bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Whose Performance Is It Anyway? Performed Criticism as Feminist Strategy
Authors: Mihaylova Stefka
Published: August 2009

By the 1990s, the feminist contention that gender norms inform the production and reception of art had become widely accepted in academia. Many theatre journalists, however, continued to insist on the possibility of writing about performance from an apolitical, gender-neutral position. This article examines the gendered history of this insistence from the early 1700s to the present, its effects on the production and reception of plays by women, and its implications for theatre scholarship. Focusing on Carolee Schneemann's critique of a masculine bias in art criticism in her performance Interior Scroll and the Guerrilla Girls' actions against gender discrimination in the art world, this article examines strategies adopted by female and feminist journalists in Britain and the US to counter women's inequitable status in art journalism and playwriting. By engaging with the gendered binaries mind–body and text–performance, Schneemann and the Guerrilla Girls help clarify how reviewing practices have informed critical thinking about femininity and performance. In doing so, these artists anticipate poststructuralist feminist critiques of visibility and the performing body. Stefka Mihaylova holds a PhD in Theatre Studies from Northwestern University. Her research focuses on performance theory, especially gender and racial aspects of spectatorship in contemporary American and British feminist and radical theatre and performance art.
Parliamentary Report
Authors: Cranmer Frank
Published: August 2009

Lower financial thresholds for accounting and reporting requirements for small charities were brought into effect on 1 April under the terms of the Charities Acts 1992 and 1993 (Substitution of Sums) Order 2009. The changes include raising the threshold above which charities must prepare accruals accounts from £100,000 to £250,000; raising the threshold for external scrutiny of accounts from £10,000 to £25,000; and increasing the threshold for submission by registered charities of annual accounts and trustees' annual reports to the Charity Commission from £10,000 to £25,000. The Association of Church Accountants and Treasurers particularly welcomed the higher threshold for accruals accounts, the preparation of which requires a considerable degree of expertise, since the prospect of having to master the mysteries of accruals accounting has been a considerable discouragement to potential treasurers.
Thinking about stratigraphic sequence in social terms
Authors: McAnany Patricia A. , Hodder Ian
Published: August 2009

For archaeologists, stratification is an important character of archaeological deposits. Through it, layering is discerned and cultural and evolutionary interpretations are proposed. Archaeologists possess much implicit knowledge about the social practices that produce stratigraphic sequence and the specific, contextualized manner in which layers were built upon or cut into previous deposits. The aim of this paper is to gather together and formalize this knowledge so as to codify conceptual ‘tools to think by’ when recording and interpreting stratigraphy. Relevant literature is widely dispersed and here can only be sampled; authors consider stratigraphy in terms of (1) techniques of terraforming, (2) processes enacted and (3) meaning and interpretation. Techniques and processes are discussed within larger social interpretations such as memory, history-building, forgetting, renewing, cleansing and destroying. Examples are drawn from the Turkish Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük and the ancestral Maya site of K'axob in Belize, Central America, to illustrate the applicability of an approach that here is called ‘social stratigraphy’. A practice-based history of stratigraphy – the recording and interpretation of strata – within archaeology is problematized in reference to codependence with geology, the deployment of labour and centralized authority within the emergent 19th- to early 20th-century field of archaeology. The contributions of and conflicts between British and American stratigraphic schools are considered in light of a potential rapprochement. Contested issues of cultural heritage – such as preservation of selected strata – suggest that thinking about stratigraphic sequence in social terms is more than an academic exercise.
What's the news? Thinking about McAnany and Hodder's ‘Thinking about stratigraphic sequence in social terms’
Authors: Helwing Barbara
Published: August 2009

New thoughts about the use of archaeological stratigraphies! Is this so? The discussion article by Patricia A. McAnany and Ian Hodder aims at the construction of a theoretical framework to expound and discuss the problems of archaeological stratigraphy. Such a theoretical framework is urgently needed, they feel, and has been largely neglected until now. Reading and interpreting an archaeological stratigraphic record, if carried out according to the guidelines they try to establish, may reveal much more information about past social processes that led to the formation of the specific stratigraphy. In the authors' own words, ‘thinking about stratigraphic sequence in social terms is more than an academic exercise’ (quoted from abstract). As the record left behind by ancient communities, archaeological stratigraphies, in their view, take a middle place on a scale from micro-records endowed with meaning (artefacts) to macro-records of contextual meaning preserved in archaeological landscapes. The in-between, the immediate residues of meaningful past human behaviour encapsulated in archaeological sites, remain, in their view, undertheorized.
Remembering the basics. Social and stratigraphic debates and biases
Authors: Maca Allan L.
Published: August 2009

