bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Humoralism and Poverty in Jonson’s Every Man in his Humour
Authors: Kendrick Matthew
Published: September 2013

Through a reading of Ben Jonson’s Every Man in his Humour , this article looks at how city comedy combines discourses on poverty, social (dis)order, and the humors in order to negotiate the place of dispossessed labor within England’s new economy. Jonson’s play is especially sensitive to the experience of vagrancy, using humoralism to depict vagrant subjectivity as an internalization of London’s increasingly harsh and chaotic socioeconomic environment. By exploring the tense relationship between members of London’s dominant classes and the humoral vagrants of the play, this essay seeks to understand how the dramatic representation of the humors – in their domestic, sexual, and economic forms -- allows vagrant subjectivity and agency to emerge out of class antagonism. The article focuses on Brainworm, the deceitful servant who performs a variety of identities in an effort to avoid unemployment and poverty. By translating poverty into humoral discourse, the play, through the figure of Brainworm, explores the subjective dimensions of poverty and dispossession, representing rogue deception as a skillful endeavor, a process of self-crafting, opposing the early modern trend that saw the increasing objectification and brutalization of England’s vagrant population. The article therefore seeks to expand our understanding of the social dimensions of early modern humoralism by reading poverty and economic necessity as the limit point of humoral discourse, as the point at which social and bodily order is undermined by the basic need to survive.
Judicial Duels and Moral Inadequacy in La Mort le Roi Artu
Authors: King David S.
Published: September 2013

At the beginning of the thirteenth-century French Mort Artu , the author presents his story as a conclusion to the Queste del Saint Graal , a distinctly pious romance, yet much of this final installment in the Lancelot-Grail cycle betrays little in the way of religious feeling. However from the first folios, this romancer suggests that he will depart not so much from his predecessor’s message as from his method of delivery. Here he reminds the reader of the losses the Round Table has sustained. Galahad and Perceval, the two most virtuous knights, have passed into the next world. All the other heroes who return from the quest, whatever their earthly glories, are lesser servants of the divine. Because adventure has disappeared, the remaining knights find themselves adrift. The author underscores this lack of purpose through the judicial duels that Lancelot fights against Mador, and later against Gawain. Whereas combatants and bystanders alike profess the belief that the Almighty favors the righteous party in these trials, they also either cast doubt on this notion or express indifference to the role God might play. Camelot comes to an end, the author suggests, because its noblemen continue the behavior that brought them failure in the Grail quest. Elsewhere in the romance, the narrative highlights decisions confronting the heroes. With this emphasis on choice, the narrative intimates that characters are responsible for their own fate. Their kingdom disintegrates, not as a result of divine retribution or Fortune’s intervention, but from their own moral inadequacy.
Decadence as a Progressive Force in Select Prose of Julián del Casal and Amado Nervo
Authors: Lagreca Nancy
Published: September 2013

Based on a reading of select prose by Julián del Casal and Amado Nervo, this article reveals a tendency in modernista fiction to invert notions of unhealthy modernista decadence and salubrious bourgeois morality. Literary texts include Casal’s “La cámara doble” (The Dual Chamber), “La última illusion” (The Last Hope), and selections from Cuentos amargos (Bitter Tales) and Historias amargas (Bitter Stories), all from 1890. We will also examine a selection of short prose by Nervo published in the Revista de América (Journal of America) before 1915. The narratives in question suggest that creativity depends on the pleasure and catharsis of decadence. Importantly, these writers posit that national discourses aimed at redirecting citizens away from their own instincts and toward a narrowly and externally defined heteronormative lifestyle, and that this project debilitated the individual, thereby affecting national progress. An examination of historical and literary discourses that sought to define the ideal citizen in opposition to modernista decadence roots the texts in a Latin American context. The thought of Friedrich Nietzsche, on the cleansing function of decadence, and Carl Jung, on health and wholeness, allow us to see the confluence between Casal’s and Nervo’s narratives and the international intellectual milieu that informed Latin American modernismo .
Edmund Burke’s Sublime Cosmopolitan Aesthetic
Authors: Binney Matthew W.
Published: September 2013

This essay draws upon recent discussions of cosmopolitanism to argue that reason or judgment performs a larger role than previously thought in Edmund Burke’s theory of the sublime. Burke’s theory contains an aesthetic and moral component; the former stimulates subjects through their recognition of their imagination’s limitations, and the latter directs subjects to form a sympathetic attachment to an external object. In a cosmopolitan sense, both components motivate subjects to recognize an obligation to, and to take interest in, unfamiliar communities and peoples, thereby promoting open-ended and nonsectarian moral action, demonstrated in Burke’s speeches on India and the American colonies.
Military Scandal and National Debt in Manley’s New Atalantis
Authors: Sargent Carole
Published: September 2013

