bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Toward a Historiography of the Popular
Authors: Savran David
Published: August 2008

The greatest challenge that theatre scholars face today—as we watch the seemingly inexorable march of U.S. imperialism and capitalist globalization— is to remember, to historicize rigorously and resourcefully, to render events (in Brecht's words) “remarkable,” to “expose the world's mechanism on a grand scale and to copy it in such a way that it would be more easily serviced.” When we practice a mimeticism that keeps “impermanence always before our eyes, . . . our own period can be seen to be impermanent too.” We must remember in order to be able to demystify the pieties disseminated by our politicians, pundits, and journalists who so blithely disregard the brutalities and deceptions that structure the histories they glibly rewrite that one would think they sprinkled water from the River Lethe on their Cheerios every morning. For remembering, as Pierre Bourdieu points out, represents a reconstruction not only of the past but also of the dynamics of disavowal and forgetting. To historicize means to “reconstruct the history of the historical labour of dehistoricization [italics in original quote].” This reconstructive labor seems all the more urgent during a period when theatre scholars (who have long been considered more or less irrelevant within the humanities) must face the increasing corporatization of the universities for which we work, the continuing intellectual paralysis of the Left, the relentless commercialization and retrenchment of American theatre (for better or worse), and the rise of a discipline, performance studies, that is challenging, reinvigorating, and partially displacing theatre studies.
Ibsen, Theatre, and the Ideology of Modernism
Authors: Moi Toril
Published: August 2008

Over the past generation, literary critics and theatre scholars in the United States have not been overly interested in Ibsen, widely considered a fuddy-duddy old realist who never truly became modern. The fact that his plays are still performed all over the world has had little effect on scholarly opinion. This is a deplorable state of affairs, for Ibsen is a major writer of modernity on a par with Baudelaire, and Flaubert. He is also unique among nineteenth-century writers for his clear-eyed and profound analysis of the relationships between women and men in modernity.
Quo Vadis, Performance History?
Authors: Schechner Richard
Published: August 2008

Frankly, I'm not much of a historian. That is, the past interests me mostly as grist for my theoretical mill. I am not nostalgic. I don't often trek through ruins—whether of stone, paintings, videotape, paper, library stacks, or my own many notebooks. Of course, I've done the right thing when it comes to this kind of activity. I have climbed the pyramids at Teotihuacan and in Mayan country, sat on stone benches of the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens and in Epidaurus (where I was tormented by some really awful productions of ancient Greek dramas), and visited the theatre museums of four continents. On the art-history front, I've gazed at more paintings and sculptings than I can readily organize in memory. But my strongest meetings with “history” have been at the cusp of the past and present—living events always already changing as they are (re)performed. This has been the core of my “anthropology-meets-theatre” work whether among the Yaquis of Arizona, at the Ramlila of Ramnagar in India, in the highlands of Papua–New Guinea, at Off-Off Broadway in New York, in the interior of China, and at very many other events in a wide variety of places.
Land/Scape/Theater. Edited by Elinor Fuchs and Una Chaudhuri. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002; pp. 390 + illus. $59.50 cloth, $29.95 paper.
Authors: van den Berg Klaus
Published: August 2008

The past three decades have produced a wealth of criticism devoted to the issue of space and performance as well as a glut of terms attempting to capture how theatre artists exploit the spatial dimension. A brief inventory yields spectacle, site, image, heterotopia, simulacra, surface, environment, geography, scenography, visual field, place, and space—to name only a few. Drawing on insights from anthropology, phenomenology, cultural studies, new historicism, and urban studies, critics are working to investigate the cultural meaning of space, to capture its dramaturgical potential, and to rethink performance as a system of communication based on visual vocabulary.
The Undiscovered Country: The Later Plays of Tennessee Williams. Edited by Philip C. Kolin. New York: Peter Lang, 2002; pp. 240 + illus. $32.95 paper.
Authors: Fleche Anne
Published: August 2008

The Undiscovered Country is a collection of essays mostly by and for the Tennessee Williams specialist—who else could write with such confidence that Williams's “instinct for finding the humor in his most intimate pain may have sprung from the natural inclinations for self-protection and self-deprecation, long known as personality traits of the playwright” (212) ? Williams's “later plays” (of the sixties and seventies) have been “undiscovered” precisely because the Williams specialist has tended to treat them with well-meaning sympathy, even defensiveness, rather than critical rigor. Each of the fifteen essays here opens with a gloomy recitation of one later play's production history and its miserable reviews, before moving on to describe the work as unfairly denigrated, and to defend Williams as the victim of his early success. Because Williams continues to experiment technically throughout his career, the writers in The Undiscovered Country are in an awkward position. If they want to say that the later plays are new, better, or even different, they have to look to the past—the very history that “traps” him. The need to view the Author as the “past” or source of the works is, as Roland Barthes saw, a modern invention that really seeks to glorify the critic. Barthes celebrated the “Death of the Author” not as an escape from critical responsibility but as a way to ensure it. What would it take to clear away the history of neglect and well-meaning phrases and to read Williams's plays differently?
Staging Consciousness: Theater and the Materialization of Mind. By William W. Demastes. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002; pp. 193. $47.50 cloth.
Authors: Pizzato Mark
Published: August 2008

