bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effects of Polysaccharides from Different Species of Dendrobium (Shihu) on Macrophage Function
Authors: Meng Lan-Zhen , Lv Guang-Ping , Hu De-Jun , Cheong Kit-Leong , Xie Jing , Zhao Jing , Li Shao-Ping
Published: May 2013

Dendrobium spp. are precious medicinal plants, used in China for thousands of years as health foods and nutrients. Polysaccharides are the main effective ingredients in Dendrobium plants. In this study, the chemical characteristics and the effects of crude polysaccharides (CPs) from five species of Dendrobium on macrophage function were investigated and compared in vitro for the first time. Chemical characteristic studies showed that CPs from different species of Dendrobium were diverse, displaying widely varied Mw distributions and molar ratios of monosaccharides. Their effects on macrophage functions, such as promoting phagocytosis, release of NO and cytokines IL-1α, IL-6, IL-10 and TNF-α, were also different. Moreover, CPs from D. officinale, especially collected from Yunnan Province, exerted the strongest immunomodulatory activities and could be explored as a novel potential functional food. The diverse chemical characteristics of CPs from different species of Dendrobium might contribute to their varied effects on macrophage functions, which should be further investigated.
Desorption of 1,3,5-Trichlorobenzene from Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes: Impact of Solution Chemistry and Surface Chemistry
Authors: Ma Xingmao , Uddin Sheikh
Published: May 2013

The strong affinity of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to environmental contaminants has raised serious concern that CNTs may function as a carrier of environmental pollutants and lead to contamination in places where the environmental pollutants are not expected. However, this concern will not be realized until the contaminants are desorbed from CNTs. It is well recognized that the desorption of environmental pollutants from pre-laden CNTs varies with the environmental conditions, such as the solution pH and ionic strength. However, comprehensive investigation on the influence of solution chemistry on the desorption process has not been carried out, even though numerous investigations have been conducted to investigate the impact of solution chemistry on the adsorption of environmental pollutants on CNTs. The main objective of this study was to determine the influence of solution chemistry (e.g., pH, ionic strength) and surface functionalization on the desorption of preloaded 1,3,5-trichlorobenzene (1,3,5-TCB) from multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). The results suggested that higher pH, ionic strength and natural organic matter in solution generally led to higher desorption of 1,3,5-TCB from MWNTs. However, the extent of change varied at different values of the tested parameters (e.g., pH < 7 vs. pH > 7). In addition, the impact of these parameters varied with MWNTs possessing different surface functional groups, suggesting that surface functionalization could considerably alter the environmental behaviors and impact of MWNTs.
Evolution of Electroencephalogram Signal Analysis Techniques during Anesthesia
Authors: Al-Kadi Mahmoud , Reaz Mamun , Ali Mohd
Published: May 2013

Biosignal analysis is one of the most important topics that researchers have tried to develop during the last century to understand numerous human diseases. Electroencephalograms (EEGs) are one of the techniques which provides an electrical representation of biosignals that reflect changes in the activity of the human brain. Monitoring the levels of anesthesia is a very important subject, which has been proposed to avoid both patient awareness caused by inadequate dosage of anesthetic drugs and excessive use of anesthesia during surgery. This article reviews the bases of these techniques and their development within the last decades and provides a synopsis of the relevant methodologies and algorithms that are used to analyze EEG signals. In addition, it aims to present some of the physiological background of the EEG signal, developments in EEG signal processing, and the effective methods used to remove various types of noise. This review will hopefully increase efforts to develop methods that use EEG signals for determining and classifying the depth of anesthesia with a high data rate to produce a flexible and reliable detection device.
Radar Tracking with an Interacting Multiple Model and Probabilistic Data Association Filter for Civil Aviation Applications
Authors: Jan Shau-Shiun , Kao Yu-Chun
Published: May 2013

The current trend of the civil aviation technology is to modernize the legacy air traffic control (ATC) system that is mainly supported by many ground based navigation aids to be the new air traffic management (ATM) system that is enabled by global positioning system (GPS) technology. Due to the low receiving power of GPS signal, it is a major concern to aviation authorities that the operation of the ATM system might experience service interruption when the GPS signal is jammed by either intentional or unintentional radio-frequency interference. To maintain the normal operation of the ATM system during the period of GPS outage, the use of the current radar system is proposed in this paper. However, the tracking performance of the current radar system could not meet the required performance of the ATM system, and an enhanced tracking algorithm, the interacting multiple model and probabilistic data association filter (IMMPDAF), is therefore developed to support the navigation and surveillance services of the ATM system. The conventional radar tracking algorithm, the nearest neighbor Kalman filter (NNKF), is used as the baseline to evaluate the proposed radar tracking algorithm, and the real flight data is used to validate the IMMPDAF algorithm. As shown in the results, the proposed IMMPDAF algorithm could enhance the tracking performance of the current aviation radar system and meets the required performance of the new ATM system. Thus, the current radar system with the IMMPDAF algorithm could be used as an alternative system to continue aviation navigation and surveillance services of the ATM system during GPS outage periods.
Fast Estimation of Strains for Cross-Beams Six-Axis Force/Torque Sensors by Mechanical Modeling
Authors: Ma Junqing , Song Aiguo
Published: May 2013