In Delarivier Manley’s 1709 bestselling political satire, The New Atalantis , volume 2 contains a long tale of the virgin Elonora, her brother Don Juan, her suitor Don Antonio, her gambling aunt, and various men who conspire against her virtue. Most of Manley’s other Atalantis stories satirize immediate Whig-Tory conflict in Queen Anne’s Court and are decipherable, at least to a certain extent, through separately published keys. Despite this tale’s length and prominence of place, however, no complete key to the characters’ possible real-life identities exists; scholars have declared it unidentifiable, and perhaps pure fiction for entertainment. In this article, I demonstrate how the Elonora story invokes the memory of Sir Robert Howard, the only identified character, in a financial allegory dramatizing the dangers of England being in debt to foreign creditors beyond her net worth. Manley also hints at the implications of a notorious 1708 military pay scandal involving prominent Whig officers. This tale and others like it may have emboldened her soon-to-be employer Jonathan Swift to make the same allegations more overtly in his bestselling The Conduct of the Allies (1711).
Recent Studies in the Restoration and Eighteenth Century
Authors: Lamb Jonathan
Published: September 2013

An assessment of recent scholarly work treating the literature of the Restoration and Eighteenth Century and some general observations on the state of the profession. A full bibliography and price list of the works received by SEL for consideration follow.
Trees in Anne Finch’s Jacobite Poems of Retreat
Authors: Hamrick Wes
Published: September 2013

Trees, especially oaks, are recurring images in the poetry of Anne Finch. As politically inflected emblems of shade and protection, Finch’s trees invoke the Virgilian pastoral and its attendant themes of exile and leisured retirement. However, by moving Meliboeus’s place of exile from the scorching plain to the shady oak grove, Finch relocates political exile within the site of pastoral retreat itself. Several of Finch’s poems are discussed in terms of her Jacobite poetics, including “Upon the Hurricane,” “The Petition for an Absolute Retreat,” and “A Nocturnal Reverie.”
Religion and the Anglican Narrator in Defoe’s Tour
Authors: Fung Julian
Published: September 2013

Critics predominantly read Daniel Defoe’s A Tour thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724–26) as a work promoting a vision of Britain as an economic power. They also treat the Tour ’s narrator as Defoe himself, or, at least, as a figure with the same beliefs as Defoe. In this article, I prove that the narrator of the Tour is not Defoe but a fictional persona, a staunch supporter of the Church of England. I also demonstrate that the work is not just an encomium of British commerce but a sophisticated argument for religious toleration.
Image Making in James Thomson’s The Seasons
Authors: Jung Sandro
Published: September 2013

Rather than focus on the examination of James Thomson’s poetic description in The Seasons , this essay investigates the poet’s image-making processes in the anthropocentric interpolated episodes of Celadon and Lavinia, Damon and Musidora, Palemon and Lavinia, and the story of the Perishing Man. It examines the capacity of Thomson’s different types of multidimensional images to convey moments of stasis and mobility, concentration and process, as well as stagnation and petrifaction. Thomson’s images are inscribed with spatial and temporal matrices in order to create different patterns of variety that underpin his complex poetics of action and description.
Posthumous Presence in Richardson’s Clarissa
Authors: Reeves James Bryant
Published: September 2013

In Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa , the eponymous heroine speaks from the dead. Her posthumous texts transcend the strictures of linear time and signal her commitment to a traditional Christian conception of temporality. By delineating that commitment, and by analyzing her posthumous texts in light of anthropological studies of material culture, this essay demonstrates that Clarissa remains dedicated to reforming the present world even after she enters divine eternity. The essay revises previous evaluations of Clarissa’s death that claim she is silenced in the grave. Ultimately, Clarissa reveals itself to be less hostile to the material world than is commonly assumed.
Transculturation and Politics in the Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
Authors: Meriwether Rae Ann
Published: September 2013

This essay employs contemporary postcolonial and feminist theory to argue that Lady Mary Wortley Montagu became an overtly political subject and participant in English politics as a result of her travels through Western Europe and Turkey. Most critical analyses of the Turkish Embassy Letters contend that Lady Mary remains embedded within her aristocratic English womanhood at the end of her travels. On the contrary, the writer underwent a profound subjective transformation that manifests in her writing years after she wrote the Letters , most prominently in her newspaper, The Nonsense of Common-Sense .
Reimagining Royalism in Aphra Behn’s America
Authors: Van Renen Denys
Published: September 2013

In The Widdow Ranter (1690) and Oroonoko (1688), Aphra Behn grafts Amerindian representational systems onto a Royalist world-view, suggesting that they can reinvigorate a culture tainted by the Interregnum and the political turmoil that plagues the Stuarts’ reign. Interconnecting disparate cultural systems and even narrative forms, she condenses a constellation of worldviews on both sides of the Atlantic and warns that English settlements risk their own way of life when they practice cultural hegemony.
Spatial and Temporal Patterns of an Ethnic Economy in a Suburban Landscape of the Nuevo South
Authors: Hoalst-Pullen Nancy , Slinger-Friedman Vanessa , Trendell Harold R. , Patterson Mark W.
Published: September 2013

