evidential paucity. One of these approaches starts from the assumption that language evolution can be studied by examining other phenomena about which there is direct evidence. This article sets out, in informal terms, what it is to use such phenomena as windows on language evolution.
Cognitive and functional factors in the evolution of grammar
Authors: NEWMEYER FREDERICK J.
Published: May 2004

The purpose of this paper is to raise the question of the relative roles of cognitive and functional factors in the evolution of grammar. The conclusion is that they have both played important roles, although unbalanced ones. Human language originated with the linking of conceptual structures and the vocal output system. In other words, cognitive factors were the first to shape grammar. But with the passage of time, the needs of communication came to play an ever-more important role in grammar. Human language today hence reflects the influence of both types of factors.
Option valuation of Philippine forest plantation leases
Authors: YAP ROBERTO C.
Published: May 2004

The Philippine forest plantation lease is modelled as an option whose value arises from market uncertainty and the irreversibility inherent in sunk costs required to establish plantations. The value of this option could be a significant factor in the planting decisions of leaseholders. Real options theory could help explain why in spite of the prospects of adequate financial returns, Filipino leaseholders are slow to establish plantations. The opportunity cost of investing is demonstrated to be highly sensitive to uncertainty of the future value of the plantation. Real options analysis is also utilized to evaluate policies intended by the Philippine government to promote plantation development.
Modelling adoption of natural resources management technologies: the case of fallow systems
Authors: HONLONKOU ALBERT N.
Published: May 2004

This paper presents an adoption model of a resource management technology derived from a three-step decision process (information, adoption, and intensity of adoption).

From the theoretical results it is found that while the levels of technical parameters such as duration and regeneration rate of soil fertility by improved fallow are relevant for adoption, it is misleading to ignore economic and social factors as they are reflected in the discount rate, risk, information, and prices of inputs and outputs.

It is also shown that models that do not take account of the problems of self-selection due to the ability of the potential adopters to acquire and process the relevant information about a technology, lead to biased estimators.

Empirical estimations generally confirm the theoretical results. It is found that the acquisition of information about resources management technology is influenced by age of farmers and actions of official extension services; the adoption decision is influenced by prior utilization, the bundle of land property rights owned, and the level of financial liquidity; and the intensity of adoption is influenced by the percentage of the farm that is degraded.
Land tenure and conflict resolution: a game theoretic approach in the Narok district in Kenya
Authors: AMMAN HANS M. , DURAIAPPAH ANANTHA KUMAR
Published: May 2004

Many conflicts in many parts of the developing world can be traced to disputes over land ownership, land use and land degradation. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that information asymmetries among various principals within these countries in land tenure and market systems have caused marginalization of some principals by the others. A sustained process of marginalization driven by these asymmetries has inevitably caused the disadvantaged to revolt resulting in many cases in violent clashes. In this paper, we develop a game theoretic model to test our hypothesis by analyzing the complex interdependencies existing among the various principals in the Narok District in Kenya. Violent clashes have been increasing in the district since the first outbreak in 1993. Preliminary results seem to confirm our hypothesis that asymmetrical information structures among the various principals over land and agricultural markets could have been the catalytic forces for these conflicts. In order to reduce these discrepancies, we recommend two institutional reforms. The first involves the adoption of a hybrid land tenure system whereby land ownership is based on individual titles while the use and sale of the land is governed by communal rules established by a community participatory proceeds. The second recommendation involves the formation of an information network comprising of all principals with the main objective of it being a forum for exchange of ideas and information pertaining to land use options and the opportunities offered by the market system.
Impacts of a recurrent resuspension event and variable phytoplankton community composition on remote sensing reflectance
Authors: Bergmann Trisha , Fahnenstiel Gary , Lohrenz Steven , Millie David , Schofield Oscar
Published: May 2004

In order to characterize the impact of turbidity plumes on optical and biological dynamics, a suite of environmental parameters were measured in southern Lake Michigan during the springtime recurrent sediment plume. In‐water measurements of inherent optical properties (IOPs) were entered into the Hydrolight 4.2 radiative transfer model and the output was compared with measured apparent optical properties (AOPs) across a wide range of optical conditions. Hydrolight output and measured underwater light fields were then used to clarify the effects of the sediment plume on primary production, phytoplankton community composition, and nearshore remote sensing ocean color algorithms. Our results show that the sediment plume had a negligible effect on the spectral light environment and phytoplankton physiology. The plume did not significantly alter the spectral quality of available light and did not lead to light limited phytoplankton populations compared to non‐plume conditions. Further, the suspended sediment in the plume did not seriously impact the performance of ocean color algorithms. We evaluated several currently employed chlorophyll algorithms and demonstrated that the main factor compromising the efficacy of these algorithms was the composition of phytoplankton populations. As phycobilin‐containing algae became the dominant species, chlorophyll algorithms that use traditional blue/green reflectance ratios were compromised due to the high absorption of green light by phycobilin pigments. This is a notable difficulty in coastal areas, which have highly variable phytoplankton composition and are often dominated by sharp fronts of phycobilin and non‐phycobilin containing algae.
Improved estimates of net carbon emissions from land cover change in the tropics for the 1990s
Authors: Achard Frédéric , Eva Hugh D. , Mayaux Philippe , Stibig Hans‐Jürgen , Belward Alan
Published: May 2004