William W. Demastes's new book is a rare find. It shows a new direction for interdisciplinary theatre scholarship, combining drama and performance with cognitive science, fuzzy logic, and complexity theory. With this challenging combination, Demastes extends the significance of theatre beyond its conventional place in the humanities and proposes specific ties between an ancient art form and recent scientific discoveries. He demonstrates a post-postmodern or “neostructuralist” approach that dares to discuss “the emergent essence of life itself,” through a materialist, yet “nonpositivist” science of the drama. He thus offers a glimpse “of ’universal' consciousness” in theatre's “spiritual something more” (7–9).
Pleasure Gardens. Performing Arts Resources, vol. 21. Edited by Stephen M. Vallillo and Maryann Chach. New York: Theatre Library Association, 1998; pp. 105. $30 cloth; Their Championship Seasons: Acquiring, Processing, and Using Performing Arts Archives. Performing Arts Resources, vol. 22. Edited by Kevin Winkler. New York: Theatre Library Association, 2001; pp. 142. $30 cloth.
Authors: Emeljanow Victor
Published: August 2008

The annual publication of the Theatre Library Association is designed “to gather and disseminate scholarly articles dealing with the location of resource materials” relating to all media as well as popular entertainments, the evaluation of those resources, and to include as well “monographs of previously unpublished original material.” The volumes are slim ones, so we should not expect coverage of the many theatre collections available to scholars and practitioners, but rather a highly selective series of essays reflecting the priorities of the Association or of the individual volume editors. This certainly appears to be the case here: the 1998 volume concerns itself with eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American pleasure gardens, whereas, after a publication hiatus of three years, the 2001 volume is focused around the acquisition, scope, and use of four major archives—those of the Joseph Papp/New York Shakespeare Festival and of Lucille Lortel in the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts, the Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute at Ohio State University, and the holdings of the Weill—Lenya Research Center in New York. As a consequence, the tones of the two volumes are very different, as is their utility. The first volume appears to be directed toward a disinterested readership; the second addresses those who might actually use the particular collections.
Becoming Criminal: Transversal Performance and Cultural Dissidence in Early Modern England. By Bryan Reynolds. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002; pp. 195. $41.95 cloth; Theatrical Convention and Audience Response in Early Modern Drama. By Jeremy Lopez. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003; pp. 216. $60 cloth.
Authors: Cunningham Karen J.
Published: August 2008

Bryan Reynolds's fascinating book, Becoming Criminal, contributes to the growing scholarly work that examines relations among early modern literature, theatre, and legalism. Reynolds identifies a distinct late sixteenth-century criminal culture that operated according to its own aesthetic, ideology, language, and lifestyle. This culture's proximity to state official culture was a crucial part of its own identity and also of its power to undermine and dissent from that official cultural identity. “Self-defined by the criminal conduct and dissident thought” of its members, and “officially defined by and against the dominant preconceptions of English cultural normality,” this culture “constituted a subnation that illegitimately occupied material and conceptual space within the English nation” (1). In this view, it sought not to destroy the dominant system but to feed off of it, possessing in itself a paradoxical coherence and chosen way of life that “transverses” official culture: that lies athwart of it, crosses into it, and is fetishized by it.
Scene Design at the Court of Louis XIV: The Work of the Vigarani Family and Jean Berain. By Frederick Paul Tollini. Studies in Theatre Arts 22. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2003; pp. 137; 34 illustrations; 6 color plates. $109.95 cloth.
Authors: Daniels Barry
Published: August 2008

Gaspare Vigarani, the Italian architect and set designer, was hired in 1659 to build a new theatre in the Tuileries Palace for the festivities celebrating Louis XIV's marriage in 1660. This theatre, the ill-fated albeit magnificent Salle des Machines, was not completed in time for the wedding celebration. It opened in February 1662 with a production of Cavalli's opera Ercole amante. His sons Carlo and Ludovico had assisted Vigarani in creating the scenery and machinery for this production. In 1663, Carlo was invited back to France to supervise royal entertainments, a function he exercised until 1680. In 1673, he joined the composer Lully at the newly created Académie royale de musique, where he designed scenery until 1680. Jean Berain, who was named to the post of “dessinateur de la chambre et du cabinet du Roi” in 1674, had assisted Vigarani early in his career and designed costumes for Lully's operas. He succeeded Vigarani as set designer at the Opera in 1680, a post he would hold until 1710.
No Kidding! Clown as Protagonist in Twentieth-Century Theater. By Donald McManus. Newark: University of Delaware Press. 2003; pp. 190. $39.50 cloth.
Authors: Schechter Joel
Published: August 2008

The century that featured two world wars, mass murder, and nuclear terror was also a century in which clowns ceased to be comic. So Donald McManus suggests in his book about clowns who face their own deaths: suicides, mock executions, and hangings. No wonder the book is titled No Kidding! That phrase is a translation of the Swiss clown Grock's “Sans blââgue!”—words through which the popular circus artist indicated “to his audience the potentially serious nature of his comic turns,” according to McManus (11).
Performance and Literature in the Commedia dell'Arte. By Robert Henke. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003; pp. xiv + 263. $70 cloth.
Authors: Gossip Christopher
Published: August 2008