Podría decirse que las áreas suburbanas—como espacios geográficos—están siendo cada vez más transformadas por la afluencia de los latinos, sus negocios y sus culturas. Este estudio investiga la distribución espacial y las relaciones temporales de los restaurantes latinos y las poblaciones latinas en un contexto suburbano del "Nuevo" Sur. Datos del censo, técnicas geoespaciales (regresión geográficamente ponderada), y entrevistas abiertas semi-estructuradas se utilizaron para determinar dónde se ha desarrollado el emprendimiento empresarial basado en restaurantes étnicos, tanto espacial como temporalmente, en el condado de Cobb, Georgia, EE.UU. Los resultados muestran que en esta zona suburbana los restaurantes latinos se han agrupado espacialmente a través del tiempo y que existe una relación moderadamente positiva entre la ubicación de los restaurantes y la proporción de residentes hispanos. Nuestros hallazgos sugieren que la com-unidad latina es paralela a las características espaciales y económicas de un ethnoburb, con la presencia de grupos de una población latina geo-gráficamente difusas y negocios orientados hacia los latinos atendiendo la identidad cultural dominante de la región.
Toward a Publicly Engaged Geography: Polycentric and Iterated Research
Authors: Brewer Jennifer F.
Published: September 2013

Los geógrafos y otros estudiosos han defendido que los académicos realicen investigaciones más comprometidas con el público, y los administradores universitarios cada vez más apoyan estas iniciativas. Los modelos de participación de base y enfocados en políticas derivan de diferentes orígenes disciplinarios, pero llegan a conclusiones similares. Éstos encuentran que la participación eficaz de investigación debe vincular a varios grupos académicos y no-académicos en una web o una red policéntrica (de múltiples centros). Esto requiere repetidas interacciones a través de estos grupos para desarrollar una comunicación efectiva y agendas comunes para la acción. La disciplina de la geografía revela una historia paralela, que abarca conglomerados de investigación alrededor de políticas decisivas de apoyo, activismo y defensa, y desarrollo participativo de creación de capacidad y comunidad. Los geógrafos están bien preparados para desempeñar un papel clave de gestión como diversos grupos científicos, públicos, privados, sin fines de lucro persiguiendo actividades colaborativas que sobrepasan bordes. Como profesores o personal profesional, traemos destrezas de integración a través de diversas orientaciones disciplinarias, profesionales, y prácticas, así como análisis multi-escalares.
High Temporal Resolution Land Use/Land Cover Change from 1984 to 2010 of the Little River Watershed, Tennessee, Investigated Using Landsat and Google Earth Images
Authors: Zhu Chunhao , Li Yingkui
Published: September 2013

La cuenca del Little River (LRW) en Tennessee ex-perimentó un rápido cambio en el uso y cobertura del terreno (LULC) en las últimas décadas. Sin embargo, aún hace falta un detallado registro a largo plazo del cambio LULC. A continuación, analizamos el patrón de cambio LULC desde 1984 a 2010 en un intervalo de aproximadamente 2 años utilizando la Clasificación de Máxima Probabilidad (MLC) de imágenes Landsat TM/ETM+. La precisión de la clasificación se evaluó mediante la comparación de clases LULC clasificadas con sus correspondientes clases identificadas a partir de las imágenes de alta resolución de Google Earth (representando "datos terrestres de referencia"). Detección de cambios de mapas LULC clasificados indican que las zonas urbanas (terrenos residenciales y comerciales) y forestales aumentaron en 1984-2010 de 6,3 por ciento a 11,1 por ciento y de 65,0 por ciento a 69,5 por ciento, respectivamente. Por el contrario, las tierras agrícolas se redujeron de 28,3 por ciento a 18,9 por ciento. Este detallado registro a largo plazo del cambio LULC proporcionaría información valiosa para la planificación y manejo del terreno local en la evaluación de los impactos potenciales del cambio LULC en esta crítica cuenca.
Look Away, Look Away, Look Away to Lexington: Struggles over Neo-Confederate Nationalism, Memory, and Masculinity in a Small Virginia Town
Authors: Bohland Jon D.
Published: September 2013

Este trabajo es un estudio crítico de la actual Lexington, Virginia, examinando asuntos de memoria colectiva y patrimonio dentro de esta "meca" tradicional de la memoria confederada. Mi lectura de Lexington es el resultado de diez años de trabajo de campo en la ciudad desde 2004 hasta 2010 y está diseñado para resaltar y criticar el continuo dominio de las formas de nacionalismo y de masculinidad neo-confederadas dentro de los sitios turísticos de la ciudad y en los campus de sus dos universidades, Washington and Lee University (W & L) y Virginia Military Institute (VMI). Lexington es quizás mejor conocida por su asociación con los dos "héroes" confederados más destacados del pasado, los generales Robert E. Lee y Stonewall Jackson. Mi análisis crítico de la masculinidad sureña en ambas universidades une estas formas dominantes de la masculinidad del Old South en Lexington. Por último, este documento pone de relieve cómo los recientes cambios demográficos y políticos de la ciudad han dado lugar a campañas públicas que desafían el dominio de la neo-Confederación en Lexington.
Web-Based Geospatial Technology Tools for Metropolitan Planning Organizations
Authors: Malhotra Rakesh , Virk Gurmeet , Nwoko Felix , Klepper Amanda
Published: September 2013

