bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Public and Private ways of Organizing the Landscape
Authors: Derks Ton
Published: August 2008

I would like to thank the discussants of my essay for their pertinent questions, sincere criticisms and useful suggestions. Though I shall try to remove some of their hesitations to accept my interpretation of the observed patterns and correlations, it is already clear in advance that I shall not succeed in convincing each of them on all points on which we disagree. For while Oosten is defending the proposition that ‘[t]he phenomenal landscape canonlybe described in terms of an imaginary landscape’ (my italics) and thus seems to deny the existence of two modes of perceiving alternately actualized, Scheid, on the contrary, qualifies my line of inquiry as ‘justified’. According to him, the Ancients had ‘apart from a day-to-day perception of the environment, (…) also a “mythical” representation of space and landscape’. Moreover, while Scheid believes that the present author ‘convincingly demonstrates how in his research area the choice of Mars or Hercules as sovereign deities was linked to the economic model imposed by the landscape’, Oosten judged me to be trapped by ecological determinism. Such contrasting views, which are partly related to different traditions of research, cannot be expected to be solved here, though I shall not avoid to discuss them. I only hope that with respect to other points of the dispute my efforts will have a better chance to persuade the participants of this dialogue. I will begin by answering the questions and criticisms which directly refer to the understanding of my paper and leave my reply to some of the suggestions made for future investigations to the latter part of this response.
Flags, Guns, Snares and the Fish
Authors: Bailey Douglass W.
Published: August 2008

Orville's foot sank in the soft ground and once he was out of the brush and onto the tarmac, he spent a minute scrapping the sole clean. There was a red pick-up pulled up in front of the estate gates, right under the flag-pole. It was a big American pick-up, a Chevy with fat wheel arches in the back and wide double-sized knobbly tires. The kind of thing which had been designed for off-roading but, in reality, which never ventured far from the pub car-park.
Masculinist archaeology?
Authors: Knapp A. Bernard
Published: August 2008

I thank the respondents for their quite diverse reactions to my paper. Gutmann begins by noting that any engagement with feminist theory in archaeology needs to reassure the world of gender studies that there is no intention of undermining the ‘foundational premises’ of a feminist archaeology; by so doing we would jeopardize its explanatory power and damage its political potential to critique gender inequality. Throughout my paper, I was at pains to emphasize the feminist underpinnings of masculinist theory, and at the same time to note that we must ensure that ‘reactionary masculinities’ like those of Iron John must be differentiated from the concept of masculinity as understood by sociologists, sociocultural anthropologists, psychologists and others. Gutmann succinctly expands but equally makes my point by noting that the contemporary study of men and masculinities reveals a ‘nuanced attempt to cope with structural and ideological contradictions involved with masculinity through time and space’, and that notions of hegemonic and subordinate masculinities have been used very effectively ‘in studying various contradictions relating to ethnicity, race, sexual preferences, and even platonic friendship as they manifest themselves in male-male relations.’ These are not masculinist reactions against feminist theory or a feminist archeology but rather responses to them, intended to expand the dialogue and engage all archaeologists in the pursuit of a gendered archaeology.
An archaeological approach to the concept of value
Authors: van Wijngaarden Gert-Jan
Published: August 2008

Value is one of the concepts which are of importance in the way people structure their material surroundings. According to the philosophy of Georg Simmel, value finds its origins in the tension between the desire for objects and access to them. The dimensions of desirability and accessibility may be investigated archaeologically, in order to approach the concept of value. Such a perspective is taken in this article with reference to three different classes of imported Mycenaean pottery, which have been found in the Late Bronze Age levels of the site of Ugarit at the Mediterranean coast of Syria. It is concluded that various vessel types were appreciated differently at the city. The meanings imposed on these imported objects derived from the roles they played in the local cultural context.
Value beyond Ugarit
Authors: Voutsaki Sofia
Published: August 2008

I should start by saying how refreshing it is to see Mycenaean pottery, a body of material discussed usually in terms of ever more refined and accurately dated typological sequences, being examined in its context and in the light of a sophisticated theoretical approach.
The value of an archaeological approach: a reply
Authors: van Wijngaarden Gert-Jan
Published: August 2008

Frank De Mita, Sophia Voutsaki and Todd Whitelaw, obviously, took the article for what it was meant to be: not a final assessment of the use of the concept of value in archaeology, nor a definitive analysis of the Mycenaean pottery at Ugarit, but an attempt to explore these issues as a basis for further discussion. Consequently, it is difficult for me to react to their comments. I can only nod in agreement to many of the points they raise and I feel that I just ought to thank them and go back to work with their valuable insights in mind. Instead of taking such an easy way out, however, I will react to some of the general issues raised by the three critics. Before doing so, I will briefly elaborate on the reasons why I chose Ugarit as the site to conduct my analyses. I feel this is necessary, because some of the criticisms derive from the difficulties inherent to the material of this site and below I will, unfortunately, repeatedly be forced to point to the limitations.
From Sacralising to Sacrilege? Possible Alternative Relationships of Religion, Nationalism, and Archaeology
Authors: Silberman Neil Asher
Published: August 2008