The title of Robert Henke's latest book accurately reflects its innovative contents. The close study of manuscript and printed texts of various kinds—contracts, letters, poems, memorializations, scenarios, treatises, and diaries—sits alongside examination of actors, actresses, the character system, and individual roles to provide the first study devoted to the interaction, indeed cross-fertilization, between the oral and the literary aspects of commedia dell'arte, contrasting yet complementing each other as did binary pairs of arte figures.
The Stage Life of Props. By Andrew Sofer. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003; pp. 278. $19.95 paper.
Authors: Chemers Michael M.
Published: August 2008

New historicism has come under fire in certain quarters for its perceived tendency to merely replace older totalizing histories with new ones that reify the very univocity they ostensibly strive to complicate. To respond to Deleuze and Guattari's call for “rhizomatic” histories in preference to “arboreal” ones has proven quite difficult to achieve in practice, even for the most dedicated adherents. Andrew Sofer's The Stage Life of Props comes as close as any history to realizing a comprehensive and comprehensible study of physical objects in the theatre that eschews master narratives in favor of a more fungoid methodology. In so doing, Sofer has created a convincing text that does for the history of stage properties what Joseph Roach's The Player's Passion (1985) did for the history of acting: set the stage, as it were, for a revitalized look at one of the murkier zones of theatre history as useful for students of props in general as it is to period specialists looking for new approaches to old mysteries.
Does Labor Matter? Institutions, Labor Unions and Pension Reform in France and the United States
Authors: BÉLAND DANIEL
Published: August 2008

This article challenges Paul Pierson's account on the (supposedly declining) role of labor unions in the ‘new politics of the welfare state’. More specifically, the text compares labor's influence on the French and the American politics of pension reform since the 1980s. The analysis of recent reforms undertaken in both countries demonstrates the impact of institutions and managerial settings on labor's political strategies. These institutional variables explain the fact that French unions have a much more direct influence on public pension reform than their American counterparts. In France, labor unions have an ideological ‘veto point’ derived from their integration into the management process. Their strong influence on the ‘new politics of the welfare state’ is undeniable: labor still matters.
Resurrecting Pufendorf and capturing the Westphalian moment
Authors: Boucher David
Published: August 2008

In this article I intend to give more attention to Pufendorf's ideas than has been the custom among international relations theorists. The main focus will be upon Pufendorf's distillation and conceptualization of the implications of Westphalia in terms of sovereignty and the integrity of states. Furthermore, his extension of the Aristotelian classification of types of state, and his attempts to go beyond Bodin's and Hobbes's theories of sovereignty, provide the vocabulary and concepts in terms of which the different international actors of the late seventeenth century could be understood. In this respect the focus is altogether different from Linklater. My emphasis upon the historical and emblematic character of the Peace of Westphalia, the personification of the state and its animation by sovereignty, which serves to facilitate Pufendorf's exploration of the idea of a system of states, and my suggestion that his ideas are not wholly redundant and may be used to explore some facets of a modern states system, serve considerably to extend Forsyth's brief analysis.
Why ‘The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers’ was wrong
Authors: Nau Henry R.
Published: August 2008

In 1987, Paul Kennedy predicted in his best-selling book, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, that the Pacific region, especially Japan and China, would rise in power, while the then Soviet Union, the United States and Europe would decline in power. Except for Russia, his predictions have not fared well. Why? His realist model of international politics ignored the role of national identities. National identities involve domestic institutions and policies that motivate citizens to create and use wealth and power. Nations compete through domestic reforms as well as international military and economic rivalries. Domestic changes in the United States and Europe revitalized American and European power, while delays in domestic reforms doomed Soviet/Russian power and dramatically slowed Japanese and Asian growth.
The pertinence of revolution
Authors: Gomez Roberto González
Published: August 2008

Fred Halliday has been impertinent enough to write this book at a time when the collapse of the European socialist bloc and the undiluted hegemony of a trans-nationalized capitalism, encourages the beatific neo-liberal confidence in the ‘end of history’. For this book brilliantly emphasizes the meaning and the importance of revolutions both as an historical phenomenon and in terms of its relevance for the twenty-first century, especially for those countries of the South. Probably few academics in Western countries are as well positioned as Halliday to write about the subject: his early links with the New Left in the 1960s, his interest in the study of Third World conflicts and revolutions, and of course his role as a theoretician of international relations, have equipped him well. His study analyses revolutions in all of their complexity and range, from the British to the Iranian, the French to the Bolshevik, the Chinese to the Cuban. The result is a substantial, profound, richly analytical book, that almost requires writing another book to discuss its various qualities. I will however restrict myself here to making a few comments about the issues I deem particularly significant.
System, empire and state in Chinese international relations
Authors: Zhang Yongjin
Published: August 2008