Las aplicaciones y datos geoespaciales son herramientas importantes en las manos de los planificadores de transporte. El advenimiento de la car-tografía basada en la web y el desarrollo de aplicaciones dinámicas de la Internet (RIA) se pueden utilizar para desplegar datos espaciales para hacer disponible fácilmente la información. La aplicación del Transportation Environment Land Use Data Enterprise (TELUDE) desarrollada por el Durham, Chapel Hill, Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO DCHC) combina Sistemas de Información Geográfica (SIG), RIA, y programación web para lograr este objetivo. La aplicación TELUDE transforma las aplicaciones de escritorio y de recolección de datos espaciales en información accesible desde varias ubicaciones para los análisis. La arquitectura, desarrollo, despliegue y funciones de doce herramientas y varias funciones de planificación de transporte se analizan en este documento. Datos provenientes de diferentes fuentes se combinaron mediante secuencias de comandos y aplicaciones a través de la web en un entorno fácil de usar propicio para la presentación de informes y análisis. La aplicación TELUDE demuestra que la combinación de datos espaciales, scripting, programación, tecnología web y de servidores para mejorar la disponibilidad de datos e información para los planificadores de transporte.
Social media use among UAE college students one year after the Arab Spring
Authors: Wiest Julie B. , Eltantawy Nahed
Published: September 2013

In this study, we explore the ways in which young adults in the United Arab Emirates use communication technologies – especially social media – at a time of rapid change in the Arab world. Because young adults represent a large segment of the population within the Middle East and also lead in technology adoption in this region, this group plays an important role in how meanings are assigned to these new technologies. To better understand this group’s uses of and attitudes about new communication technologies one year after the Arab Spring, we asked undergraduates at four UAE universities to complete an online survey; results from the nearly 200 completed surveys are reported here. Findings not only aid in understanding how this group uses these technologies, but also help reveal the meaning-making process through which such technologies have been integrated into daily life in this region.
Bridging the journalism-business dichotomy: The case of Al Arabiya satellite channel
Authors: El-Nawawy Mohammed , Strong Catherine
Published: September 2013

The job satisfaction of journalists is a crucial aspect of the media industry, which is highly reliant on the experience and qualification of its journalists, particularly the Arab media, which were increasingly under the spotlight as prime global news resources during the Arab Spring pro-democracy protests. An example of quality reporting during this time was the pan-Arabic television network, Al Arabiya. Like journalists around the globe, Al Arabiya news workers are often torn between producing quality journalism and producing journalism that attracts income. However, this study found that Al Arabiya news workers, unlike western journalists, were satisfied with their job even when they felt the management aggressively pursued business goals.
Al Jazeera invades Israel: Is satellite TV challenging the sovereignty of the nation state?
Authors: Rinnawi Khalil
Published: September 2013

The pressures of economic, geopolitical and cultural globalization have challenged the sovereignty of nation states by weakening their ability to control and safeguard their citizens. The main focus of this study is to analyse the TV consumption habits of an ethno-national minority such as the Arab Palestinian community of Israel (the APCI) in a global media environment characterized by satellite TV from the Arab World. The main hypothesis, which was supported by this study, is that virtual satellite broadcasting from the Arab World has weakened the ties of this community to the Israeli nation state and strengthened their affiliation with external ethnic, religious and political groups and transnational or regional identities and cultures. This study attempted to explore their viewing habits and their attitude towards the minorities’ collective identity by interviewing a representative sample of Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel using a closed questionnaire. The main finding of this study is that the APCI are active media consumers (particularly TV) who are dissatisfied with the media from the State of Israel. Therefore, our research population spent less time consuming TV content from inside the state and more time consuming TV contents from the Arab World. Finally, this challenge of the sovereignty of the nation state was also reflected in a higher degree of trust and credibility assigned to TV from the Arab World as compared with TV coming from inside the State of Israel.
Corporate reputation and communication: The case of ‘Arla Foods’ and Prophet ‘Muhammad’ cartoons
Authors: Gaweesh Khaled S.
Published: September 2013

This article examines product boycotts driven by religious and political reasons, and develops insights regarding how corporations may respond to minimize the impact of such boycott calls. Conclusions show that Arla Foods was late in interpreting the signals of a crisis, so it could not identify possible dangers and deal with it in good time. Crisis prevention was not an active area of Arla’s Crisis Management Plan in the Middle East in the years before the Cartoon Crisis. Moreover, issues management did not receive adequate attention before the crisis. Arla neglected the prevention stage and only fully started their crisis communication when the crisis was well underway. The lack of preventive measures taken meant that Arla’s aggressive communication strategy was mainly used in a reactive fashion throughout the crisis. The research findings suggest that the company lacked local representatives; Arla also did not engage in a continued two-way communication with its Middle Eastern stakeholders, overlooking the fact that opinion leaders play an important role in influencing the opinion and behaviour of consumers in the Arab countries.
Media portrayals of Muslims and Islam and their influence on adolescent attitude: An empirical study from India
Authors: Ahmed Saifuddin
Published: September 2013

