bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Reconstituting Cultural Memory through Image and Text in Leïla Sebbar's Le Chinois vert d'Afrique
Authors: Howell Jennifer
Published: January 2008

Despite the impact of the Algerian War on Franco-Algerian relations, the war's atrocities have all but vanished from French collective memory — until relatively recently. Legislative debates in the French National Assembly regarding the revision of textbooks attest to this: does France have the right to teach future generations about colonialism's positive effects? This article examines how Leïla Sebbar comes to terms with post-war trauma through a combination of text and image. Should one then read Sebbar's novel, Le Chinois vert d'Afrique, as a piece of ecphrastic writing? And more importantly, does Sebbar's use of photography function effectively as a vector of memorial transmission?
Video Game Appropriation through Modifications
Authors: Postigo Hector
Published: January 2008

This article investigates an instance in convergence culture: the conflicts and compromises between modders (fans of a video game who actually make changes to the game) and their supporters, and the owners of the copyrighted works they appropriate. I suggest that current copyright ownership in cultural products interferes with the way creative industries can benefit from convergence; that modders (and fans generally) develop a specific rationale and set of norms rooted in Jenkins' concept of a `moral economy' (Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, 2006) to justify their appropriations; and that mutually beneficial relationships can be teased out of the apparently contradictory positions of modders and copyright owners. This article focuses on two case studies that illustrate the ways modders reuse cultural products and incorporate them into their video game modifications to achieve a sense of creative ownership and meaning over their entertainment experience.
Redefining Public Service Broadcasting
Authors: Enli Gunn Sara
Published: January 2008

This article investigates how the communicative relationship between public broadcasters and their audiences is being cultivated through new possibilities for participation offered by new technology. The aim, in the first part of the article, is to examine the strategic functions of multi-platform participation for public service broadcasting ( PSB). In order to analyse how programming that has strong associations with the commercial sector is constructed within the context of PSB, the second part presents a case study of the multi-platform format Test the Nation. The article engages with current debates on the role of PSB in a changing technological environment and explores the dilemma faced by public service broadcasters caught between attracting large audiences while also representing an alternative to the commercial channels. The article draws on analysis of institutional documents from the British BBC, the Swedish SVT, the Norwegian NRK and the US PBS. The documents range from official policy documents and mission statements to press releases and homepages, assembled between 2004 and 2006. The document analysis sheds light on the emergence of audience participation as a strategy for institutional legitimacy and platform expansion, as well as a way to develop new sources of revenue. A basic finding is that audience participation is a central strategy in the media companies under scrutiny. The `Reithian trinity', through several decades, has been in a process of redefinition, and the article suggests that public service broadcasting in the digital era may best be described as `entertainment, education and participation'.
Nutrition Review: Diet and Metabolic Syndrome
Authors: Melanson Kathleen J.
Published: January 2008

Since most components of metabolic syndrome are related to lifestyle, exercise and diet are critical aspects of treatment. Most patients will need to reduce body weight. Some flexibility in dietary macronutrients is allowed, depending on the patient's metabolic profile and responsiveness. Types of fats and carbohydrates are particularly important. Artificial trans fats should be eliminated as much as possible and saturated fats minimized. Carbohydrates should be mainly unrefined and unprocessed, emphasizing fiber and low glycemic index, while keeping added sugars low. Monounsaturated fats are the best replacements for saturated fats and refined carbohydrates within energy and total fat limits. Micronutrients that may be beneficial for metabolic syndrome include vitamin D, calcium, magnesium, and potassium from whole food sources. Excess sodium chloride, as well as meal skipping, should be avoided.
Vehicles of desistance?
Authors: Hucklesby Anthea
Published: January 2008

Electronic monitoring has become an integral part of the criminal justice process in England and Wales. Since the first trials in the 1980s the range of applications of electronic monitoring and the number of offenders subject to it have increased. Knowledge about the impact of electronic monitoring on offenders is limited and crucial questions about its effect on offending and desistance remain unanswered. This article addresses these questions by reviewing evidence from a study that interviewed offenders subject to electronically monitored curfew orders. It suggests that for some offenders curfew orders reduce offending and contribute to desistance by addressing levels of social capital in two ways. First, by decreasing levels of anti-social capital by reducing offenders' links with situations, people, places and networks correlated with their offending. Second, by improving levels of pro-social capital by encouraging offenders to connect or re-connect with influences linked with desistance such as family and employment. Curfew orders can also have negative impacts on pro-social capital particularly by disrupting employment and family ties and responsibilities. This article concludes that curfew orders have the potential to play a positive and distinctive role in supporting desistance and complement work undertaken as part of the new community order.
Sorption of Radiocaesium onto Powdered and Compacted Rectorite Studied by Batch and Capillary Methods
Authors: Chen Lei , Yu Xianjin
Published: January 2008