Two criticisms have long been directed at the theorization of international relations (IR): ahistoricism and Eurocentrism. Westphalia, it is argued, has been so stigmatized that it has become synonymous with the beginning as well as the end of what we understand as international relations. Rationalist theorizing in general, of both the neorealist and neoliberal persuasions, has produced a set of deductive theories that aim and claim to transcend history.
Capitalism and world (dis)order
Authors: Arrighi Giovanni , Silver Beverly J.
Published: August 2008

A sea change of major proportions is taking place in the historical social system forming the modern world, creating a widespread sense of uncertainty about the present and foreseeable future. In the words of Eric Hobsbawm, as ‘the citizens of the fin de siècle tapped their way through the global fog that surrounded them, into the third millennium, all they knew for certain was that an era of history had ended. They knew very little else’.
On Wendt's philosophy: a critique
Authors: SUGANAMI HIDEMI
Published: August 2008

This article subjects to a close philosophical scrutiny the internal logic of Wendt's extensive argument regarding his work's location in the field—in particular, how it relates to, and differs from, the American ‘rationalist’ orthodoxy in IR, comprising neorealism and neoliberalism. I argue that his empirical hypotheses regarding collective identity formation are plausible in their own right, but that his complex philosophical argumentation, by means of which he tries to locate his work within the American scientific orthodoxy, but away from its individualist core, is unconvincing.
Misperception and ethnic conflict: Transylvania's societal security dilemma
Authors: ROE PAUL
Published: August 2008

This article proposes that instances of ethnic violence can profitably be viewed through the concept of a societal security dilemma. It begins by arguing that the explanatory value of the security dilemma might be enhanced by shifting the focus of the concept away from its traditional concern with state sovereignty to an emphasis on ethnic identity instead. This is proposed through combining the security dilemma with the Copenhagen School's notion of societal security. In this way, the article claims that the resultant societal security dilemma is able to capture certain dynamics between ethnic groups that its traditional variant necessarily misses. The article then goes on to show how ethnic violence between Hungarians and Romanians in the Transylvanian city of Tirgu Mures can be partly explained by the societal security dilemma concept. It argues that many Romanians were mobilized on the basis of the misperception that Hungarian societal security requirements necessarily threatened their own identity. The article concludes that misperceptions on both sides were enabled by the weakness of the Romanian State; that insufficient mechanisms existed for the clear, unambiguous signalling of intentions.
Waltz, Kant and systemic approaches to international relations
Authors: HARRISON EWAN
Published: August 2008

This article compares Waltz and Kant as theorists who explicitly advocate a systemic approach to international relations. Waltz and Kant are compared with respect to their views on the nature of systemic approaches, the composition and dynamics of the international system, and the relationship between the international system and world society. It is argued that there are deep underlying similarities between their views on the nature of systemic approaches to international relations that may facilitate a much broader account of the international system. A final section examines the relevance of a Kantian view of the international system to the post-Cold War era by comparing its insights to those offered by neorealist and classical realist perspectives.

…the best way to understand the writings of philosophers is to seek out the questions they were attempting to answer.
Neural based RSPN multi-agent strategy for biped motion control
Authors: Khoukhi Amar
Published: August 2008

In this paper fhe problem of motion control of a
biped is considered. We develop a new method based on
multi-agent associated Neural AIGLS (On-line Augmented Integration of Gradient and
Last Sguare method) – RSPN (Recursive Stochastic Petri Nets) strategy.
This method deals with organization and coordination aspects in an
intelligent modeling of human motion. We propose a cooperative multi-agent
model. Based on this model, we develop a control kernel
named IMCOK (Intelligent Motion COntrol Kernel) which consists of a
controller, a coordinator and an executor of different cycles of
the motion of the biped. When walking, IMCOK receives messages
and sends offers. A Decision Making of Actions (DMA) is
developed at the supervisor level. The articulator agents partially planify
the motion of the associated non-articulator agents. The system is
hybrid and distributed functionally. The learning of the biped is
performed using an On-line Augmented Integration of Gradient and Last
Sguare Neural Networks based algorithm. In the conflictual situations of
sending or receiving messages by the managers of MABS we
apply a new strategy: Recursive Stochastic Petri Nets (RSPN). This
module is fundamental in the On-line information processing between agents.
It allows particularly the Recursive strategy concept. Cognitive agents communicate
with reactive (non-articulator) agents in order to generate the motion.
Robust control of robot manipulators with torque saturation using fuzzy
logic
Authors: Choi Hyeung-Sik
Published: August 2008

Robot manipulators, which are nonlinear structures and have uncertain system
parameters, are complex dynamically when operated in an unknown environment.
To compensate for estimate errors of the uncertain system parameters
and to accomplish the desired trajectory tracking, nonlinear robust controllers
are appropriate. However, when estimation errors or tracking errors are
large, they require large input torques, which may not be
satisfied due to torque limits of actuators such as driving
motors. As a result, their stability cannot be guaranteed. In
this paper, a new robust control scheme is presented to
solve stability problems and to achieve fast trajectory tracking of
uncertain robot manipulators in the presence of torque limits. By
using fuzzy logic, new desired trajectories which can be reduced
are generated based on the initial desired trajectory, and torques
of the robust controller are regulated so as to not
exceed torque limits. Numerical examples are shown to validate the
proposed controller using an uncertain two degree-of-freedom underwater robot manipulator.
An Expert System Shell for Fault Diagnosis
Authors: Yang Jie , Ye Chenzhou , Zhang Xiaoli
Published: August 2008

