bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Serum progranulin levels are elevated in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, reflecting disease activity
Authors: Tanaka Atsushi , Tsukamoto Hiroshi , Mitoma Hiroki , Kiyohara Chikako , Ueda Naoyasu , Ayano Masahiro , Ohta Shun-ichiro , Inoue Yasushi , Arinobu Yojirou , Niiro Hiroaki , Horiuchi Takahiko , Akashi Koichi
Published: November 2012

Introduction

Progranulin (PGRN) is the precursor of granulin (GRN), a soluble cofactor for toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) signaling evoked by oligonucleotide (CpG)-DNA. Because TLR9 signaling plays an important role in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), we investigated whether PGRN is involved in the pathogenesis of SLE.

Methods

We measured concentrations of serum PGRN and interleukin-6 (IL-6) with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in patients with SLE (n = 68) and in healthy controls (n = 60). We assessed the correlation between the serum PGRN levels and established disease-activity indexes. The sera from the patients with high PGRN titers (>80 ng/ml) at the initial evaluation were reevaluated after the disease was ameliorated by treatment. We also measured the IL-6 concentration secreted by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) incubated with (a) oligonucleotide (CpG-B) in the presence or absence of recombinant human PGRN (rhPGRN); and (b) lupus sera in the presence or absence of a neutralizing anti-PGRN antibody.

Results

Serum PGRN levels were significantly higher in SLE patients than healthy controls. Their levels were significantly associated with activity of clinical symptoms. They also significantly correlated with values of clinical parameters, including the SLE Disease Activity Index and anti-double-stranded DNA antibody titers, and inversely with CH50, C3, and C4 levels. Moreover, serum PGRN levels significantly decreased after successful treatment of SLE. The rhPGRN significantly upregulated the production of IL-6 by PBMCs stimulated with CpG-B. Patients' sera stimulated production of IL-6 from PBMCs, which was significantly impaired by neutralization of PGRN. The serum PGRN levels significantly correlated with the serum IL-6 levels.

Conclusions

Serum PGRN could be a useful biomarker for disease activity of SLE. PGRN may be involved in the pathogenesis of SLE partly by enhancing the TLR9 signaling.
A novel tylophorine analog W-8 up-regulates forkhead boxP3 expression and ameliorates murine colitis
Authors: Meng Xianyi , Zhang Yun , Jia Zhenghu , Huo Xiaojing , He Xiangjun , Tian Gaofei , Wu Meng , Wang Ziwen , Zhou Xinglong , Xiong Sidong , Gao Xiaoming , Wu Zhenzhou , Han Jihong , Zhao Liqing , Wang Puyue , Hong Zhangyong , Wang Qingmin , Yin Zhinan
Published: November 2012

A novel tylophorine analog W-8 enhanced Foxp3 expression through both transcriptional and epigenetic programs, and its ameliorated TNBS induced colitis.

Tylophorine and analogs are phenanthroindolizidine alkaloids, several of which have been reported to have anticancer, antiviral, and anti-inflammatory properties. However, their function in the immune system remains widely unknown. Transcription factor Foxp3 is critical for the development and function of Treg, which down-regulates the immune system and maintains tolerance to self-antigens. In the present study, we defined a novel tylophorine analog, W-8, enhanced TGF-β-induced Foxp3 expression at the mRNA and the protein levels. Interestingly, W-8 synergistically increased the level of TGF-β-induced p-Smad3 through inhibition of the AKT/mTOR pathway and enhanced the demethylation of the promoter region of the Foxp3 through inhibition of the ERK pathway and DNMT1 expression. Moreover, administration of W-8 suppressed TNBS-induced murine colitis and increased Tregs in lymphoid tissues. Finally, W-8 enhanced conversion of naïve T cells to Tregs in vivo. In summary, our results defined a novel compound that enhanced Foxp3 expression through transcriptional and epigenetic programs, and it might serve as a therapeutic agent for inflammatory diseases.
Risk of Venous Thromboembolism in Patients With Cancer Treated With Cisplatin: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Authors: Seng Sonia , Liu Ziyue , Chiu Sophia K. , Proverbs-Singh Tracy , Sonpavde Guru , Choueiri Toni K. , Tsao Che-Kai , Yu Menggang , Hahn Noah M. , Oh William K. , Galsky Matthew D.
Published: November 2012

Purpose

Several reports suggest that cisplatin is associated with an increased risk of thromboembolism. However, because the excess risk of venous thromboembolic events (VTEs) with cisplatin-based chemotherapy has not been well described, we conducted a systemic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials evaluating the incidence and risk of VTEs associated with cisplatin-based chemotherapy.

Methods

PubMed was searched for articles published from January 1, 1990, to December 31, 2010. Eligible studies included prospective randomized phase II and III trials evaluating cisplatin-based versus non–cisplatin-based chemotherapy in patients with solid tumors. Data on all-grade VTEs were extracted. Study quality was calculated using Jadad scores. Incidence rates, relative risks (RRs), and 95% CIs were calculated using a random effects model.

