bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Investigation of biomaterials by human epithelial gingiva cells: an in vitro study
Authors: Neunzehn Jörg , Lüttenberg Beate , Wiesmann Hans-Peter
Published: December 2012

Introduction

In modern medicine and dentistry the use of biomaterials is a fast developing field of increasing interest. Especially in dentistry the interaction between biomaterials like implant materials and the soft tissue in the oral cavity is in the focus of daily research. In this context the high importance of testing materials and their surfaces concerning their biocompatibility towards corresponding cells is very likely. For this purpose this study investigates cells derived from human gingival biopsies on different materials and surfaces.

Methods

Cells in this study were cultivated out of human biopsies by a grow out explant technique and were sub cultivated on titanium, zirconium dioxide and collagen membrane specimens. To characterise the cells on the material surfaces used in this study immunohistochemical and histological staining techniques as well as different methods of microscopy (light microscopy and SEM) were applied.

Results

With the aid of the explant technique and the chosen cell cultivation method it was possible to investigate the human gingiva derived cells on different materials. The data of the present study show that the human gingival cells attach and proliferate on all three tested materials by exhibiting characteristic gingival keratinocyte protein expression even after long periods of culture e.g. up to 70 days.

Conclusions

It could be shown that the three tested materials titanium, zirconium dioxide and collagen membrane (and their special surfaces) are good candidates for the application as materials in the dental gingival environment or, in the case of the collagen membrane as scaffold/cell-carrier for human gingival cells in tissue engineering.
On the group theoretical background of assigning stepwise mutations onto phylogenies
Authors: Fischer Mareike , Klaere Steffen , Thi Nguyen Minh Anh , Haeseler Arndt von
Published: December 2012

Background

Recently one step mutation matrices were introduced to model the impact of substitutions on arbitrary branches of a phylogenetic tree on an alignment site. This concept works nicely for the four-state nucleotide alphabet and provides an efficient procedure conjectured to compute the minimal number of substitutions needed to transform one alignment site into another. The present paper delivers a proof of the validity of this algorithm. Moreover, we provide several mathematical insights into the generalization of the OSM matrix to multi-state alphabets. The construction of the OSM matrix is only possible if the matrices representing the substitution types acting on the character states and the identity matrix form a commutative group with respect to matrix multiplication. We illustrate this approach by looking at Abelian groups over twenty states and critically discuss their biological usefulness when investigating amino acids.
Open triple-branched stent graft placement for the surgical treatment of acute aortic arch dissection
Authors: Sun Xiaoning , Lu Shuyang , Yang Shouguo , Lai Hao , Chen Hao , Hong Tao , Wang Chunsheng
Published: December 2012

Background

The primary experience of open triple-branched stent graft placement for acute aortic arch dissection was reported.

Methods

Between January 2011 and October 2011, 13 well-selected patients (mea age, 46±8.2 years; approximate range, 30~58 years) with acute aortic arch dissection underwent open triple-branched stent graft placement for total arch reconstruction. The triple-branched stent graft was a branched 1-piece graft consisting of a self-expandable nitinol stent and polyester vascular graft fabric (Yuhengjia Sci Tech Corp Ltd, Beijing, China).During hypothermic circulatory arrest, through the transverse incision of the ascending aorta, the main graft of the triple-branched stent graft was inserted into the true lumen of the arch and proximal descending aorta, and then each sidearm graft was positioned one by one into the aortic branch. Once the main graft and sidearm grafts were properly positioned, the restraining strings were withdrawn and then the main graft and sidearm grafts were deployed. Enhanced electric beam computed tomography was performed in each patient before discharge to evaluate the postoperative time course of the residual false lumen.

Results

Open triple-branched stent graft placement was technically successful in all patients. The mean cardiopulmonary bypass time, aortic cross-clamp time and arrest time were 138.40±47.75 min, 70.60±28.94 min and 28.60±12.48 min, respectively. All patients were discharged from hospital. Their computed tomographic scans postoperatively showed that all stent grafts were fully opened and not kinked, there was no blood flow surrounding the triple-branched stent graft.

Conclusion

Open triple-branched stent graft placement is a new effective technique for total arch reconstruction in acute arch dissection.
Changes in mean scrotal circumference in performance tested Swedish beef bulls over time
Authors: Eriksson Pernilla , Lundeheim Nils , Söderquist Lennart
Published: December 2012

Background

There is a growing interest in beef cattle breeding in Sweden. The majority of the females are bred naturally, which is why it is important to choose healthy fertile bulls to obtain good reproduction and profitability. The breeding soundness evaluation includes measurement of scrotal circumference (SC). Our aim was to analyze if the SC of performance tested beef bulls has changed over the years. In total, 1332 bulls (Angus, Charolais, Hereford and Simmental) from 13 batches (1997-2010) were included in the study. Case book entries from final evaluation of the bulls, 11-13 months old, were compiled and analyzed.