Empirical evidence suggests that media influences attitudes towards Muslims and Islam. However, the majority of the research in this area focuses on adult population. This study, being the first to focus on adolescents, reviewed media influence on their attitude towards Muslims and Islam in India. Survey results from a sample of 343 non-Muslim Indian adolescents revealed a significant association between media as the primary source of information and negative attitude towards Muslims and Islam. Users with preference to BBC, Fox News and Aaj Tak showed a greater mean negative attitude. However, there is a relative change in the overall attitude of those adolescents who have close associations with Muslim friends. Adolescents with media inclination believe media portrayals of Muslim and Islam to be positive, but users with Muslim friends feel the portrayals to be negative. Also when the level of knowledge was measured, media had no role to play. Finally, sentiment analysis of media content concerning Muslims revealed a dominant presence of negative sentiments as compared to positive sentiments. Western media showed greater negative sentiments than the Indian media, with Fox News, BBC and New York Times being the most negative in their coverage.
A state-of-the-art review on the durability of silica fume-blended concrete – a boon to the construction industry
Authors: Saraswathy Velu , Karthick Subbiah P.
Published: September 2013

The development and use of blended cement is growing rapidly in the construction industry mainly due to the consideration of energy, environment, and conservation of resources. Blended cements are produced using any of the supplementary cementitious materials such as silica fume (SF), fly ash, and ground granulated blast furnace slag. The use of SF in concrete may improve the strength and durability of concrete by creating a denser cement matrix compared with conventional concrete, thereby enhancing the service life of concrete structures. In this article, the effect of SF in concrete is reviewed from the point of view of durability. It includes carbonation, resistivity, chloride permeability/diffusivity, sulfate resistance, and corrosion resistance.
Short and medium-term outcomes of live-born twins after fetoscopic laser therapy for twin-twin transfusion syndromea
Authors: Tosello Barthélémy , Blanc Julie , Haumonté Jean-Baptiste , D’Ercole Claude , Gire Catherine
Published: September 2013

Objective: To evaluate short and medium term outcomes of children born of monochorionic pregnancies complicated by twin-twin transfusion syndrome treated by fetoscopic laser surgery.

Methods: This was a retrospective observational study performed between May 2007 and 2012. Neonatal data was from 45 patients under 5 years of age. The prospective observational study was of the neurologic outcome of these children using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ), 2nd edition, French version, at up to 5 years of age.

Results: Neurologic assessment at discharge from maternity unit was normal for 41 infants (93.2%). Logistic regression suggested that the risk of neurosensory sequelae was significantly related to the status of donor [odds ratio=4.62 (1.18; 18.0)] and significantly preterm birth <32 weeks of gestation [odds ratio=5.50 (1.38; 21.9)]. Eleven questionnaires were considered abnormal (31.1%). Two children presented a severe neurologic abnormality (5.7%). There was no significant correlation between any area of the questionnaire and status at birth (donor or recipient).

Conclusions: The data from our cohort, particularly as regards neurologic outcome, were satisfactory and concordant with previously published results. The use of the ASQ as a screening tool for neurologic outcome in children is original, which allowed in our cohort to highlight early neurological disorders.
Border Regimes and Human Rights
Authors: Miller David
Published: September 2013

This article argues that there is no human right to cross borders without
impediment. Receiving states, however, must recognize the procedural rights of
those unable to protect their human rights in the place where they currently
reside. Asylum claims must be properly investigated, and in the event that the
state declines to admit them as refugees, it must ensure that the third country
to which they are transferred can protect their rights. Both procedural and
substantive rights apply while refugees are physically present in the
state’s territory and their immigration status is being investigated. The
state’s obligation to protect these rights arises from the power it
exercises over them. In contrast, the state does not exercise equivalent power
over those it declines to admit in the first place, even though its immigration
criteria – if discriminatory in the negative sense – can be
faulted on other grounds. Beneath these arguments lie two basic assumptions: one
is the need to separate human rights claims from other claims of justice,
especially those deriving from citizenship; the other is the need to determine
who bears the obligations that correspond to these rights. Attention to the
different relations in which prospective immigrants may stand toward the state
they hope to enter can help us understand how border regimes may comply with, or
violate, human rights.
The Right against Interference: Human Rights and Legitimate Authority
Authors: Viehoff Daniel
Published: September 2013

Among the functions of state borders is to delineate a domain within which outsiders may normally not interfere. But the human rights practice that has sprung up in recent decades has imposed significant limits on a state’s right against interference. This article considers the connection between human rights on the one hand and justified interference in the internal affairs of states on the other. States, this article argues, have a right against interference if and because they serve their subjects. Interference by outsiders threatens to set back their capacity to serve and thus ultimately harms those over whom the state exercises power. Human rights, in turn, circumscribe the outer limits of what any state can do while plausibly claiming to be serving its subjects. On this view, human rights are distinguished from other rights because they function as cancelling conditions on the state’s right against outside interference: while interfering in the internal affairs of a state normally wrongs that state, interfering where the state fails to respect human rights does not. Contrary to what is often thought, human rights violations do not justify outside interference. They merely make a state liable to such interference. The further considerations that must enter into an all things considered judgment in favor of interference are irrelevant for determining what human rights we have.
Factor-based forecasting in the presence of outliers: Are factors better selected and estimated by the median than by the mean?
Authors: Kristensen Johannes Tang
Published: September 2013