The sorption of radiocaesium onto Na-rectorite as a function of pH value under ambient conditions was studied by batch and capillary methods. The results indicated that the sorption of Cs+ ions was dependent on the ionic strength and, to a lesser extent, on the pH value. The distribution coefficients for Cs+ ion sorption onto powdered rectorite (as determined via the batch technique) were much higher than those of Cs+ ions onto compacted rectorite (as determined by capillary test), thereby suggesting that the sorption of Cs+ ions onto rectorite was strongly dependent on the density of rectorite, i.e. the interlaminary space of the compacted rectorite contributes significantly on Cs+ ion sorption. The distribution coefficients calculated from theoretical calculations, experimental measurements and the diffusion coefficients of Cs+ ions were compared and discussed in detail. The sorption and diffusion mechanisms in compacted rectorite were also discussed.
Bending the Rules: When Deaf Writers Leave College
Authors: Biser Eileen , Rubel Linda , Toscano Rose Marie
Published: January 2008

On-the-job writing of deaf college graduates at all degree levels was investigated. Institutional databases and questionnaires to alumni and employers were the sources for information. Respondents were asked about editing assistance, sources and types of assistance, and perceptions of such assistance by employers and employees. Results of the study confirmed that deaf employees did considerable writing regardless of degree or type of job. Their self-reports indicated grammar as the major weakness. Additionally, employers stated that clarity, organization, and spelling were serious writing problems. The study also showed that deaf employees asked for and received editing assistance and that employers were willing to support the improvement of writing skills. Because error-free texts are expected in the workplace and editing assistance is sought and received, postsecondary institutions should mimic these practices by providing copyediting services and instruction in the ethics and practices of working with editors.
Multigenerational Perceptions of Mental Health Services of Deaf Adults in Florida
Authors: Feldman David M , Gum Amber
Published: January 2008

The objective of the study was to better understand the perceptions and needs of multigenerational Deaf adults related to mental health services. A survey sampled participants who were between 20 and 85 years old and Deaf. Questions were developed to identify the perspectives of Deaf adults related to the availability of mental health services, preferences for these services, and current utilization of services. Participants were grouped into age (years) categories: young adult (18–34), middle adult (35–54), older adult (55–65), and oldest (66–). Category response trends were examined using chi-square analysis. The analysis showed significant differences in the preferences and utilization of mental health care. These data also suggested preferences for service delivery. These data indicate areas of importance related to the development of programs and services for Deaf adults and to indicate where funding for services would be best utilized.
Mental Health Services for People Who Are Deaf
Authors: Vernon McCay
Published: January 2008

The issue of mental health services available to adults and children in the United States who are deaf is addressed. Included is a historical perspective on the changes in these services over the last 50 years. Within this scope, the current status of services is described in some detail. Psychological research on children who are deaf is reviewed, and current issues faced by school psychology and psychologists who evaluate deaf children in school settings are examined. The disturbing current trend toward the criminalization of people with mental illness, which affects both hearing and deaf adults with psychiatric diagnoses, is covered. Suggestions are made for improving mental health services for children and adults who are deaf.
Employment Outcomes for the Congenitally Deaf in Australia: Has Anything Changed?
Authors: Winn Stephen Lamar
Published: January 2008

The employment of deaf school leavers is considered by means of data from a recent study conducted in South Australia (Winn, 2005). Its findings are compared with those of three other Australian studies conducted over the past several decades (Australian Federation of Adult Deaf Societies, 1973; Deaf Society of New South Wales, 1998; Hyde, 1988). Compared to the rest of the community, deaf adults have had and continue to have higher unemployment rates, are underemployed in terms of the range of occupations, and typically earn less than the general population in similar occupations. The most recent study (Winn, 2005) provides evidence that Australian deaf adults have poor employment outcomes despite access to higher education and legislation prohibiting discrimination. That employment outcomes have not altered dramatically since earlier studies suggests that positive programs are required to address the general community's attitude about deafness as a disability.
Adorno's Conception of the Form of Philosophy
Authors: Martin Stewart
Published: January 2008

This essay concerns Adorno's articulation of an idea of philosophy as it is developed through his considerations of philosophy's form or mode of presentation. It hereby attempts to illuminate some of what remains obscure about Adorno's understanding of a renewal of philosophy after Marx and the crisis of German Idealism. Various forms–from "anti-system" and "constellation" to "essay," "fragment," "encyclopaedia" and "dictionary"–are examined for what they contribute to an idea of philosophy. This focus distinguishes this essay from other studies of form in Adorno that have predominantly literary or musical concerns.
Red Front/Black Front: Aimé Césaire and the Affaire Aragon
Authors: Noland Carrie
Published: January 2008