Results

An overall mean SC of 34.7 cm independent of breed and age was found which is above the set minimum level. Only eleven bulls did not reach the minimum level. An increase in SC of 0.06-0.07 cm/year was shown for all breeds. In all (1997-2010), the increase of the average SC (independent of breed and age) was approximately 1 cm. The positive trend was apparent for all breeds but only statistically significant for the Charolais breed.

Conclusions

In conclusion, our results indicated an increase in the SC over time, which improves the possibilities to obtain performance tested beef sires in Sweden with the potential for achieving better fertility results.
Development of a surgical safety checklist for the performance of radical nephrectomy and tumor thrombectomy
Authors: Joshi Shivam , Gorin Michael A , Ayyathurai Rajinikanth , Ciancio Gaetano
Published: December 2012

Background

The surgical management of renal cell carcinoma with invasion of the renal vein or inferior vena cava is associated with significant rates of perioperative morbidity and mortality. In this report we propose a surgical checklist aimed at reducing adverse events associated with the resection of these tumors.

Methods

This review describes the development of an evidence- and experience-based surgical checklist aimed at improving the perioperative safety of patients undergoing radical nephrectomy and tumor thrombectomy.

Results

Reducing the risk of complications during the surgical management of renal tumors with venous invasion begins with appropriate pre-operative imaging aimed at defining the cranial extent of the tumor thrombus, thus facilitating accurate preoperative planning. Other key elements of the checklist are aimed at ensuring clear and precise pre-, intra- and postoperative communication between members of the multidisciplinary-care team.

Conclusion

A standardized surgical checklist may help to increase the perioperative safety of patients undergoing radical nephrectomy and tumor thrombectomy. Future validation studies are required to determine the clinical feasibility and post-implementation safety profile of this new checklist.
Support for calcium channel gene defects in autism spectrum disorders
Authors: Lu Ake Tzu-Hui , Dai Xiaoxian , Martinez-Agosto Julian A , Cantor Rita M
Published: December 2012

Background

Alternation of synaptic homeostasis is a biological process whose disruption might predispose children to autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Calcium channel genes (CCG) contribute to modulating neuronal function and evidence implicating CCG in ASD has been accumulating. We conducted a targeted association analysis of CCG using existing genome-wide association study (GWAS) data and imputation methods in a combined sample of parent/affected child trios from two ASD family collections to explore this hypothesis.

Methods

A total of 2,176 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) (703 genotyped and 1,473 imputed) covering the genes that encode the α1 subunit proteins of 10 calcium channels were tested for association with ASD in a combined sample of 2,781 parent/affected child trios from 543 multiplex Caucasian ASD families from the Autism Genetics Resource Exchange (AGRE) and 1,651 multiplex and simplex Caucasian ASD families from the Autism Genome Project (AGP). SNP imputation using IMPUTE2 and a combined reference panel from the HapMap3 and the 1,000 Genomes Project increased coverage density of the CCG. Family-based association was tested using the FBAT software which controls for population stratification and accounts for the non-independence of siblings within multiplex families. The level of significance for association was set at 2.3E-05, providing a Bonferroni correction for this targeted 10-gene panel.

Results

Four SNPs in three CCGs were associated with ASD. One, rs10848653, is located in CACNA1C, a gene in which rare de novo mutations are responsible for Timothy syndrome, a Mendelian disorder that features ASD. Two others, rs198538 and rs198545, located in CACN1G, and a fourth, rs5750860, located in CACNA1I, are in CCGs that encode T-type calcium channels, genes with previous ASD associations.

Conclusions

These associations support a role for common CCG SNPs in ASD.
The Mahābhārata and World Literature
Authors: Dev Amiya
Published: December 2012

Dev’s article discusses the Mahābhārata as world literature in the context of the epic tradition, including Homer’s Iliad and the Odyssey and the German epic poem Nibelungenlied (The Song of the Nibelungs).
Exile and Estrangement in East African Indian Fiction
Authors: Ojwang Dan
Published: December 2012

East African Indian fiction, or rather fiction by East African writers of South Asian origin, presents memorable images of ceaseless wandering through strange territory, flight from home-spaces, violent expulsions, and the networks—imaginative and literal—that link the resultant diaspora communities. Ojwang’s article accounts for the different ways in which three key writers, M. G. Vassanji, Bahadur Tejani, and Peter Nazareth, have responded in their fiction to the experiences and exigencies of migration, African nationalisms, and alienation. In doing so, it draws attention to the contribution that these writers, in providing imaginative accounts of one of the classic diasporas of colonialism, make to scholarly understanding of exile in colonial and postcolonial culture.
Lotus, the Afro-Asian Nexus, and Global South Comparatism
Authors: Halim Hala
Published: December 2012

As part of the endeavor to seek out nonmetropolitan forms of comparatism, this article addresses the trilingual periodical Lotus: Afro-Asian Writings that was published by the Afro-Asian Writers’ Association from the late 1960s until the early 1990s. Lotus, the article argues, instantiates an antecedent of postcolonial critique and represents a decidedly anti-Eurocentric, internationalist project that held the promise of Global South comparatism. Halim’s article discusses selected issues raised in Lotus, considers the curtailment of its potential by the Cold War, and reflects on the implications of revisiting the journal in relation to contemporary geopolitical realities.
History Beyond the Reality Principle: Literary and Political Territories in Sena Period Bengal
Authors: Knutson Jesse Ross
Published: December 2012