Macroeconomic forecasting using factor models estimated by principal components has become a popular research topic with many both theoretical and applied contributions in the literature. In this paper we attempt to address an often neglected issue in these models: The problem of outliers in the data. Most papers take an ad-hoc approach to this problem and simply screen datasets prior to estimation and remove anomalous observations. We investigate whether forecasting performance can be improved by using the original unscreened dataset and replacing principal components with a robust alternative. We propose to use an estimator based on least absolute deviations (LAD) as this alternative and establish a tractable method for computing the estimator. In addition to this we demonstrate the robustness features of the estimator through a number of Monte Carlo simulation studies. Finally, we apply the estimator in a simulated real-time forecasting exercise to test its merits. We use a newly compiled dataset of US macroeconomic series spanning the period 1971:2–2012:10. Our findings suggest that the chosen treatment of outliers does affect forecasting performance and that in many cases improvements can be made using a robust estimator such as the proposed LAD estimator.
Chronic Stress-Induced Alterations of Dendritic Spine Subtypes Predict Functional Decrements in an Hypothalamo–Pituitary–Adrenal-Inhibitory Prefrontal Circuit
Authors: Radley Jason J. , Anderson Rachel M. , Hamilton Bradley A. , Alcock Jennifer A. , Romig-Martin Sara A.
Published: September 2013

Activation of the hypothalamo–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis plays a vital role in promoting adaptation during acute stress, but adverse effects of chronic stress may result from overactivity of this system. Recent evidence highlights a subdivision of GABAergic neurons within anterior bed nuclei of the stria terminalis (aBST) that integrates and relays inhibitory influences to HPA-effector neurons in paraventricular hypothalamus during acute stress, notably from medial prefrontal [prelimbic (PL)] and hippocampal [ventral subiculum (vSUB)] cortical fields. Here we localize the site and candidate mechanism of neuroplasticity within upstream regions of this inhibitory network after chronic variable stress (CVS). Rats bearing retrograde tracer injections in aBST underwent CVS for 14 d. Retrogradely labeled and unlabeled neurons in vSUB and PL were selected for intracellular dye filling, followed by three-dimensional imaging and analysis of dendritic arborization and spine morphometry. Whereas PL neurons displayed decreases in dendritic branching and spine density after CVS, aBST-projecting cells showed a selective loss of mature mushroom-shaped spines. In a follow-up experiment, CVS-treated and control rats were exposed to a novel restraint challenge for assay of HPA activation and engagement of aBST-projecting cortical regions. CVS animals showed enhanced HPA output and decreased Fos activation in aBST-projecting PL neurons compared with acutely stressed controls. In contrast, vSUB failed to show any significant differences in structural plasticity or functional activation patterns after CVS. These findings define a mechanism whereby synaptic destabilization in the PL → aBST pathway may dampen its ability to impart inhibitory control over the HPA axis after chronic stress exposure.
Delta-Opioid Receptors Mediate Unique Plasticity onto Parvalbumin-Expressing Interneurons in Area CA2 of the Hippocampus
Authors: Piskorowski Rebecca A. , Chevaleyre Vivien
Published: September 2013

Inhibition is critical for controlling information transfer in the brain. However, the understanding of the plasticity and particular function of different interneuron subtypes is just emerging. Using acute hippocampal slices prepared from adult mice, we report that in area CA2 of the hippocampus, a powerful inhibitory transmission is acting as a gate to prevent CA3 inputs from driving CA2 neurons. Furthermore, this inhibition is highly plastic, and undergoes a long-term depression following high-frequency 10 Hz or theta-burst induction protocols. We describe a novel form of long-term depression at parvalbumin-expressing (PV+) interneuron synapses that is dependent on delta-opioid receptor (DOR) activation. Additionally, PV+ interneuron transmission is persistently depressed by DOR activation in area CA2 but only transiently depressed in area CA1. These results provide evidence for a differential temporal modulation of PV+ synapses between two adjacent cortical circuits, and highlight a new function of PV+ cells in controlling information transfer.
Membrane-Tethered Monomeric Neurexin LNS-Domain Triggers Synapse Formation
Authors: Gokce Ozgun , Südhof Thomas C.
Published: September 2013

Neurexins are presynaptic cell-adhesion molecules that bind to postsynaptic cell-adhesion molecules such as neuroligins and leucine-rich repeat transmembrane proteins (LRRTMs). When neuroligins or LRRTMs are expressed in a nonneuronal cell, cocultured neurons avidly form heterologous synapses onto that cell. Here we show that knockdown of all neurexins in cultured hippocampal mouse neurons did not impair synapse formation between neurons, but blocked heterologous synapse formation induced by neuroligin-1 or LRRTM2. Rescue experiments demonstrated that all neurexins tested restored heterologous synapse formation in neurexin-deficient neurons. Neurexin-deficient neurons exhibited a decrease in the levels of the PDZ-domain protein CASK (a calcium/calmodulin-activated serine/threonine kinase), which binds to neurexins, and mutation of the PDZ-domain binding sequence of neurexin-3β blocked its transport to the neuronal surface and impaired heterologous synapse formation. However, replacement of the C-terminal neurexin sequence with an unrelated PDZ-domain binding sequence that does not bind to CASK fully restored surface transport and heterologous synapse formation in neurexin-deficient neurons, suggesting that no particular PDZ-domain protein is essential for neurexin surface transport or heterologous synapse formation. Further mutagenesis revealed, moreover, that the entire neurexin cytoplasmic tail was dispensable for heterologous synapse formation in neurexin-deficient neurons, as long as the neurexin protein was transported to the neuronal cell surface. Furthermore, the single LNS-domain (for laminin/neurexin/sex hormone-binding globulin-domain) of neurexin-1β or neurexin-3β, when tethered to the presynaptic plasma membrane by a glycosylinositolphosphate anchor, was sufficient for rescuing heterologous synapse formation in neurexin-deficient neurons. Our data suggest that neurexins mediate heterologous synapse formation via an extracellular interaction with presynaptic and postsynaptic ligands without the need for signal transduction by the neurexin cytoplasmic tail.
Recombinant Probes Reveal Dynamic Localization of CaMKIIα within Somata of Cortical Neurons
Authors: Mora Rudy J. , Roberts Richard W. , Arnold Don B.
Published: September 2013