Steve Roskams (2001, 267–70) has challenged archaeologists to theorize excavation practices and Patricia McAnany and Ian Hodder have responded in a cogent manner. They draw the most fundamental of archaeology's field methods – stratigraphy – into the light of social theory. The product is ‘social stratigraphy’ and the authors offer an array of interpretive schemes and processes through which social stratigraphic approaches might be considered and developed. McAnany and Hodder want us to think beyond the geological facets of stratigraphy, including our section drawings, photographs, matrices, phase designations, chronologies, thin sections and artefacts. They suggest we strive to do more: to discern and interpret social meanings, patterns and practices in every deposit, cut, pit, erasure, concealment, return and episodic rebuilding. The great bulk of their discussion focuses on the study of past contexts, though in closing they address how strata and stratigraphy can be altered or used to influence present-day social and political contexts. It is here – that is, in their concluding comments – that their emphasis on memory (and forgetting), repeated like an incantation throughout the paper, comes full circle.
DUALITY FOR CONVEX POLYTOPES
Authors: ROMANOWSKA A. B. , ŚLUSARSKI P. , SMITH J. D. H.
Published: August 2009

This paper establishes a duality between the category of polytopes (finitely generated real convex sets considered as barycentric algebras) and a certain category of intersections of hypercubes, considered as barycentric algebras with additional constant operations.
Ecohydrological optimization of pattern and processes in water‐limited ecosystems: A trade‐off‐based hypothesis
Authors: Caylor Kelly K. , Scanlon Todd M. , Rodriguez‐Iturbe Ignacio
Published: August 2009

The complex interactions between plants, soils, and climates in semiarid ecosystems make it difficult to define specific ecohydrological optimization mechanisms that underlie observed spatiotemporal patterns of vegetation structure. There remains a clear need to develop conceptual models that are capable of interpreting and predicting spatial pattern formation in savannas (and similar dry woodland ecosystems), as well as metrics for assessing optimization or organization of patterns, as one scales from individual canopies to landscapes and beyond. In this article, we propose a unifying hypothesis regarding ecohydrological optimization of pattern and processes, namely, that vegetation patterns in water‐limited environments are constrained in their ability to maximize water use by a need to simultaneously minimize water stress. We use this trade‐off‐based hypothesis to infer the function of dryland ecosystems under a wide range of scales and applications. Specifically, we examine spatial and temporal aspects of ecohydrological organization of vegetation patterns for three different cases: (1) patterns of regional‐scale temporal organization across a regional climate gradient, (2) patterns of landscape‐scale spatial organization within a semiarid drainage basin, and (3) patterns of individual‐scale structural organization across varying soil textures. Although the insight gained from each of these examples is derived from specific modeling approaches, each of which contains its own unique set of assumptions and limitations, they are unified by our proposed ecohydrological trade‐off approach that simultaneously considers both plant water deficit and plant water use as a diagnostic tool for assessing vegetation patterns in water‐limited environments. It is our hope that the ongoing development of coupled ecological and hydrological models capable of assessing a diversity of interactions between plants, soils, and climates will lead to the emergence of more generalized hypotheses regarding the manner by which ecological and hydrological patterns coorganize in landscapes.
Alik Ismail‐Zadeh Receives 2009 International Award
Authors: Beer Tom , Ismail‐Zadeh Alik
Published: August 2009

Alik Ismail‐Zadeh received the AGU International Award at the Joint Assembly, held 26 May 2009 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The award honors “an individual scientist or a small team for making an outstanding contribution to furthering the Earth and space sciences and using our science for the benefit of society in less favored nations.”
Surface‐exosphere coupling due to thermal tides
Authors: Forbes Jeffrey M. , Bruinsma Sean L. , Zhang Xiaoli , Oberheide Jens
Published: August 2009

Using densities measured by accelerometers on the CHAMP and GRACE satellites, and taking advantage of the local time precession characteristics of these near‐polar orbiting satellites, exosphere temperatures are derived as a function of local time, longitude and latitude. Significant longitude variability (e.g., ±25K maximum to minimum over the equator) in geomagnetically‐quiet exosphere temperatures is shown to exist, and is attributed to a spectrum of diurnal and semidiurnal thermal tides that are excited in the troposphere and strongly influenced by the global land‐sea distribution. Since exosphere temperatures are independent of height, this discovery constitutes evidence that exosphere variability is linked to surface variability. Recent evidence suggests that analogous effects exist at Mars.
C/NOFS observations of deep plasma depletions at dawn
Authors: de La Beaujardière Odile , Retterer John M. , Pfaff Robert F. , Roddy Patrick A. , Roth Christopher , Burke William J. , Su Yi Jiun , Kelley Michael C. , Ilma Ronald R. , Wilson Gordon R. , Gentile Louise C. , Hunton Donald E. , Cooke David L.
Published: August 2009

The Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite was launched in 2008, during solar minimum conditions. An unexpected feature in the C/NOFS plasma density data is the presence of deep plasma depletions observed at sunrise at all satellite altitudes. Ionospheric irregularities are often embedded within these dawn depletions. Their frequencies strongly depend on longitude and season. Dawn depletions are also observed in coincident satellite passes such as DMSP and CHAMP. In one example the depletion extended 50° × 14° in the N‐S and E‐W directions, respectively. These depletions are caused by upward plasma drifts observed in C/NOFS and ground‐based measurements. The reason for these upward drifts is still unresolved. We discuss the roles of dynamo electric fields, over‐shielding, and tidal effects as sources for the reported depletions.
Quantifying the feedback between ocean heating and CO2 solubility as an equivalent carbon emission
Authors: Goodwin Philip , Lenton Timothy M.
Published: August 2009