Knutson’s essay examines contemporary accounts in Sanskrit verse of the conquered territories of King Laksmanasena of Bengal (c. late twelfth/early thirteenth century), situating their false claims in a larger history of petty kings’ competing false claims about themselves in the early medieval period. The essay thus uncovers a history of falsity and warring falsities and then correlates the tendencies of figuration that seemed to prove inseparable from the poetic conquest of political reality in Sanskrit. It traces tropes of sadism and sexual abuse and uncovers the threads, stretching back to Kalidasa (c. fourth/fifth century), of a longer history of correlation between such forms and political contents self-consciously presented in contradiction to a possible reality. Understanding this sadistic hypertrophy of expression, which culminated in the medieval period’s political poetry, in terms of the sadism inherent to the Freudian concept of the work of melancholia, the essay argues for a mode of literary and historical enquiry that grasps the most chimerical cultural forms, awash with falsity and fantasy—those that may attempt most forcefully to deny their historicity—as subtly situated in particular sociopolitical historical processes.
Rnd3 induces stress fibres in endothelial cells through RhoB
Authors: Gottesbühren Undine , Garg Ritu , Riou Philippe , McColl Brad , Brayson Daniel , Ridley Anne J.
Published: December 2012

Rnd proteins are atypical Rho family proteins that do not hydrolyse GTP and are instead regulated by expression levels and post-translational modifications. Rnd1 and Rnd3/RhoE induce loss of actin stress fibres and cell rounding in multiple cell types, whereas responses to Rnd2 are more variable. Here we report the responses of endothelial cells to Rnd proteins. Rnd3 induces a very transient decrease in stress fibres but subsequently stimulates a strong increase in stress fibres, in contrast to the reduction observed in other cell types. Rnd2 also increases stress fibres whereas Rnd1 induces a loss of stress fibres and weakening of cell–cell junctions. Rnd3 does not act through any of its known signalling partners and does not need to associate with membranes to increase stress fibres. Instead, it acts by increasing RhoB expression, which is then required for Rnd3-induced stress fibre assembly. Rnd2 also increases RhoB levels. These data indicate that the cytoskeletal response to Rnd3 expression is dependent on cell type and context, and identify regulation of RhoB as a new mechanism for Rnd proteins to affect the actin cytoskeleton.
Human IGF1 extends lifespan and enhances resistance to Plasmodium falciparum infection in the malaria vector Anopheles stephensi
Authors: Drexler Anna , Nuss Andrew , Hauck Eric , Glennon Elizabeth , Cheung Kong , Brown Mark , Luckhart Shirley
Published: December 2012

The highly conserved insulin/insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling (IIS) pathway regulates metabolism, development, lifespan and immunity across a wide range of organisms. Previous studies have shown that human insulin ingested in the blood meal can activate mosquito IIS, resulting in attenuated lifespan and increased malaria parasite infection. Because human IGF1 is present at higher concentrations in blood than insulin and is functionally linked with lifespan and immune processes, we predicted that human IGF1 ingested in a blood meal would affect lifespan and malaria parasite infection in the mosquito Anopheles stephensi. Here we demonstrate that physiological levels of ingested IGF1, like insulin, can persist intact in the blood-filled midgut for up to 30 h and disseminate into the mosquito body, and that both peptides activate IIS in mosquito cells and midgut. At these same levels, ingested IGF1 alone extended average mosquito lifespan by 23% compared with controls and, more significantly, when ingested in infected blood meals, reduced the prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum-infected mosquitoes by >20% and parasite load by 35–50% compared with controls. Thus, the effects of ingested IGF1 on mosquito lifespan and immunity are opposite to those of ingested insulin. These results offer the first evidence that insect cells can functionally discriminate between mammalian insulin and IGF1. Further, in light of previous success in genetically targeting IIS to alter mosquito lifespan and malaria parasite transmission, this study indicates that a more complete understanding of the IIS-activating ligands in blood can be used to optimize transgenic strategies for malaria control.
A Dispatching Model for Server-to-Customer Systems That Balances Efficiency and Equity
Authors: McLay Laura A. , Mayorga Maria E.
Published: December 2012

The decision about which servers to dispatch to which customers is an important aspect of service systems. This decision is complicated when servers must be equitably—as well as efficiently—dispatched to customers. In this paper, we formulate a model for determining how to optimally dispatch distinguishable servers to prioritized customers given a set of equity constraints. These issues are examined through the lens of emergency medical service (EMS) dispatch, for which a Markov decision process model is developed that captures how to dispatch ambulances (servers) to prioritized patients (customers). It is assumed that customers arrive sequentially, with the priority and location of each customer becoming known upon arrival. Four types of equity constraints are considered—two of which reflect customer equity and two of which reflect server equity—all of which draw upon the decision analytic and social science literature to compare the effects of different notions of equity on the resulting dispatching policies. The Markov decision processes are formulated as equity-constrained linear programming models. A computational example is applied to an EMS system to compare the different equity models.
Facility Location Decisions with Random Disruptions and Imperfect Estimation
Authors: Lim Michael K. , Bassamboo Achal , Chopra Sunil , Daskin Mark S.
Published: December 2012