Strain distributions are crucial criteria of cross-beams six-axis force/torque sensors. The conventional method for calculating the criteria is to utilize Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to get numerical solutions. This paper aims to obtain analytical solutions of strains under the effect of external force/torque in each dimension. Genetic mechanical models for cross-beams six-axis force/torque sensors are proposed, in which deformable cross elastic beams and compliant beams are modeled as quasi-static Timoshenko beam. A detailed description of model assumptions, model idealizations, application scope and model establishment is presented. The results are validated by both numerical FEA simulations and calibration experiments, and test results are found to be compatible with each other for a wide range of geometric properties. The proposed analytical solutions are demonstrated to be an accurate estimation algorithm with higher efficiency.
IPv6 Addressing Proxy: Mapping Native Addressing from Legacy Technologies and Devices to the Internet of Things (IPv6)
Authors: Jara Antonio , Moreno-Sanchez Pedro , Skarmeta Antonio , Varakliotis Socrates , Kirstein Peter
Published: May 2013

Sensors utilize a large number of heterogeneous technologies for a varied set of application environments. The sheer number of devices involved requires that this Internet be the Future Internet, with a core network based on IPv6 and a higher scalability in order to be able to address all the devices, sensors and things located around us. This capability to connect through IPv6 devices, sensors and things is what is defining the so-called Internet of Things (IoT). IPv6 provides addressing space to reach this ubiquitous set of sensors, but legacy technologies, such as X10, European Installation Bus (EIB), Controller Area Network (CAN) and radio frequency ID (RFID) from the industrial, home automation and logistic application areas, do not support the IPv6 protocol. For that reason, a technique must be devised to map the sensor and identification technologies to IPv6, thus allowing homogeneous access via IPv6 features in the context of the IoT. This paper proposes a mapping between the native addressing of each technology and an IPv6 address following a set of rules that are discussed and proposed in this work. Specifically, the paper presents a technology-dependent IPv6 addressing proxy, which maps each device to the different subnetworks built under the IPv6 prefix addresses provided by the internet service provider for each home, building or user. The IPv6 addressing proxy offers a common addressing environment based on IPv6 for all the devices, regardless of the device technology. Thereby, this offers a scalable and homogeneous solution to interact with devices that do not support IPv6 addressing. The IPv6 addressing proxy has been implemented in a multi-protocol Sensors 2013, 13 6688 card and evaluated successfully its performance, scalability and interoperability through a protocol built over IPv6.
Growth factor stimulation of cardiomyocytes induces changes in the transcriptional contents of secreted exosomes
Authors: Gennebäck Nina , Hellman Urban , Malm Linus , Larsson Göran , Ronquist Gunnar , Waldenström Anders , Mörner Stellan
Published: May 2013

Exosomes are nano‐sized extracellular vesicles, released from various cells, which can stimulate or repress responses in targets cells. We recently reported that cultured cardiomyocytes are able to release exosomes and that they, in turn, are involved in facilitating events in target cells by alteration of gene expression. We investigated whether external stimuli of the cardiomyocyte might influence the transcriptional content of the released exosomes.

Exosomes were isolated from media collected from cultured cardiomyocytes (HL‐1) with or without growth factor treatment (TGF‐β2 and PDGF‐BB), with a series of differential centrifugations, including preparative ultracentrifugation and separation with a sucrose gradient. The exosomes were characterized with dynamic light scattering (DLS), electron microscopy (EM) and Western blot and analyzed with Illumina whole genome microarray gene expression.

The exosomes were rounded in shape and had an average size of 50–90 nm in diameter with no difference between treatment groups. Analysis of the mRNA content in repeated experiments conclusively revealed 505 transcripts in the control group, 562 in the TGF‐β2‐treated group and 300 in the PDGF‐BB‐treated group. Common transcripts (217) were found in all 3 groups.

We show that the mode of stimulation of parental cells affects the characteristics of exosomes released. Hence, there is a difference in mRNA content between exosomes derived from cultured cardiomyocytes stimulated, or not stimulated, with growth factors. We also conclude that all exosomes contain a basic package consisting of ribosomal transcripts and mRNAs coding for proteins with functions within the energy supply system.
De quelques sémitismes de Flavius Josèphe
Authors: Bernardi Jean
Published: May 2013

Les sémitismes sont très rares dans la BJ. L'influence des historiens grecs, notamment du style de Thucydide, est au contraire patente. Josèphe avait reçu une éducation grecque, probablement à Césarée de Palestine. Les conseillers qui l'ont assisté dans la rédaction de son ouvrage ne s'intéressaient nullement à la correction de la langue : leur mission était politique.
How reliable is secondary risk stratification with stimulated thyroglobulin in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma?
Authors: Lemb J. , Hüfner M. , Meller B. , Homayounfar K. , Sahlmann C. , Meller J.
Published: May 2013