There are inherent difficulties in quantifying carbon cycle‐climate feedbacks over the 21st century because the system is in a transient state. The conventional approach of deriving gain factors only strictly applies at equilibrium, and they differ with scenario and with respect to different climate variables (e.g., CO2, radiative forcing, and temperature) which have different time lags. Here we show that the positive feedback whereby ocean heating reduces the solubility of CO2 can be quantified in a scenario‐independent way, directly from ocean heat content changes, by expressing it as an ‘equivalent carbon emission’. On annual to centennial timescales, the feedback has the same impact on atmospheric CO2 as an equivalent emission flux of fossil fuel carbon. From ocean heat‐content data we quantify the ocean heating‐CO2 solubility positive feedback, which increased in average strength from an equivalent emission of ∼0.08 PgC yr−1 over 1961‐2003 to ∼0.19 PgC yr−1 during 1993‐2003.
What is microbial community ecology?
Authors: Konopka Allan
Published: August 2009

The activities of complex communities of microbes affect biogeochemical transformations in natural, managed and engineered ecosystems. Meaningfully defining what constitutes a community of interacting microbial populations is not trivial, but is important for rigorous progress in the field. Important elements of research in microbial community ecology include the analysis of functional pathways for nutrient resource and energy flows, mechanistic understanding of interactions between microbial populations and their environment, and the emergent properties of the complex community. Some emergent properties mirror those analyzed by community ecologists who study plants and animals: biological diversity, functional redundancy and system stability. However, because microbes possess mechanisms for the horizontal transfer of genetic information, the metagenome may also be considered as a community property.
Combined Impact of Adiponectin and Retinol‐binding Protein 4 on Metabolic Syndrome in Elderly People: The Korean Longitudinal Study on Health and Aging
Authors: Lim Soo , Yoon Ji W. , Choi Sung H. , Park Young J. , Lee Jung J. , Park Joon H. , Lee Seok B. , Kim Ki W. , Lim Jae‐Young , Kim Young‐Bum , Park Kyong S. , Lee Hong K. , Cho Sung I. , Jang Hak C.
Published: August 2009

The prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) increases with progressing and is potentially associated with changes in adipose‐derived cytokines, including adiponectin and retinol‐binding protein 4 (RBP4). We aimed to determine the prevalence of MS, and the relationships between these factors and MS in elderly people. A population‐based cohort study, the Korean Longitudinal Study on Health and Aging (KLoSHA), was performed on subjects aged ≥65 years by random stratified sampling in 2005–2006 (439 men and 561 women). Anthropometrics, biochemical factors including adiponectin and RBP4 levels, body composition, and abdominal fat by computed tomography (CT) were measured. The prevalence of MS was 61.0% in women and 39.9% in men. After adjustment for age, gender, smoking, alcohol, and exercise status and muscle mass, participants with the lowest quartile of adiponectin had a higher risk for having MS than those with the highest quartile (odds ratio (OR) = 4.12, P < 0.01). Similarly, subjects with the highest quartile of RBP4 showed an increased risk for having MS (OR = 1.73, P < 0.01). When both the lowest adiponectin and the highest RBP4 quartiles were combined, the OR increased to 6.22 compared with the opposite quartiles (i.e., highest adiponectin and lowest RBP4 concentrations). Furthermore, circulating levels of adiponectin and RBP4 were significantly correlated with visceral fat and insulin resistance index. In this study, the increased prevalence of MS in elderly but relatively lean population was associated with low adiponectin and high RBP4 levels. The combination of these factors might predict older subjects at high risk for having MS.
Fiscal Decentralization and Regional Disparity: Evidence from Cross-Section and Panel Data
Authors: Lessmann Christian
Published: August 2009

The advantages and disadvantages of public sector decentralization are widely discussed in economics and political science. Some authors argue that decentralization leads to an optimal provision of public services and promotes economic growth, while others emphasize the dangers of competition between subnational governments, especially those associated with interregional redistribution. Using cross-section and panel data for twenty-three OECD countries, from 1982 to 2000, this paper empirically studies the impact of fiscal decentralization on regional disparities. It is found that a higher degree of decentralization is associated with lower regional disparities. Hence, poor regions experience no disadvantages from decentralization and, instead, appear to benefit.
On the remarkable mechanostability of scaffoldins and the mechanical clamp motif
Authors: Valbuena Alejandro , Oroz Javier , Hervás Rubén , Vera Andrés Manuel , Rodríguez David , Menéndez Margarita , Sulkowska Joanna I. , Cieplak Marek , Carrión-Vázquez Mariano
Published: August 2009

