bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Leukemia with Potent Antigen-Presenting Ability
Authors: Narita Miwako , Kuroha Takashi , Watanabe Norihiro , Hashimoto Shigeo , Tsuchiyama Junjiro , Tochiki Nozomi , Saitoh Anri , Satoh Noriyuki , Furukawa Tatsuo , Toba Ken , Fuse Ichiro , Aizawa Yoshifusa , Takahashi Masuhiro
Published: October 2008

We report 2 patients with plasmacytoid dendritic cell leukemia (pDCL) expressing CD4, CD56, CD33, CD36, HLA-DR, CD123, CD86 and CD83 in the absence of lineage markers (myeloid, B, T or natural killer cells) except for CD33. Culturing leukemic blasts of both cases with IL-3 for 4 days increased the expression of surface molecules associated with antigen presentation, e.g. CD1a and CD40. Leukemic blasts of both cases possessed a considerable level of antigen-presenting ability to allogeneic lymphocytes in mixed leukocyte cultures. Culturing the blasts with IL-3 for 4 days markedly increased allogeneic antigen presenting ability. Combined with data showing evident graft-versus-leukemia effects without graft-versus-host disease in a cord blood stem cell transplanted pDCL case, leukemic cells in pDCL may act as potent antigen presenting cells in vivo, too.
Polysomnography and ApneaGraph® in Patients with Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders
Authors: Morales Divo Carolina , Selivanova Oxana , Mewes Torsten , Gosepath Jan , Lippold Rainer , Mann Wolf J.
Published: October 2008

Purpose: To evaluate whether ApneaGraph (AG) and polysomnography (PSG) deliver comparable results in patients with sleep-related breathing disorders. Procedures: A prospective study was performed, which included 14 patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. Apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), hypopnea index (HI), apnea index (AI), obstructive, central and mixed apnea, oxygen saturation (SaO2), pulse and body position were simultaneously assessed by PSG and AG in each individual. Results: There was a good correlation between measurements of AG and PSG for AHI, pulse, SaO2, body position and central apnea. However, our study showed differences between PSG and AG for AI (p = 0.002), HI (p = 0.013), mixed apnea (p = 0.003) and obstructive apnea (p = 0.013). AG indicated that 2/14 patients had a pure upper airway obstruction, 6/14 patients had a predominance of lower obstruction and 6/14 patients had a predominance of upper obstruction. Conclusion: AG provides comparable results for AHI, pulse, SaO2, body position and central apnea when compared to PSG, but not for the rest of the measurements. Using AG, the distribution of sites of obstructive events could be identified in this study in all of the patients.
Urinary Sediment Cast Scoring Index for Acute Kidney Injury: A Pilot Study
Authors: Chawla Lakhmir S. , Dommu Aaron , Berger Alexandra , Shih Shirley , Patel Samir S.
Published: October 2008

Background/Aims: Urine microscopy is a useful diagnostic tool; however, the manner in which nephrologists prepare and examine urinary sediment is variable. We developed an acute kidney injury (AKI) cast scoring index (CSI) in order to standardize urinary microscopy. Further, we sought to assess the precision of this scoring system. Methods: Urine from 30 patients with AKI consistent with the syndrome of acute tubular necrosis were collected. Sample preparation was uniform and standardized. A panel of 3 nephrologists blinded to the sample preparation were instructed to grade each slide using the AKI CSI. Subsequently, the AKI CSI was then tested in another 18 patients with AKI to determine if this score could predict nonrenal recovery. Results: The inter-observer agreement index was 99.80%, with a coefficient of variation of 1.24%. Of the 90 paired observations, 98.8% fell within 2 standard deviations of the mean, signifying good agreement. The receiver operator characteristic area under the curve for AKI CSI to predict nonrenal recovery was 0.79. Conclusions: AKI CSI is a simple, novel, reliable scoring system to grade the degree of epithelial cell and granular casts present on urine microscopy. A standardized AKI CSI has the potential to incorporate urinary cast analysis into the advancing field of AKI diagnostics. These preliminary data endorse the notion that the AKI CSI may be useful in predicting renal outcomes.
Acute Inactivation of the VHL Gene Contributes to Protective Effects of Ischemic Preconditioning in the Mouse Kidney
Authors: Iguchi Mitsuko , Kakinuma Yoshihiko , Kurabayashi Atsushi , Sato Takayuki , Shuin Taro , Hong Seung-Beom , Schmidt Laura S. , Furihata Mutsuo
Published: October 2008