Objective: Primary risk factors in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) are well established. In our institution, secondary risk stratification has been performed with stimulated Thyroglobulin (sTg; TSH > 30 mIU/l) within six months after primary therapy since 2001. In this study, we evaluated the predictive value of sTg for long-term disease- free survival (DFS). Patients, methods: Data of 202 consecutive patients with DTC were analyzed retrospectively. Median follow-up time was 6.4 years (12 months to 16.2 years). Patients were staged according to Union International Contre le Cancer (UICC) criteria. Primary risk stratification was carried out according to European Thyroid Association criteria. Initially, 134 patients (66%) were classified as low-risk and 68 patients (34%) as high-risk. The influence of established risk factors and sTg on DFS was analyzed at three different time points, up to 36 months after initial therapy. Results: In total, 169 (84%) of all patients remained in complete remission after surgery followed by radioiodine-therapy. Six patients (3%) developed tumour recurrence after initial complete remission. Primary risk factors for persistent disease were male sex, follicular or oncocytic tumour, primary tumour > 4 cm in diameter, initial lymph node involvement, initial metastatic disease and microscopic or macroscopic residual tumor. sTg ≤ 0.3 ng/ml measured within six months after initial therapy was a highly significant predictor (p ≤ 0.001) for lasting DFS, 99% of patients with sTg ≤ 0.3 ng/ml were in complete remission 36 months after initial therapy. Conclusions: A stimulated Tg ≤ 0.3 ng/ml within six months after initial therapy is a reliable predictor for long-term disease- free survival independent of primary risk stratification.
Flux, ambiances et ré-enchantement du monde
Authors: Labussière Olivier
Published: May 2013

Cet article interroge l’idée selon laquelle une ambiance surgit d’un rapport premier au monde et ne doit rien au langage qui serait l’outil d’une (re)connaissance. L’analyse est développée à partir d’un roman d’Henri Bosco, Malicroix. Dans ce roman, le cadre insulaire joue un rôle phare, pris en tension entre le langage de l’Autre (ordres domestique et épistémique) et les manifestations d’un milieu élémentaire. Tirant parti d’un cadre deleuzien, l’analyse montre comment une double inflexion donnée au langage reconfigure l’expérience du milieu dans le sens d’un corps à corps plus étroit avec les éléments, propice à l’émergence de moments d’ambiance dotés d’une expressivité propre. Auteur d’une langue concrète et vitale, Henri Bosco confère à ces moments d’ambiances, et donc au milieu dans lequel ils trouvent leurs appuis, la capacité de ré-enchanter un monde insulaire en déshérence.
Cairo behind the gates: studying the sensory configuration of Al-Rehab City
Authors: Said Noha Gamal
Published: May 2013

The current research aims to elaborate the sensory configuration of a gated community named Al Rehab City in Cairo. This contemporary urban form, imported from the United States, is part of the last stage of modernizing the city. The methods used are based on analysing the sensory phenomena captured by several techniques in situ, such as participant observation, sound recordings, in addition to citizens’ speech in the form of “commented walks”. In the first phase of analysis, the research identifies the relevant sensory phenomena which are the result of a western urban concept inhabited by oriental society. In the second part we analyse the sensory structure of this urban model by revealing the way in which the body, hearing and sight traverse the various spatial borders which make up this form of habitat.
Test Gestáltico de Bender – Modificado y VMI: Una comparación de la validez incremental
Authors: Merino César
Published: May 2013

Se evaluó la validez incremental de dos medidas de visomotricidad en relación a una medida de habilidad intelectual no verbal. Este aspecto no ha sido frecuentemente examinado en las investigaciones sobre estos constructos. Se usó el Test Gestáltico de Bender Modificado (TGBM), la Prueba de Integración Visomotora 4ta edición (VMI-4) y el DAP: IQ en 154 niños entre 4 y 8 años de dos colegios públicos. Se aplicó la regresión múltiple jerárquica de las medidas visomotoras sobre los puntajes de de la prueba de habilidad intelectual, controlando el efecto de la edad. Los resultados indican que, en comparación con el VMI-4, la habilidad visomotora medida con el TGBM contiene más varianza específica y más allá de la varianza explicada por la edad, y la varianza explicada por ambas medidas visomotoras es similar. Se discuten las implicaciones de estos resultados en la evaluación psicológica.
La representación social de la seguridad ciudadana en los vecinos de la Comuna de Melipilla, Chile
Authors: San Martín Carlos
Published: May 2013