In this elegant and wide-ranging essay, Hamilakis and Yalouri have offered us a sophisticated analysis of the utilisation of the ancient past in modern Greece. They have traced the powerful political connection between images of the past and contemporary political structures. They have described how different modalities of veneration have been conscripted for this task. Yet I want to offer a few conceptual clarifications and highlight some possible alternative social contexts that may – I hope – strengthen the central points that they make. These concern a tendency to reify ‘religion’ (specifically in this case specifically Greek Orthodoxy as a unitary phenomenon) and to privilege nationalism as the only socio-political behaviour that actively utilises the cultural capital of archaeology. The two points are closely related. For while the nationalistic use of archaeology may mimic the external forms and even literarytopoiof religious veneration, State and Church are potentiallycompetingpower structures within a particular society. In many places, the cultural tensions between State and Church (or between rival States and Churches) are becoming increasingly intense. The recognition of those tensions may help us more effectively to problematise—to use Hamilakis and Yalouri's phrase—the socio-politics of archaeology.
Rome, Maastricht and Amsterdam
Authors: Tzanidaki Johanna D.
Published: August 2008

Abstarct

The proliferation of European Union law and policies and their impact on Member States appear to be issues very much connected with the future of the political union of Europe. Heritage management practice in Member States is also being affected by legal developments promoted by E.U. institutions. This article attempts to assess the E.U.'s growth of interest in cultural heritage matters as part of a broader political context, which involves issues ranging from economic development to ‘European’ identity. The successful cultural integration of Member States is being pursued by the E.U. on the basis of a common cultural heritage. Does the perceived legal necessity for uniformity in Member State's heritage management pose a danger to the differences and particularities that stem from the diverse pasts in the E.U.?
Virtual Avebury revisited
Authors: Bowden Mark
Published: August 2008

In their article ‘Romancing the stones: towards a virtual and elemental Avebury’ (Archaeological dialogues 1998, 5.2, 143–64), Joshua Pollard and Mark Gillings argued that traditional cartography no longer suffices to understand sites like Avebury. In the absence of excavation, new technological possibilities like Virtual Reality and GIS were according to them more than electronic gadgets but genuine alternatives to the usual maps and plans. Mark Bowden takes issues with what he perceives to be exaggerated criticisms of traditional archaeological survey techniques. In particular, he suggests that, far from being ‘sterile’ as Pollard and Gillings state, conventional survey plans are imbued with meaning, and are essential tools of analysis and interpretation. Users of archaeological earthwork plans must study them carefully and be critically aware to get the greatest benefit from them. Innovative new approaches must be pursued vigorously, but well-tested traditional techniques which still have value should not be abandoned lightly, Bowden argues. Pollard and Gillings reply to this challenging criticism.
Leaving you hungry for more…
Authors: Alcock Susan E.
Published: August 2008

One of the more admirable things about this collection of papers is how the authors resist the almost overwhelming temptation to employ food-related, lip-smacking puns. I noted, for example, only one coy ‘food for thought’. This resistance neatly symbolizes, to my mind, a growing sophistication in the archaeology of food, a development seen everywhere in this particular smorgasbord of essays.
Localised Capitalism in Global Historical Archaeology: A Discussion of the Archaeology of Improvement in Scotland
Authors: Baram Uzi
Published: August 2008

Dalglish is correct, historical archaeology is the archaeology of capitalism. Now the association seems obvious, capitalism is too important in the temporal responsibility of historical archaeology for it to be ignored or marginalised. Archaeologists, as Paynter (1988) pointed out, have always excavated, recorded, analysed, and interpreted evidence of capitalism. They were just rarely explicit about it. As historical archaeology becomes clearer regarding its subject matter, there needs to be more precise understandings of the complexity of capitalism, its uneven developments, and the variation in its expansion around the world.
Unsustainable Capitalism
Authors: Macinnes Allan
Published: August 2008

This paper makes an important, interdisciplinary contribution, to the ongoing debate on the transition from clanship to capitalism. Integral to this contribution is the important distinction between capitalism as an individualist ideology and capitalist societies where individualism is a widespread but not necessarily a universal ideology. His concern is not with the bipolar opposition of landlord and people which tends to dominate debates on the land issue in the Highlands. Instead, he focuses on material culture change in relation to landscape organisation, settlement patterns and morphology in order to examine how social relationships were structured during the critical period of estate re-orientation often depicted progressively as Improvement but regressively as clearance through the removal and relocation of population. His case study on Kintyre is particularly valuable. By scrutinising spatial as well as social relationships Dalglish demonstrates that clanship was based as much on daily practices of living as on an patrimonial ideology of kinship, practices which led the House of Argyll to attempt the reinvention of concepts of occupancy in order to emphasise the importance of the individual over the family through partitioned space.
What Can Archaeology Say about Capitalism?
Authors: Schrire Carmel
Published: August 2008