Background/Aims: The von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) protein functions as an E3 ubiquitin ligase, controlling the stability of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF). Preinduction of HIF-1α before pathological insult activates a self-defense mechanism and suppresses further aggravation of organ or cellular injury by ischemia. We investigated whether acute inactivation of the VHL gene might play a role in the response of mice to ischemic renal injury. Methods: We generated tamoxifen-inducible conditional VHL knockout (VHL-KO) mice to inactivate the VHL gene in an acute manner during renal ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) induced by bilateral clamping of kidney arteries. Renal IRI is characterized by renal dysfunction and tubular damage. Results: After the procedure of IRI, blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine (CRN) levels in control mice were significantly higher (BUN, 138.10 ± 13.03 mg/dl; CRN, 0.72 ± 0.16 mg/dl) than in VHL-KO mice (BUN, 52.12 ± 6.61 mg/dl; CRN, 0.24 ± 0.04 mg/dl; BUN: p < 0.05; CRN: p < 0.05). Histologically, tubular injury scores were higher in control mice than in VHL-KO mice (p < 0.05). Conclusion: We suggest that the acute inactivation of the VHL gene contributes to protective effects of ischemic preconditioning in renal tubules of the mouse.
Sniff Nasal Inspiratory Pressure in Healthy Japanese Subjects: Mean Values and Lower Limits of Normal
Authors: Kamide Naoto , Ogino Mieko , Yamashina Noriko , Fukuda Michinari
Published: October 2008

Background: When assessing respiratory muscle strength using sniff nasal inspiratory pressure (SNIP), it is important to consider ethnic differences. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the mean values and lower limits of normal for SNIP in the Japanese population. Objective: To determine the mean values and lower limits of normal for SNIP, which is used as an assessment of inspiratory muscle strength, in healthy Japanese subjects. Methods: A total of 223 healthy Japanese volunteers (112 men, 111 women), aged 18–69 years, were studied; none had a history of pulmonary disease, heart disease, neuromuscular disease or sinusitis. To measure SNIP, a nasal plug was inserted into one nostril and the mouth was kept closed. Each subject was asked to take short, sharp sniffs with maximal effort from functional residual volume. Results: Based on the intraclass correlation coefficient, SNIP measurements showed good reproducibility in both men and women. The mean SNIP values were 76.8 ± 28.9 cm H2O in men and 60.0 ± 20.0 cm H2O in women; the values were significantly higher in men than in women (p < 0.01). On stepwise multiple linear regression analysis, the SNIP values were negatively related to age in men and positively related to body mass index (BMI) in women. The lower limits of normal for SNIP were 32.9 cm H2O in men and 28.8 cm H2O in women. Conclusions: In healthy Japanese subjects, the mean SNIP value was higher in men than in women. In Japanese subjects, SNIP values appear to be related to age in men and BMI in women.
Time Delay between Onset of Symptoms and Diagnosis in Pulmonary Thromboembolism
Authors: Bulbul Yilmaz , Ozsu Savas , Kosucu Polat , Oztuna Funda , Ozlu Tevfik , Topbaş Murat
Published: October 2008

Background: Although pulmonary thromboembolism is usually considered as an acute illness, delayed presentations are fairly common. Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate delays to presentation/diagnosis and their likely correlation with patients’ clinical and radiographic findings in pulmonary thromboembolism. Methods: All cases of pulmonary embolism diagnosed in our hospital between March 2002 and May 2006 were reviewed for the date of symptom onset, the dates of presentation and diagnosis, clinical findings, localization of embolism in pulmonary vascular tree and pleuropulmonary changes arising secondary to thrombotic occlusion. The parameters related to presentation delays were analyzed using a Mann-Whitney U test and logistic regression analysis. Results: Of the 178 patients enrolled, 30.4% presented to hospital 1 week after the start of their symptoms and there was an average of 8.4 ± 11.4 days’ (median 4 days, range 0–75) delay to presentation. The delay from presentation to diagnosis was 0.9 ± 1.9 days (median 0, range 0–16). Patients with hypotension, respiratory rate >20 and atelectasis in spiral CT presented earlier. However, no correlation was found between delays and the level of thromboembolic occlusion in pulmonary artery. Conclusion: Pulmonary thromboembolism should be considered not only in an acute setting, but also in patients with prolonged respiratory symptoms, since there was a significant delay to presentation amongst our patients. The presence of hypotension and a high respiratory frequency was clearly associated with early presentation.
Selective Isolation of Pseudallescheria and Scedosporium Species from Respiratory Tract Specimens of Cystic Fibrosis Patients
Authors: Horré R. , Marklein G. , Siekmeier R. , Nidermajer S. , Reiffert S.M.
Published: October 2008