Supply chain disruptions come with catastrophic consequences in spite of their low probability of occurrence. In this paper, we consider a facility location problem in the presence of random facility disruptions where facilities can be protected with additional investments. Whereas most existing models in the literature implicitly assume that the disruption probability estimate is perfectly accurate, we investigate the impact of misestimating the disruption probability. Using a stylized continuous location model, we show that underestimation in disruption probability results in greater increase in the expected total cost than overestimation. In addition, we show that, when planned properly, the cost of mitigating the misestimation risk is not too high. Under a more generalized setting incorporating correlated disruptions and finite capacity, we numerically show that underestimation in both disruption probability and correlation degree result in greater increase in the expected total cost compared to overestimation. We, however, find that the impact of misestimating the correlation degree is much less significant relative to that of misestimating the disruption probability. Thus, managers should focus more on accurately estimating the disruption probability than the correlation.
When Gray Markets Have Silver Linings: All-Unit Discounts, Gray Markets, and Channel Management
Authors: Hu Ming , Pavlin J. Michael , Shi Mengze
Published: December 2012

Gray markets are unauthorized channels of distribution for a supplier's authentic products. We study a distribution channel that consists of a supplier who offers all-unit quantity discounts for batch orders to enjoy cost savings, and a reseller who may divert some goods to the gray markets. We show that the impact of gray markets depends on the reseller's inventory holding cost. When the reseller's inventory holding cost is high, diversion to the gray markets improves the channel performance by enabling the reseller to make batch orders. Because the reseller's order costs decrease through quantity discounts, diversion to the gray markets reduces the resale price and expands sales to the authorized channel. On the other hand, when the reseller's inventory holding cost is low, the reseller would make the batch orders even without the gray markets. In this case the diversion to the gray markets may improve the reseller's performance by shortening the order cycles and reducing the inventory holding costs. Interestingly, because diversion to the gray markets decreases the reseller's cycle inventory volume, the reseller has the reduced incentive to push its inventory, and, consequently, the resale price rises and sales volume decreases in the authorized channel. Moreover, there exists a range of reseller's inventory holding cost and supplier's cost of scale economy such that it is optimal for the supplier to induce reseller's gray market diversion through an all-unit discount. We show that these results are robust when the gray market overlaps with the authorized channel or when the gray market price is sensitive to reseller's diversion volume.
OM Forum—Three Rs of Operations Management: Research, Relevance, and Rewards
Authors: Van Mieghem Jan A.
Published: December 2012

This article presents three personal experiences and reflections on the process and objective of research in operations management. This invited OM Forum contribution is based on my Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Distinguished Fellow inaugural lecture given at Columbia University on June 18, 2012.
Chemical modification of silica support to improve the branching ability of Phillips catalyst
Authors: Dwivedi Sumant , Gujral Satnam Singh , Taniike Toshiaki , Terano Minoru
Published: December 2012

A variety of modified Phillips catalysts were synthesized by employing three kinds of chemical modifiers for silica support: (1) organic modification with silane coupling agents, (2) Lewis acidic modification with typical metal alkyl or alkoxide, and (3) modification with transition-metal alkoxide. The activity and branching ability of these catalysts were investigated for ethylene polymerization. It was revealed that the chemical modification of silica support was a good methodology for controlling the catalyst activity as well as the branching level in resultant polyethylene.
Terminology for aggregation and self-assembly in polymer science
(IUPAC Recommendations 2013)
Authors: Jones Richard G. , Ober Christopher K. , Hodge Philip , Kratochvíl Pavel , Moad Graeme , Vert Michel
Published: December 2012

In the past, aggregation and self-assembly have been associated principally with
micellar and colloidal systems of molecules; however, with the advent of
supramolecular chemistry, molecular self-assembly has been opened to a much
wider understanding that has facilitated access to a variety of different shapes
and sizes, along with the construction of new and fascinating molecular
topologies. This document aims at defining more than 150 terms related to
aggregation and self-assembly in the particular case of macromolecules. The list
is restricted to the most commonly encountered terms.
Electroanalytical chemistry for the analysis of solids: Characterization and classification (IUPAC Technical Report)
Authors: Doménech-Carbó Antonio , Labuda Jan , Scholz Fritz
Published: December 2012