Results

A total of 8,216 patients with various advanced solid tumors from 38 randomized controlled trials were included. The incidence of VTEs was 1.92% (95% CI, 1.07 to 2.76) in patients treated with cisplatin-based chemotherapy and 0.79% (95% CI, 0.45 to 1.13) in patients treated with non–cisplatin-based regimens. Patients receiving cisplatin-based chemotherapy had a significantly increased risk of VTEs (RR, 1.67; 95% CI, 1.25 to 2.23; P = .01). Exploratory subgroup analysis revealed the highest RR of VTEs in patients receiving a weekly equivalent cisplatin dose > 30 mg/m2 (2.71; 95% CI, 1.17 to 6.30; P = .02) and in trials reported during 2000 to 2010 (1.72; 95% CI, 1.27 to 2.34; P = .01).

Conclusion

Cisplatin is associated with a significant increase in the risk of VTEs in patients with advanced solid tumors when compared with non–cisplatin-based chemotherapy.
Glucocorticoids Enhance CD163 Expression in Placental Hofbauer Cells
Authors: Tang Zhonghua , Niven-Fairchild Tracy , Tadesse Serkalem , Norwitz Errol R. , Buhimschi Catalin S. , Buhimschi Irina A. , Guller Seth
Published: November 2012

Periplacental levels of glucocorticoid (GC) peak at parturition, and synthetic GC is administered to women at risk for preterm delivery. However, little is known concerning cell-type-specific effects of GC in placenta. Hofbauer cells (HBCs) are fetal macrophages that are located adjacent to fetal capillaries in placenta. The goal of the current study was to determine whether GC treatment altered HBC gene expression and function. Western blotting and flow cytometry revealed CD163 and folate receptor-β (FR-β), markers of antiinflammatory M2 macrophages, were specifically expressed by primary cultures of HBCs immunopurified from human term placentas. GC receptor mRNA and protein levels were higher in HBCs compared with placental fibroblasts. Treatment of HBCs with cortisol or dexamethasone (DEX) markedly and specifically enhanced CD163 protein and mRNA levels, whereas expression of FR-β and CD68 were largely unresponsive to GC treatment. DEX treatment also increased hemoglobin uptake by HBCs, evidence of enhanced HBC function. The level of CD163 mRNA, but not FR-β or CD68 mRNA, was stimulated in placental explant cultures by DEX treatment, and increased CD163/FR-β and CD163/CD68 mRNA ratios sensitively reflected the response to GC. Maternal GC administration was associated with increased CD163/FR-β and CD163/CD68 mRNA ratios in placentas from women with spontaneous preterm birth. In conclusion, in vitro studies indicated that GC treatment specifically up-regulated CD163 expression in HBCs and enhanced HBC function. In addition, the observed alterations in patterns of expression of macrophage marker genes associated with maternal GC administration suggest that HBCs are in vivo targets of GC action.
Susceptibility to Fatty Acid-Induced β-Cell Dysfunction Is Enhanced in Prediabetic Diabetes-Prone BioBreeding Rats: A Potential Link Between β-Cell Lipotoxicity and Islet Inflammation
Authors: Tang Christine , Naassan Anthony E. , Chamson-Reig Astrid , Koulajian Khajag , Goh Tracy T. , Yoon Frederick , Oprescu Andrei I. , Ghanim Husam , Lewis Gary F. , Dandona Paresh , Donath Marc Y. , Ehses Jan A. , Arany Edith , Giacca Adria
Published: November 2012

β-Cell lipotoxicity is thought to play an important role in the development of type 2 diabetes. However, no study has examined its role in type 1 diabetes, which could be clinically relevant for slow-onset type 1 diabetes. Reports of enhanced cytokine toxicity in fat-laden islets are consistent with the hypothesis that lipid and cytokine toxicity may be synergistic. Thus, β-cell lipotoxicity could be enhanced in models of autoimmune diabetes. To determine this, we examined the effects of prolonged free fatty acids elevation on β-cell secretory function in the prediabetic diabetes-prone BioBreeding (dp-BB) rat, its diabetes-resistant BioBreeding (dr-BB) control, and normal Wistar-Furth (WF) rats. Rats received a 48-h iv infusion of saline or Intralipid plus heparin (IH) (to elevate free fatty acid levels ∼2-fold) followed by hyperglycemic clamp or islet secretion studies ex vivo. IH significantly decreased β-cell function, assessed both by the disposition index (insulin secretion corrected for IH-induced insulin resistance) and in isolated islets, in dp-BB, but not in dr-BB or WF, rats, and the effect of IH was inhibited by the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine. Furthermore, IH significantly increased islet cytokine mRNA and plasma cytokine levels (monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 and IL-10) in dp-BB, but not in dr-BB or WF, rats. All dp-BB rats had mononuclear infiltration of islets, which was absent in dr-BB and WF rats. In conclusion, the presence of insulitis was permissive for IH-induced β-cell dysfunction in the BB rat, which suggests a link between β-cell lipotoxicity and islet inflammation.
Deiodinase Activities in Thyroids and Tissues of Iodine-Deficient Female Rats
Authors: Lavado-Autric Rosalia , Calvo Rosa Maria , de Mena Raquel Martinez , de Escobar Gabriella Morreale , Obregon Maria-Jesus
Published: November 2012