El siguiente estudio realiza una aproximación psico-sociológica en torno a las representaciones sociales de la seguridad ciudadana, con el propósito de contribuir y profundizar, desde el plano discursivo, una noción del concepto de seguridad y prevención del delito en el contexto barrial de la Comuna de Melipilla, Chile. A través de técnicas cualitativas de investigación se buscó la elaboración de un esquema descriptivo de categorías que dieran cuenta del objeto representado a partir del significado que la ciudadanía asigna cotidianamente a la delincuencia, así como de la sensación que deriva de la inseguridad, expresada más subjetivamente como miedo al delito. Se relevan las acciones, interacciones y tensiones que sustentan diariamente los vecinos de la comuna para enfrentar la sensación de inseguridad, ya sea de forma individual o como comunidad.
Representaciones sociales de la víctima: Entre la inocencia y la militancia política
Authors: Arnoso Maitane , Pérez-Sales Pau
Published: May 2013

Mirar al pasado y tratar de dar sentido a los hechos ocurridos durante la época de la violencia genera discusiones colectivas acerca de sus causas, sus responsables o sus víctimas. Este artículo presenta una investigación cuyo objetivo fue explorar y analizar las representaciones sociales que existen en torno a las víctimas de la dictadura militar. Se utilizó una metodología que combinó cuestionarios y entrevistas en profundidad para una muestra de 30 familiares de detenidos/as desaparecidos/as y 22 ex presos/as políticos/as, e incluyó técnicas cuantitativas para una muestra poblacional de 400 personas habitantes de la Provincia de Jujuy, Argentina. De los resultados se extrae que la sociedad no les auto culpa, sino que construye sobre ellas un imaginario humanitario-victimista que contrasta con la imagen de sobrevivientes y luchadoras sociales o políticas que las víctimas tienen de sí mismas.
Estilos parentales y creatividad en niños escolarizados
Authors: Krumm Gabriela , Vargas-Rubilar Jael , Gullón Silvana
Published: May 2013

El siguiente trabajo tuvo como objetivo analizar si los estilos parentales predicen la creatividad en tareas de papel y lápiz, y la percepción que tiene el niño de sí mismo sobre su creatividad. Se trabajó con una muestra de 219 niños de 9 a 12 años de edad de diferentes centros educativos de la provincia de Entre Ríos, Argentina. Se administró una adaptación de la Escala Argentina de Percepción de la Relación con los Padres para niños de Richaud de Minzi basada en el modelo Schaefer, la prueba de figuras del Test de Pensamiento Creativo de Torrance Forma B y la Escala de Personalidad Creadora heteroevaluación de Garaigordobil. Los resultados mostraron que la aceptación parental es un predictor positivo de la creatividad. Además, la disciplina laxa es un factor inhibidor del proceso creativo del niño. Finalmente, el control patológico desde los estilos parentales se relacionó negativamente con la creatividad.
Percepciones del estudiantado sobre la democracia y los derechos humanos al finalizar la Educación General Básica: Un estudio desde las aulas de Historia
Authors: Muñoz Carlos , Vasquez Nelson , Sánchez Maria
Published: May 2013

El artículo presenta una investigación cualitativa efectuada en la Región del Bio Bio, Chile, que buscó estudiar las percepciones sobre la democracia y los derechos humanos en estudiantes que finalizaban la Educación General Básica, así como la presencia de éstas temáticas en el curriculum escolar y en las actividades de aprendizaje que realizan cotidianamente en las clases de Historia. Los resultados sugieren que si bien ambas temáticas poseen una cobertura curricular adecuada, su apropiación por parte del estudiantado es bastante dispar. Si bien los estudiantes perciben la democracia como un concepto estático, rígido, estancado en el tiempo, la mayoría de las veces ajeno a la vivencia escolar y más bien propia de otros contextos, consideran que los derechos humanos son fundamentales para garantizar la justicia, la libertad de expresión, el respeto a la diversidad y la vida en comunidad.
An assessment of particle filtering methods and nudging for climate state reconstructions
Authors: Dubinkina S. , Goosse H.
Published: May 2013

Abstract. Using the climate model of intermediate complexity LOVECLIM in an idealised framework, we assess three data-assimilation methods for reconstructing the climate state. The methods are a nudging, a particle filter with sequential importance resampling, and a nudging proposal particle filter and the test case corresponds to the climate of the high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere during the past 150 yr. The data-assimilation methods constrain the model by pseudo-observations of surface air temperature anomalies obtained from the same model, but different initial conditions. All three data-assimilation methods provide with good estimations of surface air temperature and of sea ice concentration, with the nudging proposal particle filter obtaining the highest correlations with the pseudo-observations. When reconstructing variables that are not directly linked to the pseudo-observations such as atmospheric circulation and sea surface salinity, the particle filters have equivalent performance and their correlations are smaller than for surface air temperature reconstructions but still satisfactory for many applications. The nudging, on the contrary, obtains sea surface salinity patterns that are opposite to the pseudo-observations, which is due to a spurious impact of the nudging on vertical exchanges in the ocean.
Combined impacts of current and future dust deposition and regional warming on Colorado River Basin snow dynamics and hydrology
Authors: Deems J. S. , Painter T. H. , Barsugli J. J. , Belnap J. , Udall B.
Published: May 2013