This essay asks why, historically, the politics of postcolonial theory require of poetry that it be anchored in the concrete material conditions of a specific population. What are the parameters of analysis that have been established by overtly committed works? What obligations to contextualize does a poem like Aimé Césaire's Cahier d'un retour au pays natal impose? Conversely, what pressures does the Cahier place on content-oriented postcolonial approaches? Through a careful examination of the Cahier and the specific political valence it would have acquired when written, I seek to understand poetry's relationship to postcolonial theory as it has developed over time.
Schmittian Traces in Žižek's Political Theology (and Some Derridean Specters)
Authors: Vogt Erik Michael
Published: January 2008

Slavoj Žižek's fascinating and complex attempt at an appropriation of the authentic legacy of Christianity for a revivified politics of universality is traced in the light of certain affinities to concepts of Carl Schmitt's political theology. It is argued that these two thinkers not only share a similar canon of (Christian) thinkers, but also an emphasis on the necessity of maintaining and/or reintroducing a distinction between friend and enemy for a properly political thought. Moreover, particular attention is paid to the way the relationship between Judaism and Christianity is enacted in several of Žižek's texts.
In the Image of Auschwitz
Authors: Chaouat Bruno
Published: January 2008

This essay explores the polemics that took place in France in 2001 on the occasion of an exhibition of photographs of Nazi concentration and extermination camps. The article analyzes hostile responses to this exhibition and to its catalogue, written by art historian Georges Didi-Huberman. Condemned for having transgressed an apparent prohibition of the representation of the Holocaust in France, Didi-Huberman responded with a book that tackles the questions of representation in relation to war and trauma. While recognizing the ethical and intellectual merits of Didi-Huberman's response, the essay nonetheless suggests that the French debate, whether it promotes or demotes images of the Holocaust, seems to perpetuate an apocalyptic, allegorical, and sublime reading of Auschwitz.
The Rule of the Norm and the Political Theology in "Real Life" in Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben
Authors: Wetters Kirk
Published: January 2008

In the English translation of Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer, the concepts of the "norm" and "normal" are ambiguously replaced by "rule" and "regular." Important distinctions, inherited directly from Carl Schmitt are thereby obscured. Kurt Hildebrandt, whose work on the norm is more explicitly biopolitical, provides further contextualization for Schmitt's legal theory; likewise, Georges Canguilhem has analyzed the biological metaphors latent within the concept of the juridical norm. In conclusion I argue that it also makes sense to read Agamben's work in the context of the normative discourse.
Does Peer Group Identity Influence Absenteeism in High School Students?
Authors: Hartnett Sharon
Published: January 2008

The focus of this piece is on exploring questions regarding school organizational structures and cultures and their unintentional encouragement of teenage absenteeism. The organizational structure and culture of a school setting contributes to how students experience the system. School characteristics and culture can influence student absenteeism and truancy (Epstein & Sheldon, 2002). Perhaps organizational school structures endorse and reward particular peer groups while shunning or ignoring others. If so, peer identity becomes relevant in schools as the values, attitudes, and beliefs held within the peer groups predispose those in the group to endorse or reject the mission of schools. Eckert (1989) insightfully classified students into two groups describing this endorsement or rejecting scenario. She called some students "Jocks," endorsers of the system endorsers, and others "Burn-outs," non-endorsers of the system. Does peer group identity influence high school absenteeism? Harris (1996) claims that peer groups are more powerful than parents in shaping values. "Teenagers sort themselves out into peer groups that vary in their attitudes toward intellectual achievement, and they can usually find anti-intellectual groups even in middle-class neighborhoods" (Harris, p. 263). If this is in fact the case, the choice of peer group could have a profound effect upon the academic outcome of a high school student. Maslow, Erickson, Kohlberg, and many other theorists have studied development across the human life span. They each espouse the stages of human development, and they all have room for the notion of those stages being interrupted or challenged when environmental factors make it more difficult for a person to keep growing and developing. Teenagers are especially prone to environmental influences because they are still being formed as persons, and the cruel reality is that many struggle daily for acceptance from their peers. Predictors of a student's potential for a successful life after high school are comprised of family identity, income, and choice of peer group. Perhaps if teachers and other school personnel are aware of this phenomenon, being intentional about reaching out to all peer groups could increase students' feelings of welcome, and school attendance would increase.
Individual and School Structural Effects on African American High School Students' Academic Achievement
Authors: Stewart Endya B
Published: January 2008