In response to NMDA receptor stimulation, CaMKIIα moves rapidly from a diffuse distribution within the shafts of neuronal dendrites to a clustered postsynaptic distribution. However, less is known about CaMKIIα localization and trafficking within neuronal somata. Here we use a novel recombinant probe capable of labeling endogenous CaMKIIα in living rat neurons to examine its localization and trafficking within the somata of cortical neurons. This probe, which was generated using an mRNA display selection, binds to endogenous CaMKIIα at high affinity and specificity following expression in rat cortical neurons in culture. In ∼45% of quiescent cortical neurons, labeled clusters of CaMKIIα 1–4 μm in diameter were present. Upon exposure to glutamate and glycine, CaMKIIα clusters disappeared in a Ca2+-dependent manner within seconds. Moreover, minutes after the removal of glutamate and glycine, the clusters returned to their original configuration. The clusters, which also appear in cortical neurons in sections taken from mouse brains, contain actin and disperse upon exposure to cytochalasin D, an actin depolymerizer. In conclusion, within the soma, CaMKII localizes and traffics in a manner that is distinct from its localization and trafficking within the dendrites.
Deep Brain Stimulation of the Nucleus Accumbens Shell Attenuates Cocaine Reinstatement through Local and Antidromic Activation
Authors: Vassoler Fair M. , White Samantha L. , Hopkins Thomas J. , Guercio Leonardo A. , Espallergues Julie , Berton Olivier , Schmidt Heath D. , Pierce R. Christopher
Published: September 2013

Accumbal deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a promising therapeutic modality for the treatment of addiction. Here, we demonstrate that DBS in the nucleus accumbens shell, but not the core, attenuates cocaine priming-induced reinstatement of drug seeking, an animal model of relapse, in male Sprague Dawley rats. Next, we compared DBS of the shell with pharmacological inactivation. Results indicated that inactivation using reagents that influenced (lidocaine) or spared (GABA receptor agonists) fibers of passage blocked cocaine reinstatement when administered into the core but not the shell. It seems unlikely, therefore, that intrashell DBS influences cocaine reinstatement by inactivating this nucleus or the fibers coursing through it. To examine potential circuit-wide changes, c-Fos immunohistochemistry was used to examine neuronal activation following DBS of the nucleus accumbens shell. Intrashell DBS increased c-Fos induction at the site of stimulation as well as in the infralimbic cortex, but had no effect on the dorsal striatum, prelimbic cortex, or ventral pallidum. Recent evidence indicates that accumbens DBS antidromically stimulates axon terminals, which ultimately activates GABAergic interneurons in cortical areas that send afferents to the shell. To test this hypothesis, GABA receptor agonists (baclofen/muscimol) were microinjected into the anterior cingulate, and prelimbic or infralimbic cortices before cocaine reinstatement. Pharmacological inactivation of all three medial prefrontal cortical subregions attenuated the reinstatement of cocaine seeking. These results are consistent with DBS of the accumbens shell attenuating cocaine reinstatement via local activation and/or activation of GABAergic interneurons in the medial prefrontal cortex via antidromic stimulation of cortico-accumbal afferents.
Approximation verteilt-parametrischer Systeme zweiter Ordnung mittels Krylov-Unterraummethoden / Approximation of Distributed-Parameter Second Order Systems Using Krylov Subspace Methods
Authors: Deutscher Joachim , Harkort Christian
Published: September 2013

Dieser Beitrag behandelt die Approximation linearer verteilt-parametrischer Systeme zweiter Ordnung mittels eines Galerkin-Ansatzes. Das resultierende endlich-dimensionale Approximationsmodell besitzt ebenfalls die Struktur zweiter Ordnung und ist wie das Originalsystem asymptotisch stabil und passiv. Es wird gezeigt, wie die Freiheitsgrade der Galerkin-Approximation zu wählen sind, um zusätzlich eine Momentenübereinstimmung mittels Krylov- Unterraummethoden zu erzielen. Für Systeme mit kollokierten Ein- und Ausgängen sowie für unterschiedliche Dämpfungen werden Vereinfachungen der Approximationsmethode vorgestellt. Die neue strukturerhaltende Approximation wird anhand eines Euler-Bernoulli-Balkens mit Kelvin-Voigt-Dämpfung veranschaulicht
ENDOCRINE SIDE-EFFECTS OF ANTI-CANCER DRUGS: mAbs and pituitary dysfunction: clinical evidence and pathogenic hypotheses
Authors: Torino Francesco , Barnabei Agnese , Paragliola Rosa Maria , Marchetti Paolo , Salvatori Roberto , Corsello Salvatore Maria
Published: September 2013