The apparent aim of this paper is to reveal the contribution of archaeology to understanding the social relations of capitalism. The burden of this particular study of rural settlement in the Scottish Highlands is to show that archaeology helps to achieve a deeper understanding of the transition from clan ownership to individual ownership during the period of Improvement that heralded the dawn of the new commercial age in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Comment on Ray Laurence, ‘Roman Narratives…’
Authors: Snodgrass Anthony
Published: August 2008

Greek and Roman archaeology as a whole are often accused of being ‘text-based’ or ‘text-driven’. At a superficial level, this is palpably false: most Classical archaeologists do most of their research without consulting an ancient text for days and sometimes weeks on end, and this is especially true of Romano-British archaeologists. Everyone, except perhaps for a few militant prehistorians, knows this perfectly well. Ray Laurence does not fall into this trap. Instead, he rightly directs us to the deeper level of discourse, narratives and arguments; and hints more briefly at a deeper one still, that of ‘interests and preoccupations’.
Splendid Isolation? A Glimpse into Contemporary British Archaeology
Authors: Versluys Miguel John
Published: August 2008

Ray Laurence's contribution on the state and future of Roman archaeology as practised in Britain can be summarised as follows: he thinks the discipline to be dominated by a narrative of invasion that is based on literary texts and which has made the concepts of Romanisation and resistance key points in the theoretical discussion. Laurence values this situation as negative. He looks at the discussion on the (im)possibility of representing the Holocaust and at the work of the contemporary architect Rem Koolhaas in trying to formulate alternatives, ending with a manifesto for a twenty-first century Roman archaeology firmly based on recent developments within the social sciences.
Hunter-Gatherers: Seventeenth or Eighteenth-Century Invention?
Authors: Barnard Alan
Published: August 2008

Mark Pluciennik's paper offers an insightful review of those seventeenth-century philosophical issues that influence archaeological theory, even today. I am in broad agreement on the significance of the seventeenth century, though I prefer to see that century as a prelude to the eighteenth. To my mind, it is only in the eighteenth century that hunter-gatherers become ‘invented’ in a form that is fully recognisable in modern archaeological terms (Barnard 2002a). In this commentary I shall concentrate on that issue with reference to Pluciennik's ‘six inter-related factors’, commenting but briefly where appropriate on his attempt to ‘write across’ boundaries through his example of the interpretation of the mesolithic-neolithic transition.
Troubling the Neandertals: A Reply to Langbroek's ‘The Trouble with Neandertals’
Authors: Zilhão João , Trinkaus Erik
Published: August 2008

We cannot but agree with the basic contentions of Langbroek's paper that 1) the replacement of Neandertals by early modern humans in Europe is best understood from a perspective of historical contingency and 2) that it must have had a lot to do with the ‘very dynamic spatio-temporal redrawings of the population maps of Europe during the Weichsel glacial’ against the background of ‘the emergence of increasing climatological instability during the later part of OIS 3, with significant fluctuations at relatively short timescales’. This is the kind of approach we have been advocating to effectively supersede the reductionist ‘superiority’ paradigm that has dominated the literature on Neandertal extinction for the last twenty years.
Troubling the Neandertals: A Reply to Zilhã and Trinkaus
Authors: Langbroek Macro
Published: August 2008

We cannot but agree with the basic contentions of Langbroek's paper that 1) the replacement of Neandertals by early modern humans in Europe is best understood from a perspective of historical contingency and 2) that it must have had a lot to do with the ‘very dynamic spatio-temporal redrawings of the population maps of Europe during the Weichsel glacial’ against the background of ‘the emergence of increasing climatological instability during the later part of OIS 3, with significant fluctuations at relatively short timescales’. This is the kind of approach we have been advocating to effectively supersede the reductionist ‘superiority’ paradigm that has dominated the literature on Neandertal extinction for the last twenty years.
“The Teacher Who had the Greatest Influence on My Thinking”
Authors: Reisenzein Rainer , Mchitarjan Irina
Published: August 2008

According to Heider, some of his ideas about common-sense psychology presented in The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations ( Heider, 1958 ) originally came from his academic teacher, Alexius Meinong. However, Heider makes no reference to Meinong in his book. To clarify Meinong’s influence on Heider, we compare Heider’s explication of common-sense psychology with Meinong’s writings, in particular those on ethics. Our results confirm that Heider’s common-sense psychology is informed by Meinong’s psychological analyses in several respects: Heider adopts aspects of Meinong’s theory of emotion, his theory of value, and his theory of responsibility attribution. In addition, Heider more or less continues Meinong’s method of psychological inquiry. Thus, even without Meinong’s name attached, many aspects of Meinong’s psychology found their way into today’s social psychology via Heider. Unknowingly, some of us have been Meinongians all along.
Reflections on the History of Attribution Theory and Research
Authors: Weiner Bernard
Published: August 2008

Fifty years after the publication of The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations ( Heider, 1958 ), attribution inquiry remains strong, but no longer dominant. This article examines some of the people (particularly, Fritz Heider, Edward Jones, and Harold Kelley), publications, and conceptual issues that contributed to the duration of this line of work. Personal anecdotes are included.
Fritz Heider’s Legacy
Authors: Malle Bertram F.
Published: August 2008