The research examining the correlates of academic achievement is immense. In particular, scores of studies have examined individual- and family-level variables that influence student achievement. Based upon Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological theory of human development, this study extends one step beyond previous studies and incorporates school-level characteristics into an investigation of the factors that influence adolescents' academic achievement. Using regression-based techniques that account for within-school clustering of students, this research examined the extent to which individual-level and school structural variables predict academic achievement among a sample of 10th grade African American students abstracted from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) database. The results suggest that individual-level predictors, such as student effort, parent-child discussion, and associations with positive peers, play a substantial role in increasing students' achievement. Further, the results also suggest that school climate, in particular the sense of school cohesion felt by students, teachers, and administrators, is important to successful student outcomes. Given these findings, the author suggests that an ecological approach which encompasses individual-, family-, and school-level variables be considered when examining predictors of academic achievement. Also, policy and interventions aimed at improving academic achievement need to take into consideration the impact of individual-level and school structural factors on students and their ability to succeed.
Performing the Predicaments of National Belonging: The Art and Politics of the Tuareg Ensemble Tartit at the 2003 Folklife Festival
Authors: Straker Jay
Published: January 2008

This article on the Republic of Mali's involvement in the 2003 Smithsonian Folklife Festival examines conflicting conceptions of the nation-state as a framework for understanding the purpose of the festival. Its descriptions of the stage performances and commentary of members of Tartit—the sole music ensemble representing the Tuareg communities of Mali's northern Saharan region—enable analysis of a complex set of artistic, political, and economic dynamics unfolding within and beyond both Mali and the time and space of the festival. It demonstrates how the group's efforts highlighted the power of distinctly national pressures to impinge upon marginal artists' thoughts and actions.
E-Learning: Is There Anything Special about the "E"?
Authors: Cook David A , McDonald Furman S
Published: January 2008

E-learning has been widely utilized in medical education and suggested by some proponents to represent a fundamental advance in educational methodology. We challenge this conclusion by examining e-learning in the context of broader learning theories, specifically as they relate to instructional design and methods. Core tenets of educational design are applied to e-learning in a unified model for instructional design, and examples of e-learning technologies are examined in the context of medical education, with reflections on research questions generated by these new modalities. Throughout, we argue that e-learning is a tool that, when designed appropriately, can be used to meet worthy educational goals.
Parasites and Progress: Ethical Decision-Making and the Santee-Cooper Malaria Study, 1944-1949
Authors: Slater Leo Barney , Humphreys Margaret
Published: January 2008

As part of a mid-1940s malaria research program, U.S. Public Health Service researchers working in South Carolina chose to withhold treatment from a group of subjects while testing the efficacy of a new insecticide. Research during World War II had generated new tools to fight malaria, including the insecticide DDT and the medication chloroquine. The choices made about how to conduct research in one of the last pockets of endemic malaria in the United States reveal much about prevailing attitudes and assumptions with regard to malaria control. We describe this research and explore the ethical choices inherent in the tension between environmentally based interventions and the individual health needs of the population living within the study domain. The singular focus on the mosquito and its lifecycle led some researchers to view the humans in their study area as little more than parasite reservoirs, an attitude fueled by the frustrating disappearance of malaria just when the scientists were on the verge of establishing the efficacy of a powerful new agent in the fight against malaria. This analysis of their choices has relevance to broader questions in public health ethics.
From Body to Brain: Considering the Neurobiological Effects of Female Genital Cutting
Authors: Einstein Gillian
Published: January 2008

Female genital cutting (FGC) is an ancient tradition unbounded by religion and practiced primarily in Africa and the regions to which Africans have immigrated. All types of FGC involve cutting neural innervation to the vulva: the clitoris, labia majora and minora. Most types include excision of the clitoris. Since the tissue of the vulva is highly innervated by nerves and their endings, I postulate here that the brain and spinal cord will respond to FGC as it would to any loss of neural targets or inputs: by rearranging neural networks. This, in turn, would affect neural signaling to target structures and modify sensory perception. Most scientific investigations of FGC have focused on its reproductive consequences. To fully appreciate its effects on the lives of women, however, an understanding beyond the reproductive system is necessary. Exploring the potential neural changes of FGC may help explain the mixed responses of the women themselves and identify new directions for research to understand their lives. A neurobiological analysis may also help us understand how cultural practices inscribe meaning on central nervous system structures, affecting mind as well as body.
Internet-Based Medical Education
Authors: Bove Alfred A
Published: January 2008

The Internet is revolutionizing medical education and medical practice by enabling teachers and students to utilize and integrate many forms of data in ways that cannot be done via classic textbooks. In cardiovascular medicine, dynamic images are essential for understanding cardiac function, coronary anatomy, and myocardial perfusion, as well as for learning cardiovascular pathophysiology and the typical and atypical presentations of disease states. Cardiosource, an educational Web site developed by the American College of Cardiology, illustrates the ways in which the Internet is being used to improve medical education and practice.
From the "Topos of Nothingness" to the "Space of Transparency": Kitarō Nishida's Notion of Shintai and Its Influence on Art and Architecture (Part 1)
Authors: Baek Jin
Published: January 2008