Background: Fungi of the Pseudallescheria/Scedosporium complex are known to be colonizers and infectious agents of the respiratory tract of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Colonized CF patients are at high risk for the development of disseminated scedosporiosis after lung transplantation. The detection of these fungi may be difficult, because they grow slowly and so will be overgrown by faster-developing microorganisms on the media routinely used in diagnostic laboratories. Objectives: To examine the usefulness of the isolation medium SceSel+ agar as a diagnostic tool for clinical samples from CF patients. Methods: 150 respiratory tract samples from 42 CF patients were inoculated on SceSel+ agar. During the incubation phase, which lasted up to 30 days at 36 ± 1°C, the cultures were inspected every 2 or 3 days. Results: The isolation of Scedosporium species was successful in 3 samples (2%) with standard microbiological media and procedures, while the isolation rate on SceSel+ agar was 5.3% (8 of 150 specimens). Conclusions: Our results suggest that standard microbiological media and procedures are not sufficient to detect colonization of the respiratory tract by Pseudallescheria/Scedosporium in CF patients. By use of SceSel+ agar, fungi belonging to this complex were isolated more frequently. Therefore, this semiselective mycological isolation medium should be used for the detection of these fungi in the respiratory tract of CF patients, especially in patients in whom a fungal infection is assumed or who are scheduled for lung transplantation.
Variability in the Apnea-Hypopnea Index and Its Consequences for Diagnosis and Therapy Evaluation
Authors: Aarab Ghizlane , Lobbezoo Frank , Hamburger Hans L. , Naeije Machiel
Published: October 2008

Background: The apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) is frequently used to recognize obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and to evaluate therapy. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the AHI variability during a 10-week period, and to discuss its consequences for diagnosis and therapy evaluation. Methods: Fifteen OSA patients (50.8 ± 11.2 years) underwent four polysomnographic (PSG) recordings, with a mean interval between recordings of 3.3 weeks. Results: No differences were found in the average AHI values of the four PSG recordings (p = 0.985). Nevertheless, pooling all data of the 15 participants yielded a smallest detectable difference for AHI of 12.8. Linear regression between the individual means and standard deviations (SDs) of AHI showed that participants with a higher AHI tended to have a higher SD (p < 0.044). Conclusions: These results suggest a considerable intra-individual variability in AHI recordings. Hence, a single-night recording can only recognize OSA when the AHI lies outside a cutoff band surrounding the AHI cutoff point. AHI variability should also be taken into account when evaluating OSA therapy. In this context, it should be noted that it is mainly the approach that we would like to convey to the reader and not the cutoff values per se.
Virtual Audio Systems
Authors: Kapralos B. , Jenkin M. R. , Milios E.
Published: October 2008

To be immersed in a virtual environment, the user must be presented with plausible sensory input including auditory cues. A virtual (three-dimensional) audio display aims to allow the user to perceive the position of a sound source at an arbitrary position in three-dimensional space despite the fact that the generated sound may be emanating from a fixed number of loudspeakers at fixed positions in space or a pair of headphones. The foundation of virtual audio rests on the development of technology to present auditory signals to the listener's ears so that these signals are perceptually equivalent to those the listener would receive in the environment being simulated. This paper reviews the human perceptual and technical literature relevant to the modeling and generation of accurate audio displays for virtual environments. Approaches to acoustical environment simulation are summarized and the advantages and disadvantages of the various approaches are presented.
Simulator Sickness Depends on Frequency of the Simulator Motion Mismatch: An Observation
Authors: Groen Eric L. , Bos Jelte E.
Published: October 2008

In this study we describe a new approach to relate simulator sickness ratings with the main frequency component of the simulator motion mismatch, that is, the computed difference between the time histories of simulator motion and vehicle motion, respectively. During two driving simulator experiments in the TNO moving-base driving simulator—that were performed for other reasons than the purpose of this study—we collected simulator sickness questionnaires from in total 58 subjects. The main frequency component was computed by means of the power spectrum density of the computed mismatch signal. We hypothesized that simulator sickness incidence depends on this frequency component, in a similar way as the incidence of “real” motion sickness, such as sea sickness, depends on motion frequency. The results show that the simulator sickness ratings differed between both driving simulator experiments. The experiment with its main frequency component of the mismatch signal of 0.08 Hz had significantly higher simulator sickness incidence than the experiment with its main frequency at 0.46 Hz. Since the experimental design differed between both experiments, we cannot exclusively attribute the difference in sickness ratings to the frequency component, but the observation does suggest that quantitative analysis of the mismatch between the motion profiles of the simulator and the vehicle may greatly improve our understanding of the causal mechanism of simulator sickness.
Researching African Women and Gender Studies: New Social Science Perspectives
Authors: Adomako Ampofo Akosua , Beoku-Betts Josephine , Osirim Mary Johnson
Published: October 2008

Research on African women and gender studies has grown substantially to a position where African-centered gender theories and praxis contribute to theorizing on global feminist scholarship. Africanist scholars in this field have explored new areas such as transnational and multiracial feminisms, both of which address the complex and interlocking conditions that impact women's lives and produce oppression, opportunity and privilege. In addition, emergent African-centered research on women and gender explores those critical areas of research frequently addressed in the global North which have historically been ignored or marginalized in the African context such as family, work, social and political movements, sexuality, health, technology, migration, and popular culture. This article examines these developments in African gender studies scholarship and highlights the contributions that new research on understudied linguistic populations, masculinity, migration, political development and social movements and the virtual world are making to global feminist discourse.
Senegalese Women and the Cyber Café: Online Dating and Aspirations of Transnational Migration in Ziguinchor
Authors: Venables Emilie
Published: October 2008