Severe iodine deficiency is characterized by goiter, preferential synthesis, and secretion of T3 in thyroids, hypothyroxinemia in plasma and tissues, normal or low plasma T3, and slightly increased plasma TSH. We studied changes in deiodinase activities and mRNA in several tissues of rats maintained on low-iodine diets (LIDs) or LIDs supplemented with iodine (LID+I). T4 and T3 concentrations decreased in plasma, tissues, and thyroids of LID rats, and T4 decreased more than T3 (50%). The highest type 1 iodothyronine deiodinase (D1) activities were found in the thyroid, kidney, and the liver; pituitary, lung, and ovary had lower D1 activities; but the lowest levels were found in the heart and skeletal muscle. D1 activity decreased in all tissues of LID rats (10–40% of LID+I rats), except for ovary and thyroids, which D1 activity increased 2.5-fold. Maximal type 2 iodothyronine deiodinase (D2) activities were found in thyroid, brown adipose tissue, and pituitary, increasing 6.5-fold in thyroids of LID rats and about 20-fold in the whole gland. D2 always increased in response to LID, and maximal increases were found in the cerebral cortex (19-fold), thyroid, brown adipose tissue, and pituitary (6-fold). Lower D2 activities were found in the ovary, heart, and adrenal gland, which increased in LID. Type 3 iodothyronine deiodinase activity was undetectable. Thyroidal Dio1 and Dio2 mRNA increased in the LID rats, and Dio1 decreased in the lung, with no changes in mRNA expression in other tissues. Our data indicate that LID induces changes in deiodinase activities, especially in the thyroid, to counteract the low T4 synthesis and secretion, contributing to maintain the local T3 concentrations in the tissues with D2 activity.
The Rise in Growth Hormone during Starvation Does Not Serve to Maintain Glucose Levels or Lean Mass but Is Required for Appropriate Adipose Tissue Response in Female Mice
Authors: Gahete Manuel D. , Córdoba-Chacón José , Luque Raúl M. , Kineman Rhonda D.
Published: November 2012

In mice, GH levels rise in response to short-term fasting or starvation (food restriction to 40% of ad libitum intake), similar to that which occurs in humans in response to fasting or anorexia. Recent studies using acyl-ghrelin knockout mice have suggested that the rise in GH during food restriction is essential to support glucose levels. To directly test this hypothesis, adult-onset isolated GH deficient (AOiGHD) mice and their GH-replete littermate controls were provided 40% of ad libitum food intake for 11 d. As previously shown, food restriction increased GH levels in controls, and this response was not observed in AOiGHD mice. In both controls and AOiGHD, food restriction resulted in an initial decline in glucose, which stabilized to 82–85% of ad libitum-fed values by d 2. In addition, loss of lean mass in response to food restriction was not altered by GH status. However, the loss of fat mass and the associated rise in circulating free fatty acids and ketones was blunted in starved AOiGHD mice compared with controls. Taken together, these results suggest a rise of GH during starvation is not required to support glucose levels and muscle mass but may be important in supporting fat mobilization.
Dr Reginald Koettlitz (1860–1916): Arctic and Antarctic explorer
Authors: Guly Henry
Published: November 2012

Reginald Koettlitz was born in Ostend but moved to England as a child and qualified at Guy's Hospital. He was a general practitioner in County Durham for eight years before serving as doctor and geologist to the Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition to Franz-Josef Land in 1894–97. Thereafter he made further expeditions to Somaliland, Abyssinia and the Amazon before joining Captain Scott's Discovery Expedition to the Antarctic in 1901–04 as surgeon and botanist. After the expedition he emigrated to South Africa, where he worked as a general practitioner, dying in 1916.
Hugh Neill (1806–64) and the early years of the Liverpool Ophthalmic Infirmary
Authors: Silvester Alexander
Published: November 2012

This account of the early history of ophthalmology in Liverpool refers particularly to Hugh Neill, one of the many Edinburgh-educated surgeons working in Liverpool during the early 19th century.
An Antarctic sealing expedition and the medical diary of William Spiers Bruce (1867–1921)
Authors: Guly Henry
Published: November 2012

William Spiers Bruce was a medical student who sailed as ship's surgeon on the Balaena, one of the ships of the Dundee Whaling Expedition to the Antarctic (1892–93). On this expedition he kept a diary listing his medical consultations and the treatments he administered. This paper considers the expedition and the diaries.
Edward Adrian Wilson (1872–1912): polar explorer and artist
Authors: Brown Kevin
Published: November 2012

Dr Edward Wilson was a polar explorer who accompanied Robert Falcon Scott (1868–1912) on his expeditions to Antarctica in 1900 and 1910. He went with Scott to the South Pole and died with him on the return journey in 1912. Although medically qualified, he is now remembered more as a naturalist and as a talented artist recording the Antarctic expeditions.
Services and the Business Models of Product Firms: An Empirical Analysis of the Software Industry
Authors: Suarez Fernando F. , Cusumano Michael A. , Kahl Steven J.
Published: November 2012

Some product firms increasingly rely on service revenues as part of their business models. One possible explanation is that they turn to services to generate additional profits when their product industries mature and product revenues and profits decline. We explore this assumption by examining the role of services in the financial performance of firms in the prepackaged software products industry (Standard Industrial Classification code 7372) from 1990 to 2006. We find a convex, nonlinear relationship between a product firm's fraction of total sales coming from services and its overall operating margins. As expected, firms with a very high level of product sales are most profitable, and rising services are associated with declining profitability. We find, however, that additional services start to have a positive marginal effect on the firm's overall profits when services reach a majority of a product firm's sales. We show that traditional industry maturity arguments cannot fully explain our data. It is likely that changes in both strategy and the business environment lead product firms to place more emphasis on services.