In his philosophy of nothingness, Kitar Nishida illuminates the matrix of transformation of the world ''from the Created to the Creating'' (tsukuru mono kara tsukurareta mono e) through shintai, or the body. In this matrix, shintai enters into the stage of an action-sensation continuum and emerges as the immaculate iconic tool of nothingness to create new figures as extended self. This idea of shintai has resonance with the development of postwar art in Japan. The ''Space of Transparency'' put forth by Ufan Lee, the leader of Monoha, is the principal example. This essay investigates Nishida's notion of shintai and its influence on Lee's theory of art.
Consequentialism, Agent-Neutrality, and Mahāyāna Ethics
Authors: Goodman Charles
Published: January 2008

What kinds of comparisons can legitimately be made between Mahāyāna Buddhism and Western ethical theories? Mahāyānists aspire to alleviate the suffering, promote the happiness, and advance the moral perfection of all sentient beings. This aspiration is best understood as expressing a form of universalist consequentialism. Many Indian Mahāyāna texts seem committed to claims about agent-neutrality that imply consequentialism and are not compatible with virtue ethics. Within the Mahāyāna tradition, there is some diversity of views: Asaṅga seems to hold a complex and interesting version of rule consequentialism, whereas Śāntideva is closer to act consequentialism.
Reorganizing Teacher Preparation in Deaf Education
Authors: Humphries Tom (Tom L.) , Allen Bobbie M
Published: January 2008

This article describes efforts at the University of California, San Diego in the Education Studies Program to develop and field-test a teacher preparation program that combines best practices in bilingual education and deaf education. The training curriculum designed for this program relies on research that finds a correlation between ASL fluency and English literacy. Also discussed is a collaborative project between training faculty and K–12 partners to transition between more traditional deaf education practices and new teaching and assessment practices focused on ASL literacy development as well as development in other languages.
"Bad Things": Child Abuse and the Nineteenth-Century Spanish National School for the Deaf and Blind
Authors: Plann Susan
Published: January 2008

This article draws on contemporary insights from the fields of psychology, sociology, and social welfare to analyze the potential threats of abuse posed by residential schools for deaf and blind children. It also examines an alleged episode of sexual abuse at the nineteenth century Spanish National School for deaf and blind children; the alleged perpetrator of these acts was director and professor Miguel Fernández Villabrille.
The Emerging Regional Architecture of World Politics
Authors: Acharya Amitav
Published: January 2008

This article examines the importance of regions in shaping world order. Reviewing two recent books that claim that the contemporary world order is an increasingly regionalized one, the author argues that regions matter to the extent they can be relatively autonomous entities. While both books accept that regions are social constructs, their answer to the question of who makes regions reflects a bias in favor of powerful actors. A regional understanding of world politics should pay more attention to and demonstrate how regions resist and socialize power—at both global and regional levels—rather than simply focusing on how powers construct regions. Power matters, but local responses to power, including strategies of exclusion, resistance, socialization, and binding, matter more in understanding how regions are socially constructed. The article elaborates on various types of responses to power from both state and societal actors in order to offer an inside-out, rather than outside-in, perspective on the regional architecture of world politics.
Civil Society and the Legacies of Dictatorship
Authors: Bernhard Michael , Karakoç Ekrem
Published: January 2008

The literature on civil society in postcommunist regimes highlights its weakness as compared with civil society in other democracies. In this article the authors make a general argument on how different patterns of antecedent dictatorship affect the development of civil society across a range of democracies. They examine the slow emergence of two behaviors associated with a robust civil society—participation in organizational life and in protest—and explain variation across countries as a function of regime history. They draw their individual-level data from the World Values Survey and analyze the behavior of over forty-one thousand citizens from forty-two democracies. Using methods of hierarchical linear modeling to control for both national-level and individual-level factors, the authors find that different types of dictatorship and variation in their duration produce different negative legacies for the development of civil society.
Hereditary Succession in Modern Autocracies
Authors: Brownlee Jason
Published: January 2008

Hereditary succession, the conventional method for preserving monarchies, has also been used to perpetuate republic-style dictatorships. With an original data set of 258 post-World War II nonmonarchical autocrats, the author tests Gordon Tullock's hypothesis that hereditary succession appeals to the ruler and to nonfamilial elites wary of a leadership struggle. The full data and close comparisons of succession outcomes are consistent with Tullock's account. In the absence of prior experience selecting a ruler through a party, regime elites accepted filial heirs apparent; when the incumbent had arisen from a party, his successor predominantly emerged from that organization. Among twenty-two cases of potential hereditary succession, variations in institutional history account for 77 percent of succession outcomes. Where the ruler preceded the party, five rulers in seven cases groomed sons and all five sons took office. In contrast, where the party predated the ruler, incumbents successfully installed sons in only three of fifteen cases.
Classing Ethnicity. Class, Ethnicity, and the Mass Politics of Taiwan's Democratic Transition
Authors: Yang David D.
Published: January 2008