In this article, I show how young women in the Senegalese town of Ziguinchor are using Internet technologies as a way to communicate with European men in the hope of forming relationships that may lead to transnational migration. Rather than assessing the degree to which women are successful in their aspirations, I consider how online communication enables them to assert their agency and imagine a better future for themselves.
Changing Women's Exclusion from Politics: Examples from Southern Africa
Authors: Gouws Amanda
Published: October 2008

This article analyses different dimensions of institutional politics, such as women's representation in government and state structures such as National Gender Machineries, as well as the impact that institutionalization has had on women's organizations. To improve women's representation in government the acceptance of quotas to increase the number of women in legislatures has made a difference, but it is still unclear if women's presence leads to power and policy influence. National gender machineries have not really changed conditions of inequality due to their cooptation by the state and their general dysfunctionality. The reliance on institutional politics has lead to a fragmentation and in some cases a demobilization of women's movements that has a negative effect on keeping governments accountable for women's equality. I conclude by arguing that direct action should shift to the transnational level, where feminist solidarity on that level can lead to changes on a local level.
Courtliness and its Trujamanes: Manufacturing Chivalric Imagery across the Castilian–Grenadine Frontier
Authors: Porto Rosa María Rodríguez
Published: October 2008

The comparative analysis of the "Hall of Justice" ceilings and several fourteenth-century Castilian courtly artefacts—above all, the Crónica Troyana de Alfonso XI (escorial, h.i.6)—provides suggestive insights for thinking about the threads of meaning associated with chivalric imagery in medieval Castile and Granada. Moreover, tracing the different modes of "Iberization" of a repertoire of motifs traditionally considered "northern" or "western," in both thematic and formal terms, as they are incorporated into the ethnic and cultural plurality of the Iberian Peninsula will serve as an opportunity for scholarship to re-examine the processes of cultural formation, allowing us to avoid simplistic labels and rigid parameters. Translation as a paradigm for artistic creation can be useful in this task, since it can help us to make sense, not only of the singularity of Hispanic achievements, but also of the tensions perceivable in the Peninsular dynamics of artistic production.
Cross-Cultural Style in the Alhambra: Textiles, Identity and Origins
Authors: Luyster Amanda
Published: October 2008

Although previous scholarship has examined the appropriation and adaptation of Islamic textiles in Christian Spain, no substantial work has yet focused on the presence and interpretation of Christian textiles in Nasrid Spain. Attention to trade patterns of portable goods as well as to archival documents suggests, however, that an interest in Christian textiles may have existed in al-Andalus in the later medieval period, raising the possibility that the ceilings of the Alhambra should be viewed from within that context.This paper recognizes compelling formal parallels between these ceilings and northern tapestries and uses those similarities in conjunction with contextual evidence to suggest that one of the ways in which the painted ceilings might have been viewed was as part of a textile collection displayed in the Alhambra. While earlier scholarship frequently interprets the Hall of Justice painted ceilings as representing Christian domination of the Nasrid dynasty, a reading of the paintings as part of a textile collection, in conjunction with ideas of aesthetics and display, suggests that they might instead have contributed to a representation of the wealth and power of the Nasrid ruler in a world stretching far beyond the borders of alAndalus.
Evening Temperature Rises on Valley Floors and Slopes: Their Causes and Their Relationship to the Thermally Driven Wind System
Authors: Whiteman C. David , Hoch Sebastian W. , Poulos Gregory S.
Published: October 2008

At slope and valley floor sites in the Owens Valley of California, the late afternoon near-surface air temperature decline is often followed by a temporary temperature rise before the expected nighttime cooling resumes. The spatial and temporal patterns of this evening warming phenomenon, as seen in the March/April 2006 Terrain-Induced Rotor Experiment, are investigated using a widely distributed network of 51 surface-based temperature dataloggers. Hypotheses on the causes of the temperature rises are tested using heavily instrumented 34-m meteorological towers that were located within the datalogger array. The evening temperature rise follows the development of a shallow temperature deficit layer over the slopes and floor of the valley in which winds blow downslope. Background winds within the valley, freed from frictional deceleration from the earth’s surface by this layer, accelerate. The increased vertical wind shear across the temperature deficit layer eventually creates shear instability and mixes out the layer, creating the observed warming near the ground. As momentum is exchanged during the mixing event, the wind direction near the surface gradually turns from downslope to the background wind direction. After the short period of warming associated with the mixing, ongoing net radiative loss causes a resumption of the cooling.
Baroclinic Rossby Wave Forcing and Barotropic Rossby Wave Response to Stratospheric Vortex Variability
Authors: Castanheira J. M. , Liberato M. L. R. , de la Torre L. , Graf H-F. , DaCamara C. C.
Published: October 2008