This paper was accepted by Christoph Loch, R&D and product development.
Robust Solutions of Optimization Problems Affected by Uncertain Probabilities
Authors: Ben-Tal Aharon , den Hertog Dick , De Waegenaere Anja , Melenberg Bertrand , Rennen Gijs
Published: November 2012

In this paper we focus on robust linear optimization problems with uncertainty regions defined by ϕ-divergences (for example, chi-squared, Hellinger, Kullback–Leibler). We show how uncertainty regions based on ϕ-divergences arise in a natural way as confidence sets if the uncertain parameters contain elements of a probability vector. Such problems frequently occur in, for example, optimization problems in inventory control or finance that involve terms containing moments of random variables, expected utility, etc. We show that the robust counterpart of a linear optimization problem with ϕ-divergence uncertainty is tractable for most of the choices of ϕ typically considered in the literature. We extend the results to problems that are nonlinear in the optimization variables. Several applications, including an asset pricing example and a numerical multi-item newsvendor example, illustrate the relevance of the proposed approach.

This paper was accepted by Gérard P. Cachon, optimization.
Lens or Prism? Patent Citations as a Measure of Knowledge Flows from Public Research
Authors: Roach Michael , Cohen Wesley M.
Published: November 2012

This paper assesses the validity and accuracy of firms' backward patent citations as a measure of knowledge flows from public research by employing a newly constructed data set that matches patents to survey data at the level of the research and development lab. Using survey-based measures of the dimensions of knowledge flows, we identify sources of systematic measurement error associated with backward citations to both patent and nonpatent references. We find that patent citations reflect the codified knowledge flows from public research, but they appear to miss knowledge flows that are more private and contract based in nature, as well as those used in firm basic research. We also find that firms' patenting and citing strategies affect patent citations, making citations less indicative of knowledge flows. In addition, an illustrative analysis examining the magnitude and direction of measurement error bias suggests that measuring knowledge flows with patent citations can lead to substantial underestimation of the effect of public research on firms' innovative performance. Throughout our analyses we find that nonpatent references (e.g., journals, conferences, etc.), not the more commonly used patent references, are a better measure of knowledge originating from public research.

This paper was accepted by Lee Fleming, entrepreneurship and innovation.
A Dynamic Level-k Model in Sequential Games
Authors: Ho Teck-Hua , Su Xuanming
Published: November 2012

Backward induction is a widely accepted principle for predicting behavior in sequential games. In the classic example of the “centipede game,” however, players frequently violate this principle. An alternative is a “dynamic level-k” model, where players choose a rule from a rule hierarchy. The rule hierarchy is iteratively defined such that the level-k rule is a best response to the level-(k-1) rule, and the level-∞ rule corresponds to backward induction. Players choose rules based on their best guesses of others' rules and use historical plays to improve their guesses. The model captures two systematic violations of backward induction in centipede games, limited induction and repetition unraveling. Because the dynamic level-k model always converges to backward induction over repetition, the former can be considered to be a tracing procedure for the latter. We also examine the generalizability of the dynamic level-k model by applying it to explain systematic violations of backward induction in sequential bargaining games. We show that the same model is capable of capturing these violations in two separate bargaining experiments.

This paper was accepted by Peter Wakker, decision analysis.
The Efficacy of Dictionary Use While Reading for Learning New Words
Authors: Hamilton Harley
Published: November 2012

T he researcher investigated the use of three types of dictionaries while reading by high school students with severe to profound hearing loss. The objective of the study was to determine the effectiveness of each type of dictionary for acquiring the meanings of unknown vocabulary in text. The three types of dictionaries were (a) an online bilingual multimedia English–American Sign Language (ASL) dictionary (OBMEAD), (b) a paper English-ASL dictionary (PBEAD), and (c) an online monolingual English dictionary (OMED). It was found that for immediate recall of target words, the OBMEAD was superior to both the PBEAD and the OMED. For later recall, no significant difference appeared between the OBMEAD and the PBEAD. For both of these, recall was statistically superior to recall for words learned via the OMED.
Deaf Studies Alumni Perceptions of the Academic Program and Off-Campus Internship
Authors: Cooper Sheryl B. , Emanuel Diana C. , Cripps Jody H.
Published: November 2012

A lumni of an undergraduate Deaf studies program completed an online survey about their education and employment after graduation and their perceptions of their internship and undergraduate academic program. Demographically, this population of Deaf studies alumni represented a higher percentage of women and dual-major graduates than was present in the general university population. It was found that most of the alumni reported using the knowledge and skills from the Deaf studies program in their current job. Current employment among alumni was almost 100%, and most of the alumni had positive perceptions regarding their personal, academic, and professional growth as it related to their internship and undergraduate Deaf studies program. The study findings underscore the need for continued support of Deaf studies programs. Suggestions are provided for program directors regarding the development of internships and academic programs for students in Deaf studies.
Resilience Factors Associated With Adaptation in Families With Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children
Authors: Ahlert Ingrid A. , Greeff Abraham P.
Published: November 2012