Protein mechanostability is a fundamental biological property that can only be measured by single-molecule manipulation techniques. Such studies have unveiled a variety of highly mechanostable modules (mainly of the Ig-like, β-sandwich type) in modular proteins subjected to mechanical stress from the cytoskeleton and the metazoan cell–cell interface. Their mechanostability is often attributed to a “mechanical clamp” of secondary structure (a patch of backbone hydrogen bonds) fastening their ends. Here we investigate the nanomechanics of scaffoldins, an important family of scaffolding proteins that assembles a variety of cellulases into the so-called cellulosome, a microbial extracellular nanomachine for cellulose adhesion and degradation. These proteins anchor the microbial cell to cellulose substrates, which makes their connecting region likely to be subjected to mechanical stress. By using single-molecule force spectroscopy based on atomic force microscopy, polyprotein engineering, and computer simulations, here we show that the cohesin I modules from the connecting region of cellulosome scaffoldins are the most robust mechanical proteins studied experimentally or predicted from the entire Protein Data Bank. The mechanostability of the cohesin modules studied correlates well with their mechanical kinetic stability but not with their thermal stability, and it is well predicted by computer simulations, even coarse-grained. This extraordinary mechanical stability is attributed to 2 mechanical clamps in tandem. Our findings provide the current upper limit of protein mechanostability and establish shear mechanical clamps as a general structural/functional motif widespread in proteins putatively subjected to mechanical stress. These data have important implications for the scaffoldin physiology and for protein design in biotechnology and nanotechnology.
Longitudinal and multimodal in vivo imaging of tumor hypoxia and its downstream molecular events
Authors: Lehmann Steffi , Stiehl Daniel P. , Honer Michael , Dominietto Marco , Keist Ruth , Kotevic Ivana , Wollenick Kristin , Ametamey Simon , Wenger Roland H. , Rudin Markus
Published: August 2009

Tumor hypoxia and the hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) play a central role in the development of cancer. To study the relationship between tumor growth, tumor hypoxia, the stabilization of HIF-1α, and HIF transcriptional activity, we have established an in vivo imaging tool that allows longitudinal and noninvasive monitoring of these processes in a mouse C51 allograft tumor model. We used positron emission tomography (PET) with the hypoxia-sensitive tracer [
18
F]-fluoromisonidazole (FMISO) to measure tumor hypoxia over 14 days. Stabilization of HIF-1α and HIF transcriptional activity were assessed by bioluminescence imaging using the reporter constructs HIF-1α-luciferase and hypoxia response element-luciferase, respectively, stably expressed in C51 cells. Interestingly, we did not observe any major change in the level of tumor hypoxia throughout the observation period whereas HIF-1α levels and HIF activity showed drastic temporal variations. When comparing the readouts as a function of time we found a good correlation between HIF-1α levels and HIF activity. In contrast, there was no significant correlation between the [
18
F]-FMISO PET and HIF readouts. The tool developed in this work allows for the longitudinal study of tumor hypoxia and HIF-1α in cancer in an individual animal and will be of value when monitoring the efficacy of therapeutical interventions targeting the HIF pathway.
Epistasis between
RET
and
BBS
mutations modulates enteric innervation and causes syndromic Hirschsprung disease
Authors: de Pontual Loïc , Zaghloul Norann A. , Thomas Sophie , Davis Erica E. , Mcgaughey David M. , Dollfus Hélène , Baumann Clarisse , Bessling Seneca L. , Babarit Candice , Pelet Anna , Gascue Cecilia , Beales Philip , Munnich Arnold , Lyonnet Stanislas , Etchevers Heather , Attie-Bitach Tania , Badano Jose L. , McCallion Andrew S. , Katsanis Nicholas , Amiel Jeanne
Published: August 2009

Hirschsprung disease (HSCR) is a common, multigenic neurocristopathy characterized by incomplete innervation along a variable length of the gut. The pivotal gene in isolated HSCR cases, either sporadic or familial, is
RET
. HSCR also presents in various syndromes, including Shah–Waardenburg syndrome (WS), Down (DS), and Bardet–Biedl (BBS). Here, we report 3 families with BBS and HSCR with concomitant mutations in BBS genes and regulatory
RET
elements, whose functionality is tested in physiologically relevant assays. Our data suggest that BBS mutations can potentiate HSCR predisposing
RET
alleles, which by themselves are insufficient to cause disease. We also demonstrate that these genes interact genetically in vivo to modulate gut innervation, and that this interaction likely occurs through complementary, yet independent, pathways that converge on the same biological process.
Physical vapor deposition as a route to hidden amorphous states
Authors: Dawson Kevin J. , Kearns Kenneth L. , Yu Lian , Steffen Werner , Ediger M. D.
Published: August 2009

Stable glasses of indomethacin (IMC) were prepared by using physical vapor deposition. Wide-angle X-ray scattering measurements were performed to characterize the average local structure. IMC glasses prepared at a substrate temperature of 0.84
T
g
(where
T
g
is the glass transition temperature) and a deposition rate of 0.2 nm/s show a broad, high-intensity peak at low
q
values that is not present in the supercooled liquid or melt-quenched glasses. When annealed slightly above
T
g
, the new WAXS pattern transforms into the melt-quenched glass pattern, but only after very long annealing times. For a series of samples prepared at the lowest deposition rate, the new local packing arrangement is present only for deposition temperatures below
T
g
−20 K, suggesting an underlying first-order liquid-to-liquid phase transition.
Observation of a Zundel-like transition state during proton transfer in aqueous hydroxide solutions
Authors: Roberts Sean T. , Petersen Poul B. , Ramasesha Krupa , Tokmakoff Andrei , Ufimtsev Ivan S. , Martinez Todd J.
Published: August 2009