An analysis is performed on the dynamical coupling between the variability of the extratropical stratospheric and tropospheric circulations during the Northern Hemisphere winter. Obtained results provide evidence that in addition to the well-known Charney and Drazin mechanism by which vertical propagation of baroclinic Rossby waves is nonlinearly influenced by the zonal mean zonal wind, topographic forcing constitutes another important mechanism by which nonlinearity is introduced in the troposphere–stratosphere wave-driven coupled variability. On the one hand, vortex variability is forced by baroclinic Rossby wave bursts, with positive (negative) peaks of baroclinic Rossby wave energy occurring during rapid vortex decelerations (accelerations). On the other hand, barotropic Rossby waves of zonal wavenumbers s = 1 and 3 respond to the vortex state, and strong evidence is presented that such a response is mediated by changes of the topographic forcing due to zonal mean zonal wind anomalies progressing downward from the stratosphere. It is shown that wavenumbers s = 1 and 3 are the dominant Fourier components of the topography in the high-latitude belt where the zonal mean zonal wind anomalies are stronger; moreover, obtained results are in qualitative agreement with the analytical solution provided by the simple topographic wave model of Charney and Eliassen. Finally, evidence is provided that changes of barotropic long (s ≤ 3) Rossby waves associated with vortex variability reproduce a NAO-like dipole over the Atlantic Ocean but no dipole is formed over the Pacific Ocean. Moreover, results suggest that the nonlinear wave response to topographic forcing may explain the spatial changes of the NAO correlation patterns that have been found in previous studies.
Intraseasonal and Interannual Variability of Extreme Dry and Wet Events over Southeastern South America and the Subtropical Atlantic during Austral Summer
Authors: Muza Michel N. , Carvalho Leila M. V. , Jones Charles , Liebmann Brant
Published: October 2008

Intraseasonal and interannual variability of extreme wet and dry anomalies over southeastern Brazil and the western subtropical South Atlantic Ocean are investigated. Precipitation data are obtained from the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) in pentads during 23 austral summers (December–February 1979/80–2001/02). Extreme wet (dry) events are defined according to 75th (25th) percentiles of precipitation anomaly distributions observed in two time scales: intraseasonal and interannual. The agreement between the 25th and 75th percentiles of the GPCP precipitation and gridded precipitation obtained from stations in Brazil is also examined. Variations of extreme wet and dry anomalies on interannual time scales are investigated along with variations of sea surface temperature (SST) and circulation anomalies. The South Atlantic SST dipole seems related to interannual variations of extreme precipitation events over southeastern Brazil. It is shown that extreme wet and dry events in the continental portion of the South Atlantic convergence zone (SACZ) are decoupled from extremes over the oceanic portion of the SACZ and there is no coherent dipole of extreme precipitation regimes between tropics and subtropics on interannual time scales. On intraseasonal time scales, the occurrence of extreme dry and wet events depends on the propagation phase of extratropical wave trains and consequent intensification (weakening) of 200-hPa zonal winds. Extreme wet and dry events over southeastern Brazil and subtropical Atlantic are in phase on intraseasonal time scales. Extreme wet events over southeastern Brazil and subtropical Atlantic are observed in association with low-level northerly winds above the 75th percentile of the seasonal climatology over central-eastern South America. Extreme wet events on intraseasonal time scales over southeastern Brazil are more frequent during seasons not classified as extreme wet or dry on interannual time scales.
Understanding Changes in the Asian Summer Monsoon over the Past Millennium: Insights from a Long-Term Coupled Model Simulation*
Authors: Fan Fangxing , Mann Michael E. , Ammann Caspar M.
Published: October 2008

The Asian summer monsoon (ASM) and its variability were investigated over the past millennium through the analysis of a long-term simulation of the NCAR Climate System Model, version 1.4 (CSM 1.4) coupled model driven with estimated natural and anthropogenic radiative forcing during the period 850–1999. Analysis of the simulation results indicates that certain previously proposed mechanisms, such as warmer large-scale temperatures favoring a stronger monsoon through their effect on Eurasian snow cover, appear inconsistent with the mechanisms active in the simulation. Forced changes in tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures play an apparent role in the long-term changes in the ASM. Analyses of the simulation results suggest that the direct radiative effect of solar forcing variations on the ASM is quite weak and that dynamical responses may be far more important. Volcanic radiative forcing leads to a clearly detectable short-term reduction in the strength of the ASM. Comparisons with long-term proxy reconstructions of the ASM are attempted but are limited by the divergent behavior among different reconstructions as well as the limitations in the model’s coupled dynamics.
Eddy Transport and Mixing in a Wind- and Buoyancy-Driven Jet on the Sphere
Authors: Cerovečki Ivana , Plumb R. Alan , Heres William
Published: October 2008

The baroclinically unstable wind- and buoyancy-driven flow in a zonally reentrant pie-shaped sector on a sphere is numerically modeled and then analyzed using the transformed Eulerian-mean (TEM) formalism. Mean fields are obtained by zonal and time averaging performed at fixed height. The very large latitudinal extent of the basin (50.7°S latitude to the equator) allows the latitude variation of the Coriolis parameter to strongly influence the flow. Persistent zonal jets are observed in the statistically steady state. Reynolds stress terms play an important role in redistributing zonal angular momentum: convergence of the lateral momentum flux gives rise to a strong eastward jet, with an adjacent westward jet equatorward and weaker multiple jets poleward. An equally prominent feature of the flow is a strong and persistent eddy that has the structure of a Kelvin cat’s eye and generally occupies the zonal width of the basin at latitudes 15°–10°S.