Solid state electroanalytical chemistry (SSEAC) deals with studies of the processes, materials, and methods specifically aimed to obtain analytical information (quantitative elemental composition, phase composition, structure information, and reactivity) on solid materials by means of electrochemical methods. The electrochemical characterization of solids is not only crucial for electrochemical applications of materials (e.g., in batteries, fuel cells, corrosion protection, electrochemical machining, etc.) but it lends itself also for providing analytical information on the structure and chemical and mineralogical composition of solid materials of all kinds such as metals and alloys, various films, conducting polymers, and materials used in nanotechnology. The present report concerns the relationships between molecular electrochemistry (i.e., solution electrochemistry) and solid state electrochemistry as applied to analysis. Special attention is focused on a critical evaluation of the different types of analytical information that are accessible by SSEAC.
Ethnopoetic Analysis as a Resource for Endangered-Language Linguistics: The Social Production of an Arapesh Text
Authors: Dobrin Lise M.
Published: December 2012

The focus of this article is a short narrative text that was recorded during the author’s fieldwork on the endangered Papuan language Arapesh. An explication of the text following the principles of Hymesian verse analysis provides a rich source of evidence about the speaker’s experience of cultural transformation as refracted in the research encounter. This comes across explicitly, through the text’s remarkable content, and indexically through aspects of its form. The analysis helps reveal the subtle and sometimes problematic ways in which fieldworkers as cross-cultural interlocutors shape the encounters that are reified in the documentary objects they produce.
Round Women and Long Men: Shape, Size, and the Meanings of Gender in New Guinea and Beyond
Authors: Aikhenvald Alexandra Y.
Published: December 2012

The concept of gender has three faces. Natural gender (N-gender, or sex), Social gender (S-gender), which reflects the social implications of being a man or a woman (or perhaps something in between), and Linguistic gender (L-gender). L-gender tends to mirror social and cultural stereotypes of S-gender. Recurrent correlations between shape, size, and L-gender choice are a feature of languages of the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea. After a brief summary of L-gender and the principles of its choice across languages, a detailed analysis is offered of L-gender choice in Manambu, a Ndu language from the Sepik region. It is shown that gender assignment to humans correlates with N-gender and reflects S-gender status. Other nouns have no fixed gender. Their gender depends on the physical properties of the noun’s referent. We then turn to a cross-linguistic survey of other languages, in New Guinea and beyond, where shape and size are deployed as semantic parameters in L-gender choice. Further semantic correlates of gender assignment in the languages of the world include the roles of referents in myths, and salient properties correlating with the position of S-gender (especially relevant for L-gender choice and L-genders switches for humans).
The “Cholera Cloud” in the Nineteenth-Century “British World”: History of an Object-Without-an-Essence
Authors: Mukharji Projit Bihari
Published: December 2012

The “cholera cloud” is one of the most persistent presences in the archives of nineteenth-century cholera in the “British World.” Yet it has seldom received anything more than a passing acknowledgment from historians of cholera. Tracing the history of the cholera cloud as an object promises to open up a new dimension of the historically contingent experience of cholera, as well as make a significant contribution to the emergent literature on “thing theory.” By conceptualizing the cholera cloud as an object-without-an-essence, this article demonstrates how global cholera pandemics in the nineteenth century produced globalized objects in which a near-universal recognizability and an utterly context-specific set of meanings, visions, and realities could ironically cohabit.
When Ice Cream Was Poisonous: Adulteration, Ptomaines, and Bacteriology in the United States, 1850–1910
Authors: Geist Edward
Published: December 2012

With the increasing popularity of ice cream in the nineteenth century, the incidence of foodborne illness attributed to this dessert exploded. Struggling to understand the causes of the mysterious and sometimes lethal ailment called “ice cream poisoning,” Victorian doctors and scientists advanced theories including toxic vanilla, galvanism in ice cream freezers, and extreme indigestion. In the late 1880s Victor C. Vaughan’s argument that ice cream poisoning could be attributed to the ptomaine “tyrotoxicon” received widespread acceptance. To date historians have neglected the role played by the ptomaine theory of food poisoning in shaping the evolution of both scientific thinking and public health in the late nineteenth century. The case of ice cream poisoning illustrates the emergence, impact, and decline of the ptomaine idea.
(Re-)Reading Medical Trade Catalogs: The Uses of Professional Advertising in British Medical Practice, 1870–1914
Authors: Jones Claire L.
Published: December 2012

This article explores how medical practitioners read, used, and experienced medical trade catalogs in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Britain. Reader responses to the catalog, a book-like publication promoting medical tools, appliances, and pharmaceuticals, have been chronically understudied, as have professional reading practices within medicine more generally. Yet, evidence suggests that clinicians frequently used the catalog and did so in three main ways: to order medical products, to acquire new information about these products, and to display their own product endorsements and product designs. The seemingly widespread nature of these practices demonstrates an individual and collective professional desire to improve medical practice and highlights the importance of studying professional reading practices in the cultural history of medicine.
Medicalized Social Hygiene?: Tuberculosis Policy in the German Democratic Republic
Authors: Harsch Donna
Published: December 2012