T he study objective was to identify and explore resilience qualities that help protect and support families facing the adversity associated with having a child with hearing loss. The Resiliency Model of Family Stress, Adjustment, and Adaptation (M. A. McCubbin & H. I. McCubbin, 1993, 1996) provided the study’s theoretical framework. The 54 participating families resided in Western Cape Province, South Africa, and were identified according to the nature of the crisis (having a child with hearing loss) and the family’s developmental phase. Quantitative and qualitative measures were used for data collection. The results showed that family time and routines, social support, affirming communication, family hardiness, problem-solving skills, religion, a search for meaning, and acceptance of the child’s hearing status were associated with family resilience. Strengthening these elements helps families to grow, meet challenges, and reestablish balance and harmony within the family system.
Parents’ Communication Decision for Children With Hearing Loss: Sources of Information and Influence
Authors: Decker Kalli B. , Vallotton Claire D. , Johnson Harold A.
Published: November 2012

C hoosing a method of communication for a child with hearing loss is a complex process that must occur early to prevent developmental consequences. Research shows that parents’ decisions are influenced by professionals; parental attitudes and knowledge also may be influential. The present study investigated additional influences on parents’ choices; data were collected via an online survey ( N = 36). Results indicated no effects of parents’ knowledge of development on their communication choices, but did indicate an effect of parents’ values and priorities for their children. Further, parents who chose speech only received information from education or speech/audiology professionals more often. However, there were no group differences in sources parents cited as influential; all parents relied on their own judgment. Results suggest that parents internalize the opinions of professionals. Thus, accurate information from professionals is necessary for parents to make informed decisions about their children’s communication.
An Air of History: Joseph Wright's and Robert Boyle's Air Pump Narratives
Authors: Baudot Laura
Published: November 2012

This article offers a new account of Joseph Wright's celebrated painting, Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768), by identifying the painting's overlooked anomaly: the anachronistic air pump at the center of the composition. The glass globe containing the white cockatoo, I argue, evokes Robert Boyle's first experimental vacuum, the machina Boyleana, 1659, and the seventeenth-century tradition of vanitas still life painting. The tensions between scientific and religious conceptions of emptiness, which the painting stages, inform Wright's experiment with an equivocal visual idiom and approach to history painting that simultaneously seeks to capture the discursive complexity of a cultural moment and situate that cultural moment in history.
Mastering the Connoisseur's Eye: Paintings, Criticism, and the Canon in Dutch and Flemish Travel Culture, 1600-1750
Authors: Verhoeven Gerrit
Published: November 2012

During the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, pioneering books on art theory— by Richardson, Piles, Lairesse, and many others—formulated benchmark criteria to assess the quality of paintings and shaped a canon of favorite masters, schools, and subjects. Less is known about the actual appropriation of this high-brow canon by laymen art lovers, amateurs , and connoisseurs. Flemish and Dutch travel diaries are used in this article to unveil more details about these middlebrow art observations. Was a long and expensive Grand Tour the sole vehicle for close encounters with the arts? How did laymen's interest and discourse about the arts evolve over the long run? Finally, the study attempts to reconstruct the Netherlandish "common" taste for individual masters, schools, genres, and periods.
Learning to Look: Visual Expertise across Art and Science in Eighteenth-Century France
Authors: Bleichmar Daniela
Published: November 2012

Through an examination of the work of the author and collector Antoine-Joseph Dezallier d'Argenville and of the dealer Pierre Remy, this essay articulates the ways in which notions of connoisseurship, taste, and order intersected in the collecting of both naturalia and art in eighteenth-century France. It suggests that what brought things like gardens, shells, and paintings together was a concern with visual expertise, with outlining and deploying practices of specialized diagnostic looking; and, second, that this interest in the enskillment of vision arose from the practices and spaces of collecting and display—on the one hand, the commercial world of the dealer, the sales auction, and the sales catalog; on the other, the cabinet or the collection as a space for learning to look. Natural history textbooks and auction catalogues both served as guides to looking, outlining a complex hierarchy of visual expertise that ranged from the curieux to the amateur to the connoisseur. Cabinets functioned not only as accumulations or assemblages of objects, but also as spaces for learning to see in expert ways and for articulating notions of order and taste.
Monitoring Cultural Human Rights: The Claims of Culture on Human Rights and the Response of Cultural Rights
Authors: Stamatopoulou Elsa
Published: November 2012

Given the reticence of states about cultural rights, this essay explores how the independent UN human rights monitoring bodies filled the gap. Cultural rights made the human rights system burst at the seams, and these bodies picked up the bold demand that culture poses for human rights. Through their practice, they crafted an understanding of the normative content of cultural rights and thus helped overcome the seemingly insurmountable political difficulties of states. Through an international law perspective, the essay unravels this practice and presents a critical analysis of the new developments in this area.
The Domestic Mechanisms of Compliance with International Human Rights Law: Case Studies from the Inter-American Human Rights System
Authors: Hillebrecht Courtney
Published: November 2012