Although Taiwan is widely regarded as one of the purest examples of middle-class-driven democratization, this article suggests that the conventional accent on the middle class is misplaced. Instead, the true heroes in the struggle for democracy were the island's working classes, although proper recognition of this fact requires an empirically derived understanding of class that looks beyond formal labor politics. Although the author does not dispute the importance of ethnicity in Taiwanese politics, the findings clearly indicate that ethnic identity was in itself a class issue, as the island's working classes were the most deeply attached to a nativist Taiwanese identity, while members of the middle classes were far more successfully assimilated into the elite “national” culture. The Taiwanese experience thus provides a reminder that many political phenomena apparently framed in ethnic, sectarian terms are in fact undergirded by essentially class-based grievances.
FoxO transcription factors in oxidative stress response and ageing – a new fork on the way to longevity?
Authors: Sedding Daniel G.
Published: January 2008

Forkhead box O (FoxO) transcription factors are important downstream targets of the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway and crucial regulators of cell fate. This function of FoxOs relies on their ability to control diverse cellular functions, including proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, DNA repair, defense against oxidative stress and ageing. FoxOs are regulated by a variety of different growth factors and hormones, and their activity is tightly controlled by post-translational modifications, including phosphorylation, acetylation, ubiquitination and interaction with different proteins and transcription factors. This brief review focuses on the molecular mechanisms, cellular effects and resulting organismal phenotypes generated by differentially regulated FoxO proteins and discusses our current understanding of the role of FoxOs in disease and ageing processes.
Potential biomarkers of ageing
Authors: Simm Andreas , Nass Norbert , Bartling Babett , Hofmann Britt , Silber Rolf-Edgar , Navarrete Santos Alexander
Published: January 2008

Life span in individual humans is very heterogeneous. Thus, the ageing rate, measured as the decline of functional capacity and stress resistance, is different in every individual. There have been attempts made to analyse this individual age, the so-called biological age, in comparison to chronological age. Biomarkers of ageing should help to characterise this biological age and, as age is a major risk factor in many degenerative diseases, could be subsequently used to identify individuals at high risk of developing age-associated diseases or disabilities. Markers based on oxidative stress, protein glycation, inflammation, cellular senescence and hormonal deregulation are discussed.
Implicit Religion and Inter-faith Dialogue
Authors: Dupré Wilhelm
Published: January 2008

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Implicit Religion and Inter-faith Dialogue
Authors: Ter Borg Meerten
Published: January 2008

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The Victorian Broad Church, Seedbed of Twentieth-century Religious Pluralism and Implicit Religion
Authors: French Hal
Published: January 2008

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Implicit Morality
Authors: Bowker John
Published: January 2008

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Temporal trends in N & P concentrations and loads in relation to anthropogenic effects and discharge in Odense River 1964–2002
Authors: Larsen Morten Andreas Dahl , Soegaard Henrik , Hinsby Klaus
Published: January 2008

Using water quality data from 1964 to 2002, concentrations and loads of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and phosphate-phosphorus (PO4-P) in the Odense River were analyzed for trends in periods subsequent to and following the implementation of the Danish Action Plan I for reduction of nutrients in the environment (DAP) in 1987. In periods between 1964 and 1987 statistical significant increasing trends in DIN and PO4-P concentrations and loads were detected. However, DIN generally showed stronger trends than PO4-P and 19 of the 29 tested PO4-P load tests showed non-significant results. In the subsequent periods between 1980 and 2002, significant nutrient reductions were detected at all sites and with the strongest trends for PO4-P. Also, tests combining data from several sites showed equally strong trends. Significant positive correlations between DIN concentrations and discharge were found throughout the period using the non-parametric Spearman Rank Correlation, suggesting soil leaching to be the main nitrogen source. Conversely, correlations between PO4-P and discharge changed from significantly negative to mostly significantly positive, a phenomenon most likely due to the change in phosphorus sources.
Relative variation of ionic composition in a karstic lake under the theory of unweighted vs weighted logratio analysis
Authors: Cankaya Emel , Sıvacı E. Rıdvan , Kılınc Sabri , Dere Sükran
Published: January 2008

The use of logratio analysis in limnological studies has proved to be effective for solving the problems of the constrained nature of compositional data. The method offers a graphical tool, the relative variation biplot, to explore relative changes of the ions. However, recent methodological developments have shown that the results can be perturbed by low-valued ions with high variances and proposed downweighting their influences as in correspondence analysis. Additional to all properties of the unweighted version, this weighted logratio analysis extends the previous work and has the advantage of the principle of distributional equivalence.