This article reviews some of the central ideas in Heider’s (1958 ) book, The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations: common-sense psychology, personal causality, causal attribution, and the social perception of mental states. Relying on Heider’s own words to introduce these topics, the review shows that post-Heiderian attribution research overlooked and misunderstood several of Heider’s contributions. For example, he has been falsely portrayed as postulating a person-situation dichotomy as the core of people’s understanding of behavior; and his analysis of dispositions as primarily mental states has been mistaken for one of dispositions as stable traits. Heider’s original ideas are, however, firmly connected to cognitive science research on the folk theory of mind and provide a foundation for recent social-psychological work on inferences of other people’s mental states.
“It was right to do it, because .. .”
Authors: Gollan Tobias , Witte Erich H.
Published: August 2008

We propose a theory of prescriptive attribution as a theoretical framework for research on the justification of actions. Justification is viewed as one possible strategy of account-giving necessitated by violations of socially shared standards of conduct. The theory makes two main assumptions. First, at the core of every justification is an at least implicit reference to a basic ethical principle. Second, justifications are in several respects similar to reason attributions; they can, therefore, be conceived of as “prescriptive attributions.” Variables that affect prescriptive attributions include factual characteristics of the action and its context, stable personality characteristics of the justifying person, and temporary motivational biases such as impression management concerns.
A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Technique Based on Nulling Extravascular Gray Matter Signal
Authors: Shen Yuji , Kauppinen Risto A , Vidyasagar Rishma , Golay Xavier
Published: August 2008

A new functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique is proposed based on nulling the extravascular gray matter (GM) signal, using a spatially nonselective inversion pulse. The remaining MR signal provides cerebral blood volume (CBV) information from brain activation. A theoretical framework is provided to characterize the sources of GM-nulled (GMN) fMRI signal, effects of partial voluming of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and white matter, and behaviors of GMN fMRI signal during brain activation. Visual stimulation paradigm was used to explore the GMN fMRI signal behavior in the human brain at 3T. It is shown that the GMN fMRI signal increases by 7.2% ± 1.5%, which is two to three times more than that obtained with vascular space occupancy (VASO)-dependent fMRI (−3.2% ± 0.2%) or blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI (2.9% ± 0.7%), using a TR of 3,000 ms and a resolution of 2 × 2 × 5 mm3. Under these conditions the fMRI signal-to-noise ratio (SNRfMRI) for BOLD, GMN, and VASO images was 4.97 ± 0.76, 4.56 ± 0.86, and 2.43 ± 1.06, respectively. Our study shows that both signal intensity and activation volume in GMN fMRI depend on spatial resolution because of partial voluming from CSF. It is shown that GMN fMRI is a convenient tool to assess CBV changes associated with brain activation.
Validity of Eye Movement Methods and Indices for Capturing Semantic (Associative) Priming Effects
Authors: Odekar Anshula , Hallowell Brooke , Kruse Hans , Moates Danny , Lee Chao-Yang
Published: August 2008

Purpose

The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the usefulness of eye movement methods and indices as a tool for studying priming effects by verifying whether eye movement indices capture semantic (associative) priming effects in a visual cross-format (written word to semantically related picture) priming paradigm.

Method

In the stimuli development phase, words semantically associated to an array of pictures were generated based on 100 adults' association data for each picture. A total of 40 additional adult participants with normal language engaged in an eye movement experiment using the word–picture associations developed previously. The design consisted of each prime preceding a display showing 1 high-association (target) and 2 low-association (nontarget) images. Fixation durations, locations, and latencies were measured.

Results

Images semantically related to the prime showed greater fixation durations and shorter latencies compared to nontargets. Eye movement and traditional reaction time measures were found to correlate for some of the experimental conditions.

Conclusions

Results showed that free-viewing eye movement measures, in which participants are not instructed to look at anything in particular, hold promise as valid indicators of priming effects. Further research in this area will help to advance language-processing theories in individuals with and without language impairment.
Lung Volume During Swallowing: Single Bolus Swallows in Healthy Young Adults
Authors: Wheeler Hegland Karen M. , Huber Jessica E. , Pitts Teresa , Sapienza Christine M.
Published: August 2008

Purpose

This study examined the relationship between swallowing and lung volume initiation in healthy adults during single swallows of boluses differing in volume and consistency. Differences in lung volume according to respiratory phase surrounding the swallow were also assessed.

Method

Nine men and 11 women between the ages of 19 and 28 years served as study participants. Lung volume and respiratory phase data were recorded as each participant completed 5 trials each of 10-mL and 20-mL water boluses by cup, and thin and thick paste boluses by spoon, presented in randomized order.

Results

Significant differences in lung volume at swallow initiation were found based on bolus consistency but not on bolus volume. No differences were found for lung volume initiation based on the respiratory phase surrounding the swallow or for the respiratory pattern based on bolus volume or consistency.