Recent figures on net forest cover change rates of the world's tropical forest cover are used for the calculation of carbon fluxes in the global budget. By applying our deforestation findings in the humid tropics, complemented by published deforestation figures in the dry tropics, to refereed data on biomass, we produced new estimates of net carbon emissions. These estimates are supported by recent, independent estimations of net carbon emissions globally, over the Brazilian Amazon, and by observations of atmospheric CO2 emissions over Southeast Asia. Our best estimate for global net emissions from land‐use change in the tropics is at 1.1 ± 0.3 Gt C yr−1. This estimate includes emissions from conversion of forests (representing 71% of budget) and loss of soil carbon after deforestation (20%), emissions from forest degradation (4.4%), emissions from the 1997–1998 Indonesian exceptional fires (8.3%), and sinks from regrowths (−3.3%).
Moisture and substrate availability constrain soil trace gas fluxes in an eastern Amazonian regrowth forest
Authors: Vasconcelos Steel S. , Zarin Daniel J. , Capanu Marinela , Littell Ramon , Davidson Eric A. , Ishida Francoise Y. , Santos Elisana B. , Araújo Maristela M. , Aragão Débora V. , Rangel‐Vasconcelos Lívia G. T. , de Assis Oliveira Francisco , McDowell William H. , de Carvalho Claudio José R.
Published: May 2004

Changes in land‐use and climate are likely to alter moisture and substrate availability in tropical forest soils, but quantitative assessment of the role of resource constraints as regulators of soil trace gas fluxes is rather limited. The primary objective of this study was to quantify the effects of moisture and substrate availability on soil trace gas fluxes in an Amazonian regrowth forest. We measured the efflux of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitric oxide (NO), nitrous oxide (N2O), and methane (CH4) from soil in response to two experimental manipulations. In the first, we increased soil moisture availability during the dry season by irrigation; in the second, we decreased substrate availability by continuous removal of aboveground litter. In the absence of irrigation, soil CO2 efflux decreased during the dry season while irrigation maintained soil CO2 efflux levels similar to the wet season. Large variations in soil CO2 efflux consistent with a significant moisture constraint on respiration were observed in response to soil wet‐up and dry‐down events. Annual soil C efflux for irrigated plots was 27 and 13% higher than for control plots in 2001 and 2002, respectively. Litter removal significantly reduced soil CO2 efflux; annual soil C efflux in 2002 was 28% lower for litter removal plots compared to control plots. The annual soil C efflux:litterfall C ratio for the control treatment (4.0–5.2) was consistent with previously reported values for regrowth forests that indicate a relatively large belowground C allocation. In general, fluxes of N2O and CH4 were higher during the wet season and both fluxes increased during dry‐season irrigation. There was no seasonal effect on NO fluxes. Litter removal had no significant impact on N oxide or CH4 emissions. Net soil nitrification did not respond to dry‐season irrigation, but was somewhat reduced by litter removal. Overall, these results demonstrate significant soil moisture and substrate constraints on soil trace gas emissions, particularly for CO2, and suggest that climate and land‐use changes that alter moisture and substrate availability are therefore likely to have an impact on atmosphere chemistry.
Geomagnetic dipole moment and 10Be production rate intercalibration from authigenic 10Be/9Be for the last 1.3 Ma
Authors: Carcaillet Julien T. , Bourlès Didier L. , Thouveny Nicolas
Published: May 2004

A synthesis of authigenic 10Be/9Be ratio records constructed from sedimentary sequences deposited over the last 300 ka in the North East Atlantic and over the 500–1300 ka BP interval in the West Equatorial Pacific Ocean is compared with proxies of the geomagnetic moment variations over the same time intervals. These proxies consist in (1) relative paleointensity records obtained from the same sediments, (2) a seafloor magnetization record derived from magnetic anomalies, and (3) an absolute Virtual Dipole Moment (VDM) record constructed from an updated database of absolute paleointensities. The authigenic 10Be/9Be ratio records document the occurrence of the paleomagnetic events (excursions and reversals) reported for these time intervals by paleomagnetic studies. Reconstructions of 10Be/9Be derived magnetic moment records based on theoretical and empirical relationships between 10Be/9Be ratio and absolute VDM allow establishing 10Be derived VDM records that exhibit the same overall structures as the geomagnetic proxy records.