A strongly mixed surface diabatic zone overlies the near-adiabatic interior, within which Ertel potential vorticity (but not thickness) is homogenized along the mean isopycnals everywhere in the basin where eddies have developed (and thus is not homogenized equatorward of the most energetic eastward jet). A region of low potential vorticity (PV) is formed adjacent to the strong baroclinic front associated with that jet and subsequently maintained by strong convective events.

The eddy buoyancy flux is dominated by its skew component over large parts of the near-adiabatic interior, with cross-isopycnal components present only in the vicinity of the main jet and in the surface diabatic layer. Close to the main jet, the cross-isopycnal components are dominantly balanced by the triple correlation terms in the buoyancy variance budget, while the advection of buoyancy variance by the mean flow is not a dominant term in the eddy buoyancy variance budget.

Along-isopycnal mixing in the near-adiabatic interior is estimated by applying the effective diffusivity diagnostic of Nakamura. The effective diffusivity is large at the flanks of the mean jet and beneath it and small in the jet core. The apparent horizontal diffusivity for buoyancy obtained from the flux–gradient relationship is the same magnitude as the effective diffusivity, but the structures are rather different. The diapycnal diffusivity is strongest in the surface layer and also in a convectively unstable region that extends to depths of hundreds of meters beneath the equatorward flank of the main jet.
Between Democracy and Revolution: Peasant Support for Insurgency versus Democracy in Nepal
Authors: Joshi Madhav , Mason T. David
Published: October 2008

The Maoist insurgency in Nepal presents an anomaly for students of civil war and democratic transitions. How was the Maoist wing of the Nepal Communist Party able to mobilize peasants to support their insurgency when they could not mobilize enough peasants to vote for them in elections? The authors address these questions by exploring the ways in which the persistence of traditional clientelist networks in the countryside enabled rural elites to mobilize peasants to vote for parties other than the Maoist party, even though peasants would have benefited from that party's advocacy for land reform. When that same party used insurgent violence against rural elites, peasants were willing and able to support the insurgency and abstain from voting in the 1999 election in locales where the insurgency succeeded in disrupting clientelist ties. The authors test these arguments with district-level data on election turnout and the distribution of households among several land-tenure categories. Findings support the argument that turnout was greater where land-tenure patterns gave landed elite greater influence over peasant political behavior. Where higher levels of insurgent violence disrupted patterns of clientelist dependency, turnout declined. What electoral democracy could not deliver to peasants — land reform and relief from clientelist dependency — the Maoist insurgency promised to bring through political violence.
Empathizing with Rogue Leaders: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Bashar al-Asad
Authors: Malici Akan , Buckner Allison L.
Published: October 2008

The conventional wisdom regarding Iran and Syria is that these are belligerent states headed by hostile leaders. Rarely is an effort made to imagine how international politics are perceived from the Iranian or the Syrian perspectives, or consider how these perceptions are part of an interactive crisis in which the USA may be implicated as deeply as the regimes in Tehran and Damascus. In this article, we investigate the United States' ongoing crisis with Iran and Syria from the vantage point of their leadership. Our central research questions are: What kind of leaders are Ahmadinejad of Iran and al-Asad of Syria? More specifically, what are their cognitive diagnostic beliefs of the ensuing conflict and their prescriptive beliefs towards it? What is an appropriate strategy for the USA towards Iran and Syria? The answers to these questions speak to the conventional wisdom of Ahmadinejad and al-Asad as hostile and propose strategies for averting a dangerous escalation of the conflict. Our central goal in this article is to develop towards Iran and Syria `realistic empathy' as we consider it `the great corrective for all forms of war-provoking misperception'.
Blood and Soil? Resource Scarcity and Internal Armed Conflict Revisited
Authors: Magnus Theisen Ole
Published: October 2008