It is generally accepted that the anomalous diffusion of the aqueous hydroxide ion results from its ability to accept a proton from a neighboring water molecule; yet, many questions exist concerning the mechanism for this process. What is the solvation structure of the hydroxide ion? In what way do water hydrogen bond dynamics influence the transfer of a proton to the ion? We present the results of femtosecond pump-probe and 2D infrared experiments that probe the O-H stretching vibration of a solution of dilute HOD dissolved in NaOD/D
2
O. Upon the addition of NaOD, measured pump-probe transients and 2D IR spectra show a new feature that decays with a 110-fs time scale. The calculation of 2D IR spectra from an empirical valence bond molecular dynamics simulation of a single NaOH molecule in a bath of H
2
O indicates that this fast feature is due to an overtone transition of Zundel-like H
3
O
2
−
states, wherein a proton is significantly shared between a water molecule and the hydroxide ion. Given the frequency of vibration of shared protons, the observations indicate the shared proton state persists for 2–3 vibrational periods before the proton localizes on a hydroxide. Calculations based on the EVB-MD model argue that the collective electric field in the proton transfer direction is the appropriate coordinate to describe the creation and relaxation of these Zundel-like transition states.
Silencing of tryptamine biosynthesis for production of nonnatural alkaloids in plant culture
Authors: Runguphan Weerawat , Maresh Justin J. , O'Connor Sarah E.
Published: August 2009

Natural products have long served as both a source and inspiration for pharmaceuticals. Modifying the structure of a natural product often improves the biological activity of the compound. Metabolic engineering strategies to ferment “unnatural” products have been enormously successful in microbial organisms. However, despite the importance of plant derived natural products, metabolic engineering strategies to yield unnatural products from complex, lengthy plant pathways have not been widely explored. Here, we show that RNA mediated suppression of tryptamine biosynthesis inCatharanthus roseushairy root culture eliminates all production of monoterpene indole alkaloids, a class of natural products derived from two starting substrates, tryptamine and secologanin. To exploit this chemically silent background, we introduced an unnatural tryptamine analog to the production media and demonstrated that the silenced plant culture could produce a variety of novel products derived from this unnatural starting substrate. The novel alkaloids were not contaminated by the presence of the natural alkaloids normally present inC. roseus. Suppression of tryptamine biosynthesis therefore did not appear to adversely affect expression of downstream biosynthetic enzymes. Targeted suppression of substrate biosynthesis therefore appears to be a viable strategy for programming a plant alkaloid pathway to more effectively produce desirable unnatural products. Moreover, although tryptamine is widely found among plants, this silenced line demonstrates that tryptamine does not play an essential role in growth or development inC. roseusroot culture. Silencing the biosynthesis of an early starting substrate enhances our ability to harness the rich diversity of plant based natural products.
Regional differences in hippocampal calcium handling provide a cellular mechanism for limiting plasticity
Authors: Simons Stephen B. , Escobedo Yasmin , Yasuda Ryohei , Dudek Serena M.
Published: August 2009

Although much is known about the mechanisms underlying synaptic plasticity, the cellular mechanisms that negatively regulate plasticity in some brain regions are considerably less studied. One region where neurons do not reliably express long-term potentiation (LTP) is the CA2 subfield of the hippocampus. Given the connection between synaptic plasticity and increases in postsynaptic [Ca
2+
], and that CA2 neurons express a large number of calcium-regulating proteins, we tested the hypothesis that the relative lack of LTP in CA2 results from differences in the calcium dynamics of these neurons. By measuring calcium-dependent fluorescence transients in dendritic spines, we show that CA2 neurons have smaller action potential-evoked intracellular Ca
2+
transients because of a higher endogenous Ca
2+
-buffering capacity and significantly higher rates of Ca
2+
extrusion when compared with CA1 and CA3 neurons. Perfusion with higher external [Ca
2+
] during induction restores LTP to CA2 neurons, suggesting that they possess the cellular machinery required for plasticity, but that the restriction of postsynaptic [Ca
2+
] limits its expression. Camstatin, an analogue of the calcium-modulating protein Pep-19 strongly expressed in CA2 neurons, blocked LTP and increased Ca
2+
extrusion in CA1 neurons, suggesting a role for extrusion in the regulation of plasticity in CA2. In agreement with this idea, we found that intracellular introduction of a PMCA pump inhibitor (carboxyeosin) allows for the induction of LTP in CA2 neurons. Our results indicate that regulation of postsynaptic [Ca
2+
] through modulation of extrusion and/or buffering regulates expression of LTP in CA2 and potentially other brain regions.
The repeat domain of the melanosome fibril protein Pmel17 forms the amyloid core promoting melanin synthesis
Authors: McGlinchey Ryan P. , Shewmaker Frank , McPhie Peter , Monterroso Begoña , Thurber Kent , Wickner Reed B.
Published: August 2009