Abstract. The Colorado River provides water to 40 million people in seven states and two countries and to 5.5 million irrigated acres. The river has long been overallocated. Climate models project runoff losses of 5–20% from the basin by mid-21st century due to human-induced climate change. Recent work has shown that decreased snow albedo from anthropogenic dust loading to the CO mountains shortens the duration of snow cover by several weeks relative to conditions prior to white settlement of the western US, and advances peak runoff at Lees Ferry, Arizona by an average of 3 weeks. Increases in evapotranspiration from earlier exposure of soils and germination of plants have been estimated to decrease annual runoff by more than 1.0 billion cubic meters or ~ 5% of the annual average. This prior work was based on observed dust loadings during 2005–2008; however, 2009 and 2010 saw unprecedented levels of dust loading on snowpacks in the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB), being on the order of 5 times the 2005–2008 loading. Building on our prior work, we developed a new snow albedo decay parameterization based on observations in 2009/2010 to mimic the radiative forcing of extreme dust deposition. We convolve low, moderate, and extreme dust/snow albedos with both historic climate forcing and two future climate scenarios via a delta method perturbation of historic records. Compared to moderate dust, extreme dust absorbs 2 × to 4 × the solar radiation, and shifts peak snowmelt an additional 3 weeks earlier to a total of 6 weeks earlier than pre-disturbance. The extreme dust scenario reduces annual flow volume an additional 1% (6% compared to pre-disturbance), a smaller difference than from low to moderate due to melt season shifting into a season of lower evaporative demand. The sensitivity of flow timing to dust radiative forcing of snow albedo is maintained under future climate scenarios, but the sensitivity of flow volume reductions decreases with increased climate forcing. These results have implications for water management and suggest that dust abatement efforts could be an important component of any climate adaptation strategies in the UCRB.
A recursive multibody formalism for systems with small mass and inertia terms
Authors: Arnold M.
Published: May 2013

Abstract. Complex multibody system models that contain bodies with small mass or nearly singular inertia tensor may suffer from high frequency solution components that deteriorate the solver efficiency in time integration. Singular perturbation theory suggests to neglect these small mass and inertia terms to allow a more efficient computation of the smooth solution components. In the present paper, a recursive multibody formalism is developed to evaluate the equations of motion for a tree structured N body system with O(N) complexity even if isolated bodies have a rank-deficient body mass matrix. The approach is illustrated by some academic test problems in 2-D.
Hydraulic stream network conditioning by a tectonically induced, giant, deep-seated landslide along the front of the Apennine chain (south Italy)
Authors: Galeandro A. , Doglioni A. , Guerricchio A. , Simeone V.
Published: May 2013

Abstract. The tectonic stresses that produced the uplift of Apennine chain ridge in southern Italy generated advanced buried thrusts of allochthonous deposits that induced deformations of foredeep deposits. This thrust may cause giant, deep-seated landslides at the front of the chain. Starting from a specific case history in low Biferno Valley, this work presents how giant, deep-seated landslides along the front of the chain may be generated by the thrust of allochthonous nappe of the chain. In addition, the influence that these huge phenomena may have on landslide and flood susceptibility and on natural hazards of the involved area is analysed. The work presents an interpretation of local morphology and stream network paths of low Biferno Valley as a consequence of a giant, deep-seated landslide affecting the right side of the valley. The proposed interpretation is supported by numerical geomorphological analyses of the area at stake. It is shown how both the morphologies of the catchments of the river Biferno and its tributary Cigno and stream paths are strongly conditioned by this large, deep-seated landslide. This landslide deviates the stream paths affecting both the flooding susceptibility of low Biferno Valley and landslide susceptibility on the left side of Biferno Valley.
Nonlinear flow model for well production in an underground formation
Authors: Guo J. C. , Nie R. S.
Published: May 2013

Abstract. Fluid flow in underground formations is a nonlinear process. In this article we modelled the nonlinear transient flow behaviour of well production in an underground formation. Based on Darcy's law and material balance equations, we used quadratic pressure gradients to deduce diffusion equations and discuss the origins of nonlinear flow issues. By introducing an effective-well-radius approach that considers skin factor, we established a nonlinear flow model for both gas and liquid (oil or water). The liquid flow model was solved using a semi-analytical method, while the gas flow model was solved using numerical simulations because the diffusion equation of gas flow is a stealth function of pressure. For liquid flow, a series of standard log-log type curves of pressure transients were plotted and nonlinear transient flow characteristics were analyzed. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were used to compare the solutions of the linear and nonlinear models. The effect of nonlinearity upon pressure transients should not be ignored. For gas flow, pressure transients were simulated and compared with oil flow under the same formation and well conditions, resulting in the conclusion that, under the same volume rate production, oil wells demand larger pressure drops than gas wells. Comparisons between theoretical data and field data show that nonlinear models will describe fluid flow in underground formations realistically and accurately.
Diffusive equilibration of N2, O2 and CO2 mixing ratios in a 1.5 million years old ice core
Authors: Bereiter B. , Fischer H. , Schwander J. , Stocker T. F.
Published: May 2013