In their rulings, international human rights tribunals frequently ask states to engage in costly compliance measures ranging from paying reparations to victims to changing domestic human rights laws and practices. The tribunals, however, have little enforcement or oversight capacity. The responsibility for compliance falls to domestic actors: executives, legislators, and judiciaries. Through nuanced case studies of the compliance process in Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia, this article suggests that compliance with the Inter-American human rights tribunals' rulings depends on executives' political will for compliance and their ability to build pro-compliance coalitions with judges and legislators.
Measuring National Human Rights: A Reflection on Korean Experiences
Authors: Koo Jeong-Woo , Kong Suk-Ki , Chung Chinsung
Published: November 2012

This article proposes a research strategy to construct national human rights indicators and indices and uses this strategy for the assessment of human rights observance in the Republic of Korea during the period 1990 to 2007. To ensure reliability, the proposed indicators are derived from the Concluding Observations issued by the committees of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The analysis of the constructed composite indices reveals a dramatic trend of a country's human rights improvements and setbacks over time. The article maintains that the proposed strategy is easily replicable by countries seeking to systematically assess and subsequently improve their human rights.
Organizational Learning and Home-Grown Writing: The Library Staff Magazine in Britain in the First Half of the Twentieth Century
Authors: Black Alistair
Published: November 2012

Staff magazines in British public libraries emerged in the early twentieth century. Unlike staff magazines in private enterprises, which predate them by two decades, library staff magazines were more truly the product of employees, inaugurated and operated as they often were by staff associations. This study is based on an analysis of staff magazines in three public library systems in Britain in the first half of the twentieth century: Croydon, Sheffield, and Leeds. Against backdrops of growing popular education, organizational enlargement, changing management styles, and increasing professionalization, the library staff magazine provided opportunities for employees to write. This was undertaken as a pastime; as a form of organizational learning and networking; as a contribution to labor and occupational solidarity; and, finally, as a vehicle for professional advancement and professional identity formation, though one that contained an element of “othering” of the public as well as of junior and female staff.
Seducing the Innocent: Fredric Wertham and the Falsifications That Helped Condemn Comics
Authors: Tilley Carol L.
Published: November 2012

Psychiatrist Fredric Wertham and his 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent serve as historical and cultural touchstones of the anticomics movement in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s. Although there have been persistent concerns about the clinical evidence Wertham used as the basis for Seduction , his sources were made widely available only in 2010. This article documents specific examples of how Wertham manipulated, overstated, compromised, and fabricated evidence—especially that evidence he attributed to personal clinical research with young people—for rhetorical gain.
Women, Men, and Love Magic in Late Medieval English Pastoral Manuals
Authors: Rider Catherine
Published: November 2012

This article re-examines the gendering of love magic in pastoral manuals, focusing on those manuals which were written in England between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. As well as exploring how far late medieval English pastoral writers associated love magic with women, the paper also asks how far they presented men and women as performing the same types of love magic. It is demonstrated that many churchmen remained willing to imagine a more varied cross-section of the population doing love magic, and acknowledged that both men and women might do so for a broader range of purposes, than is often assumed.
Performing Exile in Safed School Kabbalah
Authors: Segol Marla
Published: November 2012

This article uses a performance studies methodology to examine the transformation of the human body in sixteenth-century Safed School Kabbalah, focusing on practices described in Moshe Cordovero's Tomer Devorah and Sefer Gerushin , and Yosef Caro's Maggid Mesharim . It is argued that the topos of exile is key to the construction and purpose of these rituals: by enacting the conditions of exile that they wished to change, participants enable a ritual transformation of the body which in turn enables amelioration of the condition of exile. The result of these practices is a new theodicy, attributing new meaning to human suffering.
Utopia and Ethiopia: The Chronicles of Lalibela as Critical Reflection
Authors: Mennasemay Maimire
Published: November 2012

The article discusses the presence of emancipatory utopian ideas in Ethiopian history through a critical hermeneutical interpretation of Lalibela. Drawing on the concept of concrete utopia, the paper argues that the works and Chronicles of Lalibela secrete a concrete utopian surplus that points to the conceptualization of knowledge as critique and as the mastery of nature, of labor as a transformative and emancipatory activity, and of power relations as expressions of equality between subjects and ruler. The article contends that Lalibela's utopian surplus implies questions and reflections about social transformation, which, being rooted in Ethiopian history, provide possibilities for developing emancipatory ideas and practices that respond to the modern needs and aspirations of Ethiopians. It argues that, if Ethiopia is to extricate herself from the poverty and tyranny traps of passive modernization and successfully meet the challenges of modernity, reflection on and the quest for democracy and prosperity need to link up with the concrete utopian surpluses that inform Ethiopian history.
"Because God Has Given Us the Power of Reasoning": Intellectuals, the Eritrean Muslim League, and Nationalist Activism, 1946-1950
Authors: Venosa Joseph L.
Published: November 2012