Traditional
expert systems for fault diagnosis have a bottleneck in knowledge
acquisition, and have limitations in knowledge representation and reasoning. A
new expert system shell for fault diagnosis is presented in
this paper to develop multiple knowledge models (object model, rules,
neural network, case-base and diagnose models) hierarchically based on multiple
knowledge. The structure of the expert system shell and the
knowledge representation of multiple models are described. Diagnostic algorithms
are presented for automatic modeling and hierarchical reasoning. It will
be shown that the expert system shell is very effective
in building diagnostic expert systems.
Pin design for part feeding
Authors: Tao Zhang Mike , Goldberg Ken , Smith Gordon , Beretty Robert-Paul , Overmars Mark
Published: August 2008

Industrial parts can
be fed (oriented) using a sequence of fixed horizontal pins
to topple the parts as they move past on a
conveyor belt. We give an algorithm for designing a sequence
of such pins for a given part. Given the n-sided
convex polygonal projection of a part, its center of mass
and frictional coefficients, our O(n2) algorithm computes the toppling graph,
a new data structure that explicitly represents the mechanics of
toppling, rolling, and jamming. We verify the toppling graph analysis
with experiments. Our O(n3n) design algorithm uses the toppling graph
to design a sequence of pin locations that will cause
the part to emerge in a unique orientation or to
determine that no such sequence exists.
The design of anthropomorphic prosthetic hands: A study of the
Southampton Hand
Authors: Kyberd Peter J. , Light Colin , Chappell Paul H. , Nightingale Jim M. , Whatley Dave , Evans Mervyn
Published: August 2008

The design of prosthetic hands is constrained by a series of strict
conditions. Despite this, many different design strategies have been explored. One particular form is the Southampton Hand system. This is a hierarchically controlled, electrically driven hand, with multiple axes, in an anthropomorphic form. This paper details the range of mechanical solutions adopted to address the conditions. It also compares them with other solutions.
Nonholonomic path planning among obstacles subject to curvature restrictions
Authors: Esquivel Wilson D. , Chiang Luciano E.
Published: August 2008

This paper addresses the problem of finding a nonholonomic

path subject to a curvature restriction, to be tracked by

a wheeled autonomous navigation vehicle. This robot is able to

navigate in a structured environment, with obstacles modeled as polygons,

thus constituting a model based system. The path planning methodology

begins with the conditioning of the polygonal environment by offsetting

each polygon in order to avoid the possibility of collision

with the mobile. Next, the modified polygonal environment is used

to compute a preliminary shortest path (PA) between the two

extreme positions of the trajectory in the plane (x, y). This

preliminary path (PA) does not yet consider the restrictions on

the curvature and is formed only by straight line segments.

A smoothing process follows in order to obtain a path

(PS) that satisfies curvature restrictions which consist basically of joining

the straight line segments by circular arcs of minimum radius

R (filleting). Finally, the initial and final orientation of the

vehicle are accounted for. This is done using a technique

we have called the Star Algorithm, because of the geometric

shape of the resulting maneuvers. A final complete path (PC)

is thus obtained.
A neural model for visual-tactile-motor integration in robotic reaching and

grasping tasks
Authors: López-Coronado J. , Pedreño-Molina J.L. , Guerrero-González A. , Gorce P.
Published: August 2008

This paper presents a neural model to solve

the visual-tactile-motor coordination problem in robotic applications. The proposed neural

controller is based on the VAMC (Vector Associative Map) model.

This algorithm is based on the human biological system and

has the ability of learning the mapping that establishes the

relationship between the spatial and the motor coordinates. These spatial

inputs are composed of visual and force parameters. The LINCE

stereohead carries out a visual detection process, detecting the positions

of the object and of the manipulator. The artificial tactile

skins placed over the two fingers of the gripper measure

the force distribution when an object is touched. The neural

controller has been implemented for robotic operations of reaching and

object grasping. The reaching process is fed back in order

to minimize the Difference Vector (DV) between the visual projections

of the object and the manipulator. The stable grasping task

processes the force distribution maps detected in the contact with

the two surfaces of the gripper, in order to direct

the object into the robotic fingers. Experimental results have demonstrated

the robustness of the model and the accuracy of the

final pick-and-place process.
The Events of June 1848: the ‘Monte Cristo’ Riots and the Politics of Protest
Authors: Emeljanow Victor
Published: August 2008