Abstract. In the framework of the International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences, one of the most important target is to retrieve an Antarctic ice core that extends over the last 1.5 million years, i.e. an ice core that enters the climate era when glacial-interglacial cycles followed the obliquity cycles of the sun. In such an ice core the annual layers of the oldest ice would be thinned by a factor of about 100 and the climatic information of a 10 000 yr interval would be contained in less than 1m of ice. The gas record in such an Antarctic ice core can potentially reveal the role of greenhouse gas forcing on these 40 000 yr cycles. However, besides the extreme thinning of the annual layers, also the long residence time of the trapped air in the ice and the relatively high ice temperatures near the bedrock favour diffusive exchanges. To investigate the changes in the O2/N2 ratio, as well as the trapped CO2 concentrations, we modelled the diffusive exchange of the trapped gases O2, N2 and CO2 along the vertical axis. Even though the boundary conditions of a potential drilling site are not yet well constrained and the uncertainties in the permeation coefficients of the air constituents in the ice are large, the results suggest that in the oldest ice the precessional variations in the O2/N2 ratio will be damped by 50–100%, whereas CO2 concentration changes associated with glacial-interglacial variations will experience a damping of only 5%. This significant attenuation of the precessional O2/N2 signal in the ice older than 1 Myr will limit the possibility to use the O2/N2 ratio for orbital tuning of the ice core age scale.
Local Aetiology and Pathways to Care in Malaria among the Ibibio of South-coastal Nigeria
Authors: Ajala A. S. , Wilson N. A.
Published: May 2013

There is a parallel between local and bio-medical perceptions of malaria among the Ibibio people of South-coastal Nigeria, as in many other societies of sub-Saharan Africa where malaria is endemic. Despite the fact that this accounts for resilience of the disease, earlier studies on malaria in Africa focused on causes, prevalence and socio-environmental factors. Local meanings of malaria and their influence on therapeutic choices have been largely ignored. This study examines local perceptions of malaria among the Ibibio and explains how attitudes are generated from indigenous meanings. It also examines how such attitudes inform a local aetiology of malaria. Similarly, our study examines how local meanings of, and attitudes towards malaria, set the pathway of care in malaria management among the Ibibio. Through qualitative and descriptive ethnography, Key Informant Interview (KII), Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and the textual analysis of documents, our study seeks to establish that malaria is caused by parasites–protozoa. 83% of the respondents held that malaria is due to witchcraft, exposure to sunlight and eating of yellowish food items such as yellow maize, paw-paw, orange and red oil. These local perceptions are drawn from local conceptions which in turn encourage malaria patients to seek assistance outside modern health care facilities. This also discourages local communities from attending health education workshops that link malaria with germ theory and care. Treatment of malaria is thus mostly home-based where a wide variety of traditional remedies is practiced. Our study concludes that the lack of convergence between local knowledge-contents and bio-medical explanations account for a high prevalence rate and the lack of effective management. For proper management of malaria, there is a need to understand local knowledge and indigenous concepts in order to establish a convergence between bio-medical explanations and indigenous perceptions. Only then can a community acceptable means of changing bio-medical perceptions of the disease be facilitated.
How the Practicing Physician Encounters Human Rights in Daily Clinical Situations
Authors: Rosiek A. , Leksowski K.
Published: May 2013

Our study shows the awareness and application of the concept of  human rights (understood as patient rights) in a hospital environment. We sought to determine whether such rights are respected, soliciting the opinion of patients and as to how it acts as a measure for whether service delivery is wholly effective in the conext of the clinician-patient relation. Our research was undertaken to signal a contemporary need in service delivery: health personnel involved in the delivery of surgical services have much to learn from the practical applications of human rights principles and the essential role they must fulfill in research and advocacy in order to improve the availability of surgical care globally. Human rights, medical ethics and empathy are parallel mechanisms working at the level of the patient-clinician relationship. This, in general, can influence the quality of care and communication for the better. Our study was conducted in 2011 and lasted 6 months. The research sites were the public hospitals located in the Kujavian-Pomeranian region of Poland. There were  two classes of hospitals: the first, had more than 400 beds (Group I) and the second one: above 400 beds (Group II). We solicted the opinion of 180 patients who had undergone laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The main planned outcome (hypothesis zero) of the study was that there were no differences between the two Groups of hospitals, and therefore no substantial variance in service delivery. The Mann-Whitney U test evidenced that judging by the significance level (p > 0.05), there is no basis for rejecting hypothesis zero.
The Stench of Disease: Public Health and the Environment in Late-Medieval English towns and cities
Authors: Ciecieznski N. J.
Published: May 2013