This article discusses the rise of Eritrean nationalism in the context of Muslim intellectual activism during the later period of the British Military Administration (BMA). It argues that many of the leading members of the pro-independence Muslim intelligentsia, defined in this article broadly as the fluid group of writers, Eritreans within the former Italian colonial civil service, and religious scholars serving within or associated with the Eritrean Muslim League, contributed to the nationalist movement by taking advantage of the extensive "Islamic social capital" across the region. Using Muslim League publications, personal testimonies, British archival sources, and secondary literature, this article will show that throughout the period in question, proactive members of the intelligentsia helped strengthen Muslim civil society while they engaged in broader struggles aimed at achieving social reform and establishing cooperative relationships within the broader nationalist constituency. Their efforts had a tremendous influence on the overall trajectory of nationalism among both League leaders and the organization's general membership.
Towards a Phenomenology of Cinematic Mood: Boredom and the Affect of Time in Antonioni’s L’eclisse
Authors: Rhym John
Published: November 2012

What sort of experiential phenomenon is boredom? Is it to be understood as an emotion or the lack thereof? If it is a mood, is it triggered by a determinate set of external stimuli, or is it an internal state that “colors” our perception of the world? More specific to the present study, how do we begin to make sense of the affective specifications of the boredom that we feel when watching a film—that is, what exactly are we feeling? This paper seeks to address these questions, first, by delineating how boredom as it operates in and through Antonioni’s L’eclisse (1962) poses problems for current trends in the study of film spectatorship, and, second, by turning to the phenomenological project of Martin Heidegger, whose account of mood draws attention to the ways in which boredom affords a unique affective disclosure of our relationship to time. Thus, reading Heidegger alongside L’eclisse can elucidate the unusual kind of engagement that Antonioni’s film demands, while also opening up new ways to think about film affect and ontology.
In the Mood for Revolution: Emma Goldman’s Passion
Authors: Hemmings Clare
Published: November 2012

This article has two aims: to theorize ways in which mood is gendered, and to explore the importance of gendered mood in the life and work of Emma Goldman (anarchist writer and activist, 1869-1940). In the first part I track ways in which accounting for gender and sexuality changes how we think about mood with respect to duration, and as mediating the intersection of the public and private. I then proceed to highlight how mood is significant for Emma Goldman in her quest for women’s emancipation being taken seriously as part of revolutionary process. For Goldman, women’s moods must be transformed so that they can become revolutionary subjects, and their current mood is part of how the relationship between public and private so essential to capitalism is maintained. Further Goldman’s own moods—by turns enthusiastic and vicious—are key both as part of her method of persuasion, and as what prevents her retaining the important distinction between women’s role and women’s character.
The Languorous Critic
Authors: Hanson Ellis
Published: November 2012

Insofar as criticism is an art of love, its prevailing mood is languor: a paradox of enthusiasm and enervation, ravishment and reflectiveness, eloquence and speechlessness, savoring and sadness. How might we define this languorous mood as a critical disposition? What could it help us to see? What is a languorous critical style? How has it been celebrated and maligned? This essay looks closely at languor as an intellectual mood in the work of Roland Barthes, the critic who is its greatest theorist, and Walter Pater, the critic who is its greatest stylist.
Moods and the Meaning of Philosophy
Authors: Svendsen Lars
Published: November 2012

Following Heidegger, I argue that our understanding is always attuned in some way, and our attunement always contains an understanding. Every philosophical investigation will therefore be carried out within or be subject to a certain mood, even if the philosopher may not be aware of this. Is there a particularly prevalent mood in contemporary philosophy? I argue that it is in fact boredom. An airport becomes a place of boredom when it fails to provide you with what you want from it: the opportunity to enter an airplane and leave it. Along similar lines, a philosophical text becomes boring when it fails to provide you with what you need from it. It lacks a purpose. What Kant described as “pedantry,” a self-contained and formalist style of writing, has become the norm in academic philosophy. In order to truly matter, philosophy must maintain its relation to the pre- and postphilosophical, to its origin in problems that have an emotional impact on us and to its possibilities for transforming our lives. Such a philosophy is possible.
Precocious Jouissance : Roland Barthes, Amatory Maladjustment, and Emotion
Authors: Gallop Jane
Published: November 2012

In The Pleasure of the Text Roland Barthes outlines and advocates an anti-normative, anti-institutional erotics that celebrates the reader’s perversity. While it is well known that Barthes understands readerly pleasure according to the model of sexual perversion, I discover that Barthes advocates not just perversion but sexual dysfunction, which he calls “amatory maladjustment.” I linger on this surprising discovery, which includes Barthes’s championing of premature ejaculation as the mode of the radical text. Barthes’s celebration of amatory maladjustment appears in a chapter titled “Emotion,” suggesting a connection between sexual dysfunction and emotion, as he aims to reclaim both from their place of shame.
Debussy the Man, His Music, and His Legacy: An Overview of Current Research
Authors: Pasler Jann
Published: November 2012