Scarcity of renewable resources is frequently argued to be a main driver of violent conflict. The 2004 and 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awards, as well as the international debate about the implications of climate change, show the salience of the topic as a security issue. Studies testing the link between renewable resource scarcity and armed conflict have reached diverging conclusions. One study, in particular, has found substantial support for eco-scarcity theory, while most others have found a limited association. This article starts with an attempt at replicating earlier findings on the link between population density, soil degradation, deforestation, water scarcity and civil war, but several results are not replicable. The final results lend little support to a purported link between resource scarcity and civil conflict, whereas it replicates earlier findings on the importance of poverty, instability and dependence of fuel exports. A high level of land degradation is the only factor that significantly increases the risk of civil conflict, although this result should be interpreted with caution. The general conclusion of this study is that scarcity of natural resources has limited explanatory power in terms of civil violence, whereas poverty and dysfunctional institutions are robustly related to conflict. Future studies on the link between resource scarcity and violent conflict should focus on local and less intense conflicts, pay more attention to a context of low economic development, look more thoroughly into the role of state actors in the escalatory phase of conflict and assess the importance of the distribution of resources relative to scarcity per se.
Does Supply-Induced Scarcity Drive Violent Conflicts in the African Sahel? The Case of the Tuareg Rebellion in Northern Mali
Authors: Benjaminsen Tor A.
Published: October 2008

According to the influential `environmental security' literature, supply-induced scarcity in the form of environmental degradation is a key driver of civil violence around the world. African drylands, especially the Sahel region, are allegedly among the areas most seriously affected by this development. Views of desertification and severe environmental degradation in the Sahel are held by environmental security scholars, despite the comprehensive literature questioning such ideas that has been published since the late 1980s. Instead of being steadily transformed towards more desert-like conditions through increasing population pressure, Sahelian environments are dominated by climatic fluctuations. This article first reviews the literature criticizing the idea of `desertification' as it is applied on African drylands. Then, the article critically discusses the use of the Tuareg rebellion in northern Mali as an example of a supply-induced scarcity related conflict. The case study shows that the droughts of the 1970s and 1980s played a role in the rebellion, but the rebellion was not driven by supply-induced scarcity. Instead, the droughts led to the migration of young men to Algeria and Libya, where they were exposed to revolutionary discourses. There was already a strong feeling among nomads and Tuareg in Mali of being marginalized by state policies of modernization and sedentarization. Embezzlement of drought relief funds by government officials in Bamako added further to the anger felt by the young men who took up arms against the Malian state. The drought of the 1970s and 1980s was probably not a necessary condition for the rebellion to take place. Detailed case studies of armed conflicts, engaging with environmental research, may be necessary to further deepen our understanding of links, or lack of such links, between violence and environmental stress.
Designing an Online Writing System
Authors: Kuo Chih-Hua
Published: October 2008

The potential of online language learning has received much attention recently. This paper reports the design of an online writing system featuring learning support for non-native students during their writing process. The central premise is that in the online writing situation, students are in great need of writing aids. The proposed system provides a friendly and supportive writing environment. It consists of three main parts: writing practice, peer review, and e portfolio. Writing practice contains not only writing guidelines to raise students' consciousness of the structure of the target genre but also learning resources and tools that render full assistance. The resources include online translators, online dictionaries, phraseology, and wordlists, while the tools include a web concordancer and a collocation builder. Peer review allows students to give feedback to their partner's online writing, leading hopefully to reflection and revision. E portfolio consists of a learning record and a learning journal. Students can check their individual online writing record and retrieve both original and revised drafts for comparison. Learning journal is the place where students reflect over their writing process and problems. Pedagogical implications are finally discussed.
Reflective Writing
Authors: Kathpalia Sujata S. , Heah Carmel
Published: October 2008

Educationists and writing practitioners consider reflection to be a defining feature of student portfolios (Fink 2003; Zubizarreta 2004; Jones and Shelton 2006). A writing portfolio without reflection is merely a collection of written work which does not contribute to `real' learning. Reflection in the portfolio approach happens when students examine their work against established criteria, analyse the effectiveness of their efforts and plan for improvement. According to Fink (2003), reflective writing `focuses on the writer's learning experience itself and attempts to identify the significance and meaning of a given learning experience, primarily for the writer'. This paper will examine the self-reflection of student writers in an undergraduate writing course offered to Science students at Nanyang Technological University. An attempt will be made to identify and illustrate the communicative competencies learnt by these students through the process of selfreflection as well as suggest tools to prompt these reflections. It is hoped that this study will unearth what lies beneath the written product and highlight those forces which make writing practice more informed, both for the student as well as the teacher.
A Deep Look into Learning Strategy Use by Successful and Unsuccessful Students in the Chinese EFL Learning Context
Authors: Qingquan Ni , Chatupote Monta , Teo Adisa
Published: October 2008

This article focused on the investigation of the differences in the frequency of language learning strategy use by successful and unsuccessful first-year students of a Chinese university.. The study found that successful sudents used a wider range of learning strategies for EFL learning significantly more frequently than unsuccessful students. It was also found that the strategies often employed by the successful students are different from those often preferred by their unsuccessful peers. The former often used deep, L2-based, association, active participation, language use, positive-attitude taking and learning-process monitoring strategies that are likely to make more contributions to successful L2 learning while the latter tended to use surface, L1-based, word-level, rote memory and gesture strategies.
Gender Differences in Intimate Partner Recidivism
Authors: Ménard Kim S. , Anderson Amy L. , Godboldt Suzanne M.
Published: October 2008