This article explores the urban environmental concerns of late-medieval English towns and cities and argues that these urban areas had a form of public health. During this period, regulations that focused on maintaining the good health of town and city inhabitants were created and enforced. Among other things, these regulations focused on reducing unsanitary trade practices, protecting water sources, eliminating foul smells from the air, and preventing the consumption of bad food and water. They also represented a practical application of medieval theories and perceptions of disease—namely that disease was linked to bad smells. Rather than lacking any form of public health due to medieval theories of disease, they actively pursued it due to the ancient and medieval link between environmental health and physical health.
Editorial Introduction
Authors: Reggio David
Published: May 2013

Editorial Introduction
Who Defines Culturally Acceptable Health Access? Universal rights, healthcare politics and the problems of two Mbya-Guarani communities in the Misiones Province, Argentina
Authors: Sy A.
Published: May 2013

This paper seeks to analyze the problems and barriers encountered when public policy health programs are implemented within indigenous communities. The initial stumbling block for such programs is precisely the idea of health as a universal right, around which emerges a characterization and stereotype of the indigenous population who are consequently addressed as a homogenized unit subsisting below the poverty line, and marginalized. A result of this is that the  particular ethno-cultural register of such populations fails to be acknowledged and form part of a systematic public health policy. Consequently, health policies become generalized in character, unable to variate and differentiate according to the culturally specific contexts within which health outreach and access is needed. In this sense, based on the results of an ethnographic study carried out in two Mbya-Guaraní indigenous communities of Argentina, our study highlights as to how public policies of indigenous health are perceived, their impact value measured, and the meanings which emerge locally about the policy practices implemented.Lastly, our study identifies problems that can be avoided in fulfilling the goals of universal policies and certain questions to consider at the time of policy design and implementation.
Technological and Social Drivers of Change in the Online Music Industry (originally published in February 2002)
Authors: Fox Mark
Published: May 2013

This paper is included in the First Monday Special Issue: Music and the Internet, published in July 2005. Special Issue editor David Beer asked authors to submit additional comments regarding their articles.
This article complements two works that I wrote around the same time—in Popular Music and Society ("E-commerce Business Models for the Music Industry", volume 27, number 2), and—along with Bruce Wrenn—in the International Journal on Media Management ("A Broadcasting Model for the Music Industry", volume 3, number 2).
Technological, social and legal changes have continued to shape the development of business models in the music industry. Notably, Apple Computer’s iTunes service has been extremely successful with over 250 millions songs being downloaded and paid for. Today, some iPOD players are capable of storing 75,000 songs. Other major developments include the development of a download service (at 88 cents per song) by Wal-Mart, the world’s largest company. And, Napster has been re-invented as a subscription site. Alternative approaches to copyright have been developed, most notably by the Creative Commons project.
I believe that the most interesting technological challenges today revolve around how technology can be used to help us decide—or decide for us)—what to listen to. Research on music information retrieval systems will no doubt lead to developments that make the way we access music today seem cumbersome.
Considerable attention has been given to the legal implications arising from the distribution of music in a digital format via the Internet. However, less attention has been paid to the technological and social drivers of change in the music industry. This paper attempts to demonstrate the significant impact that social and technological forces have on the music industry, especially regarding lowering barriers to entry.
Digital music and subculture: Sharing files, sharing styles (originally published in February 2004)
Authors: Ebare Sean
Published: May 2013

Digital music and subculture: Sharing files, sharing styles by Sean Ebare
In this paper I propose a new approach for the study of online music sharing communities, drawing from popular music studies and cyberethnography. I describe how issues familiar to popular music scholars — identity and difference, subculture and genre hybridity, and the political economy of technology and music production and consumption — find homologues in the dynamics of online communication, centering around issues of anonymity and trust, identity experimentation, and online communication as a form of "productive consumption." Subculture is viewed as an entry point into the analysis of online media sharing, in light of the user–driven, interactive experience of online culture. An understanding of the "user–driven" dynamics of music audience subcultures is an invaluable tool in not only forecasting the future of online music consumption patterns, but in understanding other online social dynamics as well.
Grey Tuesday, online cultural activism and the mash-up of music and politics (originally published in October 2004)
Authors: Howard-Spink Sam
Published: May 2013