On the 150th anniversary of Debussy's birth, after four international conferences, this review of research in the past decade focuses on the man, his music, and his legacy. Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande and his songs continue to capture the greatest interest, and scholars continue to investigate tonality, timbre, and time; his aesthetic in the context of painting, poetry, and dance; and reception and influence of his music, at home and abroad. The recent publication of 3,000 letters (2005), new critical editions of his music (including unfinished works), and the discovery of sketches, song drafts, and other little-known documents, along with study of historical recordings, have opened new perspectives and laid new foundations for future scholarship. Recent histories have shed light on what French identity meant to Debussy and Debussystes, especially in the 1920s and 1940s. Newest of all is study of Debussy's place and meaning in popular culture.
Recycling Uhland: Brahms and the Wanderlieder
Authors: Horne William
Published: November 2012

In the 1850s, Ludwig Uhland's Wanderlieder poems were regarded as a coherent cycle, prompting some poetry anthologists and composers to use them to provide a narrative context for new cyclic collections. In keeping with this practice, Brahms placed "Heimkehr," the last Wanderlieder poem, in which Uhland's Wanderer rushes back to his abandoned Beloved, at the conclusion of his opus 7, following five songs focusing on abandoned, isolated, and vulnerable women. The resonance of this narrative outline with Clara Schumann's plight after her husband's 1854 suicide attempt enriches our reception of opus 7. The second and third Wanderlieder poems, "Scheiden und Meiden" and "In der Ferne," are placed second and third as a musically connected song-pair in Brahms's opus 19 collection, which largely stems from his 1858 courtship of Agathe von Siebold. In an October 1858 manuscript, these two songs are found in E minor rather than the published key of D minor, suggesting that Brahms transposed them down a step to align them tonally with the B-flat-major songs that precede and follow them in opus 19. Brahms may have used the original E-minor song-pair to send a private message to Agathe, as both begin with the pitch motive E-H-E, spelling out the German for "marriage." Opus 19 emerges as a "recycling" of the Wanderlieder in which Brahms accesses the narrative associations of Uhland's famous cycle to create a new one replete with autobiographical associations.
Selected Lexical Patterns in Saudi Arabian Sign Language
Authors: Young Lesa , Palmer Jeffrey Levi , Reynolds Wanette
Published: November 2012

This combined paper will focus on the description of two selected lexical patterns in Saudi Arabian Sign Language (SASL): metaphor and metonymy in emotion-related signs (Young) and lexicalization patterns of objects and their derivational roots (Palmer and Reynolds). The over-arcing methodology used by both studies is detailed in Stephen and Mathur (this volume). However, study-specific methodology is included in the separate methodology sections below.
On Selected Morphemes in Saudi Arabian Sign Language
Authors: Morris Carla , Schneider Erin
Published: November 2012

Following a year of study of Saudi Arabian Sign Language (SASL), we are documenting our findings to provide a grammatical sketch of the language. This paper represents one part of that endeavor and focuses on a description of selected morphemes, both manual and non-manual, that have appeared in the course of data collection. While some of the morphemes described here have been found to be unique to SASL, several have been previously identified in American Sign Language (ASL) as well as other European sign languages. The general methodology of the group of researchers is described in detail by Stephen and Mathur (this issue), and can be referred to as a background for the methodology described below. What follows is a description of three separate studies beginning with a description of manual aspectual markers by Carla Morris. This is followed by the description of the nonmanual intense face adverbial, and a description of tongue movements, both by Erin Schneider. All of the analyses seek to identify the form of the morphemes, as well as describe their possible functions. Each analysis is followed by comparison with similar phenomena in other languages and directions for future research on the topic.
Observations on Word Order in Saudi Arabian Sign Language
Authors: Sprenger Kristen , Mathur Gaurav
Published: November 2012

This article focuses on the syntactic level of the grammar of Saudi Arabian Sign Language by exploring some word orders that occur in personal narratives in the language. Word order is one of the main ways in which languages indicate the main syntactic roles of subjects, verbs, and objects; others are verbal agreement and nominal case morphology. Focusing on word order specifically, Carnie (2007, 23) gives examples of the variety of word orders that are attested in spoken languages:

subject verb object (SVO) (e.g., English)

subject object verb (SOV) (e.g., Turkish)

verb subject object (VSO) (e.g., Irish)

verb object subject (VOS) (e.g., Malagasy)

Almost no languages use the object subject verb (OSV) or object verb subject (OVS) orders. Adding data about word order in signed languages to the information we already have on spoken languages is key in developing a comprehensive theory of all human languages. Universal Grammar must account for phenomena that occur in sign languages as much as those found in spoken languages. Determining the basic word order of a language provides a good starting point for delving more deeply into its grammar, or, as Mithun says, “[Word order is often used as] a basis from which to predict other structural features” (1992, 51). Considering that most sign language research has been done on American Sign Language (ASL) and the sign languages of European countries (Zeshan 2004, 8), adding the grammar of Saudi Arabian Sign Language (SASL), a sign language of the Middle East, will further clarify the syntactic possibilities for human language. Yet another important rationale for the study of word order in SASL is that almost no aspect of the language—including word order—has been documented or studied in depth. This study serves as a beginning step in the more detailed analysis of word order (and syntax more generally) in SASL. We begin with an overview of word order in sign languages. Then we describe the methodology specific to this study and give some examples and analyses of selected data on word order. We close by discussing whether and to what extent this language is similar to other sign languages that have been studied more thoroughly.