As a motivating application, we chose a karstic lake with dominating ions calcium and sulphate causing other ions to be present relatively in low absolute levels. Besides, one of the collected compositional samples was suspected to be unusual which, in part, contributes to high relative variances. This paper is therefore concerned with the choice of the best method for the analysis of such extremely saline water systems by comparing performances of both unweighted and weighted logratio analyses.

We concluded that introducing weights captured more features of ionic relationships with almost all compositional variability explained. We observed that the ratio of calcium to sulphate, ammonium or phosphorus (to a lesser extent) was particularly valuable in understanding the natural chemical process of the lake. A constant log-contrast model based on calcium, ammonium, nitrate and total soluble phosphorus appeared as an equilibrium equation.
Potent Intracellular Knock Down of Hepatitis B Virus X RNA by Catalytic
Hammerhead Ribozymes or DNA-Enzymes with Antisense DNA-Oligonucleotides
or 10-23 DNA-Enzymes that Powerfully Augment In Vitro
Sequence-Specific Cleavage Activities
Authors: Gupta Nidhi , Bano Aalia S. , Sharma Yogeshwar , Sood Vikas , Banerjea Akhil C.
Published: January 2008

Novel antiviral approaches are needed to control Hepatitis B virus infection worldwide. X protein of this virus
activates various promoters and is strongly associated with hepatocellular carcinoma. Although several groups, including
ours, reported sequence-specific cleavage of X RNA by either ribozymes (Rzs) or DNA-enzymes (Dzs) earlier, but none
of these studies reported 100% in vitro cleavage of the full-length X RNA. We reasoned that by melting the secondary
structures near the Rz/Dz cleavage site with specific antisense DNA oligonucleotides (ODNs) or 10-23 Dz, it may be possible
to achieve this objective. Hammerhead motif containing Rz-170 specific for X RNA was constructed by recombinant
techniques and Dz-237 was synthesized using the 10-23 catalytic motif. When specific ODNs or 10-23 Dzs were included
in the cleavage reaction with either Rz-170 or Dz-237, increased cleavage was observed in a dose-dependent manner
which often resulted in almost complete in vitro cleavage of the target RNA. Rz-170 in combination with specific ODNs
caused potent intracellular reduction of HBx RNA. Thus, the cleavage activity of catalytic nucleic acids (Rzs or Dzs) can
be increased significantly by specific ODNs or Dzs and this treatment also results in potent intracellular target RNA reduction.
These findings have important therapeutic implications.
Autonomous Decentralized Systems
Authors: Mori Kinji
Published: January 2008

The concept of an autonomous decentralized systems (ADS), its data field (DF) architecture, and its application are presented. In this concept, an autonomous subsystem is defined with two properties of autonomous controllability and autonomous coordinabiliy, and a system is grasped as the result of integration of autonomous subsystems. Each autonomous subsystem is connected mutually only through the DF where all data are broadcasted and each subsystem independently selects to receive only the necessary data, and it is driven only by the received data. This architecture ensures online expansion, fault‐tolerance, and online maintenance of the system. Moreover an application system, the Autonomous Decentralized Transport Operation Control System (ATOS) of the Tokyo metropolitan‐area railway system, is described.
Analytical Customer Relationship Management
Authors: Srivastava Jaideep , Vayghan Jamshid A. , Lim Ee‐Peng , Hwang San‐Yih , Wang Jau‐Hwang
Published: January 2008

The Internet has emerged as a low‐cost, low‐latency, and high‐bandwidth customer communication channel. Its interactive nature provides an organization the ability to enter into a close, personalized dialog with individual customers. The simultaneous maturation of data management technologies like data warehousing and data mining have created the ideal environment for making customer relationship management (CRM) a much more systematic effort than it has been in the past. In this article, we describe how data analytics can be used to make various CRM functions like customer segmentation, communication targeting, retention, and loyalty much more effective. We briefly describe the key technologies needed to implement analytical CRM, and the organizational issues that must be carefully handled to make CRM a reality. The goal is to illustrate problems that exist with current CRM efforts, and how using data analytics techniques can address them.
CD‐ROMs and Computer Systems
Authors: Ranky Paul G. , Ranky Gregory N. , Ranky Mick F.
Published: January 2008

Due to the expansion of the amount of data and documents [i.e., text, line diagrams, images, digital video, animation, sound files, three‐dimensional (3‐D) virtual reality “walkthroughs,” computer aided design (CAD), and product lifecycle management (PLM) 3‐D interactive model files, measured data from machines and processes, and others) we create, store, and archive, digital mass storage technology is rapidly growing. Until the arrival of compact disc read–only (CD‐ROM) technology, the magnetic tape and then the hard disk, which was capable of reading as well as of writing data using magnetic media, were the most obvious mass data storage solutions, as they still are today for many applications.