Theatrical riots are usually dismissed as occasions during which aesthetic reactionaries battled reformers over stylistic issues of little relevance to pressing and immediate social concerns. Yet how true is this? What were the real issues which boiled over at such apparently confined and innocuous occasions as the Old Price Riots at Covent Garden in 1809, the Paris Ernani riot of 1830, the visit of a celebrated English actor which sparked the New York Astor Place riot in 1849, or the first night of a play which brought about the Playboy riots in Dublin in 1907? The complex social and cultural tensions on such occasions clearly operated during the two days of disturbance which came to be known as the Monte Cristo riots in London in 1848, and there are curious modern parallels. Victor Emeljanow is Professor of Drama at the University of Newcastle, Australia. His full length works include Anton Chekhov: the Critical Heritage, Victorian Popular Dramatists, and, with Jim Davis, Reflecting the Audience: London Theatregoing, 1840–1880 (University of Iowa Press, 2001), which was recently awarded the Society for Theatre Research's Book Prize for 2002.
Insular interactions between lizards and flowers: flower visitation by an endemic Mauritian gecko
Authors: NYHAGEN DORTE FRIIS , KRAGELUND CAROLINE , OLESEN JENS. M. , JONES CARL G.
Published: August 2008

Lizards mainly eat arthropods, fruit, nectar, pollen and animal scats (Pérez-Mellado & Casas 1997, Whitaker 1987), using their sense of smell and good colour vision while foraging (Vinson & Vinson 1969). Although several papers have contributed to the knowledge on the relationship between lizards and floral resources, this topic is often still regarded as anecdotal. However, a few detailed ecological studies on lizard and flower interactions have been conducted, e.g. in New Zealand and the Balearic Isles (Eifler 1995, Sáez & Traveset 1995, Traveset & Sáez 1997,Whitaker 1987). Pollination by lizards was rendered likely by the following findings: first, Mediterranean lacertid lizards and New Zealand geckos have pollen adhering to their belly, throat and labium; second, they may carry pollen for several hours, and thus also transport pollen some distance away from a pollen donor plant. New Zealand geckos carry pollen up to 72 m away from donors. Good experimental evidence of lizard pollination was produced by Pérez-Mellado & Casas (1997). They showed that an umbellifer species produced less viable seeds if Podarcis lilfordi lizards were excluded from flowers.
Patterns of pollen collection and flower visitation by Heliconius butterflies in southeastern Mexico
Authors: CARDOSO MÁRCIO ZIKÁN
Published: August 2008

Most butterfly species forage for nectar, which provides them with carbohydrates and to some degree other nutrients, such as lipids and amino acids (Boggs 1987). A small number of genera feed exclusively on rotting fruits and plant sap (DeVries et al. 1999). Some 40 passion vine butterfly species, belonging to the genus Heliconius Kluk and a closely related monospecific genus Laparus Billberg gather nutrients from pollen feeding (Brown 1981, Gilbert 1972). Although common in bees, wasps, flies and beetles (Roulston & Cane 2000, Thorpe 2000), pollen feeding is rare among lepidopterans. In order to collect pollen, adults scrape anthers with the proboscis and gather the grains. The pollen is then incubated in solution and the amino acid-rich solution is ingested. The empty pollen grains are eventually discarded (Gilbert 1972, Krenn & Penz 1998). Pollen feeding provides amino acids that are used for egg production and somatic maintenance in adult Heliconius (Dunlap-Pianka 1979, Gilbert 1972, 1991). The most common sources of pollen are flowers of species in the genera Psiguria Neck. ex Arn. and Gurania (Schltdl.) Cogn. (Cucurbitaceae). The home range of an individual Heliconius will encompass one to many pollen plants (Murawski & Gilbert 1986).
Effects of a strong drought on Amazonian forest fragments and edges
Authors: LAURANCE WILLIAM F. , WILLIAMSON G. BRUCE , DELAMÔNICA PATRICIA , OLIVEIRA ALEXANDRE , LOVEJOY THOMAS E. , GASCON CLAUDE , POHL LUCIANO
Published: August 2008

Little is known about how climatic variability affects fragmented forests and their abrupt edges. We contrasted effects of the 1997 El Niño drought between fragmented and continuous forests in central Amazonia, using long-term data on tree mortality. For 23 permanent 1-ha plots, annualized mortality rates of trees ≥ 10 cm diameter at breast height (dbh) were compared among a ‘baseline’ interval of 5-17 y before the drought, a 12-16-month interval during the drought, and a 12-13-month interval after the drought, using repeated-measures ANOVA. We also examined the size distributions of dead trees for each interval. During the drought, average annual tree mortality rose significantly in both forest edges (from 2.44% to 2.93%) and interiors (from 1.13% to 1.91%), and the magnitude of this increase did not differ significantly between edges and interiors. After the drought, tree mortality declined in all plots, but most dramatically on edges. Mortality rates were more variable over time on edges than interiors, and there was no evidence of time lags in mortality. In forest interiors, the size distributions of trees that died did not differ significantly among the three intervals. On edges, however, relatively fewer small (10-15 cm dbh) and more medium-sized (20-30 cm dbh) trees died in the post-drought interval, compared to other intervals. Moreover, forest edges lost a significantly higher proportion of large (≥ 60 cm dbh) trees than did forest interiors. These results suggest that droughts have relatively complex effects on fragmented Amazonian forests. Drought effects in our forest fragments probably were reduced by prior floristic and structural changes near edges and by adjoining regrowth forest that partially buffered edge vegetation from desiccating conditions.
Fruiting phenology of fleshy-fruited plants and seasonal dynamics of frugivorous birds in four vegetation zones on Mt. Kinabalu, Borneo
Authors: KIMURA KAZUYA , YUMOTO TAKAKAZU , KIKUZAWA KIHACHIRO
Published: August 2008