Pmel17 is a melanocyte protein necessary for eumelanin deposition 1 in mammals and found in melanosomes in a filamentous form. The luminal part of human Pmel17 includes a region (RPT) with 10 copies of a partial repeat sequence, pt.e.gttp.qv., known to be essential in vivo for filament formation. We show that this RPT region readily forms amyloid in vitro, but only under the mildly acidic conditions typical of the lysosome-like melanosome lumen, and the filaments quickly become soluble at neutral pH. Under the same mildly acidic conditions, the Pmel filaments promote eumelanin formation. Electron diffraction, circular dichroism, and solid-state NMR studies of Pmel17 filaments show that the structure is rich in beta sheet. We suggest that RPT is the amyloid core domain of the Pmel17 filaments so critical for melanin formation.
Dual requirement for the ETS transcription factors Fli-1 and Erg in hematopoietic stem cells and the megakaryocyte lineage
Authors: Kruse Elizabeth A. , Loughran Stephen J. , Baldwin Tracey M. , Josefsson Emma C. , Ellis Sarah , Watson Dennis K. , Nurden Paquita , Metcalf Donald , Hilton Douglas J. , Alexander Warren S. , Kile Benjamin T.
Published: August 2009

Fli-1 and Erg are closely related members of the Ets family of transcription factors. Both genes are translocated in human cancers, including Ewing's sarcoma, leukemia, and in the case of
Erg
, more than half of all prostate cancers. Although evidence from mice and humans suggests that
Fli-1
is required for megakaryopoiesis, and that
Erg
is required for normal adult hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) regulation, their precise physiological roles remain to be defined. To elucidate the relationship between
Fli-1
and
Erg
in hematopoiesis, we conducted an analysis of mice carrying mutations in both genes. Our results demonstrate that there is a profound genetic interaction between
Fli-1
and
Erg
. Double heterozygotes displayed phenotypes more dramatic than single heterozygotes: severe thrombocytopenia, with a significant deficit in megakaryocyte numbers and evidence of megakaryocyte dysmorphogenesis, and loss of HSCs accompanied by a reduction in the number of committed hematopoietic progenitor cells. These results illustrate an indispensable requirement for both Fli-1 and Erg in normal HSC and megakaryocyte homeostasis, and suggest these transcription factors may coregulate common target genes.
Neuronal couplings between retinal ganglion cells inferred by efficient inverse statistical physics methods
Authors: Cocco Simona , Leibler Stanislas , Monasson Rémi
Published: August 2009

Complexity of neural systems often makes impracticable explicit measurements of all interactions between their constituents. Inverse statistical physics approaches, which infer effective couplings between neurons from their spiking activity, have been so far hindered by their computational complexity. Here, we present 2 complementary, computationally efficient inverse algorithms based on the Ising and “leaky integrate-and-fire” models. We apply those algorithms to reanalyze multielectrode recordings in the salamander retina in darkness and under random visual stimulus. We find strong positive couplings between nearby ganglion cells common to both stimuli, whereas long-range couplings appear under random stimulus only. The uncertainty on the inferred couplings due to limitations in the recordings (duration, small area covered on the retina) is discussed. Our methods will allow real-time evaluation of couplings for large assemblies of neurons.
Sequential list-learning by an adolescent lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) using an infrared touchframe apparatus
Authors: Ross S.R.
Published: August 2009

The ability to appropriately sequence a list of discrete items is an important facet in performing routine cognitive tasks and may play a significant role in the acquisition of early communication skills. Though the serial learning abilities of some species, such as chimpanzees and rhesus macaques are well documented, there is virtually no information on the extent of these skills with gorillas. In this study, a young female western lowland gorilla has demonstrated the ability to learn a list of seven Arabic numerals by selecting them on a monitor behind an infrared touchframe. As list length increased (from three to seven), Rollie required fewer trials to reach the criterion, suggesting an acquisition of skills associated with serial learning. Rollie was most likely to correctly select the first item in the sequence and least likely to select the penultimate item in the sequence. Her performance suggests serial learning abilities in the range of other non-verbal species and provides preliminary evidence that supports the assertion that gorillas can succeed at this form of serial learning task.
Copying a model stack of colored blocks by chimpanzees and humans
Authors: Hayashi Misato , Sekine Sumirena , Tanaka Masayuki , Takeshita Hideko
Published: August 2009

The present study assesses imitative ability in chimpanzees and human children. A direct comparison of these two species was conducted in an object-manipulation task. The subjects were required to copy the model stack by stacking colored blocks in the same order as the model. Four juvenile/adolescent chimpanzees failed to copy the model stack even after a long training-period. Two adult chimpanzees eventually learned to copy the model stack of two blocks. However, they failed to copy the model of three blocks, and analysis of their stacking patterns revealed that they only focused on the color of the top block in the model. Human children started to copy the model of two blocks when they were two years of age and gradually increased the number of successfully copied blocks. The results from both chimpanzees and humans are discussed in terms of the social intelligence involved in object manipulation.
How did altruism and reciprocity evolve in humans?
Authors: Yamamoto Shinya , Tanaka Masayuki
Published: August 2009