This paper is included in the First Monday Special Issue: Music and the Internet, published in July 2005. Special Issue editor David Beer asked authors to submit additional comments regarding their articles.
I write this introduction on March 29, 2005 , the day that Internet file-sharing finally made it to the U.S. Supreme Court in MGM v. Grokster – for a full overview of the case see the EFF website, www.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/ . It is a moment long-anticipated by the content industries and the resistive coalition of “copyfighters” – high noon in the nation’s highest legal institution. From this vantage point it would be premature to speculate on the case’s likely long-term impacts on the music industry – on and off-line – and technological innovation. What is certain is that more people are participants in the musical world than at any time in history, and a Supreme Court decision cannot arrest that tide. The mash-up aesthetic has spread since the Grey Album cast it into the public consciousness, from dedicated national radio shows to the 47th GRAMMY awards, which opened with an attempted live mash-up of six acts. Cease and desist letters remain a genuine threat to remix DJs and websites even as the scene’s emerging stars are courted by major labels. Meanwhile, Downhill Battle continues to develop creative and attention-grabbing activist projects centered on copyright and fair use issues. The lifespan of the mash-up genre cannot be predicted, but the combustible mixture of music and politics is perennial.
In 2003, a little–known DJ by the name of Danger Mouse created a "mash–up" album that remixed the music of the Beatles’ White Album and hiphop star Jay–Z’s Black Album to produce a new record called The Grey Album. The swift and draconian legal reaction to the online dissemination of this technically illegal but culturally fascinating artifact gave rise to a "day of digital civil disobedience," organized by music activism group Downhill Battle. Grey Tuesday, as the day of action was known, marks a potentially new site for a blend of online political and cultural activism in the highly charged realm of intellectual property expansionism. This paper examines emergent examples of musical and Internet activism including a detailed look at Grey Tuesday itself; considers the cultural significance of the mash–up genre and the value of the musical "amateur;" and concludes with a brief consideration of "semiotic democracy" and the new mix — or, if you will, mash–up — of culture and politics that has emerged as a consequence of the rise of digital networks.
Artists' earnings and copyright: A review of British and German music industry data in the context of digital technologies (originally published in January 2005)
Authors: Kretschmer Martin
Published: May 2013

Digital technologies are often said (1) to enable a qualitatively new engagement with already existing cultural materials (for example through sampling and adaptation); and, (2) to offer a new disintermediated distribution channel to the creator. A review of secondary data on music artists’ earnings and eight in–depth interviews conducted in 2003–04 in Britain and Germany indicate that both ambitions have remained largely unfulfilled. The article discusses to what extent the structure of copyright law is to blame, and sets out a research agenda.
The elephant and the blind men - Deciphering the Free/Libre/Open Source puzzle
Authors: Krishnamurthy Sandeep
Published: May 2013

The following commentary is part of First Monday's Special Issue #2: Open Source.
Open Source software engineering - The state of research
Authors: Koch Stefan , Gonzalez-Barahona Jesus M.
Published: May 2013

The following commentary is part of First Monday's Special Issue #2: Open Source.
The emerging economic paradigm of Open Source
Authors: Perens Bruce
Published: May 2013

The following commentary is part of First Monday's Special Issue #2: Open Source.
Open Source developers have, perhaps without conscious intent, created a new and surprisingly successful economic paradigm for the production of software. Examining that paradigm can answer a number of important questions.
It's not immediately obvious how Open Source [1] works economically. Probably the worst consequence of this lack of understanding is that many people don't understand how Open Source could be economically sustainable, and some may even feel that its potential negative effect upon the proprietary software industry is an overall economic detriment. Fortunately, if you look more deeply into the economic function of software in general, it's easy to establish that Open Source is both sustainable and of tremendous benefit to the overall economy.
Open Source can be explained entirely within the context of conventional open-market economics. Indeed, it turns out that it has much stronger ties to the phenomenon of capitalism than you may have appreciated.
Altruistic individuals, selfish firms? (originally published in Volume 9, Number 1, January 2004)
Authors: Bonaccorsi Andrea , Rossi Cristina
Published: May 2013

During 2002, we conducted a survey on 146 Italian firms supplying Open Source software. This paper compares our data on firms’ motivations with data emerging from surveys made on individual programmers. We analyse the role played by different classes of motivations (social, economic and technological) in determining the involvement of different groups of agents in Open Source activities.
The social structure of free and open source software development (originally published in Volume 10, Number 2, February 2005)
Authors: Crowston Kevin , Howison James
Published: May 2013

Metaphors, such as the Cathedral and Bazaar, used to describe the organization of FLOSS projects typically place them in sharp contrast to proprietary development by emphasizing FLOSS’s distinctive social and communications structures. But what do we really know about the communication patterns of FLOSS projects? How generalizable are the projects that have been studied? Is there consistency across FLOSS projects? Questioning the assumption of distinctiveness is important because practitioner–advocates from within the FLOSS community rely on features of social structure to describe and account for some of the advantages of FLOSS production.
To address this question, we examined 120 project teams from SourceForge, representing a wide range of FLOSS project types, for their communications centralization as revealed in the interactions in the bug tracking system. We found that FLOSS development teams vary widely in their communications centralization, from projects completely centered on one developer to projects that are highly decentralized and exhibit a distributed pattern of conversation between developers and active users.
We suggest, therefore, that it is wrong to assume that FLOSS projects are distinguished by a particular social structure merely because they are FLOSS. Our findings suggest that FLOSS projects might have to work hard to achieve the expected development advantages which have been assumed to flow from "going open." In addition, the variation in communications structure across projects means that communications centralization is useful for comparisons between FLOSS teams. We found that larger FLOSS teams tend to have more decentralized communication patterns, a finding that suggests interesting avenues for further research examining, for example, the relationship between communications structure and code modularity.