An altitudinal survey of correspondences between fruiting phenologies of fleshy-fruited tree species and seasonal dynamics of frugivorous birds on Mt. Kinabalu in Borneo was carried out for 50 weeks across four vegetation types: a hill forest (800 m asl), a lower montane forest (1700 m), an upper montane forest (2000-3000 m) and a subalpine forest (3000-3500 m). In the hill forest, a large fruiting peak following the general flowering phenomenon was observed during October-November in 1996 and a fruitless period was observed during February-April in 1997. During the fruitless period, the number of resident frugivorous birds decreased. A bimodal fruiting pattern was observed in the lower montane forest. A large number of frugivorous temperate migrants were observed when the fruiting peak occurred. The number of resident frugivorous birds increased and several lowland bird species were observed, when the number of resident birds decreased in the hill forest. In the upper montane forest and the subalpine forest, more continuous and irregular fruiting patterns without outstanding peaks were observed and the number of resident frugivorous birds was more stable throughout the year. These suggested (1) there was a strong relationship between fruiting seasonality and seasonal dynamics of temperate migrants in the lower montane forest; (2) seasonal altitudinal movements of lowland bird species to montane vegetation might occur during the fruitless period in the lowland forest; and (3) the continuous fruiting pattern in the higher vegetation zones might be related to the scarcity of available frugivorous birds. The hypothesis that the influx of temperate migrants into the montane vegetation of Mt. Kinabalu is affected by density and habits of resident frugivorous birds is supported. Montane vegetation in Borneo plays an important role as temporal refugia for temperate and altitudinal migrants by supplying fruit resources.
Nitrogen and phosphorus enhance growth and luxury consumption of four secondary forest tree species in Borneo
Authors: LAWRENCE DEBORAH
Published: August 2008

Four common fallow tree species were tested for a response to nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization. Seedlings or cuttings of Melicope glabra (Rutaceae), Macaranga gigantea (Euphorbiaceae), Persea romosa (Laureaceae), Peronema canescens (Verbenaceae) were grown in pots of a 50:50 mix of native soil and sand under 18% full sun for 18 weeks. Every 2 weeks, plants received either added N, added P, added N+P, or no added nutrients (control). Persea, a shade-tolerant species, and Macaranga, a light-demanding pioneer, improved relative growth rate with the addition of both N and P. Neither responded to N or P alone. Peronema and Melicope demonstrated luxury consumption of both N and P but did not show enhanced growth. Two of the four species tested (Persea and Melicope) were more limited by P than N. Macaranga was equally limited by both and Peronema was more limited by N. Along with previous studies, evidence for positive growth response and luxury consumption among light-demanding species suggests that P, rather than N, should limit seedling performance and may ultimately influence tree diversity in young secondary tropical forests.
Demography, phenology and sex of Calophyllum brasiliense (Clusiaceae) trees in the Atlantic forest
Authors: FISCHER ERICH , DOS SANTOS FLAVIO A. M.
Published: August 2008

Further studies on growth and reproduction of many tree species are needed to know the regeneration patterns of tropical forests (Clark & Clark 1987, Heideman 1989). Thus, the need for studies on the c. 3% of Atlantic forest that remains in Brazil is acute, particularly in the rarely studied swamp habitats (Scarano et al. 1997). We studied the canopy tree species Calophyllum brasiliense Camb. (Clusiaceae) in flooded and unflooded habitats of a coastal lowland rain forest, in order to describe demography, sexual expression, phenology and flower and fruit production. We report the differences of such traits among three contiguous habitats found in the lowlands - unflooded forest, freshwater-flooded forest and mangrove.
Effects of land crabs on seedling densities and distributions in a mainland neotropical rain forest
Authors: SHERMAN PETER MICHAEL
Published: August 2008

The land crab, Gecarcinus quadratus (Gecarcinidae), affects plant diversity in a mainland, neotropical rain forest through selective seedling consumption. In Costa Rica's Corcovado National Park, G. quadratus lives in fossorial populations with up to six crabs m−2 in coastal forest extending c. 600 m inland from the Pacific Ocean. A narrow transition zone (c. 30 m) separates the crab zone from the crabless zone that comprises the remainder of the 55 000-ha park. The composition of dicotyledonous plants from the adjacent zones were distinct: crabless zone transects (240 m2) contained 97 species representing 76 genera and 41 families; crab zone transects contained 46 species representing 38 genera and 25 families. Despite the narrow zonal separation, the crabless zone shared only 27.4, 29.9 and 52.8% of its species, genera and families, respectively, with the crab zone; in contrast, crab zone transects shared 56.5, 60.5 and 88% of their species, genera and families with the crabless zone. This abrupt diversity gradient suggests a powerful selection pressure in the crab zone preventing the establishment of certain dicotyledonous species. Two years of experimental crab exclusion suggested that G. quadratus reduces seedling density and diversity. Densities of seedlings (3–25 cm tall) within exclosures increased 144% over baseline values while control densities decreased. In contrast, seedlings at the cotyledon stage and taller (26–50 cm) were unaffected by crab exclusion. Preference tests conducted in the crab zone revealed a five-fold ratio of mortality rates for seedlings transplanted from the crabless zone and crab zone respectively. However, when protected from crabs, transplanted crabless and crab zone seedlings survived similarly well over 6 mo (83 and 70% respectively). Together, data from transects and experiments suggest that G. quadratus influences plant community composition.
Host associations of lianas in a south-east Queensland rain forest
Authors: CARSTEN L. D. , JUOLA F. A. , MALE T. D. , CHERRY S.
Published: August 2008