The evolution of altruism and reciprocity has been explained mainly from ultimate perspectives. However, in order to understand from a proximate perspective how humans evolved to be such cooperative animals, comparative studies with our evolutionary relatives are essential. Here we review several recent experimental studies on chimpanzees’ altruism and reciprocity. These studies have generated some conflicting results. By examining the differences in the results and experimental paradigms, two characteristics of prosociality in chimpanzees emerged: (1) chimpanzees are more likely to behave altruistically and/or reciprocally upon a recipient’s request, than without request, and (2) chimpanzees also show a tendency to regard others and help in contexts not involving food. Supposing that these two characteristics of altruism, recipient-initiated altruism and non-food altruism, were present in the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans, it is possible that increased social cognitive abilities, capacity for language, necessity for food sharing, and enriched material culture favored in humans the unique evolution of cooperation, characterized by voluntary altruism and frequent food donation.
Living at the interface
Authors: Hockings Kimberley Jane
Published: August 2009

Human–wildlife interactions have existed for thousands of years, however as human populations increase and human impact on natural ecosystems becomes more intensive, both parties are increasingly being forced to compete for resources vital to both. Humans can value wildlife in many contexts promoting coexistence, while in other situations, such as crop-raiding, wildlife conflicts with the interests of people. As our closest phylogenetic relatives, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in particular occupy a special importance in terms of their complex social and cultural relationship with humans. A case study is presented that focuses on the Bossou chimpanzees’ (Pan troglodytes verus) perspective of their habitat in the Republic of Guinea, West Africa, by highlighting the risks and opportunities presented by a human-dominated landscape, and detailing their day-to-day coexistence with humans. Understanding how rural people perceive chimpanzees and how chimpanzees adapt to living in anthropogenic environments will enhance our understanding of how people-wildlife interactions develop into situations of conflict and therefore can generate sustainable solutions to prevent or mitigate situations of conflict.
Breed differences in domestic dogs’ (Canis familiaris) comprehension of human communicative signals
Authors: Wobber Victoria , Hare Brian , Koler-Matznick Janice , Wrangham Richard , Tomasello Michael
Published: August 2009

Recent research suggests that some human-like social skills evolved in dogs (Canis familiaris) during domestication as an incidental by-product of selection for “tame” forms of behavior. It is still possible, however, that the social skills of certain dog breeds came under direct selection that led to further increases in social problem solving ability. To test this hypothesis, different breeds of domestic dogs were compared for their ability to use various human communicative behaviors to find hidden food. We found that even primitive breeds with little human contact were able to use communicative cues. Further, “working” dogs (shepherds and huskies: thought to be bred intentionally to respond to human cooperative communicative signals) were more skilled at using gestural cues than were non-working breeds (basenji and toy poodles: not thought to have been bred for their cooperative-communicative ability). This difference in performance existed regardless of whether the working breeds were more or less genetically wolf-like. These results suggest that subsequent to initial domesticating selection giving rise to cue-following skills, additional selection on communicative abilities in certain breeds has produced substantive differences in those breeds’ abilities to follow cues.
Cross-modal representations in primates and dogs
Authors: Adachi Ikuma
Published: August 2009

The importance of learning and categorizing social objects and events has become widely acknowledged over a couple of decades. Although findings from field studies have suggested that non-human animals have sophisticated abilities to recognize social objects, there is relatively little experimental evidence on this issue. Some studies have revealed animals’ excellent skills for discriminating visual and auditory social stimuli. However, because of perceptual resemblances among stimuli, it is still not clear that they recognize these objects with conceptual mechanisms that are independent of the perceptual characteristics of the stimuli. At the same time, whether their concepts have an aspect of transferring information from one modality to another has not received much attention. This paper advocates approaches to a cross-modal aspect of concepts as a new framework to solve these problems, and introduces the latest studies on cross-modal representations of social objects in non-humans.
The supine position of postnatal human infants
Authors: Takeshita Hideko , Myowa-Yamakoshi Masako , Hirata Satoshi
Published: August 2009

In this review, we discuss the implications of placing an infant in the supine position with respect to human cognitive development and evolution. When human infants are born, they are relatively large and immature in terms of postural and locomotor ability as compared with their closest relatives, the great apes. Hence, human mothers seemingly adopt a novel pattern of caring for their large and heavy infants, i.e., placing their infants in the supine position; this promotes face-to-face communication with their infants. Moreover, infants in the supine position can interact with other nearby individuals in the same manner from an early age. In addition, the infants can also explore their own body parts and/or objects with their hands since the hands are not required to support the body and are therefore, free to move. These activities are considered to be fundamental to the early development of human social and nonsocial cognition, including knowledge of self, in the first six months after birth. Further, developmental continuity in the voluntary exploratory movements in the prenatal period (in utero) to the early postnatal period is also discussed.
Divergent news representations of Lien Chan’s visit to China
Authors: Wang Honglei
Published: August 2009