Research shows that women perpetrate intimate partner violence (IPV) and that their pattern of offending differs from that of men. Using arrest and court records from a large Midwestern city, this study examines 596 cases of IPV, 15.5% of which were perpetrated by women. Separate logistic regression models for men and women suggest there are both similarities and differences in factors that predict recidivism. Among both women and men, non-Whites as compared to Whites and drug users as compared to nondrug users are significantly more likely to recidivate. Additionally, for men, a history of probation or parole predicts recidivism, whereas for women, severity of the assault and having ended the relationship with their victim predicts recidivism. Policy and theoretical implications are discussed.
Hybridity and Reading Romans 13
Authors: Marshall John W.
Published: October 2008

Interpreters of Paul have made substantial progress in identifying anti- or counter-imperial strands in the writings of the apostle. In many cases, postcolonial theory has been an important resource for such interpretations. It has emphasized the imperial (or colonial) character of Roman rule and provided avenues of analysis of resistant action and discourse that are well grounded in theoretical and comparative context. Postcolonialism, however, does more than identify and valorize resistance; it also attends to the discourses of affiliation that colonial subjects so often generate. Homi Bhabha's articulation of `hybridity' as a rubric under which to understand the relationship between resistant and affiliative responses by colonial subjects enables a deeper understanding of Paul specifically in that area that the politically engaged readings of Paul have made even more enigmatic, namely the relationship of the affiliative Rom. 13.1-7 to the apostle's evidently resistant discourse elsewhere in his literary corpus.
An Apocalyptic Reading of Psalm 78 in 2 Thessalonians 3
Authors: Gupta Nijay
Published: October 2008

2 Thessalonians has suffered from neglect in biblical scholarship for many reasons, such as its brevity, its similarities in content and structure with 1 Thessalonians and its supposed dubious authorship. However, detecting an allusion to Ps. 78.8 (LXX Ps. 77.8) in 2 Thess. 3.5 (that includes verbal and thematic parallels) may offer insight into literary features of the hortatory section of the letter—a portion commonly considered to be disjointed and almost incoherent. Psalm 78 recounts the history of Israel, demonstrating God's goodness and Israel's ingratitude and persistent stubbornness and failure. The psalmist's hope that the `next generation' would rise above the `wicked and perverse' previous generation is re-envisaged by Paul in an apocalyptic fashion, with the new generation (those `in Christ') able to attain a faith(fulness) not possible for the `Israel' of the Psalm—an important message for a church in turmoil.
Treadmill training post stroke: are there any secondary benefits? A pilot study
Authors: Smith Patricia S , Thompson Mary
Published: October 2008

Objective: To explore the secondary benefits of treadmill training for people in the chronic stage of recovery from stroke.

Design: Modified random assignment, matched-pair control group design with repeated measures.

Setting: Outpatient stroke centre.

Participants: Twenty individuals post first stroke who acknowledged walking slower than pre stroke. Participants matched by side of hemiparesis and motor impairment.

Interventions: Twelve 20-minute sessions of walking on a treadmill or weekly phone call.

Main outcome measures: Depression (Beck Depression Index), mobility and social participation (Stroke Impact Scale 3.0 subscales) were assessed initially, at the end of 12 treatments (four weeks) and six weeks later.

Results: No significant difference was found between groups for any dependent measure. The ANOVA to investigate main effects in each group found no significant findings in the control group; however in the treatment group significant improvements over time for depression (P=0.005, P<0.001), mobility (P=0.008) and social participation (P= 0.004) were demonstrated.

Conclusions: A task-specific intervention designed to improve gait speed may potentially provide secondary benefits by positively impacting depression, mobility and social participation for people post stroke.
A comparative study of oxygen consumption for conventional and energy-storing prosthetic feet in transfemoral amputees
Authors: Graham Lorraine E , Datta Dipak , Heller Ben , Howitt John
Published: October 2008

Objective: To compare oxygen consumption for traumatic high-functioning transfemoral amputees wearing initially a conventional prosthetic foot (Multiflex) and then an energy-storing prosthetic foot (Vari-Flex).

Setting: A regional prosthetic and amputee rehabilitation tertiary referral centre in a teaching hospital.

Study design: Experimental crossover trial.

Subjects: Six established unilateral transfemoral prosthetic users.

Interventions: Oxygen consumption breath-by-breath analysis at multiple speeds on a treadmill for each amputee wearing initially the Multiflex foot and then repeated wearing the Vari-Flex foot.

Results: Mean oxygen consumption across all subjects was lower for the Vari-Flex foot than for the Multiflex foot at all speeds, although the differences were only significant at speeds of 0.83 and 1.1 m/s (P<0.05). ANCOVA analysis across all speeds showed that oxygen consumption with the Vari-Flex foot was significantly lower (P<0.001). The estimated difference across all speeds was 3.54 mL/kg.min.

Conclusion: A high functioning transfemoral amputee who wears an energy-storing prosthetic foot may have significantly reduced oxygen consumption at normal walking speeds.