This archive-based study investigates tuberculosis policy in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from the 1940s to the 1960s. The focus is on the sanatorium as the major site of treatment and on BCG vaccination as the major preventive tool. The article tests and accepts the thesis that the GDR’s guiding health paradigm is best described by the term “medicalized social hygiene.” The article finds that methods of both treatment and prevention were characterized less by radical change and innovation than by tradition and pragmatism at least until the mid-1950s. Thus, “forced institutionalization” of “asocial” patients continued after 1945. Yet the health ministry long hesitated to make BCG vaccination obligatory. The German past, the Cold War context of German–German rivalry, and medical and popular attitudes toward vaccination, TB, and TB patients are considered as possible explanations for the mix of continuity and change in TB policy.
Why We Will Not Be Posthuman: Gadgets as a Technocultural Form
Authors: Simeone Michael
Published: December 2012

This essay examines the use of consumer electronics as an epistemology of human memory and experienced mental states in the 2003 film Paycheck , an adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s 1952 short story of the same name, as well as other popular media. Informed by my research in the history of the constitutive metaphors of cognitive science in the twentieth century, I conclude from cinematographic analysis that consumer electronics provide the metaphorical framework through which we often understand and represent human memory and cognition. Although brains are seen as similar to computers, the logic of the film insulates liberal human subjectivity from posthuman implications. By invoking electronic gadgets, the film not only produces Cartesian and consumerist separation between brain/hardware and mind/user, but it also begins a broader conversation about gadgets and American popular culture; gadgets are an enduring metaphorical configuration of humans and technology in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
The Work of Imagining Subatomic Particles in Early Quantum Mechanics
Authors: Miller Sean
Published: December 2012

Focusing on a selection of key texts from early quantum mechanics, the essay examines the concept of the quantum of action and the role it has played in the positing of the photon and electron as real objects within a supporting epistemological imaginary—an imaginary that stands metonymically for the objective world. Since physicists imagine themselves as a certain form of subject within the imagined world evoked by these texts, an encounter with subatomic particles as basic objects within that world entails a novel form of imagined work as well. The import of this novel subject and the work that it does with particles as objects qua objects depends, in large part, on the extent to which the physicists, while rhetorically subverting that imagined subject’s presence within the text, nonetheless privilege it as an ideal.
The Neural Subject in Popular Culture and the End of Life
Authors: Pelaprat Etienne , Hartouni Valerie
Published: December 2012

Scholars in the humanities increasingly scrutinize the contemporary significance of cognitive neuroscience in reshaping the contours of the human subject. The essay considers a specific dimension of this new epistemic and ontological frontier—the neuroscience of consciousness as a threshold of life and death—to develop the argument that the biology of consciousness as a cultural problem is part and parcel of the end of life as a biopolitical problem. It turns to two sites of contemporary popular culture to unpack how a particular rationality of freedom intertwines with neural life in order to give form to, and contain, the concrete material, economic, and political problems faced by the end of life. It argues that contemporary reflections on the biology of consciousness must link the cultural problem of organizing a neural subject to specific economic, legal, and ethical problems of late-modern rationalities of government.
Natural History on Blocks, in Bodies, and on the Hearth: Juvenile Science Literature and Games, 1850–1875
Authors: Zimmerman Virginia
Published: December 2012

The essay examines the role of domestic spaces and images in mid-nineteenth-century science writing for children. Analyses of John Mill’s The Fossil Spirit , A.L.O.E.’s Fairy Frisket , John Cargill Brough’s The Fairy Tales of Science , Annie Carey’s “Autobiography of a Lump of Coal,” and an assortment of boxed games reveal a variety of ways in which overwhelming scientific concepts are domesticated. Moreover, juvenile science literature contributes this appeasing domestication to the broader scientific discourse, consistently framing natural history in terms of human experience.
A Schizoanalysis of Emerging Biotechnologies: Renaturalized Nature, the Disclosed Secret of Life, and Technologically Authentic Selfhood
Authors: Sharon Tamar
Published: December 2012

The essay argues that Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s schizoanalysis is a particularly helpful means of framing critical readings of emerging biotechnologies. It not only offers a terminology for articulating the tension between the deconstructive and destabilizing effects of new technologies versus their potential to reinforce traditional patterns of power, it can also push these analyses further. The complex movements of de- and reterritorialization—in which reterritorialization is never just the reconstitution of a system of meaning that has been unsettled by schizophrenic energies, but is always the production of a new one, in which deterritorialized elements connect in different ways—can help us account for the richness of new meanings and uses of foundational terms. The important question then becomes not how and if deterritorialized elements are being reterritorialized, but rather if the reterritorializations that are taking place are positive or negative ones. Drawing on some recent ethnographic work that focuses on how users integrate and normalize the use of different biomedical technologies, the essay discusses how foundational terms are de- and reterritorialized in three examples: nature in the context of assisted reproduction, life in the genomic sciences, and authentic self-hood in the context of the neurosciences.
Origen, Eusebius, and the Accidental Interpolation in Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 20.200
Authors: Carrier Richard
Published: December 2012