By combining the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach with the corpus linguistic method, this study compares the lexical choices employed by two English newspapers, i.e. the China Daily (CD) and the China Post (CP), in their coverage of Taiwan’s KMT (Kuomintang) Chairman Lien Chan’s visit to China in April 2005. The comparative analysis of the two corpora of news reports is conducted at three levels: word frequencies, part-of-speech (POS) frequencies and semantic category frequencies. The paper argues that the differences in the news representation of Lien’s visit are attributed to the different socio-political functions performed by these two newspapers: while the CD depicts the event as a momentous one that has received nation-wide plaudits in order to echo faithfully China’s policy of peaceful reunification, the CP presents a more comprehensive picture of the event in that it also reports in detail some incidents, including violent protests, triggered by Lien’s visit that has great impact on the domestic social life of Taiwan.
Constructing cultural Self and Other in the Internet discussion of a Korean historical TV drama
Authors: Lin Angel , Tong Avin
Published: August 2009

In this paper messages from viewers of the popular Korean historical TV drama — Dae Jang Geum (Da Chang Jin) — in a Hong Kong web-based discussion forum are analyzed to see how some Hong Kong viewers construct their Chinese cultural identities through discursive moves of positioning (Harrè and van Langenhove, 1999). Different subject positions are adopted by these forum discussion participants to draw, maintain, and shift the boundary between “self” and “other” in different storylines projected in their messages. In asserting their Chinese cultural identities they also seem to be engaged in discursive construction of cultural others (e.g. Japanese, Koreans). We problematize these constructions as double-edged in their possible consequences: while they seem to cultivate a sense of Chinese cultural solidarity (albeit only temporarily), they also show the danger of constructing a hegemonic Sino-centric discourse of Great China culturalism. The cultural identification patterns of these Hong Kong viewers also seem to be unstable, ambivalent and contradictory, perhaps reflecting Hong Kong people’s general sense of ambivalence and fluidity in their negotiation of cultural identities.
“New Taiwanese”
Authors: Chang Hui-Ching , Holt Richard
Published: August 2009

This study explores how “New Taiwanese” was offered and constructed as a viable identity category for people in Taiwan through the news discourse of the United Daily News (UDN) referenced in 922 news reports between 1987 and 2007. From the term’s first appearance in 1987, its promulgation as official discourse by the KMT government primarily between 1998 and 2000, to the end of 2007, “New Taiwanese” as an identity project (Laitin, 1998) has been utilized and challenged by political players of various camps at different junctures to achieve their political agenda. It has also gradually transformed its references and modified its meanings to join in the construction of Taiwan’s national identity. As a mediating concept for “Taiwanese” and “Chinese,” “New Taiwanese” has maintained a precarious and ambivalent positioning, having to constantly adjust to shifting ethnic relations of Taiwanese people and their complex, in-flux array of national identifications.
Multilingualism, multiculturalism, and multiple identities
Authors: Kuo Sai-hua
Published: August 2009

This study aims to explore discursive changes in current Taiwanese society, with a particular focus on code-mixing in newspaper headlines. Data were collected from three major newspapers catering to different readerships during three time periods (i.e. 1985, 1995, and 2005). The language of Taiwanese newspaper is hybrid and heterogeneous in that local dialect (i.e. Southern Min), English, Japanese, Cantonese, and even Zhuyin (Mandarin Phonetic Symbols) are included in Mandarin news headlines. My analysis has found that over the past two decades, there has been an increase of code-mixing in all three newspapers, In addition, a cross-sectional comparison has revealed that soft news texts (e.g. entertainment news) contain more instances of code-mixing than hard news texts (e.g. political and international news). I argue that this increasing linguistic hybridization found in Taiwanese media texts is not only linked with the indigenization, globalization, marketization, and technologization in current Taiwanese society. More importantly, since language use is a kind of identity-constructing devices, this ongoing discursive change also reflects an emerging new Taiwan identity, which can be characterized by multilingualism, multiculturalism, and multiple identities.
Changing ideologies and advertising discourses in China
Authors: Feng Jieyun , Wu Doreen D.
Published: August 2009

The present study aims to unveil the changing ideologies in contemporary China from a micro discursive perspective, focusing on a case study of the changing advertising discourses in Nanfang Daily, a typical Communist Party newspaper in Guangdong province, P. R. China. Advertising discourse has long been considered as a socio-cultural artifact and most of the previous researches are confined to its socio-cultural functions. By taking a broader ideological perspective, the present study adopts the fundamental principle of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and developed an integrated framework, which links the value appeals and linguistic practice with an investigation of the different power groups having access to the advertising discourses in two different socio-historical settings of China — 1980 versus 2002. It is found that the danwei-dominated advertising discourses in 1980 were characterized by the prevalent use of utilitarian values and by the rare use of interactive lexico-grammatical features. In 2002, in sharp contrast, the individual-consumption dominated advertising discourses manifested itself with an escalated use of hedonistic value appeals and of interactive linguistic features. The changes in value appeals and linguistic practices reflect that different power groups in the advertising discourses have different needs and interests in the specific socio-historical settings. Finally, the study places the research findings within the landscape of the hybridized and competing ideologies in China and in the accelerated globalization.