As is the case with many new technologies, cost, robustness, security, and reliability of storing and retrieving data are of utmost interest to every direct or indirect computer user; therefore, CD‐ROMs and digital variety discs (DVD‐ROMs) have been developed as a relatively low cost (i.e., byte per cent) optical alternative for magnetic mass data storage and retrieval.

Obviously during this development, the magnetic storage industry was (and still is) fighting back, by simultaneously lowering its prices on mass storage devices as well as by increasing data transfer rates and reliability. Simultaneously, the compact disc industry researched and developed an alternative to CD‐ROM technology, which is often referred to as DVD, or DVD‐ROM, which is capable of storing several times that of the CD‐ROM capacity (the actual details will be discussed here).

Data read/write/access speeds have changed too, in that initially the CD‐ROM drive, in comparison with the magnetic hard disk drive was very slow, capable of transferring approximately 150 Kb/sc (as often referred to as the 1 × or single‐speed CD drive), whereas CD‐ROM drives achieve 56 ×, and even faster read data transfer rates, meaning approximately 8400 Kbs/sc. This rate is close to a “good” hard disk drive's read/write speed. (Obviously when analyzing the transfer rate issue, the interface and the entire computer hardware and software system integration quality is important too.)

To summarize this introduction, mass storage devices and the storage media employed are increasingly important; thus, technologies such as optical CD‐ROMs and DVDs are thriving. Other alternatives, most importantly the emerging and increasingly fast(er) intranets and the Internet, in the long run will offer more acceptable data transfer rates and bandwidth than what we have at the time of this writing. These alternatives could take off some of the burden of the individual computer user, office, or multimedia studio of storing and archiving digital data and documents—obviously at a price, security, and reliability that will ensure the future and viability of the CD‐ROM and DVD (high‐definction DVD; see below) technologies.
Communication‐Induced Checkpointing Protocols and Rollback‐Dependency Trackability: A Survey
Authors: Tsai Jichiang , Wang Yi‐Min
Published: January 2008

Communication‐induced checkpointing (CIC)can prevent a potentialdomino effectresulting from cascading rollbacks in a distributed computation. Moreover, it can be enhanced to achieve a stronger property, calledrollback‐dependency trackability (RDT), which allows all hidden rollback dependencies to be online trackable. In this article, we survey some important CIC and RDT protocols by introducing their basic concepts as well as by discussing their practical impacts.
Communication Processors for Wireless Systems
Authors: Rajagopal Sridhar , Cavallaro Joseph R.
Published: January 2008

Communication processors are processors with specific optimizations to support communication systems. Communication processors exist in a wide variety of forms and can be categorized based on the communication system, such as wired or wireless and based on the layer in the communication system, which can be the physical layer, the medium, access, control layer, or the network layer. Communication processors can be categorized even more based on the application, such as audio, video,or data and the end system requiring the communication system such as a laptop, a cell phone, or a personal computer. As communication systems have evolved over the years, there has been an increase we in data rates; increase in algorithm complexity; need for flexibility to adapt to different protocols and environments; need to optimize over varying constraints such as area, power, and performance; and the need for supporting multiple interfaces, devices, and applications. In this article, we present a brief outline of the different types of communication processors and their processing requirements. We focus on the challenges in the physical layer design of communication processors with the evolution of communication systems.
Distributed File Systems
Authors: Ching Avery , Coloma Kenin , Nisar Arifa , Liao Wei‐keng , Choudhary Alok
Published: January 2008

A distributed file system, also known as a network file system, is a means for to access data transparently across a network. A user should not have to know whether a file actually resides locally or on a remote server. In the typical distributed file system architecture in Fig. 1(a), a client uses the same standard file system calls that are translated into network requests at runtime. If the access to remote data is not transparent, a client might have to retrieve explicitly a file locally, make modifications, and then move explicitly the file back to the server as in Fig. 1(b).

Distributed file systems are a broad topic in computer science. We have organized our discussion into four distinct areas. We begin by focusing on high availability techniques that improve uptime and provide support for mobile or disconnected operation. Then, we closely examine several protocol standards for compatibility and implementation‐independent optimizations. The next section describes several distributed file systems that are tuned for high‐performance computing (HPC) applications. Finally, we discuss several distributed file systems that have application‐specific features.
Formal Specification
Authors: Kulczycki Gregory , Sitaraman Murali , Roche Kimberly , Yasmin Nighat
Published: January 2008

Formal specifications of software components describe the behavior of components precisely using mathematically rigorous notations. They are necessary to avoid miscommunication between component developers and users, and avoid costly integration errors resulting from such miscommunication. They are also essential to facilitate formal verfication of correctness.