Analysis of the evidence from the works of Origen, Eusebius, and Hegesippus concludes that the reference to "Christ" in Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 20.200 is probably an accidental interpolation or scribal emendation and that the passage was never originally about Christ or Christians. It referred not to James the brother of Jesus Christ, but probably to James the brother of the Jewish high priest Jesus ben Damneus.
Bardaisan and Origen on Fate and the Power of the Stars
Authors: Possekel Ute
Published: December 2012

Bardaisan of Edessa (d. 222) is one of the earliest theologians to reflect on the proper place of the heavenly bodies within a Christian cosmology. Bardaisan draws on both biblical texts and contemporary philosophical notions to argue that planets and stars are created by God and are subject to the divine commandment, yet are also endowed with a certain freedom on account of which they will be judged on the last day. Bardaisan, wishing to maintain the oneness and goodness of God against Marcionite dualism, regards the heavenly bodies as responsible for undesirable events that are beyond the control of human will or natural law. This paper compares and contrasts Bardaisan's understanding of fate and astral power with that of his younger contemporary Origen. It argues that Bardaisan's cosmology is not an isolated phenomenon at the margins of the Christian world, but is part of a larger trajectory of speculative thought within third-century Christianity.
Illuminating the Dura-Europos Baptistery: Comparanda for the Female Figures
Authors: Peppard Michael
Published: December 2012

This essay reconsiders the identifications and interpretations of two of the paintings from the Dura-Europos baptistery: a woman at a well on the southern wall and the procession of women on the eastern and northern walls. Previously unheralded artistic and textual comparanda provide support for alternative identifications of the baptistery's female figures. This essay offers new reasons why the woman at a well could be interpreted as the Virgin Mary, and the procession of women could be interpreted as the wise and foolish virgins of Jesus' parable. In the end, though, it will provide rationales for polysemic interpretations of these figures.
Overcoming Time and Space: Gregory of Nyssa's Anagogical Theology
Authors: Boersma Hans
Published: December 2012

This essay challenges the interpretation of Gregory of Nyssa that sees him as envisioning created life retaining its diastemic character also in the hereafter. To Gregory, it is most important to enter into the divine life, and although this ascent (or anagogy) makes use of time and space, these do not properly characterize human destiny. While taking into account Gregory's clear articulation of the creator-creature distinction as well as his insistence that the creator is beyond extension and thus beyond measurement, I make clear that Gregory is nonetheless impatient with the time and space that we inhabit; that the extension of time and space is not something that Gregory values for its own sake. Instead, what matters is the way in which we use every moment of our temporal lives to progress in our upward journey into the intelligible life of the heavenly kingdom—which, according to Nyssen, is both our origin and our final end.
Playing the Fame Game: Bibliography, Celebrity, and Primacy in Late Antique Spain
Authors: Wood Jamie
Published: December 2012

This article positions the Spanish strand of the De viris illustribus in its social and literary context. I argue that, rather than simply continuing the biographical catalogues of Jerome and Gennadius, Isidore of Seville and Ildefonsus of Toledo used their lists of illustrious Spanish Christian leaders to assert the historical status of the Spanish church, particularly in relation to Rome and Constantinople. I also suggest that lists of famous Christians functioned on a second level, as a medium for articulating competition between the great bishoprics of Spain. At the start of the seventh century, Isidore put together a selection of literary bishops from Spain to demonstrate the historical excellence of the Spanish church and to establish his brother, Leander, as its preeminent ecclesiastic. A few decades later, Ildefonsus constructed a list of miracle-working monk-bishops from Toledo as part of a broader campaign to assert Toledan primacy in Spain. Recording the deeds and writings of late antique, Spanish celebrity Christians was thus central to the establishment and articulation of ecclesiastical power, creating connections to the past and establishing a reservoir of institutional and charismatic power on which future generations were keen to draw.
Hosea 10:10: A Critical Note
Authors: Bar Shaul
Published: December 2012

There is substantial disagreement among the translators as to the meaning of the Hebrew word [inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="01i" /] (Qere [inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="02i" /]) in Hos 10:10; this disagreement stems from uncertainty about the word's root. The present article reviews the readings that have been offered so far by ancient versions of the Bible, traditional commentators, and modern exegetes and suggests a new one.
Grammatical Similarities between Nineteenth-Century Hasidic and Maskilic Hebrew Narratives
Authors: Kahn Lily
Published: December 2012

This paper comprises the first comparative linguistic analysis of Hasidic and Maskilic Hebrew narrative literature composed in the second half of the nineteenth century in Eastern Europe. Its main contention is that the Hasidic and Maskilic corpora have a high degree of morphological and syntactic correspondence, with a comparable distribution of biblical, rabbinic, medieval, and independent features. These findings have significant implications for Early Modern Hebrew research as they represent the first challenge to the traditional view that Hasidic and Maskilic Hebrew have little in common, the former being regarded as largely rabbinic-based and the latter as mainly biblicizing. The paper demonstrates these arguments by examining a selection of shared phenomena including the biblically derived wayyiqṭol and infinitive construct without lamed prefix; the rabbinic masculine plural with nun suffix and qal yiqtṭol of II- and III-guttural and stative roots; the medieval qal infinitive construct of I- yod and I- nun roots with subject suffix; and independent features including the retention of the definite article following inseparable prepositions, unapocopated wayyiqṭols , the qạtal in past progressive and habitual contexts, the particle הנה + infinitive construct, and the technique of shibbuṣ . These points are illustrated with examples from Hasidic tales published by the prominent collectors M. L. Rodkinsohn and M. M. Bodek, and from Maskilic prose fiction by a range of authors including S. J. Abramowitz, J. L. Gordon, A. Mapu, and P. Smolenskin.
Craving Pure Essence: Portret ["Portrait"] by Dahlia Ravikovitch
Authors: Wiseman Laura
Published: December 2012