Conclusion

Findings of this study extend the existing knowledge base regarding the interaction of the swallow and respiratory systems by identifying targeted lung volumes at swallow initiation. In addition to other swallow-related biomechanical events and respiratory phase relationships surrounding a swallow, the lung volume at swallow initiation may be an important consideration when investigating swallow physiology and physiopathy.
The Use of Tense and Agreement by Hungarian-Speaking Children With Language Impairment
Authors: Lukács ágnes , Leonard Laurence B. , Kas Bence , Pléh Csaba
Published: August 2008

Purpose

Hungarian is a null-subject language with both agglutinating and fusional elements in its verb inflection system, and agreement between the verb and object as well as between the verb and subject. These characteristics make this language a good test case for alternative accounts of the grammatical deficits of children with language impairment (LI).

Method

Twenty-five children with LI and 25 younger children serving as vocabulary controls (VC) repeated sentences whose verb inflections were masked by a cough. The verb inflections marked distinctions according to tense, person, number, and definiteness of the object.

Results

The children with LI were significantly less accurate than the VC children but generally showed the same performance profile across the inflection types. For both groups of children, the frequency of occurrence of the inflection in the language was a significant predictor of accuracy level. The two groups of children were also similar in their pattern of errors. Inflections produced in place of the correct inflection usually differed from the correct form on a single dimension (e.g., tense or definiteness), though no single dimension was consistently problematic.

Conclusions

Accounts that assume problems specific to agreement do not provide an explanation for the observed pattern of findings. The findings are generally compatible with accounts that assume processing limitations in children with LI, such as the morphological richness account. One nonmorphosyntactic factor (the retention of sequences of sounds) appeared to be functionally related to inflection accuracy and may prove to be important in a language with numerous inflections such as Hungarian.
Outcomes Measurement in Voice Disorders: Application of an Acoustic Index of Dysphonia Severity
Authors: Awan Shaheen N. , Roy Nelson
Published: August 2008

Purpose

The purpose of this experiment was to assess the ability of an acoustic model composed of both time-based and spectral-based measures to track change following voice disorder treatment and to serve as a possible treatment outcomes measure.

Method

A weighted, four-factor acoustic algorithm consisting of shimmer, pitch sigma, the ratio of low-to-high frequency spectral energy, and a measure of the cepstral peak was used to predict dysphonia severity in pre- and post-treatment vowel samples from 88 women with primary muscle tension dysphonia treated by manual circumlaryngeal therapy. Predicted severity ratings were also compared to mean perceived severity ratings determined by a group of judges.

Results

Predicted severity scores were strongly associated with perceived dysphonia severity ratings for pretreatment, posttreatment, and change in dysphonia severity. Analyses of the agreement between predicted and perceptual severity ratings indicated that the majority of differences were within ± 1 standard deviation from the mean difference. Acoustic predictions of perceived severity were observed to be most accurate for the midportion of the 7-point equal-appearing interval severity scale.

Conclusion

The acoustic model and predicted dysphonia severity scores show promise as a sensitive and objective outcomes measure, even with extremely perturbed pre-treatment voice samples that would be difficult to analyze using traditional time-based perturbation measures.
Magnetic polarization of quantum vortices in He II
Authors: Natsik V. D.
Published: August 2008

The weak magnetic polarization which a quantum vortex in a superfluid Bose liquid acquires as a result of the mutual electric polarization of atoms and the nonuniform distribution of the atomic density in its core is discussed. A rectilinear single-quantum vortex carries a magnetic moment directed along and proportional to the length of the vortex line. The magnetic moment density per unit length and the corresponding quantum of magnetic flux (vortex fluxoid) are directly related with the quantum circulation of the superfluid flow in the vortex. Numerical estimates of this effect are presented for vortices in He II.
Nonlinear localized modes in complex chains and carbon nanotubes
Authors: Savin A. , Kivshar Yu. S.
Published: August 2008

The existence of spatially localized nonlinear modes in carbon nanotubes with different chiralities is discussed, and it is demonstrated that in nanotubes with chirality index (m,0) three types of localized modes can exist, namely longitudinal, radial, and twisting nonlinear localized modes. It is demonstrated that only the nonlinear modes associated with the twisting oscillations are nonradiating modes, and they exist in the frequency gaps of the linear spectrum. The geometry of carbon nanotubes with the index (m,m) allows only the existence of broad radial breathers in a narrow spectral range.
Dynamics of bound soliton states in regularized dispersive equations
Authors: Bogdan M. M. , Charkina O. V.
Published: August 2008

The nonstationary dynamics of topological solitons (dislocations, domain walls, fluxons) and their bound states in one-dimensional systems with high dispersion are investigated. Dynamical features of a moving kink emitting radiation and breathers are studied analytically. Conditions of the breather excitation and its dynamical properties are specified. Processes of soliton complex formation are studied analytically and numerically in relation to the strength of the dispersion, soliton velocity, and distance between solitons. It is shown that moving bound soliton complexes with internal structure can be stabilized by an external force in a dissipative medium then their velocities depend in a step-like manner on a driving strength.
Visualizing intrinsic localized modes with a nonlinear micromechanical array
Authors: Sato M. , Sievers A. J.
Published: August 2008