mAbs are established targeted therapies for several diseases, including hematological and solid malignancies. These agents have shown a favorable toxicity profile, but, despite their high selectivity, new typical side-effects have emerged. In cancer patients, pituitary dysfunction may be mainly due to brain metastases or primary tumors and to related surgery and radiotherapy. Anticancer agents may induce hypopituitarism in patients cured for childhood cancers. These agents infrequently affect pituitary function in adult cancer patients. Notably, hypophysitis, a previously very rare disease, has emerged as a distinctive side-effect of ipilimumab and tremelimumab, two mAbs inhibiting the cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 receptor, being occasionally seen with nivolumab, another immune checkpoint inhibitor. Enhanced antitumor immunity is the suggested mechanism of action of these drugs and autoimmunity the presumptive mechanism of their toxicity. Recently, ipilimumab has been licensed for the treatment of patients affected by metastatic melanoma. With the expanding use of these drugs, hypophysitis will be progressively encountered by oncologists and endocrinologists in clinical practice. The optimal management of this potentially life-threatening adverse event needs a rapid and timely diagnostic and therapeutic intervention. Hypopituitarism caused by these agents is rarely reversible, requiring prolonged or lifelong substitutive hormonal treatment. Further studies are needed to clarify several clinical and pathogenic aspects of this new form of secondary pituitary dysfunction.
Population Genetics and Molecular Evolution of DNA Sequences in Transposable Elements. I. A Simulation Framework
Authors: Kijima T E , Innan Hideki
Published: September 2013

A population genetic simulation framework is developed to understand the behavior and molecular evolution of DNA sequences of transposable elements. Our model incorporates random transposition and excision of transposable element (TE) copies, two modes of selection against TEs, and degeneration of transpositional activity by point mutations. We first investigated the relationships between the behavior of the copy number of TEs and these parameters. Our results show that when selection is weak, the genome can maintain a relatively large number of TEs, but most of them are less active. In contrast, with strong selection, the genome can maintain only a limited number of TEs but the proportion of active copies is large. In such a case, there could be substantial fluctuations of the copy number over generations. We also explored how DNA sequences of TEs evolve through the simulations. In general, active copies form clusters around the original sequence, while less active copies have long branches specific to themselves, exhibiting a star-shaped phylogeny. It is demonstrated that the phylogeny of TE sequences could be informative to understand the dynamics of TE evolution.
Synthetic Lethal Targeting of Superoxide Dismutase 1 Selectively Kills RAD54B-Deficient Colorectal Cancer Cells
Authors: Sajesh Babu V , Bailey Melanie , Lichtensztejn Zelda , Hieter Philip , McManus Kirk J
Published: September 2013

Synthetic lethality is a rational approach to identify candidate drug targets for selective killing of cancer cells harboring somatic mutations that cause chromosome instability (CIN). To identify a set of the most highly connected synthetic lethal partner genes in yeast for subsequent testing in mammalian cells, we used the entire set of 692 yeast CIN genes to query the genome-wide synthetic lethal datasets. Hierarchical clustering revealed a highly connected set of synthetic lethal partners of yeast genes whose human orthologs are somatically mutated in colorectal cancer. Testing of a small matrix of synthetic lethal gene pairs in mammalian cells suggested that members of a pathway that remove reactive oxygen species that cause DNA damage would be excellent candidates for further testing. We show that the synthetic lethal interaction between budding yeast rad54 and sod1 is conserved within a human colorectal cancer context. Specifically, we demonstrate RAD54B-deficient cells are selectively killed relative to controls via siRNA-based silencing and chemical inhibition and further demonstrate that this interaction is conserved in an unrelated cell type. We further show that the DNA double strand breaks, resulting from increased reactive oxygen species following SOD1 inhibition, persist within the RAD54B-deficient cells and result in apoptosis. Collectively, these data identify SOD1 as a novel candidate cancer drug target and suggest that SOD1 inhibition may have broad-spectrum applicability in a variety of tumor types exhibiting RAD54B deficiencies.
Anterior Uveitis and Cataract After Rubella Vaccination: A Case Report of a 12-Month-Old Girl
Authors: Ferrini Walter , Aubert Vincent , Balmer Aubin , Munier Francis L. , Abouzeid Hana
Published: September 2013

Many reports associating uveitis after vaccination have been reported, including 2 cases after measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. We report the case of a 12-month-old girl who developed a unilateral anterior uveitis with rubeosis and cataract 3 months after an MMR vaccination at 9 months of age. Aqueous humor analysis showed the presence of more rubella-specific immunoglobulin G in the affected eye than in the unaffected one. This is the second report showing an association between MMR vaccine and anterior uveitis and the first supported by the presence of intraocular rubella antibodies.