My research examines the contemporary Hebrew poetry of Dahlia Ravikovitch as the prismatic self-portraiture of a lovelorn soul. Across the oeuvre , the poet-persona laments her lifelong experience of love in emotionally dissatisfying proportions. The imbalance affects her personal life and stalls her creative activity. She suffers existential malaise only held at bay when she is saturated with eros or immersed in poetic composition. Textual analysis shows that there are parallel aspects of the persona's experience of each, suggesting their equivalence in potential to assuage her discomfort: a sensation of descent, sinking fully cushioned into organic matter, and a heightening of sensory perception. When the natural resources of eros and creative vitality are scarce, the persona yearns for the succor of a substance of sustenance that she calls "vanilla." Such is the case in Portret ["Portrait"], arguably the centerpiece of the persona's gallery. In an extraordinary performance of bios , the speaker of "Portrait" reveals that she is an accomplished writer of royal stature. Unfortunately, her work is at a standstill: this skilled lyricist is languishing in a vast vacuum of creative torpor. The research methodology draws on textual analysis of three types: extended intertextual reverberation, "intratextual" equation, and literary analysis through the lens of écriture féminine .
"Turn Right or Left": Literary Use of Dialect in 2 Samuel 14:19?
Authors: Zahavi-Ely Naama
Published: December 2012

This article investigates non-standard spelling in two verses in the Succession Narrative, 2 Sam 14:19 and 2 Sam 11:24, and introduces the idea that the author makes literary use of dialect to portray character. Three consecutive words with unusual spelling in 2 Sam 14:19 are tested against linguistic data and identified as a possible depiction of spoken non-standard dialect. Such use of dialect is literary and intentional, as distinct from dialect that occurs in narrative as an unwitting reflection of the writer's own language. Through the use of dialect, the speaking character, the wise woman of Tekoa, can emphasize her own unimportance to protect herself, to avoid being perceived as a threat by the king. By contrast, the possible dialect spoken by Joab's messenger (2 Sam 11:24) carries a different meaning. In that case, the literary use of an awkward hypercorrection of dialect instead illustrates the ineptness of the messenger in conveying Joab's message to the king.
Two Paradigms of Aesthetics in Haskalah Literary Criticism: From Satanov to Lebensohn
Authors: Banbaji Amir
Published: December 2012

Focusing on aesthetic insights, penned by key figures of Haskalah letters, this article argues that Haskalah literary theory and aesthetics develop in two distinct philosophical lines of thought. It is further argued that distinguishing between these lines and considering their relative weight is crucial for understanding the maskilim's relationship to the sacred Jewish textual tradition and to the European enlightenment. The first path noted in the paper has already been acknowledged by historians of Hebrew aesthetic thought. Haskalah thinkers like Isaac Euchel, Joel Bril, and others, believed that Modern Hebrew aesthetics should universalize Hebrew literary expression. They emphasized the transformative communicative acts that Modern Hebrew literature can accomplish in the emerging public sphere. The competing aesthetic insight investigated and highlighted in this article has been pursued by Isaac Satanov and Abraham D. Lebenshon. Attempting to promote a cryptic, esoteric and elitist notion of literary experience, both thinkers argued, contrary to the dominant view, that the modern realm of beauty and aesthetic experience must retain the traditional role of hiding and isolating wisdom from the general public. The paper argues that Satanov and Lebensohn's contrarian view of the relation between beauty and truth significantly modifies our understanding of the secular situation of Modern Hebrew literature.
The Tender Guardian: Eliezer Smoli's Nature Teacher
Authors: Raizen Esther
Published: December 2012

Eliezer Smoli (1901-1985), a celebrated teacher and one of the founding fathers of Israeli children's literature, offered his young readership the character of the "nature teacher," drawing on the lives of real-life teachers and pioneers and fashioning his teacher characters in the tradition of the elder-guardian of the idyllic pastoral. The nature teacher and his pupils formed, in both life and literature, a chain of fraternal guardianship, mentoring, and love and filled a historical role in the revival of the Hebrew language and in establishing the continuity between the Zionist endeavor and biblical themes and terms. They likewise offered a measure of association with select talmudic and rabbinic traditions rooted in the very exilic culture rejected by the yishuv and the "New Hebrew." The traits of the teacher characters, their role in fashioning the youth culture of the yishuv and the enduring power of the nostalgia with which they were embraced are the focus of this paper.