Micromechanical cantilever arrays provide the opportunity to visualize the nonlinear excitations of a discrete nonlinear system in real time. Both stationary and moving localized nonlinear excitations can be produced either by driving the system at a frequency outside the plane wave spectrum or by driving the system at a frequency within the small amplitude dispersion curve range. To see these modes the tips of the cantilevers are imaged on a 1D CCD camera. The brightness of the image depends on the oscillation amplitude of the cantilever, so that a distribution of amplitudes in the array can be recorded as a function of position and time. Both the stationary and traveling excitations have been successfully simulated using a nonlinear lumped element lattice model. The former ILM can appear in any size lattice while the latter requires a low density of modes for the formation of smoothly running excitation.
Mass incarceration can explain population increases in TB and multidrug-resistant TB in European and central Asian countries
Authors: Stuckler David , Basu Sanjay , McKee Martin , King Lawrence
Published: August 2008

Several microlevel studies have pinpointed prisons as an important site for tuberculosis (TB) and multidrug-resistant TB in European and central Asian countries. To date, no comparative analyses have examined whether rises in incarceration rates can account for puzzling differences in TB trends among overall populations. Using longitudinal TB and cross-sectional multidrug-resistant TB data for 26 eastern European and central Asian countries, we examined whether and to what degree increases in incarceration account for differences in population TB and multidrug-resistant TB burdens. We find that each percentage point increase in incarceration rates relates to an increased TB incidence of 0.34% (population attributable risk, 95% C.I.: 0.10–0.58%,
P
< 0.01), after controlling for TB infrastructure; HIV prevalence; and several surveillance, economic, demographic, and political indicators. Net increases in incarceration account for a 20.5% increase in TB incidence or nearly three-fifths of the average total increase in TB incidence in the countries studied from 1991 to 2002. Although the number of prisoners is a significant determinant of differences in TB incidence and multidrug-resistant TB prevalence among countries, the rate of prison growth is a larger determinant of these outcomes, and its effect is exacerbated but not confounded by HIV. Differences in incarceration rates are a major determinant of differences in population TB outcomes among eastern European and central Asian countries, and treatment expansion alone does not appear to resolve the effect of mass incarceration on TB incidence.
Genetically encoded photoswitching of actin assembly through the Cdc42-WASP-Arp2/3 complex pathway
Authors: Leung Daisy W. , Otomo Chinatsu , Chory Joanne , Rosen Michael K.
Published: August 2008

General methods to engineer genetically encoded, reversible, light-mediated control over protein function would be useful in many areas of biomedical research and technology. We describe a system that yields such photo-control over actin assembly. We fused the Rho family GTPase Cdc42 in its GDP-bound form to the photosensory domain of phytochrome B (PhyB) and fused the Cdc42 effector, the Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome Protein (WASP), to the light-dependent PhyB-binding domain of phytochrome interacting factor 3 (Pif3). Upon red light illumination, the fusion proteins bind each other, activating WASP, and consequently stimulating actin assembly by the WASP target, the Arp2/3 complex. Binding and WASP activation are reversed by far-red illumination. Our approach, in which the biochemical specificity of the nucleotide switch in Cdc42 is overridden by the light-dependent PhyB-Pif3 interaction, should be generally applicable to other GTPase-effector pairs.
RPA phosphorylation facilitates mitotic exit in response to mitotic DNA damage
Authors: Anantha Rachel William , Sokolova Elena , Borowiec James A.
Published: August 2008

Human replication protein A (RPA) becomes phosphorylated on the RPA2 subunit by cyclin B-Cdc2 during mitosis, although the functional role of this modification is unclear. We find that this modification stimulates RPA2 to become hyperphosphorylated in response to mitotic DNA damage caused by bleomycin treatment. Cells in which endogenous RPA2 was replaced by a mutant subunit lacking both Cdc2 sites had a significant defect in mitotic release into a 2N G
1
phase after exposure to bleomycin. An increased percentage of these mutant cells also was positive initially for cyclin B expression and BubR1 chromatin staining, indicative of an extended spindle assembly checkpoint. The mutant cells that experienced mitotic DNA damage also underwent apoptosis at higher levels than cells expressing the WT subunit. Even so, we did not find the mutation had any dramatic effects on the level of DNA repair in mitosis. Cells lacking ATM (a checkpoint factor and RPA2 kinase) also were severely defective in mitotic exit and were unable to support RPA hyperphosphorylation after mitotic DNA damage. Although checkpoint 1 effector kinase (Chk1) had a more complex role, inhibition of Chk1 activity with UCN-01 also reduced mitotic exit. Chk1 activation and mitotic RPA hyperphosphorylation were found to be independent events. Our results demonstrate that mitotic RPA hyperphosphorylation facilitates release of cells from a damaged mitosis into a 2N G
1
phase, thereby increasing cell viability.
4-Chloro-α-cyanocinnamic acid is an advanced, rationally designed MALDI matrix
Authors: Jaskolla Thorsten W. , Lehmann Wolf-Dieter , Karas Michael
Published: August 2008

Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) has become an enabling technology for the fields of protein mass spectrometry (MS) and proteomics. Despite its widespread use, for example, in protein identification via peptide mass fingerprinting, a comprehensive model for the generation of free gas-phase ions has not yet been developed. All matrices in use today, such as α-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (CHCA), have been found empirically and stem from the early days of MALDI. By systematic and targeted variation of the functional groups of the α-cyanocinnamic acid core unit, 4-chloro-α-cyanocinnamic acid (Cl-CCA) was selected and synthesized, and it exhibited outstanding matrix properties. Key features are a substantial increase in sensitivity and a considerably enhanced peptide recovery in proteomic analyses because of a much more uniform response to peptides of different basicity. Using Cl-CCA as a matrix for a 1 fmol bovine serum albumin (BSA) in-solution digest, the sequence coverage is raised to 48%, compared with 4% for CHCA. For a gel band containing 25 fmol of BSA, unambiguous protein identification becomes possible with Cl-CCA. These findings also imply ion formation via a chemical ionization mechanism with proton transfer from a reactive protonated matrix species to the peptide analytes. The considerable increase in performance promises to have a strong impact on future analytical applications of MALDI, because current sensitivity limits are overcome and more comprehensive analyses come into reach.
Semaphorin 6D regulates the late phase of CD4
+
T cell primary immune responses
Authors: O'Connor Brian P. , Eun So-Young , Ye Zhengmao , Zozulya Alla L. , Lich John D. , Moore Chris B. , Iocca Heather A. , Roney Kelly E. , Holl Eda K. , Wu Quing Ping , van Deventer Hendrick W. , Fabry Zsuzsanna , Ting Jenny P.-Y.
Published: August 2008

The semaphorin and plexin family of ligand and receptor proteins provides important axon guidance cues required for development. Recent studies have expanded the role of semaphorins and plexins in the regulation of cardiac, circulatory and immune system function. Within the immune system, semaphorins and plexins regulate cell–cell interactions through a complex network of receptor and ligand pairs. Immune cells at different stages of development often express multiple semaphorins and plexins, leading to multivariate interactions, involving more than one ligand and receptor within each functional group. Because of this complexity, the significance of semaphorin and plexin regulation on individual immune cell types has yet to be fully appreciated. In this work, we examined the regulation of T cells by semaphorin 6D. Both
in vitro
and
in vivo
T cell stimulation enhanced semaphorin 6D expression. However, semaphorin 6D was only expressed by a majority of T cells during the late phases of activation. Consequently, the targeted disruption of semaphorin 6D receptor–ligand interactions inhibited T cell proliferation at late but not early phases of activation. This proliferation defect was associated with reduced linker of activated T cells protein phosphorylation, which may reflect semaphorin 6D regulation of c-Abl kinase activity. Semaphorin 6D disruption also inhibited expression of CD127, which is required during the multiphase antigen-presenting cell and T cell interactions leading to selection of long-lived lymphocytes. This work reveals a role for semaphorin 6D as a regulator of the late phase of primary immune responses.
Photoprotective role of NADPH:protochlorophyllide oxidoreductase A
Authors: Buhr Frank , El Bakkouri Majida , Valdez Oscar , Pollmann Stephan , Lebedev Nikolai , Reinbothe Steffen , Reinbothe Christiane
Published: August 2008

A homology model of NADPH:protochlorophyllide (Pchlide) oxidoreductase A (POR; E.C. 1.3.33.1) of barley is developed and verified by site-directed mutagenesis. PORA is considered a globular protein consisting of nine α-helices and seven β-strands. The model predicts the presence of two functionally distinctive Pchlide binding sites where the pigment is coordinated by cystein residues. The pigment bound to the first, high-affinity Pchlide binding site is used for the formation of the photoactive state of the enzyme. The pigment bound to the second, low-affinity Pchlide binding site is involved in the PORA:PORB interaction, allowing for resonance energy transfer between the neighboring PORs in the complex. In the
in vitro
reconstituted light-harvesting POR:Pchlide complex (LHPP), light absorbed by PORA-bound Pchlide
b
is transferred to PORB-bound Pchlide
a
. That induces the conversion of Pchlide
a
to chlorophyllide (Chlide)
a
. This energy transfer eliminates the possibility of Pchlide
b
photoreduction and prevents that excited triplet states of either Pchlides
a
or
b
accumulate and provoke singlet oxygen production. Together, our results provide a photoprotective role of PORA during greening.
Dysregulation of microRNAs after myocardial infarction reveals a role of miR-29 in cardiac fibrosis
Authors: van Rooij Eva , Sutherland Lillian B. , Thatcher Jeffrey E. , DiMaio J. Michael , Naseem R. Haris , Marshall William S. , Hill Joseph A. , Olson Eric N.
Published: August 2008