Lianas are abundant in tropical forests around the world, yet little is known about their ecology. In this

study we report the results of a survey of ten common liana species on 27 host tree species in Cooloola National Park,

Queensland, Australia. We found significant associations between some liana and tree species. Our results indicate

that host tree diameter was important in explaining liana presence or absence. Host tree fruit type was correlated with

the presence or absence of different liana types. Tendrillar and root-climbing lianas tended to occur most often on

mid-sized, fleshy-fruited trees, and on smaller, non-fleshy-fruited trees. The presence of stem twining lianas tended to

decrease with increasing tree diameter for both fleshy- and non-fleshy-fruited trees, although this effect was more

pronounced for fleshy-fruited trees. In general, lianas were most prevalent on trees possessing intermediate levels of

bark roughness and flakiness. Although we established associative patterns between liana species and these host

characteristics, the model suggested that other unidentified variables may also be important in determining presence

or absence of liana species.
Reproductive ecology of the piassava palm (Attalea funifera) of Bahia, Brazil
Authors: VOEKS ROBERT A.
Published: August 2008

The reproductive ecology of piassava palm (Attalea funifera Mart.) was investigated for 19 months in

the Atlantic forests of eastern Brazil. Its breeding biology is characterized by the production of functionally female,

male and bisexual inflorescences. Staminate sterility is positively correlated with number of pistillate flowers. Staminate

and pistillate flowers are receptive at anthesis. Bagging tests for apomixis were negative. Although geitonogamy can

occasionally occur, outcrossing predominates. Pollen is relatively dry, but wind pollination is not a significant factor

in cross pollination. Although inflorescences are visited by large numbers of insects, pollination is effected mainly by

small sap beetles (Mystrops sp.) and weevils (Phyllotrox tatianae), which feed and breed in fertile staminate flowers.

Pistillate flowers, which offer no reward to pollinators, appear to attract insect visitors by olfactory and visual imitation

of staminate flowers, that is, via Bakerian mimicry. Flower production, fruit maturation, leaf production and leaf

abscission occur continuously throughout the year. Flowering exhibits a distinct peak during the warmest months

(Dec–Apr). Given its ubiquity throughout the region, A. funifera may well serve as a flowering and fruiting keystone

species.
Carbon isotope composition of tree leaves from Guanacaste, Costa Rica: comparison across tropical forests and tree life history
Authors: LEFFLER A. JOSHUA , ENQUIST BRIAN J.
Published: August 2008

Despite the progress made in understanding the ecophysiology of tropical plants during the past two decades (Lüttge 1997, Mulkey et al. 1996), questions regarding relationships between the environment and physiological diversity remain. It is now recognized that tropical climate can be quite variable (see Coen 1983) which could lead to significant functional diversity (increased variation in life history traits) among species due to the tight association between gas exchange physiology and the environment (see Enquist & Leffler 2001, Guehl et al. 1998, Huc et al. 1994, Martinelli et al. 1998, Sobrado 1993). It remains unclear, however, how the subtleties of variation in tropical climate and tree life history traits are related to the functional diversity of tropical communities (Borchert 1994, 1998).
Spatial variation of throughfall volume in an old-growth tropical wet forest, Costa Rica
Authors: Loescher Henry W. , Powers Jennifer S. , Oberbauer Steven F.
Published: August 2008

Throughfall volume and interception of bulk precipitation events were measured during individual rain events of differing magnitudes in a primary wet tropical forest at La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica. The relationship between canopy structure and throughfall were examined to identify key sources of spatial variation. Geostatistical analyses were also used to examine the spatial variation in throughfall, spatial autocorrelation and to determine minimum distances for independence of collectors. Throughfall volume was collected from 56 ground-based (funnel-style) collectors. Throughfall was collected for 26 separate precipitation events during July and August 1998. Per cent cover, distance to nearest tree, distance to nearest leaf were also estimated for each collection point. A weak relationship was found with per cent cover (r2 = 0.11). No relationship was found between throughfall and distance to the nearest leaf above the collector. Estimated interception was 1.88 mm (r2 = 0.94) with increased variance as bulk precipitation increased. A range distance of 45 m was estimated from variograms, strongly suggesting that large tree canopies and gaps are the source of much of the spatial variance in throughfall volume. Interception was reduced by 19% if only spatially independent collectors were used.