Acute myocardial infarction (MI) due to coronary artery occlusion is accompanied by a pathological remodeling response that includes hypertrophic cardiac growth and fibrosis, which impair cardiac contractility. Previously, we showed that cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure are accompanied by characteristic changes in the expression of a collection of specific microRNAs (miRNAs), which act as negative regulators of gene expression. Here, we show that MI in mice and humans also results in the dysregulation of specific miRNAs, which are similar to but distinct from those involved in hypertrophy and heart failure. Among the MI-regulated miRNAs are members of the miR-29 family, which are down-regulated in the region of the heart adjacent to the infarct. The miR-29 family targets a cadre of mRNAs that encode proteins involved in fibrosis, including multiple collagens, fibrillins, and elastin. Thus, down-regulation of miR-29 would be predicted to derepress the expression of these mRNAs and enhance the fibrotic response. Indeed, down-regulation of miR-29 with anti-miRs
in vitro
and
in vivo
induces the expression of collagens, whereas over-expression of miR-29 in fibroblasts reduces collagen expression. We conclude that miR-29 acts as a regulator of cardiac fibrosis and represents a potential therapeutic target for tissue fibrosis in general.
Immunosuppressive therapy mitigates immunological rejection of human embryonic stem cell xenografts
Authors: Swijnenburg Rutger-Jan , Schrepfer Sonja , Govaert Johannes A. , Cao Feng , Ransohoff Katie , Sheikh Ahmad Y. , Haddad Munif , Connolly Andrew J. , Davis Mark M. , Robbins Robert C. , Wu Joseph C.
Published: August 2008

Given their self-renewing and pluripotent capabilities, human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are well poised as a cellular source for tissue regeneration therapy. However, the host immune response against transplanted hESCs is not well characterized. In fact, controversy remains as to whether hESCs have immune-privileged properties. To address this issue, we used
in vivo
bioluminescent imaging to track the fate of transplanted hESCs stably transduced with a double-fusion reporter gene consisting of firefly luciferase and enhanced GFP. We show that survival after transplant is significantly limited in immunocompetent as opposed to immunodeficient mice. Repeated transplantation of hESCs into immunocompetent hosts results in accelerated hESC death, suggesting an adaptive donor-specific immune response. Our data demonstrate that transplanted hESCs trigger robust cellular and humoral immune responses, resulting in intragraft infiltration of inflammatory cells and subsequent hESC rejection. Moreover, we have found CD4
+
T cells to be an important modulator of hESC immune-mediated rejection. Finally, we show that immunosuppressive drug regimens can mitigate the anti-hESC immune response and that a regimen of combined tacrolimus and sirolimus therapies significantly prolongs survival of hESCs for up to 28 days. Taken together, these data suggest that hESCs are immunogenic, trigger both cellular and humoral-mediated pathways, and, as a result, are rapidly rejected in xenogeneic hosts. This process can be mitigated by a combined immunosuppressive regimen as assessed by molecular imaging approaches.
Cell cycle progression requires the CDC-48
UFD−1/NPL−4
complex for efficient DNA replication
Authors: Mouysset Julien , Deichsel Alexandra , Moser Sandra , Hoege Carsten , Hyman Anthony A. , Gartner Anton , Hoppe Thorsten
Published: August 2008

Since
cdc48
mutants were isolated by the first genetic screens for cell division cycle (cdc) mutants in yeast, the requirement of the chaperone-like ATPase Cdc48/p97 during cell division has remained unclear. Here, we discover an unanticipated function for
Caenorhabditis elegans
CDC-48 in DNA replication linked to cell cycle control. Our analysis of the CDC-48
UFD−1/NPL−4
complex identified a general role in S phase progression of mitotic cells essential for embryonic cell division and germline development of adult worms. These developmental defects result from activation of the DNA replication checkpoint caused by replication stress. Similar to loss of replication licensing factors, DNA content is strongly reduced in worms depleted for CDC-48, UFD-1, and NPL-4. In addition, these worms show decreased DNA synthesis and hypersensitivity toward replication blocking agents. Our findings identified a role for CDC-48
UFD−1/NPL−4
in DNA replication, which is important for cell cycle progression and genome stability.
Dematerialization: Variety, caution, and persistence
Authors: Ausubel Jesse H. , Waggoner Paul E.
Published: August 2008

Dematerialization, represented by declining consumption per GDP of energy or of goods, offers some hope for rising environmental quality with development. The declining proportion of income spent on staples as affluence grows, which income elasticity <1.0 measures, makes dematerialization widespread. Further, as learning improves efficiency of resource use, the intensity of environmental impact per production of staples often declines. We observe that combinations of low income elasticity for staples and of learning by producers cause a variety of dematerializations and declining intensities of impact, from energy use and carbon emission to food consumption and fertilizer use, globally and in countries ranging from the United States and France to China, India, Brazil, and Indonesia. Because dematerialization and intensity of impact are ratios of parameters that may be variously defined and are sometimes difficult to estimate, their fluctuations must be interpreted cautiously. Nevertheless, substantial declining intensity of impact, and especially, dematerialization persisted between 1980 and 2006.